I have created very little recently, but this is one ‘finish’ that I managed.  This baby top is made of a lovely wool/cotton blend, that felt so soft and warm, but it was crying out for a simple embellishment.  I needle-turn-appliqued on the heart.
The coordinating pants have a very sweet little ruffle across the bum.  The baby is yet to arrive, but I finished these for the baby shower, which was a festival of pink, and sugar, and a lot of fun.

I had a quiet Mother’s day, with a morning at home, and an afternoon with the rest of  my family, at my parents.  The kids all gave me lovely presents, with special mention going to Amelia, who put in a lot of work on her hand-crafted Tardis, (a vehicle for chocolate delivery).
The kids have recently been introduced to the viewing pleasure of Dr Who, and love to watch it in their ‘Grandma-made’ beanbags, under their ‘Mum-made’ quilts.

In completely unrelated news, our new Dyson DC29 vacuum cleaner arrived this morning, and it will never look this clean again!
James Dyson has impressed me from the beginning.  I remember discussing him whilst studying for my Industrial Design degree, and the way he doggedly worked at perfecting his design, when no one was interested in funding him.  Luke and I were very early adopters, purchasing a DC02 as poor newlyweds, straight out of Uni.  It was a pretty big financial decision at the time.

Our old machine happened to be a funky looking ‘DeStijl” model, inspired by the Dutch artistic movement of the early 20th century.  By far the best thing about it was that it enabled me to manage my allergy to dust mites, as I could vacuum them out of our soft furnishings, without sneezing myself silly at the same time.
Dyson have now decided to stop manufacturing the replaceable filters for these early machines, but have impressed me again, this time with their service, and commitment to the environment.  Because we can no longer buy the filters, they traded in our old machine, for $200 off a new one, and an automatic 5 year warranty, instead of the usual 2 years.  We posted off the old one (reply payed by Dyson) to Sydney, where it will be taken apart for recycling.  If you own a DC01 or DC02, you can read more about it here.  Dyson vacuums are a great reminder that good Industrial design is about function and beauty, and can be found in all kinds of ordinary objects.

Finally, the beauty of nature, Melbourne’s beloved Yarra river, “the river that runs upside down”.  Mum and I took a quick fortifying walk along it’s banks yesterday afternoon, as the sun was actually shining and it had been a particularly hard day.  It really lifted our spirits.  It has been a favourite place in my family, since I was a small child, and occasionally, (if you are quiet, and lucky) you can spot a platypus or two.

So I’ve just joined 2013 and upgraded to an iphone, and being the visual person that I am, one of the most exciting parts of getting this new technology, was decorating it with some beautiful Gelaskins and matching screen wallpaper.

It was a tough choice, but I went with “Almond Branches in Bloom” by Van Gogh, (I may even have put on matching nail polish to take this photo).

This technological development means that I have become the latest in a long line of bloggers to discover Instagram, now that I can take such lovely photos with my iphone.  I’m not sure how much time I’ll be on there, but a fellow blogger I caught up with at the Australasian Quilt Convention tells me that “this is where all the bloggers are at these days”.  You can find me on Instagram snapping away as “matchingpegs”, I have all of 6 photos so far!
These are the modest purchases I made at the AQC, I was pretty restrained, because I used it as time to catch up with fellow creative types, rather than a serious purchasing frenzy.

My new iphone makes it so easy to take narcissistic selfies.  This is the photo I shared with all of Facebook to indicate that after 5 months I had finally had my hair cut.

And this one was to show that I had finally finished making a new a-line skirt, (Pattern by NIkki of You Sew Girl) the one that took me all 2 weeks of the school holidays to cut out.

To balance out this narcissism, I’ve also taken a few shots of the magnificence of Autumn in Melbourne.  I took this one on my front lawn on Anzac day, which was suitable (at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them).

Last night I finished the last of the stitching on my “Hope is a thing of feathers” and now I just have to find some coordinating fabric to put some borders on it. It might be tricky, especially if I decide to hold out until I find a pale, dusty purple, which is not an easy colour to match.

I just love the way the filters on Instagram really make the coloured thread I have used come alive.
I have already shared some of these photos on Facebook.  If you spend a bit of time over there, perhaps you would like to follow me, you can find a little link for Matching Pegs on Facebook and Pinterest, over in the right hand column.  On Instagram, I’m “matchingpegs”.  Come find me!

I’m still here, but boy the school holidays sure slow my creative output to a trickle.
I’m still not over my fascination with feathers, and so here is a little fusible applique I have designed, which I have put onto yet another super simple drawstring backpack.

These bags are so quick to whip up, with 50cms (or 1/2 yard) of fabric and some herringbone tape (also called cotton ribbon, or twill tape) or grosgrain ribbon.  A pattern will be forthcoming soon, but I am working on a range of appliques to go with the construction instructions.

This is my space invader inspired, pixelated rocket.  It’s quite tough to come up with motifs that are not too young, because I think that this bag is perfect for an older child, especially those that have to carry their sports uniforms to school to get changed.
In other creative news, I have taken the entire school holidays to cut out one simple A-line skirt.  I’m using Nikki’s fabulous You Sew Girl pattern, and have high hopes for a successful garment on completion.  It is not really surprising that it has taken so long, I have been busy with holiday trips to the Zoo, multiple parks, IMAX (to see Flight of the Butterflies in 3D, which was great) the swimming pool, and various friend’s houses.

