Sew Tired

No not a complaint but a new group for parents or carers in Norwich!

This week sees the first session of Sew Tired, a group that will meet fortnightly in Norwich with the aim of giving parents or carers (with or without their children) a chance to be creative in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

We've all been there....it's ANOTHER early morning with your baby (whatever age that baby might be!), the start of a new day.  Your creative juices are flowing...'Nap time' you say to yourself, 'I will make something/get started on that drawing/finish that scarf/cut out that pattern...but nap time doesn't always happen and in all honesty when it does there's often (horrifically often) housework to be done.  Then nap time is over.  

'Tonight'..you think to yourself, 'tonight, I will get a tray prepared so as soon as they've gone to bed I can get one with what I've been really hoping to achieve'.  But guess what?  You're exhausted and food needs to be prepared, eaten and quite frankly there's probably something awful on TV that is all you can face.

Before you know it, the hobbies that make you YOU are feeling like they're falling by the wayside.

Obviously there is joy in every precious day spent with your baby and it whizzes by before you know it, but whilst you're looking after them, making a small amount of time to keep yourself happy is equally important.  

People often discuss whether the transition from 2 to 3 children is the most stressful but quite obviously its 0 to 1 (or 2 or 3 - hats off to the Mum's of multiple pregnancies!).

If sewing or being creative in any way is your bag then maintaining that can be a very healthy choice.

This first session will include some English Paper Piecing, one of my favourite patchwork methods.  Hopefully I can convert some of the attendees!

If you're a Norwich parent and fancy getting involved search for group Sew tired 💤

or email me for more details - venue has car parking a plenty and baby change facilities  It's £5 per session and coffee and cake is provided to fuel us 😊

By the way if you're admiring my rather super logo - check out the very talented Sally Franks, she worked fantastically with the brief given!

Love me a sew along

💗  I do love me a sew along, I've said it before and I'll say it again, whilst the internet has undoubtedly brought many ills to the world it has also brought groups together who have a shared love.

The first time I got involved was The Splendid Sampler and personally it's that BEING PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER that really touched me.  I had two babies under two but being a determined sausage I managed to (most days) get them napping at the same time. Of course I took joy in my babies and every change that they were going through and still do, but I found the satisfaction of getting my weekly block completed gave a little nod to my own self worth.
I would share my blocks on the website and then gradually a Facebook group was set up and I would share in that medium.  Here were other quilters who didn't know that one of my sons had cut a first tooth and the other was starting to talk.  Here my small achievements or funny stories of misread instructions were taken just for my own and not linked to my progeny.

Fast forward a few years and I find myself in the throes of another sew along....enter the #fussycuttingsewalong
Now I was not on instagram for the first but having read about it on it's creators website https://naomialice.co.uk I sure as heck was getting involved for the second!

Last time hexagons took centre stage but this time small diamonds making up six point stars are the focus of learning and showcasing different methods of fussy cutting.  Below you can see a few of mine so far:

These are shoddy workmanship indeed compared to some of the crackers to be found over on Instagram.  I implore you to follow the #fussycuttingsewalong to really appreciate what can be done.

I took the opportunity to ask Naomi how much love has been put in and come out of the fussy cutting sew along and quite rightly she questioned 'how do I measure it?'

Obviously I took the opportunity to suggest on a lovely new cutting mat from www.finecityquilting.co.uk

It's clear that this sew along is a real success and due to the effort put in by it's creator and participants, as with every sew along there are skills to learn and friends to be made - get involved!!