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I always love scrolling through your thread - always such gorgeous pieces and beautifully finished.

i love the idea of the key keeper thing. but i could see myself phoning paul telling him to come home and let me in cuz i lost my key, then he go "Lisa calm down you made it a lil case"

Puppy is coming along and is looking good, love the card and coaster. Have you finished your key case yet?

Beautiful projects, Mabel!

Love the orange card and the coaster!

The puppy is progressing well Mabel As to the card and coaster, what a wonderful, thoughtful friend you are. It is so nice in this rather selfish modern world to see that someone still takes the tme to care about others. They are lovely, well done

Both lovely projects as always.Love the way you did the L then the name,my DD is a Laura aswell and will be 18 end of the year.

Julie, if you'd like the chart for your daughter, just PM me, it's my own design so I can let you have it.

The card and coaster are such lovely, thoughful and personal gifts.

You have done some very pretty designs Mabel

Lots has happened over the past week or so, so I'll do this in instalments .

I was working on that key holder -- well, the stitching complete, here is how it was put together: (by the way, my original intention was to have a folded-in bit of aida at the opening end, but I cut it too close by mistake so then I just cut it right up to the buttonhole stitch and overcast it a second time, and it seems to hold )

















It is now in daily use!

I've also done some work on my Folk Sampler (I love the Gentle Arts threads!)



And on a cat bookmark for our neighbours who look after Alfie (our ginger tom) for us whenever we're away. They're coming to tea next Sunday, and I'll give them this bookmark with my elongated ginger cat design, paw prints and "thank you from alfie" on it. Here's the start:

It looks very nice! I really like the little embellishments you added!

And then there's the puppy.

Drama and near-crisis, I'd finished the dog itself, only some blue background to do, but as I looked at him I thought "he looks to big" . Measured him, no, he was exactly what I'd calculated. Tried him on the round satin box -- AAARGH! because the box is circular, it was a VERY VERY close fit. I could just get the dog framed on it completely visible (although bits of grass would be lost), but it was looking awfully cramped.

What to do?

Fotunately I'd cut the material fairly generously, and so I've now decided to mount him in one of those trays I got off eBay recently -- he fits beautifully into the smallest of the two, as long as I make the sky background sort of oval instead of round *phew*

But then I started the background, cross stitch in one strand, and it looked far too solid. So I tried a bit on the other side of the dog in half cross stitch in one strand, and that looked much better. So unpicked the full cross stitch, and here's where I am so far (I'm doing this free-hand, just stitching where i thik there should be background ):

Everything is gorgeous Mabel, and I adore that little dog

I think everyone here knows I'm a cat person - but I want that puppy!! He is gorgeous - as is everything else!!

These are all really fantastic!!!!! Great work.

That little puppy has the cutest little face! Can't wait to see what he looks like once you get him in the tray!

The puppy is delightful!! May I ask where you found the chart? And how fortunate you had the tray to mount him in.

And your key holder is inspired!! I love it!!