Boomerang Bags

As more and more retailers no longer offer free single use plastic bags for carrying purchases, the result is a plethora of reusable bags being offered for sale. ( In my state, the government has legislated to ban the single use bags)
One example is the Boomerang bag which is made of cloth and mostly made by community minded groups and offered for sale at various outlets, including markets. The bags are very similar to the morsbags I saw in the U.K.when we were there in 2008. I'm thinking the name Boomerang reflects the fact that you can keep using these bags; as long as you remember to put them back in your car! Lol
It was decided in our parish that we would make Boomerang Bags for sale. Donations of fabric, including old curtains, sheets and doona covers were requested. So I took a hard look at my dressmaking fabrics and also my patchwork cottons and donated quite a bundle.
So then some pockets were screen printed...

A prototype was sewn, ready for the first sewing bee...

But progress was slow via the sewing bee method. I couldn't make it to the sewing session on that day and it was the same for others. So the organiser came up with the concept of 'outworkers' and the 'assembly line' concept. I put my hand up to help. I was given the task of sewing the handles. I was spoiled as the handles had been already cut out. So it was just a case of pressing, pinning and sewing.
I've done 2 lots so far...total of 39 handles. Maybe more to come.

My favourite sewing machine, my vintage Elna 'work horse' needs a service ( the needle is going up and down when the bobbin is being refilled 😕) so I need to get that done next week in case I get some more handles to sew...or use the newish Janome? 

February 1968...

So it's back to that little old diary of mine for a round up of that month in my Grade 12 year. 

The school year had started, so many of the entries are about school. My high school had opened in 1963 so it was still fairly new. For my first 4 years at the school, extensive building works continued with at least one new classroom block added each year. In 1968, I vaguely recall that there was no building going on so the noise levels were down, as was the dust!
The photo shows the first block built...A block.

February started off at school with me being chosen to read the prayer on weekly assembly. Ha ha! No prayers these days at state schools...not for years and years! In the following weeks of February, the staff chose the Prefects and from then on, only prefects read the prayer...and no I wasn't chosen as a school leader.
In the Feb 5 entry I described the new students in my class...it's only looking back now that I realise how difficult it must have been for those young people starting at a new school in Grade 12!  In a bit of school gossip, I wrote about a girl called Sheryl M who had returned to school after giving birth to twins in the previous year...can't remember it though 😉
Now something else that I'd forgotten until I read it in the February entries, was that a girl called Alison F was 'giving me a hard time'. Surprising that as I know that in the future, I had invited her to my (first) wedding in 1972, so we must have become friends eventually! Lol
Despite being early in the school year I complained about the workload in Geography, Modern History and Modern History. I mentioned in one entry a novel that we had to read in English; one that probably most students had to read...'The Red Badge of Courage'...😕
I don't think this was the cover of mine in 1968, but who knows, it might have been! Lol

Talking of my English class, I described our teacher thus...' Mr Marks, as usual, was hilarious! He's not sure of anything.' Harsh words! In the same entry I wrote how he played a tape of the play Macbeth for a double English period; that was 80 minutes! No discussion of the plot, characters etc, we just followed the script of the play in our textbooks while the tape played! By jingo, we were a polite class! Years later I met Mr Marks and after a bit of chit chat, I said to him, 'You didn't really like/enjoy teaching senior English, did you?' His answer was non committal, but as a teacher by then of some 30 years experience, I already knew the answer.
In another Feb entry I wrote about borrowing a book from the school library. The title was 'The Grand Sophy' and when I read that entry I had no idea of what the book was...so I googled it and it's a Georgette Heyer book. Didn't think it was my style but then remember my friend's mother lending me a copy of the book 'These Old Shades', another Heyer book, so maybe I was into those kinds of romances when I was 16 going on 17 😉.
So outside of school, what did February 1968 have in store for me?
I obviously wrote letters to friends; 2 that I mention are still friends today. Another friend that I regularly wrote letters to was mentioned. Dawn got married at 16 ( you know the term, 'had to get married' 😮) to a serviceman and with their baby, went to live in Malaya where her husband was stationed at Butterworth. We wrote lots of letters while she was away and in Feb 1968, she wrote that they were coming home. My entry on this was showed my excitement at this news.
I wrote of a row with my mum with her withdrawing permission to go on a church camp with the youth group at my friend's church...what a meanie! Lol. I don't say why I was in so much trouble but I vaguely remember my mother saying that she didn't like the youth leader, so she was probably protecting me.
The weather was hot that February with temperatures of 95 degrees F for days on end. I wrote about mowing the lawn in that heat for my mum who was widowed by this time.
Some entries were about visits to the shops. My suburb had had a shopping arcade built in the 1960s which was pretty swish for a suburb then 😉. At the newer chemist shop I bought a hair rinse ( didn't tell mum though!). I even wrote the name of the colour rinse in my diary, 'Kiss of Smoke' and I concluded after putting it in my hair that it , ' didn't make any difference!' Obviously my hair was too dark to let the colour of the rinse show. 😆
Another shopping trip was to the local Barry and Roberts store. ( a family owned department and grocery store. The stores all closed in the early 1980s)
Photo below shows the Barry and Roberts store in my suburb. ( Source; BCC-B54-15245)

