Matching Pegs

As her older brother and sister have done before her, a couple of days ago, Michaela tried her hand at stitching.  I have talked about teaching the kids how to stitch before – I think back-stitch is the easiest to lean if the shapes are simple.

I have drawn out the same design that the others started with, which borrows the elements from this quilt.  The blue one above is Amelia’s, stitched when she was 5 1/2 years old.  The Red one below is Rory’s, started at the same time when he was 3 1/2 years, but finished when he was almost 5 years old.

They hang together like so….

Eventually Michaela’s  will hang with the others, proudly on our wall.

Have you done any sewing with your kids?  What did you teach them?

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

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For international readers that are unaware – ANZAC Day is the most solemn of our public holidays.

Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War, at Gallipoli in Turkey.  The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs.  Commemorative services are held at dawn, the time of the original landing, mainly at war memorials in cities and towns across both nations.

On this day we reflect on the futility of war and remember those who fought and lost their lives for their country.

Well now I can reveal what I was working on with the calm blues and browns, as it was gifted last night – Happy Special Birthday again Maddie!

I have called it “All A Flutter” and I am very pleased with it.

I designed these butterflies a couple of years ago (very early 2008), but have only stitched them up at a much smaller scale.

I really like them this large, in quite a different palette – they look more like moths.  Amelia is very taken with them, so I will make them again for her, in colours to match her room.  As much as I love needle-turn, these were a lot quicker to make – fused and raw edge appliqued on the machine.

I have started writing up a pattern for both methods.  I still plan on using these butterflies on a doona (duvet) cover for Michaela – I may even make them bigger again.

What colours would you make them in, if you gave it a go?

I recently opened this monthly, glossy magazine that come with “The Age”, Melbourne broadsheet newspaper.  This mag is full of luxury advertising, like the one here, but this one just made me giggle.

In many parts of the world, I am sure the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo looks exotic, just not here, where they come from.  Bvlgari should probably have reconsidered running this advertisement in Australia.

Cockatoos are a pretty everyday sight in our neighbourhood, but it is not just their common appearance that makes this advertisement funny, their attributes are probably the polar opposite of luxury and refinement.  They have loud, grating, raucous, screeches.  While generally looked on with affection in the suburbs, their ability to totally strip a grain crop, or ring-bark a tree can make them quite a pest in the country.  They also have cheeky personalities, are clever and can be taught to talk when reared as pets.  I remember “meeting” one in a large aviary as a child, and it said “let me out Grandma”.

So what do you think – am I overreacting or do you find this add pretty funny too?  Perhaps you live somewhere where this does look luxurious – let me know!

I have had sick kids at home all week, and at one stage it was all three of them at once.  Now it seems it is my turn.  I have been ill for days with fever/chills and a cold/nasty cough.  Sick enough that Luke had to come home early from work yesterday to cook dinner.  Today I dragged myself upstairs to change all the sheets (there is nothing like clean fresh sheets when you are recovering, and it was time for their weekly wash anyway).

While I was there, I took this shot of a cushion I made a while ago.  It actually lives in the Lounge room, but the light upstairs in Amelia’s room was better.  This is just a simple cushion with a zipper closure on the back.  I sewed the back and front together, right sides out, in the same step that I attached the binding in place , then hand sewed it down as I would a quilt.  The hand-sewing is tricky – it is much easier to catch the backing in the stitch, but I really like the finish.

The clever lady I was referring to in the title is the impressive Tula Pink, who designed the lovely fabric I used for this cushion.  It is from her Neptune range.  Can you see the little Turtles, and Seahorses hidden in the pattern?  What about the Anchors?

She has posted several posts on her method for drawing up her designs.  Her drawings (and process) are not only fascinating, but beautiful, awe inspiring and make me green with envy – I want just a little of her talent.

So if I owe you an email, (and I certainly owe a few) go take a look at Tula’s stuff while you wait for me to convalesce and catch up.  I will get back to you soon.

