The studio is tidy

The studio got tidied up, which is as good a reason as any to share some pictures with you. I love this space very much. It feels very peaceful. I love it that my whole family can be up there with me if they desire, but I also love it that I can be upstairs sewing while the children are happily playing downstairs (I can hear what's going on, and they can hear the familiar hum of the sewing machine so we are all happy). I love my cupboard full of crates (from the local salvage yard - I think they may have contained flower bulbs in a previous life). I love it that the ex-dining table now takes centre stage in the studio, the perfect space for cutting out fabric and spreading out quilts-in-progress. I love the shelf full of art supplies, and the wrap around desk where I sit and sew at one end while Aaron and Hannah play endless board games at the other. I love the green couch which I regularly day dream about lounging on with a good book, but never do. I am conscious of how blessed I am to have this space, and thankful for the time I am able to spend there.

My old sewing machine

Please excuse the overabundance of photos today but we've been busy beavers here! Phil cleaned up my old sewing machine, so Aaron and Hannah got to try it out today. They both took to it like naturals. I can't remember how my mum introduced me to the sewing machine. I know that in highschool the first thing we had to do was stitch along some lines - straight, curvy, and crooked - so we started with that.
This old machine was given to be when I was 12, by a lady in our church. I was in my element, and it has served well ever since. I still used it to sew clothes for myself when I was a uni student, and it also gets pulled out and used during power failures. And now I'm very happy to see it enter a new phase in its life.
(Although I'd rather Daniel stayed out of the life and times of my sewing machine for now...)
From sewing lines, the kids quickly moved on to sewing monsters. (I'll share them soon). Caleb wanted to make one too, of course, so we whipped up Toby from Make a Monster by Fiona Goble.
He could stuff it himself, and he's pretty chuffed with the outcome.Tomorrow I'll show you the exciting stuff we did together yesterday! (hmmm, that's a rather awkward sentence, but oh, well...)

Happy, healthy sewing machine

I gave the sewing machine some extra TLC the other night (using this helpful guide) and it's working beautifully again. Usually, when it plays up like it was, I figure it's time for a service, and bring it away. But I already had my other machine in for a service and wasn't ready to be machine-less for two weeks, so there was no other option than to do it myself. I'll certainly be doing this more often now! Thanks to a happy, healthy sewing machine, the latest quilt is now completely quilted and waiting to have its threads buried.

Today though, I am getting stuck into a rather crazy little sewing project (which I will show soon) which is keeping my mind off the fact that I have to do some public speaking this evening.