Monday 26 May 2014

a productive, stashbusting weekend with an ASG group

My original Australian Sewing Guild group organised a weekend sewing retreat at The Tops at Stanwell Park, an hour south of Sydney and it was fabulous to spend an entire weekend sewing - setting up on Friday night & starting to sew then, sewing from before 9am to 11pm on Saturday taking meal breaks, and sewing til 2.30pm on Sunday when I had a natural stop with my project and packing up was at 3pm anyway. (By original I mean the first group I started attending, at Rhodes. I now bounce between 3 different Saturday groups in a month as I get more done away from housework & distractions, and have found a group for the other Saturday if I need it).

I'll post pics later tonight, and I got 5m sewn from stash including the khaki wool Decades of Style skirt that I'm wearing today, and also finished my brown wool UFO skirt from last year. I almost have the paisley blouse UFO complete. It's self drafted, and I made a drafting booboo. The front facing is 4cm too short! Because I was away from home I didn't have any suitable lawn or voile scraps to patch the end that last little bit. But the rest of the blouse is assembled now, and it only needs the facing fixed, the hem stitched and the buttons/buttonholes done. I'm going to fossick the scrap stash tonight. May have the original fabric but I suspect I tossed it as it wasn't in the UFO project bag with the rest of it.

A weekend of sewing was invigorating, and I came home and mopped my kitchen floor, and started to sprink clean it. At home I sew in my tiny kitchen and I've been avoiding the room because I haven't kept it up to scratch since my cleaner retired at the end of last year. So a kitchen spring clean is needed to help me want to be in the room and sew 20-30 minutes every day. Time to declutter a little so that i don't have to leave anything but a kettle & toaster on my tiny 40x50cm bench!

I also gave a 2metre piece of brown wool knit (probably merino) from my stash to Sharon who did all the organising - 30 of us were there! I bought it from Tessuti way back when they only had a Chatswood store. So possibly 20 years ago. At the time I wasn't familiar with sewing knit fabrics so it intimidated me and I didn't want to ruin it. These days with the inflammatory disorder I overheat in a rayon knit long sleeve top (only want 3/4 length) so wool would be crazy. She loves brown, and I knew she'd been trying to find a brown merino wool knit so it was an obvious thank you gift.

I really enjoy going to the sewing guild groups, there's a mix of personalities, skill levels and I'd love to encourage younger members to attend. I've always had much older friends (also much younger friends now) as well as my age group, so meeting a group with a slightly older average age didn't put me off. Finding a group that shares an enthusiasm for sewing is a good thing, and we don't need to have much else in common - I've never found age to be a barrier if you have a common interest and personalities. You can attend one or two meetings before becoming a member - if you want to see if you'd find it worthwhile. I go to 2 different groups in Alexandria and Rhodes depending on my diary, and am thinking of joining the Top Ryde 2nd Saturday of the month.

4 comments:

  1. It was a fun weekend wasn't it. I can't believe you came home and cleaned. I came home and slept!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I must be weird ;) Getting so much done was motivating, and a cluttered kitchen has put me off sewing so time to fix it!

      Delete
  2. Sounds a great week-end!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Such a productive time, which I loved

      Delete