Lap Quilt

Our house is pretty cold most of the time as we have no heating apart from a log burner in the front room. Therefore I thought it was high time I made a lap quilt for snuggling under while watching tv. 

The design is just simple patchwork squares in gold, mustard & blue. I particularly love this 'Lady Sybil' Downton Abbey fabric:

The back is a tablecloth I picked up in a charity shop for £1.50 - bargain! I've quilted it in a 'sunbeam' pattern using free machine embroidery. 

As with most things in our house, Bronwyn now thinks it belongs to her!

Bronwyn's New Clothes!

With winter drawing ever nearer, and Bronwyn's reluctance to go out in cold weather, I decided it was time she had a new coat. I'm not sure she was thrilled with this idea, but it's her fault for being a wimp about the cold!

The fleece 'dog poncho' was made from a cheap pet blanket, picket up for 70p in a baragin shop. As fleece doesn't fray I didn't even need to hem the edges, making this the quickest sewing project yet!

To layer up over the top of the fleece I made a waterproof coat from an old umbrella donated to me by my friend Rachel - I even reused the red frill from the edge of the umberella, which I'm sure you'll agree Bronwyn looks thrilled about!

Her reputation as the best dressed dog in the village is safe for another season!

Snow Days

Just like pretty much everyone else in the country we've been enjoying the snow here! Especially on Friday when school was shut because of it - Yey!

This is a selection of my favourite photos from my walk with Bronwyn on Friday - a blissful way to spend a day!

I love how excited Bronwyn is here! That's the look of pure enjoyment there!

Gower Getaway

Raindrops on the camera trying to be atmospheric...!

The Victorian lighthouse

Just after New Years myself & The Boy headed off to the Gower coast in Wales for 3 days break with Bronwyn. We stayed at The King's Head pub, which was fantastic & dog friendly. Out room felt very luxurious, underfloor heating, huge bathtub, views of the sea... and Bronwyn allowed to stay too! She particularly liked the underfloor heating!

The food in the pub was great - so good in fact that we ate all our meals there during our stay. Their cheese board was literally the best I've ever had - and believe me I've had a lot of cheeseboards! So good infact that we ordered one on the second night to be delivered to our room later in the evening & sat eating it while playing Scrabble! Truely geeky pampering!

I hope you all had a good New Years break

x

Knit, knit, knit

I first learned to knit when I was a little girl. My Nana taught me. Then I just fell out of the habit, and as a teen it wasn't cool etc etc, so I forgot how to do it. Recently I re-taught myself using a craft book (Queen of Crafts) and with a little help from my friend Sally when I get stuck, I'm away again!
This dog jumper has taken me two weeks to knit, as I'm still quite slow and the needles are tiny! I can never find dog jumpers long enough for Bronwyn as they never cover her all the way to her bum, so I found this pattern specifically for whippets and greyhounds online. I'm thrilled with the result & stupidly proud of it! Bronwyn is definately not impressed, but as I pointed out to her, It's not like I've knitted her the matching leg warmers so I can pretend she's from the film Fame... And yes, I REALLY want to do that! It would be hilarious & I have just enough wool left... It's fate!

Here is the pattern I used; I used size 4 needles & the size thickness of wool to go with them. I bought my wool online at Black Sheep Wool, they have a great selection & always good offers on.

Cast on 76 stitches K1 P1 ribbing for 2 inches
Then stocking stitch to 18 inches including the ribbing.
Decrease 1 stitch each side each knit row, to 56 stitches, then work in ribbing K1 P1 for 5 inches which makes the collar.
Underpiece - Cast on 30 stitches and work in ribbing K1 P1 for 4 inches. Increase evenly to 36 stitches and still ribbing continue until 9 inches.
Decrease 1 stitch begining and end of each row to 1 stitch. Cast off.
Sew together leaving a hole on either side for your whippet's front legs to go through. 
The collar folds back like a turtleneck sweater.

The Perfect Place to Lay My Head...

This is Bronwyn, my beautiful blue whippet. Having destroyed nearly every bed I've bought for her except an ugly blue plastic one (which she is working on!) I had almost given up hope of finding a bed that was Bronwyn-proof. Plus all the ones available to buy seem to either be really boring plain colours, or else far too bright & garish & would look totally out of place in my country cottage style interior...

Then I hit on the (rather obvious really!) idea of making her bed myself. This way I have the perfect size for my living room, in a fabric that I love. All for pennies! The fabric on this is a curtain that I bought at a flea market in Dorset years ago, and had forgotten I had stashed away. The stuffing is an old duvet inner that Bronwyn had (yet again!) destroyed and I was going to throw out. Literally minutes of sewing later & one perfect dog bed! And a happy Brownyn lying on it in front of the fire, as you can see!