Teaching others to sew

A friend of mine has recently set up a refuge for women rescued off the streets of our city. I can't share much about it, but it has been a real privilege to be able to teach some sewing skills to these ladies. 

I was asked to help them make something that they could sell for Christmas. So after lots of thought I came up with the idea of some Christmas bunting with applique shapes, and matching drawstring bags. We have used Indonesian batik fabric to make them uniquely Indonesian.

The ladies got the hang of it pretty quickly, and were very proud of their efforts!

I have a couple more projects (tissue holders and coasters) that I am going to teach them how to make in the next few weeks and then hopefully we can move on to bigger and more complex projects. 

I love that I have been able to use the skills that I have acquired over the last 3 years in order to help others work towards a new life. It has been a great reminder to me that happiness comes, not when we strive to fulfill our own dreams, but when we are able to love and bring joy to others. 

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From the scrap basket

Or more realistically, from the huge scrap container! So many scraps, but I love all of them and I really enjoy sewing with them. I love searching through all the little pieces to find the perfect one for that moment. But it seems that they never even remotely get used up! 

If you follow me on Instagram you will see that I have been busy making more gifts, all from my scraps (and also doing some scraps sewing with Mr 8, but that's for another day).

A pillow/cushion for a friend who loves hedgehogs and who is decorating her bedroom purple.

And a doll's quilt, which turned out a bit larger than expected!

I especially loved experimenting with my FMQ on this one. And so fun to sew something pink and girly!

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It's been a while!

I have been preoccupied with life, as well as some sewing, recently, and have neglected my little blog. 

So a quick catch up. A friend (from the US) is getting married on Saturday. She asked me to make a ring pillow for the wedding. I honestly had to google what a ring pillow was, but once I saw a few examples it was all quite straightforward.

She had also told us (in her bridal shower invitation - another new experience for me!) what colour linens she wanted for each room in her house. I happened to be in Singapore when I received the invitation and during a quick trip to Spotlight I spotted the most perfect fabric for her living room (she had asked for cobalt blue and brown with an accent colour of turquoise!). So of course I had to buy it and made it into a whole-cloth lap quilt for her. 

I made a pieced backing from my stash and used a striped binding - my favourite at the moment!

In non-wedding news, two of my best Indonesian friends had birthdays recently and I wanted to gift them something handmade. I decided on a second Hello Kitty zippered pouch, and a cushion/pillow made using an April Showers mini-charm pack.

I used the cushion as an excuse to practice my very rusty FMQ using yellow and teal Aurifil threads. This was the first time I have tried FMQ on my Juki and it was so much easier than on my old machine. I think the speed control really really helped!

I am really itching to get working on a quilt now,  just a few more smaller projects to finish first!