Just a small kitchen remodel

I've found that when your kids grow up and move out you really need to move to a bigger house, not a smaller one, unless of course you started out with a nice big roomy one. We, like many I'm sure, stuffed ourselves and our four kids into a smallish four bedroom house. Now one of those rooms is my sewing workshop and one is occupied by our youngest child. So when kids come to visit they are now a family of four and have to squeeze harder to fit. And.....when there are grandchildren around, they need toys to play with, and it's nice to have special "Grammy's House" toys that they look forward to playing with. So, see what I mean.

Two of our grandchildren live very close, and we get to see them pretty often, which is what led me to do this "kitchen remodel". I really wanted to find a cute vintage play kitchen to satisfy some of those playing needs, but just wasn't having any luck. While I was searching around on the web I found lots of play kitchens that people had made from night stands and other pieces of small furniture. I pinned them here.

Unfortunately, my before picture has disappeared. I "put it down" on my computer and now I can't find it, but here is the after picture:

The original cabinet had long skinny legs, that I cut off and added casters instead. The oven door opened from the side, so I just moved the hinges. It was already a separate compartment. The bar sink and nobs came from the local salvage yard, and the burners are some kind of caps I found in the plumbing department of the hardware store. I printed and cut out spirals shapes I found on the net and affixed them with clear contact paper. The paint came from a local recycling facility. My idea to modge podge an old tablecloth on the back splash didn't work, so I stapled on a piece of oilcloth.

The pot holders were made from some vintage quilt squares that have been sitting in a basket waiting to be made into something useful. I am really trying to use what I already have these days.

I put two together and added a little padding in between.

Front:

Back:

Now I need to make some of that cute, cute play food I see so many patterns for.
A Grammy's work is never done!

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.

Workin' on the workroom.

I recently recovered my cutting/ironing table. I like to pad it so that I can easily iron on it. I pad it with thrifted mattress pads and top it with a thrifted cotton sheet, since cotton can handle a higher iron setting than a cotton/poly blend.



I found these chrome shopping baskets on e-bay for a great price. They are my new workroom storage containers.




I will post a picture of my new shelves when they get painted. Just need a free weekend. This weekend I will be participating in the wedding trunk show on Saturday. On Sunday I will be at a local quilt show, not participating, but admiring the beautiful handwork, and visiting all the great vendors.

The excitement is building.

My husband, who knows how to build things made some new shelves for my workroom. They are in the garage and have to be installed. I was using a nice old baker's rack before, that sort of worked, but not really, so I moved it to the kitchen. It will be so useful there as a place for all the things that fill up the small space.

Here it is in my workroom. It was just too hard to get things off of it because of the wire across the front of the shelves.



And here it is in its new place. Ahhh.....now my kitchen counters have less clutter, and I don't have to climb up on a chair to get my cookie cutters off that top cabinet shelf.

The gift of inspiration.

Even though my birthday was a month ago, a friend surprised me with a belated gift yesterday. The best kind of gift. The kind of gift that inspires.




She knows me well. She gave me two beautiful vintage tablecloths, and a pretty tin full of awesome buttons. (the picture only shows a few of them) She also gave me a sweet vintage "bird" pin.

I have lots of buttons, but a new batch has me inspired to do some creative crafting!

Weight for me.

I started off my work day today by recovering my cutting table, which is a large piece of plywood covered with a cotton mattress cover, with a cotton sheet over that. I have it across two rolling steel shelf units that are adjusted to a nice working height. I am always looking for cotton sheets at thrift stores, etc. because my iron doesn't glide so nicely over ones with polyester content.

It's a really nice feeling to have a fresh work surface. Almost like having nice clean sheets on the bed.

I found these great little weights...Healthways, Glamour Belles.....at an estate sale on Sunday. I almost didn't pick them up, because they were missing the bars to put them on, but I'm glad I got them.



Aren't they cute. They're pink!




I never use pins when cutting out a pattern, but sometimes I use weights to hold the pattern in place while I cut the fabric. I have a couple of other sets of pattern weights but these will be my new favorites.

When rejects unite.

I love this look as you can tell by the wrinkles in this page from County Living magazine. I recently painted my bedroom a nice shade of blue and have been collecting straw bags to line for storage containers.

