Matching Pegs

Blue skies
Smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies
Do I see………….

OK so it’s not strictly true, the skies are not blue at all, they have been very grey.

This week Winter has been starting to get to me, I have been feeling a bit blah. At the start of the week my washing machine died, in a water flooding out the bottom kind of way. This problem will hopefully be fixed on Monday, but luckily I have had some kind souls who have let me wash in their machines. Thanks Mum and Leigh, this photo is for both of you.

So today things were looking up. My skies were blue, because I had two hours to myself while Michaela was at Occasional Care. I sat and sewed (for the first time in ages) while I was serenaded by the divine Ella Fitzgerald, who never fails to lift my spirit, and induces me to lift my voice. So what was she singing?

Blue days
All of them gone
Nothing but blue skies
From now on

Hope you have blue skies where ever you are*

*(Metaphorically speaking, ’cause I don’t mind grey skies, if we get good rain with it)

For anyone who is reading this in the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas in July parties are quite common down here, so that we get to eat all the traditional foods in the season they were intended for.  Unfortunately I have not been to, or had one of these parties, but these ornaments are new aquisitions, so together with the Redwork Christmas Quilt fabrics, I have a lot of Christmas stuff about the house at the moment.

I would never have guessed as I set off yesterday for the Craft and Quilt Fair, that these would have been what I would bring home, but the bargain was too good to resist.  The little Father Christmas was only five bucks!  They were from a stall called “Raggedy Country Christmas” which was doing a roaring trade.  I particularily liked the trees, because I prefer ornaments that mention the real meaning of Christmas, rather than just the Man in Red.  The Trees have “Joy” and “Hope” written on them, and they seemed a little more subtle than the usual gaudy ornaments around.

Mum and I browsed the stalls first, until we met a friend (Hi Debbie) and went through to the Quilt exhibition to look at our lesiure.  This is the disperate collection of things that I bought at the stalls.

The Charisma, Chez Moi Fabric is a collection that I have admired for a long time, and I lingered looking at this layer cake, before deciding that I did just need to have it!  The squares are 10″x10″ swatches, and there are 40 of them in the pack.  I think I will cut each sqare into 4 and make a quilt of just squares, as some of the patterns are quite large and I don’t want to cut them up too much.  This plan may of course change by the time I come to use them.

I got some Floriani Wet and Gone Fusible, which I have big plans for.  There is a technique I have been dying to try, to speed up my applique.  I will post more about this when I get a chance to use it.

Last of all I got a very large Yo Yo maker (made by Clover) that I thought Amelia might enjoy using (and she does, she has made several today).  I am not usually a fan of Yo Yo’s (or Suffolk Puffs) at all, but I saw this delicious quilt and was won over.  I also thought Amelia might like to make a Yo Yo Garland to decorate for her birthday next month.

The exhibition of quilts was immense, there was so much on display.  I particularily enjoyed the section on Japanese Textiles, I was quite taken with the little children’s garments made of scraps of other garments - using more scraps made the garment luckier, as did using scraps from very healthy people or families with lots of children, (from memory).  There are some very talented quilters out there, and so many people with much more patience (and time) than me.

Before

After.

Look who I found soaking up a little bit of winter sun in my garden yesterday. Like any other cat, this one looks quite comfortable perched in an unusual place - the handle of my rotary clothes line. This little aqua cat just needs a name, any suggestions?

It was quite a busy weekend here, among other things Michaela had her first swimming lesson. She was a star, and was smiling whenever she didn’t have a concentration face on. Some of the other little people in the tiny pool with her cried and cried, which was distressing for everyone, but didn’t seem to get to Michaela. Of course I would love to share how adorable she looked in her new speedos and goggles, but apart from potentially attracting creepies, I didn’t want to take a camera along to a kids’ swimming lesson.

On Sunday, while I took Rory to a gymnastics birthday party, (what a fabulous idea, Rory loved it) Luke opened up a craft box we have had for a while, and made some soap with the girls. It is still not dry, but the lavender in it smells wonderful.

Finally, have a look at this, the first of our Magnolia buds is starting to open. In no time the tree will look spectacular.

