Banner Quilt

I have made a few quilts in my years of sewing, but this is by far my favorite.  Decided to research a bit, ask questions of my quilting friends, and do this right.  I am beyond happy with the result!

Last spring I bought these fabrics, just because I really liked them. I'll admit it, I'm a fabric junky.  The base fabrics are Heidi Grace prints from JoAnn's, and the rest coordinate. I wanted to make a baby quilt, but couldn't decide on a pattern.

Spent an hour or so looking on my pinterest quilt board, and chose an isosceles triangle design. See the third print from the left? It was a no brainer.  The pin linked to a blog post that was a quilt-a-long, so that was really helpful.  She used a triangle quilt template, I improvised with a 30, 60, 90 triangle handed down to me from my dad. He built homes for a living, and drew all his own blue prints. A couple pieces of electrical tape and I can start cutting.

Started cutting an even number of print and white triangles, laid them out and rearranged until I was happy.  I began sewing the triangles together, one row at a time.

I remembered a little travel iron my mom snagged for me at a garage sale. Set my sleeve board next to my machine, and I pressed each seam as I went.  

Once all the rows were stitched, I matched seams and sewed the rows together. Starting to look really good!

Time to lay out my quilt sandwich. I did it on carpet and tacked the back with pins to keep it nice and taught, then laid my warm & white batting, then the quilt top.  

This is the only picture I took of this process. This is the back, face down, pinned to the carpet.  After the layers were safety pinned together, I took these straight pins out and started quilting, 1/4" on each side of each seam. 

I used my walking foot, and if you have one, I would highly recommend it. The top foot feeds your fabric along with the feed dogs below, keeping your layers moving evenly. 

Forgot to take any pictures of the binding process, but used the method most of the directions suggested. Machine stitched to the top, and hand stitched to the back.  The angled edges proved a little challenging, but after a couple tries I got the hang of it.

Couldn't wait to wash it, and give it that crinkly, cotton batting quilt look. I wasn't disappointed.

The backing fabric is flannel, making it even more snuggly!

After washing it I remembered I wanted to sew a quilt label on.

Printed on a piece of fabric, sewed a little banner on, and hand stitched it to the back. 

A couple more pictures, just because.

Quilting might be my new favorite thing. Problem is parting with it when I'm done. Not sure about this one, I may have to hang onto it. The colors and pattern are really my favorites. 

Here is the link to the isoceles quilt along, if you'd like to try one.

Mommy by Day Crafter by Night isosceles-triangle-quilt-along

Thanks for stopping by!

Karilyn

Vintage Truck Photo Canvas DIY

Today I'm going to show you the really simple canvas photo art I made to hang over our family room couch.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided it was long past due time to paint our family room.  17 years with the original beige, and lots of scuffs and dings.  I filled holes, sanded and painted in one day.  It's a tan with a hint of gray.  Now I have large walls that need some decorations.  Of course I went to my pinterest boards for inspiration, and decided to try this.  DIY Photo Canvas

I pretty much followed her directions, but did 3 - 16" x 20" canvases to fill the wall.  Trying to be cheap as usual, I figured out it was way less money to get a banner print than three 16 x 20's. Walgreens has banners 2' x 4' for $25 with a 30% off code it was about $18.50.  I cropped the free photo I found online to the right proportions and uploaded it to Walgreens photo. Done in an hour.

I picked up 16 x 20 canvases from Hobby Lobby at $7.99 for 2, with the 40% off came to $2.40 each. Brought the hubs along to get 2 of them with the coupon. :)

Found a can of flat black paint and a cheap brush and painted the edges and a little of the front.

Took the banner and cut out the 3 prints so they would look right on the wall.  This took a little figuring, and I was afraid they wouldn't look right with the space between them, but it turned out great.  Just doing one canvas would be way easier. 

Covered the canvas with matte Mod Podge, and glued the photo on. Pressed it down really well around the edges, flipped it over and pressed on the canvas to make sure it adhered well.  I cut the pictures about a 1/4" smaller than the canvas so the edges would glue down well.  Let it dry for about 30 minutes.

