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!

Shiver Me Timbers! ~ A Pirate Quilt

I've been working on a little surprise for my boys.

I'm excited to finish it up but find myself with multiple projects on the go and not enough time in the day.

 This is the first quilt that I've free-motion 'quilted' so there's room for improvement. 
But I'm pretty happy with the results so far. 

I have yet to tie off my threads and bind it, but I haven't decided how to quilt the stars yet. 
Stitch in the ditch or maybe little skulls in the center of each...

I used Jaybird Quilts pattern 'Unwind' for the front,

and the back is a panel that I bordered with grey Michael Miller fabric.

I can hardly wait to see my boys snuggling up together under this quilt to watch a little TV.

Painted Lady Butterfly

We ordered caterpillars once again this year and the fascination remains.

The Painted Ladies have emerged.

Happy Victoria Day weekend to all my Canadian friends!

Thrift Store Cabinet - Before and After

Little by little, I've been working on redoing my living room. 

I'm trying to reclaim the space from my kids but when you're on a budget, it's a slow process. 

I scored this cabinet from the Thrift store that I thought would work well in the room - with a little TLC.

I paid $40 for it. You can't really tell from the picture but it's about 4 feet tall. I love that it has glass doors!

I'm not too sure how old it is - I'm thinking 60s or 70s era.

I knew I wanted to paint it black, but had envisioned a bold graphic print on the inside back panel. I thought about a bold colour like turquoise... but just couldn't commit.

Then I fell in love with this fabric and decided to use it. 

I covered foam board (from the dollar store) for an easy change-up if when I get tired of it.

 And the result....

I changed out the knobs with ones I already had from a previous project.

Then I just threw some things in (will have to rearrange them later).

Those of you with a keen eye will notice the new paint colour in the room. 

That's Benjamin Moore's Wish. My new favourite paint colour. For now.

You might have also noticed that I need longer curtains. I haven't gotten to that yet. 

And I think I'll wait since this room's getting new windows soon!

I'm anxious to have a grown-up space of my own again but it feels like it's taking forever! 

Baby steps.

Thanks for reading,

Quilty Pillow

I've been working at reclaiming my living room from the kids - 

and trying to convert it to a more inviting 'adult' space.

And because I've been bitten by the quilting bug, I thought I'd make a new pillow for the couch.

 This is a much smaller quilting project than my last one but it packs a lot more punch!

 

I was anxious to really sink my teeth into a more modern style of 'quilting'. 

I use the term loosely because really - it is a pieced pillow sham. 

 

  It's a slip cover so there was no actual 'quilting' or sandwiching involved. 

Hidden zipper in back

The pillow cover is removable so I can throw it in the wash (did I mention I have two boys?!).

Now I just need to make one more!

 Thanks for reading :)

Acquiring new skills

So this is what I've been up to lately.

Quilting! Or more specifically - peicing a quilt.

I took a class and learned how to sew these various blocks into what's called a sampler quilt.

Next I'm taking a machine quilting class so I can learn how to free-motion quilt this baby and call 'er done!

Stay tuned...

 

a country table

I recently made this gift for our friend Susan before she moved away to the country. After many years of living in an apartment in the city, she bought a house of her own and was moving many miles away. 

I already wished we saw Susan more often than we did. But now this move means that I will see this dear friend even less. She has been so amazing to our little family over the years and we're so appreciative.

But even with this sadness, I am truly excited for her and for her new life ahead. 

Often when we spend time together it is over a big meal like Thanksgiving or Easter. So I thought it was very appropriate to make her a table runner for enjoying big country meals in her new country home. 

I didn't use a pattern for it, just sort of made it up as I went along. 
I'm happy with how it turned out - especially the binding. This was the first project where I felt like I mastered (or almost mastered) the art of binding! I wish I had done more quilting on it but time only allowed for stitch in the ditch. And if I'm going to be honest, I didn't have the courage to do free motion quilting.... just yet anyway.