Matching Pegs

My little bottle of Mod Podge is going a long way, and I am loving it.

Here is another really quick project, that has been seen all over the craft blogs thanks to Anna Maria Horner’s appearance on Martha Stewart (there is a link in Anna’s sidebar to the video tutorial). It’s called Fabric Silhouette Painting, and while I was looking at the video, I had a great idea for what I could make - A decorative house number. Just the right kind of project for a gloomy Melbourne winter day.

The tutorial starts with a pre-stretched canvas and a piece of fabric, cut to size, that you staple to the back of the canvas. Unfortunately, I only had a domestic stapler, and not a staple gun, so I didn’t really get the fabric tight enough (hence the slightly wrinkled appearance of the finished numbers), but I carried on regardless. I chose to use a great Heather Ross fabric that I got in NYC at Purl, called Matrioshka Dolls (in beige)

Here is the fabric covered, Mod Podged canvas, with a paper stencil that I have made to trace out the numbers. All that was left was to mix up a colour to match the trim on our house, and paint out the background, and then a final coat of Mod Podge. Check Anna Maria’s tutorial for better instructions.

I really like how the nesting dolls are peeking out of the numbers; a detail you can’t see from the street, but will notice as you approach our front door.

While it is under the eaves, it will undoubtably be exposed to some weather, (although, on the south of the house, it will not get direct sunlight) so my husband is sceptical about how long this will last. Nevertheless, Luke kindly drilled in some screws to hang it on.

This shirt is one I think Luke has had longer than he has known me. He recently rediscovered this to wear for weekend gardening, and the kids told him he looked like a farmer, which certainly didn’t make him unhappy.

So where are these Winter flowers I mentioned in the title? One lot grows right next to the house number, over the boring old grey lattice that surrounds our verandah. It is one of my favourite Aussie natives, Happy Wanderer (Hardenbergia Violacea). We have planted lots of purple flowers because I love they way they look up against the terracotta bricks of our house.

These are just coming into flower, and the flowers will last for months.

Here are the other winter flowers, but they are a little stranger…….

It might be a little difficult to see, as it was starting to get dark, but the kids have picked up a whole lot of Camellia blooms that have fallen to the ground, and they have decorated the Magnolia Tree. In a month or so, this tree will have lovely purple blooms of it’s own, but for now, it has bright pink flowers.

This was a fun project I started and finished yesterday.

I purchased this plain wooden G from Spotlight (only $3.19) and decided to cut into some of my fabric from Purl in New York.

After cutting the fabric into a square slightly larger than the G, I gave the back of the fabric a spray with some Quilt-Basting spray that I had (I didn’t have any spray adhesive).

I placed the fabric over the front of the G, pressing it down gently to help it stick to the front face only. Next I trimmed back the fabric to leave a “seam allowance” of enough fabric to cover the sides of the letter.

Then, holding it up to the light with the front facing towards me, I cut into the “seam allowance” with the scissors, with more clipping on the curvier parts and none on the flat surfaces.

Once it looked like this, I took to it with the Mod Podge (a product I had never tried before). I pasted down the “seam allowance” by putting a little MP on the wooden edges, and then more over the top of the fabric as I pushed it down with a brush. I then covered the front face of the letter with more MP, taking care to wet the fabric right through, without leaving larges excesses of MP on the surface. After it dried I added another coat, then a third.

Finally, I dry brushed some gold acrylic paint on the sides of the G, to slightly disguise the places where the bare wood is not covered by the clipped fabric - you can still see the pattern on the fabric through the gold though. Now I just have to work out how to hang it. This is what it looks like when it borrows a picture hook - not quite right.

I actually completed this letter in tandem with another, a J for a new baby born yesterday morning, Jasper (I love that name). This one is plain blue, made with paint and not fabric, but gold around the edges again.

Lastly, a question. If a crafter crafts in a forest, and no-one is there to take a blog photo, did the crafting really happen?

