Recent activities

Any of you who follow me on instagram get more updates than I am sure you want to see on my projects. But, for those of you who don't all you need to know is that my life is kind of like a boring old woman- I go to work and I sew and eat and sleep and watch netflix and hulu.

But you can go to Sisterview.com to see some of my recent projects.  I'm trying to post finished projects on that blog and help it eventually grow my Etsy shop (as soon as I get things organized to promote it more.).

In the mean time, here's a recent project that hasn't been posted on Sisterview. It's a ruffle backdrop made for a friend and, although the ruffles are super tedious, I love how it turned out and I might be crazy enough to do another one again soon.

This project also made me now have a desire to get a serger one day too.  I borrowed the serger from our stake and now I want one. It doesn't help that it happened to be a Bernina serger either. :) 

dedication to Pantone 2013

Remember some finds I posted about the other day?  I have a second finish to show you. 

Hop on over to Sisterview to see my finished table.

Birds and the bees quilt top

Not long ago I purchased a Tula Pink Birds and the Bees charm pack because I wanted a quick and easy project to finish. I decided to do half square triangles and make a chevron quilt. It was a fun, quick project. 

Now I'm trying to decide I should add borders to make it larger or not. We will see...

I love this fabric collection and was able to pull a few other prints from my stash to make my rows complete.  The colors are so fun and the prints are great.

I'm entering this into the Tula Pink sew along contest here.  And P.S., I really want to make this quilt and I love the dress someone made from the pattern too.

wordless wednesday

Field Study

Like one of my sisters posted here, we split a fat quarter bundle of Field Study and promised each other that we would figure out our plan and cut into it by tonight.

I found this quilt that I really liked.

and, once I found the tutorial for the block (which required less thinking from me) I decided to give it a try.  Here's my first small block. I'm too tired to do any more, but I did start cutting into the fabric so I have something cut to go back to.

Just ignore my shadow- I don't have much light this time of day. I decided to do a light gray instead of kona bone, although I may regret that later. 

projects, projects, projects

I have so many things to do in my life. While they aren't all important, some of them are- like getting a night stand for my husband so his precious ipad isn't always on the floor for someone to step on, etc.  I'll be posting them as I finish, but just wanted to let you know that a lot of my recent projects can be seen at Sisterview.com.

new carpet!

In case you didn't know, we got new carpet in our basement on Monday. When we moved in the carpet was nasty and ripped up in parts from the dog that the prior owners had. We ripped the carpet out and have had cement floor for the past few months now, but we got our new carpet installed on Monday and it looks great!  I don't have a picture but will post one soon.

baby gifts

It seems that more and more people are having babies lately. Since Jake's family has 2 baby showers this month and I've been wanting to try some of the cute baby onesies, I went for it.  Here are the baby boy ones I did. The tie is my favorite.

black wreath

After seeing this wreath in my most recent Country Living magazine, I realized I had all the supplies except for the crepe paper. I picked it up Friday night and worked on it Saturday while watching General Conference. My styrofoam wreath is smaller than theirs, but I still liked how it turned out:

I'm not one of those people who are big into halloween and usually tend to think that a lot of halloween decorations are either cheesy or too dark, but this one was fun for me.

wordless wednesday

opinons needed

Hannah and I started this cute pillow months ago and after having all of the flowers done and the fabric sitting here for months, I decided I am finally going to finish it up.  But, I need your opinion.  How do you think the pillow will look better- in rows or the wave. Pictures are below. the pillow case will be 12x16. And for those of you who laugh because I am even asking... you can ignore this post :)

pillow inspiration from here

one more

I wanted to make a little reading nook in a spot in our place. When I was in CO I didn't find any chairs for a good price, but this was available from my parent's house, so I decided to take it home to repaint and recover. Before it was brown with an ugly green cover.  We painted it white and I used this ikea fabric that I had previously made into a tablecloth. (the tablecloth didn't look great) so I used it on this instead and I love the bright cheery colors. 

Jake even offered to be the model. In fact, he was the one who sewed the covers. My husband is amazing. I love his ability and confidence to do everything. There are a lot of guys out there who wouldn't even know how to work a sewing machine. 

Happy first week of school, mi amor! 

before

thanks for the help on the dresser! I forgot to show the before picture of this $3 find.

I will definitely be adding some more finishing touches so I am happier with the result.  Only one more furniture project from CO to finish! Post to come soon.

dresser

here's another one of my painting projects, although I don't know how I feel about it. I was trying to make it look like a cool desk I saw at a consignment shop a few months ago.  I got the dresser for $3.  Add the paint and the drawer pulls and the project is closer to $30, but only because I got a certain color instead of using mis-tints like normal.
My sister sent me back from Colorado with an awesome coffee table that is this aqua color so I was trying to match it. Tell me what you think. Would you put it in our home?  At the end we painted the little detail at the bottom aqua but I am thinking it should go back to white...what about you? I was also thinking about trying to make it look more antique-y, any suggestions? BTW Em, I need to talk to you about how to do that :)
The dresser definitely serves it's purpose- we have no overhead lighting in our main room and needed another place for a lamp, and it fits perfectly in this space by the front door.
My mom gave me the cool decorations on top in CO also and I spray painted them silver, I really like them! It was fun to see how Jake's eyes got bigger when he saw the magic of the silver spray paint.

chair

When I went home to Colorado, Dad had a few things he had already picked up at garage sales that he thought I may want.  I snagged this chair and after some paint and new fabric, I love it! It will go with my new sewing table.

The fabric is Amy Butler, it is a home decor fabric from her Love collection. And I LOVE my new chair.

paint

Jake and I spent yesterday painting. A few weeks ago, my sister and I drove to colorado to visit my parents and my other sister who live there. We had a quick sisters weekend spent at garage sales and a little antique market.  We had such a fun time and were grateful Dad spent the time driving us to garage sales, holding our purses and trying to avoid getting sunburned.
We tried to pack many activities in that weekend and promised that we want to make it a new tradition for all of the adult girls in the family.
Not only did we pack in a lot of fun, we packed a lot in the back of my truck for us to bring back:

My Dad is amazing at packing the car.  (picture from Hopeful Homemaker)

Both of my sisters take way better pictures than me, but here are a few:

I forgot to take some before and after pictures of all of my treasures, but trust me, it is amazing what a little bit of paint can do.

first one down

So my pictures may not be the best, but I was able to do my first project and it was really fun! I really want to do more and see if they will sell in our store- what do you guys think? Would you spend money on one of these?
After doing them, however, I spent some time going to local stores and I can't seem to find the glass pieces or the bails anywhere. Does anyone have any ideas? I can order them off of etsy but was hoping i could find them locally for less $.



Next project: the cute fabric flowers. However, I'm still waiting on inspiration and an idea on how to do them. My sewing skills are not that great, so I am afraid if I try to sew around the edges that I may ruin it. Ideas??