A Stitching Son...

This butterfly was made by E.

He was very excited on Saturday when we were in our local Crazy Clarkes as we found a couple of sewing kits.  He was even more excited because one was a butterfly.  So after a few hours and some glue drying time (eye attachment etc) we had a very proud boy.

 So proud and driven in fact that this is what greeted me before school today.

"I have stitching to do" he declared when asked to pack his bag.

I love his enthusiasm, if not his timing.

Fast February and Frantic Finishes

Well I can safely say that it is a good thing that February had 29 days this year as I needed today to claim my OPAM finishes for the month.

February has gone so fast for us.  Now that may have been influenced by this...

flooding and cleaning up

 or possibly this knee operation and subsequent lack of mojo

So having having had no desire to sew, or quilt, or even hand sew I didn't think I would get anything made.  However on the weekend when I was going stir crazy my wonderful hubby told me to "GO SEW".  So after unearthing my sewing table from accumulated stuff I found a quilt that I should have finished last year & got to work.

The resulting quilt is my only February finish, just in the nick of time.

"Junior Campus Hands"

 This quilt was started late last year with children from my boys' school.  The children were from Prep to year 3 and they all stitched the outline of their hand onto a block and I joined and quilted the quilt.

I love some of the tiny hands and the lovely hand-writing.  One of the little Preppies even wrote their name backwards (middle yellow block below) and it has been captured forever.  It is a cute 'snapshot' of a moment in time.

 There are 2 large hands in the quilt.  The Head of Campus and Head of Early Phase of learning were stitched too.

 and to complete the layout, a school logo cut form an old school shirt.

I think it turned out quite well and as of this weekend, it should be hanging in the school office.

And because I realised I hadn't posted "Future Hunk" T-shirt finish from January -  here it is.

.  Now to explain my eldest child is a 9 year old boy and as any mother of boys will know, once your children are out of size 6 clothes, the only available designs are skulls, skater dude and other 'older' images.  T does not like these and neither do I, so when we were on holidays in January we found a cute "Smurf" baby shirt that he asked me to 'make bigger'.

T loves his shirt and someone always makes a cute comment when he wears it.

Hopefully March will see me back on schedule with some creative finishes.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS

Well Christmas time is here again and our family couldn't be more excited.  We have all been a bit creative.

E made a LEGO reindeer and sleigh.

Baking apricot balls.

 T with his painted nutcracker

 and well, I haven't made anything this month.  Maybe in the next week???

So from the Outback Crafter Family, we wish you Merry Christmas and I will see you in blogland in 2012.

The Big Reveal - what the boys were up to

You may recall a couple of weeks ago I blogged about my boys being up to 'secret' business.

Well, now that the recipients of the gifts have received them, I can reveal the secret.

They were making key rings for their Granddad and Grandpop.  The boys were so excited about this.

Here is T with the keyring for Grandpop.

 And E with his keyring for Granddad.

 

Now for a few close ups.

This is the front of E's design.  He drew/carved a submarine under the water.

 and on the back, stamped Granddad's initials.

 

Grandpops' design by T, has initials and some stamped images.

We hope the granddads like these, as the boys had a great time creating them.

My boys have been up to 'secret' business

I was so very excited on Sunday when my hubby took the boys outside to do some 'bloke' craft.  

I am not permitted to say what they were making as it is a "secret" but they were so proud of their efforts and have be asking to go & do some more.

The hammered, scratched, banged, polished, got excited, got upset, told each other what to do, listened very attentively to Daddy's instructions (for the 1st minute) and all in all had a good time.

I will reveal the finishes when I am given permission.