Milkweed Stars

It's no secret that I love milkweed. It's one of the only things I like about fall. I get excited when I go running and see the pods open and the white fuzzy seeds floating everywhere. A few years ago I shared a tutorial for making Milkweed Pod Santa Ornaments. 

 A few weekends ago when my family was visiting I suckered them into going out to collect pods.

 Fill those bags you suckers! Penny ran around in the field, I took pictures and everyone else did my work for me. Sometimes I wonder why my family likes me. I swear they had fun, I think.

Garrett at least had fun. He posed for these wonderful shots, what a good sport. In case you're wondering he does have guards on his glasses, wouldn't want any milkweed seeds getting in his eyes. Seriously though he wears them all the time. I digress.

 After giving the milkweed adequate time to dry (in other words I was lazy and left it all in a bag for a week) I got my craft on.

All this project entailed was hot gluing five pods together, then gluing dried flowers or berries to the inside of the star to hide all of the glue globs. Then I glued ribbon to the back so I could hang them. totally simple; a baby could do it. (Warning: do not let babies use hot glue guns.)

 The only place I had to hang them was on my purse wall. My milkweed stars kinda snazzy next to all of the beaded glittery purses.

Now that I finally got around to posting about this I think it's too late to collect milkweed pods. Sorry. Store my fabulous idea in your noggins until next year.

We're going to Maine for Thanksgiving so I won't post anything until after then. Hope you have a great holiday.

Lauren

Table Runner

Our friends recently bought a new house, and were nice enough to invite us down for the weekend. I always feel like we should get people something when we go to their house, and the crafter in me always wants to make someone. But then I realize I've never been to the people's house before and don't know what it looks like, color schemes, what they need, etc. so, we always show up empty handed looking like a pack of jerks. Anyways, after we spent the night I was inspired by the colors of the guest bedroom, and say that the dresser in the guest bedroom was bare on top. On the way home I convinced Charlie to stop in Concord. He bought pizza at the place located conveniently next door to Joann's and I bought a bunch of fat quarters in yellow and red. This is what I ended up making. 

I have wanted to make a log cabin quilt for quite a while and figured a table runner was a good start. It's a really fun block to make. Here is a tutorial if you want to try it out.

For the middle I wanted a focal point so I made a Sawtooth Star block. If you don't know how here is another tutorial. It is not the way I made mine, but had I known the was an easier way (flying geese block) to do it I probably would have. Serves me right for just winging it. I totally made up the sizes of all the pieces and just got lucky when they all fit correctly. Darn you Mathematical Anxiety! I have this, I just diagnosed myself with it today. Thanks Web M.D.

The best part of this table runner, in my humble opinion, is the quilting. I used my machine, and my walking foot (best thing ever). I couldn't decide on red, yellow, or white thread. I was telling my Mom about it and she suggested gold. Gold! Yes. It worked great. Who doesn't love some shimmer? The log cabin blocks are just outlined in squares that I just kept making bigger and bigger. I had fun with the sawtooth block. It looks a big Egyptian to me.

That's the back side. I didn't want to pick one color to use for the back so I used all of the left over fabric from the front to make a scrappy back. Now it can be used on either side. Due to my non-measuring it's a bit wonky. Who doesn't love wonky homemade things though? AmIright?

On another note, Charlie inherited this buffet, long table thing. Now we have somewhere to store our endless supply of terribly stained cloth napkins and another huge item of furniture to carry down 18 stairs when we move out. Excited Dad?

When I took these pictures yesterday before I sent the table runner Charlie commented that I should make one for our new table thing. The work never ends! Also, before you go thinking I've spoiled the surprise for our friends, they already said they got it. Even though I sent it yesterday at 4:15 PM. Way to go U.S. Postal Service. Way to go.

Lauren

Works in Progress

In my cleaning/organizing/painting I stumbled upon some unfinished projects. They're unfinished because I don't know exactly what to do with them. Maybe you have some ideas?

The first one is four feathers from Anna Maria Horners new pattern for The Feather Bed Quilt. 

I love how they turned out. I was planning on making one pillow, but I messed up the pattern and ended up having enough fabric to make four feathers instead of two. Then when I pieced them all together I realized that each quilt square was much bigger than a typical throw pillow. Now I am not sure what to do with them. My co-worker told me I should make a wall hanging. I like that idea. I just can't figure out if I should make all of the feathers go the same way (photo on left) or have the feathers flipped (right photo). Any thoughts? Bueller? Bueller?