On this shopping trip I bought some lemon colored linen. The diary described how I drafted a pattern from the New Idea magazine, for a dress which crossed over at the front and had a ruffle that went from hemline to neck on the edge of the crossover. Now when I read the next bit, I laughed and laughed at my optimism/naivety/ stupidity 😂😂😂😂
I mentioned that I had planned to have this new dress finished by the time all the Grade 12s attended a night time performance of our set play Macbeth at Festival Hall in the city. Being a state school we were allowed to wear ordinary clothes for excursions out of school hours. Well Miss 16 y/o Maria thought that a lemon linen dress could work magic...here's what I wrote...cringe cringe.
' hope to wear the dress to Macbeth to impress Patrick T' !
Well it didn't work! Lol. Our paths never crossed! 

A little sewing project...

In the last week I've been working on some sewing; just a change from knitting and crocheting projects. A day or so after the project was finished, a friend sent me this very appropriate meme...a good reminder how stitching can be very therapeutic.

Next week is our granddaughter's first birthday and I had decided to make her some birthday bunting that could be reused year after year. I had made similar bunting for my niece's daughter 6 years ago and it has been useful.

 For that bunting I used letters from a Creative Memories stencil, but this time I chose some rather funky lettering from the site Shiny, Happy World. I found this site by googling Fabric Alphabets and it's a very useful site for tutorials and lots of free sewing projects.

So here is the finished bunting, all 19 letters of it.

I ended up hand stitching the letters and found it to be a relaxing task. I couldn't face machining all those curves! Lol.
To finish off the bunting I sewed novelty buttons on some of the flags. Here's a collage of 3 of the letters that I decorated with a novelty button.

DsD2 loved it when we handed it over last Thursday. She said they had been planning to make bunting out of cardboard...being a non sewer, she was impressed that I'd actually made it myself!!! ( few brownie points there I think! Lol)

Wool on Sundays...

Once more, joining in with Janine from the Rainbow Hare blog, for her Wool on Sundays. In the last week, I've done a minuscule amount of work on those crocheted squares that I wrote about last week. I think the tally would be 2 squares enlarged by a few rounds :-/

So I thought I would write a post about my 'knitting/crocheting themed fabric collection' instead. 

The fabrics have been bought at various times over a number of years...

This 'knitting sheep' became a favourite and has lots of fussy-cut hexagons cut out of it...

And what did I find last year in a yarn shop in Skagway?? Yes, even when I'm on the other side of the world from home, I check out yarn and fabric shops! Lol.

So plenty more of my 'knitting sheep' fabric to play with! 

I'll finish the post with some photos of how I've used these fabrics...

One year I was matched with a knitter in a Secret Santa Swap, so one of the gifts I made was a fabric basket...

And then filled it with some yarns...

And I've lost count of the times I've made the Judy Newman Dillybag using the themed fabrics for fellow knitters. 

There are useful pockets in the lining too. This fabric was in Spotlight and I only bought a metre. I've just got a tiny bit left now after lining two Dillybags. 

This bag was made in 2014 for my Secret Santa partner in my knitting group...

This is the one I made last year for the Chookyblue SS Swap...

 

And one big hexagon stitched to the front...my partner loves mice! ( The embroidery design is 'Lily Mouse' and is a design by Susan of Threads on My Socks; available from her Etsy shop) 

Next week I may have a new knitting project started; it will be good to be working on something in the evenings again! 

FNSI with RSI...

Looks like I'm 'talking in initials' doesn't? Apparently the weakness in my right hand when I was pulling out weeds a couple of weeks ago is linked to the ache I developed in both my wrists early this week...somehow I've managed to develop a Repetitive Strain Injury and have had to take a bit of a backward step from sewing, knitting and especially crocheting. The last time I did any crocheting was last Monday and it hurt, which is rather sad as I was on such a roll joining squares into blankets and making granny squares. The good news is that there is a definite improvement and I have relented and purchased a pair of wrist and hand support gloves from Judy Hall (Punch with Judy) and hopefully they will arrive next week. 

So this month's Friday Night Sew In has been a little different...but I kept myself busy nonetheless :-)

Firstly, I took photos of the lovely items my sister in law and her friend made for K4BN....I can now send these photos to the group's Facebook page...

Firstly some baby blankets made by Ada my SiL's friend...5 beautifully made blankies....

A gorgeous crocheted rug from Mary, my SiL....

And Mary has sewn lots of children's quilts for the group as well...

And Mary made some drawstring bags too...

I sandwiched the layers of the 'dog quilt'...I cheated and used some iron on batting and I used polar fleece for the backing. My friend Pamela often backs quilts with polar fleece, even ones that go to the professional quilter, so I thought I'd give it a go. Missy the dog might get her quilt this winter! But I think the quilting will just be 'stitch in the ditch'. 

I had 6 Liberty hexagons to attach (I still stitch them) to the papers, so this evening I did that and then played with layouts. I want to make a cushion with them and was hoping to get a symmetrical layout that used all 30 of the hexagons that were in the kit that I bought from the Liberty shop. 

