FOX-news

When in January 2017 my colleague came back from her holidays she didn't come on her own. She had company and stepped in the office with a brought amorous smile.

-> Mum had given her a fox for Christmas. :) !!!

As foxes are that colleague's favorite animals (in the whole wide world!) she was outright delighted about the plush keyring pendant.

Mr. Fox was repurposed as a desk-mascot. ... And picked up again and again during the day to show him off to me. From all angles, in all imaginable positions - so I could admire him appropriately and admit his being "Sweeeet!" :o !?!

Which I did voluntarily. I went even further by sketching him on squared paper [from all sides - of course - goes without speaking...] - to immortalise his face on an embroidered cushion. A traditional "birthday cushion" with the date of birth and name on it...

Only did Mr. Fox not have a first name yet!  :o ???

But what's Bond doing without James?! Nothing to speak of. So we needed to come up with a name.

As it happens I was working with a Mr. Reinhold a lot at that time -

Rein hold -> Rein eke Fuchs [German for "reynard the fox"] ... "How about Reinhold?!"

My colleague reckoned it was just the right amount of knightly and old-fashioned a name and therefore perfectly suitable for a foxy quadruped lodging in the Residential Palace of Ludwigsburg.

[Actually "Reinhold" seems to be derived from the old German language meaning something the like of  "councellor" & "ruler". Very adequate indeed for an office-companion and inhabitant of a castle!]

To make the sketches I drew of the fox and other forest-themed pictures from the web I printed out work as patterns for an embroidery I "transliterated" them in pixel schemes - one square for one (cross)stitch, easy as pie. That's what I thought... getting started joyously! :) ...

But when the first view of the fox was done - unfortunately its sight made me somewhat rabid. :(  grrrr

Because Reinhold was too square-cut!!! Not pretty at all. Denatured so to speak. :o ...

I tried smoothing out the edges by setting some further much smaller stitches in the corners - better, yet still dissatisfying :s ... Undistinguishable and shapeless all that red brown ma(e)ss...

Contour lines finally made the difference! After a lot of swearing and annoying trials and errors I was :) !!!

I put the embroidered canvas on a nice silk fabric, framed it with a white bias tape on the exterior edges, leftover zigzag ribbon and a shoe lace on the interior onces - maybe a little felt leave on top?! ... Hm - no.

One of the most beautiful and elaborate cushions I ever produced! [My (former) husband was of course STRICTLY A-G-A-I-N-S-T giving it away!!!],... but I did as I intended to. I gave it to my colleague for her birthday. She was thrilled and made room for the cushion on her couch at home where it takes pride of place now. And she claimed Reinhold was impressed too!?

I do think he looks rather proud of his cushion on the photos! ;)