The last Social Sewing Saturday of 2016

Well there’s a first (and hopefully not last) time for everything. This was my first time stepping into the world of Social Sewing Saturdays (SSS), and I’m so very glad I made the move! I’ve always been interested in sewing, but I’ve never had the courage to try it out for myself. Armed with determination, I headed to my local craft store and found myself a beginner ‘learn how to sew’ kit. I found a beautiful little make your own doll, and took that with me to my first SSS.

We enjoyed a laugh, drank coffee and ate cake and of course found the time to work on our individual projects. I found the motions of sewing to be incredibly calming, and enjoyed my afternoon so much. I received some really good tips and tricks from the other lovely social sewers, and we had a chat about the year that had passed and the year that was to come.

This was our last meeting of 2016, and I thank everyone who came along. You were all so  wonderful and welcoming, and I’m excited for more Social Sewing in the new year. To those who couldn’t make it, I hope you have an amazing rest of the year and the happiest of holidays. 

Social Sewing will resume in the New Year, on Saturday the 28^th of January 2017. I hope to see you then!

Until then, have a safe and happy holidays and like always, happy sewing!

See you in the new year. 

Relief sewing and socialising for all.

This was my first time stepping in to be the facilitator of the Social Sewing Saturday, I was made to feel very welcomed by this friendly group of stitchers. As I had no sewing projects under way I used the opportunity to complete a project that I had tucked away since the beginning of the year. Earlier this year I participated in a workshop through Artspace learning Indigo + Shibori fabric dying, the idea was to stretch the fabric I had created over a canvas to create a canvas art work. After much finessing with the staple gun I was able to move forward with this project.

A few ideas were given forward by SSS members, one was the idea of welcoming fabric crafters of many other disciplines. It's ideas like these that let a group grow and change to meet the wants of the community that they are apart of. Here's to welcoming more ideas.

We'll catch up with everyone and their projects at the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library at 1.00pm on Saturday 29th October. 

Until then happy sewing.

Just a friendly reminder....

Just a friendly reminder that the Social Sewing Saturday will be this Saturday 27th August at Gordon White library from 1pm -3pm in the Community Meeting room.

Bring along all those wonderful projects and happy sewing.

Sewing and socialising, knitting and socialising, crocheting and socialising

With this glorious winter weather at present, it is a little difficult  to be inside, but, one of the advantages of the Community Meeting Room, is that with the blinds up, the outside forms two of the 'walls' and lets an abundance of light in.

Our Great Barrier Reef long-stitch continues to progress.Trying to ensure the correct blue is selected from the bundle of threads available certainly requires a bright source of daylight.

The beautiful red brocade-like fabric mentioned in previous SSS blogs is close to being a beautiful dress. As it is lined in black, trying to sew the back zip in neatly is proving quite challenging. Our SSSer has resorted to couture-style techniques by hand-sewing the lining in around the zip.

One of our regulars usually works on variety of projects and this SSS was no different. The afternoon started with a beautiful chunky purplish yarn being knitted on thick needles into a cushion cover. After a few rows of this project the needles and yarn were put tidily away and then the crotchet hook came out. Our multi-skilled SSSer then progressed her multi-coloured rug.

Another couple of our regulars are knitting for the Knitted Knockers of Australia project. This project provides knitters with yarn and a pattern for prosthetics which are then given to women who have had mastectomies. The pattern can be a bit tricky to start with but the end result is very satisfying. It also gives Knit-wits something to knit in our winter when there is very little need for scarves, beanies or jumpers!

May all of your projects progress!

Happy sewing!

Stitchers socialise on Saturday

With school holidays on the horizon, SSS met a week earlier. With several of our number already away on holidays we were fewer in numbers than last month but that didn't dampen the creativity or the socialising.

