Sushi Apron

Our cooking loving Sophie had grown out of her other apron. She was going to a Japanese cooking event with church, and requested a new one. So I made her an apron. 

Most basic sewing ever. I did a quick google for rough measurements, and sacrificed some more of this bright sushi fabric that Sophie already has in a bag. She loves it, and I'm happy to report, has also been wearing it. 

Book Week 2026: Paula!

Better than making a costume for your book loving daughters: organising one for yourself. I've discovered that in the same way there are people in the world who hang out for Christmas and just love the whole season and everything it entails, so do I love Book Week. 

I wanted to go simple this year, for no particular reason. I think I am really feeling the push for sustainability and environmentally conscious choices. Even though I love making and creating, it's important that I'm not part of the ongoing overconsumption fast fashion problem we are currently living in. 

Anyway (off my soapbox now) I decided to re-use a costume that we already had; Squirrel Girl! I had made Sophie an excellent costume for Squirrel Girl in 2022. Rachel has worn it since (Superhero day at school, no photos), but I haven't. My turn now! 

Though I had the perfect brown boots to wear, I was less inclined to pair them with tights and a body suit for a Primary School Book Week. I was tossing up some of the shorts I had made, when I was fortuitously gifted a pair of brown jeans by my sister Sarah. Problem solved. Maybe not as comics accurate, but still in theme and much more practical for a day of teaching small children. 

I turned the brown cuffs I had made Sophie into arm braces and whipped up a pair of brown ears out of the leftovers. Everything was lined with leftover brown fabric from making pants for Rachel's Ranger costume. The brown Jedi belt and pouches also made an appearance. 

I thought I would have to do a fair few adjustments to the brown vest (or scrap it altogether) to make it fit, but I could get my arms through and it clipped up across my upper chest just fine. Winning! 

Tippy Toe was pinned onto my shoulder and I carried both the comic and the novel that we have of Squirrel Girl with me. Though I was not recognised by any students, except two year six-ers, I had a great time. Book Week for the win!

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. 

T Shirt Quilt: Phase 2

This is still very much a work in progress. Not sure if it's frustrating, or something I'm ok with. I can certainly see the goal though, and I don't feel it is too far off now. 

Back in 2020, after a wardrobe clean out that removed a number of Steve's humorous shirts from his drawer, I decided the best thing would be to save them for a quilt. Initially I had enough to just a single, couch quilt type thing, if I used some extra fabric to pad it out. I didn't love that idea (even though I'd spent a fair few hours on the cutting out of fabric I wouldn't end up using), so I just put it in a Work In Progress box in my sewing nook. 

Over the years, I added shirts to it as we wore out of them. Steve's, mine, even the girls. The box was getting quite full, so in May I pulled it down to do a stocktake of what I had collected. To my delight, I had actually been putting away more shirts than I remembered, and now had more than twice or three times as much as when I started. 

This made me pretty excited, because even though we had reclaimed our original quilt from Sophie (now that she had her own), it was looking pretty worn out; even ripped in a few places. I will likely salvage lots of it for repurposing, but I'm also looking forward to replacing it on our bed with a new quilt made with our fun shirts. 

I've put in the time to prep the stretchy shirt fabric with interfacing so it won't move around when I quilt it. It's also going to take a while to get the layout right, given I'll need to balance colours and themes (can't have too many positive dinosaurs or Disney references in one cluster now), but I'm actually really looking forward to it. 

Too bad I'm still in the midst of another WIP! Is it too much to hope that these school holidays will be super productive and I'll get both of these done? Probably.

Haori

I had this bolt of fabric in my draw for a number of years now - I thought three, but flicking back through the blog tells me I got it in April of 2022. It came from my friend David along with a cotton yukata bolt, and three wool kimono bolts (here, here and here). This one was a shorter length - not the 12 metres needed for a full garment, but probably half that - maybe six metres or so? It was perfect for a haori, which is a jacket worn with a kimono. 

Not only had I never made a haori before, but the fabric itself was intimidating because it was dyed with shibori techniques that left it with a texture. Obviously that's hard to explain here when you are unable to touch the fabric, but imagine it's bumpy, not smooth. Also, my friend David had given me a piece of silk for the lining that wasn't quite enough, so I needed to really think through how to make it work. 

