The week that was

Miss M stayed with hubs and I for the last week of the school holidays and for the most part the weather was good which allowed us to visit the beach.    Miss M braved the water while I on sat on the warm sand keeping guard.   As you can see by the flags it was breezy.  

Some rock climbing 

A visit to Cockatoo Island

Along with a shopping day at the local mall kept us busy for the duration of her stay.  

Prior to Miss M coming I had been looking through my scraps and noticed that a lot of smaller pieces  had been sitting around for quite sometime so it was decided to up end them from their various colour coded boxes into one big bag and give them a press.  

I have not joined in the RSC for a couple of years - me thinks that this will be put on next year's agenda. My thoughts for the scraps when cut would be to use them in potato chip blocks which would use up quite a lot of them each month.    More thinking needs to be done along these lines.       

This month's book club book is  

I will make a start on reading it tonight.  

That about sums up the week that was.

Back soon and in the meantime 

Happy sewing all

Chookshed Challenge #8

At the time of compiling my list last year I put challenge #8 as a "mystery item" which did indeed turn out to be a mystery for me.    I was approached by the sales manager where we live and asked if I would be interested in making some fiddle muffs for dementia patients in a couple of the local nursing homes.    Fidget mats I had heard of but not fiddle muffs so after some research ideas were found and I said yes to her request.  Collecting suitable fabrics together with bit and bobs was all that I managed to do when joining in with FNwF.

Now to get sewing them up and I hope to have some fiddle muffs to share with you at the end of the month.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Chookshed challenge #7

Done and dusted.     12 bowl cosies finished and each has their directions for use attached.

They now live in my giftie box and have been allocated for Christmas gifts.   That now leaves only 1 more challenge for this year.  

Two more finishes happened during the month.

A few more beanies have come off the needles.    That magic stripes yarn makes me look so clever.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Out of control bushfire

What started out as a hazard reduction burn on Saturday quickly got out of control and was declared an emergency. This is the view from my balcony and as you can see it was close

We lost count after 20 fire trucks, at least 4 police cars and 4 ambulances roared past where we live within the space of just over half an hour.   The street was closed off and could only be used by local residents and emergency vehicles.

Once the water helicopters were brought in things started getting under control not long after.  As you can see blue sky is starting to appear.

The Fire Service had decided to continue backburning across the road from us into the night.   This was the situation at 7pm

Not much sleep happened last night and I became aware at around 2 am that there was a snap, crackle and pop sound coming from across the road.   On looking out the lounge room window this is what I saw.   The flames were  spread over a longer distance and leaping up into the tree canopy with several fire trucks and crew in attendance.   As I type this post on Sunday afternoon the fire is still burning out of control but we no longer have the threat across the road from us.     Helicopters have been water bombing since early morning however the wind has picked up which will not help the situation.     

While all this drama was happening I headed to the sewing room and finished off the two summer nighties that Miss M had requested.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all   

Paint chip Challenge and FNSI

Members of my Saturday quilting group were given a paint chip challenge.   Each of us had to draw blindly a paint chip card and this is the one that I drew from the pile.    We could make anything using those 3 colours with the addition of black and white if needed.

The paint chip sat on the edge of my sewing table for a month before ideas came to mind.   The colours reminded  me of lemons which triggered my memory that somewhere in my "sewing ideas file"  there was a pattern saved for a round trivet.   Below is the result which I had been working on during the week and finished off last night when joining in with FNSI.  

It is called citrus slice which is exactly what it looks like.    I was lucky to have enough scraps in the yellow scrap bin very similar to the colours on the paint chip.   Green and orange would have also worked for this idea.  

This month's book club book is like reading a very detailed and in depth school text book.   

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Simply stunning

Is the only way to describe this year's David Jones Spring flower show as you can see by the photos below.    The flower show features 20 floral installations with over 150,000 blooms, more than 50 species of flowers and foliage showcasing the unique beauty of our land.

A sit down in the Pitt Street Mall under the lovely trees with their fresh spring growth before catching the bus back home.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Busy as a bee

Spring has definitely arrived Downunder with the spring blossoms in full bloom and the bees doing what bees do

It has been lovely to take advantage of the warmer weather (now that the gale force winds have abated) to sit outside with some knitting, an audio book, a cup of coffee and a little sweet treat.

A couple of finishes happened during the week.

Some quilting took place when joining in with FNwF last night

As well as cutting and pressing bindings.

Miss M has requested some summer nighties please grandma.   Fabrics and pattern are ready to go. 

Time to head off and make a start on the day.  Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all