Last post I told you that Barb came to visit us from Alabama. When we all lived in Florida, she and I used to get together and help each other redecorate our homes by moving furniture around and making pretty little vignettes on tabletops with whatever items we found handy. It was fun to "re-use and re-purpose" books and candles and pretty dishes from our cupboards. While she was here, she and I had some fun in the farmhouse and studio once again moving furniture and hanging items on the walls which made the spaces feel cozier and more like "home".
One day she and I went to an antique store I like to check out every few months. On this trip we found the baskets above.....perfect for hanging on the wall and organizing patterns, books and all my rotary cutting rulers. How nice to free up some valuable counter space by removing the clutter and making use of the vertical space in the studio. The sign on the wall was given to me by Julie and Jarrad over 25 years ago. They bought it with their own money when they were teenagers and gave it to me for Christmas one year. I've carried it around with me and used it in many different places over the years and now it has a home, once again, in my studio. It makes me smile when I look at it and remember those two as teenagers.
Barb moved some furniture to create a cozy little sitting area just inside the studio door where I sit to do my hand sewing. I found the little table at an antique shop on the day I took her back to Alabama. And my footstool fits under it perfectly. The teapot lamp is something I've had for years and I dug it out of the last box of items from our move here, cleaned it up and bought a new lampshade for it.
This sweet little footstool has been recovered more times than I can count over the years. It was fun to take a day and put together this little appliqué cover for the stool using Edyta Sitar's appliqué shapes from one of her books. And the little bluebird reminds me of the bluebirds we have right outside the studio windows.
After Barb left, I got busy with the next item on my list of "to-do's" for the studio. The generic tan chairs at the sewing tables are super comfortable, but they're not especially jazzy to look at. So, I pulled out all my Kaffe Fassett fabrics......a little bit of this and a yard or two of that. I wanted to use the fabrics the way he does in his quilts........all mixed up with different colors and many different patterns. I used everything from large florals to smalls prints, polka dots and batiks, too.
Kinda crazy, right? But somehow all the mixed up fabrics seem to "work" together. At least in my color craving mind they do. And they're such happy colors, too. The chairs got pretty ruffled skirts that hang half way to the floor, covering up the office look of the underside of the chairs.
This looks like a dress to me, does it look that way to you, too?
And here is the second chair with entirely different prints. This chair has the same length skirt, piping around the seat and different fabrics for the side panels of the upper chair slipcover.
The design on the back of both chairs is made using a template called an orange peel......because it looks like a section of an orange peel. Ummmm, yea. Anyway, I have been playing with that template this last few weeks and decided I liked it so much I wanted to use it as a decorative part of the upper back of the slipcover. There is a pleat in the center back of the fabric and then to hold it closed I hand sewed a hook and eye closure at the base of each orange peel. All in all, I'm very happy with the way these slipcovers turned out. And they bring my happy colors into the studio!
Here is the quilt I am currently working on as it hangs on my design wall. There is a lot more I'd like to do with this quilt and it will remain a work in progress for the next few weeks. Each block is an orange peel appliqué.......some of the peels are from one whole piece of fabric, while the others are from 2 pieces of brightly colored fabrics I pieced first and then cut out the orange peel using the template. All the peels are then placed on different colored background batik fabrics.
See what I mean about using different fabrics? I just love the highly colorful nature of this quilt. I'm working on stitching around each peel using lime green thread which is taking me a while to do all the blocks. And I keep playing around with the direction of the peels.....some are laying on their sides while some are upright. Pretty soon I hope to have the quilt laid out in a pleasing fashion and then I'll move on to the next step....some pretty awesome borders.
This is the area by my ironing station. Another of the baskets holds all my essential tools used while pressing garments and quilt blocks. It sure is handy having everything out and conveniently located at the ready.
Ok, so, now onto another project. After I dropped Barb off at her house, I popped into her fabulous thrift store and within 5 minutes I was at the checkout with my "finds". After spending only $7.95, I jumped into my car with a grin......and three sweaters in a bag next to me on the car seat. Now what in world am I going to do with three sweaters, you ask? Make a wreath! Yes!
I bought a straw wreath at Hobby Lobby and some "u" shaped pins in the floral department. When I got back home, I used my rotary cutter and cut the sweaters into approximately 4" strips.....trying to keep the cable designs on the sweaters in the strips for some added texture. Then, using the "u" pins I altered the colors of the three sweaters and worked my way around the wreath.....sticking the "u" pins into the straw wreath to secure the sides and ends of the sweater strips. I found some tan and grey yarns in my knitting stash and randomly wrapped the yarn loosely around the wreath. Three teal bells and a small pinecone were hung at the upper end of the wreath. To hang it from a wreath hangar on the door, I slipped some satin ribbon around the wreath and tied a bow to secure it to the hangar. Ta-da! Now I have a winter wreath I can use year after year.
When I discovered I had some bits and pieces of the teal sweater left over, my mind went spinning trying to think of different ways I could use it. The end result is this mug rug. Sorry for the dark picture.....darn. Anyway, I used more Kaffe Fassett fabric pieces to sew around the sweater piece and now the mug rug sits on the little white table next to my hand sewing chair. And no more cappuccino stains on my little white tablecloth. Too. Much. Fun.
Remember this from the last post? Yes, it's the old album case. Well, it's still a work in progress while I locate a larger piece of butcher block to overhang the entire top. Then, the grain mill on the right, and the black walnut cracker on the left will get permanently mounted to the butcher block. While it's winter, I have some plants inside like the small rosemary bush above.
It just wasn't very pretty sitting there in a plastic pot. I pulled out some of my stash of burlap and put elastic thru some casing I sewed to the inside of the new bag. Elastic at the bottom also helps when I take the plant to the sink for watering. Now the bag doesn't get wet and I don't have to remove it every time I water the plant. And it sure looks a whole lot better than the plastic pot with writing all over it. A small bowl underneath the plant keeps the surface of the table top from getting wet and now it all looks much better to me.
So now you know what I've been doing this winter......lots of little projects and a few bigger ones. I love how some fabric mixed with a little bit of time and imagination can transform even the most mundane items in our life into something colorful and pretty. And now I have access to the perfect studio where I can let my creative spirit fly.
Happy, happy farm chick,
Debbie
