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Thursday, February 19, 2015

SewTogether Bag


I'm a little late to the SewTogether Bag explosion. But, I finally made one and I really like it! As I worked on it, I couldn't help but wonder how the designer ever came up with it - and then figured out how to put it together! Wow!


I made the outside pretty simple. Some have amazing quilt block or gorgeous piecing. 




I think I spent as much time picking out fabrics as I did sewing! Now I'd like to make a scrappy one and use some wild fabrics for the inside. 



Like most say, it was easier than I expected it to be. Especially the first half. The finishing got a little tricky, but maybe I'll breeze through it the next time. :)




Here's the other side - it's the same on both sides. I gave this bag to my oldest daughter. I'm babysitting my adorable little grandson while she attends a conference this week. 






Sunday, February 8, 2015

Bench Re-do

I really like all the great patchwork chairs that are appearing all over Pinterest these days. We have a pretty large master bath, with a good chunk of superfluous space in the middle of the room. I would love to have a really wild, funky, patchwork chair to set in there. But I've only recovered one piece of furniture in my life and that was in high school. Considering my inexperience, I thought maybe I should try a patchwork bench to see just how difficult such a project might be.

So when my bff was here last week, we shopped a thrift store in search of a long bench. We didn't find a long one, but we did find a couple of short ones which I bought:




Then we gathered some screw drivers, pliers and wine and sat on the floor to start removing the old fabric. What a chore that was! We finally got one bench mostly cleaned of all the old staple bit and pieces, so we primed and painted it. While it was drying, we went out and loaded up on a few upholstery remnants.

From the remnants, we cut random sized squares and rectangles and sewed them together. Then I backed the whole piece with lightweight fusible interfacing because I had added a couple quilting cottons to the mix.

Finally, we were ready for the fun stuff! We had purchased a new electric staple gun and couldn't wait to start shooting it. We stapled the patchwork piece to the bench and then hot-glued a piece of trim around the bottom edge to cover the raw edge of the fabric.

And this is how it turned out:


They'll sit in an entry room and won't get much use - really they're mostly decorative, so I'm not too worried about how well the hot glue will secure the trim.

I still have the other one to do and I'm dreading the removal of all those staples! But the most important thing I learned is, upholstery is hard! I sure don't want to tackle a big ornate chair.

Here's another picture of the two, side-by-side:


Hey! Maybe I can talk my dad into pulling all those staples for me....

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Update on Completions

I considered leaving this post blank, except for the title, to show exactly what I checked off my goal list. Obviously, I didn't finish one single project I committed to this month. I did, however, finish the distraction that took me away from the Pat Sloan distraction that took me away from my goals!

Here's one side (not sure which is supposed to be the front and which is considered the back):


And here's the other side. I'm linking this scrappy quilt up with the Oh Scrap! linky party at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.




I did have other things distracting me this month.  A few days into January (maybe that first weekend) my daughter's little dog wasn't eating. So she took her to the vet and got some really bad news - stomach cancer - there was nothing they could do to save the 11-year-old pup. That was heart breaking...plus she had to tell her 2 little girls (ages 4 and 1-1/2) that Lily got sick and went to doggie heaven.

So a week or so later, they decided to look at a few rescue dogs. Mackenzie, the 4 year old, kept saying "not this one" to the first three that Steph thought would be good choices. Then Mackenzie saw "Nala" ( a medium size German Shepherd mix) and said "that's my dog".

Here they are getting to know each other:



A week later, Steph came home and Nala was gone! She had dug out under the fence. So we spent a few days driving all over the neighborhood, putting up signs. My daughter couldn't bear to tell the girls what happened so she told them Nala had gone on a little adventure. 

Just as we were giving up hope, more than a week later, a man called her at 2 in the morning and said the dog was in his front yard! So I stayed at her house, while she and my husband headed off, in the middle of the night, 25 miles(!!!!) away to where she had ended up! 

And now she's back home - safe, sound and tired!


What a relief that was!