Don’t forget to leave a comment to help me name the cat, who now has a little heart on his/her chest like the bunny rabbit.

This is Mr Chocolate. I made him 4 years ago for a close friend. This little chap was actually the logo of Rebecca’s Online Children’s Clothing Store, which is currently inactive - having your fifth child will do that to you :-).

I finished Michaela’s Bamboo/Cotton scarf. It is tiny, but perfectly proportioned for her.

She has worn it quite a bit lately, as it has been quite icy.

We have a jam packed weekend, so the post ends here

Here is a funny little bunny I finished making last night.  She is made of Flea Market Fancy fabric, which is actually a map of Paris, so she is called Jeannot Lapin (Bunny Rabbit in French).  Michaela has been playing with her this afternoon, in the cubby.  This is actually Lapin deux, the first was smaller, and the ears became just that bit too small to turn out the right way, but I like the position of them better.

Amelia has ordered a Teddy in a purple fabric and Michaela has ordered a Cat in Blue.  Rory, as usual, just wants “something more scary”.

Yesterday was my Mother’s 60th Birthday (Happy Birthday Mum).

We had quite a subdued lunch, as that morning a family friend had passed away.  Our Friend Helen died after several weeks in intensive care.  She was a wonderful dynamo of a person, who never let her ill health hold her back from what she wanted to do.  Her sheer force of will was amazing.  She had a very strong sense of justice and actively campaigned for many causes.  She was a retired Uniting Church Minister who baptised both of our daughters.  She will be missed by many, many, people.

My Mother is another very strong women.  She has had to deal with a lot in her life time, and through the course of her life she has gathered lots of very practical wisdom.  I talk through the minutia of my life, and hers with her, almost daily.  Who would I be without her?

Don’t worry Mum, we will celebrate in suitable style at a later date, you sure deserve a proper party.

On Saturday, another Mum from school (Hi Debbie) and I travelled to the outskirts, of the other side of Melbourne, for a quilt show.  On arrival we discovered that we had turned up for a “Quilt In” rather than a quilt show.  Not having any sewing of our own to work on, we browsed through the small stalls that some local shops had set up, and decided to move on to a spot of local quilt shopping.

I had not been planning to purchase any more than a few bits and pieces, but had a magazine with me with a beautiful project in it that was calling me; “The Wish Quilt” by Bronwyn Hayes in the current issue of Homespun Magazine.  I ended up going to town on Reds and Creams, as well as buttons and threads.  I have chosen to stitch the red-work in a variegated red thread, that goes from an almost watermelon colour to a dark browny garnet colour.  I am really looking forward to stitching it, but realistically I will not be making it for this Christmas, but the following one - there are too many projects I have on the boil that I want to do first.  Instead I may make just one of the blocks to hang up for this year.

So apart from picking up all these red and cream beauties, I picked up a few other things as well.

I picked up these two pieces from the “Morning Glory” by Robyn Pandolph range, the colour was a bit hard to capture in today’s light, but the gold roses are on a pale greyish lavender colour that is quite sophisticated.  I am thinking that these will be a fully lined handbag.

One thing I discovered in my purchasing spree, was just how sentimental I am.  I bought several fabrics purely because I have had them before, or they reminded me of special people in my life.  The stylised roses above (on the right) are the same as the fabric my mother has used for a cushion on a family heirloom chair, in another colourway.  The birds fabric below is my daughter Amelia’s favourite fabric, that we have used on several projects for her.  I had used up my last scrap, and the store I bought it from has closed, so I was thrilled to find some more.  My late Grandmother had a silk suit made with fabric with a marbelled pattern very similar to the one on the fat quarters below.  She wore that suit to my wedding.  Get the picture, I’m sentimental.

So enough boring you with my purchases, on to the purple in the title.

No this is not just another excuse to show you my Happy Wanderer, I wanted to share with you some details of a purple charm square “tree”.  It is a little like a swap, but more complex.

