Matching Pegs

Welcome 2011.

Dorothea Mackellar knew what she was writing about when she described Australia as a land of Droughts and Flooding Rains.  After experiencing more than a decade of drought, I never thought I would be hoping that the rain would be finished for a while.

As the world surely knows, Australia is in the grip of a La Nina Weather Pattern, which has lead to huge amounts of rain being dumped right along the east coast of Australia.  Our fellow Aussies in Queensland, far to our North, are living in the most amazing flood zone – I have read several times, that an area bigger than Germany and France combined is underwater.   The death toll stands at 15 so far, but “more than 15,000 residential and commercial properties have been affected by significant flooding”.  Many thousands of people are displaced, and it will be months before many families can move back into their homes.  There have been incredible acts of bravery, like the one that cost this 13 year old his life.  If you want to donate money to the Premier’s Disaster relief appeal (administered by the Queensland Government) you can do so here.

It seems trivial to talk about what I have been making, while all this is going on.  Ironically, I recently finished my first quilt of the year, and posted it to our niece in Brisbane.  Who knows when, (or even if) it will get there.

I will return again another day, with creative news to share.  I hope everyone you love is safe – I am extremely grateful that all of the people we love, are.

I am busy building butterflies, on piece at a time.

I am pleased with this colour combination – I just have to decide what colour to use for the little french knots that adorn the lower wings.

The upper wings spots are appliqued to the upper wings before they are cut out.  Once the spots are attached, they are appliqued, as a complete upper-wing-unit, into place on the block.  This method is called “Off the Block” construction, and I have shown a tutorial for how I do this before here.

Next month I have a pattern being published in Australian Homespun, which features applique using this method, I can’t wait to show you.

There are no butterflies on it, but it might make you hungry……..care to guess what the applique might feature?  Just a hint – there is a peek posted way back in April, here.

Well I have finished my teapot, and I am really pleased with these colours – they make me so happy.  On Friday, I worked a little on this, while I was Multitasking again – this time Michaela and I were doing jigsaw puzzles on my cutting table.

Also making me happy are some recent music acquisitions.  I won a copy of Mark Sholtez’s album “The Distance Between Two Truths” after listening and writing a review online here.  Listening to him makes me feel the same way as I do when I listen to Norah Jones – relaxed and uplifted.

I have also bought “Anchor” by Mindy Gledhill after reading Sandi Henderson’s rave review on her Portabellopixie blog.  Sandi has a Mixpod music gadget on her site, where you can listen to quite a few tracks (from her post, it is clearly something she has permission for).  I listened a few times through, and then purchased the album from itunes.  I love it – So happy and quirky.  Being able to listen to an album sure makes a difference between me purchasing or not.  I am usually more likely to spend spare money on a book than some music, (I rarely buy either) but music does make me so happy.  I always listen when I sew.

These purple butterflies are fused from Michaela’s choice of fabrics, for her party cushion.  I am almost through free motion stitching around all the other cushions, but hers is still to go.  They are the same butterflies that are going to go on the “Tea in the Garden” Applique, but I am yet to chose which colours to make them in (and they will be needle-turned, not fused).

Michaela repeated the purple theme on Saturday with her costume for a Witches and Wizards birthday party she attended.  The emphasis was more on pretty than scary – that’s for sure.  It thrilled her to bits to dress up in the cloak I made for her big sister about 5 years ago.

What’s making you happy at the moment – music, a colour, a book or something else?

I have been diligently stitching around the applique shapes, on the cushion fronts that the kids designed at Amelia’s party.  Hers is the cushion on the right.

The kids chose the fonts, and the applique motifs (from a choice of several of mine) and then carefully selected fabrics from my stash.

I ironed the fusible web (vlisofix) onto the back of the chosen fabrics, and the kids trimmed the shapes, and placed them where they wanted them.

Michaela’s cushion is on the right (above) – she just chose the butterflies, and all the purple fabrics – she does not quite have the dexterity for the sharp scissors yet.

Rory’s cushion is on the right.  “B” is clearly a minimalist – she only wanted her initial.  I thought they all did a good job – and I think they all enjoyed it.  So once I finish sewing down the shapes, I just have to whip up 6 cushions.

Would you consider letting kids loose on your stash?

Amelia’s 10th Birthday Sewing party was a great success.

Button Gingerbread biscuits were consumed (along with plenty of other treats).

The “Birthday Cake” was a plate of flower cupcakes which Luke made with the kids.

“Hoop Face” stitcheries were stitched by all.  This one is Amelia’s, you can tell by the very neat stitches.

Rory is more of a speed stitcher, he really enjoyed working on his Robot.  I need to track down a couple more 4″ hoops, so that his can have a properly sized face.

While the kids were stitching, they also took it in turns to rifle through my fabric stash to design themselves a cushion front featuring their initials.  Next time I will give you a peek.

Well here is the evidence of progress I made while away on Quilt Retreat with the NOTYQ Guild last weekend.  8 blocks and quite a bit of needle turn applique, not to mention 4 other partially completed blocks (not shown).

Since my return I have done a little applique every evening, but most of my time has been taken up with 2 sick kids – back to motherhood duties!

Here is a little picture of the joy that is a whole weekend of nothing but sewing, eating and chatting.  That is my little station on the table, (there were 6 of us on our table – 3 with machines and 3 hand-sewing).  You can see more of the venue here.

