Matching Pegs

I have a small collection of teapots on my kitchen windowsill.  There are 3 (I said it was small).  I have been drawing them for my mug-bag design, and now I am drawing them up neatly in Illustrator, so much fun, (the pencil part more than the computer part).

The design is most likely to feature this bamboo handled one, as well as one of my butterflies and a cherry blossom.  I think I will start cutting out paper copies of these drawings at different scales to work out where I am going with this.  I just wish I had a super-teacher to teach me how to use the parts of Illustrator that I need to use.  I keep thinking in a tech drawing, auto cad kind of way when I am using it, and it is the wrong way to approach it.

Here are adorable photos of two of my kids.  It’s my blog, and I like to admire my handiwork - I just gave them both a haircut.

Michaela is going through a skirts and dresses phase, hense the skirt and pants look.  I cut her hair to angle in at the back.

I am no hairdresser, but I think I did OK.

Rory told me a minute before I took that shot that he would only pose if he didn’t have to smile.

I love my son so much that I took both he and Amelia to see Star Wars, The Clone Wars this afternoon.  I almost fell asleep.  Next week we are going to see Wall-E, which I am really looking forward to.  Tomorrow I am taking Amelia to have her ears pierced - so I will probably be posting her new look tomorrow.

Yesterday morning the girls said good bye to our old car before school, there were even kisses bestowed.

Rory was on the couch, where he has been since Monday with a sore tummy and intermittent fevers.  Every time I thought he was improving, he took a turn again.  Yesterday morning he seemed to be a fair bit better, so I gave him the choice between him going to Grandma’s house or Grandma coming to stay with him.  I was crossing town with Michaela to pick up our new car (and leave the old one behind).  Rory decided a change of scenery was the way to go, so I dropped him off at Grandma’s house on the way.

By the time we returned to pick him up, Rory was a lot worse.  I packed him up in the new car, and brought him home.  As we pulled into the driveway, Rory threw up.

Luckily, he managed to aim it all in the sickie bag that I had transferred from one glove box to the other.  I was so impressed.

As he seemed to be getting worse over the course of the week, it was straight off to the doctors that evening.  The GP was concerned at his localised pain, so we were redirected to the Hospital, with appendicitis on the cards.  From the GP we went to the train station to pick up Luke, and after a quick change of clothes and a hurried sandwich, Luke went off to the Childrens’ Hospital with Rory in the new car.  I was more than a little concerned about Rory, but some of my worry was also for Luke, who was trying out our new car, in the dark, with a sick little boy moaning in pain in the back seat.

Rory was clearly quite sick, but as he was able to climb up onto the bed, handled driving over speed humps on the way in, and seemed to improve a little as the evening wore on, it was looking like his appendix could remain inside his body.  Of course, it took several hours to reach this decision, and Rory was not able to eat, drink or have pain relief during this wait, so the evening took it’s toll on both of them.  The pain may possibly have been caused by the lymph nodes surrounding his appendix, being inflamed by his illness and causing the localised pain.

In the wee hours of the morning, Luke was advised that the could either take Rory home, or they would find him a bed for the night.  Luke choose the former.  Today Rory was still pretty sick, but not in the same pain, and starting to improve.

On Monday, Rory and I did a little drawing to pass the time.  I taught Rory the magical rule about drawing eyes, which I always wish I had known earlier on (I think I was in my teens when I learnt this).  Eyes should be drawn in the middle of the face, not towards the top.  We drew a page of oval faces, each one quartered to show us the middle.  Here are two drawings from that page.  The one on the left is Rory’s Yoda, and the one on the right is a little baby I drew, when I was playing with head shapes, and proportion.  He does look at little blocky though.

This baby led to a whole new page of babies (and no, I am not clucky, but an idea for a little cloth baby is brewing).

Rory loved the slightly angry/spooky looking baby in the top row, second from the left.

Perhaps Rory and I will do some more drawing tomorrow, and I may even answer some emails, and reply to some comments.  Tonight I am off to bed, for hopefully a less eventful night.

This beautiful Helleborus, or Winter Rose (also known as Christmas Rose in the other hemisphere ;-)) has been growing in the garden for quite some time.  Today I decided that it was OK to cut some blooms to bring inside, as with the warmth of spring, I am not sure how much longer it will be in bloom.

I have also finished my scarf, just in time for the warmer days, isn’t it always the way.

It is a much larger version of Michaela’s scarf, it took 4 balls of Bamboozle yarn (70% Bamboo 30% Cotton) to make it up.  This is the 5th scarf I have made, using a 2×2 rib, following my beginners book.  This is the first time I have “cast off in rib”, my beginners book only showed me one way to cast off.  I had no idea there were others, and this way works so much better (as you cast off you just follow the pattern of knit two, purl two).

