a thrifty new clock

Last week, I saw this clock on Pinterest. Then I was introduced to the local thrift store. Some time perusing the aisles led me to this beauty:

I was really just looking for a base with clock components in decent shape. This one had no price tag, a broken glass overlay, and a missing corner on the frame. I finagled a $2 deal.

Using the clock from Pinterest as inspiration, I grabbed my can of spray paint and my mega-fan of Duron paint chips. A couple hours later, I ended up with this piece.

I really like it, and I must confess that part of that 'like' is that I only spent $2 on it (the paint was left over and I got the fan for free).

Still not much sewing, and I can't see it returning with cheap crafts like this one on the horizon!

The curtains were hung...

...by the window with care :)

Drafty chilly nights require decent curtains, even if you do not have a proper rod from which to hang them. A few picture hangers, safety pins, and tie backs later, and we had a nice little barrier from the cold.

Initially I thought I would get a curtain rod as soon as we could, but now I'm kind of digging the stationary tie-back style.

Here they are when closed up for the night.

I use the magnetic ties to hold the curtains together when closed.

See that big green beautiful chair? That (and its partner) is what I am saving pennies to redo. So much character, eh? Can't you just see it in navy upholstery and antique white finishes? Yep, me too.

I was working on a basic hem on the other curtains for the dining room. I had given up hope to repeat this amazingly painstaking gathering technique. But then, wouldn't you know, I sewed my finger. On a HEM of all things. Ten, literally TEN inches from the end of the last hem on the last panel. Totally took away my sewing mojo. I have a bit of fear again. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has done this, but man, what a way to ruin progress!

So I baked a bit instead.

Banana cheesecake with chocolate ganache, anyone? A bit of an adult version of a kid food, if you ask me, and delicious of course. I guess a decent runner-up to sewing :)

WiP Wednesday: The Sewing Space

If you are just swinging by, my husband and I just moved to Maryland. First thing on the WiP list this week was to get my sewing space set up.  It is really a built-in desk space that is our shared computer-craft nook, but we'll see who ends up using it more...

     

Ta-Da! It's functional! I would like to point out the spool holder that my dad made me for Christmas. It is a gem.

Some things I have left in their boxes, waiting for them to find their natural place in the room. They might end up staying in boxes indefinitely, who knows.  Getting this done yesterday and this morning allowed me to actually SEW today! First time in a month or so. Yikes. 

I needed a small dish in which to put my often-worn jewelry. Having it strewn about on various counter tops just was not working. I had seen a dish like this one in one of the many blog posts I ran across. Of course, that was before my participation in Pinterest, so I cannot track it down now. (i.e. I do not claim to be the originator of this idea.) [**Found it, and its accompanying tutorial, at Sew In-Between)

I used Cloud 9 Nature Walk that I have been hoarding for months (literally, it made the trip from Atlanta to Maryland, back to Atlanta, and now back to Maryland).

As for other WiPs... I am currently reserving my monetary resources for one large project: reupholstering two antique chairs that are finally out of storage. That means the fabric, muslin, batting, foam, buttons, paint+supplies, stays, nails, staples, etc.

Therefore, I have tabled all projects that would require purchasing anything (like batting...). That pretty much knocks all quilts off the list, and makes way for many a stash-busting / scrap-only projects, of which I have zero. Give me five minutes on Pinterest, though, and I will have a list a mile long :)

I apologize for the lack of process talk. Unfortunately, there just isn't any! Check out everyone else's progress, link your own, and say hi to Lee over at Freshly Pieced!

First Official Finish in Maryland

The good news: we made it to Maryland, along with all of our things. Phew! 

The bad news: the sewing machine has yet to make an appearance. 

You can imagine, therefore, that this post has nothing to do with sewing, but, nonetheless, everything to do with a big finish, I promise!

First I will let you in on a little secret: I have an addiction to power tools. One of my most prized possessions is the 9.6V Makita handheld drill, which is older than I am, that my dad gave me when I flew away from the nest (no worries, he has and needs six others. I mean really, who wants to change from drill bit to drill bit mid-project? Not this girl, and not her dad either. That's how you lose bits).

Anyway... A couple of months ago, I drew up these plans for a rack to put our bicycles on. I knew that I wanted our bikes to have a place in our new home, but I could not find anything commercially available that seemed like it would last a while, looked like it would fit in aesthetically, and didn't cost a ridiculous sum of money.
 

My mom and dad gifted us (err...Sean?) the materials to make the rack as part of Sean's graduation presents. Some 4x4 pine posts, a single 2x4 in pine as well, and birch veneer plywood for the shelves. 

