I can't believe it's a whole week since I last posted! Oh well - the days are full and busy and flying by, and I've had an especially busy, crazy week this week.
But I love the quietness of the evenings when the children are all settled down for the night, and we have the fire roaring, and I knit. I'm really enjoying knitting at the moment, and have so many projects planned. I've just completed two baby garments. One is for Alice and one is for my neighbour, whose baby is due any day now. I actually started the little green striped cardigan for Alice when I was expecting her, but with all the drama and busyness going on here, I have only just finished it, and it is probably getting too small for her now, so I might give this one to my neighbour, and keep the pink one for Alice.
Now I have started knitting an earflap hat for Teddy for his mid-winter Christmas gift. This is a fun one to do, and I'm halfway finished already.
When that is finished I'm going to knit this gorgeous wee cardigan for Alice. I found some pretty watermelon-coloured wool - it's a soft 4ply, to knit it with. I can't wait to start this too. It's from a beautiful book by Patons called Heirloom Collection.
Here is the wool that I'm going to knit it in:
We have a busy weekend coming up. Tomorrow Robin is taking the children to see their first 'live' netball game at the stadium. Their cousin Millie plays for the Pulse team from Wellington, so we are going along to support her. The kids are making a big sign today to hold up, just in case they get on tv. I can't go, unfortunately, as I love netball, but I'll be sending the camera along with them, and hopefully they'll get a few good pictures.
My 6 year old, Meredith, loves Little House on the Prairie.
And she keeps asking if she can have a dress like the church dresses that Mary and Laura have in Season 1 - you know the one where Ma makes two dresses out of that pretty blue floral that she buys on impulse one day in Mrs. Olsen's store.
Well, this Christmas we have decided to have a handmade Christmas and make our gifts for each other, and I thought I'd make Meredith a Little House on the Prairie dress with the bonnet as well. I have a good bonnet pattern, but I don't know where to get a pattern for the dresses. Does anyone know a good website or a good pattern number that has a dress similar to this?
I love to knit - it's a real wintery thing to do on the long, cold evenings while I sit in my chair by the fire.
This post is primarily for Heather and Vickie and for my sister Penny, who doesn't have a blog yet.
Penny and her husband Nick sent Meredith a beautiful dress from Canada last Christmas and it is perfect for dressing up occasions like church or parties. It is sleeveless though, so it was perfect for summer, but not perfect for winter wear, so I decided to hunt out a little cardigan that I could knit her so she could continue wearing it through our winter. I found this pattern:
It is from the Australian knitting books by Patons and this is the Zhivago for kids book. They have a website here.
The dress is mostly white with red and green flowers scattered over it and a red sash to tie in the back. Red and white are the dominant colours in the dress, so I found a lovely deep red 8 ply New Zealand Merino wool with a little bit of silk in it to knit this cardigan in. Meredith likes the big ribbon in the picture the best. Somehow this picture makes the wool look more pink than red - it is really a very deep blood red wool.
I am such a slow knitter though, I hope it will be finished this winter, and before she wears the dress out! Heather was telling me how her sister knits from top to bottom so there are virtually no seams to sew up at the end. This would be a dream - I hate sewing my knitting up at the end, but I don't think I have enough brains to figure out how to do it.
The only thing with this pattern is the intricate knitted lace edging - I had this on another cardigan I once did for Meredith and it is a nightmare to knit - but it looks so pretty I couldn't resist doing it again, even though I know I'm going to regret it! I just have one sleeve to finish and then start on the lace and I'm all done - apart from the sewing up of course!
I did my block of the month today too - thought I'd get ahead of the kids this time, so I know what to do when they come to it. It was a really fun one (thanks Leanne)! I chose to do the harder version, and I have to say..... drum roll please.... my points are perfect!!! Yay!
Because it is the school holidays and my husband is currently working from home, yesterday I had some time to go into town and look at some stores that I normally don't get time to visit.