A whole month ago I went with some girlfriends (Debby and Julie) to visit the last annual Quilt Hanging in the little Victorian town of Loch, in the South Gippsland region.  Every year I have taken a photo from the same place, outside the Public Hall, looking towards the distant hills.  This year there was a cute little car parked in “my” spot.  Isn’t it lovely.

I was very taken with this quilt, which according to the notes is called “Inspired by Morell” by Jenny Coates.  There were too many people crowding around it to get a better picture of the whole thing.

This was the centre square.

I really liked this block.  I assume the quilt was inspired by the original quilt that this one seen on the Quiltsmith site was also inspired by, or perhaps it is a whole chain of inspiration, with the Quiltsmith Quilt as a link in the middle.

This block was another favorite.  The quilt had Broderie Perse Applique, Hand and Machine piecing.

Both the quilt above and the one below conspired to obscure their numbers from my photo.  I didn’t realise until I got home.  I can not deduce which ones they are from my booklet of notes, but I liked them both.

This one was hanging up vey high, from the second floor balcony of The Royal Hotel, where we had a very plesant lunch.

This Quilt is called Rainbow Whirligig by Clare Brown, machine quilted by Patchwork of Essendon.

Loch is a very pretty little town, with lovely street plantings of fruit trees, and flowers.  The end of the Quilt Hanging will leave a sad little place on my calender next year.

The light has been terrible for the last few days, so I am not making much progress with my tutorial.  I decided not to make you wait until it was written to reveal what the sneaky peek was of.   It was actually two things, which I have since found out are called Lotus or Tulip Biscornu.

The word Biscornu is derived from a French adjective, meaning skewed, quirky or irregular, and usually refers to an 8 sided pincushion or ornament made with 2 embroidered (or cross stitched) squares, which are joined after one is rotated 45 degrees..  You can see some here and here.

These are a variation on 15 sided Biscornus, which, when joined slightly differently, result in the Lotus Biscornu.

I first came across these when Whip Up linked to May Britt’s tutorial for a pincushion back in April 2007, using a paper piecing method.  When I tried to make one back then, I made a construction mistake and got that doughnut shaped thing you see there, that I have just found out is actually a 15 sided biscornu (Thanks Melanie).  The other day, I finally got around to trying again with some scraps (although I made mine on the sewing machine) and made the small flower shaped thing you see above, so my ability to follow instructions has improved!

I was completely smitten with the result.

Immediately I knew that I wanted to make a bigger one.  May Britt’s tutorial calls for 2.5″ squares, but I made the small one above from scraps I had on hand, so they are 2″ squares.  I scaled up to 4.5″ squares and made the larger green one, which is roughly 10.5″ across.

I wrote to May and she was kind enough to give me permission to write up a tutorial with measurements to make a larger one, so I have been working on one that starts with 6″ squares, which I calculate will end up about 14.6″ wide.  I am using the pink fabrics that you see in this photo.  If you would like to make one too, you will need 15 identically sized squares, out of two or three fabrics.

I will be away this weekend at the 10th annual (and sadly final) Loch Quilt Hanging, and then on Monday the delightful Lily is coming for a visit – she has just moved to Melbourne.  This full schedule means that you will have to wait a few more days for the tutorial.  I hope you can be patient with me.  In the mean time, why don’t you check out May’s tutorial and make a small one.

Lately, my family of origin has been having a pretty terrible time.  There has been very serious health problems and lots of very hard news.  Yesterday was a low point, leaving me (and all the other members of my family) feeling extremely fragile.  Today my Mother, Michaela and I took ourselves off to a beautiful nursery/cafe to sit in the sun, and be fed lunch.  It is amazing how restorative such simple pleasures can be.  Therapy ended up encompassing a purchase of these shoes.

How could I leave them behind – they had all my favourite colours, and were predominantly red.

There was one arguement for leaving them behind – my friend Debbie (who is in another state at the moment) bought a pair of these when she was down the coast about a month ago.  Will you forgive me Debbie – even thinking of your pair, I still could not fight “the wanties”?

We have made it to the other side of the move!  We are still feeling a little chaotic, but the space is pure heaven.  The garden is much more native than our previous one, as we are surrounded by gum trees (eucalypts).  There is plenty of scope to put in ground-covers, shrubs and flowers.

