Susie, The Dorchester Cat

Susie the Dorchester Cat is still enjoying life owning all the shops in town. Her Facebook group has grown and she has sold many postcards in support of Feral Cat Care here in Dorset. The image above is drawn from a gorgeous photo shared in the group, and thanks to a local cafe you can now have this printed on a mug. There’s even more merch available and more to come as well as a really nice cup of coffee while you are there. 

Get in touch with the cafe to order your Susie Merch. And get excited. There will soon be something amazing on that shelf! 

https://craftycuppa.uk/

Plush from books - Ellie!

A pair of paws balance on a book, while I needle sculpt their toes. This book is perfect for anyone who’s about to expand their family, or recently has. It’s relatable for anyone who ever suddenly found themselves a big sister or brother to be. As a three year old I can recall the chaos in the house starting the night my sister was born at home, and snippets of memories like tip-toeing past a pram, or the poo landing on the carpet, one nappy change! Oops! 

I was excited to receive an early copy of Since The Baby Came  by my good friend Kathleen Long Bostrom, and illustrated by Janet Samuel, because I knew I was going to be making a plush from this lovely story, told in poems. The family is adorable, and I’m sure my sister and I both identify with the children's gorgeous curly hair. However, I made their dog. 

This is Ellie. Can you see the E on her collar? The awesome publishers offered to include Kathleen’s dog, when they discovered the sad loss of the real life Ellie, and sent photographs to Janet. Just like in the story Ellie has a sweet tag on her collar with the letter E. I carefully embroidered this on thick felt. I also enjoyed making those expressive ears. 

Soon I will send plush Ellie across the pond, and I will miss her company. I like dogs a lot and I love that our protagonist has a faithful companion in every spread. There are 16 kinds of poems in the book, with helpful back-matter explaining and naming each kind. I usually do learn from each picture book I read, but there was a lot I didn’t know about poetry. Maybe I’ll write in rhyme for a change. Haha. 

Ellie dog is posing on a quilt I made in my 20s from an idea I had when I was 16. I shaded her ears with chalk and set them with a short spray of fixative. I think about the artist at work on the illustrations when I do things like this. Most of all I love Ellie’s toes and her gentle smile. She also has wired legs and tail so she can enjoy many author-visits and stand firm. I hope you enjoyed meeting her, I know I did. 

Three faces of the season.

How cute is this little girl? She's carefully cleaning her paw. Or is she? Caption competition?

 

Sometimes I have to wait to after Christmas to share what I have been up to with some furry friends. Such is the case with these three lovelies. 

So good to be asked to do a rat again. I will always love rats and value them as pets as well as subjects!

 

A girl Yorkie and a boy with the best nose ever are this years delightful dogs. 

 

I can't wait for the new year to begin. It's going to be a good one. I think 2016 held a lot of challenges. How was it for you? 

Black Phillip from The Witch ....

It's not easy both sewing of photographing black objects! But I was asked to make a black version of my goat doll, and then I tired to make him look natural by taking him into the tree house!

Actially Black Phillip shows off our tree house quite nicely while himself still playing hard to get with my camera's exposure settings ...

His eyes, being hand tinted rimmed buttons, change in different lights which I think is nicely spooky! Eventually I got a good picture of him indoors against the white walls!

I recently made another rat ....

I made the rat using button hooting and some vintage balding mohair from Bridport ...

And the rat turned out so sweet it was soon snapped up and sent to france!

So I suppose this rat won't be present at Dorset Art Weeks!

Edward Tulane One Day Later ...

Once jointed together, Edward is stuffed and then has eight seems closed with strong thread. 

After that his ears and tail are added by hand with ladder stitch. You can see he has his whiskers too!

New white goat doll ...

I love these new white goats. I made  two of them and one was traded with an artist for fabulous stained glass art!

I want to call these goats Abe, because they make me think of Amish Buggy Drivers ....

Monkey Around ...

This Christmas because they love me so much, Innocent the smoothie guys sent me a smashing pair of socks ... And they don't send them in my size (they once sent me fab orange socks) so i get my crafting on ...

And so on boxing Day was born a fabulous Sock Money, who looked very festive and fitted this Special Hat rather nicely ...

I Instagrammed and Tweeted my new found friend but he does need a name, and perhaps a vocattion? Much love, Cat XXXX

Bees at large!

Remember my bees? Now it's time for their first outing and you can see them here from tomrrow ...

I had a look at all the art being set up today and it all looks really good. If you come to the opening tomrrow you can meet lots of the artists too and me as Queen Cat helping to open the exhibition at 11am. Drinks and nibbles and a voucher below if you bring it with you :-)

And here are the sock bees that turned out so well! Everyone wants to stroke them! Naughty!

And how's that Rat-Head doing? Not bad ....

Bee-cause I wanted to!

I had a real urge to make some bees. I wanted them to be at least based on the

Anatomy of real honey-bees but based around a pair of cool black and yellow socks... 

Using the filled-width of the socks, I made a full sized drawing to help make the patterns. Those lovely knee socks bee-came the abdomen!

I chose a dense-quality fur from my stash. I can get 8 bee abdomens from a single pair of long socks. Amazingly I had exactly enough black fur to complete all of them! Some thing's are just meant to bee. 

A completed torso, with pipe cleaner legs, looks like a tic!

The 21mm solid black eyes are the right size, but needed the yellow border to keep the bee looking friendly!

Now the wings sent me digging in my bag of lace and mesh fabric. This mesh gave a good effect, but the wings were floppy. So I sewed all the mesh to pieces of acetate, and i had just enough sheets of acetate to complete all 8 insects!

but the acetate and mesh creation still bends, so i added three folds - problem solved! And the folds look like veins too!

Finally the wings are attached with buttons, so they can be moved a little too. The first bee admires my prize flowers ... 

Cats of many colour ...

Hello everyone, one day I went to messy church with six cats to finish up while my girls had fun. Six cats were sewn up and given faces, but only four came home again with me!

Once home, I dressed them in ribbons ready to meet this years artwey visitors, but of course if you live too far away you can also have a kitty shipped!

Each has his own personality and could do with a name!

One is sweet, one thoughtful - but which one is the naughtiest? 

The flower filled face makes this one my favourite, and I've been calling her gypsy! Thanks for popping by. Enjoy this fine, spring day!

Free-Rat!

Here is a rat on the dining table. And seriously, pets on the table is now allowed! 

So, I have decided to give him away, and I'm going to do that via The Raggy Rat on Facebook so pop over and stand buy for more information, by liking the page!

First rat of the year ...

Another sock sweetie in between other projects and life ...

Made from a single, gents sock and button jointed for flexibility ....

Rats will never lose their charm, for me ...

Last rat of the year ....

I love to work with woollens and had been making cats and hamsters, when I decided in a quiet moment on Christmas Day to make a raggyrat doll ...

This button jointed fellow has already been adopted but I would like to make

More like him. 

A few years back I used to slip out into the cul-de-sac and lie on my belly with my camera and a fresh soft toy .... 

It works doesn't it? The grey road provides a contrast to the colourful stripes of my rat! 

Raggy Rat Boy!

So exciting because I haven't made a Raggy rat doll for a number of years now. The last were in a Booja Booja movie!

He is made from a soft, textured weave and reminds me of silver grey pet rats that I used to keep ...

Now he has to leave me, go off and make someone else smile. Be good, son ....

A new rat softie pattern ....

Following on from the creation of pink mouse for a very special lady, it was time to recreate some awesome rats ...

A pink-eyed-white an agouti hooded-rat ...

This year we remember the rescue rats Smudge and Pepsi :-)