i spy, with my little eye…

…a special gift for a special boy.

Sometimes, things happen that knock you sideways, and leave you breathless. A week before Christmas, I received such a message. I had to read it twice, and still, I struggled to make sense of a seemingly well little boy, one my children had played with not a week earlier, suddenly whisked away and ensconced in hospital. Then it sunk in, and the tears fell as I held my babies close. I wandered aimlessly through the house, full of urgent action, but feeling useless with nowhere to direct it. There was nothing to say, nothing to do, nothing that anyone could do to make this better. And so I decided to do the only thing I can. I decided to make something. I made up this little iSpy-style quilt one weekend while Mr Dove was at home on holidays. Nothing fancy, 4.5″ squares, white sashing, and a basic loop-the-loop all over quilting. But hopefully it will be a little piece of bright comfort in what is looking like a pretty long-term stay.

And this little finish is the first of 2013, which means it’s eligible for counting in:

Opening balance : +7
Out: 8 FQ in prints, maybe 3m for sashing/backing etc? Say 12FQ for the white, and maybe 2 for the binding
Current balance : -15FQ

That’s not a bad little negative balance there, really!

{linking up with the And Sew We Craft linky party for the first time in months, since, you know, I actually have something to share for the first time in months!}

teacher gifts and bargain shopping

I’ve been eyeing them off on various blogs and Pinterest for a while now. So Tuesday afternoon, with two grumpy small children, I popped on Playschool for the grumps, and Bear and I raided the tip affectionately known as my studio. With the various bits and pieces in hand, we set ourselves up on the craft table. Bear picked the fabric and the post-it pad, I helped him glue it, and quick as a wink, two little clipboards appeared. A little bit of ribbon to pretty it up, and done.

I then had to scoot and get dinner organised, but Bear wanted to keep crafting. I cut the piece of fabric he asked for, and then left him to his own devices. He chattered away to himself, happy to be pottering and creating. Just as I was serving up dinner, a little hand tapped me on the leg. “Mummy! Close your eyes, hold out your hands!” A small parcel was placed in my hands, and then I heard the command. “OPEN!!” and the first thing I saw was a small face, beaming with pride. The second thing I saw was his own little interpretation of the clipboards. “it’s for you mummy, to write your shopping list, or make notes, or, you know, just for whatever you need to write down. It’s good to write stuff down, isn’t it mummy?”. It seems someone knows his mother’s memory too well

Adorable or what?

Today we headed out to coffee with friends, then off to the library for story time and Santa Claus. Boy2 was hesitant at first, upset that Bear was upset that he wouldn’t get to see Santa. He kept saying he didn’t want to see Santa without Bear, because “he wants to see Santa and I want to see Santa with him.”. But the promise of a lolly bag was too much, and won out over solidarity as he climbed up and told Santa he wants “three horn Lego” for Christmas (the new Lego range includes a set with a Triceratops that Boy2 has been coveting for months). A table of books for sale caught my eye as we were leaving, and a  quick browse saw a spine jump out at me.

The Parrot’s Theorem {disclaimer – affiliate link. I receive a small commission on books purchased using this link.}

The blurb sounded alright, so I thought for $1, it was the perfect addition to my 13/13 list. There was another there, an anthology of mini-biographies of inspiring Australian women, that I’m quite keen to go back and grab too. Might put that on tomorrow’s list.

not your average quilt block…

This quilt camp gifty was one of my hardest ones to decide on. Having been to Kayscha’s place back in August for the brilliant weekend that was Camp Kayscha, you would think that would make it easier, when in fact, I found it made it harder! Miss Kayscha has a very clear vision and sense of style, and knowing how beautiful her home is made deciding on a gifty quite daunting. I settled on something for her sewing room, maybe a mini canvas to pop in her little typesetters drawer… And so I let that sit and percolate for a week or two. I had a colour scheme in mind, but the actual execution eluded me. Then, pottering around one night, making other gifties and doing a spot of blog browsing, the design popped fully formed into my mind. An offset swoon block. With three swoon quilts under her belt, Swoon was the perfect fit. I chose a slightly larger canvas than I originally planned, and I “quickly” ruled up a scale copy of the block, before transferring it onto the red canvas with the aid of some carbon paper. The colours changed slightly as I went through, starting with the gold accents, then a coffee centre, a touch of white, and then I stood back and looked, and decided the charcoal I was planning on wouldn’t work where I had planned. I pulled out a couple more tubes, and slowly mixed up a close approximation to my memory of the duck egg blue the room that this canvas is intended for, will be painted in. But even as late as Thursday night, I was nervous about it, and had I had more time, I would likely have done a replacement gift. But that time wasn’t to eventuate, and so this was it, thankfully well received!

