Vintage Find: Dresser

I picked up this old dresser from the Thrift store. Paid $50 and figured it was worth it. I don't know that much about antiques, vintage finds but I figured it was very solid, and the name on the inside of the drawer with beautiful dove-tail joints were a good sign of it being old-ish... and of quality too.

I think I loved its original knobs the most!

The top of the dress had beautiful wood grain but needed to be sanded and refinished. 

A lot of work ~ as I learned from this project.  

 I'd recently heard about Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint and thought this dresser would be a good first project. I figured if it didn't work out, there was little investment and I could just sand it anyway.

But chalk paint is a fabulous product - easy to use and the learning curve is quick. There's no sanding required. I know. I was sold there. And when combined with a dark wax, it gives you a fantastic French country look. Which is a look I love but had never attempted. 
Until now...

Aaah. I love those knobs even more now.

With just one project behind me I feel like I can easily tackle many more!!Seriously. This paint is so easy to use. Go get some!

Now to tackle those floors.....

2 baby quilts

I've emerged from my sewing room to give you a peek at two of my latest projects - baby quilts!

I saw this one on pinterest and just had to make one too. I made my own pattern based on the photo and went with aqua-blues and yellow for a gender neutral quilt.

For this next one, I used a pattern from a book but it's a popular quilt design, often referred to as Chinese Coins. 

This was truly a lot of fun to put together and is the most girly quilt I've made to date! The top is a mix of flannels and the bottom is regular quilting cotton.

Now if you'll excuse me - all this quilting has made a real mess of my sewing room! Off to go clean!

Photo dump and an update

As you may have noticed, I've been struggling with time lately - or lack thereof.
I seem to have so little time to sew and even less to post here on my blog.

So today, I'm taking the time to show you a couple of things I've been working on.

The living room update that I posted about here is moving along (slowly). We had a new bay window installed which seems to meet our cat Riley's approval. (I love it too)

He's claimed it as his own space. 
Plans to paint and sew a cushion for the window seat are in the works. One day.

I've been working on my mantel as well. I held my breath and painted the wooden mirror I had hung there before. 

My apologies for the crooked picture.

Thankfully I like how it turned out. And.... check out my new milk glass! Most of it I bought on a recent trip to New England. I love milk glass but it seems to be a bit more of a challenge to find it here in Canada. 

I've learned that I'm not one of those people who can just throw a bunch of stuff together and it just looks good. I'm always changing things up and have to really work at it.  

One of my beautiful nieces turned 12 this month. I'm late sending off her birthday gift but I hope she'll like it. She loves Wonder Woman (how cool is she, right?) so her mom asked me to make a WW apron. I made it big enough that she'll have it for a few years.

I've been working on a few other sewing projects but you'll have to wait to see those.
Sorry! Outta time!
Thanks for stopping by,

Hot Stuff

I've been puttering around doing small sewing projects here and there lately

I realize that I haven't been posting much so this is kind of a two-for-one today.

Here are a couple of gifts I've whipped up.

I usually resist the cheesiness of giving someone a hot pad as a gift but I just couldn't resist the cuteness of this first pattern.

I made this for a friend who happens to love owls and is working on adding red accessories to her kitchen.

The pattern is called 'Hot Who' by Susie C Shore Designs and can be found here.

For my mother (who loves to cook), I made this next one to match her dining room colours:

 I created my own simple pattern for this one, and it doubles as sort of an oven mitt.

So cheesy or not, these little hot pads come together fairly quickly and make a great - last minute - 

hostess gift ........ perhaps along with a bottle of wine to go with ;)

        Thanks for reading,

Forest Friends Baby Quilt

A good friend of mine is about to become a grandmother.

Seriously she is too young to be a grandmother!!

I'm so excited for the big changes her family is about to embrace and I just 

know that this little boy is already so lucky to belong to such amazing parents to be. 

They are young parents (by today's standards anyway) and I know they will be such fun,

loving parents.

As I've said here before, I'm learning how to free motion quilt and decided 

that this would a perfect opportunity to test out my skillz.

I bought a panel of flannel fabric called 'Forest Friends' by Mint Blossom with 

coordinating leaf fabric for the binding. 

The backing isn't part of the collection but thought it matched so well.
And it's such a fun, playful print.

This is where I learned that I prefer quilting in larger, more free flowing patterns!!

But all in all, it was great practice and most importantly, I think our mom-to-be was happy to have received it. 

Congratulations Tori and Simon!

Treasure Pocket Pants

My little guy's turning 5 this month.

The only thing he asked me for his birthday was a remote control truck (check).

But I also wanted to give him something homemade. 

Ever since I saw the book Sewing for Boys, I've wanted to make the Treasure Pocket Pants.

But with the warmer weather, I decided on a pair of cotton shorts and altered the pattern...

...which meant I could get away with just using a fat quarter for the contrast panel. 

I'm kicking myself for not buying more of that Japanese moped fabric.

The top of the shorts are also a bit different from the pattern - it wasn't intentional, 

just the result of late night sewing/interpretation of instructions ;)

Thanks for stopping by,

Once Upon a Thread

Hi!

I'm over at one of my favourite blogs talking about one of my favourite books today!

Check out Katy's gorgeous blog at No Big Dill!