And all the instructions I could find on the internet for a haori were for either an unlined one, or a men's style, which is actually different because the ladies version has extra spacers to allow for the larger obi that would fit underneath. 

All the problems! Should I be the one to provide instructions for the internet on how to do this? Clearly there is a gap there....

Focusing up though, I'm really trying to sew from my stash and use what I have. We were coming into winter and I figured it was now or never for this. I studied some of my exisiting haori, did a lot of thinking, over thinking and mental gymnastics figuring out how it would work and what sewing order to do and then I got to work. 

I ended up using a lighter pink cotton to line the sleeves, but everything else was with the fabrics I had. I sewed it on Sally, except for the final collar hand sewing. I think it took a week? 

And then I wore it. With my Black Yukata and a obi that I also made. I don't know why the photos of the fabric and then the final product on look like different colours. Even looking at these ones, they come out a lot more pink looking than it is. Maybe because the obi changes things? 

I've actually worn it a bunch more because it's so beautiful and fun. It feels very fancy - especially because I know the pattern on it comes from some seriously time consuming dying techniques. 

I realised after taking these photos that I'd made this entire outfit - including the undergarments that you can't see (and I never blogged about), which is pretty wild really. 

Thoughts and Previews

The girls have been sick lately. Rachel most of all - she came home from school one Thursday, was in bed by 3:30 and pretty much slept solidly for three days. Wouldn't even come out to watch a movie or read a book. It was pretty nuts. Suffice to say, we cancelled all plans that weekend and sat around at home. Sophie came down with something similar (though not as bad) the following week, so we had another weekend of laying low and resting week. 

As part of laying low, I did some reading, but also re-started chipping away at a sewing project. I've had this in the "work in progress" box for at least two years, and it's really bugging me now, so I'm making a concerted effort to get it done. It's intended to be a present, so I don't want to give too much away on it. 

But as I sat there at my sewing machine, I was wondering to myself; is this really what I should be doing? Is this the most important way to be spending my time right now? I mean, I had pretty much an entire day free, surely there was something else? 

I can't say I thought too much more about what else I could have been doing, though I'm sure there were worthy options, but my impulse response was to decide that the best thing I could do would be to finish this project as quickly as possible, and thus not have to deal with the conundrum again. Not sure that was the wisest decision, since three hours later I was so deep and focused on the sewing I clean forgot that we needed to pick Rachel up from a Guide camp (luckily Steve remembered and went for me). 

I'm finding though, that recently I've got a lot more of these existential crisis thoughts going on. Am I where I need to be? Doing what is meaningful? What is the legacy I'm leaving? Is anything I do having a lasting impact, or is it all pointless anyway? 

When I turned 25 I remember feeling funny about a quarter of a century. 30 actually felt great - lots of clarity and wisdom about things I never realised before. 40 feels much more like things might be falling apart. That I'm about to start dealing with the consequences of bad choices and that I don't have the time or ability to fix things anyway. Some days the future looks good - I've got the resources and know how to keep going, make positive impact and change things, while other days seem like there really is no point to it at all. 

In reflection too, I find that a lot of my choice activities of late have felt withdrawn or isolated. Reading, walking, sewing. Contrasted to our six months in Japan last year, when even our "chill at home days" were very together as a family (D&D). On one had I miss that, but obviously I don't feel like we would be able to recapture the same kind of (for want of better word) vibes now. That was obviously a very unique set of circumstances that led to those times.  

Anyway, instead of dwelling on these (probably totally normal) thoughts, I will just go back to my sewing project and the isolated enjoyment it offers, and tell myself that it's only for a season. 

Shoulder Bags

Even though the girls have a plethora of bags, they have taken to using an old shoulder bag I have at any possible moment. My bag has sushi print on it, and I'm fairly sure it was a 21st present from my childhood friend Alice. I had been using it as my "church bag" so it had my housewife, a pen and my bible in it ready to go every Sunday, but I'd swapped it out for a new one we bought in Japan (on Shodoshima), because it had started fraying. 