Rory took the photo above, (under direction). I think he did a fantastic job.  He is home today with an upset tummy following a very big weekend.  We packed in Swimming Lessons, a Spring Fair (I was a face painter extraordinaire), Fathers’ Day and the purchase of a new(er) car (4 years rather than 13).  It looks a little like this………

On Wednesday, I have to trek back to the complete other side of town to pick it up, and bring it home, probably by driving on the notorious Punt Rd/Hoddle Street - one of the busiest roads in all of Melbourne.  While it will definitely be worth it, I am a little nervous.  Anyway, this little beauty (A Toyota, Avensis Verso) has 2 extra seats tucked away in the back section of the hatch.  They fold completely flat, leaving a boot capacity similar to the one we have in the old Liberty.  This will enable us to transport other additional people occasionally when we go out (when the kids want to bring a friend) which I am sure will come in handy.  We will still be a one car family, but have a little more flexibility.

In the next few days, I will have to post some pictures of some painted faces, but it has taken me ages to write this short post, so I will save it for another day.  Why is it that having two kids at home today makes me feel like I am moving through quicksand.  I don’t seem to get anything done.  As much as I love my kids, I am craving a little alone time, and that little glow of satisfaction that comes with finishing a project of two.

For anyone who is reading this in the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas in July parties are quite common down here, so that we get to eat all the traditional foods in the season they were intended for.  Unfortunately I have not been to, or had one of these parties, but these ornaments are new aquisitions, so together with the Redwork Christmas Quilt fabrics, I have a lot of Christmas stuff about the house at the moment.

I would never have guessed as I set off yesterday for the Craft and Quilt Fair, that these would have been what I would bring home, but the bargain was too good to resist.  The little Father Christmas was only five bucks!  They were from a stall called “Raggedy Country Christmas” which was doing a roaring trade.  I particularily liked the trees, because I prefer ornaments that mention the real meaning of Christmas, rather than just the Man in Red.  The Trees have “Joy” and “Hope” written on them, and they seemed a little more subtle than the usual gaudy ornaments around.

Mum and I browsed the stalls first, until we met a friend (Hi Debbie) and went through to the Quilt exhibition to look at our lesiure.  This is the disperate collection of things that I bought at the stalls.

The Charisma, Chez Moi Fabric is a collection that I have admired for a long time, and I lingered looking at this layer cake, before deciding that I did just need to have it!  The squares are 10″x10″ swatches, and there are 40 of them in the pack.  I think I will cut each sqare into 4 and make a quilt of just squares, as some of the patterns are quite large and I don’t want to cut them up too much.  This plan may of course change by the time I come to use them.

I got some Floriani Wet and Gone Fusible, which I have big plans for.  There is a technique I have been dying to try, to speed up my applique.  I will post more about this when I get a chance to use it.

Last of all I got a very large Yo Yo maker (made by Clover) that I thought Amelia might enjoy using (and she does, she has made several today).  I am not usually a fan of Yo Yo’s (or Suffolk Puffs) at all, but I saw this delicious quilt and was won over.  I also thought Amelia might like to make a Yo Yo Garland to decorate for her birthday next month.

The exhibition of quilts was immense, there was so much on display.  I particularily enjoyed the section on Japanese Textiles, I was quite taken with the little children’s garments made of scraps of other garments - using more scraps made the garment luckier, as did using scraps from very healthy people or families with lots of children, (from memory).  There are some very talented quilters out there, and so many people with much more patience (and time) than me.

On Saturday, another Mum from school (Hi Debbie) and I travelled to the outskirts, of the other side of Melbourne, for a quilt show.  On arrival we discovered that we had turned up for a “Quilt In” rather than a quilt show.  Not having any sewing of our own to work on, we browsed through the small stalls that some local shops had set up, and decided to move on to a spot of local quilt shopping.

I had not been planning to purchase any more than a few bits and pieces, but had a magazine with me with a beautiful project in it that was calling me; “The Wish Quilt” by Bronwyn Hayes in the current issue of Homespun Magazine.  I ended up going to town on Reds and Creams, as well as buttons and threads.  I have chosen to stitch the red-work in a variegated red thread, that goes from an almost watermelon colour to a dark browny garnet colour.  I am really looking forward to stitching it, but realistically I will not be making it for this Christmas, but the following one - there are too many projects I have on the boil that I want to do first.  Instead I may make just one of the blocks to hang up for this year.

So apart from picking up all these red and cream beauties, I picked up a few other things as well.

I picked up these two pieces from the “Morning Glory” by Robyn Pandolph range, the colour was a bit hard to capture in today’s light, but the gold roses are on a pale greyish lavender colour that is quite sophisticated.  I am thinking that these will be a fully lined handbag.

One thing I discovered in my purchasing spree, was just how sentimental I am.  I bought several fabrics purely because I have had them before, or they reminded me of special people in my life.  The stylised roses above (on the right) are the same as the fabric my mother has used for a cushion on a family heirloom chair, in another colourway.  The birds fabric below is my daughter Amelia’s favourite fabric, that we have used on several projects for her.  I had used up my last scrap, and the store I bought it from has closed, so I was thrilled to find some more.  My late Grandmother had a silk suit made with fabric with a marbelled pattern very similar to the one on the fat quarters below.  She wore that suit to my wedding.  Get the picture, I’m sentimental.

So enough boring you with my purchases, on to the purple in the title.

