First Day of School

My youngest turned 5 yesterday and started school today. Here are the pictures. There were no tears from anyone including me, though I did feel a bit like I was missing something as I walked around the supermarket. As my son has already paved the way to school for her she was not worried about this new experience and was only excited about what was to come. It will be interesting to see how long that lasts.

Birthday Swap

Here is the great unveil of my gift for the Birthday Swap for Christina I really admire all of Christina's craft and I hope she liked my gift. I got the idea from the Quilting Arts Gift Magazine that was published before Christmas. I hand dyed all the pieces and used my old bassinet sheets that my mother saved for me and I used with my children so they were lovely and soft and some old damask table napkins and a voile table cloth to hold it all together. The lace is some vintage swiss lace that I got on ebay a couple of years ago. Must go back and see if I can get some more bits because now I have a use for them. The images I printed using my deskjet printer.

I have been reading today a couple of magazines American Patchwork and Quilting, Kaye England has an article in their and there are a couple of quilt's in her article that I would love to make. One is a antique applique quilt white with pomegranates and is in hot pink, orange and lime green such a fabulous colour combination everything old is new again. Another quilt is candy pink and white and it is just beautiful, she has reproduced this one in a pattern but I love the simplicity of the old quilt much better.

The other is Australian Beading and there is a couple of really nice projects so I went off and purchased a couple of kits this afternoon must have something to do over the coming weeks when I am child free during the day... apart from looking for a job.

Shopping Trip and More

Well its school holidays and that is my excuse, I keep thinking about things that I should be writing and just forgetting about doing it. The weather has been either really hot or just really nice we have been using the pool heaps. On Thursday went to Hetties Patch they are having a sale with lots of fabric 30% off. The sale is to the end of January and though I didn't buy heaps I did get a few bits and pieces. On Thursday my much anticipated Scrumptious BOM by Cindeberry Stitches arrived came from Honeysuckle Cottage, I have made the block up ready to stitch. Now that the clean up of my sewing room is finished I can get out their and do some work with out having to clear a space. I have also been working on a couple of other BOM to get them ready to stitch and applique so when I get a few spare minutes I can start them. I have finished cutting all the backgrounds for I Remember which I was going to have finished for my daughters 5th birthday (not going to happen because it is on Monday) and I put together the first block of Gail Pan's Seasons.

I also took my daughter to a birthday party at The Fairies Shop at Evandale. What a fantastic venue for a little girls party here is a picture of the girls with their fairy host Rainbow Fairy. They have a little shop as well stocked to overflowing with every piece of merchandise from The Fairies TV show you can imagine I came away with a much lighter purse and all the little girls had an absolute ball.

Big Clean Up

I made a start today cleaning up my sewing room. I am going to get rid of an old kitchen cabinet because it just isn't practical any more. I need more book storage because my craft books are just out of control. So the cabinet is now empty but I am going to have to move all the stuff out of the way and take all my dolls off the top of the cupboard to get the old cabinet out and the new (old) cabinets in there. The new cupboards are display cabinets that we had in the lounge which I have tried to sell a couple of times but no one is interested and I was going to buy book shelves but these will work just as well and I still have hidden storage down the bottom.

While I was emptying it out I found these cotton reels that I got from my Pop's house when we sold his house after moving into a nursing home. I wondered what had happened to them. I also found Nan's old needle threader which is just like the clover ones that are out now but mine is over 40 years old.

Birthday Swap

I signed up this year to a birthday swap with the Passion for Primitive group that I am in and the first pressie needs to be made and sent off before the end of the month. It has been so hot here that I just haven't felt like sewing but on Saturday when it was 40 something and the evap airconditioner wasn't doing anything I decided to spend some quality time with the reverse cycle airconditioner in my sewing room and get a start on the first project. As the prim girls have been known to drop into my blog from time to time I can't really give to much away the idea came from the Quilting Arts Gift Magazine that came out just before Christmas (in the US) but I saw it in a newsagent the other day here in Oz if you want to have a look.

The result is entirely prim (well not at all) but the first birthday girl mentioned a favourite colour and I decided to get my dyes out and have a go with some vintage fabric, including some basinet sheets that my mother kept and I used them with my kids so they are well worn and some vintage swiss lace a damask table napkin and a voile table cloth that was just the right colour from the 50 or 60's and some lovely vintage images and a few other bits and pieces. Now I just have to work out a way to get it to her without it getting too squished. Here is a sneak peak I'll post more photo's when the birthday is over. The other thing about this birthday swap is that I am next this year will be the big 40.