Lots of bears and a lion

Last year my sister and I did a felting course at Bustle & Bows, one of my favourite shops to visit.  Thought we do something different and fun.   We booked into Glynis Nolt's course - Needle Felted Bear.  We had so much fun learning a different technique and meeting lovely folk who, like us, had never done felting before, but we found it very relaxing and enjoyable.   Funny how all our bears turned out differently and with personality and one with attitude !!  Just take a look at the bear with the affro!!

Group shot

Okay, it's not an affro - this bear (won't mention his name) decided to be a lion.  Not sure what really happened in the process,  but that's the way it evolved - was quite interesting to see the differences between all our works.  Needless to say, we had some laughs along the way.

Spot the lion

Poor lion, was a bit embarrassed that he didn't look like the others - he just wanted to be called 'a lion' - so we did.  

My bear

My bear sits proudly on the shelf in the sewing room - I think he needs a partner!  But that's another project.   Sometimes it's nice just to do something different.

Inspiration Board

I've wanted to make an inspiration board for a while now and since my sewing area is now clean and tidy, thought it was the perfect time to make one.

Purchased a cork board 900 x 600 at Bunnings (hardware store).   The cork board isn't the best quality, cork is a bit hard, so might have difficulty driving the pins into the cork.  So I decided to place one sheet of flute board ($7.90 from Bunnings) onto it and cover with some neutral material.

Flute board is very light and is honeycombed inside - hard to explain and sorry forgot to take a picture in my rush to complete the board.   I have used this on the wall just above my sewing bench and am able to pin things to it.  Coincidentally the flute board was the same measurement as the cork board so was able to just place on top and staple some neutral material with the good old staple gun.

Clear tacks

Also purchased some tacks from Kiki K which are clear - so it doesn't interfere with the pictures.

Viola -  my inspiration board is now finished.

Now my sewing room is complete with this board.  All I need to do now is spend some spare time (what's that) cutting out pictures.

Sewing Room - Clean up

Remember  my  Sewing Room Make-over  well it has been finished for a while now but have been so busy sewing etc. that I haven't had time to post.  So here it is:-

Linen fabric from Amitie

You know that awkward area under the stair that disappears into a wedge, well I've used this area for storage items that I don't want to be seen and made a curtain from this linen fabric from Amitie.

Storage area - nook

This area is just on the right as you enter "the nook", and I basically keep things here that I don't access very often.  Mostly old quilting fabrics and crafty things.  You never know when I'll get back into making another quilt.

Storage boxes - sewing things

This is the view as you enter the nook.  These storage boxes are for my sewing fabrics/patterns/lining etc.   I've also labelled all the containers - just can't help myself.

Before the clean up

Some of my stash

I just can't resist buying fabric for that rainy day.  It also gives me inspiration for patterns.  Can you tell I like grey and Chanel.   Have recently added japanese cottons on my list of favourites.

Material board - cut down

Some beautiful linen which I have folded using a fabric board, which was going to be thrown out.  Cut down to size - it keeps the fabric flat and tidy.  

Sewing room after clean-up

I'm really happy that I've been able to clean this room up.  After a bit of sewing of late (where are the posts? - DD hasn't sent me pics yet so can't post)  anyway, I needed to reclaim a bit of space - mind works better without clutter.  Wanted to add some shelves up the top, but Mr R said that I should re-design the pigeon holes - I like the way he thinks!!

That's another project - not sure how to re-design this area.   Some would say that it looks fine but the storage area is quite deep and wastes space.   Any suggestions???

Projects in the pipeline - 2 coats and 1 shirt - hopefully finished before winter is over.