Matching Pegs

Last night the finishing touches were added to the farewell present for “Ms Superteacher*”.

I dressed the little dolly, and added her hair.  Amelia did a fair bit of the Thank-you embroidery on the apron.  We are both pretty pleased with how she turned out.  Her dress is made of the same fabric as Amelia’s reader bag that she uses daily at school, so hopefully she will remind Ms Superteacher* of Amelia.

Yesterday morning, after returning from the school drop off, I heard a knock at the door.  A package! I won a giveaway from the lovely Lily at “Block A Day“.  Here is a look at the contents.

This fabric was a special find of Lily’s, in a funny little shop, and she calls the print “Our Lady of the Many Talents” because of what the Lovely Mexican “Our Ladys” are doing.  On the selvage it is called Tree of Life by Kathy Hall, (Museum of new Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, under licence to Andover Fabrics).  It is amazing fabric and Lily has very generously sent me a whole metre of it.  Also in the package was a few photo/cards of Lily’s work, if you have not seen her site “Block a Day” then you really must.

Not only is Lily super talented, but she is extremely prolific, her sewing output is amazing.  She is also so warm and positive, and when we discovered each others sites, I quickly found I had made a new friend, (of course I suspect Lily has that talent of making everyone she corresponds with online feel like they are her instant friend - pretty tricky to accomplish when you have not met in “Real Life”).  As Amelia put it yesterday afternoon, “If you comment on her blog, and she comments on yours, she is like a pen-friend Mum”.   Anyhow, my favourite of the little cards is her Easter Table Runner, which Amelia loved as well, “Look Mum, Yo-Yo’s!”.   Michaela loves them all, and they keep disappearing with her.

So back to the Tree of Life Fabric.  Because Lily has been so generous, I think I have enough to make a new apron.  I’m a one apron kind of gal, I always wear the same one, unless it is in the wash.  My current apron is a canvas one with botanical illustrations on it, that I gave my Grandmother.  I was given it back when she passed away.  Because I wear an apron every time I cook the evening meal, it is getting grubby and worn in an unwashable type of way.  I think it is time for a new one.  Now all I have to do is find a co-ordinating fabric or two, and this project can join the queue :-).

What is in your project queue?

*not her real name

I was getting so carried away sewing my butterflies that I overdid it yesterday, and needed to give my arm a rest tonight. So here is a real butterfly to enjoy. Now you may think that this is one of those cheesy happy photos that come with your computer as wall paper, but no - you need to be very impressed. This is a photo that I took last year in the gardens of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA - Enjoy! However this photo has no relevance to the rest of the post - I just can’t bear to write anything and dish it up without a photo.

So instead of sewing, here is a great, new sew, fabric decorating idea that I found on ohdeedoh (Apartment Therapy’s Kid and Baby Site) - Fabric Wall silhouettes (using liquid starch). This is a great idea, another one to add to the giant list of stuff I want to try.

While I was there I also followed a link to this great mini article about how to raise kids with an attitude of gratitude. This is something I think about quite a lot. The generation of kids that my generation is raising has a lot of challenges. I particularly liked this line: “The piece that seems to be missing in the gratitude story is the longing. Children don’t long for things anymore. And longing is tremendously powerful stuff. It motivates.”

Food for thought.

Well I actually managed to get some hand sewing done last night.

I was watching “The Day After Tomorrow” while I finished off the teeth and light grey surrounds. It was a suitably scary movie to watch while sewing up this scary beast.

While many would argue about the reality or otherwise of this movie (where another Ice Age is triggered by polar melting due to Global Warming), I like the fact that it really give you pause for thought. I often think about what our children will be dealing with as a result of climate change. I also wonder how well I would survive in a post apocalyptic world. I daydream about how well I would handle living with more primitive living conditions, we are so soft living here in the first world in the 21st century. For this reason I also enjoy the living history shows where people live as previous generations did to see what it was like.

Anyway, this was my type of action movie, lots of action, not too much shoot em up.

Momentum is building here in the Matching Pegs household.

In a week and a half, my little sister (6.5 years younger) is getting married! 3 members of the household are in the bridal party, and two of them are children. Our mother has been slaving over the sewing machine (I get my creative genes, and sewing help from her) and has outdone herself with simultaneously sophisticated and age appropriate flower girl dresses. She has adjusted my bridesmaids dress, and made 4 vests and 4 ties for the men of the piece. I have so many lovely photos of the girls trying on their flower girl dresses, but obviously showing them here would spoil any surprises at the church for those attending. I will have a piccy or 2 after the 15th. Needless to say, I am spending more time helping format the Order of Service Booklets than creating anything to show here.

Instead of showing you something of mine, have a look at these very sweet Bunnies. The first inhabitants of a stitch along Noah’s Ark Block of the Month that Lynette Anderson has put together, for free.

So take yourself along over to Lynette’s blog, and join in the stitch along.

Last night, as I sat down to watch the excellent ABC show “Collectors“, I was excited to discover that one of the featured collections was of pegs.

According to the program “Mike Bradley is one of only six peg collectors in the world. He has the largest collection with 1500 pegs. Known as a “peg-lo-maniac”, he’s drawn to and amazed at the amount of thought and effort man has put into the design of the peg.”

What made me laugh was when the lovely, and extremely stylish Niccole Warren fessed up to being a bit obsessed when using her pegs. She admitted that when hanging out her washing, multiple pegs on the same garment had to match each other, and co-ordinate pleasingly with the garment in question. Sound like anyone?

As people discover my website, quite a few people are letting me in on their strange peg habits, or those of relatives, and it is not always about the pegs matching. Sometimes it is about the numbers of pegs you hold in your hand before reaching for more or some such thing.

This is not actually a shot of nappies or serviettes, but of my small way of being green. I have made calico wraps, to wrap up the kids sandwiches for school. Actually they usually have Jaffles which I cook and leave to cool before packing them in their Lunch boxes. I hated soggy or dry sandwiches, so I am quite happy to whip up a Jaffle in the mornings, if it ensures that a healthy lunch is eaten at school.

While searching for descriptions of Jaffles for you non-Aussie-speaking people, I found this lovely looking recipe for White Chocolate and Raspberry Ricotta Jaffle, Yum! Looks much more decadent than my Ham and Cheese or Apple puree and Currant Jaffles.