Matching Pegs

So I was browsing my stats the other day - I like to know where the few people who read my ramblings are located on the lovely google map of the world (have I mentioned I once had a reader from a place called “Medicine Hat”).  I noticed a large unexpected spike in readership.  What was going on?

Turns out all these visitors were being directed from an article written on an X-Ray technicians blog.  In other words, they were not here to look at all the crafty loveliness.  They were fans of Michaela’s lovely innards.

To be more specific, they were interested in the object on the X-Ray, which came in as number 24 out of The 25 Weirdest Things Eaten by People.

She was in some pretty amusing company.  For more recent readers, Michaela swallowed this piece of smokey quartz back in February.

For those of you that are here for craftiness, I have finished the binding and washed my “Family Matters” Quilt.  I decided to turn my attentions to the label, or as it should be known henceforth, “The Mega Label”.  It looks more like an essay than a label, but I enjoyed writing it.  This is a quilt I hope will be in the family for quite some time, so I added stuff about our family as well as the current cost of bread, milk and petrol.  This is an idea of Leanne Beasleys I think.  In saw/read it some time ago, and can’t find mention of it on the web.

I decided to add a little character from the front of the quilt.  This is going to be a little girl in the same colours as the baby on the front, as in Michaela was a baby when I started it, but is no longer.  I should probably have made this label before quilting, and quilted it in, but oh well, there is always next time.

What do you put on your labels?

While I was in the country on the weekend, I took a few minutes to wander around with the camera.

These are some lovely flowers that my parents-in-law have managed to grow, in spite of some very harsh water restrictions.  This is not usually a pink I am drawn to (I’m more into a coral type pink usually), but my tastes must be changing because I brought home some of this pink from the local Lincraft yesterday.

I only went there for some thread - Lincraft has disappointed me so much lately with it’s fabric selection that I was stunned to find something that I really liked.

Officially it is Christmas fabric, but it could be used for anything.  These two colourways were so fresh and bright (see the pink), I really had to have them.  I am going to make little bags to put presents into, rather than wrapping paper.  I bought some white grosgrain ribbon to tie them up with.  For the last few years I have given Christmas gifts in reusable Royal Childrens’ Hospital Bags, but my family and friends may have enough of these by now.  Guess now I will have to start working out what I am going to get everyone.

Has anyone else out there started their Christmas shopping?

Here is a visual equivalent to thinking music, while you think about your Christmas planning…a calming photo of grasses from the country.

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.

Sometimes the weeks are so full, that if you take the time to post, you will have nothing to show.  In no particular order, here are some of the things keeping me off the computer……

On Thursday I finally had 3 hours of delicious “alone time” and spent it with my felt, a hot cuppa, and the CD of Les Misérables.  It has been years since I listened to it, and I loved it all over again.  This time I made one of my flowers a little larger and turned it into a brooch.  I also made a couple more of the hair clips, all in my cherry blossom design.

The Chocolate brown one may even have to be for me.

While I was looking up some felt things on the great and mighty inter-web last week, I found this amazing array of work that defies description.  Take a look, if you have a few minutes, it is quite inspiring.

Thursday was a whole lot better than Wednesday, when I had yet another of my children sick on the couch all day.  Luckily Michaela improved by the next day after a bit of TLC, and was not as sick as Rory had been.

Thursday night I went along with my friend Debbie to North Of The Yarra Quilters Guild for the first time.  It was fun, and I sure need a regular night out midweek.

This is a Wooden “A” that Amelia was given for her birthday, along with some lovely scrap-booking paper and cut-out flowers. Today we mixed up some paint to paint the edges and the flowers.  Tomorrow we are going to cover the front and back face with the paper.  Such a lovely creative gift, (thank-you Kyra).

Yesterday was the last day of term, and the kids finished an hour early.  Instead of 3 kids, I brought home 5 for the afternoon.  The kids played really well together, and all four of the older kids allowed Michaela to join in, rather than complaining to me about her pestering, so there were happy people all round.  Let’s hope the next two weeks of school holidays continue on in the same vein.