This is the part that I was worried about. I couldn't imagine painting the surface of a photo with a water based product and not having it ruin the picture. But, everyone's doing it, so I did it!

I used a foam brush, others said that left fewer brush marks.  I wasn't too worried about it, I was looking for a vintage feel. It looks creamy, but dries clear and beautiful!

I only did one coat, too anxious to hang them on the wall before my hubby got home.  He loves old pick up trucks!

If I was doing anything that got any use, I would do a few coats, but hanging on the wall it won't ever get touched.  

I'm so happy with the results. It was cheap, quick and easy.  Less than $30 for all three.  

One wall done, three to go....

Thanks for stopping by!

Karilyn

Half Bath Redo

Long time, no see, talk or anything!

I haven't blogged in almost 2 months.  I am working on a couple things, but they were bigger projects, and didn't want to share them until they were done, or close to it. Here's the new half bath we finished just before Christmas. I am overjoyed with the end results!

The main floor half bath was in dire need of redecorating.  We built our house in 1996, and thus is has a lot of oak, and I still was hanging on to a bit of the country style. My hubby loves to fish, so the bath and family room were done in hunter green, burgundy, plaid, oak and lots of fishing accents.  I wish I had better before pics, but I started ripping paper off the wall before I remembered to take a picture.

The bath was still sporting some sweet fly fishing wallpaper with border, an oak vanity, toilet seat and waste basket.  I had taken the brass out or painted it, and replaced it with black, but that didn't help much.

These are not total before pictures, but after I took the wallpaper down. The mirror was plain just hung with brass clips, and the hunter green formica counter had a 4" glossy tile backsplash.  The sink, toilet and tile look white here, but they are bisque.  Loved it 17 years ago, but not so much now.

If I ever suggest wallpaper again, just shoot me.  I really love the look of it, and actually enjoy hanging it, but removing it is the worst!!  The paper usually comes off Ok, but washing the paste off the walls is miserable. Here's a little piece that was behind the light fixture.  Nice, huh?

I have the best neighbor, and he made new doors and drawer fronts for my vanity, to give it a more modern look.  Here is the list of what we actually did or replaced.  I stained the vanity with dark walnut gel stain, painted the walls gray, changed the toilet for a white one from the upstairs bath, replaced the sink, quartz countertop, glass backsplash, faucet, knobs/pulls, towel bar and tp holder, light fixture and a framed mirror.  

It's kind of hard to get any good pictures, as the room is pretty small.  Especially trying not to take a picture of my reflection in the mirror.  :)  It all came together better than I even had anticipated.  I knew I wanted the straight, modern door handles, but was so excited when I found the faucet with the same lines! Then of course I had to find a towel bar and paper holder to match.  Those and the light fixture were my biggest splurges.  It really pulled the room together. 

I am so happy with the results.  Every time I walk by I do a double take, like I'm in someone else's house.  The fishing wallpaper had just become a part of us. Even though it was awful, I became blind to it.  Once it came down, the ideas started coming.  

The counter is cut from one inch thick 2ft. by 2ft. piece of quartz tile. He even got the edges from the same piece. So glad I married a cheapskate like me!  The sink was a brand new craigslist find. Once we found that, I new everything had to be linear or square.  

The backsplash was cut from one 12" x 12" sheet of glass tile.  We brought 3 choices home, and the one my hubby liked was the right one.  I should listen to the tile setter more often!

I just have to keep adding pictures because it looks so good.  I bought a couple of gray towels and wash cloths to finish the look.  I'm thinking a couple of shelves over the toilet, and maybe some pictures or a clock? My kids tease me, I have a clock in every room.  Doesn't help me get anywhere on time, but I love clocks!

How about a sweet before and after.  Makes it even better!  I have a couple more baths that need some attention, but not as much as this one.  

In case anyone cares, here's where most of the stuff came from.

