My niece, Grace, who is 13, has an interest in sewing and has just been given a sewing machine.  For Christmas, I put together a little kit of sewing supplies, for general sewing, and the requirements to make a small project I designed for her.  She lives in another state, so I can’t really teach her in person, so I have written instructions and directed her to this post.  All the tutorials and links below are for her, and correspond to some of the instructions I have written for her.

I made the little bag to hold everything (which I am very pleased with) using this tutorial...

I had lots of fun picking out things in her favourite colours.  I used my tutorial for the star-fruit cushion to make the pincushion.  For the smaller size, you just start with 2 1/2″ squares.

The project I wrote instructions for, was to embroider her name, to fit inside the photo frame.  She has 5 versions of her name, in different fonts to choose from.

Grace – here is a video on how to separate 6 strand embroidery floss…

This is how to make a starting knot in the end of your thread – I love this one, it is a beauty…

How to back-stitch…I would suggest starting with the method where you stab each stitch through, in two separate movements per stitch, rather than one.

Finishing knots – I like the third version myself…

Here are some other projects to try…

Double sided headband (Amelia made this one the other day)

A variety of Drawstring Bags…

or another…

A quick place mat how-to with diagrams…

which are a follow up to this post…

Spring Ruffle Top…You might need a little bit of help working this one out – I have never tried it…

Perfect Box Pouch…these look really cute, and would make a nice pencil case, but you will need to buy a zip…

Some patchwork…

A “string” block – the ones above are ones I’ve made using the tutorial here…

You can see more about mine here…

Wonky Star…here is the tutorial.  The wonky stars above are ones I made into a quilt for Indi.

Good Luck and have fun Grace!

“The North Wind is tossing the leaves,

The red dust is over the town,

The sparrows are under the eaves,

And the grass in the paddock is brown;

As we lift up our voices and sing,

To the Christ-child the heavenly King”

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.  If there is someone you are missing, or if Christmas is general is a hard time of year, I wish you Peace.

Last night, at a reasonable hour, I finished the third and final of the gifts for the teachers.  Today, all three are getting a personalised copy of this embroidery.

Yesterday afternoon I took a number of shots of one of them, in the hopes of getting a good photo for a pattern cover.

I started the one for Amelia’s teacher quite early in the year.  Amelia has done some of it herself, so as a result, all the lines on the design are embroidered.

As I stitched the other two on my own, I chose to leave some details un-stitched, because I think the brown pigma pen looks fine (and time was of the essence).  I’m currently writing the pattern, and have indicated on it that you can stitch as little or as much as you like.  In fact, the first year I designed it, I framed it as just a drawing on cloth.

This is the third year it has made an appearance, and it has changed every year, but I am really happy with this year’s iteration, so I don’t plan on tweaking it any more.

These really are a labour of love, but they are worth it.  Not only do I believe that teachers are really important, but my kids love the idea that their teacher is getting something that will help them remember teaching one of the “Matching Pegs*” kids.

Have you got a favourite gift to give the teacher?

*Not our real name

In other words, all is as it should be.  I would rather be a bad blogger than a bad mother.

The other afternoon we spent 2 hours playing a game we made abut 4 years ago, with nothing more than some coloured paper and cardboard, and some imagination.  We call it “Good Luck, Bad Luck”.

Long, long ago, we came up with examples of good luck and bad luck to put on the cards, and assigned them moves, eg.”Your read your favourite book, (Tonka) move forward 3 spaces” or “It rained on the way to school go back 2 spaces”, or my personal favourite “Your baby learns to talk, go forward 3 spaces”.

We all enjoyed laughing about who had come up with the different pieces of luck, and how funny some of them were – “Peanut butter for dinner, go forward 2 spaces” was definitely Rory!  We kept telling Michaela that the baby mentioned on the cards was really her (When she was actually a small toddler).  It was wonderful to have that baby reading her own cards (with a little help – my handwriting didn’t make it easy).

Yesterday we took off for the hills and visited the Tesselaar Tulip Festival with some friends.  I am so glad I took the camera.

