Antique Sewing Tables- our new nightstands

Over the summer I worked on re-doing our master bedroom. My husband was deployed and I wanted us to have a nice "retreat" once he came home. I began looking for nightstands but with a budget of under $100 for two, I wasn't really getting anywhere. Anything that was in my price range was rickety or not the style I was looking for. One day I was driving by our local thrift store and decided on a whim to take a look at what they had. In their furniture section I found an antique sewing table very similar to one I already had that was my grandmothers. I was thrilled with this discovery but worried about the work needed to paint both tables to match. However, I knew that with my budget, I would not be able to get anything as sturdy as these old gals so I took the plunge. Care to see the results?


This sewing table I found at Deseret Industries thrift store for about $40. There's a little bit of damage to the wood but overall it is in good condition and really sturdy.

AFTER! My husband and I collaborated on the paint color. It is called, if I remember right, 'Harbor' by Behr paints. It comes across more bright in the photo than in real life. The new knobs are from Hobby Lobby.

This is the sewing machine in the cabinet I bought at the thrift store. It is gorgeous!
 

This is my grandmother's old sewing machine cabinet. It still has the sewing machine inside but it is plain Jane. I loved this table but hated the color since it really looks orange to me in real life. After beginning to sand and prep this table to paint I realized how damaged it was- more than the thrift store table. I'm glad I've given it a new life and am now able to enjoy using it daily in my home. Just a note: I did ask my dad if I could paint it before I went ahead. It had been his mother's and even though he had given it to me I still wanted to be sure he'd be okay with it.

AFTER!

Quilt Flashback

I am getting the urge to make quilts again. I tend to go in cycles and focus on a certain craft or project for a while, get burnt out, and move on to the next project. This summer I've worked on file folder games, raising a new brood of chicks, and heirloom gardening using some Native North American Indian techniques. Fun summer but I'm glad it is cooling down. I found a 2013 calendar at Costco that has inspired a new quilt idea. We will see how soon I can get to making it. But for now, here is a visit of the quilts I've pieced in the past...

Library Book anyone??

I purchased this book from the library for 1 dollar

To make the book look nicer, I took off the plastic dust cover

This one came off without leaving glue or tearing- Nice!

The only evidence left that it was a library book is in the back, with a stamp and a barcode.

Here is the "finished" book. Looks pretty nice

Here is the book, and the plastic cover- which I throw away

Another library book purchased for a buck. Love the Salt Lake County Library System!

Took the plastic cover off this one and it ripped- this is fairly typical.

So I take my handy paper trimmer and cut off the inside flap "info"

I use double sided sticky tape and paste the "info" bar (minus the plastic obviously) back over the tear.

Finished books!

I have bought tons of library books and re-worked them this way. It is AWESOME buying these originally $15.00 books for a buck each. Can't wait to start story times once my daughter is old enough to stop tearing and eating books.








 

Rocking Headbands!!!

If only I had a better camera.... My sister makes these- I can't claim them although I have in the past helped put together color combos- my only claim to fame. She sells these online and in local boutiques in Utah county. Go to her site here (http://www.etsy.com/shop/MyGenavie?ref=top_trail) for much bettter photos and to see all the things to makes by hand.
These headbands were also on the DAILY DISH.... See previous post with title "Fashion for you Olympic Parties" and check out toward the end when they show a couple of these great headbands.
Whenever I wear mine I always get compliments. I also got the comment from someone that they didn't think they could pull it off. Not true! I felt the same way but just play around with one until you like the way it looks, cowboy up with confidence and you will rock these babies!!!

Fashion For Your Olympic Parties

Fashion For Your Olympic Parties

The above is a link to a video segment of the Daily Dish that shows (towards the end) my sister's handmade headbands. Also has my favorite boutique- "Karma". The owner is so nice and friendly and she constantly has new styles and great ideas. She also likes to support local artists, like my sister, so there is a lot of handmade jewelry, belts, purses, and of course- headbands!

