Quick and Simple Project

This project was so simple it almost shouldn't qualify. I adopted a giant lard can from my parents. I thought it was cool and originally we used it as a nightstand. At some point, I turned it into a laundry hamper. The only problem was that the inside was a bit rusty and I kept reminding myself to make a liner for it. The fabric was given to me by a friend who brought it back from a missions trip to Kenya. I have no idea what type of fabric it is, some type of cotton but it is so nice and drapey but not flimsy. Whatever it is, it worked nicely for this and is a fun reminder of our friend and her trips to Kenya.

(Airing our dirty laundry! ha!!!)

Quilt Block

Long ago, in a land far away, California to be exact, I was a nerdy teenager who spent hours holed up in my room teaching myself how to quilt. At some point, I made this quilt block as an experiment and hand quilted it. I never finished the binding and it ended up in the bottom of my stash o' random quilt blocks. Recently I dug it out and finished it. I plan on using it in the middle of my table, under a vase of flowers, most likely dandelions and onion grass my kids picked in the yard. :)

IKEA Mirror Makeover

This is just a cheap IKEA mirror which I painted light blue and stenciled with 'Mercury' glaze. The pattern is subtle, but I like it and it matches my bathroom (and baby blue toilet) perfectly. Don't look too close. It ain't perfect!

Mirror

Long ago, I picked up this mirror at a yard sale for about $2. It has been hauled around and never really found a home, although Rachel would have gladly stolen it taken it off my hands. For some reason I still cannot ascertain, I painted it this weird, chocolatey brown color...which made it look like it was made out of Hershey's milk chocolate. Then it basically sat atop our dresser for the next several years. After painting my kitchen I decided that the mirror needed to make a comeback, so I painted it with white enamel. It is now hanging in the dining area and I am glad it finally found a home!

Pillow Makeover

I had a very plain black throw pillow hanging around my living room that needed a little somethin' special. I recently painted my kitchen and wanted to pull some of the color into my living room. This is just a simple zippered cover with red piping. The fabric is Amy Butler, in case you are wondering. :)

Its An Amy Butler Explosion!

I have spent enough time drooling over Amy Butler fabrics and decided it was time to actually buy some. I originally ordered 1 1/2 yards of this to make myself a skirt. I changed my mind and put it to use to change up the scenery in my living room. You all are probably tired of seeing these silhouettes by now, but they are quite easy and satisfying to change up. To adhere the silhouettes, I used this nasty no-sew fusible that I have no other use for. I say nasty because the stuff is a) stiff, b) doesn't hold up through the wash, and c) don't dare sew with it or your machine will get all sorts of gummed up. Despite my animosity toward the poor roll of fusible webbing, it does work for this quite nicely. I can iron them on, slap them in the frame, and peel them off and repeat for the next background fabric. This is the third change so far and they are holding up nicely. I will post my other Amy Butler fabric project later this week.

Table Scarf-Thingy

For lack of better terminology, I made this quilted table scarf-thingy for a friend recently. This block was hanging around in my scrap drawer and I finally made it into something useful. It is machine quilted with Warm and Natural batting. I also had the remaining yardage I had used to make the quilt block, so I used it for the backing and binding.

Barn Window Project

Several years back, I hit the jackpot. (I suppose it depends on your perspective, but...:) I found a whole pile of really old windows on the curb. Around these parts, trash picking is a big past time. If its on the curb, its fair game. Although the curb in question was a on a busy road, I couldn't resist. I think I was with Mom, and we frantically packed window after window into the van. At some point, the owner of the place came out and told us that they were original windows from one of the farm buildings out back, the house being very old. (1700's if I remember correctly) We have since moved once or twice and I have carted a few of the windows with me, with my husband cheering all the way. OK. Maybe not that last part. Anyhow, long story short, I decided that redoing my son's room in a farm theme was the perfect occasion for a window! I added two hooks to the bottom, so he can hang his stuff there. Two of the panes were missing, so I hung a horse shoe and a cowboy ornament in those openings. In the other panes, I attached 5 by 7 prints to the outside of the glass so I could easily change them. I might regret that later, but since it is hanging in the room of boys, we had to make sure it could withstand Armageddon, or at least a monkey or two trying to repel from the hooks. Not that my kids would ever try such a thing! :) What I am trying to say is that that bad boy ain't coming off the wall unless its moving time, and certainly not to switch out pictures now and again! I am really happy with the way it came out, and it renews my desire to use up every single window I have in the attic.

Enough To Make a Preacher Swear!!

I just finished this pillow for Mom. The top went together very nicely. I used the tutorial here to paper piece the patches. That part was a lot of fun. However, when I went to put the thing together, I ran into a few problems. I bought a solid fabric for the border and the fabric was awful!! At the store it felt fine, but after washing it the sizing came off and it was pretty thin. When I tried to add some decorative stitching to border, it made a mess. When I went to pick the stitches out, it was even worse. The fabric practically disintegrated! I ended up cutting the border down by about 2 inches, and I used a different fabric for the back. I'm glad its done and I still have all my fingers intact!

Zig Zag Pillow

This pillow is for Mom's birthday. Before you think I got all crazy and hand appliqued those zig zags on there, check out this tutorial. I can't believe how simple they really are to make. Now I want to add them to the bottom of an apron, just for fun. (Sorry if you just cringed at the mention of another apron! :)

Embroidered Tea Towel

Here is a tea towel I made last week for a gift. The towel is a vintage reproduction towel that is made by Aunt Martha's. Their towels have a nicer weight than a lot of other tea towels so I like to use them for embroidery.