The weather was perfect – overcast, (which kept crowd numbers down) but not cold or wet (until we left).

The tulips were beautiful – these very dark purple ones were Rory’s favourite, (because they were almost black).

Some of the tulips, that were starting to “turn” and were past their prime, looked almost as interesting as the ones at their peak.

As much as I enjoyed the Tulips, I was actually much more taken with the mass plantings of the Ranunculus.

I just love them in all their colours.  Speaking of colours (not a very skilled segue, I know) if you are anywhere near Eltham this weekend, and would like to see all the lovely colours in many quilts on display, please come to our Biennial Quilt Show.

The North of the Yarra Quilt Guild Exhibition is held at the Eltham Community Centre,
801 Main Road, Eltham, (Melways 21 J6) between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th (this weekend).  Admission is $8 – Children under 14 are free.

Come and say hello, I might be a bad blogger lately, but I am always happy to have  chat in person!

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?

Sometimes I look at my family and I feel like I have won the lottery.  We are so lucky that this ordinary life is ours.  It is everything we ever wanted.

In so many ways, Amelia is a chip off the old block, but with plenty of her own quirks thrown in for variety’s sake.  She crafts the most detailed little drawings, loves eating raw pasta, spends many happy hours playing with my button collection, hates to get her fingers dirty, (unless she is cooking) and quite unlike her parents – has amazing will power to save her sweets until later!  She was pretty excited about the bike we had waiting downstairs for her this morning, which she had to wait until after school to try out.

Here is Amelia in the beanbag her Grandma made her, for her birthday.  Amelia was pretty impressed with Mum’s fabric selection, in her favorite shades of aqua, to co-ordinate perfectly with her bedroom.  Mum presented it wrapped in an old sheet, which was a trip down memory lane – a sheet from my childhood bed.

Here is another trip down memory lane – Amelia, right before she became a big-sister (21 months old).  Happy Birthday Amelia!

Last weekend Amelia’s best friend, Olivia, came over so that the girls could do some more sewing.  They were working on the slightly larger version of my apron pattern that I had just drafted, (so really these are prototypes).  The girls chose their favourite motif from a whole range of food-themed appliques that I designed ages ago, and slightly different applique fabrics from my stash.

Apart from sewing the appliques on, using the dangerous rotary blade, and a tricky bit of top-stitching to attach the pockets, the girls did the lot.  We had a really fun time and they are very proud of their aprons.  I found having one sewing machine (set to very slow) and a space to pin and measure was perfect.  There was barely any standing around waiting for a turn.

When it was time to sew around the circumference of the apron (including the two curved sections that go under the arms) with a 1/2″ seam allowance, I decided to use a trick – to draw the stitching line on.  Until then, the girls had been sewing using the 1/4″ foot to align against.  I gave each of the girls, a ruler and one of my new “frixion”pens, which are erasable pens.  The ink is designed to erase when you “rub it out” using the rubber tip, but the tip is not really an eraser, it is actually heat, that the friction or rubbing creates, that makes the ink disappear.  This means the ink disappears when you iron over it!  This made the going much easier for the girls, because they just had to follow the line they had marked, with the needle.  I know they could have marked a line with chalk, or washout pen, but these lines are really crisp and stand out.

Since the weekend I have been really busy.  On Monday I went with the preps on an excursion to the Zoo.  Big groups of 5 and 6 year olds are exhausting, (but so enthusiastic).  We had a lovely time, and the fact that there was a gentle rain all day meant that the school groups pretty much had the Zoo to themselves.

On Tuesday the kids had no school, so were home with me all day.

Yesterday I drove out to Healesville with my Mother and her friend, to see the portraits created by the Archibald Prize Finalists  for 2011, at TarraWarra Museum of Art.  It was wonderful, I am so glad I went.  I enjoyed all the different styles of portraits, but this one was my favorite.

Finally, I will leave you with this lovely clip, celebrating the Sydney Opera House.  You can read more about it here.

