New book designs!

After our second order of 15 books was paid for and collected, the Librarians have asked us for a third order.  As I mentioned earlier, this time 12 books, and preferably new topics.  So we thought and thought, and came up with some ideas – shapes, colours, transport, buildings, furniture and a book of 4 fish growing bigger each page.  We also had some printed fabric with cute animals (thanks Fran!) Here are a few pics so far…

Introducing a new sewer!

Well our chasing finally paid off.  Our neighbour Anen mentioned he had found a lady who knew how to sew.  So we asked her to visit.  Her name is Nofi (not sure if that is how it is spelt)  She only recently moved here from Kupang (Indonesia), where she learned sewing in high school.  Her husband is the younger brother of one of our building team members, and her Godmother is the same as Sintas, so she is suitable in local terms -  She has the right connections….
Anyway, she seems very friendly, seems to know Sinta a little already, and gets along quite well with her.
I apologise that the photo is such bad quality. I will try to get a better one next week.
  She seems to have limited sewing skills, but Sinta is picking up on a few lacks, and training her.  I taught Sinta how to do blanket stitch for the applique pictures in the cloth books.  They both seem to prefer that to satin stitch on the machine. 
The librarians also asked for 3 special books to give as gifts to some babies in Australia.  So we personalised the titles on the front cover.  They loved them.  If anyone wants to order one, we can sell them for $14, and try to send them over with one of our Aussie visitors over the next few months.  We sell them a bit cheaper to the library as they order bulk amounts of the same book. 
Also, a question for any crafty people – We have been making up our own bias binding to bind around the outside of the cover page.  Its quite thick as we use a stiff interfacing, so standard size shop bought bias doesn't fit well.  Anyway, its pretty time consuming to to hand make it…it adds considerably to our costs, and reduces our small profit.  All ideas welcome.

The Crate arrived!

Well, it was a momentous occasion… I was finally well enough to walk next door, and Samuel rang me to say that the crate would be arriving!   He offered to help the Rotary guy sort and unload so off he drove around 9am.  3 hours later he arrived back here with the little Suzuki all loaded up.  Seven machines, a number of large and small boxes.  So exciting!! We quickly sorted out the small amount of school gear for Serenity and Israel, and then began to unpack the other boxes.
Patterns, 3 craft/embroidery books, notions such as threads, buttons, fabrics….
Heres a few pics.
One lovely lady from Tweed Heads donated a beautiful old style Bernina.  Sinta asked a few months ago about paying off a machine and starting her own small home mending business on weekends.  So when the shipment arrived we spent a few hours looking at all the machines and discussing their pros and cons.  She ended up asking to take the lovely Bernina.  I know that she will make good use of it.