Funky Runners

Since I got my new sewing machine, I have - ironically - hardly had any time to play with it. Well yesterday I decided it was time to ditch my priorities for the moment (all that fun housework) and finally got around to one of my many projects that I'd been wanting to create.

What started off these two ideas was 1) Being very protective of my piano and blanket box and desperately wanting to protect them from hot cups or other items that could leave nasty scars behind; and 2) My parents are visiting from Sydney this week and I wanted the house to look as good as possible for their first visit, so I thought some extra colour may help that along!

I got my inspiration from this Mug Rug project so each of the runners has batting inside to give it that added bit of padding and protection. Now, my original plan was for both of the runners to look like the one on the blanket box but, stupidly, I miscalculated how much stripey material I would need and so had to put on my creative hat. I'm not sure if it was a good mistake ... or a bad mistake ... ??

So here they are.

Sewing Machine Update

I got my very own sewing maching today! It's a Janome Sewist 625E, and I picked up the very last one on sale at almost half the price from the Metro Sewing Centre at Preston. I'm very excited, and looking forward to testing it out. So bring on all of the projects I've got lined up!

Just stuff ...

Thought I'd update on my happenings in the world of sewing in the last few days!

1. I had my first sewing lesson on Thursday night, which was really great. I did sewing at school about 14 years ago for a term, with a teacher that was not very helpful (and that's putting it nicely) and so I muddled my way through, finally getting a final grade of "D"! So, many years on, I've finally discovered that sewing CAN be fun and now am looking forward to learning it properly, and probably finding out that the last few months have caused me to pick up some bad habits .. hmm. Even better? My sewing teacher is my lovely mother in law, and my "classmates" are my sister in law and good friend.

2. I'm getting a new sewing machine! I've been using my mum's old machine and, while it's served it's purpose up until now (while I proved the sewing thing wasn't just a passing phase), it really is a little old and has a few issues. Mum and Dad had already offered to pay for a sewing machine for my 30th birthday in Feb next year, but I realised I would need one sooner. Well, when Mum heard that, she straightaway deposited the money into my account as an early birthday present (woo hoooooo!) so in the next week I'll hopefully own a brand new machine! This is the one I've got my eye on at the moment (I've been doing the Librarian thing of doing heaps of research) Janome Sewist 525S