Estate Sale & Craigslist finds

I got some good stuff this weekend ya'll! Check this out:

It is a Lane Antique ceder chest! I got it on Craigslist for $35! At some point someone painted it white and the paint has worn to the point of looking shabby chic. So, I just wiped it down and cleaned the inside out and it all ready for my living room!

The chest's home is in front of my double window in the living room with a couple of quilts lounging on top. It is empty now but I plan to fill it with seasonable quilts. 

At an estate sale I found the following:

vintage magnets!

Look at all this I got:

antique sewing caddy full of vintage notions, two plastic sewing boxes with more vintage notions, and a huge 2yd sized cutting board

here is the caddy all folded up

I also got this cute vintage "writing paper" set with paper and envelopes. It says, " for fancy ladies" on the front! Cute! 

Gathered Clutch

I made this today while I am waiting to get some fabric tomorrow to finish my Christmas quilt. Isn't it cute? I found the tutorial here.  

I had a little trouble with sewing the zipper but I figured I was just not used to my zipper foot. I think this may be the first time I used it. (I'm seriously afraid of zippers) So, making these should ease me into the world of sewing zips. 

Don't you love the print? It is vintage and I have very little left. I thought this would be a great way to use it. 

I see many more of these in my future!



Quilt Along Blocks Week 8

Here are my blocks for this week! Amy had more triangles for us again! No worries this time though, I am sailing right through them. These are the last blocks to make for the quilt along. Next, we will be bordering all the blocks in white and sewing up the top. How exciting!

The left one is called a Star and the right one is a Mosaic style.

I've been working on a Christmas tree skirt. I have the top all together I just need to quilt it. I'm gonna try and get that done by the end of the week.

Have a great week everyone!

Quilt Along Blocks Week 6

It doesn't seem like I began this quilt along six weeks ago! Where does the time go?! I enjoyed this week's blocks as well as last week. I'm loving the navy blues in my quilt blocks. I think they will make a great contrast against the lighter color blocks.

The block on the bottom is called a cross. I think something like double cross or double plus suits it better. The block on the top is called new album.

Pillows and Cushions

Yesterday I finished up some projects I had laying around. Project number one was patio chair cushions. I have needed some for a while I am too frugal to buy brand new ones or buy new foam to make them. So, I waited until I found some at a tag/yard sale to recover.


I finally found two this past weekend (I need four, but, hey, two is a start!). I got them both for $0.50 and the foam is still cushy! I also went to a retail outlet called Essex this weekend and found a vinyl flannel backed tablecloth on clearance for $1. It was a great weave style print too!

I needed something waterproof for the cushions on the patio because it has no covering. I have yet to find an table umbrella at a reasonable price also.

Here is how I did it:

Take off the old covering from the foam cushions.

Lay cushion on top of tablecloth to measure the size you will need. Sew around three sides. Insert foam and fold under edges. Pin and sew all the way around the cushion.

Finished! (Ignore the horrible looking patio and rusty chairs--that is another project that is waiting)

Project number two was pillows. I had found some cute embroidered scenes (looks to be on potato sacks) at a tag sale and wasn't sure if I wanted to frame them or make them into pillows. I decided on pillows because the guest bed needed a few more pillows. I think they make the perfect addition. Husband said they looked so good that he would have thought I bought them and not made them (is that a compliment? hmmm....).

I'm going for a shabby chic look in the guest bedroom. I have a plan to make a pretty quilt for the bed perhaps using pinwheels but for now I have a handmade quilt by my grandmother.

Aren't the adorable? When I bought them they smelled funny and the stitching wasn't to clear. Maybe it was dusty or something. I washed them and ironed them a lot and the colors in the thread became brighter. The kitty and bird are so cute!

My Sewing Room

I'd like to welcome ya'll into my sewing room! I love to see where other people sew and craft so I figured I would show you where I do all of my sewing and crafting.

We bought the house we currently live in a little over a year ago. I did not quilt then and I rarely sewed. I mostly did a little scrapbooking and card making. This house has a bonus room upstairs. It is all open and a nice size. (I think the people who lived here before us used it as a bedroom for their children.) So, when we moved in we said it would be game room on one side and an office on the other. (Each side is kinda separated by the stairs.) I had a cafe style table in one corner where I did all of my crafting and that was the extent of my "sewing room".

Well, a very generous lady decided she was going to buy me a sewing machine as a house warming gift. I was excited to get a new machine because the little sewing I had done was on an old Kenmore unit in a cabinet. I didn't have the book that went with it and could only do a strait stitch. I knew I wanted to begin quilting I just didn't know I would be doing as much sewing as I am now. My sewing machine is one of my favorite gifts ever. It's kinda like the teach a man to fish thing.

Anyways, I'm telling you this so you can get an idea of how this room has transformed. It went from an office with a ping-pong table to a large sewing room with a large quilting table! We hardly used that ping-pong table anyways... (insert glares from husband here)

This is where I cut and lay out my quilts. It is cluttered right now because I have a lot of different things going on. I would suggest any quilter get a ping-pong table to use. Seriously. It is huge and you can lay out a whole lap/baby quilt on one side of it. You can just about lay a twin size over the whole thing. It sure does make it easier to baste. I normally keep one side clear for cutting. I keep a basket on that side where I throw my trash from cutting and (you can't see it here) my scrap bin is right behind my cutting area so I can just toss my scraps in as I go.

You can see that underneath I have bins and baskets to organize smaller pieces that I don't call scraps yet by color. Around on the other side I have other fabrics organized into fleece, apparel, vintage sheets/pillowcases, and home decorating. (See those pillows? I bought those at a yard sale for $0.50 and I'm gonna cover them with a waterproof table cloth I got at a retail outlet for $1 to use in my patio chairs.

This is where I iron. I keep the board set up all the time. Actually, I love having my sewing room upstairs because I can just leave projects lying around and no one sees my mess! Notice my scrap bin in the aqua tub. My ironing station is right behind my cutting table for easy access. Ignore the books piled in the floor I need more bookcases!

Here is where I sew! I like to have a window to look out so I don't feel all closed in so that is why I put my machine by the window. I like to use that small office chair with no arms because it gives me a good range of motion and I can also adjust the height. I like to be looking down when I quilt and at eye level when I piece. My machine table is also on wheels because I like to roll it out from the wall when I quilt to give me plenty of room.

And, lastly we have my wall o' fabric!These fabrics are pieces one yard and larger. They are mostly ones that I have not cut into yet. Below the fabric shelf is where I keep my thread (purple box) and there is a picture of my grandmother on my dad's side and on the second shelf is a picture of my grandmother on my mom's side. Both of whom sewed and/or quilted. That shelf is also where I keep my quilt backings. I use sheets mostly. Those red ones I haven't opened yet are Christmas flannel with cute owls on them ($5, twin size at retail outlet)!

The last shelf is office stuff like printer paper and envelopes. You can also see I now keep my printer on top of my old sewing machine cabinet. Under that is the bin o' batting. Ignore the unorganized mess in the green box. Most of that is vintage trims and the like.

So, there you go! What do you think? Let me know if you share your own sewing room in your blog because I'd love to visit!