Book Week 2026: Ranger Rachel

It is quite possible that there is nothing more fabulous than Book Week. Honestly, it might be the reason I stay in teaching as long as I do. What a great celebration of all things I love! 

This year, Rachel wanted to be a Ranger. She has been very invested in the John Flanagan Ranger's Apprentice books, as well as the two spin off series and Brotherband. We had a discussion on the essential cape and I found three different green fabrics in my stash. Rachel opted for the olive-green bedsheet. 

Initially unimpressed with the hooded cape I whipped up one afternoon (she didn't like the excess fabric in the hood, but I couldn't be bothered make a fitted one for a costume), Rachel came round to it after some street friends told her how cool it looked. I knew she had a green shirt, so I figured with some jeans we were actually done. Little did I know. 

Rachel was intent on a pretty thorougher recreation. She scoured the park across the road for the perfect stick to become her long bow for weeks. Then raided the shed for bamboo stakes and long dowels to turn into arrows. Her bow was strung with some leather which I think was supposed to be used for making bracelets. Arrows were fletched with feathers she had collected over the years. There was also the oak leaf necklace, the throwing knives and daggers. Weighted, of course. I dug out the brown belt from the Jedi Costume along with a couple of the belt pouches. Rachel filled these with her "medical supplies" and other assorted things. 

After seeing her work hard at all the parts of her costume (the only thing missing was an arm brace really), when she requested some brown pants to wear, I felt I couldn't refuse. I fortuitously had some brown fabric in my stash thanks to the roller coaster journey of the Princess Bride Costumes of 2025.  So I measured her jeans and sat down on Sunday to make a pair of ranger pants for the Book Week Parade the next day. 

Things were going smoothly (and beautifully), until I realised I had accidentally sewn the front legs together and the back legs together, rather than to each other. There might have been a loud exclamation from the otherwise quiet sewing area before I decided the solution was to cut off the French seams and go again, this time with less beauty, more speed and the correct pieces of fabric. 

Rachel was happy with the comfy brown pants that included four pockets for her to stash even more Ranger things in. She borrowed Sophie's satchel bag to take her lunch in, and also Sophie's brown boots, even though they were too big for her. Rachel is committed like you read about. 

The quiver for the arrows was made the night before, and then I was informed the cape needed a slit in the back for the arrows to poke through. I may have organised that the morning of, but it was a very quick snip and sew. Rachel did win the prize for best dressed in her class. 

Gosh did she look fabulous. She was so chuffed with her costume and the imaginative play options ahead of her. The home made bow and arrows can, in fact, be fired, but she was only allowed to take them to school under strict instructions not to use them. One of the grade 6 teachers completing disregarded this though when the throwing knives (cardboard) were accidentally stuck in a tree and Rachel was asked to shoot them down with her bow. 

Make Up Pouch

This project was a very quick one that was not on any to do list ever. I just decided I needed a smaller pouch for my go-to work make up (rather than the larger box that I had for all make up stuffs). I ended up with some extra home time at the end of the holidays, so I grabbed out some fabrics and went for it. 

I used this tutorial from YouTube, which did come with a printable PDF pattern, that I couldn't be bothered to print out. I just guesstimated my own version which turned out fine, if a little less box-y than the original. 

I used a cotton drill piece I had picked up in Japan, and an off cut of kimono lining fabric for the inside. I was pretty happy to use that actually, because the mon (family crest symbol) on the fabric is able to be a little surprise when you open the pouch. It is also similar to the circular flower design on the main fabric too; like it was ment to be!

I used a zip I'd salvaged from a old backpack ages ago, just replaced the pulls with fabric ones. I'm pretty chuffed with how this all came out, and the speedy-ness of the project. On reflection, my last two projects were enormous quilts which have literally taken years to pull together and days of consistent sewing (here and here), so almost anything in comparison would have felt faster. 

Belated Post: Rachel's Birthday

Continuing my streak of belated birthday posting, (Steve 2025, Sophie 2026 and though I come next in the list, I haven't even done me yet!) here is a short note on Rachel turning 12. 

I don't know if it was the fact that I don't love odd numbers and thus wanted to skip 11, but Rachel felt 12 long before her birthday. As way back as February if people asked me how old the girls were, I had started just rounding up, even though she still had a good five months to go. 

Her birthday fell in the very last week of school, though Sophie and I were already on holidays since we aren't in the state system. This ment that I could make Rachel a fun bento for her birthday, and she got lots of love at school on the day. 

