December OMG, FNwF and Santa came early........

To me.    He knew that I had been looking for a new sewing machine but was not going to replace my current one unless the new one had a much bigger throat which most of the sewing machines do not have.   

It has all the features of my current machine and a bonus  - which I was not aware of when purchasing the machine  - of a knee lifter.    

Santa was kind and said that I could use it now.   I did not need to be told twice and as you can see the box has been ripped into.  It is a beautiful machine to use and the extra throat space is amazing.  

This brings me to this month's OMG which is to sew my way through this list well before the end of the month as these items are Christmas gifts.

I have also had a request from my mother to make her 5 fold up shopping bags for some of her friends. 

Last night when joining in with FNwF I finally finished off my last two shopping bags. 

This now gives me a total of 5.   

Thanks Anne-Marie for moving us along with OMG and Cheryll for having the "gang" around again last night.   

Better get myself moving as the 5 small covered notebooks and mini pot holder grabbers are needed this coming week when meeting up with friends for Christmas lunches.  

Christmas tree and decorations are going up today along with writing Christmas cards and wrapping purchased gifts.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

November OMG and Lucky Me.......

I was the winner of  September's  FNSI and won the $30.00 voucher from Kitty Rose Cottage .  My choice was this gorgeous charm pack  which arrived in the mail yesterday.    Thank you Dawn.  I will have fun thinking up a project for such pretty fabrics.

My OMG for November was complete all 19 handtowels and that was achieved.  Thank you Anne-Marie for organising this again.   More finishes can be seen here.  

Our new book club book is

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm I know that you should not judge a book by its cover but........reading the back cover I would be offering it to an 8 year old child.   Time will tell.     I do have until the end of January to get through it but have a few books ahead of it to read first including this one.

All of my  market stall sewing is now complete and mostly priced which leaves me with  my own sewing for Christmas.    I have a list which I am making my way through.    More on that later.

The weather for the past 2 weeks has been rather drab and damp in respect to getting out and about for the day but great inroads have been made into my Christmas shopping.    I was feeling very disappointed a couple of weeks when I spent 2 hours walking around the biggest shopping centre in the northern beaches and only came home with a litre of milk.   It was time to sit down, put on the thinking cap, write a list and work from that.     I am pleased to report that there is only one left to buy for and then my mission will be completed on Monday.   

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

A day of sewing and FNSI

Time has been spent this last week working on and off sewing the tops and buttons onto the handtowels.  There were only 6 buttons left to sew on and this task was completed when joining in with FNSI early yesterday.

Here they are with the others that were finished off during the week.   All 19 of them now live in my stall/giftie box.  

Three more beanies were completed during the week and the pom poms sewn on yesterday.

Once the handtowels were finished 2 more shopping bags were cut out and a start made on pinning  them  ready for sewing.

After lunch I cut out and sewed up another drawstring  bag.    Not for me this time but for a friend who has offered to help me on my Christmas stall.   She is an avid knitter and does such a lot of knitting for the hospital auxiliary.     I  thought that the sheep fabric was a suitable choice for her bag.

This audio book is playing alongside the sewing machine.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

In and out of the sewing room and 2 fq challenge reveal

The purpose of those leftover bindings and other leftover strips was to make myself drawstring bags.  This is the result

And the reason for making them is that I like to have 4 beanies on the go at various stages of construction at anyone time.

In the past they were all stored in this bag together

Everytime I put my hand in to take out the knitting it somehow get itself into a mess and time had to be spent unraveling a big tangled lump of yarn and rummaging around the bottom of the bag to find knitting needles.    No more.

All four now neatly stored in their respective bags.  

During the week hubs and I met up with friends for lunch.   I could not go past the linguine with roast vegetables 

My quilting group's 2 fat quarter challenge reveal was last Saturday and some great ideas came out of it.

Good progress is being made with putting the tops on the handtowels.  More on that later as I am off to Spotty this morning to buy more buttons.   I hope that nothing else slides off the shelf into my basket!!!!!  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

I am not a weightlifter despite.........

What some of the checkout operators think when packing my shopping bags.   I find that some operators put so many items into one bag that it is quite a heavy task to grab it with both hands and haul it up from the conveyor belt and over into the trolley.    With this in mind 3 smaller bags were made during the week and a few more will be added over the coming weeks.  

While in the sewing room churning out the bags and working on a couple of other projects this audiobook was playing alongside me.

The handtowels are progressing well.    They now all  have their tops sewn and pinned on ready to be stitched and buttonholes to be done.

I also made a very quick and easy custom made set of 2 placemats for our kitchen bench during the week.

Next item on the agenda is to make something out of these leftover bindings.

I hope to have the item/s finished for my next post.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Ssssshhhhhh....Sydney's Worst kept Secret is

Wendy's Secret Garden at Lavender Bay.   This has been on my "must see list" for sometime and  it was ticked off the list during the week.

Now lets have a look around the garden which is fairly steep as it winds it way down the embankment.  

I caught one of the older ferries back to Manly

The "cruise season" has started in Sydney with ships in at Circular Quay most days now.    This is one of the smaller ships.

Looking back across Manly wharf after disembarking from the ferry.

I enjoyed my day out again in picture perfect weather.    Next day trip is???????not sure where yet or when as it depends on what is happening and of course the weather on the day.   

When joining FNwF last night  91 stitches were cast on the "needles"  for another beanie and the ribbing was completed.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Nov OMG

Last week when talking to June from June's Jottings she mentioned that she had an excess of handtowels that were destined for a project but she has since changed her mind and would I like to have some.    Yes please was the answer thinking she meant 3 or 4 at the most.  Imagine my surprise when this package landed on my door step a few days later and this was the content

June had already cut and overlocked all 19 of them ready to have their tops sewn on.    My November OMG is to go through my stash, match the towels to the fabrics and sew the tops and buttons on.  

This audio book will be playing along side me as I work on that goal.

Our new book club book is

And my current read is

Thanks Anne-Marie for hosting us again this month.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all