Last night I finished embellishing two more t-shirts, for Ethan’s sisters, which turned out really well, but it was too late for a photo. This morning there was no time either, even though the light was good for once. I wrapped them up and sent them to school for the recipient’s last day (school term actually finishes tomorrow for the rest of the kids). So I guess as far as the blog is concerned, it didn’t happen…..sigh. But on the other hand, I got a lot done yesterday - 4 items started and finished in one day, even if I can only show you two.

“Sometimes I wonder why I have to stay

Being the same person day after day

So out with the clothes box and on with the gear

And very soon somebody different is there”*

So here is my little Jedi in all his glory. It is a dress up day at school today, and the theme that the student team in charge chose was “Super-Heroes, or Careers”. The kids who dressed up had to make a gold coin donation, which this time is going to a fund for a nearby school who had a fire. Amelia chose to go as an artist.

I think they both look wonderful!

For those that are interested, Rory’s Jedi Robe is made of Polar fleece (no hemming required), and I used the details here (scroll to the bottom of the page, where it says “Making A Simple T-tunic) as a reference for this project.

And just because the other two are up there, here is an adorable photo of the littlest one, pretending to be all grown up with a towel on her head.

* And yes that is another quote from one of Justine Clarke’s songs.

What is this skinny looking creature looking at?

A treasure map to find Ethan’s Treasure…….

This was a quick project - A going away present for a little friend who is moving away from our area soon.

I used a couple of Pigma pens to add Ethan’s name to the Treasure Map fabric, and then used Vlisofix to attach the fabric to a plain Tee from Target. To finish it off, I zigged and zagged around the edges of the map fabric on the sewing machine. I have two more tees to embellish for Ethan’s sisters.

Although I have no photos to show for it, tonight we ate in style. At great expense, the oven has been repaired! We ate a chicken and vegetable pie, and a delicious rhubarb and apple pie that I made with a orange juice and zest (after a squiz at a Margaret Fulton Recipe, which was actually for a crumble). They were both scrumptious, if I do say so myself.

Saturday found us at an enormous play centre, celebrating Rory’s birthday with his friends.

The party was a great success, and Rory was particularly impressed with the cake.

Of course, It had to be baked in someone else’s oven (thanks Leigh!), but it was the Hawks decoration that Luke put on the top that won Rory’s praise.

As Amelia put it, “That was so good of you Daddy, to make a Hawthorn Cake, when your team is Carlton“.*

Sunday was quieter, but no less busy.

We spent quite a bit of time in the garden, planting my birthday plants, pruning, and enjoying the plants that we already have. Michaela was busy pulling the buds off the Camellias, and wanted to make sure I got a picture of her treasurers

In the photo above, you might be able to see a peek of another flower, of the felt variety, that I made this weekend.

These clips were heavily inspired by a motif that is often seen on Asian textiles, the cherry blossom. I made one in a coral colour and another in purple.

This one is actually a little present for a birthday girl - I am looking forward to seeing what it looks like in her hair.

Finally, some late afternoon sewing - an unfinished project. Can you guess what I am making?

*These teams are Australian Rules Football teams, for those of you who have never heard of the Hawks or the Blues.

When I was at University, probably my favourite class was life drawing. It was certainly more fun than learning about plastic manufacture or electrical circuits. It was calming, and all about the now. Our life drawing classes were part of our course, but this drawing has a 1997 date on it, the year I was one of 7 to do honours, when it was not. From memory, there was a class in the evenings that you could pay by the week to join.

I really like this drawing, which was a 10 minute pose, according to my notation.

For some, life drawing when we were fresh 1st years, was a little confronting. Our lecturer made sure that he booked models of all shapes and sizes, and alternated between male and female models every week. We also did exercises where he took us out and about to draw “un-posed” life. I remember sitting in the balcony area of the Melbourne Baths, trying to draw people as they swam - very tricky.

Here is another drawing from the same period, which is of a male model. I remember him, he had shaved the front of his head, and had a lonely pony tail at the back. This looks like it was a watercolour or possibly ink, and was a 15 minute pose.

One big lesson I did learn from life drawing was that drawing, like any other skill, could be learnt and improved with practice. This was a period of my life when I drew every day. If I tried this today I would be pretty rusty, and might struggle a bit more with drawings like these until I got my groove back.

