last day of may ....

throwing stones and shouting are the best!
its the last day of may, will you vote for my blog using the wigdy on the left there?
tomorrow its june and im giving something away - yippeeeee!
so come back tomorrow too ....

for Caroline ...

who wanted to see more of my little pig, who is now finished and on the menu ...
i made is as part of a plush team challenge then decided to make a fish instead ...
i do like pigs tho ...

old, old ben ....

old Ben was born in 1984, so you can see he is doing quite well for such an old rat, dozing as he is in one of the more intellectual corners of the dining room. he reminds me that i must use spell checkers more often...

i sewed him all by hand from only three pieces of fur, and raided the kitchen draw at Fletcher's drive, burscough, to get some twist ties for his teeth. the sellotape i covered them with to make them shiny is yellowed as an old rats teeth might well be...

my great uncle George saw this rat a few years later, and had fun playing with it. then he asked me to make him one. i had no pattern and sat with a piece of fur and some scissors trying and failing to make another rat like Ben. in the end i made the ultimate sacrifice and handed Ben to uncle George. they worked hard together scaring lots of grand children until after George's death, Ben came back to me in 2001 when i visited aunty Ivy in burscough.

now he lives a gentler life, with his lopsided ears and tatty old fur. he has never had a bath, but he has always been well looked after. he was known as THAT RAT at George and ivy's house.

a padded and hand embroidered pig hanging

a padded and hand embroidered pig hanging
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

this work was produced many years ago when i was a degree student, in my third year when i explored animals in both my careamics and my machine embroidery ... this pig also has acrylic paint applied and hand stitches, and is quite haevily padded, he is more of a flat soft toy than a hanging i ithnk !

the back gound is unfinished, and the edges are raw ....

i am going to give him to a friend today ...

Cat and Mouse ....

did i ever tell you i put the whiskers on the mouse fursuit head?
and here is a fun poem a friend wrote about the fursona !

Cat and Mouse

A mouse! A mouse?
Big as a house,
So proud and sleek,
Not mild and meek.
It stands erect;
That’s not correct!
A lovely tail,
So long and pale.
It starts to pose
With upturned nose;
No whiskers though
Are yet on show.
What does it eat;
Just cheese or meat?
Where’s its hole?
Bless my soul,
If ever a cat
Gets after that
I’d like to bet
‘Twould soon regret
The adverse scale
And turn its tail.
Its eyes don’t glint.
I’m not convinced
This mouse is real;
In fact I feel
Its Raggy Rat
And made by Cat!

Chris Slade 17/3/9

sometimes it is hard to get sewing done ....

when little ones try to 'help', it can slow me down ...

and then of course there are other distractions ... especially if the weather is nice...

vote for me .... please....

if you enjoy my blog would you vote for it ?
im planning a giveaway soon, so i'm not just asking for things all the time!
i'd love to win the blog of the month award ...



dorset cerials are made on my doorstep, well not actually on my doorstep, i would have trouble getting the buggy out of the house ... and they are very tasty ...

growing old gracefully ....

some things i recieved in the post, on my birthday ... a card from my sister in cheltenham, a small parcel from amazon, and some advice about not growing old ...

my lovely birthday present, and the bag i made for her to live in ...

this year on my trip to scotland i fell in love with a stringed instrument. i couldnt put my friend davie's crafter down, even when my fingers were grooved and sore ... so i knew what i wanted for my birthday this year and let me say, its much more fun than chocolate or soap!
after messing around on ebay i followed a UK forums advice to contact the acoustic music compnay (TAMCO), and they made a reccomendation which i also followed ... after michael played some mandolins to me on the phone.
funny thing about the bag tho, you know how i love to sew and when i was looking on ebay i thought yeah, i can make a bag for it etc etc ...
then michael at TAMCO said 'sorry, we dont have any gig bags, we got sent banjo bags by mistake!'
imagine my joy as i ran to my fabric stash to plan some patchwork!
the bag is lined with some almost-hideous-but-soft-and-woolly vintage rug fabric, from jean down the road ...

shisha mirror

shisha mirror
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

thanks again to the plush team i have tried something i always fancied a go at ... :-)

i love a challenge ! this one is applied to my new frying pan bag ... :-D

i will do another one in daylight hours, and then i should be a pro shisha sew-er!

girls at work ...

girls at work ...
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

house work !

giving our 'new' wendy house a once over ... daisy liked the free sails and spiders!

i had a lovely birthday yesterday, and will show you my new present tomorrow ...

bags of them ..... a quick round-up ...

i make a lot of bags
i make them for ourselves and for presents ...

a bag to contain steves camera - which had to look a bit manly, so i went for war-time satchel influence ...



a bag to keep the cam corder safe, that steve got me a year ago just before mary popped out ...

a drawer full of bags, many of them keeping chargers and adapters from getting tangled up with each other, and steve's headphones ...

a bag for my sat nav to travel in ...
it matches a vintage dress i got from freecycle and actually wear :-)

a bag for matty and daisys xylophone and the two wooden beaters ... nice and girly and fully lined, this one!

a peg bag - do you have one, and was yours handmade? this one looks masculine as i made it while pregnant with twins and pegging out was definately steve's job !

an apple bag, steve flings this over his shoulder (the knot is for storing), and climbs up our apple tree in september ...

a bag of cloths, wipes and rubber gloves in the kitchen cupboard, also known as the ante-pantry ...

a bag of bob-the-builder figures and diggers, includes realistic, annoying traffic cones and a man in red pyjamas known as JJ ...

wall mounted pocket-tidy thingy i made for one of louise's many birthdays ...

a shoulder bag i made for me ... has inner zipped pocket for coins and things that must never fall out ...

my very own rat bag ...
go to http://www.raggyrat.co.uk/ for yours ... mine is silver black and about 9 years old ...



a bag i made to take on the air plane for my recent trip to the highlands ... it fitted all my gear and was the required size to keep sleazy-jet happy ...



a bag that keeps all the stuff together in the boot of the car eg sick bags, and road maps, and spare headlamp bulbs ...



so what is this for, my latest sewing project? well, it's my birthday tomorrow and i hope to have added some handles ... but please do take a guess below ...

run, run as fast as you can ...

remember that little pink giraffe who was walking all the way to louisiana?
well she finally got there ... here are some new friends sent from cathy gaubert but who have since split up and taken refuse in unknown corners of the house!



cathy send some other goodies too which i hope to turn into cute things soon ... thanks for the trade cathy ... we got there!

what to do with exotic pruned leaves ....

build a den using the handle of your trampoline and some bits of wood ...

there are some guesses on the flickr photo of what my latest sewing project could be ... more clues tomorrow ....

now, what am i up to?

now, what am i up to?
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

(that dining room rug, just has to go, doesnt it? soon it, once i have painted finished some filling, sanding painting and more cleaning in there ....)

so - what am i going to sew next ?

extreme weather ...

'urgh', says dog,


its almost too windy for photographs ....

almost ....

i just listed sandy over at my etsy shop ... come and show him some hearts ...

go to http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24492286&ref=null to see his listing ... he certainly enjoys my seldom mown lawn ...

uncovering social history ...

i recently started attacking the very old wallpaper in the dining room, and found lots of cave paintings ...

now the slverfish are very angry as i have removed most of their vintage food-stuff, and started to fill in lots of their cracky-homes ...

burscough methodist school, Soccer team 1959

burscough methodist school Soccer team 1959
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

can you spot my dad?
click through to flickr, and all sizes, to see it large ...

i do treasure this picture, as i dont have many of my dad ....
just spotted it in a folder of favourites and thought i would share ....

have a good weekend
cat xxxx