Taking advantage of the appearance of the sun this weekend, I took these photos of the quilt I have made for my brother’s partner, Liz.  Because we live amongst the gum trees, the light is a little dappled, but you can get the general idea.  In fact, this shot does not quite depict the true colours of the quilt, but seeing Lotta peek out from under the quilt makes me smile, so I though I would lead with it.

This one represents the colours a little better.  I called it the Ruby, Coral and Chocolate Quilt – These things are all precious materials, as far as I am concerned, and I would definitely give Liz my very last piece of chocolate*, which shows the height of my esteem for her.  You can read some of the quilt details here.

I am really pleased with the pieced back, and am proud to say that I quilted the whole thing myself.  No mean feat, as it fits on a queen-sized bed.

The blue is a lovely reproduction fabric, a soft colour that plays nicely with the other colours, and reminds me of Liz.  The brown paisley is one of my all-time-favourite fabrics, a “Three Sisters” fabric by Moda, which I have been hoarding since my trip to the USA in 2007.

I am extremely pleased to have made this (very large) quilt all by myself, including the quilting.  Special mention goes to my very kind friends at NOTYQ who helped me pin baste it on the very large table in our meeting room.

Have you completed any large projects recently?

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*but only if she asked me for it, I’m not entirely altruistic.

School Holiday are always a challenge, when it come to finding any time to create, (or blog).  The kids monopolise my time, which is as it should be.  Speaking of Monopoly, that there is Rory’s real estate empire, 3 hotels on the greens, through which he bled me dry to win the game.  Over $1,000 for rent per visit is just too much.

At least I could feel good about the afternoon of knitting that accompanied the game.

We have kept pretty busy with activities like visiting the Circus, the Movies, the Optometrist, two boring specialist appointments (extra degrees of difficulty with three kids in tow to keep occupied) and several friends birthday parties.

On a visit to the country to stay with my in-laws, I managed to bind a Queen sized Quilt, while watching several hours of country footy, parked on the boundary.

This trip also featured lots of playing with cousins, (and lots of giggling after lights-out)

as well as lots of playing with cousin’s puppies.

Back in Melbourne there has been quite a bit of leaning to sew, (learning to teach too) which has been lovely.  Amelia and her “Besty” are making aprons, both featuring Watermelons on the pockets.

Now that the holidays are at a close, it is safe to say that I am looking forward to a little bit of peace and quiet, but I will miss spending all morning at home, wandering around with the kids and I all in our pyjamas.

A challenge and an invitation was laid down to me recently, by a friend in the computer, Emzeegee.  A few weeks ago, prompted by her, I embarked on the “Couch to 5k” running program.  You will understand my basic level of fitness if I tell you that I have had these running shoes for 11 years.  Clearly, they are not worn out.  Now that all the kids are at school, I have the freedom to put a bit of effort into my fitness.

After the first few sessions, I was getting frustrated by having to carry my keys.  A friend, who is a serious runner, mentioned that running tops often have a little pocket in the back for just that purpose.  Off I went to the outlet store where I found just the thing in red, to match my shoes, because red makes you go faster, don’t you know!

In the photo above, I grabbed the nearest thing on hand to demonstrate the clever pocket, it just happened to be the lovely necklace that my friend blog-less Debby gave me for my birthday, she sure knows my taste.

Clearly, my brother and his partner also know my taste, and my penchant for red, because these are the lovely bangles they gave me.  These, however, will probably not make me any faster.

Sadly, my sweet doggy, Lotta, doesn’t make me any faster either, in fact the complete opposite.  She is great company for the walk to school, (like this morning in the beautiful winter sunshine) but when I am jogging, she stops and starts, and I am scared that I will accidentally land on her paw, and break it.  That was something that my Father managed to do when running with our sweet Foxy, “Silky” many years ago.  I feel really mean, but I think jogging will have to be a solitary pursuit.

Now that I have bored you with my fitness regime, on my crafting blog, I may as well go the whole hog, and mention an article that has been rolling around in my head, which is similarly not crafty at all.  It is about parenting in a way that prepares your kids for independence, (or not).  It might roll around in your head too…

while it does, look at my quilting-in-progress, with red thread!