There was a little nature spotting amongst the sewing – this cute little fellow is a Superb Fairy Wren.  He stands out quite a bit more than his female counterpart, who is a much-harder-to-spot brown.

I have moved onto working on the teapot in my applique – here is my handle and here is my spout!  I really love my needle turn applique, and have recently found 2 websites that celebrate the same technique.  Glorious Applique is a blog started recently, dedicated to the work of people making up the applique designs of Kim McLean.  I have never made any of her design (preferring to make up my own) but I love her work, and the skill of the appliquers following her patterns.

Speaking of skill, the other blogger is a designer and appliquer of amazing skill and complexity.  Her name is Sandra Leichner, and her appliques are amazing.  You can see some of her winning quilts here.  I have started following her blog which shows each step of her current work in detail – so many applique pieces, and so much detail.

It gives me hope that one day I will be able to write patterns for some of my more complex designs (like my fairy, above or my shark, below).

The sick child on the couch is calling me, so back to nursing duties.  Have you done any applique lately?

After pre-washing all my fat quarters, yesterday I prepared them for cutting, by adding a new step.  I decided to lightly starch each piece, in the hopes that this will help the accuracy of my pieced star blocks.  I have done lots and lots of Maths, while designing this quilt (My Tea in the Garden Quilt) and have worked out all the cuts and fabric requirements.  All that was left was to actually start cutting.

This is where my multitasking genius comes in.  I managed to play about an hours worth of Go Fish, with Miss Michaela, while cutting.  She was perched on a stool at the end of the cutting table.

Now I would not normally recommend this type of multitasking, but because my maths had all been done, and I had actually drawn out all the cuts per fat quarter (with colour diagrams representing each different piece of fabric) I didn’t have to concentrate quite as hard.  I was able to keep us both happy at the same time. Win-Win.

And then my clever girl arranged an Elephant with the scraps.

Do you wield sharp objects with your small people close at hand, or do you think I’m crazy?

I have been busy today with the fusible web, whipping up a quick Library Bag for Michaela.  If I had more time I would have needle-turned the flowers, but we were only given a weeks notice that we needed one for Kindergarten.  I am planning on raw edge appliqueing, on the machine, around all the shapes.

These pictures don’t really do the fabrics justice – it is awfully grey around here.  Playing with different fabric combinations for each flower was lots of fun, and although I am not really a big fan of fusible applique, it can’t be beaten for speed.

In other news around here, Rory has just received his first pair of glasses.

This means four out of five of us in the Matching Pegs family now wear glasses.  I think they really suit him, and at least poor vision is a relatively easy thing to correct.  There are much worse things to pass onto your kids.

It is hard to see in this photo (thanks again to the winter light), but the outsides of the glasses frames are bright blue and the insides are bright green (like a light-sabre), so we have both of Rory’s favorite colours covered.

I may have knitted this scarf 2.6 times.  That is to say, I have knitted, unraveled, knitted, unraveled, knitted, until finally I am happy.

Yes it is skinny, but that means you can actually see all the colours in the scarf.  The re-knitting has also allowed me to cut the knots (one half way through each of the two purchased balls of noro) and re-knit each of the 4 sections in a better order, to facilitate a smoother progression of colours – fussy aren’t I (bit wordy too).  The only sudden colour change now happens behind my neck (coral pink to dark green) where I don’t have to look at it.

Taking a photo of yourself is quite tricky isn’t it- especially without a tripod and timer.  I quite like this one, but of course, it doesn’t show all the colours in the scarf.  It does show one of my favorites though – that periwinkle blue colour that actually got hidden in the wider, shorter scarf I knitted up first (and second).

In the interests of truthful reporting – this is what it was like, taking the photos.  That’s Michaela, standing on the toilet, trying to sneak into shot, and directing my efforts.  She is not really interested in staying in the background.

Speaking of backgrounds, I’ve painted one.  There is quite a few layers to go, but so far it has been fun.

Done and unraveling lately?

This week I have made up two test blocks, both stars.  They are going to feature in a border for my Tea in the Garden Quilt.

Above is the Sawtooth Star, which features a centre using the last of the fabric, that I have since purchased again, to make a skirt.

This block is an 8 point star, made up with half square triangles.  I really like both blocks, so now I have to calculate all the cutting details, and work out if I have enough, of the fabrics that I am hoping to use, to make up the quilt.

I finished knitting my noro scarf, but was disappointed with the progression of colours – each ball had a knot where the colour changed suddenly.  I have unravelled half of the scarf, and I am re-knitting the second ball (the other way around) so that the sudden change of colour happens only in the section that will end up on the back of my neck.  Un-raveling was painful, but it will be worth it.  I will show you it when I have finished.

Now I just have to get the kids back to school on Monday, after two weeks off.  We have had a busy holiday, with sleepovers, bike riding, cooking, dentist and optometrist visits, manicures and visits to the skate-park (including a nasty fall for poor Mr Rory) as well as a sad farewell to our friends who have moved back to our nation’s capital.

Michaela was so enamoured with her silver nails (on one hand) and pink sparkly nails (on the other hand) she insisted I take a photo “to show Madi”.  So this photo is for Madison, Michaela’s best friend who just moved to Canberra.