Another Day, Another Felting Job

   The woman that had commissioned me to needle felt her Wire Haired Doxie "Bean" came into the shop Saturday to pick 'Baby Bean' up.  And ... She LOVED It!!!  I had really stressed over this .. it's different if you're doing something from a picture for sale than it is from your imagination for sale.  You can only do so much with wool, and especially the color wool you need.  I had a base coat of darkest brown, then a tan/reddish that was perfect color, but since is was 'top' and not 'batt', there were all kinds of flyaways everywhere .. and you can only clip so much.  Found another brown and laid wisper thin layers over the dog, and that calmed the flyaways down quite a bit.  You can see how fuzzy it was when you look at the muzzle .. it was perfect for his whiskers!

Then she told me that she'd been telling a friend about my doing "Bean in wool" and her friend wondered if I would do her doxen for her ... it's a smooth coated standard black with tan ... and she presented me with a picture of that dog.  So, after I get done with the *2* black poodles I have to do next, I'll be doing another dauschund!  The poodles will be covered with 'their own real hair' ... which should be much easier to work with than golden retriever hair (too soft to needle felt - shows all the needle jabs in it).

Here's the picture of my Christmas tree for 2010 ... antique tin icicles, vintage ornaments and all the rest of the ornaments are stitched .. those I've stitched, those that were previously gifts to my mom and dad for their tree, those that were gifts I've received.

My favorite of this assortment is from one of the past Just Cross Stitch Ornament issues ... from Sandi at The Sweetheart Tree ... stitched for the Millennium

Kitties have not destroyed anything ... yet.
But there's time before the Big Day actually gets here!