Legs

My smallest is not so small.

She is still quite young but is tall and skinny with the longest legs.

Her jeans are way above her ankles long before she has outgrown them around her middle.

Snip, stitch and press and now we have denim capri pants!

I'm feeling chuffed and pleased with myself  right now- yes, I should get out more ....

Apparently these pants are very good for jumping.
Styling by the 7yr old.

Quilt No 6 Finished ... sort of....

Way back in another year (crikey, Jan 2012) and another state (ie we lived in Vic not WA) the second child chose the fabrics for her quilt at Amitie with the help of Lucy.

She has been very disappointed with the progress of HER quilt for quite some time.  Regularly suggesting that it will "never, ever, ever (insert sigh, pre-teen humphing and eye roll) get finished".

Ta da!!! Now it is finished  ....  sort of.

Finished enough to be on the bed and the couch and dragged around the house.

Finished enough to make a quilt ninja.

It still needs some more hand quilting in spots but that can happen another day ... or not.


The 2nd child is happy and now I can think about the next one .... which will hopefully not take quite as long.

Hope your projects are quicker than mine!

Cheers
Jenny

Mum

Last week a very special lady took her last breath surrounded by her loving family.

During our last weekend with her we laughed, joked and cried as we held her hands, played music she loved and we even crocheted.
Weird I know, but it felt right.
Her wool, her hooks, in her bedroom just being with her.

It was the blind leading the blind as my sisters, a cousin, an Aunt and I tried to teach each other to crochet in honour of the expert that lay beside us.

Occasionally she blessed us with a smile, rolled her eyes (probably in horror at our lack of skill) and squeezed hands.  She was no doubt thinking "how am I related to these crazy, clumsy crocheters?".

My big sister's free-style dog -  very cool considering the last time she held a crochet hook was many decades ago.  She's the arty one.

My little sister's love heart which is just beautiful.  She had never held a crochet hook before.

It was a gift to be able to share that time with her and each other.

We joined our wonderful creations together to make a garland that my brothers, sisters and I draped over her casket - covering her with our love one last time.

She may not have approved of the quality but she would have been very impressed with all of the love, tears and determination hooked into every stitch.

Mum, we love you and we miss everything about you.
I know that you are now smiling, back in Dad's arms.
xx

Learning

I spent some time with my Mum in Geelong, Victoria last weekend which was lovely.

We talked and laughed and cried.  

We do that, although the tears are relatively new.

There is not a lot of time for talking left.

We went through one of her knitting / crochet bags - trust me there are MANY- and talked about crochet.  In her time she has been brilliant at it.  Anything from hankys to tablecloths, she has crocheted the lot.  So many teeny tiny stitches in teeny tiny cotton to produce such delicate pieces that have been given to family as gifts or made on request.

Mum has tried to teach me crochet before. My tangled, awkward fingers and shonky stitches made us both laugh.

So on the weekend we tried again.

As she rested in bed we talked a little about stitches and fingers.  Her frail hands showed me how to hold the wool the way she does and she did a few chain before her body said it was too tired for crochet.  

Now I'm back in Perth with one of Mum's hooks. 

With some help from Ravelry and some clever ladies on youtube I'm slowly learning.

Learning the stitches.

Learning the language.

Learning slowly to understand a crochet pattern.

Learning the hard way that I should have made time for these lessons years ago with someone very special who is an expert.

Fancy that - finished something

Had a burst on the clickety-clackers and finished the blue scarf that was started ... hmmm,  was it last winter?

Made for a man that doesn't feel the cold, doesn't really fancy scarves and who know lives in a state where the average winter temperature to date has been a sunny 20 degrees*.
Probably should have thought this through before I started it.
Wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills,
Pattern Heirloom 342 "flag scarf"

Ah well. He did wear it the other night whilst sitting at the table doing some work just to say it had been worn. Bless him.

*Who knew winter could be like this? No drizzle and no icy, 'so cold it hurts' wind.

Words Of Wisdom From WA - No.1

No matter what the fabulous 1980's interior designer said.....

White bathroom tiles and a hairy husband are NEVER a good combination.

Thank You Mrs RicRac

In the middle of an ugly, teary, we're moving to the other side of the country day, a little parcel of sunshine was dropped off by the postie.

I won a little giveaway - yay!

Thank you Mrs Ric-Rac - you really did make my day today... even if you did make me cry.

What can I say, even the milk delivery made me cry today.

Tomorrow I'll be putting on my big girl pants and doing a bit of "Get over yourself" and "Just suck it up!"

Thanks again Jodie and Mary (from Patch n Quilt) the fabrics are beautiful!

Cheers
Jenny

Catching Up

A LONG time ago my Mum gave me a tapestry that she had made and asked me to make it into a cushion for her.
Sure! No Problems!!
I put it in the cupboard .....
and proceeded to completely forget about it.
Last week I found it buried in my hall cupboard - yep, "bad daughter" points for me.

So after a bit of making it up as you go along, changing my plan for a pleated feature around the tapestry (I didn't buy enough fabric - oops) it has sort of come together.
It's not perfect and I'm sure it could be done in a better way.
I'll hand sew the binding tonight and pop the feather cushion insert (from Amitie) in it for her.

She can then pop it on her bed and admire her handy work as she finds it too hard to do needle work anymore.
I hope she likes it.
(PS Mum, you're ACE!!!!)

Hello.. it has been a while

Hi blog reading people
It has been a long time since we've touched base, hasn't it?!?!

Lots going on here in the land of the living so therefore not much going on in the land of the blog.

The Mr has started work in Perth leaving the tribe and I here in Melbourne to sort out and pack up before we trek over there in a month or so.

Things I've learnt so far:

• A hall cupboard can hold a lot of crap
• The bigger the cupboard the more stuff you can squeeze in over 8 years.
• Squeezing stuff in a cupboard doesn't mean that your stuff is worth keeping.
• I have a lot of fabric in that hall cupboard
• I have unfinished projects in that cupboard that should really get finished before we move - hmmmm remote chance of that happening.
• Closing the door and walking away is only a temporary solution - but it worked for me again today!

G's quilt started in Jan 2012 ...ooops must get onto that

• Skype is a great thing!
• Explaining a 3 hour time difference to a six year old is challenging when she wants to ring Dad and say good morning at 7.30am (4.30am his time)

• Even dogs miss Dads - unfortunately at 3am
• A small dog walking on floorboards at 3am sounds like a pack of teenage girls in stilettos minus the giggling
• Swearing at the dog in the wee hours is meaningless
• You cannot send a dog in a POSTPAK even if you do promise to put holes in it.

I'll pop back in again soon when I find the back of the hall cupboard.
Hope you and yours are great.
Cheers
Jenny

Change

REDUNDANT 
- no longer needed at work and therefore unemployed
(ie the Mr and can I say that parenting with 2 parents at home full time is so much easier than doing it with one - although the absence of an income is not so good ... )
NEW 
- of recent origin or arrival
JOB
 - a paid position of employment
(yay because it makes living and eating with three children possible)
WEST
- the point of the horizon where the sun sets at the equinoxes
(or as far as Australia is concerned that would be Perth which is almost as far from Melbourne as you can get)
MOVE
- change one's place of residence
(yep, we are packing our bags and taking our little family to the other side of the country and sadly leaving behind our beautiful friends and family)
NAUSEA
 - a feeling of sickness with an inclination to vomit (even though we know that this is the right decision for us)
CHEAP
- low in price; worth more than it's cost (hoping to find lots of flights like this so people can visit us and we can visit them)

Hoping the words excitement and enjoyment follow soon.

(Reference: The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary, 3rd edition)