One of my new year's resolutions was to sew more and since Jan first I've managed to finish four - yes four! sewing projects.

For being one of the slowest sewers I know, this is unheard of.

There are two main contributions to my productivity

I bought a 6-foot folding table, which means I no longer has to do all my fabric cutting/set up on the floor. I also means I can leave my stuff out instead of having to pack it up between sewing sessions (thanks to a very gracious Mr. Cleaver, since my sewing nook is in our bedroom).
I have embraced the quick & dirty sewing project.

I'll admit that I have a strong preference for garment sewing over craft sewing, particularly if that garment comes with a large number of pintucks/pleats/darts/gathers/buttonholes or other lovely details that inevitably make the project take forever. That said, of the four projects only one was a garment (which I'll post about in a few days - let's just say today is my MIL's birthday and we're celebrating later in the week due to the crazy weather we're having).

The other included a cheery bunting and table runner set for my pie potluck.

The bunting was roughly based on this tutorial, while the table runner was improvised to use up all (and I mean all) the scraps from the bunting project. The with the runner I threw my perfectionist tendencies to the wind and eyeballed and zig-zagged my way to a cute little decoration.

My quickest project was this 5-minute flower brooch I whipped up last night on a whim and that totally brightened my day today as I wore it.

Of course all this rapid-fire sewing wasn't without its trials: I broke my seam ripper a few weeks back, so any undoing was a challenge and there was a lot of undoing because my sewing machine seems to be firmly set against doing anything other than a straight stitch in a forward direction - any attempts to back stitch or zig-zag generally were followed with bobbin-rethreading and mild curses.

I'd take any recommendations for possible repairs, but this may be a sign that it's time for me to upgrade from my little $78 dollar sewing machine. So I'll also take any sewing machine recommendations. :)