Happy New Year!!!

Well I'm a little late to wish you all a happy festive and holiday season but we still have most of 2026 ahead of us, so I'll wish you a Happy New Year instead ♥

There's no big new year resolutions from me, but I do hope to be more bloggy this year - here's hoping that I can make that happen!

My dear Mum passed away just before Christmas (December 20) so it's been an unsettling time for us here lately. She had been in and out of hospital during the year with one infection after another, or too much fluid here or there but her mind was still working well so she enjoyed life until the end. She passed peacefully with my sister at her side. My brother and I had planned to travel down the following day - but sadly we were too late to say good-bye.

Mum at her 88th birthday celebration in October - we broke her out

of hospital for the day.

We had a wonderful celebration of her life on the 27th. It was a lovely family affair with a lot of extended family attending. Although we have a family policy of gate crashing each others' birthdays or celebrations and the core group of us see each other regularly, it was wonderful to catch up with some other cousins and family members who live a little further away. It was interesting how many of the stories and memories that were told overlapped - coffee and baking around the kitchen table for anyone calling in was a common theme.

A rare event, all the grandkids together at Mum's funeral.

And 5 of her Greats.
Only 3 got wet.

My original plan (before the world fell apart) for that lazy time immediately after Christmas and as we rolled into summer holidays was to finish up a couple of projects for myself that I had recently started. 

After spending time 'down the line' with Mum's funeral and doing a few related tasks with my sister, I decided it was still the perfect time to get on with these. 

(I'm sure most of you know how much crafting calms the mind and eases the pain.)

First up was the Sewing Space Station, which is designed as 'the ultimate travel sewing mat)  —

Unroll it to reveal —

A pocketed sewing mat......with a dangle bit and more pockets at the side —

A detachable pouch.

You can see how it works in this photo (unpack the pockets, and use the mat to rest your machine on) —

The pockets are a great size - one of the top ones fits a 6 x 12 ruler, the other fits A4 sized patterns (and a cutting mat if I find one that size!). The pockets at the side hold plenty —

The smaller pocket is designed to fit a specially made pin cushion —

Which is rather a cute design —

(Wonky photos!! I initially overstuffed it, and it wouldn't fit inside the pocket!)

I think I will still use The Pouch That Holds Everything with this mat - it tucks inside nicely when I roll it up, and I have it filled with a bit of anything that comes in handy when I'm sewing away from home —

This was a fun project, quite straight forward, but not a quick one! I started off with my main blue fabrics, and added extras in for a bit of variety. The pattern is by Ali of Arabesque, and the link is *here*.

Having finished that, next up was a project of a completely different kind. 

Yes, a bit of dressmaking —

A friend and I had a sewing day in December and had started dresses for ourselves but I hadn't touched mine since. I understood she had already worn hers so was determined to finish mine!

A quick model for the camera, and a husband who could 

not be bothered taking a photo!

The pattern was *this* one found on Etsy, the Feel Good Dress. A straight forward sew. The fabric is from Spoonflower of a Kiwiana design.

I need to get to bed so will leave this here!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

and a happy and productive 2026!

Raewyn

Bags Galore

The other day I had a bit of a play and made a wee bag. 

It's one of those pouches with metal in the casing at the top so that you can 'bend it open'. The reel of thread is holding it open in the photo below (and then it 'pings' shut again when you let go) —

I bought a cheap metal tape measure as advised by *this* tutorial. My pouch ended up larger than the tutorial's one as I was experimenting for another make and needed a certain size.

A completely scrappy make but I think it turned out rather well. 

As you can see I embraced our unmown lawn for the photoshoot....

I've also made Odie a book bag for school - his original one was perishing and leaving bits of blue stuff all over the classroom, the car, and his house!

Luckily I had some totally suitable fabric on hand - The Gruffalo!!

I used the old one as a template - and there's now blue stuff in my sewing room too! Odie was delighted ♥

Thinking of bags, I remembered some more makes that I haven't yet shared.

I made Kaliah and Saydee bags for Christmas (2024). 

These were so cool to make and ended up very 'professional' looking!!!

I used the *Aunt Gracie bag* pattern by Knot and Thread designs.

Christmas Day 2024 —

But wait there's more!!!

I haven't yet written all my posts from Scrub Stitching back in April (!!!). Which means I'm behind in sharing the gift I received from Lou in our Saturday night "Make It, Fake It or Bake It" swap.

She made this gorgeous set - a bag, a project pouch, and needle book.

I love that she used our Scrub Stitching logo —

Rest assured, Lou, that even though I've been slow to share these photos, I wasn't slow to use your gift! I love them, thank you!

'til next time,

Raewyn

Leaders and Enders

Today I pieced a couple of flags for a bunting sample for work......

I didn't quite follow the instructions which called for hand piecing and hand embroidery. Instead  I foundation pieced the flags and then used my machine to do some decorative stitching, crazy pieced style.

In spite of going rogue, they finished up quite well. I'll take these into the shop tomorrow and we will make them into a bunting, interspersing them with some more flags which have been hand embroidered.

The design we are making is Must be Christmas by Marg Low.

Sewing these gave me a good excuse to do some Leader-Ender sewing. I'm following along, again, with Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Leader-Ender Challenge. This year's block is Four Patch Fun. I'm always looking for an excuse to sew up my scraps and this block is a nice straight forward one.

Bonnie is making her blocks in two colours (plus the background fabric) but because I couldn't make a decision I am using any and all shades of red and I hope that it will look just as effective!

There are several different setting suggestions; I haven't yet decided which I will choose.

(This block comes with very precise pressing instructions - if you follow them, all seams nest and make for a nicely finished block.)

A previous Leader-Ender Challenge I did was Bonnie's 2022 Triple Treat.

I actually finished that one - 

And blogged about it *here*.

In between these two, I made another scrappy Leader-ender quilt which I realise I have not yet blogged about. 

This is a leftover block I found on my cutting bench; from memory, I am going to incorporate it into the label —

It's still unquilted - but it's on the pile!!!

I've just found this photo - I had mentioned it here once, last November!

The pattern is called Bonnie Lass from the book quilt lovely by Jen Kingwell.

Thank you for all your lovely thoughts when I mentioned Mum and her health in my last post. For now I am calling her my Miracle Mum. Less than 3 weeks after she initially collapsed, we broke her out of hospital for the day and celebrated her 88th birthday with a family gathering.

My two girls were able to get down to it and we got this lovely photo —

See you next time,

Raewyn