Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.



Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Lesson no 2 ... Rose Cottage news

. This week we made the draw string bags, and the girls got the feel of the machines, slow and steady we did straight stitching then zigzaged, folded the top over, tucked a little fold and pinned. Stitched two rows leaving a channel to thread some cord through to pull closed. As I mentioned before this is dead easy stuff ATM. They finished their pin cushions off as well and used them through out the lesson The girl would like to make machine quilted pot holders for lesson no 4, a lot more work but one of the nicest projects. More on that later. But did you think that this was going to be a pure sewing lesson ... of course not! I had bought crochet hooks and yarn for each girl and after our bags were done, we still had a little time to learn chain stitch and Treble stitch, every week they can bring their bags with their crochet with and we can do just a little crochet too. Next week it will be baking, so looking forward to that. I had asked through the Interpretor for them to bring some craft that they are working on at home, and they did too, beautiful knitting, I was so impressed. Roxy belongs to some friends of ours Nilo and Des, she made for a great supervisor Rose Cottage News ... we have a kitchen!!! well not installed yet. It is an secondhand kitchen in a good nick, the benchtop is a mottled grey/blue and the cupboards are cream. The cupboards can be sprayed white before we install them. I bought the whole kitchen on Ebay for just $500, choosing to go with the secondhand kitchen for the cottage. If at a later stage we have the money to build a permanent home, then it will be a good idea to spend the money on a new kitchen. By the time we are done building the cottage we might have spent about $10. 000 all up using recycled, secondhand and new materials.Next post I will add pics of the kitchen but we will be picking it up as soon as the rain stops, another wet weekend here in Sydney Thanks for popping in and have a lovely day Rina

Monday, June 11, 2012

Sewing class news ... and another scarf

Just finished another scarf in the same yarn for Dear daughter Tanya, a super long scarf. Used 5 balls that included the tassels. The other scarf I posted previously was far to short for her being so tall it look silly, so now I just have to keep an eye out for some stray ball of yarn somewhere to match. or just add some tassels and keep it for myself. This past Thursday I taught my first sewing class for refugee ladies, most of them don't speak English and were not even sure what to do with pins. So although I don't consider myself an expert sewer, more a Jill of all trade girl. our first project will be a straight forward pin cushion. And then a drawstring bag for wool and knitting needles and crochet hook. Very easy projects ... 2 weeks sewing and 1 week baking... they are desperate to learn how to make muffins. Will keep a track of all the sewing projects. 6 girls turned up for the lesson, and the Interpretor, it went rather well considering these ladies had so little sewing knowledge. We smiled a lot and laughed alot through the lesson. Unpicked a few mistakes and tried again, the machines weren't always playing along, but we overcame some of the problems. Explaining the wrong and right side of the fabric did not mean they put the two rightsides facing inwards. Even drawing a straight line with an blue washable pen did not mean they actually sewed on a straight line. Some finished their pin cushions, some so close to finishing them off, But I must have done something right cause they left with smiles on their faces, one even hugging me.The drawstring bags will have to wait for next week. Then we will move onto quilted pot holders, more straight lines to follow, while the 3rd lesson is baking and it's already been decided we will be making Banana Muffins. This should be rather interesting week.