Always Read the Instructions Twice!!!!!

It saves a lot of time, angry words and unpicking.    Ask me how I know.    For sometime I have had a pattern bookmarked for a cute little fabric bin and ready to make one day.   Well that day arrived today as I needed to make some bins for my sewing room tables to hold all those little fiddly bits that really belong nowhere special.  When doing my big clean up a while ago lots of scraps were sorted and one in particular I thought would be a suitable piece to make my first bin out of.    Making this bin and any other items to help keep my sewing room tidy are part of my WOOFA challenge.

After cutting  the necessary pieces out for some reason I shut the site down and started sewing by memory.  Big mistake.    I have no idea what made me sew both the main fabric and the lining fabric together especially when I have made enough bags to know that they are sewn separately, one inserted into the other, turned right way around then sewn together around the top.

Anyway after much unpicking and ironing my first fabric bin is completed.

I like to use a light coloured fabric for lining as it makes it easier to see what is lurking at the bottom and seeing that pink is the rainbow scrap colour for this month it fitted in perfectly.     I did make one adjustment to the pattern and that was to sew a small triangle across each corner  in order to make the bin corners stand up straighter as they tended to flop outwards even though I used a very stiff lining.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Stitching Sunshine

Today is the day to reveal my project for this blog hop.   Being in the middle of winter sunshine is a must and nothing says sunshine like sunflowers so I chose to make my item using up this leftover fabric.

After making my first  double oven mitt a couple of weeks ago I knew that second one would be in the making soon as the difference from the store bought ones is really noticeable.    An extra piece of wadding is sewn in at both ends.   This is my "secret weapon" when making the mitts.

I cut it smaller than the outside piece in order to reduce the bulk.   The yellow line that you can see in the photo is the outside cutting line of the mitt.     Once it is sewn in place I then place the fabric top and bottom and quilt all layers together.   Picture below shows fabric all pinned and marked out ready to quilt.

And here is the finished product which was my nominated OMG for June.  

It is now hanging on its hook in the kitchen giving us a nice splash of "sunshine".

Thanks Carla for organising another fun blog hop and you can see more "Sunshine" by hopping on over to the blogs listed below.

Monday, June 22nd

Just Let Me Quilt

VroomansQuilts

Quilt Schmilt

QuiltFabrication
Life in the Scrapatch
Karrin's Crazy World
Just Because Quilts
Quilting Gail

Tuesday, June 23rd

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Scrapdash

MaryMack's blog  
karen's korner
Sue S - hosted at Creatin' in the Sticks
The Joyful Quilter
For the love of geese

Wednesday, June 24th

MooseStashQuilting

PamelaQuilts

Podunk Pretties

Homespun Hannah's Blog
Ridge Top Quilts
Words & Stitches
Storied Quilts
Ms P Designs USA
selina quilts

Thursday, June 25th

Kathleen McMusing

Den syende himmel
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
Samelia’s Mum
Hill Valley Quilter
Seams To Be Sew
That Fabric Feeling
Creatin' in the Sticks

Linking with OMG

                      Finished or Not Finished Friday

                      TGIFF

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

FNSI

For me was a matter of finishing off those skirts that have been worked on during the week.    If you remember some of the fabrics had to be widened or lengthened before a skirt could be cut from them.

I think that they came up quite well and there were 9 skirts in total in this batch 4 of which had to have a band added.

While watching some mindless tv last night beanie no 6 was finished off.

Thanks Wendy for organising us to "get together" each month.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

The Sewing Circle

As we all know COVID-19  has put a stop to all group activities for the past few months.   The last time my quilting group met was in February and now that restrictions are beginning to relax 9 of the 20 of us gathered in the park - next to the community hall that we hire each month.

It was a case of bring your own chair, lunch, drink and of course some craft work whether it be sewing or knitting.   Fortunately for us it was a lovely sunny winter's day and we could put our chairs in a circle - the correct social distancing being observed - and had a lovely time catching up and chatting with a bit of craft work thrown in.