The girls had swooped it up, and were using it alternately. After I quizzed them about why their other bags were not enough, it turned out they liked the one long strap, over the shoulder, design of my sushi bag. Rachel also told me that her Falinks Bag just wasn't big enough for a morning at church, especially since she had been taking extra books to lend to a friend each week. 

So I made them bags. I let them pick fabric from my stash, copied the design and did some sewing. 

It was a little hard cutting into the kookaburra fabric, knowing I was taking 2m of potential dress down to 1.5, but better to be using it right? And I'm fairly sure I could still get something great out of 1.5m.

Similar with the cool sushi fabric that Sophie chose. 

Anyway I lined them with fabric that matched and made sure they had pockets and key clips. Sophie's lining fabric was so thin that I added an extra layer of random bedsheet-fleece that I had to give it a bit more stability. The white with small rainbow hearts fabric is a hand me down from Aunty Sue, and the other navy one that became the pocket is scraps from her quilt. 

Rachel's was lined with fabric she had left over from making Sophie a pencil case for her birthday, (Japan fabric!) as well as some dress off cuts and one of the fabrics she and I picked out for Sophie's Quilt that Sophie decided she didn't want in the end (those cute butterflies). 

I'm pleased to say that the new bags have been well received and we managed to clean out the old bags so there is a much more manageable bag situation at the front door. 

Dress Fail, Skirt Success

So I tried to make a dress. This beautiful fabric (Jocelyn Proust print bought on sale at Spotlight probably ages ago (at least two years?)) I initially got thinking of Rachel, but the more I had it in the drawer, the more I wanted something for me. Thankfully, Rachel was not excited about the fabric anyway, so I didn't feel selfish about the switch. 

Wanting to be fancy and different, I thought I'd try incorporating a cap sleeve into my usual design. I did a make a mock up. It seemed like it would work. So I went ahead, cut and sewed away. But when I had the 90% finished dress on, it became oh so clear that it had not worked at all. 

Everything had too much. Too much width across the shoulders, too much length in the bodice, too much extra in the back. Even the skirt was too long by far. Sadly, because of the design, I couldn't see any way of salvaging it as a dress. I used off cuts from making this for Sophie's Quilt, and I've used some of the fabric before in a pencil case for Rachel. It's lined with fabric I've used for PJ's before that also featured in Sophie's Quilt. 

Photos taken inside on a dark rainy day,
so the colours look strange - it's much brighter than this in reality. 

I'm trying to be much better about actually finishing things though, and so I only let it languish for a month or two before I got to sorting it out. Since the skirt (with it's excellent pockets) was still good (despite the length), I unpicked the bodice, cut a waist band and sewed it up. 

Weirdly, though I wear this kind of full, gathered skirt situation on most of my dresses, having it on a stand alone skirt seems different. Don't know why. I'm hoping I'll still get some use out of it, because I love the fabric and it would be a waste otherwise. The hem is a good 10cm deep, and actually folded three times to get the right length. I could probably lop it off and use the fabric for something else (quilting?), but it isn't hurting anyone there. 

Cultural Festival Day!

I know I say that my work has been busy, and I guess I can't complain when sometimes the extra stuff is self inflicted. Still, this day, extra work that it is aside, is totally worth it and lots of fun. I run a 文化祭 (bunkasai) cultural festival day for the whole school. It's changing gradually each year and the kids love it. That said, it always required some prep work. 

This year, I had my ninja throwing boards that I painted for the 2025 festival ready to go. I also had the set of blue bean bags I'd made for the first one we ran back in 2024. I needed two additional sets of bean bags (one yellow, one white to match the sports teams we have), but thankfully, Steve's mum came to the rescue there. Not only did she cut all the fabric, but she sewed and filled over 200 bean bags for me as well. Good thing I blogged about it back in 2024, because that post turned out to be the best instructions to follow. 

Rachel came with me to school in the holidays for a day and did some prep work on the boxes I needed for a relay game as well as the shoe boxes I used for a sumo game. 

She also helped me paint the background for this six-metre long cherry blossom mural. 

This was a collaborative art work that the year 1 and 2 students contributed to on the festival day. They added the cherry blossoms all over the trees. 

