Life with Caitlin :)

When I uploaded my photos I noticed a few that I had not commented on, all with Caitlin, and thought for those interested I would give you some updates.

In July Caitlin let me take some photos of her taekwondo grading, a rare moment these days as she has lost her appetite for having photos taken :(. Since these photos she has again graded and is now on red level, 2 stripe, or grade 2. This means she is only 2 levels or grades away from her probationary black belt! We are so proud of her and she is so determined to achieve it (most of the time :) ).

There are a lot of students doing the grading at the same time - it is quite a production but run very efficiently! The trainers are ex-physical education teachers so they have the know-how!

Caitlin's kicks - all sorts of varieties - side kick, front kick, back kick, etc.

Caitlin is performing her practice pattern for the head trainer at the front of the room. She was the only one grading in her division and so had to do it alone, in front of almost 100 students. This is a HUGE deal for our Caitlin. She has come a long way from the girl who started out being very nervous and in tears due to the anxiety of gradings.

She has to perform her self defence moves - a number of different ones, using a black belt student to model on.

Finally, when moving into red belt they must show that they can break a block of wood with a thrust move - elbow thrust, hand thrust or foot thrust. Caitlin chose the hand thrust and was successful! :)

Here she is being presented her next level grading - red belt.

She only looks a little pleased don't you think?

Our daughter has matured so much over the last 12 months, as you can see below.

This was very evident when we took her to her first week long camp without us. For her 11th birthday we chose to give her a week camp at Mill Valley Ranch where she would ride horses, do archery, canoe, fish, and other achievements over the week. It was a little bit before her birthday. She was so excited, she ran to give me a kiss goodbye and then ran off to her wagon where she was to sleep, only to run back for another kiss, and run off again in search of some new friends. :)

Here she is. I must admit though that we took this photo at the end of camp rather than the start, since we forgot. This would explain why she looks so worn and dirty.

It seemed cute that she was sleeping in the circle of wagons, but when I went inside I thought perhaps not! The wagon was breazier than a tent and happened to leak on her bed during the week when they experienced some really wet weather. But she survived.

The camp had a lot of old charm, reminding me of sovereign hill in our own town, Ballarat. Couldn't resist some piccies!

Caitlin's cousin, Danae (left) came on camp too! She seems to have quickly made friends :).

Danae tried to help me get a photo of Caitlin and her together at start of camp but Caitlin (yellow jumper) just wasn't going to cooperate no matter what. This wasn't the only photo of the back of Caitlin that we took before we gave up!

Caitlin made a few friends on camp!

Well, that's about it on child #2, the adorable daughter, an individual with some attitude! But she adds a lot of flavor into the family. One day I will have to blog about my son.

See ya for now.

Bonniexxx

Many things to catch you up with! :)

I have been very  busy sewing and creating and most things I have remembered to take a photo of along the way even if I have not had time to blog about it. So I guess I have saved them all up for you! With no further ado, lets check it out......

Recently a very close friend had a 40th birthday. I started my planning at the start of the year when I saw this quilt pattern in a magazine and it immediately made me think of her. It took a bit of work to source the fabric from several stores around Australia but I was finally successful and started on this journey to make this medallion style quilt. The photo does not really show its true colors - it is green and blue.

Last weekend was the 40th birthday luncheon and we had the priveledge of staying at my friends house overnight (in her absence! Long story) and I was quite relieved to see her current doona cover had predominantly the colors of blue and green! I very proudly presented her with this quilt and a few extras! Yes, there is more but I am not sure that I photographed it! I also made a square pillow with left over  flying geese and a neck roll.

I had hoped to have made matching pillow cases but didn't have quite enough fabric for this.

I loved the fact the the fabric was called "in the beginning" which was very apt for the stage of life that my friend is at. So I named the quilt "Genesis: In the beginning" as I think it represents a changing place in her life and a new beginning.

No doubt you have seen the following quilt in action as I worked on it over the 3 day retreat earlier this year. Yet another for a very close friend (different friend). My friend asked me to make her a quilt like she had seen me put up on facebook. It was not a request asked lightly and she took all day to muster up the courage. Usually I would work around the question and avoid an answer, but for this friend I did not mind. We have known each other since grade 9. I sent her a lot of swatches of fabric combinations and kits from off the internet and we worked from there. She loved the one pictures which uses reds, blues and beiges from the 3 sisters collection. We got this from the fat quarter shop in the USA.