 

Today’s creativity has been limited ways to beat the heat. I’m glad we did our baking yesterday, it’s far to hot to even think about turning on an oven today. I’m using the same excuse to avoid the ironing (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it anyway!). With a sore throat niggling, I spent nap time on the lounge, under the fan, and with Pursuit of Happyness to keep me company, stitched away a lovely chunk of the afternoon. The weekend is threatening to be just as hot, so we are setting up the pool tomorrow, and I’m am planning on parking myself in it and not moving a great deal. Except for some craft, of course. I can always make allowances for craft time.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that…

And shake your butt, na na na na… C’mon, don’t tell me you weren’t doing a chair boogie just then. So, moving on in the Quilt Camp gifty parade, this gifty belongs to the delightful Miss Carrose. You may recall in my previous stamp carving post, I referred to a completed stamp? Well, it was the chicken you see below, but I didn’t dare show it because it would almost guarantee Carrose would know what I was up to. Yes, the chicken jokes are that pervasive. As are the “doosh-hund” jokes. The sheep is supposed to be a ewe, and while the inspiration for that one isn’t our usual #comedygold, I still couldn’t stop giggling the whole ruddy time I was carving.

I also took a punt and mounted them on wood blocks, graciously provided by Running Bear. And by graciously I mean “I can’t cut these with my saw, I’ll need to by a new one”. Yeah, right. Nice try. I think he’s spent too much time around me, with a flimsy new-toy justification like that. Despite the lack of new saw though, he did a stellar job, and after I swiped each edge with a bit of sandpaper, I was chuffed with the end result.

The chicken *giggle* was completely my own design, the doosh-hund *snigger* was drawn freehand using this image as inspiration, the sheep/ewe was drawn freehand loosely based on this image, and the chevron stamp was inspired by this Etsy listing that she had pinned and referred to a time or two. And of course, due credit must go to this tutorial, which was super easy to follow (for my Aussie followers, I found all the bits and pieces I needed at Eckersley’s).

I have another little stamp in the works, which I hope to finish tonight so I can use it for a gift card. My secret Santa goodies are slowly progressing, though I think there may be a trip to the craft store on the cards for my afternoon. A busy day means my crafting time is limited and stolen. Tonight, I plan to write. The chapter to which yesterday’s L&P snippet belongs is begging to be attended too, and I also need to finish unpacking from quilt camp. There is always tomorrow for decent crafting time. Boy2 is begging for dinosaur digger craft, so it seems that will be the extent of my creativity for today, unless I can convince him to do it himself while I craft alongside him…

I can sing a rainbow.

Remember a little sneak peek last week? Well, that little peeky belonged to this little birds nest necklace:

A rainbow for the colourful Miss Bacoon. One of my quilt camp gifties, I was reluctant to reveal too much, especially the colour, as she is a rainbow girl. The quilts she creates using the whole spectrum of colour are stunning. I will confess, there was a minor moment of panic, when, with her gift completed, based on her well documented love of rainbows, I asked on Facebook for favourite colours for a couple of gifts yet to complete. And she answered “purple”. Uh-oh. Purple? Not Rainbow? Not “I love all colours”? Should I make another, or would she be happy with this one?? In the end, I decided rainbow it was, and she did seem to like it, so we’ll call it a win.

The normal Tuesday craziness is slowly subsiding, and the muggy cloying heat is mulitplying the post camp lethargy. I’m thinking a lazy afternoon is in order, maybe some Zentangling as the children play under the sprinkler. Baby girl is happily chatting away in her room, “resting” with her dollies, and I’m trying to find the mojo to go sand my craft cupboard. I may just find the nearest fan to collapse under, instead.

mothers day 2012

I slowly peeled one eye open as a little hand tapped on my arm. “mummy!” came the stage whisper, “are you AWAKE yet?”. I think I must have been conscious enough to nod, because two little pairs of feet were flying up the hallway, and I could hear chairs being dragged, plates rattled and glasses pulled from drawers. Husband rolled out of bed with a groan, and I heard hurried consultations, and then the small feet whizzed past again, returned with a bag of gifts wrapped in hand drawn paper, followed by a reluctantly-drawn-from-bed little brother. All three small people perched on my bed as I opened their gifts. A new tin of pencils from Bear “because you’re the best drawer, mummy”, a stainless steel drink bottle from Bubba Boy “so you don’t get thirsty”, and a ball of wool from Butterfly, which can only be described as interesting, as you would expect from letting an 18 month old loose in the yarn aisle. With gifts duly admired and placed safely on the bedside table, breakfast was produced, complete with a pretty little flower, and coffee, nectar of the gods. Bear also thought I might get a bit bored, so very kindly went and brought me back a book. All in all, I was very spoilt by my beautiful family!