Finally here is a Baby sized T-Shirt for a yet to be born baby on the other side of the world.  This is the Aussie native that I managed to sketch and stitch - hopefully tasteful rather than kitch.

What’s keeping you busy at the moment?

This picture shows a small quilt that I made for Baby Michaela, to roll around on as an infant, and a tiny co-ordinating wall hanging that I made as my first ever attempt at needle turn applique.  The wall hanging was a small trial run for this quilt (which I am still working on 2 1/2 years after I started it in March 2006).

I started making this very basic quilt when I was quite large (pregnant) and I remember how awkward it was, crawling around on the floor as I made the quilt sandwich.  It is machine quilted with basic diagonal lines, and technically it is pretty ordinary, but it has stood up to being washed, time after time after time, (baby vomit, grass stains, mashed banana).  The lavender coloured gingham backing has taken on that lovely puckered appearance that comes with being well washed and well loved.

I particularly love the colour combination on this quilt and wall hanging - it is a little unusual, and has elicited quite a few comments over the last three years (I especially love the cinnamon colour with the lavender).  I have a little of each of these fabrics stashed away to applique a doona (duvet) cover that I want to make for Michaela’s bed, out of lavender gingham sheets.

See Mum I am much bigger than a baby now!

Here is a look at some more bedding, a peek at what is on our bed at the moment.

More lavender!  This is a pure mohair lap rug that Luke gave me about 9 years ago.  In winter I sleep with it over my half of the bed - I feel the cold more than Luke does.  Yesterday I carefully hand washed it, and then was able to dial up a very gentle spin speed on my new machine to spin off some of the water.  I added lavender oil to the wool wash, so it smells lovely.

The stripey pillow case you can see is made of the same fabric as the binding on Michaela’s quilt.  It was all cut from the border on some sheeting seconds that I purchased years ago - I only wanted the stripes, but had to buy a whole garden scene piece of sheeting to get it.

What unusual colour combinations do you like?

………………..when you have been without a washing machine for two weeks.

Meet my brand new, energy and water efficient, front-loader.

I didn’t want to bore you all, by banging on about the trials and tribulations of my washing machine problems over the last month or so, but lets just say that the arrival of this machine yesterday has been a real sanity saver for me.  It arrived just in time for some wonderful spring weather - 3 loads on the line today!

The past week has been full of reunions for us here in the Matching Pegs household.  On the weekend we caught up with a friend that we studied with 11 years ago, and had not seen for 10 years.  She has been living overseas for 5 years, and on the other side of the country since then.  Georgina was briefly back in Melbourne for a visit and we met her out in the gardens of the Heide Museum of Modern Art (Former home of John and Sunday Reed - after whom Nicole’s baby, Sunday Rose, is named, people) which was a fabulous venue.  The kids got to run wild in the gardens, and we were able to admire the outdoors sculptures, and drink caffeinated beverages as we watched the kids and caught up.  I once read that people don’t really change as they age, unless they put on lots of weight, or loose lots of weight.  It’s true.  Georgina has not changed at all, in appearance or personality.  It was lovely to catch up with her.

On Tuesday we caught up with very good friends of ours that were visiting town, from their home in Northern Virginia, USA.  Suzie also studied with us way back when, and has made a life for herself in the the States with a wonderful man, who likes to masquerade as a strange human/donkey hybrid………..

Thanks Casey for making Michaela giggle so much.  I was only joking about putting this on the blog, but decided to do it anyway, after all, you can certainly maintain your anonymity!

Suzie and Casey are retuning at Christmas time, when Suzie is going to introduce her Northern Hemisphere husband to the joys of a hot summer Christmas Day.  Seeing them twice in one year is great.

I just wanted to share a photo of a couple of the beautiful Gerberas that they gave me, each a different colour.  The blush pink one was particularly divine.  Thank you guys.

