Spring.....What I Like About You

What's not to like about spring, except for crazy out of control weather. One of my favorite things about spring is the return of flea markets and antique fairs. Our winter was almost spring like with an absence of needed rain, which allowed the flea market to continue, but generally speaking.....

This is a slipcover I just finished for a couple of talented ladies who are always finding neglected but beautiful pieces of furniture and transforming them. This will be taken to a local antique fair in a month or so. I think they have plans for the legs, maybe some white paint.

Here is a close-up of the fabric. We used a bedspread with seashells. So cute.

And of course, I love flowers, and I like finding unusual vases. I couldn't resist this little, vase within a vase, vase.

Hope the weather is being kind to you!

Tea and Crafts

We drank tea, we ate button cookies, we crafted! Ali brought lots of buttons (more than these pictured) and helped us put them together in beautiful ways to make magnets and other things. ( I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture.)

 I was impressed with the creativity in the flower making. Tracy was cutting leaves from a piece of a wool skirt and used an existing dart in the center of a leaf. A couple of people used plaid in their flower or layered it on a leaf. Everyone seamed to enjoy diving into the process. I sure had a good time. 

Crafternoon Tea

I have a friend who makes the cutest jewelry. You can see what she does by visiting her etsy shop, Button Willow Jewelry. Not long ago she asked if I would do a "craft night" with her. I was thrilled. I have wanted to do something like that for a while, and sometimes we need someone to help us move our ideas out of the thought bubble and into reality. It is actually going to be a "Craft Afternoon / Afternoon Tea". I am so excited about it. We are going to make wool flowers, and some simple earrings.

Some little sample flowers I have been working on.

 

I am using this book as a reference. It is a great little book.

The gallery of flowers is awesome. I do wish the instructions were a little more detailed. When I was learning to sew many many many years ago, I followed the pictures on the sewing patterns more than the written instructions. Now I am a little more patient, and do read the directions, but this book has mostly the written kind in a separate section from the gallery of photos, and might be challenging for a beginner.

Max is sad about his lack of apposable thumbs. No crafting for him. 

If you are a local friend and want to come, you are invited, just let me know you are coming. (This Saturday,

4/14 at 2:00 pm)

Inspiration

My daughter gave me this book for Christmas.

It is page after page of deliciousness!

 

Just the inspiration I needed for this drawing:

Speaking of Quilts...

I'm trying my hardest not to start any more quilts until I finish the previously mentioned ones, but I'm confessing my temptation to you. I have Nancy J. Martin's Perpetual Calendar of 365 Quilt Blocks and the last few days have been hard for me because March has these cute blocks:

I love anything that has to do with tea, or teacups, or tea parties and I can just picture this tea pot made from some pretty vintage floral, or even a vintage tablecloth.

Or this tea cup with some embroidery on it.

A creamer!

And sugar bowl. Can't you imagine a whole tea party quilt with pretty china plates and cupcakes and all sorts of things!?  I'm trying to put it out of my mind for now. Maybe I will just do a little sketch, that's all, just one little sketch. One little sketch won't hurt will it?

Show me the Quilt!

Sunday afternoon was going to be the day that I finally took steps toward finishing two quilts that have been sitting unfinished for....I hate to say it......YEARS. I need to join top, batting and back together with safety pins and then stitch them together. I even bought this book that I am very excited about.

As I was contemplating where I should do this pin basting, a voice from  the distance made me look up. It was my husband holding the newspaper and saying, "You didn't go to the Quilt Show yesterday." And I said, "What?! The quilt show is this weekend? How did I miss that? I can still go today, it's not over for five hours."
And just like that, I grabbed my purse and went to look at other peoples finished quilts instead of finishing my own. (But it was so fun.)

I've thought about joining the Pajaro Valley Quilt Association, but haven't yet. I'm sure I would finish more quilts if I did. I love the annual shows. This one was their 34th.

These two small quilts by Jeanne Holmes were a couple of my favorites:

I also liked this one called "Bunny Windows" by Cara Lamb. She added a note that in Japan, instead of a man in the moon, they say it is a rabbit.

Another reason I LOVE the quilt show is browsing the vender "shops". I took a few pictures at one of my favorites. Claudia Bibber's collection of antique and vintage sewing items. I can never get enough of vintage sewing.

 

 

Well, I didn't make any progress on my own projects, but I was definitely inspired.

Like a moth to a flame.

