Lucky Country

I know that we live in the "lucky" country but sometimes it can be a harsh country too.  We all watched in horror as the water swept away houses, cars and people in Queensland then the hurricane winds further north and then the creeping spreading floods in Victoria.  I sat in my comfortable home or in my well stocked sewing room and tried to imagine what it would feel like if it was all just gone in the blink of an eye.

I started sewing.  I made needlebooks every night and then with a dedicated team of helpers at work we have spent the last four Saturdays making up sewing kits for the ladies in those devastated areas who have lost all their supplies.  They will be posted in the next couple of days to a collection point in Queensland to be distributed in the coming weeks.  I want to give a big THANK YOU to Jill, Judy, Sue, Simone and Maxine.  We made caddy's to go on the arm of a couch, needlebooks and pin cushions to go in drawstring bags with some scissors, pins, embroidery threads and needles.  It isn't much but if the sewing kits give some comfort it is worth every minute we spent sewing.  We just wanted to let them know we care.

Till Next Time,

Therese and Tasha

It's Not Fair

I was polishing my halo after I had finished a UFO.  But my smugness was short lived.

DD11 was cleaning up her part of the craft room and found a cushion that she had started.  She didn't want to finish it though and said to me 'You'll finish it for me, won't you mum?'  Not that I had a choice!


So, here is the front part - just needs to be quilted and then made into a cushion.  It took about an hour to complete the front and the cushion part will only take about 30 minutes as well.  Why is it that we think our UFO's are going to take so long to complete, when if we took just 15 minutes a day, we would have them finished in no time!

Till next time

Tasha and Therese

Guilty Secrets!

What do you get when you mix some fairy fabric, some stitchery, some applique and some bejewelling?

You get a Princess cushion of course!

Yes, the mother who didn't want her daughter to be 'girly' at all has been making princess cushions for years!  Such a guilty secret - but not anymore!  They have been requested as birthday presents - even for a teenager!

It all started with a grandmother who bought lots of pink clothing, dolls and stories about Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty.  Add in some sparkly nail polishes, twirly skirts and t-shirts with butterflies and fairies and there you go!  Hello girly-girl, good bye tom boy!  Oh well, if you cannot beat them, then join them!  (Says she who agreed to have dragonflies put on her fingernails by the "girly girl" last time they did their nails together.)

Till next time,

Tasha

Binding - Love it or Loathe it?

Whew - it has been so hot here and what have I been doing?  Relaxing with a good book, cool drink and the air-con going?  No, I have been working on a binding on a queen size quilt!  Why would I do that in the middle of summer?  Well, I provide a binding service for those who loathe the job.  One of our favourite customers had finished her first quilt and needed the binding done.  She was so excited to have completed her quilt that I couldn't let her down.  I had to finish it in as little time as possible.  So here are my essentials for binding:

A rubbish bin, my OTT Lite, sharp scissors and my IPOD.  Yes, my ipod - I love that I can 'plug myself in', tune the world out and just sew.  Bliss.  Except when it is 40 odd degrees C.

So, do you love the binding stage?  Do you feel enthused that the quilt is almost finished?  Or do you dread the monotony of hand sewing the binding down?




Till next time,

Tasha