Halloween Dachshund

One of my favourite embroidered bookmarks is Halloween Dachshund. Unfortunately, I do not cross-stitch this design more because I can’t find the proper canvas. I don’t know if they stopped producing or importing it, but it doesn’t look good on other materials. I feel sad because I had three editions of this theme – a regular dachshund, a Halloween dachshund and a Christmas dachshund. I enjoyed stitching these dachshunds, and now I can’t embroider any of them.

Shipping

I was surprised when Maria ordered the same bookmarks twice. She wrote that she liked my work so much that she purchased the same bookmarks as a gift for her sister. Thus, two flowers and lavender bookmarks left home today morning to Ireland with a small gift in addition 🙂 I hope Maria will like her new bookmark too.

Crochet Daffodils Bookmark

Instead of crocheting the Forget-Me-Not bookmark as promised, I unexpectedly created the Yellow Daffodil bookmark yesterday. Well, you can treat it as my fancy. Maybe it was the result of effort in my little garden. I dug out tulips and daffodils bulbs; so they have a chance to dry up before I plant them in autumn.

Crocheted Bookmarks

These little pretties left home today to Rancho Cucamonga, CA, USA. Dark red and Liliac bookmarks were sold for the first time, but the pink one is just a gift. I always look up to buyers who buy such a small thing from overseas, so I try to put a little gift to their purchase.

Tabby Ginger Crochet Cat Bookmark

We have some different bookmarks at the shop, as crocheted, as well cross stitched.  One of the most popular is crocheted tabby ginger cat bookmark. People often ask me how I make them, so I decided to show some pictures of a process.

The thread I use crocheting this cat is cotton Ariadna Kaja 15 colour 337 made in Poland. I use Amour Clover hook No.4  1.25 mm. I have to say, that I use Amour Clover hooks for all my projects, because they are easy to use hooks, designed to prevent thread from slipping, and making picking up and pulling through of stitches easier. What is more, they are made of non-slip material and their three dimensional curves on the grip fit the fingertips naturally, what prevents you from gripping the needle unnecessarily tightly, stopping your hand from getting tired easily.

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After I’ve crocheted the main details, I’m working with the head and this is the most difficult part, because I use various techniques: eyes are cut out of white felt and sew to the head with green embroidery floss DMC, a nose, mouth and whiskers are embroidered with Kaja black thread.

The problem with the head is that every cat has a different facial expression: one smiles, another is sly, and sometimes the cat is not in a mood at all and needs to be sewn up again. That’s the one that went right away and he’s cute.

Next step is to sew this smiling head to the body, embroider claws, the part of the body and sew the tail. So the ginger cat is ready and can go to his new owner.

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This cat is approximately 25 cm (9.8 in) long and has a name : he’s called Jerome. He enjoys camping outside in a tent and devouring smores. His favourite book is The Game of Thrones series. As I say, all our cats are peculiar, they like various activities and books, so they all have their own personalities.