Children's Christmas Cards

Cards for Daddy (clockwise from top left) - tree, front door, baubles, fireplace.

I thought I'd share the little cards that were made by Zoe, Lily and Eli for Tim (Jed preferred to keep his blank!).  It is activities like these that are so valuable for many reasons; thinking about the person for whom it is being made, working together to share ideas and resources (i.e. "No, you can't have all the red buttons!"), feelings of pride, accomplishment and satisfaction upon completion, helping one another, cleaning up afterwards, marveling at all the buttons in Mamma's button tin, the anticipation of how excited Daddy will be when he sees the cards - I could go on and on!

I gave myself a pat on the back for allowing my children to use runny glue and the responsibility of having the button tin at their disposal (these things are of great significance during a hectic, extremely busy, Christmas-is-at-our-house-twice-so-there-is-lots-to-do time of year!).

Overworked

My sewing machine is being serviced at the moment. Right before Christmas (just after I finished up all the Christmas gifts) she started doing some funny things; skipping stitches, not taking up the bobbin thread after threading and a few other oddities that are not usual for her. Despite giving her a bit of a de-fluff and a quick clean inside, she was still behaving strangely. So, off she went to the kind man who makes her better!

Still looking good after all these years. Just a shame it doesn't actually work any more!

No machine means no sewing  I could have tackled some of the mending that needs hand sewing, but let's not mention that!), so I thought I would take the opportunity to cut out my swap blocks for the month of January, as well as some of the Bee blocks for upcoming months (I thought it would be a good idea to get ahead for these where possible!). Just as I finished the last block my faithful rotary cutter called it quits. The blade keeps popping back in to its safety guard when I attempt to cut fabric. I have had this rotary cutter for...a long time! It is my original and only cutter and must be at least 12 years old. So while it served me well I am now not able to sew or cut out any more quilt blocks!

Messenger bag pieces cut out. Just need my machine back to put this together!

Undefeated I decided to cut out some messenger bags for the boys, as I can do this competently with my (new - thank you Santa!) scissors. I am using the tutorial from Zaaberry and hope mine turn out looking just as cute (well, maybe not cute for Jed's bag. Perhaps 'cool' would be a more appropriate word to use for a nearly eleven year old!)!

I took a trip to Spotlight this morning to purchase another rotary cutter (I was hoping for one exactly the same as my previous one, as it has been such a joy to use all these years), only to return empty handed (okay, not empty handed, but without another rotary cutter!). Spotlight had a very disapointing selection of rotary cutters and the one I longed for was not among them. But, do not be concerned, I found one on ebay and it is being shipped from the US for a total cost of $16. Yes, sixteen dollars including shipping! I tried to shop locally and then online in Australia, but I wasn't prepared to pay three times the amount for the same product. Coming from the US does mean that I'll likely be using my scissors for the next few weeks, but I'm okay with that (because it was only $16!!)!

Now, while I have your attention, I tend not to get too fixated on New Years Resolutions (I prefer to have ongoing whenever-I-need-to-modify-things resolutions throughout the year!). This year, however, I have decided not to buy any fabric during 2013. It is going to be difficult, but I can do it. I can. I can. I can. Will just have to enter every quilting fabric giveaway on the web instead.....

Recent Finish

My MIL's Christmas gift!

Early in the year I made a quilt for a dear friend's birthday. As the quilt was progressing (i.e. as it was laid out on the floor!) my MIL visited and commented on how much she liked it. Her comments were so complimentary and enthusiastic that I decided right then to make another one to give to her at Christmas time. Despite deciding on this quilt such a long time ago, I found myself hand stitching the binding to the back on Christmas Eve! As a result, I didn't take any photos before wrapping it up, but took these two shots on Christmas Day (those are my MIL's hands holding it up). I felt the need to politely explain that the only reason I was asking her to hold the quilt up in front of her face was so that I could get a picture of the entire quilt for the blog!

I didn't have enough of the backing fabric I used in the original quilt, so decided to use some of the leftover fabric from the front to make a pieced backing. I love it! I think it looks great, plus I enjoy the feeling of using up the leftover bits (LOVE that feeling!).