It is hoped that we can all gather together again next month in the hall.      Like me many had caught up on lots of sewing projects - some UFO's and other new projects.

Every year at this time hubs and I like to do a small getaway trip into the country to see the autumn leaves but as it was not possible this year to travel the only tree that we can see in our area is the one in our front garden.    It is a Chinese Tallow tree and as we live on the coast and do not get the cold crisp nights like the mountain areas which is really needed to  bring out the colours in the leaves we are happy with how the colours are appearing.   Hopefully they will change into a deeper red before all falling.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

 

FNwF

I did encounter a bit of a hold up last night when I decided it was time to make a start on cutting out the next batch of size 10 girls skirts.   On opening up some of the fabric it was found that it did not matter if I turned it this way, that way or back the other way there was no way that a front and back of a skirt was going to be cut from that piece of fabric so into the leftover piles of plain fabric to find bits to add to each piece to make them either wider or longer.  

Once suitable contrasting pieces were found I used the overlocker to join them to the original fabric and went from there.  It was a bit fiddly making sure that the seams all lined up for when cutting the front and backs but as you can see I managed to cut out three and get them pinned ready for the overlocker.

Thanks Cheryll for organising us all again for FNwF.    Looking forward to doing some blog hopping later on to catch up with everyone else.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Here's Cheers

Today myself along with quite a few other bloggers joined Chookyblue via Zoom to celebrate the 8th birthday of the Chookshed.

It was a fun day starting at 7 am AEST when we were joined by quite a few from the USA and Canada where it was early evening and for Nadine in Belguim it was midnight.    Understandably Nadene was the first to sign off and hit the sack but very soon after we were joined by Sylvia in Germany where it was 4 am in her timezone.   It was lovely to finally see and speak to all those bloggers who I have been following for many years and vice versa.

As you all know I do not do any hand sewing and as my sewing machine is not located where my PC is so for most of the day I was just chatting and enjoying see what the others were doing.

When I joined Cheryll and the others last night for FNwF  I got as far as shaping the crown and casting off  on beanie no 5  

So I continued on  today while chatting and put the pom pom on top and got the beanie sewn up.

As well as making a start on beanie no 6.

Thanks again to Cheryll and Chookyblue for organising such fun events that keep us bloggers motivated.

Back soon and in the meantime
 

Happy sewing all                               

FNwF and a Party

This weekend in NSW is the June long weekend - but then again when you are retired from the workforce and having been in lock down for ages every weekend seems like a long weekend - but this one is different as it begins tonight with Cheryll organising another fun FNwF and then there is a party going on all weekend at the Chook shed.

This is the 8th party that Chookyblue has organised and although in the past I have not attended personally I have joined in via blogland but  as with everything else alternative plans have had to be made so that we can "socialise" at a distance due to COVID-19.   This year a Zoom session is being organised in order for us all to "go".    It will be fun to see and speak to those who I have known for many years via my blog.

During the week I finished off my 550 piece jigsaw puzzle

And it too is now packed away as we are having visitors over the next few coming days and the table is needed.   Miss M and her parents are visiting over the weekend for the first time in months.   Wednesday  sees "the girls" - 3 of my very closest friends whom I worked with over 30 years ago and we have been besties every since - are coming for morning tea and on Friday another couple are joining us for lunch.   The most personal socialising we have done in months.

Time to head off and start to organise for tonight' s sewing and seeing that the party kicks off early tomorrow morning I best be prepared.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all  

OMG for June

Carla over at Create in the Sticks is hosting another blog hop this month called Stitching Sunshine.

For those of us living in the southern hemisphere we are in the middle of winter where a bit of sunshine is certainly most welcome.     My day to reveal some "Sunshine" is 23rd June so my OMG for this month is to get creating and come up with something bright and cheery.

I  finished off beanie no 4.

And beanie no 5 is growing.

Good progress is being made on this jigsaw.

Off to the sewing room I go and in the meantime

Happy sewing all