New puppy!

Not for me -  but my great friend A had this beautiful little bundle of joy for her birthday! As she had been talking for some time about her love for a little grey whippet, I was taken by surprise when I arrived to see this adorable little black puppy. However, I had planned my present which involved grey!!

Recently I have seen many cushions with animals like deer, foxes, dogs etc made out of a sort of patchwork background of tweed and velvet with the animal shape cut out of materials and appliquéd or free machined on the top - there were some examples on the front cover of Country Homes and Interiors magazine this month (October edition) - so I thought I would try my take on this, using the idea for inspiration.

As I knew A would be having her whippet, I decided to make her a cushion featuring a 'grey' whippet. Not having seen the little creature I looked on the internet for photo inspiration of whippets, then put together my best bet for what the puppy might look like and drew it out onto tracing paper, so that I could cut out the various shapes. I had some thick stripy cotton with blues grey and yellow that I used for my background, and laid various combinations of materials on top till I decided which to go with....

should I use red flowers and spots?

or blue flowers and spots? - I liked the spotty bib, and the pinky inner ear and grey face .....

....... in the end I went for grey stripes. I machined the shapes on very carefully and added some features to try and give the puppy a little character. I had practiced my free machine appliqué, but didn't have the nerve to actually try it on the cushion as I was all over the place with it! Then I added a patchwork strip onto either side.

For the backing, I used a yellow/grey stripy cotton - usually I make an envelope and add buttons as a closure on cushions, but I tried a new technique with a hidden zip. I found a very useful tutorial here. After making some bias binding I put my cushion together...

.... and here it is!

I was wrapping it up - and thought something didn't quite look right - I had forgotten whiskers!!!  so had to quickly add some.

He is such a cute little puppy, and growing so quickly!