A newcomer crocheted these sweet little teddies. Other enthusiasts asked for the pattern to find this creator just develops the pattern as she goes which was very impressive. She showed us one teddy that she had semi-completed but was not happy with. After much discussion it was decided that the colour combination did not work as well as the others she had done, so it was on to crocheting another teddy with a different colour combination which seemed to be working very well.

Our Suffolk Puff expert has started the massive job of attaching the yo-yos onto the quilt backing which is a delightful lavender; a neutral colour and yet one with warmth and fun thrown in as a bonus. Trying to ensure a good spread of the many hued Suffolk Puffs can be quite time consuming as one wants to avoid  two yo-yos of the same colour beside each other and yet not have the colour combination to look contrived either. We look forward to watching this project's progress.

Here are some Suffolk Puffs which are also known as yoyos. Our Suffolk Puff expert finishes hers with a neat circle of felt in the centre which enhances its flower-like appearance.

Our patchworker is working on a gift for her sister. Using bright but op-arty Kaffe Fassettt fabrics and a technique called fabric or patchwork piecing she is slowly but surely constructing a collection of delightful placemats. This style of piecing does not use templates but requires careful sewing from the back of the project. There can be a little unpicking involved at times.

Here is a collection of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, some of which are making an appearance in the placemats:

The fabrics are absolutely gorgeous but again it is trying to balance the colours to show them all off and yet create a unified overall effect.

Another of our SSSers just loves coming along to SSS as it gives her an opportunity to catch up on all of those little projects (like taking up hems on too-long pants) while having a chat with other sewers. When her sewing machine is being pernickety, there is usually another sewer who can offer some assistance to get things moving again. She now has two more pairs of long pants ready to wear when the weather cools down. She was very pleased to announce that her mending/fixing pile has somewhat decreased since she started attending SSS!

Our appliquer was dismayed to find she had left her bright LED light behind, so she needed to position herself close to one of the glass doors to capture the natural light so she could sew the tiny stitches needed to attach the stems of her appliqued flowers. After that was completed it was on to the ongoing cross-stitch project but unfortunately the necessary needle was still at home under the bright LED light so...........Fortunately she had everything to continue on with her circular knitting project but ... for half a row it was forgotten that she was knitting moss stitch not rib so all that knitting had to be pulled out. Some days are like that.

We'll continue our social creative journey on Saturday 30 July at 1.00 pm at the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library. Bring along your project as well as the bits and pieces that are needed to progress it, like LED lights, embroidery needles and so on.

Happy stitching.......

Social Sewing Saturday a week earlier in June

Just a reminder to everyone that we will be meeting a week earlier this month!

Bring those projects along this Saturday, 18 June at the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library at 1.00pm!

See you there!

SSS abuzz with the busy hum of sewing machines

We had a great roll up on Saturday with an amazing range of projects. Our resident expert in all things textile also has a knack with smartphones, so with much thanks to her, our record of this SSS will be largely photographic!

One of our participants has been trying to polish up her sewing skills and a winter skirt has become a somewhat more long term project than originally anticipated. However with much adjustment of the pattern she now has a wonderful skirt for all seasons and while she is still not satisfied with her machining techniques, she has utilised her abundant resources to produce a fantastic unique skirt which is beautifully modelled..

Another SSSer is working on a cosy, colourful crochet quilt. The hot pink joins really make the other colours pop!

One of our very productive sewers came very well prepared with all the pieces for her skirt pre-cut. It was just a matter then of happily joining the pieces together without the interruption from  little people. Once the skirt was complete, it was onto sewing the pieces for a winter nightie together. One skirt and an almost-nightie certainly indicates a productive SSS!

Some lucky grandchildren are going to have their own hand-made Christmas stockings to hang out for Santa this year. This SSS grandmother had her sewing machine racing at a great rate of knots as seam after seam was sewn! Once the stockings were done, it was on to some more therapeutic crochet and a tad of socialising, of course!

