February 14, 2009

The steady hum of activity - sewing-bee style


What a day.

Nikki, I sweep off my hat and make a deep bow to you (scrap that curtsey nonsense) - you donated your week to organising today's sewing bee, and you made it possible for so many good people to find a way to bring colour and cheer to families affected by the bushfires.

What was the best bit of the day?

Serious discussions about yo-yos was fun.


And super sewing stars ready and willing to learn new skills...

... and producing gorgeous results!

That was ace.

The hive of activity and the contented hum of concentration as bags were constructed. (Spot TinnieGirl thinking hard).

The lovely cutting shop, with slices and dices turning out the bags lickety-split, and the sorting area, with the goodies laid out by age group and gender....

...carefully observed by a sofa full of dolls, waiting to go to new owners.

Meanwhile, over in the embellishment room, zig-zags and fusing made merry!

While the first bags were being built, we got to work on yo-yo hairbands, yo-yo embellishments, fused applique animals, cowboy hats, pirate ships, flowers, ice cream cones, butterflies, matruyshkas...


...and more onto t-shirts, bag fronts, pockets, flaps and ... oops, a bag lining. Ah well. Beccasaurus kindly stitched a yo-yo over my most serious oops. It's a design feature! (But of course).

But the best two bits?

One was the way that everyone who walked into the sewing/bag construction room stopped and said "Wow!" spontaneously.


Wow for the lovely hum of many machines running together. The quiet, determined activity. And the results, oh boy.

The results! The piles of bags were stacking up as we took our weary souls home. Fresh sewing souls were still flooding in the door, so I'm sure the pile of presents grew. Notepads, pens, t-shirts and a toy in every bag - at the very least.


I'm thinking of the donors and the recipients, the families and children whose little bags of fun have so much potential for healing handiwork (drawing, making and colour), hugs -- and a reminder that we were all thinking of them with today's sewing bee.

I met so many lovely people, and it was a wonderful day.
Thanks everyone.

10 comments:

Nikki said...

Thank YOU (and everyone who came) for making it such a great day.

80 finished bags - more to come back finished later - 22 t-shirts and 21 hair-ties.

I had a good look at the t-shirt appliques this evening. There are some masterpieces!!! I took photos - will blog whn my brain returns.

Christine McDonald said...

Thanks for your tutouring. Had a lovely day embellishing. Think I'll be dreaming in zig-zags tonight.

Liesl said...

Sorry I missed you ... I arrived for the very last shift of the day. I didn't get to try your cake afterall (I thought it a bit rude to waltz in so late and look for afternoon tea straight away!). Nikki showed me Mr Tacc's ace handiwork in the t-shirt dept. It was fantastic!

CurlyPops said...

I'm so sorry I missed it. What a wonderful day and great photos!

Bellgirl said...

Wow, rock on, Crafters! it looks really productive. I wish we could have been there too, and I'm hunting the blogs for everyone's photos so I can see some shots of these famous applique!

I'm making some bags at home and I've got some things to send to older boys- textas etc- but why is all the fabric in my stash pink? Hmmm :)

Little Munchkins said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Little Munchkins said...

Sorry for the deleted comment above. That was meant for another blog...that will teach me to have so many windows open.

Anyway, I wanted to say that it is fantastic what everyone is doing to help out. And, yes, yoyos can be addictive :)

Nikki said...

Just sent some pics to Leonie for her to blog - detail of the appliqué. Check in with http://leonie-newportlifedrawing.blogspot.com/ in the next day or so and marvel at your collaborative works....

Anonymous said...

I wish I had been able to join you! Not only for a good cause but lots of fun as well. And I would have been able to meet in real life!

Sherrin said...

yay! sounds like a great day! I wish I could have organised myself to be there too. :o) What an amazing amount of stuff you all made together.