New sewing machine

As I mentioned before, I got a new sewing machine for Christmas. It's the Janome 525S and I LOVE it. My old, 15 year old Brother machine rattled and snarled and snorted every time I used it. It had straight stitch and zig zag stitch and that was all. I really did not enjoy using it and as a result hardly ever did.

The Janome is much heavier than my old machine. Solidly built, it does not feel at all cheap. It's totally stable while I work with it on my sewing table. It's a medium range machine so I've made the step up from what was a basic machine - and boy, does it make a difference.

The straight stitches are smooth, tight and without a blip. The zig zags can go from wide to nice and tight. Stitch length and width can be varied simply. I can now do free motion embroidery which is something I have wanted to do for ages.  I also have a few decorative stitches so I can jazz up my projects if I feel like it. It's obviously not a top of the range machine in that it doesn't give me loads of fancy stitches . But then sewing is one of the many crafts I'm involved in so I was looking for a machine that did a little of everything in a simple and straightforward way.I do believe I found it with the Janome.

This was my first project - a note pad cover made from felt with a bondaweb design touched up with hand embroidery, free motion embroidery, silk and beads.

I recently signed up for a Craftsy Class called Stupendous Stitching: Adventures in Surface Design and managed to work through the videos with the help of the sewing machine too. It was a really nice process. My first sample is shown below made using batik fabric, rat tail cord, machine stitching and hand embroidery. It was my first attempt but I definitely want to do more of it. 

So all-in-all the Janome meets my expectations. Here's hoping I will get plenty more time to play with it over the coming months.

Ganutell flowers

Gina B Silkworks has some lovely new products that I have been playing with. Ganutell flowers are made up of wire formed into leaf and petal shapes and wrapped with thread. It's great fun. I forgot to take photos of my first samples which included a rather fetching box decorated in violets. But I took quick shots of my last set - just before I got them packaged up and posted out.

First is a picture frame picked up quite cheaply. A few ganutell flowers just makes it a little different. You could even cover the whole frame with flowers.

This snowdrop pendant is my favourite - mainly because I love snowdrops.

There is also a little poppy brooch.

The strange thing is that my Mum remembers that Gran had a brooch made from ganutell flowers many years ago. It's funny how these crafts come back into popularity many years down the road.

Mona Lisa gets a revamp

My Mona Lisa beads are some of the most popular beads I have made during my seven years selling beads. Every now and then, however, I update the design. Tastes change, themes move on and sometimes I just feel like something a bit different. The new style beads now have a Renaissance Florentine background. I'm rather pleased with the end result. I hope others will like them too.

Spot the deliberate mistake

I hope everyone had a good festive season. I managed to get a couple of days off and spent it with family having a nice time.

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a new sewing machine. I'll be writing more about it soon but it has enabled me to start a sewing kit I bought a few years ago. It consisted of fabric and hardware for a coin purse with birds on it. Really cute! Just one problem. Can you see what it is?

Yup, the birds are the wrong way up. It turns out that there is a labeling problem with the pattern. What should have been the top of the purse was labelled as the bottom. As it was my first attempt at a purse I didn't realize until I had stitched it all together. Never mind. It was good practice and I'm all for a bit of originality.