Coral fleece

Is not my favourite fabric to sew with.  Thankfully I was only making two small items out it.     I should have guessed when cutting it out that trouble was ahead.   Firstly it shed everywhere when cut. I was shaking off bits of red shred from me and vacuuming it off the floor for days.

Then came the slipping and sliding whilst trying to pin it together for sewing.   Then the  pushing with the right hand while the left hand was pulling it through the back of the machine as it was not feeding evenly through the feed dogs.

The greatest disaster was trying to sew the button holes.   I was glad that I was only putting 3 in.

I have to say that I do like the lovely soft feel of the fabric and pleased with the end result which can be seen below

From now on I will stick with the polar or micro fleece which is lovely to sew with.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had the same experience as me when sewing with coral fleece.

I am making good progress with May's Sunbonnet Sue.

I hope to be back within a few days with a photo of her and in the meantime.

Happy sewing all

Not an Anzac...

But my grandfather served as a signalman in the British navy on the HMS Indomitable during WWI. 

    

HMS Indomitable was one of three Invincible-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy before World War I and had an active career during the war. She tried to hunt down the German ships Goeben and Breslau in the Mediterranean when war broke out and bombarded Turkish fortifications protecting the Dardanelles even before the British declared war on Turkey. She helped to sink the German armoured cruiser Blücherduring the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915 and towed the damaged British battlecruiser HMS Lion to safety after the battle. She damaged the German battlecruisers Seydlitz and Derfflinger during the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916 and watched her sister ship HMS Invincible explode. Deemed obsolete after the war, she was sold for scrap in 1921.

Grandfather was born in 1900 in Battersea London and joined the British Navy at the age of 13. After leaving the British Navy he joined one of the passenger  ships  which travelled between London and Sydney and it was on that ship that he met my grandmother who was travelling out to Australia with her family.   

On the ship’s arrival in Sydney he disembarked and my grandparents were married not long after that at Rose Bay. He then joined the Royal Australian Navy for a stint and left in 1930. 

He lived to the age of 102 and often spoke of his time as a sailor in the British and Australian Navy.  

  

Lest We Forget.

Surf is up...

Due to an intense  east cost low weather system with cyclonic winds of category force 2 which has been battering Sydney for more than 48 hours.   The worst storm to hit the area for more than 10 years.

A lone seagull braving the wind or perhaps just blown off course

As the wind howled and the  rain fell so did the trees

Local parks turned into lakes

It looks like hubs and I will be busy with the broom and rake when the weather clears.   Fortunately for us we only have lots of leaf litter around and no damage unlike many others.

Driving is no fun in weather like this.   The windscreen wipers were working overtime

This is where umbrellas that have fallen victim to the strong winds and rain end up.

And by the look of the sky there is still more to come.   Sirens are a constant sound around the area as they race from one incident to another.

What can I say but stay inside, stay warm and dry and

 Happy sewing all

FNSI

Was on again last night and I worked on an idea which I saw a couple of weeks ago of an embroidered Sunbonnet Sue quilt which gave me an inspiration to make a wall/door hanger for bub for each month of the year.      I spent a couple of hours over the last few days rummaging through all those little "itty bitty" bits that I knew would come in handy one day for what I had no idea.   I really enjoy doing applique and once I found the right fabric it only took about 3 hours to complete from start to finish.      So here is my version of an autumn Sunbonnet Sue

If you would like to see what everyone else got up to last night just follow me over to Sugarlane Quilts and we can have a look together.

I am now looking forward to working on next months Sunbonnet Sue and in the meantime

   Happy sewing all

Curl Curl to Freshwater....

And back again is the walk that my walking companions and I did during the week.   After parking the car at Curl Curl we headed off along the beachfront

And joined up with the boardwalk

Which took us around the headland and into Freshwater.  My companions are well ahead of me at this point as I was stopping off to take too many happy snaps along the way.

Soon we picked up the scent of a coffee shop

After a coffee, sit down and chat it was time to retrace our steps back to the car.     Is that how far we have to walk?????

Next time we are heading off in another direction.   

This morning I cut out another fleecy jacket for bub and  have sewn it up - only have the button holes to go which I will do later on today.  

Back soon with some piccies of the jacket as well as a couple of other items in and the meantime

 Happy sewing all

Easter weekend activities

The Easter long weekend tends to be wet and this year was no exception.    On Good Friday hubs and I had lunch with my parents and watched the rain fall down and on Easter Saturday it was even wetter.    A good day to head to my sewing room and finish off a few items.    Firstly a winter pinny for bubs

Followed by a warm fleecy jacket and matching pants

I managed to cut out another pair of pants and jacket for bub.

As well as a top for me.   I have had this pattern for about 20 years and I love it.   It is such an easy pattern, goes together easy and fits well.

I am pleased to say that I am making progress on all those fabric strips that I have been working on over the last few months.    Some of them are pinned onto my version of a design wall

Easter Sunday dawned at it was a lovely sunny morning.   A good day to get stuck into the garden and pull out some of those pesky weeds and overgrown ferns which offered no resistance due to the very wet soil after all that rain.

Easter Monday was just as nice a day  so I started the day with an early morning walk along the beach.   The next photo shows sunrise over the horizon at Mona Vale beach

I turned around to look behind me and saw that the moon was still up

I hope that you all had an enjoyable Easter.   Back soon and wishing you lots of happy sewing  in the meantime.

Easter bunny

Came early to bubs as she, her mummy and daddy are travelling over Easter to visit other family members.  So with that in mind I made a door hanger so that Easter bunny would find the right room to leave some gifts

I  found this lovely soft minky with rabbits on it to make an in-between season jacket and matching pants

An Easter basket is a must

Opening up the basket and discovering what is inside especially the chocolate rabbit

At that point she was not aware of what the rabbit was all about.   I think that the bright coloured foil attracted her attention.     Her mummy helped her break off an ear.     Yummy.

Wishing you all a happy and safe Easter and lots of happy sewing.