This week, Ranger Rob had arranged for us to be supplied with shot rabbits for the children to prepare for the pot!

 Isabella had been admant that she was NOT going to do this but she did agree that she’d go with me and stay within the “school” boundaries. Actually, she was fantastic. A lot of crying to begin with but she did the whole thing, all the time talking to herself along the lines of “I don’t know why I agreed to do this!” then running off to play with 2 rabbit feet in her hand….

at one point I found myself calling after her to “Bring my kidneys back here now!” And just how I’ll manage to erase the memory of her holding the head in one hand, stroking it and telling it how sorry she is that it’s dead but at the same time watching the ranger demonstrate the next bit, well…

The demo rabbit was cut up and sauted in a pan over the campfire with onion and green pepper – tasted brilliant in a roll! We’d also taken the obligatory sausages, bananas and marshmallows so it was quite a feast.

Much to my surprise, we were able to take “our” rabbit home so it got wrapped in our used sandwich bags…Isabella could barely wait for Daddy to get home and gave him a minute description (her older sister left the next room when it got too graphic!) Then I had to get busy researching online and today we have not only casseroled the meat but we have begun the tanning process with the hide and have the claws soaking in whiskey! (Well the instructions said alcohol and this was the strongest we had!)

And if you think these photo’s are not for the squeamish, honestly I haven’t shown the worst – Madam took more of the head this morning before she let me dispose of it…

Tuesday 1 November 2011 – another milestone!

On Thursday I finally finished the cotbed quilt – whoopee! A friend asked me to make this as a baby gift and gave me free rein, as always. I designed this and asked DH for help with the rocket, which I made as a separate unit using interfacing, thanks to the applique workshop I went to recently. I made the star blocks and then…nothing!  I had nothing but hassle in trying to sandwich the layers together then trouble with the tension on the machine and then I ran out of thread! Oops…but a friend came to the rescue with a new spool so I set to again after ordering a replacement for her. I felt so guilty about the time this quilt has taken that after I added the binding by machine, I made a bag to carry it in or use as a cushion! All ready to deliver on Monday. (It’s 48″ square and freemotion quilted with stars all over, including over the friendship star blocks.)

Also ready to deliver is a sketchbook cover and pencil roll that another friend asked for as her brother had so admired the set I made her son earlier this year.

DD2 will be rounding off half-term with a trip to the cinema with her friends on Monday then trick-or-treating in Faversham and staying over night with one of the girls. So I made her friend’s mum a thank-you present:

This journal cover was made following instructions in “Simple Quilts and Sewing from the editors of Quilt” and was very straight forward. So much so that I have made another today and have another all cut out and ready to sew! I won’t be able to show those though as they are destined for Christmas presents.

I’m also determined to get another block made  for the Underground Railroad so that I will have something portable for hand quilting while out with little one. I may even manage to do some more unpicking of the machine quilting on Birthday Butterflies while watching The Quilt Show later…or even Downton Abbey! I hadn’t watched this series at all then as DD1 is enjoying it with a friend and series 1 is currently available to view on BT Vision, I thought I’d try it the other day. Series 1 is now viewed and I’m almost up to date with series 2! ITV has managed to “do” costume drama very well this time.

Oh and here’s the bookmark I made as a thank you for Gabi, who saved the day with a spool of YLI!

PS I’m very happy to report that after delivering these orders today, I’ve come home with more! (Now, does anyone have any HELPFUL tips as to where I can find the time to make them…. )

She’s just started Brownies and will be enrolled after half-term (oh, the agony of waiting to wear that wonderful uniform waiting in the wardrobe!)  Recently, there was a local Guiding Arts and Crafts Exhibition on the island and Isabella had been very busy creating her entries. We knew every entrant would have a certificate for her efforts but it was a lovely surprise to find that she had won not one but TWO rosettes! Silver for her collage of the Brownie Promise badge and gold for a “design for a hat for a wedding”. It’s very hard to take a photo of a girl who can’t stop jumping with excitement!

On the Sunday, we left home at 9.20am and got back just before 10pm…Isabella had spent the day at the Hazlitt theatre with her dance school, performing 3 numbers in a show. Dress rehearsal in the morning, a performance in the afternoon then another at 6.30pm, which is the one we saw. She and her friends did extremely well, especially since the 2 littlest ones only began classes in November last year!