This amazing king-size quilt of over a hundred diamonds has been a labour of love over a considerable period of time. Hours and hours of stitching, pulling out and re-stitching have resulted in this glorious collection of blue and lavender with pops of green. In the background, one can see the matching pillowcases also carefully constructed. The diamonds are stitched together; the project has been quilted in a variegated thread of blue and lavender; so now it is time to attach the binding, sewn on by machine, turned back and then painstakingly stitched with tiny invisible hand-stitching. It's times like this, that one wishes one slept in a tiny cot!

Our resident expert in all things textiles has to pull out stitches occasionally. This photo does not capture the fantastic combination of browns, greens and creams which will soon be a tablecloth for a table on the veranda. The unpicking came about when two different sewing machines were used and their tensions did not agree with each other. Once this task was done it was on to the fun part of cutting out squares for a fruity sudoku quilt. This clever SSS had bought a collection of nine different fabrics each colourfully depicting a piece of fruit. We look forward to watching this project progress.

This lucky SSSer had acquired this exquisite red embossed fabric, which with the assistance of a very chic looking Vogue pattern will be transformed into a stunning dress. Unfortunately the photo does not do this elegant fabric the justice it deserves.  Another project to keep a close eye on.

Some fabulous William Morris inspired fabric from the stash is now being converted into a wonderful small bag. This clever sewer used some green gingham cut on the bias and some narrow sewing cord to create piping which she then inserted into the seams giving the project a very professional finish. The green gingham bias also enhanced the small inside pockets. This sewer really pays a lot of attention to tiny details making her projects creative works of art.

One of the advantages of the GWL Community Meeting Room is the large tables which makes those large cumbersome projects easier to handle, usually.........However when there's two folk to a table and one needs access to those rare, oddly placed general power outlets, one is a tad bit more cramped than expected. This clever SSSer was replacing the elastic on one of her mattress protectors while wearing a beautifully-fitting skirt which she had begun at an earlier SSS.

One of our regular SSSers is making a series of floral-inspired panels as a means of learning to applique. The flowers and leaves are stitched using a machine blanket stitch while the stems are attached using a tiny hand stitch. Botanists would certainly have difficulty with some of the leaf, stem, flower combinations but for patchworkers it's merely an expression of creative licence and a means to link blocks in a work..

Looking forward to our next creative get-together. For those who are travelling, keep safe and we'll catch up with you on your return.

We'll catch up with everyone and their projects at the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library at 1.00pm on Saturday 18 June, which is a week earlier than usual, due to the Show Public Holiday and the start of the school holidays!

Happy sewing!!!

Projects, projects everywhere!

It's amazing how a tiny drop in the temperature encourages the flow of the creative juices! We had nine people happily engaged in a whole range of  creative pursuits.

One of our quilters is currently patiently searching for the right shade for the backing for her current quilting project so being stalled on that project, she is looking forward and planning the next. She had the pattern in hand but interpreting that pattern is a skill in itself. There was a bit of squinting and head scratching as well as serious discussion with other social sewers as to which would be the best way forward. Quilting which uses imperial measurements certainly gives our brains an arithmetic work-out! We look forward to seeing how both of these quilting projects progress.

Another of our quilters has wisely chosen an owl pot-holder project. She had a finished one to show us how all the different pieces were going to go together. She was working on the assembly of quite a number of these cute owls, so was cutting out quite a number of pieces in a variety of shades. She has included as part of the wadding a heat-proof product which increases the safety aspect of the potholders. Their eyes certainly added to their cuteness. Her lucky friends and relatives are in for a delightful treat.

One of our very productive social sewers wore one of her previous SSS projects; a cheerful red summery dress which fitted perfectly and looked absolutely fabulous! This week she was sewing a winter nightie for one of her daughter's friends who has a birthday fast approaching. Apparently this lucky young lass's favourite colour is pink so in her birthday bundle is going to be a cosy pink nightie.

