baby Rita

baby Rita hand
Originally uploaded by djbebe

Bad news: we had our baby two weeks ago, at 24 weeks, and she didn't make it. I just went into pre-term labour, and she was just too small. She had very long fingers and toes like her mum, and a nose like her dad. We called her Rita.

We had lots of fantastic support from family and friends - big thanks to you all - and are on the road to recovery. Looking at that little hand is still the hardest thing.

I will be back with some good news soon.

tiger tongues

tiger birthday cake
Originally uploaded by djbebe

This photo is a bit old - sorry blog, for cheating - but the thing that I've spent all day working on and just finished (yay!) has to stay secret until Kim has her baby. (Not long now!) So instead, you can all admire the totally awesome cake that HandyMan and I made for my nephew Henry's second birthday. I somewhat foolishly volunteered for the cake making duties since the mother and grandmothers were all sick or too busy. I seem to recall I was also sick and too busy but the alternative was my mother slapping up some cake mix and sticking some smarties on top. Henry might not have cared that much but I did - so armed with the Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book, some pinking shears and a whole lot of butter, we whipped this cake up in record time. Squashed marshmallows for eyes, licorice stripes and the tongue is made from an orange sugar jube, cut in half so the shiny side is showing - and irresistable to a 2 year old. I attempted to get Henry to admire and appreciate the artistic skill involved in making such an awesome looking tiger - yeah, it's a tiger, whatever - but he just kept reaching for that shiny tongue. And there's only a certain amount of time where it's socially acceptable to keep a small child away from his own birthday cake.

reverse garbage + workplace agreement

I may have mentioned Reverse Garbage before - well they're having a pre-Christmas exhibition and some of my creations will be on display there. And if you're super observant, you may notice that one of my brooches is featured in the flier. If you're in the area, maybe I'll see you at the exhibition launch?

pink elephant quilt

pink elephant quilt
Originally uploaded by djbebe

This is a closeup of the hand-quilting I'm doing on the baby quilt (my third - quilt that is, not baby) for my brother's second baby, due in February. Aren't I organised?! Should be finished in another week or two. I'm quilting it from the back, using the print as the template. So I'm stitching around pink elephants, and tigers, and flowers and giraffes. Easier than drawing templates! I went to visit my nan for lunch and went with her to the retirement village's "craft ladies" group; I took my quilt and did a bit of stitching, while listening to the ladies chatter in the background. What are you doing there Madge? Ohhh, I'm just crocheting around the edge of this hankie, the cotton hankies that my Cheryl used to get for me down at... Oh here's a pattern for 3 ply, you can't get that any more, it's all gone 4 ply... Yes it was all Azalea and do you remember when Jet came in? Oh yes it was 12 ply - that was fast knitting! Ohhh, and have you been listening to the news? My Beryl's in Phuket but thank goodness I got a text message from her yesterday and she's ok... And how about Dulcie, she shouldn't be still living on her own in that house...

A very relaxing soundtrack to hand quilting!

I also spent some time in Brisbane on the weekend with Kim and did some ironic? satirical? handquilting while sitting next to a machine-quilting frame. I can see the benefits of machine-quilting, especially for large projects, but I still prefer the more forgiving, meditative approach of handquilting. I'm about a quarter of the way to being finished!

tea and sympathy

sympathy flowers
Originally uploaded by djbebe

This has been a very long week, and I'm totally pooped. My grandfather, known to everyone as Pa, passed away on Sunday. It wasn't unexpected but that only makes so much difference. He'd been in hospital for the last five weeks, gradually getting worse. I saw him in the hospital on Saturday and that was one of the hardest things I've done. He looked so small and empty, like a shell. Then Tuesday was my birthday and Wednesday was the funeral. So I've been giving hugs and having cups of tea and washing dishes and looking after my grandma all week. They were married for 61 years. He was very special, always had time for everyone, and is very loved.

It has been good though, in a way, to have the time to spend with family that we don't see that often. I also managed some diversionary crafting, as you may have noticed. But now I'm going to have a beer and veg in front of the telly. Goodnight!

platypus for Henry

platypus
Originally uploaded by djbebe

Inspired by the lovelies I saw at Two Little Banshees - go check out her etsy store - I made a platypus for my nephew Henry's birthday - he'll be 2 in 2 weeks. Think he'll know what it is?

cover for a dvd player

cover for a dvd player
Originally uploaded by djbebe

I whipped up this cover for my little nephew's portable dvd player - he's almost 2 - that keeps him amused on long car trips. On their last trip up this way they said he was very concerned by the viewing - chewing his fingernails, frowning etc. I asked what he was watching, they said Chicken Little - now I remember seeing this at the movies and there were aliens and big spaceships and scary stuff - so I said they should stick to Tractor Tom for the moment.

Anyhow, they said the player was getting dusty in the car so I said I would make them a cover for it. I just hope I've put the holes for the cords in the right places. You know when you measure something and then when it's not in front of you any more you're can't be absolutely sure that you wrote it down right? Well they're back coming back tomorrow so we'll see.