The Children's Class

Once again I am exhausted after these classes.  It has taken a few days to recover and my mind is buzzing with ideas for the next class and all next years classes.  Problem is I am finding it difficult to cope physically.  The time is drawing near when I will have to step away and let someone else take over.

Not a huge class, but still a healthy number.  Problem was the lack of volunteers.  I am sure the stress of handling this accounts for a lot of my exhaustion.  Arriving at 6:30am to make sure that everything is in order isn't good.  Added to the 4 hour round commute this was not going to be good for my health.

But the kids were terrific.  We had some high school girls ( 15- 16 years old) who brought along their exchange students from Germany.  They had never stitched before and their work was beautiful.  One of the girls won our raffle for a sewing box.  Not quite sure how she is going to get that home to Germany.

At the other end of the scale there was a 7 year old who also had never stitched before and who took to it like a fish to water.

We also had some girls travel up from northern New South Wales, so a very mixed group.  Everyone finished the project and all were very happy with the end result.

Side tracked

I started the day to clean my studio/sewing room, which is a mess,

but got side tracked when I went to send an email to my sewing pals about a free pattern.

Then I found my Email list was a mess and had to be updated.  Now it is time for lunch and the room is still a mess.

A change in the weather

We are having a respite from wind and rain.  The sun will shine for the next few days before the cold returns.  In the mean time, it is great fishing weather.

WIPW - Busy, Busy.

Life is full on again here.  My husband came down with the virus our grand daughter had, who he had been nursing.  Wouldn't you know?

He thought he might die, so, I had to get to the mainland get the car to the island drive him to the hospital, where they had him in over night ,and then get him settled in at our townhouse up in town until such time as I could arrange a place on the barge to get him back.  The weather is a little wild here with huge seas, (the beaches are all closed) and strong winds.  Walking up and down to the ferry has revived my virus!!  I have been cursing him for days.  But I also took the opportunity to get my hearing tested again.  Result, new hearing aids in both ears this time.  Seems as though the damage I sustained when I was hit by my attacker back in 2006 did more structural damage than thought at first.  But, on the upside I can hear again.

I am still obsessed with the design for these Xmas decorations.  The idea has now morphed into one of "embellish" with stitching and beads etc.  The stitching seems to take so long.  The first fabric I tried had a design that was a little larger.  This sent me looking for any templates I might have to cut the circle and sure enough there was a set in the template box.  (Haven't used this for ages but knew it would come in handy one day.)

I used the outside of the line for my stitching guide and the inside to cut the card.  I have glued a Pellum to the card which makes it a tiny bit bigger, hence the change in cutting.

A line of running stitches around the outside of the embroidery and then gather it to fit over the card.  I think I like this chain stitch edge the best, it is then joined to the back with a woven stitch.

Back stitch will be my next attempt and this will be whipped to make a corded edge.  I have now been drawing  some 'cute' animals to stitch and have started with an owl.  It it Children's Classes at the moment and I nearly lost this sample!  I will continue drawing these as they look like they might be a hit.

Now I have to tackle the Xmas fabric draw to find what fabric I have that would be suitable.

 

A bit of shopping

It is the end of the financial year so there are some savings to be made.  I bought 2 children's sewing baskets to use as raffle prizes for the next 2 sets of Children's Classes. 

Then just a couple of fabrics.  (There was also a white cotton/linen for surface stitching.)

I can't buy Peltex any longer so I also got another type of stiffener to try.

I came out of the patchwork shop, looked up the road and there was a mob of sheep.

That was the last thing I thought to see in the suburbs.  I went to take a photo and they all trotted away.  The owner had arrived and I think he brings them extra food because they were quick off the mark.

There was also two beautiful Shetland ponies in beautiful coats.  The sign on the fence said

"Please do not feed these horses. 

They are very naughty and are on a strict diet".