Matching Pegs

This is my cooking man.

For the first 26 years of my life he lived in my Grandma’s kitchen.

Since she passed away he has lived in mine.

Since Sunday he has been without his hat – he will never wear it again.

We woke up Sunday morning with Ants all over the kitchen – there was no food left out, they were searching for water, thanks to the big dry.  In cleaning up, his hat fell off, and shattered into hundreds of pieces.

I sobbed for about 10 minutes.

Let me just state for the record, that there are probably only 3 or 4 things in my house that would actually illicit such a response from me.  Even as I sobbed I was thinking of the people who have lost their whole homes full of precious things in the bush fires – feeling kind of guilty that I was taking it so hard.  As I cried I was thinking, how lucky am I that this is all I have lost.  It didn’t make the loss any smaller though.  Thankfully it was me that was carrying him, I would hate anyone else to see me cry like a baby and feel responsible.

Amelia, my wonderfully creative daughter has made a new hat.  Five minutes with the paper, scissors and sticky tape, and he is a new man.  Now I have two people to associate with my cooking man.

Today I came home with these beautiful gelati coloured mugs (Confetti Latte Mugs from Maxwell & Williams).  Not only do they come in a whole rainbow of colours, of which these are only 5, but the matt texture on the outside of them is just divine.  Michaela is completely enamoured with the tiny pink espresso mug, and has been sipping water from it all afternoon.

I didn’t need them, they were an extremely indulgent purchase, but as I unpacked them the penny dropped.  They were kitchen specific retail therapy.

These frames were another purchase – an amazing bargain.  Every second one cost$1.91, the other ones were $3.83.  Target were doing a 50% off the second frame, and these just happened to be heavily reduced.  But that’s not all.  Each one is really a two for one.  Here are the other sides…

Now I just have to stay away from the shops for a while – I should only be buying stuff I really need.

Made any entirely emotional purchases lately?

Way back when I made a couple of aprons.  Recent events bumped their blog debut.  The first was purpose made for sewing – you heard it, a sewing apron.

Debbie has been wanting one to wear to the guild sewing retreat (not until August – catches all the threads) so I made her one for her significant birthday back in January.

It is of course the lovely Emmeline Apron pattern by Sew Liberated.  I was really pleased with the fabric I found for the front and back (this lovely is reversable).  Debbie and I share a love of paisley (the front) and the back features sewing themed fabric and a little applique heart.  Doesn’t Debbie look lovely in it.

The second apron was for a lovely little three year old called Elena, made with one of my favourite cherry blossom fabrics.

Have you made any aprons lately?

This is Rufus, another furry friend that is with us at the moment, but this one is just visiting.  Rufus is the class mascot and it is Rory’s turn to bring him home.  I have never come across a class mascot before, but the idea is that Rory has to write about all the things he does with Rufus  in a special diary.  We had fun the other night coming up with bizarre things that Rufus could do (with perhaps a little help from photoshop).  Meanwhile, he is just hanging about, taking up half the couch.

The other morning there was a knock at the door, a package had arrived for me from Rachel.  I sent Rachel a few things a little while back with the pegs from my giveaway.  On request I provided December’s Homespun, which included my Spacewalk Quilt, for a swap.  Rachel has not only sent a magazine, she sent two, and lots of little goodies, and best of all, fabric.  It was such a lovely pick me up.  Thanks so much Rachel – it is so nice to have friends from in the computer.

Today I have been playing with paper circles again, working on a new project.  I really enjoy working this way – mocking up a project with paper in full scale.   It helps me really visualise possible designs.  Do you ever get out the coloured paper and the scissors – it is so much fun?

Meet the newest member of the Matching Pegs household, Lotta, the Moodle.  A Moodle is a cross between a Maltese and a Toy Poodle, so she is pretty small.

We brought her home this afternoon, and we are all in love.  We had been discussing a dog for a while, and this little ray of sunshine is exactly what we needed with all the sadness around us at the moment.

We have prepared as much as we could, but we have already discovered that Lotta fits between the bars in the baby-gate that we had set up in the laundry doorway.

Wish me luck for the night to come!

I have not been doing any sewing or crafting.  Latest news confirms that 1831 homes have been lost.  The death toll stands at 181, but is expected to top 300 as there are many more homes to be searched and many people still missing.  31 fires are still burning across the state, and Melbourne sits under a cloud of haze.  The fire season is expected to last for at least another two weeks. With so much tragedy so close to home it feels wrong to loose myself in creating, and I am not inspired at all.  Here are some photos for posts that were going to happen before the fires started burning up our state.

This Divine handbag was made by my fellow quilter Debbie, out of fabric I chose on our trip and “Quilt-shop-a-thon” down to Loch.  The pattern is The Sherbet Bag by Melly and Me.

The paisley and the pale purple fabric on the sides is from the Sanctuary range from 3 Sisters for Moda, which was released years ago, so I was lucky to stumble across some in Attic Quilts in Berwick. Over on the left are Julie and Debbie holding Molly (our Quilting Guild’s Mascot) outside Attic Quilts, which was only the second quilt shop we visited.

Here are some of my other purchases…..

