It's a Dog's Life

Well, it took me long enough to realize that I really needed to stitch a dog collage. Duh. And what better dog to stitch than a black lab. (Yeah, I know and agree that each and every type of dog is great, unique and loveable, but I had to start SOMEWHERE - grin.)

Here's my new LABRADOR COLLAGE:


When I thought about labradors and all the things they love, I realized I had to create some tennis balls and sticks in one of the collage boxes. Here's the geometric version I came up with:


And what lab doesn't enjoy a good chew stick and rawhide bone?


The red band in the top portion of the design is similar to a collar I had for my own black lab-mix, Libby. (You may prefer to change your accent color to royal blue, if your dog wears that color instead.)

And I originally planned to make a plaid box, in the red/blue/green/gold color combo.But a stitching friend of mine who looked at the piece in progress said,"Wait! You HAVE to have pawprints! It's not a doggie thing without pawprints." And she was right. I totally overlooked the obvious choice of pawprints. So I added the pawprints and simplified the underlying plaid (and even managed to slip in some beads.)


Black animals are the hardest to portray. All that BLACK, don't you know.... And I decided to create a rather generic labrador (a compromise between the stockier English types and the leggier American types) so if you have a taller lab, a more delicate lab, or a labrador-cross perhaps, you might want to make a few minor revisions. In any event, here's my version:


And to be fair to all labrador lovers everywhere, I decided to make separate graphs for black, yellow and chocolate labradors. And they all look equally fetching in a red/blue/green colorway, don't you agree?

So if you're a labrador fan, check out this new LABRADOR COLLAGE pattern on my website. Or as a dog trainer might say: "GO FETCH!!"....or better yet: "SIT! STITCH!!"

How Much is that Doggie in the Sampler?

The one that I showed you last week in my Hollyhock House sampler?

The one with the spots? ... She's not for sale.

That's KATIE, my part-Wire Haired German Pointer mixed with (I'm guessing here) a little bit of obsessive (in a nice way) Border Collie.

It occurred to me this weekend that all you dog-loving stitchers out there might like to have the graph I used to add Katie to my sampler. I fiddled around with her shape to get the right coloring in a very small area, but you can certainly adapt the design to suit your dog's size and coloring. Here it is for you to copy and use, if you'd like to add your dog to any sampler you're working on:


ANYWAY....my Katie Lou is a rescued dog, from 'way up in Northern California's Lake County, where (I suspect) she was a rejected hunting dog that was abused my some male (she's wary of all males, especially ones carrying sticks, unbrellas, skateboards, anything long and pointy) and she's terrified of loud noises (like fireworks, backfiring cars, anything remotely sounding like gunshots.)

Katie may have started her life as somebody's throwaway trash....but now she's my TREASURE - a smart, sensitive, priceless companion and I'm so grateful to have her in my life!