I cut out a blouse last night, planning to make a start on it today, however having looked at the state of my sewing room, I decided I really ought to have a tidy up first! I did pretty well before I got distracted, I can now walk safely across my sewing room and I can actually see the floor! This is definitely an improvement!

I also have a big bag of scraps for Captain Rummage of Taylors Tea in Harrogate. He has a wonderful set up collecting mainly business waste, he turns it some of it into activity packs for schools which they ‘pay for’ with old spectacles, mobile phones (Oxfam will give £5 per phone) he also teaches disadvantaged young people to sew bags etc, any profits are divided between local projects and also Taylors Yorkshire Rainforest project, there’s more information about it here

So I did make progress before I got distracted! I was putting away some embroidery silks in a box my mother passed on to me a few years ago when she was having a clear out. Its a beautiful wooden box, with a top section divided up for the thread holders, two drawers underneath and a hinged lid with a removable section for putting an embroidery or tapestry in the lid. The lid had stayed empty since my mother bought it however many years ago! I decided that whilst I didn’t have an embroidery for it, a pretty piece of quilting cotton would look just as nice. I spotted a fat quarter I bought in Hobbycraft a few months ago, it was definitely an impulse buy as I got it home and realised it really didn’t go with any of my other quilting fabrics! It’s a pretty, vintage style floral design printed by Rowan.

I cut a piece of polyester wadding to cushion the top a bit, then placed the fabric over the top and laced the back to hold it firm. I put the hardboard provided behind it and pushed it in place, the tags to hold it are a little loose so I need to get a screwdriver at them at some point.

I think the whole project took less than half an hour, why did I wait so long to do it!!!