This pile of fabric is all for the one project.  The little rolls are delicious, hand-dyed fat eights.  Most of these were purchased at the first shop, Craft Haven of Berwick.  The itty-bitty tube you can see is full of lovely Straw needles for needle turn applique, and they were recommended by Kellie of Don’t Look Now – she was right, they are lovely.  Debbie and I were lucky enough to have lunch the other day with Kellie – later in the year she is going to come and talk to our Quilters Guild.

The bag on the left is full of fabric from The Quilters Barn in Loch, and the overflowing bag on the right is from Candleberry Country in Yarragon, which was so full to the brim with beautiful fabric.

Molly was making friends at all the shops on our tour.  Here is Julie Wallace of The Quilters Barn holding Molly, despite the overwhelming bustle happening in her shop.  During our visit in there, the power went out and they could not even open the till.  We managed to make our purchases none the less.

While we were in Loch, a cool change swept through the place, which was so refreshing after a week of intense heat.  Unfortunately it meant that the quilts that were hanging everywhere were flapping in the very strong breeze – it was very hard to take a photo in focus.  Before we had seen them all, the quilts were being taken down to avoid damage in the weather.  Here are some photos I managed to take, however the photo quality is not good, my apologies.

This lovely wedding ring quilt is to inspire my friend Christine who is making one at the moment in 30′s fabrics.

Simone, this one is for you – it was a similar scale to the basket wall hanging you made Debbie – tiny.

This last quilt was beautiful, and massive.  It must have been a years worth of work, if not more.  I wish I had details of the makers, but I didn’t manage to grab a typed list.

Below is a picture of Debbie’s stash from the weekend.   From memory, pictured are fabrics for a skirt, two quilts, two bags and parts of several other projects.

On our tour I bought a couple of books, and these two fat quarters – actually the only pieces of fabric that I bought without particular projects in mind – they were just pretty.

Both the books were ultra pretty as well, and I actually have a signature in one of them.  Rosalie Quinlan who wrote “Gift”, the book on the left, was set up in the hall in Loch with her similarly creative sister Melly (Of Melly and Me – link in post above).  Debbie and I chatted to them for ages – afterwards we decided that they must have thought we were their craft groupies, as we were probably gushing with enthusiasm.

Rosie and Melly (pictured here with Molly) are currently running a silent Auction, selling some of their Softies – the money is for the bushfire appeal.  The auction runs until tomorrow morning, so go and take a look here.

I will post soon on some more things I have made recently, I may even start sewing again in an effort to buck up and be a little more positive.

Tonight’s sunset was lovely, yet not far from here (about 30 minutes away) there are those who have lost their lives, and many that have lost their homes.  The colours in the sky were surely created, in part, by the clouds of smoke  hanging over Melbourne.

Yesterday the mercury reached 46.3 degrees C (115.3 F) here in our suburb, and Melbourne recorded its highest temperature since records began 150 years ago.  At least 84 people perished as major fires burned across the state in a day worse than Ash Wednesday.  The death toll is expected to rise as more victims are found. Over 750 homes have been destroyed.  Some fires still burn.

The Red Cross is calling for donations to help fund emergency relief for victims, meals for fire fighters and emergency personnel and many other relief work.

You can donate to The Bushfire Appeal Fund by calling 1800 811 700

Burns victims require blood over many months.  The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is encouraging people to donate blood.  People should call 13 14 95 during Monday to Friday to make an appointment.

10th Feb, Edited to Add:

The death toll has risen to 173, but is expected to rise as more burnt out homes are searched. There are fire fronts that are still active, the threat has not passed even though it is cooler.  The Salvation Army has a donation site that has links for donations from outside of Australia.

This is very close to home, metaphorically and physically.  Close friends have lost members of their extended family. Friends children have lost classmates.

This morning Michaela and I went to Kynan’s 3rd Birthday Party.  Kynan is the 5th child in his family, and the only one that didn’t already have an apron (made by me).

Yesterday I whipped him up a pirate-map and coin fabric apron, made entirely from my stash.

At the party there was a travelling farmyard full of baby animals, for the kids to pat and hold.

Michaela got up close and personal with Rabbits, Guinea pigs and Chicks, but kept the other animals at arms distance.

Kynan had a lovely farmyard cake.  Thank for inviting us Kynan, we had a lovely time.

After the party, Michaela was so tired that she had to retire to a custom cubby house, (made of quilts of course) with her brand new bunny, from the party.  She has named him Albert after the large white rabbit at the party (and not Kynan’s Grandpa – who is also Albert).  Funny thing was that the bunny at the party was actually a girl – I wonder what Michaela’s Albert is?

Next post I promise to tell you more about Loch.

We arrived back this evening from the Loch Quilt Hanging, and our Quilt-Shop-A-Thon.  We had a lovely weekend, and bought plenty of fabric and notions between us.  Here we are with Molly, the mascot from our Quilting Guild (NOTYQ Guild).

Debbie is holding Molly and that’s Julie on the right.

We had a photo with Molly in the front of every store we visited, and took her photo with each of the proprietors.

Like many of you I will be sending the kids off to their first day of school for 2009 tomorrow.  As I still have three books to cover tonight, I will have to tell you more about the trip another time.  Back to breakfast in a hurry, and packing lunches in the morning.  Not so much standing around taking photos of my toes before breakfast in groovy cafes.