Frankly, I’m impressed that I have made it through these school holidays with my sanity and good humor intact, given that I have a lot of stressful things that are happening in the background, and school holidays mean I am never on my own.  I am more than a little keen to get back into the routine of the school term, but I have enjoyed some very lovely days with the kids.  What about you, how do you cope with that never-on-your-own feeling?

On Wednesday my nephew turned 1.  Happy Birthday Arden!  Here are the gifts that I put together for him, (I had to wait until they had been received, before I shared them).  The bag is a simple drawstring backpack that I have made, for taking his change of clothes etc. to childcare twice a week.

Unlike the previous backpacks that I have made, I have lined this one with ‘ripstop’, which should make it better able to cope with wet or dirty gear.

I loved working with this adorable robot fabric that I have been hoarding for years, and enjoyed adding his distinctive name in a matching spotty red.  Along with the backpack, we gave Arden the “chubby” cars, which are just like an old one that we have at our house that he loves to play with.  The kids were so excited when were able to track down the same kind of car.

We included a pair of ever practical overalls, perfect for crawling babies whose pants fall down, and a lovely, green long-sleeved tee.  As you can see above, I added an applique “A” to the front, which I needle-turned in place.  It felt so good to return to needle-turn applique, my favourite kind.

Happy Birthday little man, many happy returns.

Do you have a favourite gift to make for really little recipients?

It has been two weeks since I last posted.  Two weeks of trauma and stress and upheaval for my family of origin.  The trauma that I have been dealing with is not one that I want to talk about here, except to say that it has had me so upset and heartbroken that I have not been able to even look at anything crafty or creative.  That is why I have been absent from Matching Pegs.  Today I have taken a tiny little step toward making something, and that something is inspired by these adorable little robots.  This fabric has been part of my stash for years, a hoarded treasure waiting for exactly this project.

Crafting is generally my therapy, and it gets me through most of the average stresses of life, but it is hard to craft when you feel anxious and helpless.  When I am too upset to craft, I turn to reading.  I love to read anyway, but I make sure that I have something to read in the evenings that is escapist (but not trashy) so that I will not spend hours tossing and turning with worry before going to sleep.  I read so that I can fall asleep thinking about the plot, and save my worrying for the waking hours.

I have been continuing to work on my feather stitchery occasionally, and I’m pretty happy with how it is going.  The message of hope on it is a good reminder, in a time when it is hard to be optimistic.
So this post is a step in the right direction for me, in an effort to care for myself, but the painful times are not over.  I will be here in my “happy place” when I can, and when I am not tied up with being needed elsewhere.  Thanks for being part of my happy place.

Ta-Da!   I’m pretty impressed with my work so far on my new stitchery, and, as predicted, a large part of the delight is just in seeing how the colours turn out.  I have chosen to work the central “Hope” in “Nutmeg – 304″ from the Cottage Garden Threads range.  If you are interested in the colours available in this range, you can see them here. I brought all my threads from Erica at “Under the Mulberry Tree“, so if you are interested in the particular colours that I am using, I know they are in stock there.

I wanted a variety of line widths in this design, so I have worked the outline of “Hope” in chain stitch, which is a first for me.  The “ladder rungs” in-between are just straight stitch, and I expect to be busting out the usual back stitch, in both a single thread and 2 threads as I work my way around the design.  I predict there will be a fair amount of television and cups of tea consumed by the time I finish this, and I expect the weather will be much more suitable for evening stitching by the time the finish line is in sight.  It feels faintly ridiculous to be stitching and sweltering.

Do you put away the cosy sorts of crafts while summer heat bears down on you?

*PS Geeks (like me) will recognise the title as the “first” of the Star Wars films, (number 4) which has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but it did make me smile.

Do you ever feel like you are running on the spot; in a frantic hurry, but not getting anywhere?  The past week has felt a little like that, but exciting at the same time.  All the kids started school for 2013, last Thursday, but for Amelia it was a really big day, as her first day of High School.  There has been lots to learn, remember and experience, and not just for her, but the rest of us as well.  Our routines have had to change to accommodate the earlier departure for her in the morning, and the fact that she is now catching a public bus and heading in the opposite direction (literally) from her siblings.There has been a bit of back-to-school crafting going on to prepare for High School.  Amelia chose a fabric and font to monogram her standard issue art apron, which is a serviceable, but uninspiring grey.  We are both pretty happy with it.

I whipped up a quick drawstring backpack to hold Amelia’s sports gear, complete with lovely, neat french seams, (just like Michaela’s dance bag which you can see here).  We decided to use some fabric that Amelia has been saving, featuring the motif-of-the-moment, feathers.  Feathers seem to be everywhere on Pinterest, and seem to be the next step from putting-a-bird-on-it.  I must admit to being a fan of them myself (pun intended).

Amelia is not allowed to wear her sports uniform to school, but has to get changed just for those lessons, so this bag will spend most of its time inside her larger school bag.  I am thinking of writing a simple pattern for this bag, (probably as part of a 3-in-1 pattern containing other designs as well) and I was wondering how many other kids have the same rules?  Would you be inclined to make a bag like this for your child for sport, dance, martial arts or sleepovers?