Today I finished up with one appointment to talk about a slipcover with a half hour gap before my next similar appointment. I thought about looking for a cup of coffee somewhere, but without even thinking I drove to the local fabric store that is in the same neighborhood, Harts Fabrics, in Santa Cruz, CA. They have so many great fabrics and tons of inspiration. It was way more refreshing than the coffee would have been.





Can you believe all these great buttons?









They should set up some comfy chairs in front of this button wall, so easily entertained people like me could just sit and stare at them. They could serve coffee. Ahhh that would be the best spot ever!

Makin’ Buttons!

A couple of years after I started my slipcover business, I was so happy to have the opportunity to buy a used Handy Junior Button Press. My kids used to love pulling the handle down and Presto! a covered button. They are all grown up now, so it is mostly just me having fun with the button maker.

I have lots of vintage embroidered linens around that I use for my Etsy crafts, so I made some buttons from some of the smaller embroideries. These went over to my friend who makes amazing and fun button jewelry and other accessories. You can see some of her great stuff at Button Willow Jewelry. I hope to put some covered buttons in my Esty shop too soon.

Chairy thoughts.

I have wanted a Bergere style chair for a while now, but the ones I’ve seen in shops, or even at flea markets have been out of my price range. They look so cute painted white, and upholstering them in burlap seems to be a popular look. So when I saw an add for one on my local Freecycle site I responded right away and was thrilled to be the lucky recipient, and of course, I had slipcover plans.

I kept thinking about an article I saw several years ago in Martha Stewart Living, but after searching the internet and the Martha Stewart website, I couldn’t find it, or even the date of the magazine. So I turned to e-bay. I found an issue for sale (May 2002) that mentioned an article on summer slipcovers. I had a hunch that that was it, so I bought the magazine and was right.













I really loved the shirt-like fabrics that were used on these.
I happened to have enough of a blue and white stripe that I bought at a rummage sale at least one decade ago.


I was surprised at how similar my chair is to this one in the article. I guess it was really embedded in my subconscious since I finished my slipcover long before I saw the article again.
I haven’t decided if I will paint the wooden parts, or just clean them up, but I love my new chair.

Resurrected.

At least a year ago I bought the cutest little chaise lounge at a yard sale to slipcover, and after it sat in my garage for quite a while, I would have given it away, but no one would have taken it. The upholstery is in pretty bad shape, and the seat cushion was near non-existent. I even bought some yellow fabric to cover it, but was having doubts about the color.



This is the old upholstery.


I've really been loving shades of coral lately, so I decided to try to dye the yellow fabric. I do some work for an interior designer who is very adventurous when it comes to dyeing, and so I took courage from her. First I dyed the fabric with Rit rose pink dye, but it didn't change it dramatically, so I got some scarlet dye and that did the trick.



I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I made the seat with a six inch box and stuffed it with a folded, full sized feather bed that we weren't using. It is heaven to lounge on!

I had some extra pink dye so I decided to dye this little throw. A while after I took this picture, it accidentally got into a bleach load in the washer and some of the fabrics yellowed.



I can't wait to do more of this! I love the way the different fabrics reacted to the dye. And I always have beautiful little pieces of fabric around.



My new favorite spot.

Inspiration.

Just found a great magazine and blog called SMALL and SMALLER.
Very cute and inspiring for all who have children in their lives.

Transformed.

I think my two favorite things about making slipcovers are seeing a piece of furniture transfomed, and turning a client's vision into reality. This chair (there were actually two of them) is a perfect example.



The client bought the chairs at a yardsale and was going to paint them and maybe have them upholstered, but got inspired when she thought about white linen.



This picture was taken in the middle of my living room, but they look really nice in her French country inspired house.

Pretties.

Mother's day was filled with flowers and things covered in flowers.




They know what I like!

I love bugs....

Or maybe I should say PICTURES of bugs. I like how they look on paper or cloth, not so much how they look when they are wriggling and crawling.


These bugs are from an Entomology print that I bought from Colleen at Saffron and Genevieve.
(You could get one from her too if you like it):





This bee is on my new living room curtains, which were actually meant to be shower curtains, but I lined them and " WALA "
you would never know, except that I just told you:





These beautifully illustrated bugs are from a 1964 edition of The Gardener's Bug Book, first published in 1946. They seem much too pretty to be in a book about how to go about killing them. Shouldn't they be painted in ugly, ominous looking colors, instead of these lovely pastels?




I learned from this book that the caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly are known as "Celeryworms" or "Parsleyworms" because they eat celery and parsley, but lucky for them, they are not considered a major pest. I will plant lots of celery and parsley if they will come and hang out in my garden.