My Quilt

I love the look of quilts! Love, love, love. Here are a few quilt ideas that I'm stashing away for future home makeovers!

Real Simple

Pottery Barn

So fun and whimsical! I love those painted metal chairs and the industrial style hanging lights.

House Beautiful

That pop of bright orange is gorgeous!

These are all beautiful...however, I don't love the thought of cutting (precisely and accurately) for weeks, piecing for weeks, and then quilting for weeks before enjoying a finished product. Not too long ago, Sew Mama Sew posted this tutorial for a "Shoo Fly Quilt" using oversized quilt blocks by Malka Dubrawsky

Here is Malka's supersize "Shoo Fly" alongside her original "Shoo Fly" which is featured on the cover of her book Color Your Cloth.

Sooo...It was such a great tutorial and the giant squares seemed so non-threatening that I decided to give it a try! There is also the possibility that I'm in a new city without friends yet and have a good deal of time on my hands, but I'll leave that conversation for another day.

Malka's tutorial shows a crib sized quilt, but I wanted a large version. I cut 6.5 inch squares, combined them to make 18 inch blocks. Six rows of five blocks came together to form my 90 x 108 inch queen sized quilt.

As you can see, I sewed my bias tape on in the "cheating" way so it's not exactly perfect on the backside, but I was going for an easy, comfy quilt on my first attempt, so I'm happy with the results.

I chose six colored patterns-3 yellow and 3 blue, ranging from light to medium to dark in each color. I also used a solid, bright white muslin and an off-white cotton printed with faint blue, floral design for the background. Two of the blue patterns were my own designs, which I had printed at spoonflower.com. Since we're living in New Orleans I wanted to incorporate fleur de lis (they are absolutely iconic here and we see them all over the place) in at least one of the prints and since many of my choices turned out to be floral, I wanted a bold, geometric for the sixth fabric (the big squares). All of the other fabrics came from Hancocks.

I am a novice quilter. After trying to quilt several rows and making a mess of things, I pulled out the handy stitch ripper and took a new approach. I made tacking stitches at the corners of every block (about ever six inches) using a wide, very dense zig zag stitch.  It didn't take very long at all and I am very happy with how it looks. There aren't weird wrinkles and it feels light and soft. It would also be easy enough to take them out and quilt it all together if I ever learn how to do it or decide to pay someone to quilt it for me.

I'm wild about my quilt and sleep with it every night! It feels wonderful and isn't too warm or too cool. It makes me want to sew up a whole bunch more-I especially love the thought of lap quilts. Maybe Christmas?

Doodle Stitching!

I'm so excited! The items I ordered from Amazon came yesterday!

I was hooked when I saw the fanciful cover and there's something I just love about handstitched embroidery. I imagine it on baby shirts, sheets, pillowcases, pillows (projects that take a very long time to finish). The book is great! Lots of pictures, I love the author's color choices and ideas.

There are really good, clear explanations of all the different stitches with photos.

Here's a really original idea, stitching on balsa wood to make charms for bracelets or necklaces.

There's also a CD in the back with templates for embroidery ideas. With all these ideas, I started thinking about this little shirt I found for Baby P on clearance at Old Navy.

I thought it would be easy to outline a few things with embroidery thread, but where to start! The birds were easy, but I didn't know what to highlight on the dune buggy.

The tires seemed fun and maybe the main body of the car, but I thought that thick orange line on the left side brought out the wrong perspective and looked odd.

So...I took out some things and added some others, but still thought it was too much.

Here's what I ended up with, just a few things highlighted, a few drops of water on the surfboard and light reflecting on the windshield.

Not perfect, but interesting. I think it might be harder to embellish an existing design than to embroider something from scratch. It's too easy to accidentally highlight the wrong parts or overwhelm what's already there.

The other thing I ordered from Amazon is this 2 inch, Clover, bias tape maker. It's humongous! I can't even tell you how big it looks compared to my 1 inch. I can finally finish my quilt!

Here I am making tape out of white muslin for the edging on my quilt...many, many yards.

Anthropologie Score!

I have a bad habit of getting out a stick of butter, barely opening it and scraping off what I need then just leaving it out on the counter so it will be nice and soft for the next time I want to use it. It starts looking a little gross after a while, crummy, greasy, you know how it is.

Over the weekend, I knew I had to do something about the butter situation when my husband looked at it and asked if it was trash. Hm.

This called for a trip to Anthropologie! I'm so excited to be living in a town with an Anthro, the closest one where we lived before was about 2 hours away. I know from browsing that they always have adorable little half-stick butter dishes so that's what I went in for. And bingo!

 Yay! The best thing about it, besides its cheery red glaze was the $3.95 sale price! What luck! It made me go into that, "Don't I need a gift for someone?" frenzy, you know what I'm talking about. There's a deal on something you don't really need but you're just trying to find some excuse to buy it (them...). Well, I only got one butter dish, but I did come out with two of the adorable mugs below, also $3.95 each. I'm a sucker for a cute coffee cup.

