Sewing Table

I need to do a tidy up of my sewing table. It's a beautiful African mahogany table made for me by my father especially for laying out dress fabric and cutting out sewing patterns. The big surface means there's also lots of space to 'put things'.

I have been doing some pulled work and experimenting. There's not much to show but I'll tell you more about that soon.

'Till then, happy stitching.

The Notre Dame

It was very sad this week waking to the news from Paris that the Notre Dame had lost it's roof and been damaged by fire. I had visited it twice and found it difficult to believe that a solid cathedral that has stood for over 800 years had painted such a dreadful picture with it's roof in flames. There is an informative pictorial description of the Notre Dame as it was and of what was damaged here. It was good to learn that the magnificent rose windows have survived, the building still stands and that many of the treasures were saved too.

Notre Dame before the fire. Image courtesy Ian Kersall Pixabay

Chilly Hollow has listed links to needlepoint canvases that commemorate the Notre Dame. There is also a link to a free line drawing of the front of the cathedral that can be used for embroidering. Click here to see the list of sites and their links.

Happy Stitching!

Thread Detective

This Good News article made me think of my varsity days in the chemistry lab doing practicals and seeing little smudges of colour appearing on blotting paper. All I remember is that it was a paper chromatography experiment and my partner seemed to know a lot more about it than I did.

But in this case it's the thread that changes colour after detecting certain dangerous gases in the air.

Courtesy of Good News Network

I can just imagine going off to work at the local chemical plant wearing a blue shirt and finding halfway through the morning that it's turning brown, or yellow. And if you're not sure whether you are imagining it, taking out a smartphone camera. Apparently it can tell you of even small amounts of harmful gases in the air. Isn't science amazing?

I wonder if embroidering a shirt or a badge with this type of thread would be sufficient to let you know that the air you were breathing was becoming hazardous.