Monthly Archives: November 2013

Cover Story

When sister Diane and I visited sister Reigh in Idaho over Memorial Day weekend, we went to HomeFabrics and Rugs, a home decorating fabric store in Boise with an incredible selection of high quality fabrics and trims, matched by amazingly low prices. Diane found a beautiful piece of home dec fabric for a dollar a yard. Too good to be true? Well, there was a hitch: she had to buy what was on the bolt. As it happened, there were 10 yards of fabric on the bolt. There went 10 bucks. For another $10, Diane shipped the fabric home to Georgia. She had no idea what to do with it but just knew it would look good somewhere in her home.

She actually found two places to use the fabric. First, she had the two vintage slipper chairs in the downstairs guest room recovered. Here is a picture of one of the slipper chairs before . . .

2013-11, slipper chair before

. . . and after:

2013-11, slipper chair after

The slipper chairs were originally covered in a velvety green plush, with a gathered skirt that went to the floor. The newly recovered chairs are more tailored, with a shorter skirt that’s pleated rather than gathered. The fabric is a brushed cotton, in a medium-scale print that goes very well with the other furnishings in the room.

This picture of the second slipper chair gives you a good look at the front:

2013-11, second slipper chair

I think they are just charming! The best part is that there was enough fabric left over from having the chairs upholstered to recover the four chairs in Diane’s kitchen dining area. She waited till I arrived for my annual Thanksgiving visit so we could tackle that project together.

Here are two chairs, the one on the right newly recovered and the one on the left waiting its turn:

2013-11, kitchen nook chairs before and after

I’d say Diane’s $20 was money well spent, wouldn’t you?

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in family, home dec, update | 3 Comments

A Lofty View

Fewer than 24 hours after arriving in Atlanta for our annual Thanksgiving visit with my sister Diane and her husband Ed, my trusty 1975 Elna, stored at their house, was set up and humming away. The project: refashioning a pair of tab curtains into a valance and panels for the loft in their home.

I made the original curtains for our other sister Reigh’s dining room when she and her husband George moved to Idaho in 2008. When they built their retirement home this year, there was no place for the curtains. Diane was only too happy to take them, knowing I could transform them into something when I came to visit in November.

At her last foray to Scott’s Antique Mall in Atlanta, Diane found a beautiful Italian walnut bench from the early 1920s with a cane seat and buttery yellow silk seat cushion. She realized that the curtain fabric would go perfectly with the seat cushion. By the time I arrived, she had a plan.

Here is the loft before:

2013-11, loft before
Before: Loft with Valance

(The bench is deliberately set off center, because it looks better when viewed from below.)

Here is the loft after:

2013-11, loft after
After: Loft with Valance and Panels

 

Here is the loft viewed from another angle:

2013-11, loft view from stairs

 

And here is a close-up of the fabric (too gorgeous not to be used again!):

beautiful home dec fabric
Beautiful Home Dec Fabric

 

 

 

Posted in update, valance | 7 Comments

Hi Ho, Hi Ho . . .

. . . it’s off to camp I go! Quilt Camp, that is. From Sunday afternoon till Wednesday afternoon, I’ll be at the conference center in Silver Falls State Park near Silverton, Oregon sewing non-stop with 11 wonderful women, four of whom are in my quilt group, the Quisters. This is my seventh year. Once we’ve unpacked and set up our sewing gear in the big conference room, we are good to go. We only stop to eat. Seriously! Three meals a day are provided — and they are ample and good.

Every year it’s a struggle deciding what to take. Because I vastly overestimate how much I’ll accomplish, I bring way too many projects in way too many plastic tubs. Some of them never even get opened. This year I’m more focused, more organized.

My Number One goal is to finish my Metro Rings quilt top. After making the test block I showed you in my last post — here’s another look at it —

2013-10, metro rings test block 1
Metro Rings block, 19″ Square

I set about getting all of the fabric cut for 11 more blocks. Here are my strips of black-on-white and white-on-black for the rings:

2013-11, Urban Rings fabric strips
Strips, Strips and More Strips

 

I’m using a total of 20 different fabrics. They are sewn into 20″ long strip sets and then cut into curves using a specialty ruler. I got the strip sets sewn and then cut the red and blue corner triangles and the white triangles and strips for the background:

2013-11, Urban Rings fabrics
Strip Sets Sewn and More

 

I got the curves cut in the background fabric . . .

2013-13, Metro Rings bkgd fabric
Background Fabric Curves Cut

. . . but I’ll wait till I get to Quilt Camp to cut the curves in the strip sets. I should be able to hit the ground running!

My Number Two goal is to finish this kaleidoscope table runner, also mentioned in my previous post:

2013-10, kaleido table runner 1
18″ x 56″ Before Quilting

It’s already sandwiched and I’ve done some in-the-ditch quilting. What the runner needs now is some free motion quilting. I’m going to try a plume feather design in each of the 45° triangles. Wish me luck! Free motion quilting is not my strong suit but I’m going to give it my best shot.

I’m also bringing a couple of UFOs with me in case I get my Number One and Number Two projects done. Yes, I know: ever the optimist!

 

 

 

Posted in free motion quilting, update | 2 Comments

Rubber Ball

I’ve been bouncing from project to project this week like the proverbial rubber ball and boy, has it been fun! First I made this little fabric box, using directions from my friend Viv:

2013-10, little fabric box
Fabric Box, 4″ Square

I think Viv’s directions were adapted from a tutorial she found on the Internet. She made a box for me last year that I use all the time. In my sewing room it catches threads. When I go to a quilt class, it holds notions. So versatile and cute! I tweaked her directions to make my fabric box 4″ square.

Then I made a pair of king-size pillowcases for my twin sister, Diane:

2013-10, pcases for Diane
Another Pair of Pillowcases for My Twin

My husband and I are spending two whole weeks with Diane and her husband around Thanksgiving; these cases will be a hostess gift. She fell in love with the fabrics when she saw them made into this sewing machine dust cover so I’m pretty confident the cases will be a hit.

Next I sewed those three kaleidoscope blocks from a couple of weeks ago into a table runner/wall hanging:

2013-10, kaleido table runner 1
18″ x 56″

Isn’t it amazing that all three blocks were made from the same focus fabric? I’m going to put a solid piece of that fabric on the back.

Last but not least, I pulled some black and white fabrics from my stash to make this test block using the pattern Metro Rings by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful and her Quick Curve Ruler©:

2013-10, metro rings test block 1
19″ Metro Rings Block

This is Jenny’s modern take on the traditional wedding ring block. Those curved rings are made from strip sets! It’s the fourth design of hers I’ve made using her Quick Curve Ruler, and I continue to be amazed and delighted at how versatile the ruler is. I’m especially excited about this quilt-to-come because I’ll be teaching a class on it at the Pine Needle in January 2014.

 

 

 

Posted in kaleidoscope quilts, update | 8 Comments