The kids are loving having their own bedrooms – this is the one that Amelia chose, which is actually the smallest, she fell in love with the paint colour.  I think it is a little strong, but it does go well with her quilt and fairy wall hanging.

Some areas of our home are looking more set up than others – there are still lots of boxes everywhere – but it is so lovely to finally be able to display some things that have never seen he light of day.  This is a quiet corner of the lounge room that we are going to use when we want to get away from the hubbub to do some work on the laptop, or some quiet writing.

The lounge room also boasts the ugliest lights ever, strung low enough that several members of the extended family are going to have to wear hardhats to enter the room.  See those little specks of light on the ceiling? They are being thrown by the lovely mosaic bowl in the previous photo, which I was given by a dear friend for my last birthday (thank-you Leigh).  We are now calling it the reverse disco ball.

You can see it here with some beautiful roses that my Mum bought from her garden this weekend.  I believe they are “Henri Matisse” Roses.

Our new home is a symphony of those 80’s colours – pale apricot and mission brown, with quite a bit of woodwork thrown in.  Even the ceilings and doors are painted pale apricot -the same strength as the walls.

The meals area is the only living area in the house with a slightly different colour – a feature wall of textured dusky pink.  It is kind of growing on me, but Luke doesn’t think much of it.  It sure makes a nice backdrop to the beautiful flowers that our friends Rowena and Mark gave us to celebrate moving into our new house (thanks guys).

On Friday we were reunited with Lotta, who spent the week at my Mum and Dad’s while we moved.  She is also loving the new space, and we are all happy to be together again.

I will be back to show you more as the house is unpacked.  Hopefully I will have a sewing area to show you soon, once we have created a cutting table – we have great plans that involve 2 kitchen cabinets from IKEA and a door.  Stay tuned.

Thank you so much for all the lovely Birthday Wishes.  My birthday was much better than expected.  Even though we could not take Julian out of the hospital, we found an empty common room, and had some lovely cupcakes my sister had made for the occasion.  Michaela and I took in some festive helium balloons, so cake + balloons = mini birthday party for 5.  These interesting flowers are actually some ornamental cabbage that Mum gave me on the day.  They look amazing, and last really well – they look exactly the same now, 5 days later.

Luke, the kids and I had a yummy pizza dinner out, and then I went to my weekly sewing evening, where the girls spoilt me like crazy.  Turns out that some of them were actually stalking me when we were shopping in the patchworks shops the previous weekend.  They were following me and buying some of the fabric that I ooohed and ahhed over.  I also received tea related gifts, candles, decorative pegs, (see they know me well) and one of Debbie’s lovely handbags.

Today I had a blissful Tuesday to myself and accomplished quite a bit.  I finally dealt with the old sheers in our bedroom.  I have hated these since we moved in 7 years ago!  For ages I have had the plain sheer fabric to make new ones, more in keeping with our taste.  The problem has been getting an empty house, so that I have the floor space to measure them up and cut them out. Voila!

Having just past the shortest day of the year, it is unsurprisingly dim in our south facing bedroom*, so this picture is not the best.  If we did not live with the school at the end of our street, I might not have bothered with sheers at all, but everyone knows we live here and the morning school traffic would all be able to see in if I didn’t have them.  Instead of me in my PJ’s, this is what they will see.

Keeping with the bedroom theme, I also got out another work in progress that I worked on a little more.

I took this photo before I filled in the white spaces you can see, they are now gone.

The flowers are looking a little intense and flat.  I plan on adding thin over-painting to give more subtlety to the colours as well as more colour graduation and shadows.  I used to paint with oils years ago, but I am using acrylics (having no time to wait for oils to dry) , so I am making it up as I go – I hope the over-painting works, I may have to use some kind of medium – anyway the fun I am having is more important than exact technique.

I also did a little sewing today – but that’s another post, for another day.

Do you have sheers on your windows, or can the public see in?

*For northern hemisphere readers – a south facing bedroom here, is like a north facing bedroom over there.  If a room faces due south, it doesn’t get any direct sunlight, and tends towards dark.