A friend had asked one of our crafters to produce a crochet quilt from granny squares and offered some yellow, green and off-white wool. Having a good eye for colour, our crocheter knew that this was not going to give a pleasing result so she has added two shades of pink, one pale and one medium and now the granny squares are pink flowers (deep pink towards the centre and paler pink on the outer 'petals') with yellow centres, that are wreathed by green leaves. To add further zing to the creation, she is crocheting the squares together with bright hot pink which really stands out against the off-white background. This judicious use of colour has transformed the project from ho-hum to eye-catching! 

Our teapot cosy queen continues to produce an amazing array of jaunty teapot cosies decorated with flowers or gum nuts in a variety of colours to contrast against the main colour of the teapot cosy. She has even transformed a Beanie kit into a delightful teapot cosy, utilising the accompanying pom-pom as a rather cheeky embellishment. A boutique tea shop is so impressed with her work they have offered to purchase some of her fun creations. When the urge to create cosies wanes, she turns her hand to creating colourful yo-yo flowers, also know as Suffolk Puff flowers, which are contributing to another project in progress.

A Great Barrier Reef long-stitch project is certainly a long-term project but its variety of bright colours and shapes helps keep the work interesting. It's also a project where one is able to stitch and socialise so our long-stitcher enjoys both the social  and sewing aspects of our SSSs. Using the portable tapestry frame to keep the work taut also means that as one progresses along the project, the scenery changes adding to its appeal and dispersing any tendency to sameness.

Another of our sewers has a daughter who appears to be doing very well for herself as she is having a  form-fitting sleeveless dress currently being constructed from a wonderful red retro tartan fabric. This fabric appeared to have a wonderful weight to it. Her SSS mother is a very experienced sewer who is willing to take on a challenge. Like many of us she has always attached the iron-on interfacing to the facing but on reading yet another sewing book recently she came across the idea of ironing the interfacing directly on the actual garment. We look forward to seeing how this experiment has affected the way the finished garment hangs.

Trying to use tiny blind hemming to stitch down the binding of a lap quilt certainly kept one of our SSSers occupied. Our resident expert in all things textile commented that she appeared to be making hard work of it so everyone popped over to check out her technique. While the technique was a little awkward (done upside down to what one would normally do) and certainly time-consuming, the end result was a very tiny, close-to- invisible stitch which in the end is what counts, giving the quilt a very neat binding.

Our resident expert in all things textile, often does a lot of her cutting-out at SSS and as the projects are often gifts we rarely get to see the final result. This delightful quilt is one of her recent achievements.

The colours are just fantastic and every time you look at it, a different pattern leaps out.  Patchwork is so much about illusion. What you see is not necessarily an indication of how it was constructed.  Being a novice patchworker, my mind boggles as to how this masterpiece was actually constructed. It's refreshing to see the development of such real productive technical skill in a world where there seems to be such an emphasis on cyber skills.

If you are interested in Social Sewing Saturday, just pack up whatever project you are working on together with whatever you need to progress it and come along. While the lighting could be brighter we have wonderful roomy tables which are particularly good for cutting out projects or for just  spreading one's accoutrements out a bit.

Looking forward to seeing how all these projects have progressed when we next meet on Saturday 28 May at 1.00pm at the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library.  Meanwhile, stay stitching and socialising!

 

Look at these lovely, snuggly nighties!

Thought I'd share a photo of the final product from the nightie project begun last SSS!

Don't they look wonderful? All we need now is some winter weather!

Don't forget April enjoys two SSSs, so ......

Looking forward to seeing you, your projects and your sewing gear this Saturday at the Gordon White Library Community Meeting Room at 1.00pm!

Seven sew and socialise on Saturday!

Due to personal commitments I was unable to join in the fun on Saturday but I have it on good authority that there was much sewing and socialising.