Friday, being the last day of school, was just another excuse to extend the celebrations - after school party in the park, followed by her first "big" sleepover with three extra friends. Saturday we had family around for a chilled afternoon tea to wrap it up. 

Rachel was not fussed with any kind of fancy Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book cake, so Sophie and I just got creative decorating a regular chocolate cake for her. Sophie actually spent about three weeks in the lead up to Rachel's birthday planning on all sorts of foods that she would make for Rachel. Their closeness is so delightful, demonstrated by this moment I managed to capture of them sitting together wrapped up in a Jeans Quilt watching some One Piece anime. 

In general Rachel is an agent of chaos. At school, one of the ultimate prizes in their reward system is to change the school bell (usually an upbeat pop song) to any song you choose. Rachel recently used her prize powers to change it to Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall; Part 2". Specifically the part that says: We don't need no, education. Definitely gave the teachers a laugh the morning it played at 8:55. 

Happy Birthday child. 

T Shirt Quilt: Finale!

Winter holidays 2026 feel like the gift that kept on giving. Steve was working through, so the girls and I kept things pretty simple; hanging around the house, catching up with people, reading, crafting, cooking and eating. I did get some kind of sickness in the middle, but it was nothing terrible, and mostly just left me tired and head-achey. 

Inconceivably, I managed to finish not one, but two hefty work in progresses among all the other life and sickness that went on. I've already talked about Maria's Denim Quilt, which was an achievement in itself, but today I get to say that I also finished the T Shirt Quilt! 

This had been a long long time coming - from back in 2020 when I first started cutting up T Shirts, to earlier this year when I realised I was getting close to having enough to get moving on it all. I lay out the shirts in what looked like a balanced and evenly distributed way and got sewing them up into columns. There were a couple of things that needed padding out, but that was a fairly easy fix to do. 

When I finished, I noticed one of my columns was slightly too short - I needed one more T Shirt! The girls and I voted on which of Steve's still wearable shirts to sacrifice to the quilt. 54 shirts in all.

So difficult to get a full photo of this quilt, since it's huge!

With the quilt top finished, I turned to the problem of actually quilting the thing. When I first made the quilt that went on our bed, 15 years ago, I had zero actual quilting experience and honestly, did not know what I was doing. This kind of worked out for me though, because when I finished that quilt, I really didn't do anything more than baste the thing together. Which ment that I could actually take the whole thing apart fairly easily. 

It was dusty, but I got to re-use all the batting that was inside the original quilt. Maybe I still don't know what I'm doing, but it was still functional and seemed a huge waste to just chuck it. The new quilt was slightly larger, so I added some extra strips that I had been given from a neighbour who was getting rid of it a few years ago. Yay for using up stuff! 

For the back of the quilt, I pieced together some leftover fabric from Sophie's Quilt, and grabbed out a random bed sheet that the girls weren't using anymore. I love the quilt top so much I really didn't want to spend any money (or time thinking) on the back. It made way more sense to just use what we had. 

Actual quilting (the process of sewing together the top, batting and backing) is honestly such physical work. The quilt is heavy! There is a lot of juggling things, figuring out where to pull or guide the fabric through. I have started doing this outside on the deck. I would just set up Sally on the glass table we have out there, but that table wobbles and bounces like crazy when you sew on it, so I take the dinning table out and butt it up against the glass one. Then there is plenty of space for the quilt to lay on the tables and I don't have the movement. 

Wanting to keep the cool images from the shirts as intact as possible, I just quilted lines down the columns and then across the rows. I really like the look of it, and I would have added more, but by the end of five or six hours of quilting, you get a bit over it. 

Since I had taken apart the original Queen Quilt, I cut that old top into strips and used it to bind the edges. I love so much that the old quilt is part of the new one. Can not say how much I love that. Everything in this quilt is something that was used before or leftover from another project. That's not to say that it cost nothing. Hours and hours of time went into making this. Even just prepping the T Shirts for the top was likely eight hours, not to mention sewing it all together, and that was before the quilting and binding. 

Even though no one would likely pay the hundreds of dollars that this quilt is worth, there is some serious satisfaction, joy and comfort when I see this quilt on our bed. Time well spent. 

Denim Birthday Quilt

So delighted to have this done, gifted and out into the world! 

Since I made my first denim quilt back in 2016, I always wanted to have another go at it. Steve's mum mentioned feeling the cold more a few winters back, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make one for her. Denim quilts tend to be weighty and warm. 