Karma Boutique on Main can be "liked" on facebook. They are located in Pleasant Grove Utah. They take orders over the phone and do a flat rate ship to anywhere in the country... not sure about out of the country- you'd have to ask:)

Deja Giraffe!

I make a lot of the burp cloths and blankets so this is not a "new" idea per se but I really like this new combo I used. I made a stack of ten burp cloths for my friend who is expecting a boy. Had to include a little stuffed giraffe of course!

A little update on my technique- I have found that I often use bulky weight yarn and that it works just fine although my crochet hook is a little bent from having to pull hard every so often. This fabric is from JoAnn's and is in their nursery section- it is a flannel. The back is a dark solid brown flannel. The yarn is also from JoAnn's and is the Sensations brand and is called "Beautiful".

I have laundered a burp cloth to see what happens to the yarn when washed and it mainly clumps together a bit more and remains soft. Meaning it launders well.

Harem magnet boards

Why harem? Well this paper reminds me of a screen in some exotic locale. I only have one of these boards done and the second we will finish today. They are going to be going into the 'master bedroom' that I am re-decorating for myself and my hubby. Can't wait to show you finished pictures but you'll have to wait until October. Why? Because I am re-decorating our bedroom for when my hubby comes home from being deployed in the Middle East. Before he left, we saw this gorgeous bed set at Bed, Bath, & Beyond by Echo designs (see here: http://www.echodesign.com/shop/for-home/bedding/?gclid=COOIn4-W1rECFSgbQgodVEkAnw#/http://www.echodesign.com/shop/for-home/bedding/jaipur-comforter-set.html ). It has inspired me to create a new "escape" for us. These magnet boards will be on either side of the bed above our nightstands. My photos do not do it justice but I don't have a fancier camera:(
The frames are ones we had lying around, waiting to be used. They used to be painted dark brown but were originally white. I believe you can find frames like these at a craft store. I painted the frames 'Pastel Jade' by Behr paints that I bought at Home Depot in the sample size. Can you believe the little sample size painted both frames AND I still have some leftover? Awesome! The paper I purchased at JoAnn's. It is called gossip bluebird by pop culture. I used double sided sticky tape to adhere it to the back side of the frames. I bought sheet metal at Home Depot and had my younger brother cut it for me. Then me and my dad used what looked like an ice pick to create holes in the back to drive nails in which holds the metal in place. Lastly, we put the back on with screws I think- by that time I was playing a card game with my mom and not really observing or helping. But I saw my dad make holes in the back board, then holes in the metal with the ice pick and hammer, and then put the screw in. VERY STURDY!!! Oh- we also put large picture hangers on the back- the ones that are a bar with teeth on them.
I had forgotten to bring all of my fancy dancy paper so we were only able to finish one board but the second will be finished today! Yipee!!!
I will post better photos when I get a chance. Summer has been busy for me with my garden and chickens.

Next Project: Sanding and painting two antique sewing table cabinets to use as nightstands!!!

Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs- no really, with silk ties!!!

It's too late to do this for Easter unless you have the supplies lying around and can whip them up today, but keep this craft in mind for next year. I found the original instructions at http://www.ourbestbites.com/2012/03/silk-dyed-eggs-aka-tie-dyed/

I used the eggs my chickens lay which are brown and blue-green. I asked my husband, dad, and brothers for old, 100% silk ties that they were ready to get rid of. You wrap a square of the tie around the egg tightly and secure it with a twisty-tie. Then you take a piece of cotton cloth, put it around the egg/tie and secure it with a twisty-tie. I blew out the insides of my eggs so these would last and the website listed above had a cute idea for stringing them on ribbon and embellishing with beads. When it came time to put the eggs in a boiling water and vinegar bath, I used a small colander that fit inside my pot to hold the eggs down. But the small colander started floating so then I had to weigh it down with a large colander.

This craft was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to collecting more colorful ties for next year and doing this craft early enough that I can hang them from ribbons from our apricot tree.