One of our regulars assures us that the red dress she was working on last month has been completed with much assistance with the facings from a video tutorial. This Saturday, she was optimistically planning for a winter this year (hard to think there might be an end to this long hot summer) as she has started the construction of flannelette nighties for her lucky daughters. Again she is utilising an online pattern but found the narrower flannelette somewhat challenging when it came to pattern layout. The combined creative efforts of our resident-expert-in-all-things-textile and our productive-sewer extraordinaire overcame the difficulties and eventually the pieces were cut out and ready for assembly.

Our prodigiously prolific yo-yo producer is persisting with this project. To ensure the yo-yo flowers stay firmly together she prefers to use dental floss rather than cotton as it 'Never breaks!'.  She also proffered this sewing tip: 'Use dental floss to sew buttons on jeans and other robust garments if you want the buttons to stay on!'

Our regular Social Sewer who is determined to make her winter skirt, met with yet another obstacle. Sewers need to be made of very stern stuff! She has decided to use elastic in the waist of her skirt lining to move the project along a bit but unfortunately she needed wider non-roll elastic to make the skirt fit firmly and sit well. This set-back was disappointing especially as the project is developing a history of hiccoughs. Stoically she dug out some mending so all was not lost. It seems there is another visit to the drapers for wider elastic in the offing.

Our long-stitcher extraordinaire continues to bring out the colours of the Great Barrier Reef in her project. Long-stitching is rather therapeutic as one is able to cover more space more quickly than say with cross-stitch or traditional tapestry, and yet still be presented with various mental challenges.

We have a couple of quilters in our mix. One is currently joining over a hundred blue, lavender and  green diamonds together as a king-size quilt is brought into existence. Trying to get the colour mix right is certainly yet another painstaking step of the project and requires some unpicking here and there, as well as re-placing this diamond with that and re-edging this one with this colour rather than that, time and time again as the quilt begins to take shape. Keeping the diamond points sharp is another challenge altogether. Patchwork is certainly not for the faint-hearted!

Another of our quilters is delving into her stash of Bali batiks and starting to cut the pieces for quilt pattern which she downloaded from the Robert Kaufman website. It certainly looks a brilliant quilt and we look forward to seeing it come together in reality. It is wonderful how traditional techniques and skills can be supported by modern computer technologies.

Another social sewer is working on a colourful baby rug made from a collection of bright granny squares which she is currently crocheting. Granny squares are a great way to use up your stash of wool and is also a craft that is very portable.

April is a bonus month for SSS as we will meet again on Saturday 30 April at 1.00pm to stitch and socialise some more! Looking forward to seeing how everyone's projects are progressing!

March SSS meeting in April!

Just a reminder to folks that we postponed our March SSS meeting due to Easter celebrations.

We'll meet next Saturday (2 April) at the Community Meeting Room at Gordon White Library from 1.00pm till 3.00pm.

April is a month where we have twice the fun as we will also meet on Saturday 30 April to sew, socialise et cetera!

Don't forget to bring whatever project you're working on and all the goodies you need to progress on it! If you just want to peruse library magazines and books for inspiration that is fine also!

So many folk enjoying a 'sew'!

We had a wonderful group turn up to enjoy the cool and to have a bit of uninterrupted time on those projects which we want to work on but somehow just find it hard to get around to when there's all those household chores shouting at us to be done.

One of our regulars had been merrily sewing away at home and then was flabbergasted to realise she had sewn too many triangles together for that part of her project, so decided SSS would be a great place to come along and socialise as she engaged in therapeutic unpicking!

Another of our social sewers is working on a king-size quilt project which requires the assembly of diamonds flanked by several surrounds as her base piece, so she was able to add a few more diamonds to her growing collection of  blue, lavender and green pieces. A project of this magnitude really requires resilience and persistence as the number of pieces needed is huge while there needs to be a standard of consistent accuracy as well. We look forward to watching the construction of this quilt of wonderful fresh but calming colours.

