Quilt Festival

I joined Amy's Creative Side's quilt festival. Here is my entry!

I don't know that I have a favorite quilt, but this is one I love. The is the first quilt I made for my baby girl one year ago. I love the bright fun colors of Bubblegum Basics. I had had the pattern for several years just hoping I'd have a baby girl to make it for someday. I always love to use ric rac. It's just a fun, happy quilt.

Don't forget to check out the other quilts in the quilt festival!

Garage Sale End Table

This table was another garage sale find I found last Friday. I think I paid $8 for it. I forgot to take before pictures until I had primed the legs. They were forest green before.

Here is a close up of the top.

I decided to paint it turquoise. Apparently I can't get enough lately.

Then I put a faux glaze on top.

And here it is in my house. Not sure what I'm going to put on top.... or if I'm just going to end up painting it black, but I do need to add more color to my room.

Framed Pear

One thing I'm always on the lookout for at yard sales is picture frames. I found these cute chunky frames and there were two of them! I didn't know what I'd use them for and then saw this. First I spray painted the frames. They were a flimy white color. Do you know the one I'm talking about? White washed or something? Anyway, they're black now. Then I got some scrapbook paper I liked and just glued it to the cardboard in the back.


I cute the pear in half. About 2/3 of the way through the knife wouldn't go any further. Yes, there was a huge "pit". A little cement disk to give it weight. I had to carefully peel one side of the pear off so that I could peel out the "pit". The I glued the good half of the pear down with E6000. No, this one is not centered. It was at one time and then I accident picked it up too soon. It left a small glue trail and I ended up positioning it slightly off to cover the glue. Oops. Then I didn't totally notice until it was very dry.

I think I like the red pear better. Never mind the recalled infant Tylenol on the counter and the phone cord in the background. My husband thinks the whole thing is somewhat strange. His question: "why would you have half a pear hanging out in a picture frame?" He didn't have any better ideas though..... I think he secretly likes it though!

Hidden TREASURE

My first sewing machine was a Bernina 830. When I was growing up my mom had a hateful White. She also hated to sew and this just aggravated it. It never worked the way it was suppose to and finally when I was 19 she decided it was time for a new one. She just wanted one to make mending not as frustrating. She called a neighbor of ours who was a home ec teacher at a high school and asked what she recommended. She swore by Bernina and also told my mom that the school she taught at was in the process of getting new machines. She said they were trading their machines back to Nuttalls but were able to sell the machines to people who wanted them for the cost Nuttalls would pay them. My mom decided to buy one and I did also. I bought my Bernina for $250.

I didn't sew at the time, but I had taken sewing classes when I was growing up. I had always liked to do crafts and decided in the future when I wasn't so busy with collage I might like to sew and it was a good opportunity buy a good sewing machine at a good price.

Fast forward 7 years. When I was 26 I was looking for a quilt for my then 1 year old's bed. What I really wanted was super expensive. I had always gone into quilt shops because I liked to do embroidery and make it into pillows of frame it with fabric in a picture frame. I decided I would try to make my little boy a quilt for his bed so I could make just what I was picturing in my head. I found I loved to sew. I think it was transforming beautiful fabric into something useful and loved and also providing heirlooms for my children.

Although I loved to sew, I didn't love my machine. It hadn't come with an owner's manual and I never felt like I knew how to really use it. Whenever I would go to Nuttalls for any sort of sewing machine pieces I would eye the other machines, thinking there was no way I could ever afford a computerized one. I knew that for some reason the Bernina 830 is in high demand and maybe I could sell it and use the money toward another machine, but I knew I was still really short for what I wanted. I did some Internet searches and found a Bernina Virtuosa 150 on ebay. I had checked a few local Bernina dealers and found that this machine was selling for about $1400-1500 used. I found it on ebay one night for $450. The auction was just closing. I showed it to my husband who got on another computer to look at it too. I put in a bid not knowing that he did as well. He outbid me and won it for $456.

To say that I didn't stalk the UPS guy for the next few days would not be true. It even arrived during nap time and I accidentally woke up my kids with shrieks of joy. True love. It was so smooth. There was no guessing about the settings. Everything worked perfectly. I sold my Bernina 830 on KSL.com for $454 about 4 hours after it was listed and have never looked back.

Over the last 3 years whenever I have mentioned I used to have a Bernina 830 and sold it people have questioned why I would ever do it. Honestly, I have never once missed it. Never.

This weekend my husband and I went to a garage sale. We went to one that we hadn't planned on going to, but was on the way. When I got there the first thing I saw was a Bernina 830. Guess what they were asking for it........$20. I'm totally serious. I asked the lady if it worked and she assured me it did. Of course I didn't need a sewing machine... I do have three already, but could I really pass this up?
I felt guilty. Did this lady know what she was practically giving away? Should I alert her? I decided to buy it. I am now the proud owner of another Bernina 830. I used it tonight. It runs like a dream. It is super smooth. It only has the basic foot, but it was definitely worth more than the $20 I paid for it by far. I don't know what I'll do with it....... but who says there is no such thing as hidden treasure!

