Creativity in the Family

I think creativity must run in our family. I have a beautiful embroidery of some birds made by my Aunty Anne (mum's sister). I never got to meet Aunty Anne as she died during the war but I treasure this embroidery that she made.

Growing up I remember my grandmother and my mother knitting but it wasn't until about 15 years ago that mum started making painting china dolls and making cushions, stools and pictures all decorated with flowers made from silk ribbon and beads.

All of us girls are creative in our own way.

Susanne can sew anything. Wedding and bridesmaid dresses, Christening gowns, skirts, tops and dresses. Everything she sews looks tailor made. Susanne also embroiders, quilts, knits, smocks. This is Lachlan in an outfit sewn and smocked by Sue.


Jenny sews tailor made curtains. She makes them to order and sells them in her shop. These are some curtains that Jenny made for one of my Aunties.




Rhonda made the most beautiful flowers out of silk ribbon, tassells, cushions, handbags, decorative stools all decorated with lace, silk ribbons and beads. She has also made pictures using old photos and memorabilia that she collected from antique shops. Her work has been sold in shops and markets. This is a picture that Rhonda made for me.

My brother John was also creative in his own way. He was could draw anything and especially good at drawing cartoons. He also loved making things with his hands. This is a a magazine rack that John made while at school.

A Cardigan and Quilt nearly finished

The cardigans I am knitting for Sarah, Hannah and Olivia are going well. I have finished knitting all the bits for Sarah's cardigan and will be starting on Hannah's today. With all the colors there are so many ends to sew in so I am trying to sew some ends in each day.

I have also been working on Peter's quilt. It's all black and white circles cut into different sized squares. The pattern is pretty 'busy' with all the circles so I'm hoping that the next row of bigger circles and a thick plain back border will tone the pattern down a bit.

This will definitely be a 'one of a kind' quilt!

It's Raining, It's Pouring, Charlie is snoring..

It has been raining for most of the weekend now and my garden is absolutely loving it. The rain gauge which holds 40ml was overflowing this morning which is something that it hasn't done for such a long time.

Charlie doesn't like getting wet so he spent most of the weekend inside. He spent most of Sunday afternoon curled up on the bed sleeping and snoring.

My seedlings are all doing well. I love going outside and seeing which bulbs have come up this year and seeing the new winter flowers coming out.

My favourite flower is the Winter Rose (Helebouros) which was also my grand mothers favourite flower. I have two varieties in my garden -Helleborus niger and Helleborus foetidus. The Helleborus foetidus grows a lot taller than the Helleborus Niger. It also has long thin leaves with small green flowers which grow on the top of the plants. This year I have a lot more pink flowers coming out which I really love.

I recently dug out a Dianella that I had growing against the back fence and replaced it with a Lord Byron Fuchsia, helbouros and some of my Danish Flag poppy seedlings. It had grown so big and was spreading too far so I divided the Dianella into several clumps and gave them away to some other gardeners on Freecycle. The fence looks a little 'bare' at the moment but I'm sure with all the rain we are getting that it wont be long before the Fuchsia grows.

From Seeds to Seedlings

I love gardening and been growing my own flowers from seeds. I've tried to grow seeds before without much success but his year my seedlings are growing really well and I ended up having to get a second little green house (free on my favourite website - Freecycle) to keep them all.

I have recently planted out my first lot of seeds from my green house into the garden. In the pots in the greenhouse are some Danish Flag, Black Flowering Poppies, Heirloom Poppies, Flemish Antique Poppies, Larkspur, Hollyhocks, Aquilgeia, Cornflower Black Ball and Cosmos Picotee. The poppies have grown really well so I am looking forward to seeing them and all my seedlings in flower.

My Rememberance Quilts in the making

Dying is something that not very many people like to think about let alone talk about. With having been so sick with asthma over the years and then having the Subarchnoid haemorrhage in December 2008 I have thought a lot about dying but more in terms of how I want my family to remember me. As I want to be cremated and I don't want a tombstone I have decided that they way I want my family to remember me is by having a hand sewn quilt that I have made especially for them. This means that I have a lot more quilts to make so I don't plan on dying anytime soon.

In this photo there are four quilts in the making. The quilt hanging over the back of the couch is one I was making for myself. I started this quilt last year and have nearly finished it. It's my first attempt at quilting around the shapes rather than knotting which I have previously used.