One of our sewers is always producing wonderful clothes for her children but this Saturday it was her turn! This fabulous red fabric flowing over the table was going to be converted into a great summer dress following a pattern gleaned from the internet. This sewer is always very productive and in no time at all the fabric was cut into pattern pieces and assembly begun. A bit of discussion ensued as to how one goes about lining such a dress and then construction continued. We're all looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Several of our sewers bring along several projects as they are never sure which creative current  they will feel like riding at the time and sometimes they like to change rafts mid-stream. One of our serial crocheters (it doesn't seem be a real word but it should be) has been making a series of coseys for smaller sized teapots. These delightful coseys are adorned with an assortment of multi-coloured flowers and will certainly enhance one's experience of a cup of tea. When the thrill of crocheting a cosey wore off she then continued to create these felt-centred flowers made from a circle of fabric from the scrap material in her stash. These colourful yo-yos made with the assistance of the versatile dental floss are then attached to this lavender corduroy blanket making a unique lap blanket that is not only cosy and warm but beautiful as well.

A new skirt was on the to-do list for another of our regular sewers. A nice and easy sew-up and attach elastic to the top was the plan. She chose a firm knit fabric with a sort-of check design from blue stripes on a white background. It did get cut out but there just too much discussion required to progress much further into the project.

Another of our regulars is making a valiant effort to restore and re-activate her sewing genes. She has battled and persisted with a recalcitrant lined winter skirt without a great deal of satisfaction. After deciding to sew the lining and skirt separately she still was not happy with her progress so she has decided to regroup and start on another simpler project to regain her shattered confidence - table mats! She had ironed the interfacing to the back piece and after advice from our resident in all things fabric, cut out the front piece to utilise the fabric design to its best advantage. Theoretically then, it was just (never use this term just) a matter of sewing the two pieces together, leaving a gap, turning it inside out etc but...... somehow that uncooperative back piece ended up with the interfacing on the outside not the inside! When our tenacious sewer realised her mistake she collapsed in fits of laughter. Much hilarity ensued as we have all been there, done that and knew how she felt! Many complicated plans followed endeavouring to avoid the great unpick but eventually she opted for making another one entirely! We look forward to seeing her set of table mats next time!

One of our new-comers has been a long time coming to our SSS but last Saturday she eventually made it, complete with projects to be worked on! First she toiled on all the laborious cutting that a rag quilted wall hanging requires. Then when that was progressed as far as could be, away with the scissors and out with the crochet hook to work on a multi-coloured stripey lap rug with purples, greens and whites in the mix so far.

Another newcomer to SSS brought along a long-stitch with a story, to work on. Apparently her husband started it then asked her to work on it a bit, then he decided to work on it a bit more and now she is back working on it. It certainly is a family project. It is called The Great Barrier Reef and contains all the joyous colours of the reef. It will be a stunning picture for a wall in the family home when completed.

Our resident cross-stitcher spent most of the time setting up a canvas for a new project. The edges are now taped and the half-way lines both length-wise and breadth-wise are marked with a running stitch. The colours have been separated and attached to the card but the correct colour codes have yet to be added. Then all will be ready for the real fun to begin.

Thrown into the mix of all of this sewing, crochet and conversation was a visit from a delightful journalist from The Daily Mercury. Hence, page 6 of Monday 29 February's edition has a lovely collection of photos as well as some of our comments. We certainly look and sound an industrious bunch!

As Easter falls at the end of the month and there is a local election on the Saturday before that, our next Social Sewing Saturday will be on Saturday 2 April. It'll be interesting to see how everyone has progressed by then.

Happy sewing!

We start our Social Sewing this Saturday at GWL!

After a few of our enthusiastic sewers had a practice run in January, we'll kick off our 2016 SSS this Saturday at the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library at 1.00pm.

Just bring along a project that you are working on and the equipment you need to progress it - it doesn't have to be sewing but some association with textiles, crochet or knitting is fine.

If you're looking for inspiration the library has a great collection of craft magazines and books to help kickstart the creative juices! If you just want to chat with fellow sewers that's just fine too!

Looking forward to seeing you this Saturday at 1.00pm at the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library!