Huge Sigh of Relief, and meet Boy 16!

Hi everyone,
The past few weeks have been crazy here at the cottage.  The sweet young mum that contacted me via my shop has been keeping me super busy and I am grateful :)  Little "E" will turn two this Thursday, so I  had some deadlines to meet but I am happy to say that after many long hours, I have turned everything in yesterday and "E"s mum was very happy with my work.

"E" loves the Hey Diddle Diddle story, so her mum provided me with this fabric panel front and matching backing fabric. 

The backing fabric is just as adorable as the front.  I cut the gingham on the bias for the binding and mum was very happy with that too.  This quilt was hard to give up...I could have used it myself :)

She bought this cape from another online shop but the ties were way too short to tie in a bow and the topstitching was awful.  I unpicked the topstitching and replaced the ties extra long so mum can cut them to the length she likes.

"E"s mum also requested toddler butterfly wings. I made a prototype to the measurements she gave me (picture in my last post).  She provided me with this special fabric to make the wings from.  The first set of wings was handed over last Friday to be mailed to another girl turning 2 in Melbourne this week.  This is the second set of wings for little miss "E".

Due to the hand and shoulder elastics,  these wings have a definite top and bottom.  I had to keep checking I had the fabric turned the right way, because this pattern looks upside down to me from a distance.  All the butterflies are facing the same way, but they just look wrong to me LOL.   When I turned in the first set of wings last Friday (exactly as the wings above),  the mum gave me the gingham for the quilt binding, the ribbon for the cape, more elastic for the wings, and also asked me to alter another dress that she just  brought with her  by Sunday.      (  : |   !!!  )   Anyway....I managed to alter the dress (Dorothy from Wizard of Oz),  prepare the quilt binding,  unpick and resize the elastic on a tutu,  unpick and remake the LRRH cape, make 2 sets of butterfly wings, finish the quilting, repair some toddler size leggings, and make a matching patchwork pillow and new mattress cover to go with a doll quilt she bought from my shop.  Except for the first set of wings last Friday and the Oz dress on Sunday, I completed everything else and handed it over yesterday.  PHEW!!  What a huge sigh of relief for me yesterday.  I will say this mum has paid me very fairly for rushing me LOL and she is a joy to work with.  She knows exactly what she wants and I really like that, no guessing!!

Meet Boy 16.  This guy is adorable!! He wakes up so happy in the morning, like he is excited for each new day that he has.   His sweet personality just makes me smile.   He is 14 months old and he came to me on Monday.  He gets picked up every morning for work and comes back late afternoon, so he will be with me nights and weekends.  He is at the very end of his training.  Next week, he will go to the next level of training to see if he will be matched with a blind person very soon.  He must have done great to make it this far.  Only 50% of the dogs actually pass all of the training to the point of being a real working dog.

He is so lean and  healthy, and has a beautiful  shiny coat.  He has great manners and I am happy to look after him.

One last picture...my much loved pansies are doing great!  There are heaps more, but this was the prettiest picture of the bunch.   I am SO behind on reading blogs, but I will slowly catch up very soon. xx debbie