The blue material is for a quilt called 'Blue Willow Sampler Quilt'. I am collecting material for this quilt at the moment and have found some great old fashioned 'willow' looking pieces that I really love.

The pink materials in the middle are for a quilt based on a pattern called 'Ruby Medallion'. In my material stash I found a pile of material already cut into squares which will be perfect to use in this quilt.

The black and white material on the end is for another quilt. I wanted to make a quilt suitable for a man however there are not many masculine looking quilt patterns around. When I saw this material I decided to have a bit of fun with it and design my own pattern. I am using different black and white materials which all have some kind of circular pattern on them. I have then cut the material into different size of squares starting with small squares in the center and larger squares towards the outside.

This quilt is definitely not recommended for anyone who gets sea or motion sickness! I haven't decided on a name for the quilt but I think 'Dizziness is....' might be on the top of the list.

A Cowboy Cardigan & A Basket of Wool

I've just finished knitting this cardigan for Lachlan last week. I started the cardigan about 12 months ago just after Lachlan was born so it was good to finally finish it and send it up to him. It's taken so long I just hope it still fits him!

This cardigan is the only thing I have knitted for quite a few years now so it has been nice to get back into knitting again.

I now have started to knit a cardigan each for Sarah, Hannah and Olivia. The pattern I am knitting is called the 'Settler - Doll motif'. I think the patterns really cute so I hope the girls will like it as well.

At moment there's a big basket full of the wool ready to knit the girl's cardigans. My aim is to make sure it doesn't take me another 12 months to finish these ones.

I have started knitting the cardigans and have nearly finished the back on Sarah's so at least one of them is well on the way.

Charm Tumbler Quilt

I first started to collect material for this quilt in October 2000 after seeing the pattern designed by Frances Thurmer in a Patchwork and Quilting magazine. The main thing that drew me to making this quilt was that each piece of material used in it was different. I saw it as a challenge to be able to collect over 700 different pieces of material.


I collected pieces of material from friends, eBay, different shops and my own material stash. I also collected used Christmas and birthday cards so that I could cut out 'tumbler' templates. I then used the templates and tacked on a piece of material so that it would be easier to sew the pieces together.


By the middle of 2005 I finally had enough material and cards to start the quilt. I cut and tacked the material to the cards which I had cut into 'tumbler' shapes and then sewed pieces onto them. I then sewed the pieces into rows of 30 tumblers. For the quilt to fit on the top of my bed I needed 24 rows of 30 tumblers which meant I needed 744 different pieces of material.


I sewed most of this quilt in while I was in hospital with my asthma. I spent 145 days in hospital in 2006, sometimes up to six weeks at a time, so I had plenty of time to work on it. The quilt became a talking point with the staff at the hospital. Every day someone from the kitchen, a cleaner, nurse, doctor, another patient or their visitors would come in and ask how the quilt was going. I found the quilt was a great distraction from being sick and rather than people saying 'how are you feeling?' all the time they would ask 'how's the quilt going?". People even brought in their own quilts to show me their work. There were a lot of days that I was too sick to sew more than a few stitches but it didn't matter as it meant that I was a few more stitches closer to finishing the quilt.


Finishing the quilt, especially without using the same piece of material twice was a major achievement. It's completion also coincided with a decision to change doctors. For most people this is something not worth mentioning but for me this decision saved my life as apart from spending so much time in hospital I had also been intubated twice and on a Bi pap machine to help me breathe more times that I can count. My new doctors started me on some different medication for my asthma and since starting those tablets I have not had to be admitted to hospital for asthma and my lung capacity has more than doubled which is really pretty amazing.


Of everything I have ever made this is probably my favourite quilt. It alternates between being used on my bed and hanging on the wall in my dining area. Some people don't believe that every piece is really different so they try to find two pieces the same. Other people look and are surprised when they see something that hadn't seen before.

My efforts at Cake Decorating

Cake decorating must run in the family. In a high school cooking class I made and decorated my first fruit cake for Christmas.

Since then, I've tried my hand at a few other cakes and it seems that once you make one cake your suddenly the 'designated' cake decorator. I think Ruth can attest to this with her current run of requests for making and decorating cakes. Although looking at the ones she has made so far her efforts far outclass any of my cakes.

