Don't look now!

Friday already?

Life has returned to some semblance of normal this week after the past few weeks of hectic birthday happenings.

Earlier in the week I made these two little girls for a very sweet little girl over at Sue’s place. Jessica had decided that I should make Isabelle, twins because then even when she was at school the monkey would never be lonely ... a definite bonus of being a twin!

Although Jessie has discovered this year that her brother is beginning to branching out. You see Ben has fallen in love! He has been professing his undying love for a little girl in his class for some time now. I have quietly suggested to him that perhaps he is too young to have a girlfriend really and that perhaps at least for the next 20 years they should try out friendship first. He has scoffed at this telling me that “it doesn’t matter what you say I still love her!”.  On Wednesday Jessica came home dying to tell me that she had caught them kissing near the girls toilets .... mmmmm. And then on Thursday their teacher (who is the most delightful girl but only about 14 herself) came out to proudly show me Ben’s letter writing for the day .....

 

Oh well what can you do? It is obviously true love! I will have to teach him though that it is far more romantic to refer to a girls eyes or hair than their cheeks or ears. Mind you I did ask him what it was about her ears and cheeks that he liked so much ... his response was “I actually like her whole body!”. Oh good Lord what do you say to that????? I guess he is finally over his Oedipus complex!

Other than this I have been frantically arranging the leaves on my Doll Quilt whilst all the time desperately trying to avoid the desire to starting a new project.

 

Today I drove across the city to a fabric Mecca to spend all of my money and come home with 20% more than I would normally .... yay!!!!!!!!

 

More fabric for Ben's birthday quilt ... it is killing me not to make a start on this quilt! There were quite a few other fabrics that I brought home but as a group they didn't photograph well so you will have to wait to see them made up. Or maybe one day I will tidy my sewing room and take some pictures so you can see where I hang out and my beautiful stash ... now that just sounds weird!

Tonight I must finish the pillow that one of Megan’s party guests made, oh so long ago! She is coming over tomorrow night with her beautiful mother to sit with our little people so that my other half and I can go out for dinner and then on to Borders for some grown-up time ... aren’t we adventurous and so very risqué!!!!!!!

Jessica received the cutest knitted bear from the lovely Lisa this week which she is now sleeping with along with at least 100 other soft toys and pillows that she has enlisted to 'keep her safe' at night! I suspect that Customs also have the hots for Lisa's bears with knitted knickers ... as Ben's package arrived on the door step today a few days behind Jessie's with their tape wrapped around and around the box! As they are still in school I will share the contents of this box next time. Thank you so very much Lisa! I hope you are having fun sunning yourself in Greece!

I also found the most beautiful package of delightful things all for me in the mail box today!!!!

This eye candy is from the lovely Lizzie! You must go over and take a look at the beautiful things she makes and shares with us. I met Lizzie through Jenny first at Patchwork on Central Park and then in her little section of Amitie ... Broderie. Sadly she has moved on and I now am kicking my self that I never made the time to have her teach me some of the beautiful embroidery stitches that she is so skilled at. Lizzie thank you ... I cried when I opened this little package and saw that fabric and all of those beautiful threads and buttons that are so me! 

By far the most rewarding thing about my whole experience of blogging over the past 7 months has been meeting so many beautiful people. For someone who has isolated herself for such a long time I am enjoying your friendships and kindness so very much.

And on that note I must run! Have a fabulous weekend!

Kellie 

Arty Farty Party!

Before I begin this post I wish to issue a warning ... brace yourselves .... all photos in this post have been taken by my husband!!!!!!! As scary as this may seem it is the unfortunate necessity of birthday parties! Someone has to take the photos and unfortunately I am not able to do everything. Believe me when I say that this has been very difficult to come to terms with over the years, being the total anal retentative, control freak that I am! Nothing that years of therapy and a prescription wont fix! :)

 

So as far a parties go it was great and Jessie had a great time with her friends. Unfortunately, I planed far too many activities and have been left with two full crafts that will now be stored away in the cupboard for next year. I just hope that I remember that they are there, because that too has been done before!

