Many hands make light work

As you will recall during the year I  along with other sewists have been busy making dresses, library bags, bibs and beanies.    Now the time has come for all those items plus many more to be packed up and shipped over to Sri Lanka in time for Christmas.    Today  myself along with 25 others spent the day making a start on this task.  

On arrival at the Church hall  I was assigned to removing the packaging from hundreds of tubes of toothpaste while others worked on removing the packaging from toothbrushes.

Once this task was completed we moved onto unpacking many hundreds of handtowels that had been donated by one of the major retailers.    Then a production line was set up to pack  a towel, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb plus a small toy or handkerchief depending on the child's age.

At some point in the morning I was moved into the stationery department.    Some of the thousands of pens, pencils, journals and exercise books all of which have been donated.

These items are all put into the library bags that were made throughout the year by myself and a few others.  We managed to sew just over 2,000 library bags between us.  Here are a few of them

They are now being laid out  production line style.  This batch happen to be some of those that I had made.

All waiting to be filled with pencil cases, pens, lead pencils, rubbers, pencil sharpeners, coloured pencils, letter and number stencils, exercise books and a puzzle book.  Doing "quality control" to make sure that all are given the same before bagging.

And just for a variety of jobs onto counting out and bagging up hundreds of colourful scrunchies that one of the sewists had made for the older girls.

Those 25 aprons that I had made from rescued tablecloths are waiting to be packed up along with a cake of soap, a pen and journal for some the orphanage workers.

And of course the dresses.    Here is a selection of them.    There were another 5 racks with just as many on them and some skirts for the older girls.

We made good progress with the packing as you can see by the amount of boxes on the stage.  Somewhere in those boxes are the beanies and bibs.

There are still another 5 more days of packing  to go with many "corporate groups" coming in during the next few days to complete the task.    I am told that there is "fierce competition" between the groups as to who can pack the most boxes.

It was an "eye opener" as to just how big an operation it is and even though it looked like chaos at first glance it was very well co-ordinated.    The organiser of this massive chore was awarded an Order of Australia last year for all her hard work over the last 15 years.

I am off to put my feet up and enjoy a cup of coffee.

Back soon and in the meantime
 

Happy sewing all

This week in the sewing room

Not a great deal was achieved due to distractions such as seeing the movie Downton Abbey.    If you were a fan of the tv series then this is a "must see movie".    All of the original cast are in it as well as all the opulence, beautiful clothes of the era and much more.  Hubs and I both looked at each other when it finished as said  "I could see that again".

A good start was also made on some spring cleaning and after having a month's worth of rain in two days it was time head into the garden to do some clipping back and pull out those pesky weeds which keep popping up.    With the soil being very wet they were not hard to pull out.   Next job is to clip back the seaside daisies and the azaleas now that they have finished flowering.

After my busy morning in the garden I decided to make an early start after lunch with FNSI and  finish off a bucket hat that I am making for Miss M.    Bucket hats are not hard to make but do take time.

I also managed to finish off the two aprons with the Star Wars fabric pockets that were started earlier on in the month as well as finish off another.

Thanks Wendy for organising another FNSI.   Head on over here to do some blog hopping and see what was achieved by the other participants.

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Happy sewing all

From the Other side

A couple of months ago myself and two other friends did the climb to Barrenjoey Lighthouse and today being the lovely day that it was hubs and I decided to go for a drive to West Head which is directly opposite the lighthouse across Pittwater.

I was very impressed with our effort on the day that we did the walk to the lighthouse but I was even more impressed today when looking across to the headland as to just how steep the climb actually was.  

The drive out to West Head from the main road is about 15 kms and many pretty wildflowers can be seen along the way especially at this time of the year.

The views are stunning from the headland.  Looking north towards Lion Island with the Central Coast behind it.

Looking south from the lookout down towards Newport.  

Time to head on home and into the sewing room to sew up the black and white log cabin blocks.  This was my nominated OMG for September.

Now that 9 rainbow blocks  are complete it is time to have a play  and get them into order.  The layout will be 3 blocks across by  3 blocks down which will end up a lap size quilt when finished.

Linking with Moving it forward 

                      Finished or Not Finished Friday
                      Oh Scrap
                      OMG

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

This week in the sewing room

Not much happened.    I have been out and about enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  First up was a ferry ride across the harbour to Watsons Bay to meet up with friends and enjoy lunch at Doyle's restaurant.

Anyone who lives in Sydney will know that Doyles is an icon.  It has been around on the Watsons Bay site since 1885 and is famous for its fish and chips.

Yesterday I headed back into the city to attend a talk at the Quilters Guild of NSW by one of its members.     After being inspired by the speaker I wandered into David Jones to enjoy their annual spring flower show.    Due to the main store being renovated the show was held in the men's store on the opposite street corner and while the display was on a much smaller scale the flowers were still stunning.

I did however join in with Cheryl and other crafters for FNwF.   During the week some fabric was found which was leftover from a cushion cover that was made a couple of years using Star Wars fabric.     After having a think about what could be done with not too much fabric I decided to go with using it for pockets on the fronts of some childrens' aprons. There is enough to get another 5 or 6 pockets so 5 or 6 more aprons can be made.  The straps are made from leftover fabric from the mixmaster cover that I made for a friend sometime ago.   Having stars on it seems to fit in well with the star war theme.   The new Star Wars movie will be released in December so hopefully they will prove to be popular.    This is as far as I got before calling it a night in the sewing room.  I  will endeavour to have them ready for the next hospital stall in October. 

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Happy sewing all

On my Walk Today....

I noticed Spring all around me.   From the new growth just starting to appear on one of our decidious trees

To the wild flowers

A rainbow lorikeet having some lunch

On my return home I decided it was time to bring out the Spring tablerunner and pick some azaleas  which are just about in full flower.

I was given this "log" of pretty fabric over the weekend and I am having fun thinking what will be made out of it.    There are a few ideas running around in my head but more time will be taken so that I can enjoy patting it, looking at it and then cutting into it.

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Happy sewing all

Cut and ready to sew

My nominated OMG for September is going to get these strips sewn up into four 8 1/2" blocks then join them up to make the last of the curved log cabin blocks that I have been working on since January.

There is one more colour to be announced in October but I will call it quits after this month and then use the rest of the year to assemble the quilt and complete it.

Linking with OMG

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all