Matching Pegs

Some people can whip up a quilt in a weekend, or possibly even a day, but I am not one of those people.  This is one of the quickest quilts I have completed, and it has taken me exactly a month.  I had help.

My good friend Debbie quilted some sections of the quilt with a pattern of stars, and the spotty section with swirls.  I hand quilted the circles with embroidery floss, sprinkling them with more circles of their own.  I had intended to quilt them with concentric circles, but was not sure I had the time to quilt these as carefully as I would have needed to.

This is the back, which is mainly homespun, but cut with a section of scraps from the front.  I am really pleased with it.  The orange embroidery floss shows up as little running-stitch circles on the back which is also an effect I quite like.

I decided against adding a separate label, instead I chose a section  of the lightest “stripe” across the back to write directly onto.  If you can read it, you will notice that this quilt if for a brand new nephew, Benjamin Lewis “Matching-Peg”, who was born last month.  I had hoped to finish this by Christmas Day, when we first met the newest member of the clan.  Sadly I had to show the quilt to his mother as an almost finished work in progress.

Because I was running late on this quilt, I got to sew the binding on in the daylight hours, at a most pleasant venue – the local park.  In the background you can just make out the other members of the Matching Pegs household, including the littlest one, on her new bike – which comes with a handy steering handle.

So this quilt is my last project for 2008 – a most productive year.  What was your last project finished in 2008?

For all of you out there who are going to see in the new year with festivities – I hope you have a safe, sparkly and happy evening – and a wonderfully creative 2009.

Family,

Sharing a laugh,

trying to keep cool,

Remembering to relax, take in your surroundings, and think about the things you have to be grateful for,

And making sure the people you spend it with know how important they are to you.

Christmas festivities seemed to up and swallow my life way before I expected it.  All is well, but what should be the last 3 or 4 posts is going to be condensed into this one post – and I hope I am a lot less wordy than usual!

The angels you see hanging out in the shrubbery are the n@ked ladies from a few posts back, now with clothes, wings and hair. I made these little ladies for the kids’ teachers and Amelia and Rory had a great time writing a thank-you message on the doll bodies, under the clothes.

I was out of my usual wool for making the hair so I borrowed some from a friend with an impressive stash of textured brown (thanks Debbie).

The usual style was not going to cut it, so I tried crocheting little hair “caps” which I shaped and sewed on.

I think these are angels with mullets – perhaps they are secretly into heavy metal rock from the 80′s.

Another small project that is on its way to a new home is this little summer onesie (so much easier to type than envelope-necked, singlet top with snaps) which I needle-turned a heart onto.  I sewed it twice around to be sure, to be sure, as I know it will probably end up in the wash a fair bit.  Such a quick little present – do you like the matching pegs?

Tonight we started the official family Christmas festivities, with Christmas eve dinner with my side of the family.  Tomorrow (actually today) we take off for festivities in the country with the other side of the family.  I am taking a blogging break for the next week, but I will be back in action before NYE.

I hope you all have a Happy, Safe, Relaxing Christmas with the people that you love.

Claire

The sunset tonight was lovely, although hard to photograph without the wires, so I didn’t even try.  Actually I like the diagonal lines they created in this shot.

I have not been reading any blogs lately, so I have not been catching up with everyone’s news, I am hoping to return to that pleasure in the near future, perhaps after school finishes on Friday.  Now I have to get back to putting wings on angels………………..

Life has been moving at full tilt here in the Matching Pegs household, as we move on towards the end of the school year, and Christmas.  We have had lots of visitors, both human and avian, and several dramatic events.  The past week included a car accident (single car) out the front of our home, which would have resulted in a car in our bedroom, if there was not a crash barrier on the nature strip.  The occupant was not injured, but was clearly suffering the effects of drugs or alcohol, and rapidly drove off in a barely drivable car – despite offers of assistance.

On this Saturday past, the wettest day of the year, there was a large fire in a house in the street behind us.  There was so much smoke (you could hardly see the back fence of our place) that I started to get pretty nervous about the precise location of the fire.  I would have guessed it was only about three houses away (it was more like 10).  I keep thinking about the people that live there.  I don’t know much about them, but I know that they were not home, and the fire was electrical.  It turns out a friend of ours saw the flames, stopped his car and called the fire brigade.  From the look of the house and the amount of smoke I would imagine that they have lost pretty much everything.  It would be so devastating.  I keep imaging that it might have been Christmas Tree lights, and  I am glad we do not have any.

On a cheerier note, here are some of our avian visitors.

The Rainbow Lorikeets are frequent visitors, especially while the prunus is covered in fruit.

We also have a lot of noisier visitors……….

One of our human visitors was a friend of mine from school, who I had not seen in about 10 years.  It was great to catch up and meet her brand new baby.  I whipped up another bunny for baby Charlotte, (see top photo) slightly larger than the first.  As soon as Michaela saw it she asked to have one for her in green.  Instead of making more softie friends for Michaela, I have been sewing Christmas bits and pieces, including these little present bags – my alternative to wrapping paper.

None of the kids are getting enough sleep as Christmas excitement reaches fever pitch.  We have seen every stalling tactic in the book at bed time this week.  Michaela is so wrung out from the pre-Christmas excitement that she fell asleep under her bed the other afternoon – I felt like going in there to join her.

How is your family coping with the pre-Christmas excitement?

I wandered outside today to put some washing on the line and was shocked to find two n@ked ladies sunbathing in my backyard.  Naturally I was a little upset.