No this is not just another excuse to show you my Happy Wanderer, I wanted to share with you some details of a purple charm square “tree”.  It is a little like a swap, but more complex.

I had been given a little letter and a couple of 6 inch squares of purple fabric, inviting me to join in, in the quilt tree.  All that is involved, is that I send 2 purple, 100% cotton, 6 inch charm squares to the person at the top of the list, cross them off and send the letter and 2 more squares each, on to 4 more people who are interested in joining in (after adding my name to the bottom).  According to the letter, once your name has moved up a couple of spaces, you should receive 72 squares in return, before you are crossed off.  Confused?  I am not too sure about the maths of this one, but can see that theoretically, I should receive some purple charm squares in return if I play.  It will only cost me 10 charm squares, and some postage.

One thing I don’t want to do is send this to anyone who does not want to take this on. So do any of you out there want to play?

Below are a couple of the purple fabrics that I have to send on, together with the two squares that I was sent with the letter I received.

Let me know if you are interested in the Purple Charm Square Quilt Tree in the comments, and I will send you an email to let you know more.

On Friday night, my husband had been asking me what I would like for my birthday, as he had not had a chance to shop and wanted some ideas. He scoffed a little at my suggestion that I wanted a big new set of 72 Derwent pencils, didn’t the kids have my old set, why would I want more? I pointed out that quite a few are now about 5 cm long, some are lost, and most have very broken leads in them, from frequent dropping, making them difficult to sharpen. Since then I counted and out of the original 72, I now have 35.

He thought getting my queen-sized-quilt-top professionally quilted sounded a little boring - you don’t really want that do you? Admittedly his problem with these suggestions seemed to be that he thought I could probably pay for these things without “using up” my birthday present option - but really spending this money without a reason just seems extravagant to me.

On Saturday, I went out alone to do a little shopping for my brother’s birthday present (we are twins). I found him a really nice jumper, which is now in his possession, (as we had an early birthday celebration on Sunday) and looks really good on him.

And then, across a crowded shopping complex, I saw it. The print on the fabric alone stopped me in my tracks.

I MUST try this garment on.

Of course, once I discovered that not only did it look good on the hanger, but it looked great on, and I fitted into the one that was a size smaller than I expected, I had to have it. Then I saw the price. This beautiful garment, had a price to match. I stood in the change room, admiring my look in the large mirror. The colours were unusual, the size was spot on and comfortable, the fabric felt like good quality, and it even had a soft tulle edged underskirt. And then I remembered, Luke had not purchased my present yet. It was too adorable a garment to pass up. I bought it (and a matching, fine knit merino top). At the cash register, I discovered that the skirt also had two hidden pockets in the side seams - what was not to love!

And then I took it home to show my family.

“But Mummy,” said Amelia “didn’t you realise why we were late home from swimming lessons?”

Looks like I will be getting another birthday present on Wednesday.

This little cat and I had a lovely day at Brooke’s 4th birthday party.

I was particularly happy with the gift that we got her. Not having time to make something, I was keen to get a creative gift. I found these great paper cut-outs of people that you can decorate. Put together with some googly eyes and some “Twistable” crayons, just right for a busy 4 year old.

Speaking of presents, here is a little something from Aunty Cookie’s etsy shop that I picked up for my lovely husband to mark our anniversary. I finally picked up a custom cut mount to frame it. This beautiful, whimsical print on linen is called “In the Garden” and not only did I love it, but it also was symbolic of us.

For as long as we have had our own yard, we have had our own veggie plot. Sometimes it only has herbs in it, but we have grown lots of different veggies over the years.

Finally here is a present that I got for myself. The local craft store had DMC floss on sale for only 59cents, so I picked up some colours that I thought would fill the gaps in my colour range as I pictured it in my head. Not a bad haul really.

I did get a chance today to do some sewing preperation - I cut out the intricate applique pieces for my little fairy that you can see in my sketch here, but it was too dark to show you a picture on this post.

Lastly, have a look here at the funniest teatowel I have ever seen.

Can anyone beat that?

Fairy plans are gathering momentum here at the house of matching pegs. The dolly is going to be a fairy to hang on a bag, like Davo - Amelia’s request.

We have a busy day of appointments (and are in the thick of the school holidays) so I have no time for more details, but I can share a sketch, (this is for you Brittany).

Here is a peek at one of my current projects - new cushions for our couch (sofa, lounge suite, settee etc. depending on where you learnt your version of English ). The beautiful “cup of tea” fabric is actually called “coffee and tea” and is made by Yuwa Fabrics, and I purchased it while on a holiday in New York City from Purl Patchwork. I can’t even believe that I can say “while I was on holiday in NYC” but I actually went overseas to Canada and the USA back in September for 2 weeks. I went to attend a very dear friend’s wedding in Northern Virginia, and to visit my Uncle and Aunt in Toronto, with some touring on the side. Purl was on my must visit list in NYC - the only non-tourist place I had to get to.

I am going to make three of these cushions (each with different binding) and then three smaller cushions to sit in front of them (one for each of my kids), with other fabric purchased from Purl Patchwork, as well as some from my stash.