My Elna's first outing of 2019

I've had my Elna Quilter's Dream sewing machine for several years now and she and I know each other well. She knows I'm forgetful when it comes to maintenance but she keeps going even when the bobbin is being chocked up with lint. I know that the more I use her the better she sews. If I haven't sewn for a while she will often miss stitches for about half an hour after I've turned her on or the thread will keep on breaking but after that she stitches beautifully. I know what makes of threads work well on her and I do send her for a spa break once a year. When I put her away for the Christmas break I told her we'd have a sewing day early in the new year and today was the day.

I have a subscription box once a month and sometime in the recent past I had a box with 4 fat quarters of Nords 60 inch wide wovens by the Danish fabric house Stof and a couple of patterns that would suit the fabric well. One of the patterns was for laundry bags and I decided to make two. These aren't huge laundry bags and so will be perfect for when we are away visiting.

I've made a couple of the patterns from the boxes before and the instructions are easy to follow and make up very well. The Dresden plate pillow was from my box,

and so was the rabbit pillow I made for Lucy. Here is the front during the making process. I don't think I ever posted the completed pillow since I don't have a photo of it.  I'll try and take one tomorrow.

Anyway back to my sewing activities. As this was more a sewing activity rather than quilting I used my dressmaking scissors to cut out the pieces rather than the rotary cutter. It made it easier when cutting the applique pieces.The bags went together quickly and since I remembered I had some cord I didn't need to make any for the ties.

This bag is John's,

The pants should have some stitching and a couple of buttons on them but I decided this was unnecessary. The bag is made to serve a purpose and doesn't need the embellishments. My bag is pink,

The knickers should have lace along the leg edge and the bra along the neckline. The lace was in the box so I could have added it but I want to use it for a different project.

The cord for the ties was in my mothers's sewing box. This is a wooden box that my father made for her. The lid opens and there is a large inner compartment. Beneath that there is a drawer. I had the box when we cleared Mom and Dad's house before it was sold in 2007 but I haven't really used it. It sits between mine and John's favourite chairs and it's perfect for putting our tea and coffee on. There are lots of useful and interesting sewing bits in it but today is the first time that I've really wanted to make this my sewing box. Once I'd finished the bags I went back to the box and sorted the contents and moved some of my notions into it. It felt good and I loved touching the scissors and other items that had been mom's and remembering her using them. Making use of the box also frees up space in my sewing drawers which desperately need sorting out.

Having finished my projects I got ready to go out to meet Katy. We had arranged to visit the Hayward Gallery to see an exhibition titled Space Shifters. We almost missed this one as it finished on Sunday. The exhibition bought together sculptures and installations to explore perception and space. It was an interesting exhibition and at times one that made me feel very nauseated and dizzy. Unfortunately I can't show you the photos yet as I took them on my phone and it's having trouble uploading them to the cloud. I'll show you them tomorrow.

We always have a family meal on New Year's Eve and this year we had Katy and Olly and Lucy with us. My two daughters have a ridiculous sense of fun which usually leads to a mess and New Year's Eve was no exception. They both had large poppers that you push up the plunger and lots of foils pieces fly everywhere. They waited until we had finished eating before they set them off. Picasso heard the commotion and jumped up onto the table to join in

There were bits of foil and sequins everywhere and Picasso thought he needed to play with them.

Picasso loves anything shiny. 

Today has been fun as it's been a fortnight since I last played on my sewing machine. I have been hand stitching but I'll tell you about that another day. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some quilting done on Alex's quilt. I want this one finished before I start my new projects. 

Lyndsey.