“Keep your hair on” one of them said to me.

“Look who’s talking” was all I could think to say.

Currently I am trying to find something in their size, before I send them out into the world.

I managed to finally sew down the binding on my Charisma Layer Cake Quilt, and it has taken up residence on my favourite chair.  It fits in really well with the cushions I have made in the last few months, which are all over the lounge room.

The quilt that used to cover up my comfy tub chair looks like this………..

and it has spent the day on Amelia, while she has been laid up sick on the couch.  This quilt has done lots of sick duty in the last few years.  It is backed in green, so with the red binding it is pretty Christmassy – I am going to throw it over the back of the couch for the festive season, backing side upward.  That is, when it has finished it’s current duty.

It was a real shame that Amelia was sick today, because today was Rory’s big day as a narrator in the Prep Christmas play.  He did a fantastic job, in both performances, and looked pretty cute as well.

Thank-you so much for all the lovely comments about my quilt, the whole experience has been quite a thrill.  I am not sure when I will ever get the time to write up some more patterns for my things, but it is definitely something I would love to do.  All I really need is a housework/dinner/washing and homework fairy, and I will design up a storm.

Today I decided that it was high time to start getting ready for Christmas – after all, Rory has been practicing his narration for the prep Christmas concert for about a month now.

The kids have been hounding me for some time to decorate the outside of our house for Christmas, (to keep up with one of the neighbours).  While I am not really into the whole flashing lights thing, (or large blow -ups of the big man in red) I thought I had an achievable idea to try.  Thing is, I am not really sure I pulled it off.

I bought some purple tissue paper, and florists wire to make Pom-Poms to hang out under our front verandah. I have made these pom-poms before, they remind me of our red geraniums, which flower in ball shaped clusters.  I chose purple because it was the regal colour associated with the baby Jesus, and also because it would show up well against the red brickwork, and the green plants.

I know the paper in these photos looks blue, sadly it is not a photographic trick or a problem with the colour settings on your monitor – once I separated the layers of paper (which were labeled purple, and looked purple in the pack) it turned out they were, in fact, blue.  Not a Christmas colour at all.

But I digress, I made 9 different Pom Poms following Martha’s helpful instructions, and hung them from the beams of the front verandah.

They look quite nice swinging in the breeze, even if they are distributed in a slightly lop sided manner – I didn’t want the ones on the edge to hang too low, where they could get wet from some occasional rain – however, they do not look Christmassy, in any way at all.

Something that will look Christmassy is my Christmas Angels that I am making to give to the kid’s teachers at the end of the school year (in two weeks time).  I cut them out yesterday, and now I need to start working the child labourers, and get them stuffing the small bodies and limbs.

Finally, here is a purple that really is regal, an Ivy Pelargonium called “Royal Night”.  I have been on the hunt for a nice purple “geranium” for a while, and I was very happy to see this one at the nursery today.  This one has a cascading form, that is suited to hanging baskets and window boxes.  Perhaps I will hang it up in a basket on our front verandah, and then something out there will be purple.

Today I opened my letterbox and realised the day had finally come – My quilt has been published!

Homespun Number 67, Volume 9 Number 12 is “The Kids Issue” and features my Spacewalk Quilt, that I made over 4 years ago, for Rory’s second birthday.  When I designed it, I wanted a quilt that would not become to young for him in no time at all – I thought a Space theme might age with him well, and it has.

I am in some wonderful company in this issue, as there are several other blogger’s projects featured.  Tiel from tsk tsk has a lovely log cabin quilt in pinks and greens, Leslie of onegirl has a Fleur Play mat, and Fiona of Hop Skip Jump has one of her fantastic giraffe’s, as well as a short feature on her.  Last but not least, Megan (who is 9), the talented daughter of Kellie of Don’t Look Now fame is shortlisted in the Young Designer of the Year Competition (Which Amelia won a category of last year).  Of course there are some other lovely projects in the issue as well, but I am more familiar with the work of the bloggers who I have been reading for ages.

So if you would like to make the little man in your life a spacy quilt (40 x 55 inches) then get yourself to a quality newsagents, purchase Homespun 9.12,  turn to page 54, and get sewing.

Number two it is.

The circles are not actually sewn on at this stage, but I have used the miraculous Floriani Wet N Gone Fusible, to adhere them to the quilt, ready to be hand sewn on.  The method I have used gives you a smooth needle-turned edge, (I was not sure I would get a perfect circle with my usual needle-turn method).

Here is how it’s done.

You sew the Wet N Gone (WNG) to the circles, along your drawn line (the line you would normally needle-turn just under), the fusible side should be facing the right side of the fabric, and no gap should be left for turning.

After cutting out the circles with a 1/4 inch allowance, you clip the curves, making sure not to clip all the way to the sewn edge.

Next you pull the layers apart and cut a small slit through the WNG layer, in the centre.

Turn the circle the right way out through this slit.  Using a small, smoothly pointed object (such as a crochet hook, or the wrong end of a paintbrush), you push out all the seams to take up their perfect circle shape.

After finger pressing these shapes, you can press them onto the quilt background.  Now they can be “needle-turned” in place.  The first time the quilt is washed, the WNG just disintegrates and washes away.  Magic!

Now for something completely different.  Rory is enamoured with this look…..

If you would like to achieve this look too, all you have to do is place your whole face underwater, and draw it out carefully, allowing your hair to slick down on your forehead.  If Rory could find a way to make it stay like this, he would wear it this way all the time.