My MIL was both surprised and thrilled to receive this quilt. She remembered the original quilt without any prompting from me and expressed her appreciation at the time taken to make one for her. I couldn't have been happier!

Plump Partridges

Plump Partridges hanging in the lemon tree (we do have some pear trees but they are small the partridges chests would be scraping the ground. Perhaps next year!)!

I have made about 25 of Modest Maven's Plump Partridges in a variety of fabric combinations! While everything worthwhile doing takes time, these are quick for such a cute looking ornament.

I chose non traditional Christmas colours for all my partridges so that they can be displayed all year round. They look so pretty sitting on a shelf or hanging from a doorknob.

I have three more to make before Christmas Day and then the rest can go in the box I recently purchased for finished projects for next year! I like the idea of having a box full of lovely hand made items. Let's see if I can fill it by, say, August? 

So, what's your favourite colour combo? Are you a traditional fabric partridge or a more contemporary fabric partridge?

A Kiss

This bag just looks like it is empty.

This morning was a little...turbulent. It is the second last day of school and also school concert day. Some teacher gifts are still in progress and children have been waking up at 5:30am each morning. Zoe has a tooth that should have fallen out days ago and Lily has a sore cheek. There was no bread for lunches and a funny smell coming from the crystal beads (little balls that swell up when water is added to them - they have now been disposed of!). There was a lot going on this morning and there was some grumpiness as a result!

When Eli insisted on taking his little 'I love Ollie' bag in the car to drop off older children at school I was more than happy for it to come with us. It was empty, but as long as Eli compliantly got in the car and allowed me to buckle him in I didn't mind if he wanted to wear a pair of undies on his head!

After dropping off the older three at school (and reassuring Zoe that I would bring her (left at home) white concert t-shirt later in the day and before the first performance) Eli and I proceeded to run some errands. As we were chatting I learned that the bag wasn't empty. Eli had put Daddy's kiss in it. So I cried a little, gave him a cuddle and thanked God for moments such as these.

Teacher Gift: Apple Jug Rug

Zoe's jug rug straight out of the washing machine!

Zoe made this 'jug rug' for her teacher! Zoe's teacher always has a jug of cold water on her desk. Apparently the condensation on the outside of the jug results in a little puddle on the desk around the bottom of the jug. Zoe thought that a 'jug rug' would be useful. An apple block was chosen because, well, traditionally that's what students give their teacher! I thought it was a fabulous idea.

I helped by paper piecing the apple and Zoe did the rest. As the apple used a red fabric, we washed the jug rug with a few colour catcher sheets (available from the supermarket in the laundry product aisle). Not a run in sight (though the colour catcher sheets were red when they were removed from the washing machine!)! I love it when products do what they are supposed to!

Teacher Gift - Snowmen

We made these snowmen after seeing similar ones on Pinterest. We used black felt for the hat (hot glued on to the lid), eyes and buttons.

After accidentally gluing a piece of felt to my thumb I switched to paint pens for the nose and mouth! The mini marshmallows in the top jars (which are spice jars purchased at Kmart) should all be white, but I didn't pay enough attention to them when I was buying them, so ours are rainbow coloured! I used Cadbury Drinking Chocolate in the middle jars (a 400g container was enough to make four snowmen with enough left over for a couple of hot chocolates - yay!) and would recommend using a large funnel to fill the jars. The bottom jars contain wrapped Christmas mints - I recently found some at Red Dot (1kg for $5). I think mini candy canes would be lovely too.

The scarves are made from some scrap fleece that I had. Cut some strips and fringe the ends (or not!).
Edit: The scrap fleece scarves were way too short. I swapped them for some wire edged Christmas ribbon - with snowmen on - bought at Spotlight for $1.50.

One little tip - wash your jars out before you glue them together. Not after you glue them together like I did! Glue the jars together with super glue. A friend kindly started her snowmen before us and let us know that the hot glue gun just doesn't cut it.

These four gentlemen are off to school tomorrow!