It’s my birthday today

I’m older than yesterday

All my friends are coming over to play

And they’ll all sing Happy Birthday

From Justine Clarke’s “I Like to Sing”

This song is mandatory listening on any-one’s birthday in the Matching Peg’s Household, and I have to go on record to say that this is a wonderful kids CD, and I love it.

So I did wear my new birthday outfit today, and enjoyed feeling dressed up for once, and what a lovely day it was.

So my day started with being woken up by the kids (of course) with a brown paper package, tied up with string.

And inside was this…….

So my husband was actually listening to me the other day, and I scored a proper artists set of watercolours, Woo Hoo!

Some of my lovely friends held a morning tea for me (thanks for your wonderful hospitality Debbie) and gave me some beautiful gifts. The beautiful Gerberas are from Leigh, along with a very lovely card. Debbie had been crafting up a storm with some sun printed fabric she made (seen below) as well as a fabric postcard (bottom left) and a most exquisite scarf that she felted herself (above right). I was truly overwhelmed.

My mother took both Michaela and I out for lunch at a nursery not far from us that has a cafe, gift shop and duck pond amongst the plans for sale. We had a very scrumptious lunch and I couldn’t help but purchase a few small plants to put in our garden. I snagged a couple of pots of hardy French Lavender, as well as 3 pots of a very tolerant native daisy that is also a lavender colour. Mum had already given me some pots of Lambs Ears which I am looking forward to planting, and I couldn’t resist a pot of pansy’s in a lovely antique colour. Michaela was thrilled with the fact that one of the ducks tried to nibble my finger when I wasn’t forthcoming enough with the duck food, (it didn’t hurt) it was the highlight of her day.

Tonight we had a lovely dinner together and another Pavlova “birthday cake” thanks to our non-functional oven (to be fixed on Monday). So overall I had a wonderful day, and feel like such a lucky person, if this is what 34 feels like, than I think I like it!

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.

I have finally finished the last two Butterflies for Brooke’s library Bag. I just have to sew around the lettering of her name, and make it up. Then I promise I will give you a look at the finished project.

Here is a look at all the threads that I used to needle turn the butterflies, I just loved how they looked together. Now I’m off for Rebecca’s Birthday Party, have a good weekend!

Back in 1996 I was studying Industrial Design, and one of the subjects I was doing was called “Exhibition Design”. Exhibition Design is the design of all things necessary to hold an exhibition, such as the overall layout, the display of relevant information, design of the display cases and plinths and the design of any interactive elements.

This was a short project to design a display case for a small object, that was in keeping with the style of the object. I chose a small Lord of the Rings Pewter Statue, (which was actually part of a chess set that belonged to my boyfriend of the time) which was about 10cm tall. I am not certain now, but it may have been Gandalf. That shadowy figure in the image, on the right, is a person, to indicate the scale of the display case.

Anyway, this display case was to be mainly made out of segments of PVC piping (as in plumbing pipes) which were subsequently painted, and behind it was a painted silk screen. I would have had to detail it’s construction on separate drawings. I believe that it was a large part of the brief that the display case could be made of readily available materials, and not be too expensive to construct.

I think I did pretty well on this project (got good marks) and you can see from this image that I have always had a thing for sunsets and lot of colour.

Now to the culinary disaster that I mentioned in the title.

Last night, as we were cooking Rory’s birthday cake, the oven made a large bang, belched out some smoke and stopped working completely. Unfortunately, Rory’s cake had barely started cooking. I left the kids with their Grandma and Nanna, who were over to share in the festivities, and raced to the local supermarket to pick up an alternative Cake. The best I could do was that fine example of Antipodean cuisine, a Pavlova. I purchased a base, and decorated it with cream, crushed Peppermint crisp and Flake. Rory was quite happy, and it was certainly something we could whack the candles into and sing a certain birthday song.

Later, Luke scooped out the mush that was the cake, put it in a suitable container, and we cooked it in the microwave. TaDa, looks fab doesn’t it.

The funniest thing was that when Luke opened the microwave, we discovered the softened butter that I had forgotten to add to the cake. It was never going to taste that good, but at least I could blame it on my oven, that’s what mature adults do.