Re-Purposed Cocoa Can

Take a cocoa can (or similar) and clean the inside. Strip off the label. Measure and cut pretty paper and use double sided sticky tape to attach the paper to the can. Put the lid on the bottom of the can and.... Voila! Use as a holder for pencils, etc. OR use a valentine's themed paper, put treats inside and a bow on the lid and give it to someone special!

Pac Man Cross Stitch on Onesie

To cross-stitch on the knit onesie I used DMC Soluble Canvas. It's an 8 x 8-1/2" square of plastic canvas that you place on your project using a hoop, then cross stitch your design, followed by dissolving the canvas in hot water. Using a hoop on this 18 month onesie was challenging especially since the design is long and I'm pretty new to cross stitch so I don't know any tricks. It was hard to get the canvas straight and after I stitched a couple of the ghosties, I thought I was really crooked so I cut a separate canvas piece for pac man and later discovered he was not in line with the others. It would have been easier on a larger item or with a smaller design but hey- I wanted pac man and the ghosties- "Blinky", "Pinky", "Inky", and "Clyde"!

Crochet-edge Blanket and Burp Cloth Set

Most quilt stores have blankets or burp cloths with pre-punched and sewn holes all ready to crochet. Unfortunately, they are a bit costly. When I got my new machine last summer, it came with a stitch that, once combined with a wing needle, works just the same (if not better) at making the re-inforced holes for crocheting. In the close up picture, you can see that its' a star or a snowflake. If you discover you can do this at home also (check your users manual), one important thing to know is that you need to use a lightweight or embroidery thread such as Mettler. I tried using Gutterman thread once and it left loops everywhere because it's a heavier-weight thread.

Originally when I started crocheting burp cloths, I would use crochet cotton but I found I didn't like the finished look. I switched to specialty yarns with a kink, that are fuzzy, or furry because they bunch up on the edges and don't show any stray threads. Remember that whatever you use still has to go through those tiny holes so check the labels on the yarns for their weight or bring in your hemstitched item and crochet hook and try it out.

If you like the nursery rhyme fabric shown in the photos, I just got it last week at Hobby Lobby.

Duck Quilt for Nephew

My sister came to me with this unique vintage duck fabric and asked me to make her son a quilt. She brought along a fiery orange (looks red in these pics to me) to coordinate with it and a cuddle fabric in a lighter orange for the back. Her son, like most kiddies I know, LOVE soft fabric.

My goal with this quilt was to both highlight the ducks and do a lot of machine quilting. The duck fabric was a little hard to work with because the patterns didn't cut easily into specific sizes hence the profuse use of sashings in varying widths. The large center panel was quilting diagonally in one direction while all the individual ducks were quilted in varying sizes of squares and rectangles. My sewing machine embroiders letters so I used it to make my quilt label.

A trick I used on this quilt was to do a "false back". You'll notice in the second picture that you're not seeing any quilting on the back. That is because I used cotton fabric as the false back that was quilted and then simply stitched the cuddly orange fabric to the back around the edges followed by adding the binding. I did this to preserve full cuddliness. Plus, the false back looked "interesting" with all the random stitching.

Mario Quilt For My Brother

This past year, 2011, for Christmas I had my younger brother for our Christmas gift exchange. I saw a version of this quilt online and decided it would be perfect for him. I created my own pattern using Adobe Illustrator. I bought all the fabric and batting at JoAnns', generally buying each fabric one at a time and using their 40 or 50% off coupons. I had the whole year to work on this quilt so there was no time crunch. The total cost came to approximately $60 including the fabric, batting, and thread. The squares 1-1/2" cut size then sewn with a 1/4" seam. I quilted it myself with a walking foot on my machine. The quilting on this one was very simple- horizontal lines stitched in the ditch every 4". I included a label on the back that had my brother's name, that I made the quilt, and that it was for Christmas 2011. The quilt measures 60 x 64.

I will get a pdf version of my pattern ready so if you're interested, email me and I'll send it your way!

P.S. my brother loves this quilt!