That's why when I saw this tote for free at a recent freecycle event called a "free-for-all" I grabbed it. (see my last post for more freecyle info)




At a "free-for-all" you bring things you want gone from your life to a specified location for a specified amount of time, and you can take home other peoples' rejects for free. The only requirement is that you pick up any of your stuff that is left over at the end. I love it. I usually don't have enough stuff for a yard sale, so it is a great way to pass things on. Especially if I have stuff that the thrift stores won't take. Some are pickier than others. I have to confess, I might be guilty of taking advantage of the "softer" attendants and have their donation stations pinpointed.

But....back to my point...

I actually found this at the end of the day when I went back to load up my funky file cabinet and foam scraps that are oh so very hard to get rid of. Apparently no one wanted this great L.L.Bean tote because of the embroidery on the front.



But when I paired it up with a pretty vintage tablecloth, whose only fault were some holes and stains in the middle, I have something very nice if I do say so myself. It doesn't go so well with the bedroom color scheme, but will come in handy in my sewing room.

Can you cut it?

Nothing irritates me more than when I can't cut it. Since I use my scissors every day, they get dull pretty fast and a good sharpening service has been hard to find.

My favorite pair of scissors are lightweight steel Wiss brand that I found at a yard sale several years ago. I haven't been able to find another pair like them, so end up buying one of the two well known brands that our local fabric store carries when I need a back-up. They are cold and heavy though, and don't seem to last very long with the hard use they get from me. But....I have good news. I discovered that they sell another brand that are even lighter and sharper than my old faithfuls. Behold:





They are Clover brand, made in Japan. They are kind of expensive, but worth it if you are doing a lot of cutting of fabric. (Our fabric store offers a 40% off coupon once a month that can be used on any one item in the store, so I use it when I need scissors.) I am very happy with these, but probably won't use them on linen or hemp, which seem to be very hard on blades.


These little Singer scissors are very useful for cutting thread when doing hand sewing or embroidery.




And then there are these giants that I bought at the flea market. They are useful for making long straight cuts.



And I couldn't get by without a pair of cuticle scissors that are the very best for taking seams apart.

I'm filling my pockets.

Here is the finished pocket organizer from my last post. (Anything that cuts down on "Where did I put that" time will help to maintain sanity!)

set free

A couple of weeks ago, I found this old box at an outdoor rummage sale. It looks like it had small bottles of wine in it originally. I filled it with notebooks and a small sketch book that I found in a nearby box, and said, "How much?" I love rescuing items that might have continued to collect dust somewhere if I hadn't come along.






I've been reading some great books about journal making, and decided to make an attempt. Maybe I will actually write down some of those thoughts and ideas that have been locked up in my brain for a while, before they slink off to a far corner and starve to death.





I took the cover off the sketch book, and rejoined the pages with a piece of green elastic cord, secured with buttons at the top and bottom, and tied on the back.



I used my husband's fly-tying technique to secure the knots...brush-on nail repair stuff, that is actually just super-glue with a brush in it.




Then, I just sewed a pocket from nice, strong paper that I saved from a Mother's Day gift.




I guess you could call it a pocket-book.

What's left is right.

As you can see by his smile, Max made it to the beach.


I was asked to come up with some table decorations for a brunch this weekend and decided to use what I have around here. I had some sheer yellow ribbon left from the rehearsal dinner candle holders, and I also have a craft drawer full of silk flower heads. (Rescued from my daughter's yard sale.) I tied some of the petals on the ribbon into a long string.




I think I will use my "yard birds" in the middle of the tables, with the bepetalled ribbon strewn around, along with votive holders left over from Raya's wedding.




I just pulled the ribbon through the holes in the middle of the petals with a crochet hook.....




...and tied a knot.



Wouldn't this be cute as a window treatment in a little girl's room?

Pain relief.

I recently joined our local freecycle network. A neighbor told me about it during the holidays. It is a great way to share the things you don't want or need anymore, and help others in the community at the same time. It seems like the items listed get snatched up pretty fast. I had the amazing good fortune of being the first to reply to an offer of some metal lockers. A couple of years ago I had to pass up some free ones by the side of the road, because my car was full of work stuff, and I was very sad about that.