And yes, she still has nail varnish on her fingers and toes! ( There are some advantages to home-ed!)

PS We didn’t go home during the day – some shopping then watching Cali in the District Trafalgar Parade in Sittingbourne,took care of our time, as we also had to take Isabella out to tea between performances. The cadets were extremely smart but true-to-form, Cali managed to evade the camera!

her favourite TV show immortalised

When I was little in Scotland x-number of years ago, Halloween was a big deal. Lots of dressing up – and fun costumes just as much as scary – and what we called “guising” around neighbour’s houses.Bedecked in our finery and carrying a turnip lantern (think pumpkin but carved from swedes and with a string handle) we’d knock at friendly houses and greet the occupant with the chant “The sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween?” Then we’d be invited inside (remember this is in the days when only tiny tots would have an adult with them!) and earn our treats with our party pieces of poetry, song, dance, or even a few jokes. Then we’d be very grateful for a handful of monkey nuts (and I hate those!) or an apple or even a satsuma. Sweets were a rarity! When we got home, Mum would let us choose one thing to eat then the rest became our play-piece for the rest of the week at school.

We even had a Sunday School party for a number of years with the obligatory games of dooking for apples or trying to eat a scone covered with black treacle that dangled from a string (without using hands!) The minister would even put in an appearance…

Moving to England when I married was a culture shock in many ways. Halloween was one…when my own children got to school age I wanted them to have the same sort of memories as I had, but not to go trick-or-treating around stranger’s houses as seemed to be the norm here. So we had Halloween parties at home with a few friends, decorating the house and making up scary menu’s (Eyeballs in Gore with Maggots or Deadmen’s Toes were favourites!) We’d play games and then the children would do their party pieces for a reward of sweets. One year, my parents were staying so I actually commandeered a friend’s rather larger house for the night!

However, my older children are now away at university, and this year DD2 has been invited to stay overnight with a school friend. She carved out the pumpkin at the top last night – very impressive!- and is dressing up as a ninja. She asked last night about her loot bag and I asked where the vampire one was ? Hmm, felt the usual rush of motherly guilt and made a quick bag from my stash and a pair of old jeans…

Then made a pumpkin version for her sister!

Little one and I rushed back from gym today to get busy with her pumpkin. She provided the sketch and I had to carve… Meet Frankenstien!

It’s also dance class on a Monday so my 7 year old dressed up as an evil queen tonight ( complete with face paint!) and happily went along to dance disco and latin in costume. One mum had brought cakes so she was happy with that too. On arriving home, we realised a house further along the street had really gone to town with a skeleton hanging from the upstairs window…so Daddy took her along to trick-or-treat (which she’d never done before!) Then I put her lit pumpkin in the window and she rushed back to distribute some sweets to callers here. She was so happy to share her pot of sweets, even though it really seems like begging nowadays. I let her answer the door a couple of times before I shut the curtains and turned the hall light out. Most of the callers had gone to some trouble with costumes and the last lot, well, they hadn’t but they DID say thank you!

Hope you’ve had a happy Hallow’d Evening too!

It’s taken me all month (and then some!) to get around to making mine to send but in the end I was inspired by a Japanese wallhanging I saw in an Oast library book. (I can’t tell you the name or author as I can’t read Japanese characters though!)

The PP group swap this month was “My Earliest Memory”. I’m pretty sure that I remember sitting on the step into the kitchen and “washing” my doll as Mum cooked dinner. I wouldn’t think that a photo would have been taken of something so ordinary all those years ago! I asked DH for a drawing and he duly obliged, using DD3 as a model. I then traced it onto stitch and tear and free-motion embroidered it onto calico before making up the postcard. That’s when I realised it wasn’t 6×4″….never mind!

In return, Anna sent me this recollection of a “Damp Day” at nursery and being unbable to play on the slide:

This particular swap is almost over – this month’s theme is “Happiness”, I opted for frivolity…well, almost – chocolate, sewing and coffee are extremely important!

Luckily, I had a cushion pad to hand and used my stash to make a boy’s cushion. I had a spare twenty minutes yesterday in between little one’s gym and dance classes so that’s when I cut and pieced the front. Then I quickly machine quilted it and took it with me to hand applique the truck. This morning, I added the button wheels and the envelope style backing.  While I did that, my little artist drew a birthday card.

BTW, this book is the inspiration for the cushion. I borrowed it from the library last week and several projects are calling my name…