So these holidays I was determined to finish it for her as I knew if I started other things on my to-do list, I may not achieve this as I never seem to finish the whole list! Funny that!?! So I started it first thing and spend a second set of 3 days and nights on it. So far, 80 hours. It is ready for the machine quiltist now, and then probably another 10 hours left to finish the binding and send it on down to her in Melbourne. Here is "Scattered Stars".......

Starting last June I have been participating in The Fat Quarter Shops mystery designer Christmas BOM. It finished this year in May. I was very motivated and using their finishing kit, put together this delightful top, sent it for quilting and bound it all ready for Christmas. What a miracle to actually have something ready in time!

It might be a bit hard to see all the blocks clearly in this picture but it is delightful in real life. I haven't mentioned that each block only cost me $13 AU, including postage from the US and oodles of fabric left over! So one day I will make some extra block repeats and make matching cushions to go with it :). How delightful will that look?

So after such success I decided to join their 2011 flower BOM. So far I have received 4 blocks and here are the last three. It uses the fabric set/range called Strawberry Fields from FigLeaf printed by Moda.

I also made another couple of blocks to help out a member of our quilting group who wanted to make a quilt that will be raffled to help fund our local soup bus which feeds the homeless in Ballarat. The pattern was foundation pieced and the stipulation was red, orange and yellow. Here were my two blocks.

I also did a block this week for our next group raffle quilt but I neglected to take photos! Ooops.

Another accomplishment was a couple of camera pouches. This one I finished today. The kids are getting a camera each soon - one for their birthday, one for christmas. Sssshhh, mum is the word on this one, as santa still delivers in our house. When I purchased the cameras none of the bags available in the shop grabbed me and I didn't get one. Then I thought about it and decided to personalise it and make my own. This is the one I made for my son which will house the camera, charger and cords. I figure he will prefer to carry the camera on its own without a cover when in use.

The one for my daughter though I forgot to photograph. It is a lot smaller and just fits the camera only as I think girls are into the extra embellishment that a cover or bag brings. Later I will make her a bigger matching bag to put that pouch in along with the charger, and other paraphenalia. :)

Just before the holidays I made a couple of skirts for my great niece. Sweet with floral fabrics and spots, 2 layered gathered skirt. But I am still waiting on photos to show you.

But also on my list was to make some skirts for Caitlin, my own daughter. So on Tuesday I headed to a friends and started on No.1 skirt. The first one of anything always seems to take the longest don't you think. Once I had this done I asked her to try it on and immediately got complaints of it being too tight. I had done the right thing and measured her of course and she was between sizes so I had naturally gone to the larger size of the two. Her complaining stems from the fact that she doesn't like any restrictive clothing, with a strong adamant adversion to jeans or anything that doesn't stretch. So I went up yet another ladies size for her in the next two skirts. I flung this up in much quicker time, pleased with finishing 3 skirts in one afternoon.

However we went down the op shop this week to pick some tops to go with her new skirts. When she came out the change room, she was clutching the side of one of the new skirts. I asked what was wrong? Soon it was apparent. With a sheepish look she showed me it was now way too big! 3 inches too big! Oh well, better than too small, so I rang in the side seam 2 inches to give her the benefit of the doubt and thought I would then be able to let it out when she gets a bit bigger. They will last a while! Here are the pics......

Like her choice in fabrics? After this achievement I moved onto finishing another UFO. I made part 1 of a present for christmas 2010 and didn't get to finish part 2 & 3. I had to suffice that part 1 would have to do for now. It is now coming up to the young man's first birthday and so part 2 & 3 will be a perfect present to give, finishing off another task. So I got 6 out of 8 blocks finished for this project. No photos yet but it is NOT a quilt! Intrigued? I will have to keep you in suspense. I have the afternoon left tomorrow to work on it and then I hope to finish next weekend. It's back to school (work for me) and so the sewing will be slowing right down. I have had a ball these holidays!

See you all again soon.

Bonniexxx