Sunflowers and Dogs

This was a commission which I made a few weeks ago for two little boys to give to their mum for her birthday.  I enjoyed making it as there was nothing in the 'brief' that presented me with any real challenge.

You may remember that in the past with these kind of personal pieces, I've been asked to put racehorses, tortoises, packs of playing cards, piles of books, you name it, onto them.

But this was just .... sunflowers.  

Nice and easy and straightforward.

I spoke too soon though.  The next one was a Christening plate and they wanted ..... Dogs!  Not just any dogs.  Their dogs - to be done from photos of their dogs! 

I have done dogs before, and I can tell you, they are not as easy as sunflowers!  They ordered Olympic Rings and the County symbol for Essex too, but they were fairly easy.

But dogs!  Why do I keep getting asked to do dogs?

And, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am ....  how shall we put it ..... not really much of a dog-lover. 

There. I've said it!  So shoot me.  I do know that in this country, that's not a popular thing to say.

I'll stick to creating them out of clay for now!



x Cathy

It's a Personal Record .....

.... and not an achievement that I'm very proud of, but this is the longest I've ever gone between blog posts!

'What is this life, if full of care we have no time to sit and blog', as the poet said?  My excuse is that I have been busy doing this:

and this ....  at first I had WILD Blue Yonder, but the Mister corrected me just in time.  I think maybe we're both right, but I went with Wide in the end.

These framed wall pieces have gone to Potter and Dibble at Thornham in North Norfolk, along with lots of other goodies.

It seems strange doing sea-sidey things in November, but maybe people will buy them as Christmas presents for their coastal homes.

 And I have been turning this lot

into this lot, so that they could all be delivered to Anglesey Abbey along with some larger bowls.

It can be a bit tedious putting the finishing touches on to all these little bits, the hanging wire, ribbon, buttons, etc and then laying them all out to count and check them for delivery ..... all time-consuming but all now DONE!

And so, having finished all that lot and much more besides, (which I will post about in due course), it's time to get started on my first ever quilt!  Regular readers will remember back in August when I bought myself a little fabric stash from the Quilt show in Birmingham?  

Well, I have pondered long and hard about hand-stitching the whole thing, imagining myself sitting through the winter evenings in my rocking chair by a roaring log fire stitching a square at a time, thinking of it as a labour of love to be handed down through the generations of little Potterjotters to come .....  and then I woke up, got real, and got out my new machine, which I was recently given as a present (Thank You!) and, now, once I have perused the Instruction Booklet, I shall begin.  
(Lynne - prepare to be pestered for online help!)

 
If you want to wish me luck, feel free, as the words 'out of depth' spring to mind here!  

The little sweeties in the top left of the picture are left over Halloween 'Treats', but I'm really not going to eat any, really I'm not!

x Cathy