Matching Pegs

On Thursday Michaela turned 6, and yesterday we had a party to celebrate.  This is the amazing cake that Luke made with the kids on Saturday.  There are the equivalent of 4 cakes in the castle, with additional jam rolls for the towers.  It is hard to see, but Michaela placed 3 little fairy figurines on the cake, along with some ducklings.  All I did was a tiny bit of the icing.

It feels like yesterday that Michaela was this big.  Her personality has always been pretty sunny – she is the family charmer, a real delight.  It is clear from all the friends she has made in her first year of school that she is a lot of fun to be around (although I will admit that I am biased, because I love her to bits). She loves to draw, and dance around to music, and is really enjoying learning how to read, making great leaps forward due to her persistence.

Poor Michaela ended up with an upset tummy on Thursday, so missed out on any cake on her actual birthday.  Here she is feeling poorly, but appreciating her new beanbag that Grandma made for her, and wearing her new clothes from Nanna and Poppa.  Mum has made all three kids a beanbag this year, and they love reading in them in the evenings before bed.

Mum has done well to make them to coordinate with their bedrooms, and their taste and personalities.  It might be hard to make out, but Rory’s beanbag is covered in spiders.  Every evening he sits in his beanbag with his “Spacewalk” quilt over his knees and reads his Harry Potter books.  He started it all off by asking for a beanbag to read in.

While the other two have beanbags covered in Polar fleece, Mum made Amelia’s out of patchwork fabrics that coordinate perfectly with her Doona cover and feature Polka dots and Scissors.

Mum was so pleased to make a handmade gift for each of them that was so eagerly anticipated, excitedly received and happily enjoyed.  She was also pretty grateful to have a daughter that was prepared to stand in the bath and help wrangle the polystyrene beads into the bags!

Do you, or your kids have a special spot where you/they like to read?

We are in the midst of Birthday season, here in the Matching Pegs household, with 3 of our birthdays within 12 days.  Yesterday we celebrated Rory’s special day, with Michaela taking a couple of hours off, to help her friend Jaide celebrate her birthday.  Pictured above is the top I embellished for Jaide, with a simple needle turn applique.  Rory’s new mini-figures are checking it out.

Rory turned 9, and his cake was fantastic!

It was several days in the making – if you include the practice characters that the kids (and Luke) made with plasticine.

For those of you familiar with the game, it is easy to see that the cake featured “Angry Birds“, complete with evil green pigs (and boss pig with his moustache).

The birds and pigs were made with solid icing, and it is safe to say that the experience of planning and making them was as important as the outcome – the look of the finished cake.

I was so impressed with the figures that the kids made, and the cake architecture that supported them, (constructed by Luke).  Oh and the cake was deee-lish!

Are you addicted to Angry Birds?

I have had this idea for years and years, to put quirky versions of the toilet-door-people on our toilet door.  I have just never gotten around to it.  A year or two ago I first saw mention of using starch as a temporary (and completely removable) glue, and thought that might be the best way to do it.

I finally had a go at it last week.

Sadly, this qualifies as one of my failures.

The people looked great as they were drying, but once they were dry, they started to peel off the door.  I think the problem is that the door is very glossy – I think it would probably work really well on a section of wall, where there would be more grip.

I will have to find another way to get these guys on my door.  Have you ever tried sticking anything to your wall with starch?

Lately I have felt like the rolling stone that gathers no moss, always on the move.  Things keeping me busy have included an escape dog, and the resulting fence modifications; travelling right across Melbourne for a replacement Microwave turntable, after I dropped my 2 week old one; doctors visits; parent teacher interviews; and all the other usual stuff that keeps a Mum busy.

The only bit of moss I have been ‘gathering’ has been my Moss Stitch scarf, which I have been knitting in the evenings again, as the summer we never really had, has turned into Autumn.

On the evenings that I have not been knitting, I have been continuing to quilt my Mothers version of the Fairy Tale Star Quilt that I made a while back.  I am on the final border, tracing about half of the swirls, with stitches.

I have also been reminded to share these pictures.  This is the lovely gift I received in the Kris Kringle swap we have amongst our friends from our sewing guild.

Jennifer makes the most esquisite, well executed stitches.  She uses the beautiful Cottage Garden Threads, which you can peruse here.

Her stitched leaves are such a thing of beauty.  Thank you Jennifer, for such a lovely gift, that must have taken you ages.

Much of the sewing-blog world is abuzz with preparations for International Quilt Market in Houston.  One day, I plan to get there, but in the meantime, I will have to live vicariously through others.

My friend Melly has gone there for the last few years. This year she has a collection of her fabric debuting there with Windham Fabrics; “Little Menagerie” By Melanie Hurlston of Melly and Me.

Due to the production schedule, shipping times and our location in Australia, Melly only received advance yardage of her fabric a few days ago, giving her very little time to whip up some samples for her booth, and the Windham booth.