Now it's perfect!

DIY A Folding Screen

We live in a two bedroom here in New Orleans and we quickly realized that we'd have lots and lots of visitors because we live in such a cool city...sooo that meant converting our den/office area into a bedroom at least once a month. A pull out sofa was the first necessity then we decided we wanted some kind of room divider so that we wouldn't see our guests chilling in the bed if we had to sneak to the kitchen. I, being the penny pincher that I am, wanted to DIY something so I sketched up some plans for a folding screen and I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

Here's what you need:

• 8 1" x 2" x 8' white wood boards (hold them up and eye them to make sure they're straight)


• Sandpaper


• Hand or Table Saw


• Screwdriver


• Kreg Jig (I bought a mini kit and a C-clamp, it was about $20)


• Electric Drill


• Pocket Hole Screws (1.5 ", Self threading, found in the same aisle as kreg jigs)


• Hinges (you'll need 6 small, lightweight hinges for a four panel screen--that generally means 3 packages because there are two to a package)


• Wood finish (I really like the Minwax water based, rub on stain. Use an old cloth or cheesecloth to apply it, make sure the coats are thin and you move quickly so that lines don't form as the wood absorbs the stain. I used a walnut finish.)

Fabric Covers:

• You'll need about 4 yards of 45" wide fabric and you'll have a good bit left over.


• 4 Fabric panels 63" by 12.5" finished size (you could go a little bigger on these if you don't want gaps)


• 16 Fabric ties, 14" long, width is your preference (you can make these with the leftover fabric above like I did or use some kind of purchased cord/ribbon/webbing, etc...


• Matching thread, scissors, sewing machine

Cut List
(After cutting you should have 8 six foot pieces and 8 one foot pieces)

Measure, mark and cut 8, six foot pieces of the 1" x 2" boards (you'll be left with 8 two foot pieces)
Measure, mark and cut 4 of the leftover two foot pieces into 8 one foot pieces

Fabric: cut 4 panels, 64" by 13.5", turn and press edges to wrong side and hem on all sides (should then have approximately 63" by 12.5" panels). My fabric doesn't fray so I just folded over once. If you have a fabric that needs to be turned under twice, add a little extra when cutting.

If using fabric for ties, cut 16 strips that are 14" long (width is up to you), press edges inward and sew

Construction!

Start by using the Kreg jig to drill two pocket holes into each end of the one foot pieces of wood (4 holes total in each). Follow directions on the packaging to use the jig. I used a bit of foam rug grip between the wood and C-clamp so that I didn't leave marks on the wood. Just eye the distance so they're basically even, you don't want the holes to touch.

After drilling all the holes, take out your sandpaper and get busy! Smooth around the edges, around the drilled holes, and the length of every board. Make sure that the bottom of each long board is completely flat so that your screen is level. I used the machine cut end as the bottom. Next, wipe off any sawdust and start applying your stain.

When everything is dry, you're ready to start putting this thing together. Start by laying your long boards on the floor, the the short pieces (screw holes facing up) one at the top and one seven inches from the bottom (you will measure just before attaching). Be sure that the edges of your long boards are flush with the edges of the short boards and screw them together (stabilizing so that they don't shift as you work). Once that is finished, measure up 7" from the bottom of one of your long boards and screw together, do the same for the other side.

Repeat process until you have 4 completed panels.



Now, just attach these panels together with hinges. Be sure that the barrel of the hinge extends far enough beyond the wood that the screen will fold up easily without scraping together, also you will alternate the direction of the hinges like in the picture below-two opening backwards and the middle one opening forward. I placed the hinges 10 inches from the top and 10 inches from the bottom.


MAKE SURE that your screw holes are all facing the back!! I made this mistake once, and had to take 8 screws out--no fun!

I used a hammer to start the screws, but you could used a tiny drill bit if you have someone else with another set of hands to help you.








The last step!! Covering the screens.

I love old-fashioned ticking fabric. It's usally blue or red and cream striped and the stripes are actually woven through the fabric--not just printed on (although you can find faux, printed ticking these days). This fabric came from Hancocks.

Positioning the fabric ties: pin the tie about 1/2" away from the outside edge with 8" on the top end and 6" on the bottom end (so that the longer piece goes around the wooden frame and leaves you with even ends after tying it to the frame). See below:

Measure and pin a tie to each corner of the four panels, sew securely along the hem line (forward and back stitching a little beyond the edges of your tie).


You're done! I love mine so much that I want to make more. I think they look so cute in a bedroom or filling up an empty corner somewhere.



Happy Screening!

Miscellaneous Monday

(Yes, I know this is posted on a Tuesday, but it should have been Monday)

1) Don't read Paris to Die For by Maxine Kenneth. I was completely sucked in by the intriguing description and interesting cover (I was shopping for real, paper books at Barnes and Noble, by the way). It was one of those books where you're sitting there thinking, "How in the heck did this get published?" The dialogue was terrible, the plot went nowhere, just bad, bad, bad.

