FNSI, a catch up, and sewing frustrations.....

I still don't seem to have been able to get into the practice of blogging regularly, as I had planned to do.....

Anyway, here is a sort of catch up, as most of the sewing that has been happening here has been 
Secret Sewing.  There has been this.....

my parcels sent off for Chez's Christmas in July swap.....

and this.....started on Friday night during one of my favourite nights of the month, FNSI, hosted by Wendy

...the beginnings of a gift I am making for a friend, from French General fabrics.  I had hoped to finish this and get it off in the mail this week, however......

VERY frustratingly, both my sewing machine and I have sustained Sewing Injuries..... (a half-hearted lol...)

I seem to have wrecked my thumb, possibly caused by too much hand sewing and hand quilting in too short a time, which is making hand sewing and generally just trying to grip things very difficult and painful.... 
and yesterday I managed to damage my sewing machine too.....

I was on the very last block of 16, the previous 15 having worked perfectly, doing some machine applique, and was having some difficulty in getting my bottom thread to come through to the top.  I think I must have been a bit over-zealous in pulling on the top thread to pop the bottom thread through..... I'm not really sure how it happened, but the needle, going down, hit the plate, bent and broke, and now the whole needle mechanism seems to have been thrown out of alignment, as when I now put the needle down it either hits the foot or the plate.  

With a new needle in, some gentle wiggling and nudging took place, and then a bit more forceful pushing and pulling... some swearing may have been involved....  but it seems we are both now pretty much out of action sewing-wise.

I am so frustrated, as I had a list of things I wanted to get finished this month, and was doing well with them.  So I guess I will resort to preparing projects as much as I am able, and a bit of tidying up and reorganising my sewing stuff will not go astray - and thank goodness I don't currently have any urgent deadlines to meet!

I am missing my sewing though.....