Toffee was my first little Dachshund.
He lived to 16 years old and he loved to go boating!
Finding an image of him on the boat, I decided to make him in fabric collage.
Using fusible techniques, I traced the image onto a lightweight vilene fabric.
Tracing onto fusible web, I began fusing and cutting out fabrics and laying them onto the background.
Continuing to place fabrics, I build up the design as I went.
He had funny little light colours on his chest that showed up in photos.
The eyes were the hardest to do but I persevered, hoping that some stitching would help to enhance them.
Then I auditioned fabrics for the boat and the water.
When I had the image completed and ironed to fuse all the fabrics together, I cut him out and tried him on this gorgeous hand dyed fabric which I have been saving for years.
This fabric was dyed by Janet Ryan, who had a business called Dyeit fabrics in Auckland.
Although I loved the look of it, decided to go with the water design as that was so Toffee, he just loved it as you can see from his expression!
I arranged all the fabrics for the water and most of the boat, layered up with batting and backing, and did the quilting before I put Toffee onto it.
So I decided he definitely needed a lifebuoy and added that in.
No she has never been boating but she loves to swim !!!
