Blogsitting

I won't be blogging for about 2 weeks as I'm going on holidays to visit family in Israel and Vienna. So...my cat, Kwai Chang, has promised to take care of the blog while I'm away...he's even promised to post. Cat crafts, I asked? But he's not telling. Somehow between sleeping and more sleeping, I can't imagine he'll be doing much posting.



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Trixi's Quilts Part 1: Why it takes me years to sew a quilt

When my kids were little they loved drawing, and I liked sewing quilts. But I didn't just want to make quilts for the sake of making a quilt. I was drawn to the quilts of the early American pioneers: the quilts of the Oregon trail, of the Civil War, and of the early Afro-Americans. These quilts told a story. For many 19th century women their quilts were a record of some part of their daily lives. So I had this Great Idea. I would make a quilt using my kids drawings. This would be my record of what my kids were interested in and what they liked drawing at that time in their lives. Well that was the idea.

I gave them 4 inch square patches of material and told them to draw whatever they wanted on them. I was going to embroider the drawings and make them into a patchwork quilt. Yiscah, she's the youngest and very headstrong, decided that she wanted to embroider her own drawings. She got to work and I soon had a pile of her embroidered squares. Problem was, she was the only one giving me squares. So the quilt of the Great Idea was now becoming Yiscah's quilt, which was fine, except I had already made a quilt for Yiscah. Seemed that the Great Idea was getting in the way of the Grand Plan.

I also had this Grand Plan which went: 4 kids, 4 quilts. I had already hand sewn and hand quilted one of these 4 quilts, and that quilt just happened to be for Yiscah. It took me a few years to make it, which is why the plan is called "grand". So now I was making a second quilt that looked like it should belong to Yiscah. As I didn't want to give her another quilt before I'd made one for her brothers and sister, I decided I'd keep this one for my husband and myself. It took me under a year to sew the quilt top (which is quick for me), but I couldn't decide whether to use a wide border or whether to keep up the patchwork design. That was 8 years ago. In the meantime I completed Quilt Number 2 of the Grand Plan, but that's a story for another post.

The quilt top of the soon-to-be-finished quilt of the Great Idea: Yiscah called these fellows "firebugs". You can see the little flames she loved to put on them.



This she said was a "fairy punk". Note the hair and accessories.



A hippie "bug person" standing in a field of flowers, I think.



And definitely another fire bug looking very fiery.



TO BE CONTINUED...

Thanks for the thought:

When I started blogging, some 2 months ago, I was very excited. After a few posts though I started worrying ( and complaining to my husband ) that no-one was actually reading my posts. But then the visitors started coming. After a few more posts I started complaining again. No-one was commenting on my posts. Then I started getting comments.

It's always nice when you post to get feedback on your work, and comments are always exciting. Earlier in the week Craving Frocks gave me the "Lovely Blog Award". That was a very sweet thing to do. It's a nice way of saying I like your blog. And when you're just new to the blogging world it's a fun award to receive.

Trixi's Golden Oldies: Chalk Away the Hours

I don't know about your kids, but my kids always loved drawing with chalk. When they were little I used to give them a box of chalk to draw with on the pavement outside our house. They could spend hours drawing. It looked amazing and lasted till the next rain. And then they could start again. Even the neighbors children used to come over and join in, and their parents didn't mind as long as their drawings were only in front of our house. This may not always have been the case, but the neighborhood survived.

Last Monday I visited Karen's blog:And so, I sew. I was quite intrigued about something she mentioned called "chalkboard material". I 'd never heard of it and Karen was kind enough to let me know what it was and where I could buy it. So perhaps there's a new project in the pipeline. The chalkboard material reminded me of a small-carry-with-you chalkboard that I used to make with my after school classes.

The chalkboard is a 30cm x 30cm square of craft wood. The easiest way to get clean sharp lines is to use masking tape. I chose the widest I could find, which was about 500mm. I put a strip of tape along each side to mark out the central square that I painted with black chalkboard paint. Don't leave the masking tape on longer than 24 hours (it can get stuck on so well that it rips up little bits of the wood when you pull it off). When I paint the borders I use masking tape again to mark out the shape I want. I only paint one colour at a time and wait for it to dry before starting the next colour. If I want to hurry up the process I use a hair dryer. The duster is just a small piece of wood covered with felt. It's a very simple project that always comes off if you make everything really bright and colourful. Think Mexico.



This was actually part of a series of back-to-school projects that I used to do. If anyone is interested in these, just tell me. I'd be happy to rummage through my old ideas and post some of them.

Matchbox Monday 4: Rocky Monster Theatre

Yay, I've made it to Matchbox Monday 4, and this time it really is Monday. Big applause. Hope that the past month has shown that there's more to the humble matchbox than meets the eye.






The matchbox I've used here is 12cm x 7cm x 2cm. You could use other sizes, but this is probably getting close to the smallest size that is still practical for kids to play with. The photos I've posted are pretty self-explanatory, but here are some comments on some of the choices I've made.

I covered the box with a green wool felt which I dyed myself. It's really a lot of fun and not that hard to do. I used a microwave method which is very quick and simple. And you can get the most beautiful colours with all sorts of subtle variations in them that you just can't get from commercially dyed felts. Trim on the side of the matchbox can give your theatre a bit of pizazz.

On the bottom of each rock I have glued a small magnet, and to move the actors over the stage I have used two pop sticks with a magnet stuck on each end. Remember that magnets have two poles, so check that the upside of the one stuck to the pop stick is attracted to (and not repelled by) the down side of the magnet stuck to your rock fellow before you glue. And take care, there's a big difference in the quality of magnets. Some are just really weak and not very good. Get magnets that seem fairly strong. Also, if they're too strong you might find that your actors jump into each others arms as soon as they get close. A bit of experimenting solves all these little problems. The back of the stage is also held in place with magnets: two above and two below.




The background scene is a separate piece of cardboard that can be removed and replaced by other scenes. I stick a small bit of ribbon to the back to make it easy for kids to take out without crumpling the whole thing up. I used double sided spongy tape to stick on the shapes. It gives a nice 3-D effect and the truth is that painting the background can be a little tricky if you're not a good painter. It's not hard to end up with a mess. This way you get bright colours and clear sharp outlines.




I've chosen to make my actors from small rocks. Collecting the rocks can be fun for the kids. Actually, when my kids were little they used to get the smooth pebbles that fell through from our neighbor's fence and painted them with bright acrylic colours. And I think that sometimes they "helped" them fall through. The orangy red rocks in the photos (below) wash up on the beach here. The flat dark grey fellow (above) is a bit of slate - the little chipped bit makes a nice mouth. It can also be fun for the kids to get a whole pile of rocks they've collected and try to see what sort of creature they can make from them.

The last photos show all the pieces and how they pack up. Matchbox magic!