WIPW

It doesn't look a lot but these bags have taken over a week to complete.

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They are made from free "Manufactures Soft Furnishing Samples" that came from Hana's Department Store in Toowoomba.  This is an old fashioned  country Department Store, a wonderful range of stock and great service.  The fabric is a bit heavier than dress fabric and this makes it suitable for kids library bags.  The pockets on the front have a velcro closure and this fabric was a velvet kind of knit.  That had to be stabalized before I could applique the letters on and it still moved around a bit.

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I made the straps different lengths so they would be suitable for a range of age groups.  The next thing I need is some supplies to go in each bag.  These are all off to Care Kits for Kids.


AI

The past year has seen a plethora of 'fake'.

Fake emails trying to scam me.

Fake phone calls and messages trying to scam me.

Now I have found a "fake book".  This turned up in my Email and then I saw it again on Facebook.

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They are impersonation Sue Briscoe who's books are the benchmark for Sashiko stitching.  Even embroidery is not safe from these scammers.  You will find lots of AI altered embroidery on instagram and facebook,  all fake.

Who would have thought they would target this area?  Maybe because most practitioners are of a certain age or are women and they think they are an easy target?


Keeping a written record

I am still beavering away at the record I am writting about my textile interpretations of the temple at South Bank and today fate told me why I was doing it.

Whilst at the Embroiderers' Guild I was looking at some needle lace that had been donated. Screenshot 2024-10-30 at 1.30.33 PM

The gentleman who donated it had no idea about it's background other than he had found it whilst cleaning out his brother's house after his death.   He thought it might have been made by this man's mother in Malta.

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It was made of silk and has the motive of a Maltese Cross worked throughout it.  It is a work off art but has no story attached to it.  It certainly must have a story.  Of a mother putting all her love into a piece of lace bound for her son who has travelled to the other side of the world and she may never see again, we can guess at that.

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But where did she get the patterns from, or the silk?  What are the stories behind the patterns?  How did she get the skills to do this work? 

So many unanswered questions.

We might say "this is just women's work, they just did that."

Write your stories for our daughters, sons and all those interest viewers who will look in wonder at your work in the years to come.


WIPW

I am back to a limited amount of sewing and am working on the 6 book bags that will be a donation to "Care Kits for Kids."  I had to think about the best way to do the pocket on the front as I was using a mixture of fabrics to construct this.  I wanted to applique the word books on the pocket but the fabric was a knit and had a stretch.  I ended up using a contrast fabric and used a double sided sticky interfacing to get it into place.  I then used an iron on interfacing to give the fabric some rigidity and a button hole stitch to attach the letters.  This took forever and my back up machine has lost the ability to engage the 'mirror' function so I seemed to be sewing in a counter intuitive way.Screenshot 2024-10-27 at 3.32.15 PM

I also received a donation of books for my Patchwork Group and am deciding which ones should be added to the library.  I know all these books had great sentimental value for the previous owner but some are dated and some a bit damaged. Hard decisions here.

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I have also been getting my standby machine ready to go in for service.  To this end I have stitched out a sample.  I had a ring from the repair man so my main machine should be here by the end of the week.  Because of ill health and the distance involved in getting the machine to a service I have missed a couple of years.  No more.  It will be serviced once every year now.  I just couldn't afford the replacement price.

As to embroidery, well, I bought a kit in an Op shop for $1 but I have found the old thread almost impossible to work with. 

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Now that I have replaced that thread it should progress.  These will be for luggage tags for my donations to "Care Kits for Kids."

And talking about this group, I met one of the founders at the Embroiderers' Guild.  She is a new member.  Small world!


The Past Week

Not a good week, it could have been better.

Time spent with Doctors and Specialists and the outcome......just fine.  I didn't think it was going to be because I had found another lump in my breast and my first thought was that the cancer had come back, but, it turned out to be non malignant, the anxiety and stress I could have done without.

During this time my finger got a bit better and I started to write a book to take my mind of everything.  Someone asked me about all the work I did for a design challenge I took part in with friend Pam back in 2010.  So, I looked back at the blog I set up to record my work and reflected on what I had achieved.  I did learn a lot.  New skills and a lot about myself.  So now I am putting it into book form.  In fact I have more than half the first draft finished, just for my family and myself.  As this disease progresses and the arthritis limits my movement I might start to write another  and who knows where that might lead. 

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I have kept dairies since my late teens but I threw a lot of them away when I retired and I regret that now.  My blog posts started about 2007 and I have all of those.  Seen from this distance all those events take on a different aspect.

The other irritation has been with Bernina and the servicing of my sewing machine.   It is now over 3 months since I put it in for a service.  The problem, the clips on the throat plate.  There is no stock in Australia of many spare parts.  I would have willingly bought a new throat plate, but there is non to be had.  

Asking around it seems that the company, now being run by another generation,  have done away with holding a stock of spare parts for current machines and discontinued completely holding spare parts for older machines.  Personally I find this short sighted. 

I have always had 3 machines.  A current model, a back up and an overlocker.  Well, since my early 30's. When I upgraded, the old machine went to family members, my daughter and daughters-in-law.  I bought new machines for both of my grand daughters. (That equates to about 20 machines over the years.) At the time I thought my current model (the 720) would last my lifetime and the ones I gave my family could be used now and upgraded as time went by.

  When I was teaching full time many of my students bought Bernina Machines on my recommendation.  I am now questioning my decision to buy the Bernina Brand and will start researching other brands and see which ones will give the best performance and service.  Shame.  I'm sure I'm not the only person thinking like this.