This Week in the Sewing room

Most of the week was spent on getting those pencil cases/pouches finished.    Putting the remainder  through the overlocker 

Next came the making of the casings for the drawstrings which proved to be very fiddly.   I had to stop every few stitches to pull the back out and make sure it was not getting caught up as the opening was not very wide.     Only 3 left to go under the machine

  

All 32 are now sewn, turned and threaded with cord.

In keeping with my WOOFA challenge - which is to work my way through the scrap piles - a start was made on sewing up the pink squares that were cut earlier on in the month and true to form the bobbin ran out again without me noticing.   More WOOFA challenges can be seen  here at Cheryll's blog.  

Fortunately it was just about at the end of the row.   I have in the past sewn for quite sometime without being aware that the bobbin was empty.    Very annoying having to re-sew virtually a whole seam.  

Spring is in the air.   You only have to walk outside to smell the jasmine and wattle scents wafting around.  One of the many wattle trees that are coming out in flower around the area where I go for my daily walk.

Off to the sewing room to sew up more pink squares and work on my Fall blog hop item.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

OMG for August

My goal this month was to turn these fabrics into coasters for gifts for friends at Christmas - that is assuming that we can get together for Christmas this year.      When choosing fabrics I thought about the couples that would be receiving them and their likes and interests.  

  

You can see below the fabrics now look like this.  

One couple like their tea and coffee so they are getting the red coasters with tea and coffee pots on them.    Next comes the cake loving couple.   Another couple are wine drinkers - she likes white and he likes red so both tastes are covered.   My cat loving friend and her husband obviously get cats and the last couple on my list for coasters like drinks and nibbles.  All that remains to do now is to wrap them up.

You can head on over to Patty's blog to see some amazing finishes.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

A Rare Commodity

Having made 20 masks my supply of hat elastic was depleted and after having tried in several shops around my area to buy more without any success I mentioned my sad plight to June of June's Jottings and she was able to get me some.   Mind you she also had to try 8 shops before hitting the jackpot.  It arrived via the post today.  I will guard it very carefully.

After doing some gardening and other domestic duties this morning I headed to the sewing room after lunch to make an early start on FNSI  in order to make some pencil cases/bags.    The co-ordinator of Network heaven asked if I could help make some smallish drawstring pouches - 10cm x 22cm - to hold  pencils for 4-5 year olds.  She would like 60 done and with two of us making them it means 30 each.   I was given this lot of drill fabric and cord to use.   

After an hour in the sewing room they are cut out and some have been through the overlocker.  

I did do a pro-type during the week and found while it was very quick to make doing the casing for the drawstring was a bit fiddly as it was too small to fit around free-arm of the machine so I had to be careful when feeding it through to keep the back part away from where I was stitching as it could easily be caught up.  

Time to head on over to Wendy's blog to see who else was sewing/crafting last night and what they got up to.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Zooming along

Chooky organised another fun Zoom party yesterday and it was lovely being able to see and speak to ladies from USA, Canada,  New Zealand and of course Australia.

Below are a couple of maps showing the areas where we come from

As you can see everyone  has their head down and is being very productive with the exception of me.  My excuse being that the computer is nowhere near my sewing room and being welded to the sewing machine means that I do not do any hand sewing.     But that is going to change for our next Zoom party - hopefully.    I am doing some "research" and think that the perfect project may have been found.    More on that later.

I did  make my way to the sewing room this morning and finished off cutting those 2 1/2" pink squares  that I made a start on last week.   

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Masked Parade

My quilting group met up on Saturday afternoon and we were asked to each bring along a mask that we had made for "show & tell".    This looks more like a poster for "Wanted" in the wild west days rather than a quilting group.   It should carry the caption " Look out for these ladies they are seen singly or often in pairs always in quilting and fabric shops".

That is me in the front with the red top on.    Just realised that only one of my arms can be seen. Hmmmm another problem that I have just noticed with the new interface is that the photos do not show up in full when you look at the published post -  you have to click onto each one to see them properly.  

It was interesting to note that we had all made the fitted style with the elastic going around the ears.     

I have joined Carol in the next blog hop that she is organising called From the Heart which entails making a small gift that you would give to someone.   

This calls for something pretty and small I am thinking so diving into the pink scraps will be a must for this one.

  

Time to head back to the sewing room  to cut more pink squares.

Back soon and in the meantime.

Happy sewing all

FNwF

Being the first Friday night of the month means getting "together" with the girls and sewing up a storm or other creative activity.   No sewing happened in my sewing room but I did have a play around with some fabrics for the Fall blog hop.    After auditioning and eliminating quite a few fabrics I am happy with the selection below.  I feel that it represents Fall or autumn as we refer to it here.  

Since signing up for this hop ideas of what to make have been running around in my head and hopefully I will not changing my mind......again!   

Being such a grey and cold day yesterday - the coldest day so far this year according to the weather man last night on tv - it was the perfect opportunity to make a cup of  hot green tea to sip while finishing off a book that was started at the beginning of the week.

I really enjoyed this book and best of all there was a surprise twist which I was not expecting nor would have ever guessed.   In fact I re-read one section to make sure it was what I had read. Usually when reading a book or watching a movie I am forming some sort of ideas as to how it may end but not in this case.     If anyone has read this book they will know what I am referring to and if you have not then it is worth a read.   

I have not read any other books by this author but her name has been added to my future reading list.    She is an Australian author.   

Time now to head over to Cheryll's blog to see what was happening last night in other sewing rooms.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Pretty flowers or Rampant Weeds

Since weeding and clearing out several garden beds over the past few months I have noticed "things" popping up right throughout them that have not been planted.    So  opinions please - Are these keepers or do I start pulling them out?  

I am hoping it is the former but suspect it is the latter.  

But before anything happens with the garden while the weather is rather chilly  I am going to make a start on reading some of the books that I picked up at the local library on a recent visit.

I am not sure which will be the first as they all look interesting titles and while I have read a few books by some of the authors a couple of them are new to me.  

My WOOFA challenge for August will be to keep working on my ever increasing scrap pile.   

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

OMG for August

We are into the 8th month of the year already....even though not a great deal has been happening in our "social and outing life"  the weeks are flying by and before we know it Christmas will be upon us.  I was very happy with the Christmas coasters that were made for a recent blog hop so a decision was made to make a few more but this time using some theme fabric to suit some of my friends likes and interests.  Below are some of the fabrics to be used.

Getting these made will be my OMG for August.

More masks have been made this time for Miss M and her mummy and daddy.     I did not have a pattern for a child's mask so the pattern was "shaved" down in order to make it a bit smaller.    No prizes for guessing which two were made for Miss M.

And I was able to finish off those that were cut and pinned for hubs and I.   We are going to have to check with each other to make sure that we do not wear our "twin" masks at the same time - LOL.

I have been having major issues with my emails for the last 4 days and thought that I was going to miss out on joining Chookyblue's zoom party but I finally had success with Optus late this afternoon so I was able to join in with a few of the girls for a short while.     My apologies to those who have left comments on my blog over the past few days and not heard back from me.   I will get  back to you as soon as I can now that the problem has been fixed - hopefully.   

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all