One of my favourite places is a little shabby shop near the city centre called, The Painted Room. It's owned by a rather eccentric lady called Brigid - she is short and fat and looks like something out of a Charles Dickens tale, but when I think of her, I think of beauty, because she is so interesting, and dresses differently from anyone else, and sees beauty in old cast off things that other people discard. Some of my most favourite things in my home are things from her store. She just has a knack of being able to throw together unusual combinations and make it look stylish. It is always a treat to visit her shop. She has big old trunks full of fabric, bound together roughly by pink ribbon, and a huge freestanding wardrobe full of fabric. It's a real place for a real rummage, and yesterday I was throwing bundles of fabric onto the floor from the trunk searching for pieces that I loved and could use. I did find more than I could afford, but managed to limit myself to a few. I plan to make up a few cushions for my home, and use some for patchwork and maybe make a dress for Meredith for when summer comes around. Here is a collection of my pillows that I have bought from Brigid's along with the fabric I got yesterday. I found a lovely old fashioned green linen tablecloth for $5 too!
In the same trunk I found two old aprons. She had lots in there, but these were my two favourites. The blue one hasn't even been used, apparently. The other one has quite a few stains on it, but I think that adds to the charm of its history.
Another great vintage find was when we were unpacking boxes (still) and I found my recipe book box and rediscovered old favourites I hadn't seen for a few years, but tucked in among them was this treasure that belonged to my mother in law.
Here are a few other pictures from the same book:
And last but not least is the finished pyjamas I made for my 3 year old out of the vintage fabric I found stashed away in fabric boxes. It was awful to make and I had to unpick it and start again. At first I didn't know what I had done wrong, but I realized that I'd used the pattern so much that one end of it (the collar end) had gotten tucked under and I didn't realize it and didn't cut it out. I had to patch up and redo quite a bit of it (it would happen on the vintage fabric, wouldn't it)!!! But we got there in the end and he looks sooo cute in them now on these chilly nights.
Hugh finished his nine patch today. He's ahead of me and Meredith now. He really chooses bright, cheerful colours for his squares, but we put them all together today (the completed squares), and they look fantastic. Here is his Nine Patch.
I am sure this would delight a frugal quilter's heart (nudge nudge Leanne)!! We are still unpacking boxes from our move 2 years ago and another move from 8 years ago. I can tell you it's like Christmas opening them up again. Robin (dh) is trying to empty out the storage unit so we don't have to keep paying the monthly rent for it, and he bought home a few boxes on Saturday. We opened one up today and look what we found!!! A big box of fabric scraps. I've saved them from the days when I was single - the oldest piece of fabric I saved goes back to 1993 when I made my first quilt (a Dresden Plate). Here is some of the fabric from the box.
I've also been starting to think winter pyjamas for the children. I made all their summer 'jammies, and saved ourselves quite a bit of money, so imagine how pleased I was to find this vintage flannel in the bottom of the box. I think it will do to make Theodore (3 years) some winter jammies this year. He likes the airplane one the best.
Hugh - who is 8 - finished his Bear's Paw block of the month this morning. He begged and begged me to do it instead of maths and reading this morning, so I relented. He's keen, and it's nice to see him so enthusiastic. He loves his colours in the Bear's Paw. He said they're 'cheerful'. He's all keen to start the Nine Patch, but we are out the door soon to Art class, so it will have to wait until another day to begin. Here is his completed Bear's Paw.
Meredith finally finished her Ohio Star today. She is only 6 years old and doing really well. She likes sewing the best, so I do all the ironing and pinning. She's a month behind me and Hugh, but it's ok - it actually helps me keep track. Hugh has just about finished his Bear's Paw. Here is Meredith's Ohio Star.
It's the second of April, and I finally have my Bear's Paw for March completed! Whew!! I don't know why it took me so long to finish it - we have had a busy month though. I'm really pleased with it, and I like the bit of blue I introduced. I might try and do that with the other blocks. I'm ready to start Leanne's (AtTheGoodLife) nine patch for April now.
I am not the world's best quilter. In fact, I think I'm a very lazy sewer - I always try to cut corners - which is funnily enough just what my teachers used to say about me when I was in highschool - mostly my maths teacher!
But the children and I had really been enjoying homesteadmamas4 (or LittleHouseintheValley's) tutorial recently on the block of the month, and I was dismayed and quite disappointed to log on one day recently and find her blog is deleted! I hope she is ok and nothing bad has happened. We had cut out our Bear's Paw pieces, but hadn't sewn them together yet, and I'm having to copy Leanne's picture from AtTheGoodLife to figure out how to sew it together. I'm hoping to work on it this afternoon. The children are really enjoying it, and I didn't want to let them down, so I bought a big book from Borders this past week called 5,500 Quilt Block Designs by Maggie Malone, and it is full of all kinds of patchwork blocks with easy instructions on how to make the patterns. It might be a bit of trial and error, but I'm determined that we will finish our sample quilt by Christmas.