2) Do read The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison. I've read a few of her books and there's something about them that I just really like. They do have a bit of fantasy woven throughout, but it's not over the top and I'm usually really hooked by the plots and characters. I started this at about 7:00 on Sunday night and didn't stop until I was finished at almost 1 am.

3) I'm such a Gilmore Girls fan! I just want to watch them all the time and memorize the lines and be friends with Lorelai and Rory and live in Stars Hollow...Anyway, I saw that a new show is coming out called Jane by Design on ABC family by the same executive producer as the Gilmore Girls, I don't have hopes that it will measure up, but...maybe the witty dialogue and endearing characters will carry over? A girl can dream.

4)  Moving to NOLA has been really great, but one thing that is sadly lacking is Panera. The closest one is an hour away and it hasn't been built yet. :( I really miss the bagels and the coffee and it was such a nice place for a quick, casual breakfast. Well, I was a little homesick Saturday morning (when W is home on Saturdays, we would often go to Panera for breakfast) and crying and moping around the house, so we decided to get in the car and find a good breakfast place. Driving...driving...no luck, close, just beignets, yuck, fast food, $$$$$$, when suddenly we see a little place called La Madeleine. W makes a quick left turn and we are rejoicing to see "Coffee, Pastries, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner" when we see the blue lights behind us. We've made an illegal left turn. Awesome! Thankfully, W has a good record, we still have our KY license plates and the police office let us off with a "Watch what you're doing, sir." This morning could only go up from here, so we walk into La Madeleine and it's soooo cute! Country french decor, yummy looking pastries and muffins, fresh fruit, omelettes and more! It's casual too, you can either order at a counter or order from a menu and sit down. The coffee was just ok, the NO'ians tend to put chicory in their coffee (more on that later). It could be our new Panera, but with crepes!


 5) I know I already mentioned breakfast, but here is another little place we found that we looove. It's actually not just breakfast, they have a great lunch menu too and lots of creole and cajun options. It's the Broken Egg Cafe, about 30 minutes away in Mandeville, so it's kind of a special occasion place.  Can't wait to go there with girl friends when they come to visit :)

My friend Hannah and her incredible looking (and low fat/sugar free) stuffed french toast.

Baby P was mad here because the little half 'n' half cannister he'd been
chewing on, popped open in his face. It was very, very funny.

Super cute inside, it's an old house just a little ways up the street from Lake Pontchartrain.

My eggs benedict!!

"Those are yo-yo's, baby."

I was chilling on the couch watching the new Jane Eyre yesterday when W got home from work, it is absolutely fabulouse (BTW). I want to own it, watch it every day and...well, you get the idea.

I was on the couch, watching the movie with a pile of these beside me:

W says, "What the heck are those? Tiny berets?"

I sigh, "No, they're not berets. Those are yo-yo's, baby."

W: "What the heck do you do with them."

Me: "Ummm, you make things with them."

I understand his confusion, they don't look like much, but check out this inspiration photo from one of my new favorite blogs, The Purl Bee. It's a mini quilt made of yo-yo's.

So gorgeous, right?! And such an improvement from the ones that they used to make in the early 1900's, those tend to look kind of frump and chaotic. They can also look country if you don't watch out. I really like the idea of grouping colors and textures in interesting ways like they did at Purl Bee,  so...I made a bunch of yo-yo's and put them together to make a pillow. There is not a single throw pillow in my house, that's the honest truth, and we do need one or two.

I'm happy with how it turned out, I wanted it to look handmade so I stitched it kind of roughly and used old-fashioned cotton ticking (a fabric I'm kind of obsessed with right now). I arranged the colors sort of dark to light in rows and didn't want the entire pillow to be covered with them. The stripe looks sort of clean and simple-good contrast for the froo-froo yo-yo's. Ha, froo-froo yo-yo's...

NOLA

I'm finally updating my blog, for you sweet friends who actually read it and have been asking for an update. I'm a terrible "bloggist" and cannot believe that my last post was in May!

Since May we have relocated to NOLA, yes, that's New Orleans, Louisiana! It's such a fun town and we are quickly eating our way through it. Here are a few things I've learned about this place.

Po' Boy:   Do not pronounce "Poor Boy" or you'll get
                 "Silly out-of-towner" eye rolls.
                 These are delicious sandwhiches, eat one soon.

Muffaletta:  It's "muff-uh-LAH-tuh" not muffaletta.
                     These are delicious sandwhiches, eat one soon.

Praline:  Do not pronounce it "Pray-leen" or you will be mocked ruthlessly.
                It's "praw-leen." YUM, YUM. This is the home of the
                praline. It's a candied pecan, they make praline coffee and syrup
                among other things and I know it's a flavor I'm going to miss!

More to come!