Archive for the ‘Sew – A Needle Pulling Thread’ Category
Chicken in the Barn Quilt Block Swap
Some online friends and I are doing a quilt block swap. Yaaaay for us!
We will be doing a block that is a variation of the churn dash. It is easy to spot the churn dash and many, including myself, can very easily mistake one variation for another. The names for the blocks are based on the placement of the colors in the blocks and not just the piecing pattern that completes the block.
Can you spot the differences that make the blocks different?
Each one is really a variation of a nine patch except with triangles and the placement of the different colored fabrics makes the design change.
Nine Patch Square … Variation Square
For our blocks we have changed it up a bit and decided that the center square should be a chicken theme fabric. So, we are creating a new variation of the block pattern which I am calling “Chicken in the Barn”.
I am sure there are multitudes of other names for these blocks. The names are the common names that I know based on my geographic location. In other parts of the country – even the world – these same blocks may have other names for their styles.
These are the fabrics I chose for my blocks.
I am excited to start this project. My ears have given me enough relief I think I can spend some time today cutting my pieces. I may even get to the point I can sew a few together.
The weather is grey this morning. The forecast is for lots of rain this afternoon. Seems to me a rainy day project is a good way to pass the time.
Are there any projects you are working on today?
37 Dresses and 2 Wool Coats
I have been struggling with something and can’t seem to form a direct plan as to what I should do with some of the items at hand.
Some of you will understand the sentiments in the items and may have good suggestions to offer to recycle a few things I can’t seem to let go of.
I don’t want to hoard said items or keep them in a museum. I want to recycle them into something useful.
You see, I tend to be one of those mother’s who dresses her girls as girls. They were always dressed in appropriate for the occasion attire. Now as they are t’weens and teens and no longer little girls the closets needed cleaning out. We did this yesterday.
We have a lot of very nice dresses. I mean many very nice dresses. We have sorted through them.
Some went to the GoodWill.
Some went to the local Clothes Closet.
The Rothchild’s wool coats I am taking to a consignment shop.
One part of me is sad to see the dresses go as they mark a passing of little girl into teenager. One part of me says to load them all up and dump them at the GoodWill. One part of me can’t bring myself to do it. Not only were these dresses expensive but I know what will happen to most of them in the long run.
These clothes are not everyday wear. They are formal wear. They mark moments in our life when we stop and hold our breath for just a moment before moving on.
Our wedding. The first real dress J. had ever owned. My mother’s wedding. My grandmother’s funeral.
I don’t just want to keep them. I want to do something with them. I am thinking about using them to make a quilt with. Steve thinks that’s a good idea.
I have also considered other things I could make from them but those ideas are few and far between.
Your suggestions and ideas would be greatly appreciated.
She Finally Painted Those Baseboards
I did!
What I had planned to do before my mother came at Christmas has been done in this past month. I painted the baseboards and the window frames in my kitchen. Finally!
Not only did I do the painting but I have managed to also complete one set of curtains for my windows.
These curtains are a project I have worried over for almost two years. Yes, two entire years. I flipped flopped on the curtain/no curtain issue many times not wanting to put up a curtain that would close in the room and block out the wonderful sunlight this room gets all day long.
I purchased this fabric online a month or two after we moved into this house. It was always earmarked for curtains. Either in my kitchen or my bedroom. The kitchen won.
It is a great toile print of a barnyard scene with an old red bard and rooster. Although I had ordered 10 yards of the fabric there was not enough for two windows of this size and the smaller window at the end of the kitchen. Nice. Because this print is out of stock. It is a two year old print that has long been gone.
I have wanted in some way to have gingham in the kitchen but I didn’t want to go overboard and look like a barn dance in here. So I thought about it alot. I looked through thousands of patterns for curtains and draperies. It wasn’t until recently that I was inspired by a designer kitchen advertisement to make the curtains you now see.
Not too much gingham. The perfect matching crimson. Nice fabric for draperies. The first set I made I lined them. The lining blocked out too much of the sunlight. I do not want this kitchen to be dim. I like it flooded in natural sunlight. So I ripped out the lining and remade the curtains without it.
I like the look of the yellow walls, red accents and white trim in this room. The appliances are stainless steel with black trim. I have begun to add black and cast iron things to the room to flesh it out. The heavy black cast iron is a great contrast to the more feminine white ceramic pieces and china in the room.
I never planned to paint those cabinets white. It was sort of a last chance to have a nice looking kitchen without the expense of new cabinets. These are just too good of shape to toss for the sake of cosmetic wants.
I never planned to paint the walls yellow. I never had a color in mind but yellow just wasn’t one of my choices. One day I saw a yellow cloth given as a gift in something when Steven was born. My brain said paint the kitchen that color. And so we did. Last July.
The black granite of the countertops was simply what was available without a special order. The price was right.
The white cabinets and black countertops deemed the black hardware the wiser choice. I chose them online based solely on price. I think they work.
With the brick red floors I already had a lot of red accents. The rugs and towels, the wall plates, the roosters and painted sign. As things began to come together I realized the little sofa was red with yellow(ish) and black plaid stripes. It just works without any conscious effort on my part.
Eveything is really beginning to come together after alot of hard work. I am really beginning to see and feel the room as a part of the house and not as an addition without much thought to the rest of the house.
This has been a long time in coming. I started painting the cabinets (3 coats of primer 2 coats of paint) and continued on when Steven was just a newborn. I have progressed over the past year slowly. Very slow. My infant grew into a giggly baby and then into a busy toddler and now a non-stop very active little boy.
Meaning it took me this long because instead of painting from the bottom up I painted from the top down. Little people under three feet tall do not listen to you when you tell them not to touch the wet paint on the baseboards.
I suppose you already knew that. I should have.
Speaking of which …
His smile pretty much says it all.