Look at all those lovely squares! And there are tons more than these - much simpler ones and more complicated ones as well.
I went into our little town on Friday to run an errand and had 10 minutes to pop over to the little sewing shop across the road which I hadn't visited yet. I always seem to be in town with the children and I don't fancy browsing in a little shop with three lively kids. My mother was staying last week and minded the children while I was out, so I had the chance to have a 'go-see'. For such a little town it is really a great little shop - they had so many shelves of beautiful quilting fabrics and a lovely rack of books and patterns. I found one that I'd wanted to order through www.keepsakequilting.com but because the postage is so expensive from the USA to NZ, I'd put it off. I was thrilled to find it at this little place and bought it straight away. I'd love to do one for my own home, and I have big ambitions of doing one for our Sunday School teacher's end of year gift, but this might be a little bit too much to expect.... but we'll see. Here it is: (Sorry it's sideways. I rotated it on Photobucket, but it somehow didn't do it here).
The children saw me doing my squares and wanted to give it a go too. Meredith who is 5 years old showed the greatest interest first, but her interest has waned a bit, and she has only just finished her Jacob's Ladder. I really like the colours she has chosen though - she told me she wanted to do pink, so I got a few scraps together for her to choose from, and I like what she picked out. She finished this yesterday and is now working on cutting out her Ohio Star - she has a bit to catch up on. I'm not sure how straight her seams are, but I think for a 5 year old, she's doing really well. I hope it all won't be too difficult to put together at the end of the year!
When my 8 year old son saw what we were doing, he wanted to do it as well, and I have been completely surprised at this enthusiasm. He's really getting into this, and loves it. I have to slow him down or he'd be doing it all day! He was very disappointed when after he'd finished his Ohio Star back in early February that he had to wait until March for the next one! He has almost cut out the pieces for the Bears Paw. Here are his first two squares. I am only helping by pinning the pieces together and drawing the 1/4 inch seam. He is doing everything else by himself, as well as choosing his colours. He did well with these first two. I'm not sure how the Bears Paw colours are going to look, but we'll see once he's finished.
I am just about to cut out my pieces for the Bears Paw. We are just loving this, homesteadmama4 - you have really blessed our family by starting this up!
I finished the Ohio Star tonight. I think I went wrong somewhere, because one of the squares isn't quite matching up perfectly. I unpicked it twice and I still can't get it right. I'm hoping that once I come to sew it all up that it will be ok, otherwise I'll have to try again. The photo is not the greatest as the batteries in the camera are running low, and it's 10pm at night here and one of the light bulbs has blown!
Today I finished my Jacob's Ladder block that homesteadmama4 is teaching (link in my friends list). It was so much fun to do. My 5 year old dd wants to do it as well, so I hope to get her started this week. Here's a picture of mine:
The kids and I made this wreath this afternoon. It took all of about 30 minutes and it only cost $12 to buy the pine wreath as a base, and we just used scrap fabrics and ribbons. I'm really pleased with it.
I have a bit of trimming to do to it, but otherwise it's all complete.
Here is the recipe for the Christmas Cake icing:
Christmas Cake Icing:
With a pastry brush, spread a mixture of icing sugar and water all over the surface of the cake.
Roll out a block of Almond flavoured Marzipan and spread over the top of cake smoothing out as you go. Brush on another layer of icing sugar mixture, then roll out a block of White (Royal) Marzipan.
Trim and smooth. Close to Christmas (or whenever you want to eat it) make the following icing to top the cake:
It's called Brandy Icing, but we never put the Brandy in and it's really good. You can always try Brandy essence if you like the flavour:
6 ounces Butter
1 pound Icing Sugar
2 tsps each of Vanilla and Brandy Essence
Cream butter with sifted icing sugar until it is as white and creamy as you can get it. Add essences and mix well. Spread over cake.
If you're like our family, we have a really sweet tooth and could eat this icing by the spoonful, so we always double the mixture and make it nice and thick on the cake.
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you dropped in. I'm a wife and mum to 4 children. We are blessed to live in the beautiful South Sea islands of New Zealand, and I love to write about our life and the things we do on our homestead of 10 acres, our adventures with animals and homeschooling, and the little things that touch my life and those around me. I hope you'll enjoy visiting.