Big Project: FINISHED!

I finished making curtains for my boys' room. My oldest son requested their room be a farmer room, and I found the perfect fabric for them at JoAnns. I had to make five panels to cover the windows, and I bought every bit of fabric they had. Still, after making the curtains and tabs, I threw out one 2" by 16" strip...that was all that was left! Talk about close. I am glad it worked out. Curtains are, in my book, no fun at all. It's like hemming pants. Not difficult, but about as thrilling as watching paint dry. The curtains are made from a canvas type home-dec fabric, and are lined with some sort of curtain lining (also from JoAnns). I am very glad to have these done, and hanging up! Makes me feel like I completed something, unlike the perpetual mountain of clothes that need to be washed/dried/folded/put away. :)

Silhouette Update

A while back I did some fabric silhouettes for my living room. I liked the fabric, but didn't love it. After seeing fat quarters on sale, I decided there was no good reason not to slap some flashy new fabric up there. The fusible web I used for the silhouettes is such that it doesn't really fuse permanently, a trait that would be highly annoying in any other application. However, it made it very easy to peel them off and iron them on to the new fabric. I still don't think I have found the 'perfect' fabric, especially the middle one, but for now its new and different.

Clothespin Bag

I used this tutorial to make a clothespin bag. This is a really quick project, and doesn't take much fabric either. I used scraps from another project. The trim is this funky vintage stuff I picked up somewhere. It is one of those trims that won't go with many things, but I think it works here. Instead of finishing the neckline with bias tape or fold-over braid, as the tutorial shows, I pressed the edge toward the right side of the fabric and then stitched the trim on. That gave me a neat finish with no raw edges. These bags could be used for so many things. I have one hanging in my kitchen to hold my canning jar rings. Another idea I have for this pattern is to scale it down and make several in varying shades of lavender to hang in my daughter's room. That way she could keep all her little trinkets in them.

Cloth Napkins

Having three kids means the potential for going through mountains of paper napkins in short order. I made these cloth napkins with odds and ends from my stash. So far I have made about 18, and I am looking for a total of about 3 dozen. The construction is very simple: 2 18" squares, right sides together, sew together leaving an opening, turn, press and top stitch.

Kitchen Flair

The last two years I have ordered seeds from Baker Creek for my garden. Reading through their catalog for me is like running through a candy store (or a fabric store for that matter). I was even more thrilled to find that most of their seeds come in these awesome packets. To frame them, I bought cheap ($1.99/3) IKEA frames, painted them white, sanded them a bit to look worn, and voila! I have them hanging above the back splash in my kitchen, and plan on adding to it each year.

Old Window

Several years ago I hit the jackpot. Someone was tearing all the windows out of their very old carriage house (I think that's what it was). I took 5 or 6 of the windows and have had them ever since. One of them I had hanging on the wall for a while. I have always wanted to do cool things with these windows but was never quite sure what. I got the idea of using a poster print for the background. The photo I used is sentimental because it is looking out of the barn at the farm where my Mom grew up. To make it I cut a piece of mat board slightly smaller than the back of the window. I positioned the poster and the mat board and used an electric staple gun to tack it all down. I added two screw eyes and some hanging wire to the top back.

Dresser Makeover

This dresser has had many lives already. Previously, it was Rachel's dresser. When Rachel got it, she and Mom painted it burgundy and applied textured wall paper to the front of the drawers. (Thanks for doing the hard part for me!) After Rachel was done with it I decided to take it for my daughter's room. I painted it 'circus' purple as Dad refers to it. The drawers I just painted white. Instant makeover! (Wouldn't it be awesome if I remember to take a 'before' picture next time??)

What to do, what to do?

I am not a floor-to-ceiling pictures type of person. However, I love pictures and I (incidentally) have the three cutest kids in the world ;) That makes it hard to narrow things down. I wanted a way to hang up more pictures without the wall looking too cluttered. Oh, and I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on new picture frames. Eureka! I had an idea. I raided the frames I already had, stole some from Mom, and went to the dollar store where I bought about 10 frames for...you guessed it, about $10. Then I went and got myself a nice can of matte black spray paint and went to town. I painted all the frames the same black. Let me tell you, a cheesy dollar store frame looks a LOT nicer with a coat of spray paint. Case in point:

After painting all the frames I laid them out on the floor how I wanted them and took a picture of the arrangement on my digital camera. I printed out the picture to use a guide for hanging them up. In case you are wondering, the square frame at the top is going to be a clock. I am in the process of embroidering a drawing James made, which I will use along with the guts of our living room clock to make myself a shiny new clock. So now I have a new picture arrangement. I plan on switching out pictures as I feel like it, and I can even add more frames in needed.

Very Simple

I made a bulletin board this morning. So easy I feel like it was cheating, but hey, sometimes I need a project that can be finished quick. I very loosely followed directions from One Yard Wonders for this one. Basically, you can take apart a frame. I found a roll of cork on clearance at Lowes for $3. The frame was from a fill-a-bag-for-a-dollar yard sale. I cut the cork the same size as the frame back, using spray glue to adhere it to the back. I added a second layer to make sure the cork was thick enough. Cover with fabric, put back in the frame and voila! Instant bulletin board! I am planning on making push pins with some of my vintage buttons. If I do I'll post pictures.