Christmas Clothes

The Children's clothes are all made, thankyou Fabritopia your fabric is great quality. All three boys will get a patchwork snake and Alice, if I finish it on time, Sheldon the knitted turtle, of course I will finish it who needs sleep, right!.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas,
may peace be with you,
Kerrie

All is quiet

Well, It's midnight, the turkeys are stuffed, the tables are set and now all is quiet. Dan took the children around Ballarat to look at the Christmas lights, and I got the chance to take these photos.

Christmas Merrymaking

Alice helping to make, or should I say taste the christmas cake.

I was lucky enough to come across some open weave wool fabric at the Woollen Mill in Creswick, I picked it up for a song. I thought it would be perfect to use for dry felting. My neighbour Sue, dyed some tops for me, thanks Sue, and I made some pencil rolls for my nephews and niece. My eldest Jim was impressed, so he got to work and felted one for his Kris Kringle present at school. His is the last picture and I love it so much, so much that I thought it was too good to give away, but I bit my lip and said nothing, because what would that be teaching him. I did make him promise to make make another one to keep, which he agreed to. Hope it finds a nice home.

And in the giving theme, if you can think of another use for this fabric, I give you one metre of it. even overseas. I have quite a few colours.

Well, I'm a lucky girl, I've got a brand new, whiz bang sewing machine. I bought my first machine at age 17 for $1500, funny isn't it how I managed to save this much money so young, and now I can't save a cent. It was the first of the computerised machines 20 years ago, It finally gave up the ghost and this is what I replaced it with. A Pfaff. I always thought my next machine would be a Bernina, but I hear not so many good things about them now. The built in walking foot sold me on the pfaff. It's a very clever little machine, the presserfoot just goes down and up when starting or finishing no manual interferance necessary.It also has this clever way of pivoting when doing curves or corners, so when you are sewing and stop to pivot, the needle automatically stays in the fabric but the pressure foot just comes up slightly so you can turn the fabric but when you press the foot pedal again the foot goes down. It makes for quick and fun sewing. I actually thought I would buy an embroidery machine, but decided they lacked a certain 'something' that handiwork has, hands down.

In the first photo I'm making Alice her Christmas outfit, It has some lovely built in cross stitches patterns.

Now that Alice is crawling, pinnies are appropriate I just LOVE pinnies on little girls. The fabric is a fine cordoroy made by Hilco in Germany, the main reason I love the net- fabric stashes. The colours and quality of this fabric is superb. the patterns are out of Ottobre, a wonderful Finnish patern magazine that just know how to dress children like children. I realised after making the generous pants that she could wear them as knicker bockers when she is two or three.

The last photo of Miss Alice in her smocked bishop blouse and bloomers that I just made up. I much prefer bishops over square yokes, so much more freedom to move. I adore smocking, I tried to get Flynn my 3 year old to wear a smocked peter pan shirt, he did let me put it on him, then he said a definite No. But it looked soooo cute on him, I chased him around the house, bribing him with all sorts of wonderful goodies but to no avail, I so should've been born last century!

I can stand

How proud Alice is of herself, as a mother, these firsts are so very wonderful.

A new addition to our family, "cheepy" named by Flynn

More additions, Joseph, my snugly boy.

Hexenhaus

The children and a dear friend, Evelyn, busily decorating our Gingerbread House, the tally for the lollies, one for the house, two for the mouth.

The finished house, no sooner had it been finished, a little voice said "can we eat it now?" "funny" I said, "thats what I thought you had been doing all afternoon."

Spring in the garden

Crab apples in spring, Edna Walling once said, sitting under these trees is like sitting in fairyland. I do hope so.

Flynn found some baby potatoes this morning, they are Nicolas, my favourite spud. He washed them, scrubbed them, then I steamed them and covered them in butter and seasalt, and Flynn had a lovely lunch. Through his eyes a productive morning.

Teepee

Funny isn't it, how one minute there is no wind at all and then when you start putting up teepee's it gusts and blows. I had bought this lovely duck canvas last year on ebay in America for a song and finally got the urge to sew it up when Jim was having his birthday. 25metres of canvas! It's an easy thing to sew, just a lot of fabric to be carrying around under the machine.

The children are desperate to sleep in it over night, I just need to get around to sewing a door flap to make it mozzie proof. It took forever to put it up, I'd like to know the American Indians secret, I just kept saying to Dan " there're must be a trick to it,Dan". The boys love it.

Right, I'm going to blog three times this week, I really like bloging once I start, but I'm always too busy doing or lurking around other people fabulous blogs for inspiration.