Some clever carpentry by a clever granddaughter

This lovely little table was made by our granddaughter.  She made it at school and it was being kept secretly so that she could give it to her mother as a surprise for Christmas.  It is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship made with beautiful wood.  This granddaughter is the one that made me the lovely flower vase containers.

It is so good to see girls being given the opportunity to pursue these crafts at school.  I often wish that I had been given the chance to do woodwork when at school but I guess I wouldn’t have gained all the needlework skills I now have.

Make Believe. . . .Alice in Wonderland

This strange photo is my attempt to catch the caterpillar on the toadstool in Alice in Wonderland.

When we were in Melbourne during the Christmas period we were lucky to be able to get to the Museum and view this exhibition on Make Believe which is the story of the creation of the Christmas windows at Myer store in Melbourne.

It was a fascinating exhibition with many of the automated models in operation.

The exhibition closes on 3rd February 2019.

A bit of the island of Harris in a Christmas wreath

When we were in the outer Hebrides in Scotland one of the craft shops we visited had these wreaths which made use of the off cuts of Harris Tweed.  The wreaths are very simply made by knotting the scraps onto a wire ring.

In Stornaway I purchased some Harris Tweed off cuts to make such a wreath for Christmas but didn’t quite get around to it this year so I will need to make sure I make it next year.

This year’s wreath was a simple Australian one featuring penny gumleaves and baby’s breath.

Another dad trick. . . . .

One of the tricks my dad used to do was to make a mouse from a handkerchief.  He then used to make the mouse jump up his arm.  It provided lots of fun for us as children and for his grandchildren.

Here is how you can do it for your children.

A finished quilt

I posted previously about a quilt I was making but then couldn’t post more because it was a 40th birthday gift for my elder daughter.  She has since had her birthday so I can now show the finished item.  A king sized quilt.The quilt was made from seven shirts and I had seen the idea on Pinterest.

I laid out the pieces to make sure no pieces the same were together.

Once I had joined the cover it then had the woollen wadding and backing fabric added before being quilted.

The next task was to make the binding.  I chose a dark burgundy that was left over in my stash of fabrics.

The final piece was to embroider the label for the back.

Easter icing and knitting

We had a lovely Easter as we had family visiting us for a few days.  We had a really enjoyable time as our youngest grandchild is three and was excited about the whole idea of the Easter Bunny.

Our youngest granddaughter was busy icing biscuits as Easter eggs and her sisters did some too.

There was great excitement when the Easter bunny left eggs in the garden.

One of our granddaughters is a keen knitter and she had found a book at the secondhand book sale we had gone to.  She was keen to try out some of the ideas so I was able to give her some of my left over wool so she could get started.  Of course her younger sister wanted to knit too.

I went to school in Scotland and knitting was something you were taught to do in primary school.  I am forever grateful for that.