Back to the Shutters

Here are my finished shutters. I'm thinking we are going to hang them up a few inches.

Sorry about the open entertainment center. My three year old would not have appreciated me pausing his Talking Word Factory show so I could close the doors. This picture is to show how much space we have between the top of the shutters and the ceiling.

I have two sets of these shorter shutters, bought at the same time. My husband thinks if I hang these above the others it will look like a portal though.

I also make this seed ball out of dried pinto beans and then spray painted it the same color as the shutters. This is the color I was thinking of painting the hutch, but I'm leaning toward not that color now. Not that I'm leaning toward any color right now.

I have a few more non sewing projects to show later. Hopefully I can get back in my sewing room soon......

Hutch

I found this hutch a few weeks ago and a garage sale for $40. I feel like I got a steel. Since then I've been looking on KSL.com and have seen them for much more. I do have a delima though.....

We just ordered a new sofa and loveseat that are beige, these red ones are falling apart. We also have a beige wall. I'd like to paint the hutch. The wood is kind of an orangish color in real life and I need to add color to my family room. When I bought this I had planned on using the bottom half as a sofa table and painting it blue, like the color of the shutters. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the top half. Use it as shelves somewhere. When I got it home though the table top is higher than the back of the couch. Although I still like the idea of a blue hutch, I think it would take from the main focal point of the room which is our fireplace. I'll post pictures of that soon... when I get around to posting the finished shutters. So my question to you is this: What color should I paint this hutch? Black, white or something I haven't thought of?

The State of the Sewing Room Address

See this cute laundry room? Remember it. It's not mine. I can't move the picture where I want it. It won't let me copy and paste or slide it down so now I don't know how to move pictures again just mere weeks after I mastered it. This one is from Apartment Therapy.

My sewing/ laundry room is not in good shape. A week ago this Thursday was the last time I did laundry. A week ago this last Sunday I noticed some water coming from under the dryer.... yes, it had been 4 days since I had done any laundry. Prior to this I had smelled mold. I thought it was coming from the washing machine and had done several things to see where it was coming from but couldn't find the source. Once my husband started investigating the water situation this is what he found:

Here is my cutting table. Water had been slowly building up under this counter. I had to empty it of all my fabric. Fortunately nothing got wet.

Here is mold coming out of the wall.

Here are the pipes after my husband cut into the wall to see where the leak was coming from. It was the kitchen sink. Apparently over the last few years it has been leaking 2-3 ounces ever time it was used. Finally there was enough to make it seep out of the wall.

And no, the insurance won't pay for this. They said it was a maintenance issue. The plumber we hired to fix the pipe even called the insurance to tell them that unless we hacked into the wall once in awhile to check on our pipes there is no way we'd have ever known. Apparently they only cover pipe breaks. This same insurance company also paid when my brother left a hose on and running down my parents outside stairs to the basement and it flooded, but it won't cover this. We are switching insurance companies...... for next time.

So now that the pipe is fixed we (meaning my husband) have to replace drywall and rebuild the counter. Then we will have to replace moldy linoleum and paint. I want to paint a fun, clean color for the laundry room, but don't want something too bright for fear it will make my fabric look off. I really am wanting to do a tangerine color (now is the time to see the first picture.) Whatever I do it needs to coordinate with ugly 80's blue. That's what color the sewing counter and cutting counter are.

Anyway, I won't be sewing for awhile. Or doing laundry.... at least not here. I do have a few other projects to share though. I'll post those over the next little while.

Shutters

Lately I'm into quick projects that I can do in an afternoon. Mostly because I may have an afternoon today and then not again for a few weeks. In a few weeks I have usually lost some steam to finish a project and am wanting to start a new one.

A week ago I went garage saleing. I found these shutters for $1 each and bought all four of them. I've seen people doing cute things with shutters on other blogs and thought it was a great way to take up quite a bit of wall space. The Nester used shutters HERE and HERE. Here is another use of old shutters.
I forgot to take a picture before I took the handles off. I did decide to spray paint them with oil rubbed bronze spray paint, but I'm thinking I'm not going to put them on again.

I need more color in my family room so I decided to do a lighter teal color. I spray painted them first.

They were a little shinier than I was hoping for so I decided to add a glaze.

I'm not sure which I like better. The glaze gives them more of an antique look, but I felt like the plain paint was a little too bright. Since they are already glazed I will hang them like this for now and if I don't like them a quick spray of paint will cover it back up again. I'm going to hang them above my mantel. I'll post pics as soon as they're up.

I've been doing a lot of garage sale shopping for cheap ways to decorate my house. I found a great deal on a hutch. I can't decide if I want to paint it white with a glaze, black or possible the same teal above. I'll post pictures when it's finished!