I used to keep my fabrics and scraps in big plastic bins stacked up in the garage, so whenever I wanted to use them, it was a major pain to find what I was looking for. Now with different colored fabrics in different lockers, being creative just got a little easier. I now need to make a master list, so that I don't end up opening every door looking for that one particular fabric.

I have some things that I want to list on the network now. I'll let you know how it goes.

Earlier this week I went to my second favorite thrift store (Savers) in a neighboring town, since we don't have one here. It makes travlleling to the next county on business more exciting. I got some great deals on some crafting supplies, and this cute little lunch box. It has a business logo on it, so it needs some kind of sprucing up.



The fun stuff I found actually helped me get through my teeth-cleaning appointment this morning. Imagining some of the things I could make with that pretty ribbon and embroidery thread took my mind off of the poking and scraping that was going on.

Getting there....

Actually there is no there. I will never have the feeling that I have arrived where organization is concerned because the mess-maker in me will continue to fight my efforts at creating order.But.. I put my book sorting on hold because I found a shelf for my sewing room. A very talented lady who is taking a break from sewing lives in a cute little house between two antique stores, and my friends and I jump for joy when she has one of her frequent yard sales. (Good stuff!) I bought a weathered baker's rack from her that has been treated so that it only looks kind of rusty. (none rubs off) It is a much better size to fit my space and now it has ZONES. Before, I had baskets to hold jobs I'm working on, etc. but they always ended up filled with unironed shirts and fabric scraps.

Here is a picture of the old shelf. A very nice shelf, but too narrow, leaving another too narrow space that I was trying to make use of.



And this is the window sill before with all those jars of buttons!



This is the new shelf with ZONES.



The top shelf is for jobs in progress. The next shelf has baskets for thread, velcro, and other sewing supplies. Shelf 3 has totes with pattern-making materials ( when I make a slipcover, I first make a pattern of the furniture.) Next.. two baskets for personal projects I am working on (quilts), and the bottom shelf has some craft supplies in baskets and hat boxes. (unironed shirts are in a cute white laundry basket that can be moved around)



This is where those buttons went, into a hanging jewelry holder. There are more on the other side.



I will post a couple of other useful things I found later. And I have to confess that I did push a couple of unruly piles off to the side when I took pictures. Those darn unruly piles!

to plan or not to plan

A couple of months ago I ordered a "quilt wall". It's was advertised as a 6 foot by 6 foot piece of felted fabric to put up on the wall. You can put your quilt pieces, flannel board style, on it to see in advance how they will look. It was back-ordered and I waited for it with excitement. When it finally came I was sad to see that it was simply a 2 yard piece of 72 inch wide craft felt that I could have bought at the local fabric store. So....don't order one for yourself, buy some craft felt, it's a LOT cheaper.
I put it up on a hallway wall in an out-of-the-way part of the house by my workroom. I put batting behind it to make it easier to pin to since heavier pieces like my truck squares don't stay up by themselves.


The truck quilt started out without a definite plan, just a general idea and I was having great fun putting squares together.
I got them up on the quilt wall just in time though. I hadn't thought about how the placement of the trucks going the different directions needed to be spaced somewhat evenly. (key word: somewhat)



And then, getting them up there all together, I saw that I'd really like it better if squares with the same colors are not right next to each other, or trucks with similar items in them, like plants. (Am I obsessing?)



So, maybe making a plan is a better way to go, or at least GETTING a plan once the creative spontaneity is well on it's way. The remaining squares will be carefully thought out.

The tangle in my heart.

I have a heart shaped box that I made about 30 years ago that is filled with a tangle of embroidery thread. It's one of those things I keep for.... emergencies, I guess. Maybe for a time when I have endless hours to sew and create, but can't make it to the store to buy thread. (?)



I enjoyed this post by a very creative woman who amazes me with her continuous flow of beautifully stitched projects. My tangle of threads just sits on a shelf.



My current supply of embroidery thread is nicely separated in two metal film filing boxes that I bought at the St. John's Helpful Shop. I am using some of it to work on my truck quilt.




Which is rolling along rather slowly.