But there were either 1-3 left over or not enough to complete a proposed layout...

Time to put them away and await inspiration! Lol

Getting back into the swing of things...

It's 3 weeks tomorrow since my stay in hospital and in the last week my mojo has really come back and I've been sewing and knitting away...in between those naps of course!
Most of it is secret 'stuff' so just little glimpses for now...

 Some English paper piecing...

Some stitching...

Plastic bags with a few different sized hexagons plus papers to match...

Some triangular shaped pieces of fabric...

 Even more configurations made from sewing elongated hexies together...

Started a secret knitting project using this lovely yarn...it has sequins threaded on the mohair yarn...

Last week I laboriously cast on the 213 stitches for a chevron blanket, and then over 2 days set the pattern without too much pulling out...brain fog was starting to lift by then...

I bought this lovely pattern from Michelle but have realised that this project won't be finished for this Christmas. So I'm incorporating a couple of the stitchery designs into projects I'm making for swaps. And that has been fun.

By the time this scheduled post is published I will be staying in Brunswick Heads while DH plays a 3 day golf competition at 3 different golf courses in that part of NSW. I will be working on all these projects and enjoying the peace and serenity of the Ferry Reserve  Resort Park on the banks of the Brunswick River. Absolute bliss!

Friday Night Sew In...

Wendy over at Sugarlane Designs is running FNSI now, so firstly many thanks to Wendy for organising this great event.
Last night, I spent some time sewing up some more donated squares into a blanket for the needy. I had a strict time limit on this...only until 7.30!

And then it was time to grab my 2 cubes of Christmas fabrics and sort through looking for fabrics with smallish designs on them. Then I cut out some long hexagons. By then it was time to sit down in front of the TV and watch the second episode of Broadchurch on ABC1, and stitch! How good an evening is that! I stitched away through another few shows until just before midnight!

This will be either a table runner or table centre

Why not use the link to Wendy's blog and the 'sign in post' to visit other FNSI ers and see what lovely things they were working on.

Keeping busy...

You may have noticed that I haven't been very active in Blogland recently. A close relative has had ongoing  mental health issues for a number of years and every now and then this person has a 'meltdown'... many in the family look to me to 'sort things out' and sometimes it's this reaction which is more stressful than the 'meltdown'. Enough said...I know that I am a most fortunate person, and, after all, it's the 'hiccups in life' that make the good times seem extra special.
Last Monday, a friend who is my 'sounding board' rang me up about 9am and suggested meeting for coffee...I nearly said no (I had been busy wallowing in self pity :-/)  but quickly changed my mind. Just after I got off the phone, I received  a lovely encouraging text from DH just before he hit off on his golf game. Then a little while later DD2 sent me a lovely text unexpectedly. When I got to the shopping centre where I was to meet my friend, I decided to buy a takeaway coffee from a nice coffee shop instead of the usual not so nice coffee one can buy in the Foodcourt where I was to meet Dianne. The coffee was free because of my loyalty card...and those 3 little things just brightened up my day so much!!! And the blues have well and truly gone!
And as the title of this posts suggests, I  have been busy...

DH and I had a trip to Bunnings for gardening supplies, including some seedlings and 2 lots of seed potatoes...

I have been busy sewing up squares that have been donated to K4BN...mostly I join them up to make a single bed sized blanket...

Squares tacked in rows and then the rows tacked together ready for the final sewing up and neatening of ends...

Some squares I edge with a darker colour using Double Crochet (Aussie DC) These 2 bundles were made up into single blanket sized throws

 Here are the ones I've sewn up in the last 10 days or so...

Here's another one...these squares were knitted with 2 strands of 8ply acrylic and were found in an op shop in Tasmania...the donor very kindly sent them up to Brisbane...

Of course, I've had to continue to supervise Brad the Builder on the site next door!! lol

I've also been to some Knit and Natters... the red/black and yellow knitting on the right of the photo is my indigenous chevron throw...

I've finished some secret sewing for a Swap that I'm in...will be able to show the whole object soon :-)

And just for a bit of culture, DH and I went to the theatre :-)

Firstly we went to the Gardens' Point Theatre of QUT to see a play starring Henry Szeps. It was a very enjoyable night...

And we were able to see the newest building on the campus too...apparently according to the Links magazine from QUT, this building is 'state of the art' technology wise...

And of course, this campus has a very old building which was the original government house in the colony...

 And then last Friday night, DH and I went to see some one act plays at Act One Theatre at Strathpine...

The tiny theatre is situated in the old shire hall....

 We had a very special reason for going to these plays...'Housekeeper Wanted', the play on after intermission featured DD1! She played the applicant who had a drinking problem...there was lots of comedy in the role and DD1 also had to speak with an English accent which she successfully maintained throughout the performance. She got lots of laughs during the performance and after the show a number of people congratulated her on making them laugh... 

And DH and I gave her some flowers after the show... DD1 loves pink by the way!!

And this afternoon DH took a photo of me with the 'Art Show 2013 Throw'...not long to go now, probably another 30cm or so, and despite not liking grey, I love this throw; it is soft, light and oh, so warm!

So I'm well and truly back with you all in Blogland!