 

My mind is running in a million different directions at the minute, after a busy day yesterday going to mummy groups and getting swap parcels in the mail and working for the afternoon, and no time for craftiness and creating. I have two new fabric collections on the run. I have spent this morning getting my etsy shop up and running to my satisfaction. A 3am inspiration strike is slowly taking shape. Admin and housework are calling, having been ignored all morning in favour of hanging with my small people, reading stories in the sun, and baking vegemite scrolls. I’d kill for a coffee, but we are out of milk and I’m not sure I can be faffed going to the shops. I’m hoping to race through some must-do jobs now the children are finally asleep, so I can get stuck into some want-to-do jobs before they awake. This afternoon I’ve promised a boy some digger craft, so I feel a recycling pile raid coming on. Maybe some painting in the sun for them and for me. A quick tidy of my desk so I can squeeze in a moment of two of sewing as the afternoon progresses. A girl can dream! Going to keep rolling while the mojo’s hot and the to-do list is shrinking. Hello Wednesday, let’s do this!

coffee break

I came across this tutorial via Car’s blog a while back. My sister has a pretty decent coffee addiction, so I made her a coffee sleeve to match the study portfolio I made for her a while back.

Just a random little “just because” type gift. It’s Saturday, and we are all systems go around here. Husband is busy with power-tool-related tasks. Boys are happily playing outside. A little girl is just about to go back to bed. A studio that needs cleaning, a dress that needs sewing, a crochet birdie that needs finishing. A big pile of scrapping to catch up on. Swings to push, games to play, stories to read. Busy in the best kind of way. Have a great weekend everyone!

The Island of Sodor :: the quilty version

There’s a very special little boy a few hours north of here, that holds a very special place in my heart. A sweet, chubby cheeked little boy, who, just like my boys, loves to play trains.

It was his birthday recently. Ok. It was his 1st birthday at the beginning of the year. You may remember my laments about FMQing back then. We were off for a visit, and wanted to give it to him in person. I busted my chops, got it quilted, binding attached, and hand-stitched for three hours in the car. But failed.

So back home came the quilt. With four inches of binding to be stitched down. But the more I looked at it, the less I liked the look of the quilting. Or the 5000 ends that needed stitching in. So with a bit of help & advice from Emma, I unpicked & re-did the quilting. Not as fancy as what I’d planned, but more in keeping with my level of “skill”.

And so, it’s done. My first bargello quilt. I was aiming for a “Bay of Sodor” feel, with the green meadows for the trains to play, and a beach, for Toby the Tram to ferry his passengers to and fro. I’m reasonably happy with the results. With more time (and fabric!), I would do the strips thinner for more “natural” looking curves, but I was limited in the number of seams I could do, and still produce a reasonable sized play-lap quilt from a single width of fabric.

Today, we’ve been shopping. There’s a layer cake calling my name. An urgent work project keeping me away. Some housework to do. A cubby house has taken over my loungeroom. Plans and dreams have taken over my head space. And time, what’s that? Five minutes more would be nice. Or maybe just a cup of coffee and some of that orange cake we baked yesterday. Mmmm…. coffee…. Short week Wednesday, love the possibilities. Let’s do this!

Cushion

The motivation behind my #quiltinaday wasn’t to challenge myself. It had a purpose. Someone close to me was off to hospital for some pretty massive, life-changing type surgery. With two little boys to care for, and the operation happening 5 hours away, it wasn’t all that practical, or possible, for me to be there. So I wanted a special gift, to show my love & support. The idea sprouted in my mind, around 2am one morning, as I lay waiting for sleep to arrive. By lunchtime that day I was purchasing fabric, wondering out load if I was crazy, inspired, motivated, or a combination of all three. Mainly crazy. But with some fore-thought and a kick up the old mojo, 24 hours later, the quilt was done.

And now, surgery round three is coming up. Big, long, mega-ouchy surgery. Once again, due to small children, pregnancy, and a super-dooper-massive-exictement holiday a week or two later, I can’t be there. So on went the thinking cap. And due to the nature of the surgery, a cushion was just about the perfect solution.

Today, it’s the last day of a long weekend. The boys are asleep. The house is clean. The washing is (somewhat) up to date. And I have a quilt on the go. Almost finished. And two on the design board. Some plotting and planning and juggling to do. Swings and lego and boardgames. Some quiet time, just a cup of tea, husband and I. Mondayitis is in remission, a short week is coming up, and life is rosy (and a wee bit chilly!). Lots exciting happening this week. Let’s do this!

so this sucks.

Right now, there are two things that suck. The first is my FMQ ability, or lack there of. The second is unpicking said FMQ.

I have 24 hours before this quilt needs to be done. Yikes. I should probably be unpicking rather than posting about how sucky the unpicking is, shouldn’t I? Ok. Deep Breath. Let’s do this.