For special occasions I usually made a fruit cake (see recipe below)with the layer of almond icing and then royal icing. Some of the cakes in the photos are the ones I have made for special occasions - my mother's 60th birthday, a 21st birthday, another 60th birthday for a friend and for an engagement party.

I used to also made made cakes for other birthday's and special occasions such as farewell parties. These were mostly chocolate cakes with a cream cheese icing. Some of the cakes in the photos include a hot air balloon ride for a friend who wanted a balloon ride for their birthday, a guitar for a musician, a computer for a computer nut and three small ducks to follow behind the mother duck for a 1st birthday. Mine are the smallest ducks in the photo.

I had a lot of trouble making and decorating the little ducks so after a few failed attempts I decided to cheat - I went and brought a packet of 3 little rubber ducks. I iced and decorated them all .... they looked really good and didn't fall apart which was the best part. Unfortunately they were a little bit rubbery to eat (sorry.. couldn't help myself - I just had to put that in).

If you ever want a really tasty, easy and no fail fruit cake here's the recipe I use.

Christmas Fruit Cake

Ingredients
225g butter
225g currents
225g sultanas
125g mixed peel
125g blanched almonds
125g glace cherries
500g seeded raisins
225g soft brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon mixed spice
1 dessertspoon cinnamon
225g plain flour
6 eggs (carefully separated)
granted rind of 1 orange or lemon
2 tablespoons brandy or wine

Method
Pre-heat oven to 120°C (250°F)

Prepare dried fruit – halve cherries, chop almonds into thirds.
Place all fruit and nuts in a bowl, mix in flour so that all the fruit is coated.

Cream butter, sugar and spices.
Beat in egg yolks.

In a separate bowl, stiffly beat the egg whites.

Turn floured fruit out onto a clean bench and make a well in the middle. Add the creamed butter mix and beaten egg whites.

Use your hands and/or a plastic spatula to mix everything thoroughly but lightly together. Try to maintain the lightness of the beaten egg whites which is the raising agent in the cake. (this can also be done in a large mixing bowl but it’s important to make sure that the ingredients are folded in really gently)

Once everything is mixed together place mixture into a greased and lined 8 inch cake tin.

Bake for 3 ½ to 4 hours at 120°C– 140° C( 250°F – 275°F)

When a skewer comes out of the middle cleanly remove the cake from the oven.

Using the skewer make holes all over the top of the cake, then spoon over the brandy so that it sinks into the holes. Wrap the cake in two layers of grease proof paper and then two layers of foil prior to storing in a cool dry place. This helps keep the cake moist and fresh if it’s not being used straight away.

Sewing dresses and pajama's

When Megan & Jacinta were little I used to make a lot of clothes for them. I made dresses, pajama's & nighties, and dressing gowns. I also used to make tracksuit pants and tops for the girls and Philip.

I used to love going into the city as there was a big Pink Factory on Hoddle Street that used to sell material. It has since closed down but they would often have massive sales on their materials so I was able to pick up lots of great pieces of material for really cheap prices.

I used to enjoy sewing clothes but I was never a really good sewer and was certainly not a very neat sewer. The clothes always look okay on the outside but the seems were pretty messy. At least nothing ever fell apart while they were wearing them.

These pictures are just a few of the dresses and one of the nighties that I made for the Jacinta and Megan.

Charlie Cameron

I thought I better introduce you to the other member of my family - Charlie. Charlie is a cross between a West Highland Terrier and a Mini Schnauzer. He was only a few weeks old when he was given to me by my family and so small that he wasn't much bigger than my slippers.

Charlie has a kennel however the photo of him in the kennel was probably the only time he ever went into it. He loves going for walks and although he's not meant to he sleeps on my bed.


When I got a treadmill I decided to make one for him so that he didn't feel left out when I went walking. Charlie is pretty clever - he can shake hands, roll over, sit and stay. He even won a prize and had his photo printed in a magazine.

Every time we go for a walk we - rather I should say 'Charlie', gets stopped for a chat and a pat. He has his special friends like the man at the mobile library, the people in the newsagents and the lady in the hot bread shop. They always make him welcome taking the time to give him a pat.

Charlie has some 'doggie' cousins, there's Rex and Oscar, Harry and his newest cousin Dallas. He loves the rough and tumble with Harry but is not quite sure about Dallas yet as she's a much smaller than him and so full of energy that she runs rings around him.