Work in progress.

Hooray it's the weekend. The week has been busy with work and catching up with chores around the house and garden. All that took a lot of my time but I managed to finish two projects. First this week I needed to start a new project but not one that involves fabric and thread. I decided I needed to revisit losing weight. Lock down proved a little trying for my waistline and so I need to watch my food intake for a while. Stepping outside my usual routine and being surrounded by family members who all get hungry at different times has been the main problem but we have done more baking than usual and the cakes and cookies have been so delicious. I've found the best way for me to lose weight is to increase my exercise so I'm trying to walk between 4 and 6 miles a day but that takes time away from the household chores and sewing. That's where the planning comes in. If I plan carefully I can prep what I want to work on in the odd gaps of time that happen throughout the day and then I'm ready to fire up the sewing machine when its time for sewing in the evening.

My first finish this week was the stitching on Thelma and that means I've also finished stitching all 12 bag ladies. I'd love to meet up with these twelve ladies for a sewing retreat as I'm sure it would be a hoot plus many of them have got cookies in their bag.

Having finished Thelma I switched my hand stitching in the evening to my millennium sampler. The area I'm working on doesn't look very much at the moment so I haven't taken a photo yet.

My second finish of the week is my one monthly goal project. This is a tote bag I started last year but needed to make the lining and add the straps and fasteners. The sticking up tabs at the sides are the closures for the bag. It fastens with strong magnets

Here's a photo of the bag when closed. Currently the bag needs to have a piece of plastic template added to the base of the bag to give it a firmer. The template plastic is on order and the sleeve that it will slip into is made and in the base of the bag. It will take a matter of seconds to slip it into the sleeve when its delivered.

Today John and I ventured into Kingston as I wanted to do some shopping. One of my friends has been inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee to take up dressmaking and I wanted to buy her some basic items she'll need, scissors, pins, tape measure and an unpicker. She ordered a sewing machine and that should be delivered this week. She's really excited to get started. I'd also been looking for some new bed linen and I found exactly what I wanted. That's what I call a good shopping trip and I only went into one shop. We didn't go out until 5 p.m.as we decided it would be quieter. The store was open until 7 and we had a great experience. We wore our masks and a few other shoppers were doing the same but most people weren't. From Monday it's mandatory to wear masks in shops. I'm not sure how well that will be followed but John and I are well prepared.

Tomorrow I'm going to sort through my various projects and choose another to try and get finished. I also want to get the batik rainbow quilt to flimsy stage so I need to finish the second border.

Take care

Lyndsey