Work on Wednesday

This week has flown by. Worked Thursday to Sunday, just doing a little each day on my Magnolia Block for Esther's Forget Me Not BOM.

Made sure I didn't have flash for this photo and I think it is truer colours than the one I put on the group site.
Still convincing myself I have done this block justice, if there is one block I may redo this is it!!!
I LOVE the design but I ony LIKE my block.

Still convincing myself I have put my edging and frame fabric around it, and I am liking it more.

Yesterday when I stopped sewing for coffee I thought YES a photo for my blog that is not quilting, and ran for my camera, still there when I got back.

You can just see our native Tui in the branches of our neighbours rather old and straggly shrub.
His bell of white feathers on his throat stands out.
They are a very timid bird and we hear more of them than we see as their call is very distinctive, once you know it

Here he is taking the first spring nectar.
Think the shrub is some form of Leucodendren, that has grown tall and straggly.
We thought originally it was a Rhododendren from it's leaves, but the flowers are not, they are more like a Protea's. If anyone can tell me what it actually is please do so.
Whangarei has a lot of native bush  areas throughout the town as we are almost a city but not quite.
The Tui is the most prolific of our Native birds and the iridescent sheen on the black feathers along with their bell is truly beautiful. We have the Whangarei Falls, a nature reserve approx half mile from our house and the Tui's are there in numbers, finding us as the end of winter sends them searching for food.

This morning was finishing my Crown of Thorns block, and this I feel I have done justice too.
My DH comments are, why would Esther choose such an ugly plant, but your flowers do help it !!!

The other thing that happened this week is I came home to a light box for my sewing room.
No photo as everyone knows what they areand mine is rather rough but it works well.
 DH found a light socket, switch, thick glass and left overs from my cutting desk in the garage so surprised me with a lightbox.
I had been complaining while tracing my Bamboo pattern that it wasn't sticking to the window very well,
Winter damp!!!

The prevous week he raised my cutting bench and added 3 drawers so extra storage close at hand.

Please leave a comment if you view.
Cheers everyone Jenny

Sewing Room

Well,  Steve shifting my sewing room from one spare room to another is what brought me to blog land.
I had the bigger room but had to share it with a futon couch which did make wonderful storage for all my projects, finished or unfinished!! but it took up a lot of space.
A friend had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago, so I was told clear off the projects, the futon is going.
It was the first item to sell.
Gave us room to store the queen bed while my new room was painted and S fitted it out.
We had 3 identical desks so with Kiwi inginuity (S was a builder) they were joined together to become my new worktable.

S cutout the worktop for my machine to sit at table height, and I am finding this so good. He raised the desks to compensate and the height is perfect for me.
He has to do additional cutout  as I can't drop the feeddogs without lifting the machine at present.
Not quite perfect, but close!!!
The work top is supported by a recycled  former glass overhead cabinet which gives me storage for my fat quarter applique fabrics.
The end is supported by once again, a recycled overhead cupboard from when we renovated our kitchen.which we did as soon as we moved in as the house is early 70's and was totally original.
This is my pattern and book storage but there are more shelves to go under the far end as I need more storage.
The unused floor space under the entire work top is stacked with our excess books, ideal use for waste space.

S added a narrow bench on my right for the cottons I use all the time, and storage under for my machine accessories and all the bits and pieces that you want next to the machine.

This shows my seperate cutting bench and where my design wall will go.
Have more storage units both next to and underneath the cutting bench, but the spare room wardrobe is storing the little used fabrics etc.
The cutting bench will be raised as it is too low, it is the excess from our kitchen benches and uses unneeded ends from the desks.
Design wall is polystyrene sheets but not in place yet as that wall is not finished!!!
This room had a wardrobe in that corner which we removed  and added to the bathroom  nextdoor.
That area still needs a final sand and paint before the design wall can go up, hence the other half of design wall sitting behind the ironing board.
The last sanding and painting is why nothing on the walls and no curtains at the windows as they need their final paint as well.
S has a habit of doing the main bits then moving on to his next project
It is a small room 12' x 10' but it is working well for me.