I happily volunteered to make up some of my aprons (which I can almost make in my sleep) that can show off her fabric in the Windham booth, using my pattern that was just published in the current, “Kid’s Issue” of Australian Homespun.

I am really pleased with how they turned out (very cute, in my opinion) – and it was pretty cool to be sewing with fabric that is not yet available.

I used fabric that features Melly’s bees (and co-ordinates)

and some that features her Phoebe elephants (and co-ordinates).  We also had a little sewing bee on Friday and made curtains out of the white, confetti print you see above, to line the walls of her booth.  I am looking forward to seeing the photos of it, all set up – I know it will look amazing, bright and fun.  One day I will get to Houston, and taste the experience for myself!

So I think I have aprons out of my system for a while – I have to make something different next.

What would you make with Melly’s extremely cute fabric?

I have been obsessed with this image since I saw it on Design Sponge back in February.  More specifically, I am in love with the multi-coloured, multi-petal flower, on the cushion on the right.  For a while I tried to find out more about it from my stitchy friends…”Is this a traditional pattern?”….”Have you seen this before?”…to no avail.  About a month later, Anna Maria Horner had one peeking out, in one of her photos, and I emailed and asked if it was one of her patterns.

“Purchased at Anthropologie last year”, was the reply.  I have been thinking of a way to do something different, with a similar feel and multicoloured effect ever since.

I am working on a concept involving my art-deco-inspired, swirly flowers,

that pop up all over my work.

Other exciting news, that will no doubt result in inspiration, is that I won a giveaway over at murtle and eunice, which means I have a golden green ticket to go to The Stitches and Craft Show in Melbourne.  Thanks so much Tania! As an aside, I just wanted to point out that I was the first commenter on that giveaway, so contrary to popular opinion, the first person to comment does occasionally win!

I am currently studying the timetable for this and that at the show, and consulting the husband on the best day for me to go.  Are you going?

Here are the ornaments that celebrate my peg matching habits.  I separated the mini-pegs into colours, but if you look closely, each bauble also contains a singular gold peg.  A bit of contrast never goes astray.

As I type, there is a mammoth game of Monopoly continuing, and some wonderful Christmas Carols playing.  They are very groovy Christmas Carols from New Orleans, the Album is called , “Crescent City Christmas, by Lars Edegran and His Santa Claus Revelers” we break this out every year and it is the best Christmas Album around – so there.

In case you think I am the only creative one in the family, I thought I would share some of Luke’s recent creativity.

When the kids and I took a break in the Monopoly proceedings yesterday, we were all greeted with a plate that looked like this.  The kids really liked the boogers coming out of the carrot noses, while I was just repulsed by the idea.

This was the creative way Luke dressed Michaela this morning – I think she looks like a rainbow had a party in her chest of drawers, but she is very happy indeed, and insisted I take a photo.  Perhaps I can convince her to put on plain skirt, to tone it down before we appear in public.

What great Christmas Albums are you listening too?

On Friday a group of us went out for a lovely dinner.  It was to celebrate our friend Kylie’s 40th Birthday.  As a surprise, we presented her with a collaborative quilt that we had made for her.  I helped choose the fabric, and due to the time consuming house move – I made the label.  Probably with more time I would have done some applique on the front, but instead I contented myself with some applique and embroidery on the label itself.

As our group meets regularly to watch a video together, while sipping champagne, and nibbling on strawberries, I decided to include this snack on the label.

The quilt was made using a jelly roll of  Wiscasset fabric by Minick and Simpson with added yardage of the same fabric for the backing and a coordinating red fabric for the border.

If you can manage to see past the furry model, you can see a better rendering of the colours in the quilt, the blue goes well with Kylie’s feature wall and furniture.  Happy Birthday Kylie, from your Friday Night Video Friends!

Way back in June, when I officially got another year older, my clever friend Debbie gave me this lovely bag.  I told her it deserved a post all of its own.

Debbie is well know for her bag making skills, and this little beauty is the second she has given me.  It is made of beautiful “Freshcut” fabric by Heather Bailey – but I am not sure who designed the pattern – Debbie may be able to let us know in the comments.

Debbie makes so many lovely things – she is much more prolific than me – I think she needs to make a blog.  What do you think?

Rory has a deep and abiding love for Yoda.

His love has been expressed creatively with this amazing papier mache puppet he made at school.  Not bad for a 7 year old.

It is hard to see in this photo, but the eyes are made from shells, with bobble eyes over the top.  He clearly has put a lot of thought into the construction.  It was made over several weeks, including one session in the Art room where I had to go looking for him after the school bell, as he was ensconced and didn’t want to leave.  He is definitely cut from the same cloth as me.

As we walked home yesterday with his masterpiece he said

“You know Mum, I really love Thursdays.”

I knew it was because, Thursdays are Art class days.