Sewing room makeover Part 2

Other half home last night = stole an hour today to finish my sewing machine cover!

As I was making it I wasn't sure if it would be big enough - but its actually on the loose side. Its a little short too. My piecing on the patchwork strip wasn't all that accurate (I've never pieced 2" squares, and they're nowhere near as forgiving as 5" ones!), so I had to make it a little shorter than it was supposed to be. But still I LOVE it - and after all, my machine does so much hard work for me, I figure it deserves a snuggly little bed ;)

The fabric I used is the same as the mat. Both the cover and mat are quilted on fusible batting using a quilt as you go method. They're both lined with tomato Kona, and the cover also has heavy-weight interfacing on the back of all the batting. Both of these were really fun projects, and came together really fast - if you are interested in making the cover, you can actually buy the pattern here. The mat (along with a thread catcher and pincushion - my next projects) are available as a pattern as well. Mine ended up quite different, but the basic shapes and layout is the same.

xx Jess

Funky-ing up my sewing space Part 1

For the last few weeks my partner has been working interstate, so I've been single-parenting my three kids. This has NOT been conducive to much sewing time, sadly - although I have managed to start a new quilt (using Lizzy House's 1001 Peeps which I LOVE!). And I've decided to funk up my sewing space a bit by making a new sewing machine mat, cover and pincushion (from a couple of patterns in Australian Homespun (Vol 11 #11, and Vol 12 #1).

I finished off the mat last night...

and it now has a new home under my machine!

The red birdy-circley fabric was part of a bundle I won on ebay a while ago - its quite heavy weight so it was perfect for this project (and I'd been trying to find the perfect use for it for a while!) It is designed by Australian fabric company Surface Art - it's called Mikko (cotton drill) and I just love love it. In fact I have a new fabric obsession - Moyra's work is just divine (and I couldn't resist ordering another piece of her cotton drill fabric!) The pieced part is bug spot and dandelion circles from Saffron Craig, along with tomato Kona, snow Kona and some grey homespun I picked up from Spotlight. Its a bit hard to see from the pics, but the part that hangs down in front of my machine is a series of pockets (that are about to be filled up with all my bits and pieces). I am hoping this means I won't lose my quick unpick, and embroidery scissors quite as often (well I can hope, can't I?)

Happy stitching!

Jess