Just in case
This quilt pattern is called "I Spy" and was designed by Trish Harper. I completely fell in love with the bright colours and decided that I absolutely had to make it. It's been a UFO for awhile as I took a little break finishing the pieced blocks. But, I should have the appliqued blocks finished by the end of this week, and then I will be able to assemble and quilt next week. Hand quilting in bright cotton perle, my favourite!
The quilt top below is called "Checks and Planes" by Jenelle Kent. This is a stashbusting project, and was so quick and easy to assemble. At least the 'checks' were..... As I was cutting strips and squares with my rotary cutter and then chain-piecing on the sewing machine, I pondered how superefficient quilt making has become. I'm sure a time-travelling pioneer woman would marvel!
are you wondering about the 'planes' part? There will be appliqued aeroplanes around the border, all in check fabrics. Another handquilting project, and I also decided to use up all the leftover strips to make the binding. Am quite looking forward to the end result!
Fascinating, isn't it, how craft projects seem to take up so much more time in planning, setting up and cleaning up than the actual crafting itself?
The sponge stamps were made cutting up kitchen sponges, and for the other stamps we glued string/twine into a shape.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"I love the Starry Night painting by Vincent van Gogh, the swirls in the sky remind me of the Northern lights.
Enjoy this musical tribute to his art.
/light bulbs go off in brain/ Oven mitts and potholders!! What better material to use for lining oven mitts?
The kids painted pebbles with acrylic paint.... hot glue a magnet on the back for a lovely fridge magnet. Perfect grandparent present!
Meanwhile I made clothes peg magnets. I saw this idea in a magazine..... think it might have been Better Homes and Gardens...
A few strips of scrapbooking paper, some scrapbooking buckles and a coating of ModPodge (wonderful stuff)
This is my great grandmother Marie in a photo that was in the local newspaper as she was interviewed on the occasion of her 97th birthday. The tapestry she is holding is the last one she made - in her 97th year. Her eyesight was failing and her fingers were no longer nimble enough to work on the tiny stitches of earlier years. Marie used to paint as well - not on stretched canvases, because they were not easily available. She painted on muslin using watercolours or on felt in oils:
This was painted during the Great Depression. (photo taken at a funny angle because it's framed under glass to preserve it). Marie was a woman who found fulfillment although she lived through very hard times. She was compassionate and wise. She died a month short of 100 yrs but by then she had been around for my childhood giving me a strong sense of roots and belonging.
Here is my grandmother Ragnhild and my mother. "Mommo" Ragnhild was a midwife and she was widowed when my mother was 3, so as a single, working mother she may not have had much time to indulge her creative urges. But, create she did. In the photo above she and my mother are wearing the traditional costumes of the region. Ragnhild sewed the costumes and did all the embroideries on the dresses and the shirts. In an upstairs room of her house there was an enormous loom where she made rugs. The rugs were made out of strips of clothing that were past repair and use. She was ever thrifty. Outgrown handknitted jumpers were unravelled and the wool used again for another jumper or socks/mittens. I don't get much use out of them here in our current climate, but I still have mittens she knitted me....
This will warm a grandma's heart at Christmas!
or, more accurately, hair yesterday gone today......
this ornament used to be my grandmother's and is part of a set of 3 - the only ornaments left over. I remember Christmas Eve at her house, 7 types of Christmas cookies, big box of clementines, Christmas curtains in the kitchen and living room, frost on the windows, snowball lanterns with burning candles outside in the snowy garden. Walking around the tree singing carols, waiting for Santa to knock on the door looking for nice children.
my mother's favourite ornament, a beautiful glass angel that always used to be hung near the top of the tree, always next to a light so that the angel appeared to shine. My mother loved angel ornaments and decorations, and there is a selection of angels that come out each Christmas now at our house. I hold them in my hand and remember the person that most resembled an angel in my life and I rejoice in the knowledge that I will see her again because of Him whose birthday we celebrate this season.
this is an angel that I bought for my mother in London while I was studying there. I didn't get to go home that Christmas, but celebrated with other waifs and strays at the Norwegian Church on Christmas Eve.
Baby Jesus, part of a Nativity set of ornaments made from Fimo. I bought this for our very first family Christmas together, Peter, Doodlebug and I. Living in our house on the cricket green in Hartley Wintney. The children have grown up with these ornaments and love playing with them, so now the shepherd is missing a foot and the wise man is looking a little worse for wear, some of the gilt has rubbed off his crown.
Thomas the Tank Engine..... one of a set of trains..... James, Gordon, Edward and Percy are also on the tree. Bought when we had 2 little boys obsessed with Thomas. Would somehow never stay on the tree for long and could be found in the oddest places around the house. The idea of a train not for playing with was an unfamiliar concept....
and then of course we have our ever growing collection of ornaments made by the children, I treasure each one
Turtle's clay ornament
Doodlebug's laminated Santa from pre-school
and..... at the top of the tree we have this paper angel, coloured in with textas
It would be lovely to have a fancy angel at the top of the tree, but it wouldn't be the same.... it wouldn't have been laboured over by my child, tongue sticking out concentrating on colouring within the lines, glued together and then handed over to me with such a look of pride and joy. How can I not love this angel more?
It holds a memory.