Tomorrow I am hoping to actually do some sewing, so stay tuned.

It feels like Spring is here in Melbourne, and some of my favourite Camellias are now in bloom.  This is a little variegated one that we have in the backyard.  I love not only the colour, but the shape of the flowers as well.  The only one on the property ( out of 8 ) that I planted, has the same form, and it just started flowering.  It is called Black Tie (It is the only one that I have a name for) and it looks like this, just beautiful……

Last night I was out babysitting at my friend Debbie’s house.  Her boys were so well behaved, and best of all, Debbie had her sewing machine set up on the table for me to use in the peace and quiet.  I turned this series of numbered piles of fabric……..

into this….. slightly less piles of fabric, and four rows out of 11 sewn up.  This was the Layer Cake of Chez Moi Charisma that I purchased at the Craft and Quilt Fair last month.

It is the only sewing I have done on the machine in ages, perhaps I will have to babysit for Debbie more often ;-).  I have progressed on the first of The Wish Quilt stitcheries by Bronwyn Hayes.  I am really happy with the variegated thread, except perhaps for the beard on Father Christmas (he is always Father Christmas to me, not Santa) which turned out to be the brightest red (you can’t really tell in this photo how bright it is, compared to the other stitching around it).  Perhaps, like all unexpected outcomes, it will grow on me.

These sweet little beads are some I picked up last weekend at this charming venue, where we had Amelia’s birthday party.  I think they are called lamp work beads.

The plan had been to have a sewing party at home, but we decided to change that plan a few weeks ago.  Amelia’s best friend at school left at the end of last term, and she has been resettling into a new larger group of friends.  We would not have been able to accommodate the 9 friends she eventually invited, at a party in our little house.  The party was a great hit, and beading was a creative, fun activity, which also sent the kids home with some really cool things to keep.  We will save the sewing party idea for next year with a smaller guest list.

So back to the beads above.  I asked the ladies in the shop to add the pin through the middle of the beads, with the loop at the top, while the party was underway.  For a very minimal cost, I now have three sets of danglies to hang off my sleeper earrings.  This is what my sleepers used to look like.

And now they look like this….

I am really pleased with them.

Here is somehing else I am really pleased with, this is something I am really looking forward to making.

This is the pattern I ordered to make up an apron using the fabulous fabric from Lily.  I have found some fabric in my stash to go with it, but I am not sure yet if I have enough.  The pattern calls for more, but I think with some creative cutting, I may be able to eek out enough to get by.

I was on a roll.  Here is the cake of the day, a pink Ladybird as requested.

I guess you could say that I have been mostly missing in action this week.  I am finally feeling a lot better and getting back on the blogging horse, but I still owe a lot of emails - apologies if you have not had a reply from me.  I was really excited to have all the comments on my logos, I will be sure to keep you up to date when the committee chooses one for me to finesse, next month.

Thursday found me on my own for the afternoon (finally no sick children at home), and I managed to get my hair cut.  I am pretty pleased with the result.

This is the shortest it has been in quite a while, (see here for a “before” from earlier in the year) and I am enjoying feeling lighter and bouncier!

This morning we had Amelia’s birthday party with her friends, which is a whole other post, but while on the topic of hair you have to check out this groovy do…..

Amelia has wanted a cake like this for a few years, and I think ours turned out even better than the Women’s Weekly Kid’s Cakes version.

Ours was certainly a team effort. I made the cake. Luke applied the skin, the collar and the eyebrow ring.  I sculpted the facial features and all three kids applied the hair.

She was quite popular at the party, so hopefully I am on a roll, because this evening I will be icing a ladybird.  Under strict instructions from tomorrow’s birthday girl (Michaela) I am going to make this ladybird pink, not red.  I will be sure to post photos.  After Michaela’s 3rd birthday tomorrow, life might return to some semblance of normal.  Bring on Spring.