They looked great in their art smocks. I had a few questions about these from a few weeks ago. I drafted the pattern after not being able to find one that I was happy with. It has no ties so it makes it very easy for a little person to put on and is very baggy so it fits easily several layers which is good in the freezing weather that we have experienced here of late!

The kids made pin-spinners, pipe cleaner people, watercolour paintings and a chatterbox charades game - which of course there are no photos of as by this time my husband was over the whole event and was sitting in the corner somewhere rocking quietly to himself :).

 

We never gave out Lolly bags this year instead they took home their smock, a sock monkey and a bag of loot which included coloured pencils, Texas, a sketch pad and two shadow puppet activities which again we ran out of time to make at the party.

 

   

Megan's entry in the Homespun Young Designer of the Year competition went in last week and it looks fantastic. I am not only so very proud of her for the spectacular job that she has done on this little quilt but also for having the persistence to complete it ... something that I could most definitely learn from her! I am not able to show any pictures as yet due to the rules so you will have to just take my word on this one for now!

So now I must move on to the preparations for our sweet Ben's party next Sunday ... and then I can get back to some serious quilting! 

Oh and just a sneek look at the fabric that I have for Ben's birthday quilt (the plans for this one have been living in my head for quite some time now). See, I can also buy fabric that is not girly! Thank you Jenny for provinding me with so many opportunities to spend my money!

Have a great week everyone!

Kellie

PS. Please forgive my absences this past week and what will probably extend on to this week ... alas the kiddo's come first!

A Slumber Party with little sleep!

Thank you everyone for your kind birthday wishes for our sweet Megan! This photo was taken on Friday the night of her actual birthday.

Her party started on Saturday afternoon at 4pm and for all intensive purposes was a great success. We kicked off with a craft activity where the girls were to design a pillow top for a 50 x 50cm pillow insert using Megan's birthday quilt as inspiration (by the way we have called this quilt Garden Party). I provided the girls with pattern pieces, fusible web, a perminant marker, sissors & a huge pile of fabric choices. I also made up a sample to help them in case they got stuck which they most certainally didn't need. 

The girls first traced the pattern pieces onto the fusible web then roughly cut out the shapes. They then selected fabric for each piece, I then ironed the fusible to their fabric.

They then cut out the applique shapes and began auditioning them on their background fabric. Once they were pleased with their design they removed the backing paper and I ironed them in place.

I then made a quilt sandwich using each of their tops and secured the applique using free motion quilting. I then intended to then quilt the backgrounds and finish off the pillows so that the girls could take them home in the morning. Well, when I staggered to bed at 2am only the applique was completed. I am never good at recognising achievable targets!!!!

So now I will finish them off over the next week and Megan will take them to school with her when they go back after the holidays. So far the quilting has been done on one of them :) . 

The girls really did a great job of this activity and I was amazed at how enthuastic they were even though their part of process took 3 hours! 

Once we had finished the pillow tops we all went out for dinner. The girls sat at a table by themselves and did their own ordering and generally behaved like delightful little ladies! Other than this they watched 2 movies (one of these twice) ate lots of popcorn, painted their nails, did eachothers hair and chatted and giggled and giggled some more until around 4am. I made them French Toast for breakfast and they headed home at 11am. And I felt like a zombie for the remainder of the day!!!! 

Instead of lollie bags I made the girls a denim tote, lined with the same fabric that I used for their PJ's and appliqued their names on the front. I also made them a sock monkey each. 

These guys are begining to take over our lives! They are multipling like flies!!!!

This little cutie is Lu Lu and she has become Jessica's closest companion!

 

So that was Meg's party ... now I only have 16 days until Jessica & Benjamin's!

I hope you are all well and for those of you who are in the midst of school holidays I so hope that you are enjoying them as much as I am!!!

Kellie

PS. This is the second time that I have written this post and it is only through absolute determination that I am actually writting this again. The last time I wrote it I was at the spell check stage and the page froze! So I wont be checking the spelling again this time so I appologise in advance!