Matching Pegs

So this is what I had been working on for the last two evenings.

Knitting is not something that comes easily to me. While I have found it quite relaxing, I don’t image that I would find making a whole garment to be quite so calming. This is only my second item I have ever made. Apart from the choice of wool, it is exactly the same as the first. It’s all about the wool, and if these two indicate anything about my preference, it is that I like a variegated wool.

The only reason that I had a go at knitting anything was that I spotted this divine wool in the local wool shop, (I was probably there to purchase wool for doll’s hair). My photo, and more specifically, the available light does not do it justice. It is a lovely soft fluffy dusky rainbow colour appropriately titled “Uluru“, it certainly evokes the colours of the red centre at sunset. I just had to have it, and if that meant learning to knit, so be it! So the lovely lady at the shop sold me a book on knitting basics, and suggested a pattern of stitches to follow, and Ta Da! Colours get me every time.

Frustrated by the hindrance that my cubital tunnel syndrome is causing me, I have not been game to do any hand- sewing until yesterday. I was keen to join in on this project from Lynette Anderson’s Blog, and luckily this month, the dove is only a tiny 2 inch design. It was a nice small test for my arm.

I chose embroidery floss that I already had in my stash, and have a particular colour-way in mind for the fabrics, lots of warm colours - yellows, greens, peachy/coral tones, browns/terracottas, as well as lavender and that slightly greyed blue, (like the colours in this project I have on the back-burner).

I also decided to colour the calico prior to stitching, (like I did in this project), so I got out the derwents and had some fun. Here is the finished stitchery, which is waiting for its fabric border.

Even this was a little too much for my arm, so I will be waiting a little longer before I attempt the bunnies, (which were actually from last month, right in the middle of preparation for my sister’s wedding) but they are coloured and waiting to go.

Today I decided to do a tiny bit of machine sewing during Michaela’s nap, to cheer me up. Here is the quick project that I came up with.

Our church is currently planning for a Wedding Gown Parade, and I have been working on the invitation/flyer and ticket design.

My gown is going to be in the parade, so a couple of weeks ago I opened up it’s storage box and tried it on. I could fit into it and do up the zip - that is, up to where my bust started. 10 years and 3 kids has left me with a different body than I had when I wore it last, so someone else will wear it in the parade. Trying it on was not as bad for the ego as I had feared - it fitted over my waist and hips! One thing my mother and I obsessed about was the colour of the fabric we used for the different dresses, (my mother made all off them) - what a surprise.

My dress was a creamy colour, but rather than being a cream made by adding yellow to white, it was a sort of rich mango cream colour. My bridesmaids wore a shade of copper.

The ends of the scarf are made from scraps of my wedding dress material, and the rest of it is a remnant that my mother was getting rid of in a fabric purge. Perhaps I will wear it on our 10th anniversary later this month. I only wish that my photo could capture the colours more accurately.

“Because they AAARRRRRGH”. This is my brother Julian’s favourite joke, if frequency of repetition is anything to go by. Of course it could be that it is the only joke he knows that is suitable for my children.

This is Rory’s library bag for school. The front of it is completed, and it is waiting to be turned into a bag. I have some great Pirate Map fabric for the back and I am thinking of lining it with black. As school starts in 10 days, we were running out of time for me to needle-turn the applique (which I would have preferred), so I completed it with fusible web and buttonhole stitch, as it was designed.

It was designed by Natashia Curtin of Smee Designs and was printed in a copy of Quilters Companion (No. 17 - Vol. 5, No. 1) and Rory was very definite that that was what he wanted and not something I designed. It has been quite some time since I have done any applique with fusible web and buttonhole stitch - It is a great method of applique for beginners, but can get quite thick where more than one layer of fusible web overlaps. I was very pleased with the coin fabric that is cascading out of the chest, and I needle-turned it, and the little map that the pirate is holding, so as not to obscure any of their fine detail with embroidery thread.

Now all I have to do is finish it, in all my spare time…..

Mostly I like stitching or creating work that I have designed myself, but sometimes I see a piece of work that is so lovely I just have to make it for myself.

I fell in love with this design by Nancy Halverson of “Art To Heart” (called Family Matters) and started stitching it way back in March 2006 on a family holiday - our first as a family of 5. I love the little people as well as the sentiments expressed by the quilt, and particularily loved that fact that the family on the design was of the same composition as our family. Our youngest daughter, Michaela, was 7 and a half months old at the time, our son Rory was a few months shy of 4 and our eldest daughter, Amelia, was 5 and a half years old.

I modified the design, which was meant to be made up at half the size and the applique was meant to be just fused on. I made it as my first try at needleturn applique. I also inserted a train in place of the dog that was in the original, as we do not have a pet, but Rory was mad about trains.

It has taken me a long time to make, mainly because I decided to have a go at hand quilting, another technique that I have never tried before. I have been taking my time because I would like it to become a family heirloom, because more than anything else, Families are Forever.

Tomorrow we are heading back to the same holiday house where I started this quilt, for a two day family holiday. I hope I can manage to have a swim in water deeper than my knees (while someone else watches the little people).