Canvas

by Ruby

by Grace

by Nina

by Lily

Over the Easter break Kim got the girls to do a painting on canvas.  Thank god for Kim.  Once I was that mother who got the paints out more or less daily, made playdough weekly, did endless craft projects with the kids, sat them on my knee letting them guide the fabric through the sewing machine, displayed their work in an endless rotation on walls and on this blog.  And I didn't do it out of matyrdom or because I thought I should. I really liked that stuff.  I loved nothing more than hauling all the craft stuff onto the kitchen table and getting all the kids involved in some messy project.  It was my number one way to pass an afternoon.  When other kids came for plays it wasn't unheard of to sew bags or make potato prints, or stick bits of pasta onto cardboard and paint them.

Now it seems all my kid-crafting mojo has left me.  After more than a decade of parenting I just cant be bothered.  Painting seems like a lot of mess and hassle, and then what do we do with the finished products?  The art work on the walls has remained unchanged all year.  The idea of sorting through it fills me with ennui.

Maybe that is just the way it is - we are moving onto a new stage and lingering in the last one isn't so interesting (for me).  Unfair on Lil, who is forced to listen to chapter books when I'm sure the others still got picture books every night at her age, and who doesn't even get to watch half the favourite movies of the others because they've all grown out of them.  Movie nights on the whole are more difficult now - the tastes of a 12 year old and a 5 year old rarely intersect.  Do we just abandon the idea of a family movie and run it over two nights instead - little kids and big kids? I dunno.

I think I peaked too early, went too hard, too fast and left nothing in reserve.  

The Art Exhibition

For the past two years the girls have been planning to have an 'Art Exhibition'.  Inspired by the wonderful Kim, each holidays they have done a bit more work and carefully set it aside in their 'exhibition portfolio'.  I wasn't sure that the exhibition itself would ever eventuate and wasn't all that fussed, to be honest, and then, in a flurry of activity, it suddenly did.

Additional works were produced. 'Windy' by Ruby,

'Pencils' by Nina

Nina again,

Fairy Garden I and II by Grace, amongst many others.

The house was transformed into a gallery,

Nothing like taking the furniture and paintings out to show you how filthy your walls are....

It was a mixed media show;

'Glamping' by Ruby

Not sure what this says about Grace's idea of marriage....

There were some tiny things, old and new, from Nina



Some old favourites given a new look;

And, most importantly, there were friends, family and neighbours, who came along, purchased works
(37 sold) and raised $268 for a very worthy cause.

I had next to nothing to do with the whole thing.  It was organised entirely by Kim and the girls, even down to the baking of the brownies and lemon slice.  My contribution was pretty much limited to birthing the children and distributing flyers.  It was such a great thing to do, and also really valuable for the girls to see how much hard work goes into something like this.  Producing the actual art is the fun part.  The cutting, mounting, gluing, blu-tacking (onto walls), labelling and all the rest of the less interesting stuff is just as necessary.  I can't thank Kim enough  - for inspiring the girls, putting them onto Artists for Kid's Culture which is a cause close to their hearts, and putting in the hours of work to get it all together.  And to top it off, she brought all her family along to buy stuff.

Little Ripper

How gorgeous is this quilt? Of course it is not one of mine. Kim - artist, carer, friend - paper pieced, hand stitched, hand quilted this little beauty. It started years ago, at least five, maybe ten?

Look at the gorgeous fabrics. There is so much to look at in this quilt, so much to appreciate.

For years after the quilt top was finished, it lay dormant, waiting for the right time to become a quilt. She brought the quilt top over with some fabrics to audition for the border, the backing and the binding. It is amusing for me to be providing 'advice' to anyone when it comes to quilts. But I know myself that another set of eyes is so helpful. It never ceases to amaze me how a quilt can completely change depending on those selections, particularly the binding. That narrow little strip has such a vital role to play.

This binding is perfect I reckon, bringing together the colours and the small patterns and really 'binding' it.

I still can't imagine paper piecing a quilt, hand sewing the whole thing, then hand quilting it. But I'd like to think maybe one day I'll do it. It's a little ripper don't you think?