The next project was something I got an inspiration for from Pinterest, here is the original link. I used left over fabric from the apron I made my friend Jill for her bridal shower. The link had a printable pattern, but when I printed it it was too small, and rather than figure out how to print it bigger I just winged it. Sounds like a me thing to do right?

The whole reason I did this was because I had saved some selvage and really liked the rainbow colored  dots. They look a lot like the settings on a Kitchen Aid mixer. This picture shows an up close of the dots, and also the amount of pieces I used to make the entire thing.

After I finished the mixer I made  two small log cabin squares. I was thinking of making a wall hanging for a kitchen, but then I thought to myself "who has a wall hanging in a kitchen? Sounds like a fire hazard to me." Sometimes I shouldn't listen to myself because after that inner convo I put this project in a drawer and forgot about it. What do you think? Do people have wall hangings in their kitchen? Would you want it?

Please give me your feedback so these projects don't get stuffed back into the closet or a drawer.

Lauren

Furniture and Attitude Revamp

So since we decided we're not moving, and we're not looking for apartments or houses, or campers (yeah, we ventured down that road for a few days), I've embraced a "there's no time like the present" attitude. This basically means that projects I've been putting off "until we move" have taken priority. Projects like painting and re-doing furniture have been put off because I wanted to wait until we had a room to put them in, or a garage to paint in. On Sunday after Charlie and I finally agreed to stop the house hunting shenanigans, I woke up, took 5 steps to my dresser, took out the drawers, dumped my clothes on the floor, dragged it into the utility closet, dragged everything out of the closet, and began sanding/painting. Six hours later I had painted my dresser.

I was in the zone in terms of this projects so I forgot to brush my teeth until 3 PM, and also forgot to take any "before" photos. Here is the only one I was able to find.

The picture is mostly of the bad patch job on the wall, and the "before" picture for the walls, which we painted two years ago. You can see however that the dresser was a dark stained wood. It was given to me six (SIX?!) years ago by my friends, boyfriends, roommate when he sold me his bed and went into the Army. He said it was built during the war by his grandfather, this guy liked to tell tall tales so I'm not sure I believe him, but it is a good story. I love the dresser, I just didn't love the color, or the fact that the stain was about 100 years old and warped, chipping, just plain yucky. I also didn't like the fact that it took me 100 years to sand the bubbly stain off of the dresser.

Here's a picture of the process. I even added contact paper to the drawers. My grammy has an affinity for contact paper, I need her to teach me some tricks because there are so many wrinkles in mine. I figured it didn't matter though because they will be filled with clothes.

In the process of this re-do I also sorted through a bunch of my clothes and threw out items I don't wear, or have holes in them. It feels good to get things done, clean, and make a change. Although, looking at the before and after picture I realize that most of the things on top of the dresser in the before picture are still on top in the after picture. The mirror has fewer fortune cookie fortunes stuck to it in the before I guess.

Next up I'd like to re-do the lamps I have in our bedroom. I love them, they're milk glass, I love milk glass, but the shades are very faded. My Mom made them for me seven years ago (seven!?). It would be nice to get rid of the cheep-o Walmart wire shelves I've been keeping my sweaters in for the last six years (six?! Is this getting old?) I tried to convine my Dad to build me something but he said I have to get in line behind my step-mom who wants a table for her new office. Lastly, I'd like to do something different to the top of the dresser because although I sanded for ages and had stain colored dust in my nose, ears and har for 2 days I did not get all the bumps to go away and the top is kind of rough. I was thinking about finding some pretty paper and covering the top but I don't think the paper I have in mind exists. I'll keep you posted. I know you're so interested. 

Lauren

Valentine's Day Decorations

The chain quilting I did the other day made me think about other chaining projects/ideas (and no I don't mean the bunting that I now realize I should get cracking on if I want it to be done by July). I mean Valentine's Day decorations. 

I saw an idea on maya*made last February, after Valentine's day had already passed, and stored it away until now. While working on a painted project (more to come soon), I remembered the idea and was able to locate the tutorial. Pretty easy. I painted some of the hearts in different ways and also crumpled some of them. After the red paint dried I used Mod Podge "Luster" to seal them and make them a bit shiny without having to add glitter; yuck. Did you know I hate glitter? (I won't steal Demetri Martin's joke about glitter but I will provide you with a link to it...well upon searching I couldn't find a short clip, just skip to minute 3, or enjoy the whole thing, or don't click it, I'll never know.)

Back to the project. Instead of gluing the hearts to a string I just chain stitched them with a sewing machine. Now if only I could decided where to hang them, because outside the closet isn't a very good spot.


Happy Sunday!
Lauren