I've been asking at school if I can paint murals, but the answer thus far has been no. This, however, feels like a step in the right direction. It's hanging where the Year 1 and 2 students put their bags, and you can see it all the way from the carpark because it's so big. Really brings some colour and fun to an otherwise boring wall. Wonder what we will do next time. 

Antisocial Quilt Making

School this year has been a lot of work for me. I don't want to go into it much but I've been asked to teach a second subject area alongside Japanese, without any additional time for planning or actual teaching. It's been a bit rough to say the least. When I got to the end of term and holidays started, I really needed to switch off. 

So I spontaneously decided to make Sophie a quilt. 

She's kind of needed one for a little while now, since the one I made for her back in 2013 is only a single. While it does still fit, Sophie is the type of sleeper who likes to get a bit tangled up, and it wasn't cutting it. She'd found the Queen Quilt that I'd made for Steve and I (pre kids - way back in 2009!) and had claimed it as her own. Which was great for her, because she could roll around, wrap up and sleep peacefully, but not great for Steve and I who were now without a quilt. 

I'd seen a video pop up on YouTube of a "Floating Lanterns" quilt that seemed pretty easy to replicate. I dug through my fabric stash and pulled out some ideas that I thought Sophie would like, and then took Rachel on a trip to Spotlight to get the plain colour for the sashing/background and she helped me pick out a few more colours to compliment things. 

Sophie did have a look over the fabric and veto some, but was pretty happy with most of them, so I got to work. Cutting hundreds of squares and rectangles to sew. Can't say I love this part of the quilting process, especially when it's so reliant on doing the maths right and then counting correctly as you go. I was some squares and rectangles short when it came to sewing, but when I did cut more squares and sewed them in, I found I had excess blocks. Oh well!

The above photo is Sophie lying next to what I think will be the layout and me trying to decide if it's going to come out long enough for her. I was working on roughly double bed measurements but it didn't seem wide enough to me. I was contemplating taking one of the top rows of blocks and moving it to the side (rather than making more), but then that seemed like it would leave the quilt too short for Sophie's long legs. 

In the end, I used the surplus bits and cut and sewed a few more to gain an extra row to add to the width of the quilt. Once I'd lay out the blocks in their final pattern, I had to tell everyone we couldn't open the doors because the wind was my enemy. Also, we were going to have to walk around it being on the floor for a while, since sewing takes time. 

At one stage I thought I had sewn enough and could risk the doors half open, but that resulted in the wind blowing away about 85% of the rest of the layout before I could stop it. Thankfully I'd taken a lot of photos, so I just needed to sort through and lay them out again. Lesson learned though. Once it was finally sewn together, I was well pleased with the result, so I added the boarder and went to get some backing fabric from Spotlight (on sale whew!)

I am still not amazing at actual quilting, but I have been watching some videos on YouTube from Pin Cut Sew, and I must have picked up something, because this quilted much better than my previous attempts. I was going to wing it when it came to the quilting lines, but I ended up pre-marking them, because my blocks were not all square and I figured if I was juggling the quilt through the machine I didn't want to have any extra things to think about. It was worth it, because it did make the quilting easier. 

Sophie went away to camp on Saturday morning and I had the quilt bound and finished for her when she came home on Monday. She's given the quilt a stamp of approval and Steve and I have reclaimed our quilt once more. I was pretty anti social for the ten days that I worked on this quilt. Headphones on and off to my little sewing area. Thankfully my family knew I needed the down time and were gracious to give it to me. 

This quilt has some beautiful fabrics in it, PJ fabric, Luke's Christmas shirt, Sophie's halter top/shorts, some leftover maple leaves and cat fabric that Rachel bought in Japan and used to make Sophie a birthday pencil case, some other cat fabric that I got in Japan for Sophie too. I had enough of the pinky floral print (from Sophie's halter top trial) to make the binding for the quilt too. I also learnt that polyester thread does not play well with the very hot iron that I used to press the seams. I melted quite a few rows of stitching making this quilt!

There is something really lovely about seeing a home made quilt on a bed. Hours of work, various skills and at the end, something beautiful that will last a life time. Well worth the effort.