I had been given a little letter and a couple of 6 inch squares of purple fabric, inviting me to join in, in the quilt tree.  All that is involved, is that I send 2 purple, 100% cotton, 6 inch charm squares to the person at the top of the list, cross them off and send the letter and 2 more squares each, on to 4 more people who are interested in joining in (after adding my name to the bottom).  According to the letter, once your name has moved up a couple of spaces, you should receive 72 squares in return, before you are crossed off.  Confused?  I am not too sure about the maths of this one, but can see that theoretically, I should receive some purple charm squares in return if I play.  It will only cost me 10 charm squares, and some postage.

One thing I don’t want to do is send this to anyone who does not want to take this on. So do any of you out there want to play?

Below are a couple of the purple fabrics that I have to send on, together with the two squares that I was sent with the letter I received.

Let me know if you are interested in the Purple Charm Square Quilt Tree in the comments, and I will send you an email to let you know more.

We had a beautiful sunset tonight and I could not resist sharing it with you.  This is the view across the top of the neighbouring houses.  As a family we all went to see Kung Fu Panda this afternoon, which was actually not bad as far as school holiday movies go.  It was Michaela’s first movie and apart from moving between Luke at one end of our 5 seats, and myself at the other, she made it through the whole movie without making lots of noise.

Here is an update on the fort/lookout/cubby in the backyard.

This was Luke working out how high the step needed to be, so that Michaela could climb up.

She was a real little Tradey, helping out Daddy.

As regular readers know, Friday is the day to dip into the past, but today I am going to show you a piece of design that is not my work, but is from our family photo archive.  A few people I know have just had, or are going to have babies.  This is the best piece of baby related gear that we purchased, hands down, so we now have three!  It is a fabulous piece of design.

This is our eldest daughter Amelia, at 5 1/2 months in January 2001, sitting in the Tripp Trapp highchair by Stokke, a firm from the Netherlands, (the second link takes you to the USA/Canadian site, as it is in English, but the first link shows the chair as it is sold here even though the text is Dutch.  There seems to be a different baby rail sold in the US, which is not as elegant).  Back when we purchased this, they were not sold in Australia, and I think it was my first ever Internet purchase, through a New Zealand importing firm.  A very dear friend had one that her in laws had purchased in Europe, and I thought it was worth tracking down.

As you can see, unlike other Highchairs, the Tripp Trapp adjusts from being suitable for a baby right through to an adult.  What you can’t see in this picture is that the baby rail at the front comes off, and the chair seat interchanges with one that does not have a strap.  For an adult, the larger footrest becomes the seat.  At almost 8, Amelia still benefits from that little bit of extra height to sit comfortably at the table.

Now here is what I was doing (with the kids) yesterday.

I was actually drawing Teddy bears, when Amelia got our her drawings of possible doll faces.  We were talking about proportion again, and how eyes are actually across the middle of a face, and not near the top.  Before I knew it, look who had appeared. Along with various stylized Michaela’s along the bottom, there is one of each of us, (I had to get out a photo to add Luke and I).

Here is a page of Teddies.

Here is another current project in the works, yet another scarf.

This one is quite narrow as it is to adorn a pretty little neck - Michaela’s.  It is made with Bamboozle yarn which is 70% Bamboo and 30% Cotton, so it is super soft and light.  As usual, it was the colour that caught my eye, yet another variegated yarn, in such beautiful fruity tones.  I also have some put aside for me :-).

Lastly this is Michaela’s handiwork.  Inspired by a large creation the bigger kids made, she presented this to me - her first castle - and asked me to take a picture.

Have great weekend everyone, more regular posting will resume again next week when term starts again.

After Wednesday’s events, we have had lots of school holiday family time - just what the doctor ordered!

On Thursday the kids were busy in the kitchen making dough creations, that we “fired” in the oven and then painted.

This weekend there was a great deal of construction going on in the back yard.

It went from this, which was built last weekend,………………. to this…………

And finally this. So far it is an elevated platform, which will have rails added around the sides, and a nice wide step and eventually half of it will have a roof. The kids are very happy with Luke’s log constructions.

Meanwhile inside I was working on a log construction of my own.

It went from this, to this below.

It is one of several cushion covers in the works that I have finally gotten around to. I just have to finish sewing on the binding. Stay tuned for more construction efforts