News & Updates from Sue Way ~ Lily~Pickle Designs · Page 6
Here is my latest sewing make: a mini camera bag. I love the mushroom fabric, and I enjoyed picking out colours from it for the rest of the bag. This was a tricky project, as it has binding on the inside. Thats new to me, but thats how we learn.
I started it before Christmas on my trusty domestic machine, then, after a little festive break, I finished it on my new semi-industrial machine, which was a bit intimidating.
But I did it, and now Im looking forward to making my next bag from scratch on my new machine.
I hope everyone who celebrates it had a lovely Christmas. We enjoyed a wonderful couple of days with our family. On New Years Eve, we went out for a nice meal, followed by some fun at the amusements on the pier.
My daughter and I tried out a dance-off game machine, which was a lot of fun, though quite challenging! My husband even joined in on an arcade game; I think hes now considering getting a game console for home—lol!
To wrap up the year, I wanted to share a picture of the last Post Box Topper of 2025.
Its a brilliant knitted Paddington Bear with the words Happy New Year around his feet.
When my children were still at home, my daughter used to decorate our Christmas tree. And when she started work, she even bought some new decorations for it. I still use some of them. However, Im not very good at decorating it myself.
For a few years, when we moved house, we didnt have room for a big tree, so I just used two pre-lit small trees.
Now we have a space for the bigger tree, but I am so out of practice with decorating it. I usually spend days tweaking it. But this time, I just put everything on and decided that I would leave it at that.
It doesnt look anywhere near as good as the ones online, but I am actually quite happy with it, considering the tree is quite old and tatty now.
And after I had finished and stood back to admire it, I noticed it was leaning to one side. So here it is, my tatty, wonky Christmas tree.
Even though we live just a few minutes from the beach, our Golden Retriever, Sam, has been experiencing a bad reaction to the seawater.
Because its difficult to keep a Golden out of the sea, we have been taking most of our dog walks at a nearby country park, which is a short drive away.
The boys dont mind at all, as they get to run around, meet other dogs, explore new smells, and enjoy getting wet and muddy.
They absolutely love it! Plus, we get to take in the beautiful countryside view, which is very relaxing.
As some of you may know, I have a passion for making bags. While I enjoy using my domestic sewing machine, it struggles with thicker fabrics. This limitation affects the types of fabrics and bag or purse patterns I can work with.
I have been dreaming of getting a semi-industrial sewing machine, but since sewing is just a hobby for me, It felt wrong to spend the money on it.
What I didnt realise is that my husband has been paying attention and keeping track of deals on my dream machine.
He has hobbies as well, so he knows how I feel. Well, today he surprised me by ordering it, and it will arrive tomorrow!
Im so excited but also a little nervous, as it will be very different from my current machine. Stay tuned to see what my first project will be with it!