As with the last one, I used worn out jeans for the denim (and salvaged all the zips while I was at it). All but one pair were donated to me (or from our family), and I bought the last pair for $7 at an op shop. I'd been hoarding the denim for a few years and it felt very good to finally cut into it. 

I actually started cutting the circles of denim at least two or three years ago now, and then they sat in a box under my sewing desk waiting. I knew I didn't have enough and would need to add more as the girls grew out of their jeans or Steve and I wore out of ours. The fabrics for the inside were a mixed bag. Some new from Spotlight, some left over from Sophie's quilt, and some that I just had in my stash. 

Under each square of fabric is a piece of batting that again, I was using scraps up for. I had a stack of obscure cut offs that I Frankenstin-ed together to make the squares, and my mum had a slew of random shaped smaller rectangles that I used up as well. This kind of quilt is perfect for that, since the batting doesn't have to be one huge sheet like a regular quilt would. 

After having this under the sewing desk waiting and in the back of my mind waiting for literally years now, it was so good to get it done! Even though Maria's birthday isn't actually until October, we gifted it early so that she would be able to use it this winter. I feel like I've learnt a lot in sewing in the ten years since I made the first one, but there were still things about this that weren't exactly perfect. Maybe in another ten years I'll give it one more crack. 

1000

There are no words. 

More Reading

Half way through the year and here is an update on the reading list! 

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Roirdan
Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Roirdan
Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labryinth by Rick Roirdan
Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Roirdan

I re-read these Percy Jackson books in preparation for watching the Disney+ series with the girls. The books did not dissapoint. Can't say the same for the series though. 

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
Dangerous by Shannon Hale
I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Lirael by Garth Nix
Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was excellent and Dangerous was pretty good too. I picked up Dangerous at the second hand bookstore near us along with I am Number Four. I think I've read that before, and while it's good, it does go off the rails a bit at the end. Won't bother trying to chase down the subsequent books. 

Seeking Persephone by Sarah M Eden
Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Sprig Muslin by Georgette Hayer

Seeking Persephone is the first book I've ever read on a Kindle. It was just too expensive to justify buying it for an author I'd never read, but the local library didn't have a copy either, so Kindle was the only option left. I didn't mind reading on the Kindle, but it's not preferable to an actual book. As far as the book goes, I liked it, but the character development seems like a puzzle to me. For some reason there is no clear moment where things change between them... maybe it's a lack of actual genuine conversation, and the way the characters/author keeps trying to "wax philosophical" about the Persephone myth? Unsure. Also, wish there was slightly more to the story, but would still read again. 

Georgette Hayer I found by reading the notes at the back of Garth Nix' Newt's Emerald. She has a rather extensive collection of books, so I borrowed a couple from the library to give it a go. She writes a fiasco pretty fabulously, but her female characters are a little lackluster (or maybe it was just the two books I read?). Still, one to keep on my radar. 

Authentically Izzy by Pepper Basham
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Marriage of Convenience by Georgette Hayer
Till We have Faces by C. S. Lewis
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Authentically Izzy was a rom-com by a Christian author, and what I liked about it was that there was way more to the story than just the romance, there was no over-done, awkward conversion or gospel presentation, and the writing was so interesting. Would read more! I don't know how I stumbled upon Klara and the Sun, but it was also delightful. Main character was childlike but believable and genuine. 

Till We Have Faces is a C. S. Lewis retelling of the Greek myth of Psyche and her sisters, which I was really excited/intrigued to read, but unlike other retellings, C. S. Lewis did not really add his own ending, or give a satisfying conclusion which I felt like we were all waiting for, especially given that he was writing from the perspective of Psyche's sister. C. S. Lewis is good at thought provoking conversations between characters, and this gave you that, but absolutely no pay off in the end. 

BattleAxe by Sara Douglas
Enchanter by Sara Douglas
StarMan by Sara Douglas

Lastly, a trip down memory lane for these Sara Douglass books (the Axis Trilogy). I took the girls to the Life Line Bookfest at South Bank and saw these there. I've considered getting them before, but for some reason, hadn't (maybe I'd never seen all three (and all three in the same edition!) at once?). Anyway, I grabbed them and have spent 24 hours reading them (8hrs per book), so the $13.50 that they cost me was well worth it. Not sure I've read them since my early 20s (or school maybe?!). I'd read them again, but maybe when I don't have a term of school planning looming over my to do list. 

19 books in the original post (I'm outraged that I didn't count and had an odd number of books - who am I!?), and 21 here (again with the odd numbers!) adds up to 40 books thus far for 2026. It's a good year for reading.