While we were in Minnesota for Christmas, my dad and I worked on making the components for the rack, and I finished the assembly once we got to Maryland. Here are a few in-process in-pajama photos, just for fun :) I love working with my dad in his workshop. So much fun.

routering the shelf supports


demonstrating the concept to my brother-in-law and Sean


laughing about something hilarious I'm sure


setting up for routering the second beam


almost done!

There were a few bumps. Like when we routered along the wrong line for shelf #2 (from the top). You can see it is a little crooked in the photo above. One of these shelves does not have the same vanishing point as the other ones, for you drawing folks out there :) Also like when we had the wrong blade on the table saw. No, you should not use a plywood blade to cut down a 2x4.

And here is the semi-finished product. Maybe I lied at the beginning of this post. I still need to iron the veneer onto the shelf edges, and it also needs to be stained a dark brown. The problem is I have to stain on the balcony, and I can't stain when the temperature is steadily below 50 degrees. But it works, and we are using it with pride, so it is a finish in my heart :)


it works!


it really works! no bikes have fallen over! (it looks crooked, but the bikes just angle down to the left)


the shelf is straight again!

So that's it! Now you know something new about me: I love power tools. And I love my dad.

Now back to getting rid of the boxes and setting up my sewing space  :)

Drapes in progress

Drapes? Is that an old-fashioned term? Curtains? Whatever you call them, I'm currently trying to awesome-up our old drapes into something for our new apartment (moving day, T-27 days).

Back two apartments ago (or about 7 months), I had tried to inexpensively decorate our 'industrial' styled apartment [cheaply exposed ductwork and concrete floor]. It was a fun place, but definitely not our style. Anyway, in order to make our first-floor loft a little more homey, we purchased eight panels of curtains from Ikea on sale. They are/were just plain thin tab-top cotton drapes, but they did the trick. Here's what one looks like strung on our current vertical blinds.

I kind of / really wanted to class it up a bit. This next place will be home for a while, and I want it to look that way. I am using the eight basic panels to create four mega-gathered-drapes, with horizontal gather lines every 10 inches and rod pockets in place of the tab top. Here's a glace of what that looks like...

I finished the first panel (of four) today. Yep, it took the better part of two days. But hey, spending all this time on them really solidifies their long-term place in our home, right? And they seem a bit heavier and thicker...good for those chillier climates.

Finish photos to follow at our new place :)

Herringbone: finish

Linking up to Quiltstory's Fabric Tuesday today.

I think the finish bug bit me...!

(pardon the rainy-day-indoor-only-pre-move photos!) I steamrolled through the beginning stages of this quilt, but I only completed a few straight lines of quilting before adding the binding. You see, the back of this big guy is a very soft and cozy yet eager-to-shed micro-poly blanket. My living room floor was begging me to finish off the edges of the quilt, and once that was done, it went straight to the bed on the first cold night we had.

Thankfully it warmed up this week, so I set to finish the basic straight-line quilting along the herringbone frames. I especially like the way that the quilting looks on the back of the quilt (and I think the quilting is just enough to serve its purpose but still let the micro-poly backing be soft and cozy).

If you look closely, albeit very closely, this photo also shows the little light gray and polka-dot fabric details added in the binding.

stats
size: queen-ish
pattern: variable framed herringbone
fabric: Habitat by Jay McCarroll full collection, Kona Ash, Kona White-ish, random dark gray pillow cases
quilting: criss-cross straight lines at the foot of the quilt, straight lines following the frames on the herringbone portion

One more detail for fun :)

Now all we need are some more chilly nights, and maybe a cup of hot cocoa :)

Happy Tuesday!

Quilt finish (one year in the making)

That's right, this quilt has been woefully hanging on the back of our couch, stuck with safety pins and one rogue needle, while I toiled (or rather, didn't toil) over the hand quilting I had planned for almost a year. I posted about this quilt in my very first project post on this blog. As a recap, I had planned to give this quilt to my husband as a wedding gift. That didn't really work out. When I finally finished piecing it eight months later, I invented this grandiose plan to hand-quilt the piecing pattern. I got through a whole one block. In an effort to make this quilt more usable by finishing it, I made the executive decision last week to machine quilt instead. And now, my friends, it is finished.

Besides this quilt, let me recap what has been going on around here. My husband successfully defended and submitted his dissertation, my parents nearly sold out of what I had sewn for them (resulting in feverish restocking), we hosted Thanksgiving for the first time, hubby has 2 weeks left in school forEVER, and we recently found out that we will be moving back to Maryland in about a month (if you are keeping tally, this will be our third move this year).  Things have been...exciting.

Needless to say, there will probably be a shortage of handmade gifts coming from our home this year. Heck, there might not even be a whole lot of decorating here. But I hope you are enjoying the preparations for upcoming holidays :)