Light fixture, towel bars, door pulls, and backsplash are from Lowe's.

Faucet I found at Williams Distributing while I was looking for a toilet. 

Countertop tile is from the Tile Shop. They have a few 2' x 2' granite and quartz tile choices, and most of them have trim pieces for the edge. Of course I picked one that didn't have any, but in the end I think I like the square edge in this room better anyway.

Mirror came from Menard's.  I was planning on just framing the one we had, but somehow in it's trips on and off the counter during this process, it cracked.  Just buying a new one was more costly, but way easier.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  Feel free to comment with any questions.

Mid-Century Modern Dresser

This weeks project, or really last weeks, but I just haven't gotten around to posting it, is a dresser that has gone through a few changes.  It was a bargain corner(pre-craigslist) purchase before my second child was born.  I needed another dresser, and this was what I found.  I am sorry I don't have any before or in between pictures, just after.  

It started out white with simple tapered legs. I put small turned legs on it and put a fresh coat of paint on it.  Then when we moved from little boy to big boy I painted it blue and put a larger turned bun foot on it.  It's been that way for a long time. 

This summer my son decided he wanted a corner desk, and as good fortune would have it, that day there was a free one on craigslist that came with a chest. It is actually really heavy duty office furniture with a lateral file.  The desk went in the corner, and we took the dividers out of the file piece and put it in his closet for a dresser. Fits perfect!!  Someday I'll do a post on his room.

Anyway, the blue dresser came out and has been sitting in my dining room for a couple months. I thought it might get used elsewhere, but have decided to part with it. So...touched up the paint, changed the knobs and again changed the feet out for ones more fitting the style.  I really love how it turned out! Too bad I don't have a use for it.  

Here it is, it's on it's way to craigslist. 

I'm not the best photographer, and the lighting in my house is horrible.  If I would have dragged it outdoors and taken pictures in natural light the colors would have turned out way better. But, I don't have any helpers around, so this is what I get.  

The paint chip and the little sample on the lid look really navy, but in real life it turned out more of a grayish blue, which I'm really loving now.  I left the knobs and feet natural, and I think the contrast is cool.

The drawers are lined with a blue plaid wallpaper, and the door on the right had a slide out rack for hanging small clothes. It was a baby dresser to begin with.  

Here's the tag on the back to prove it.  It says, "Fine Baby Furniture Since 1897."

Here's one more picture with horrible glare from the window.  

Kinda wishing I had a baby boy to go with this, but he's a freshman this year. My baby days are behind me. 

If any of my local friend are interested, let me know. I'd be happy to see it in a new home.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Karilyn

Kitchen Pendant Lights

Hi again everyone! It's been quite awhile since I've blogged about anything.  Life seems to have taken over, but fall is here and I am determined to be more consistent with my life. I have a senior this year, which means open house come spring.  After helping a friend get ready for one this last spring, I decided to start early with my house projects so as not to be trying to do 100 things at the last minute.  I'm sure I'll still be doing 100 things come spring, but at least maybe I'll have 20 or so behind me.

I have a list of ideas/projects that seems to keep growing. One thing leads to another...(I hear a song in my head!) and I keep seeing more things I'd like to do.  So, I am going to try to stick at it and do at least one item a week. It's so fun to check something off the list.

This week I painted my kitchen lights, and put new shades on them.  I bought one shade about a year ago at Lowe's, but never did anything with it.  I picked up two more this week and went to town.

Here's the before picture.

I have 4 pendant lights and a ceiling fixture. The one on the left is the original shade. The three others are shades I found at a tag sale and the paint on the inside is slowly peeling off, dropping on the counter. The ceiling light has a ribbed shade, and the mottled brown color didn't match the others, and none of them looked good. Like they were going for antique bronze, but missed.

So I took them all down and figured out how to use the new drum shade I bought.

Then I spray painted them all satin black, then a light coat of oil rubbed bronze.  I love me some spray paint! In the midst of it I decided my green clock needed to be black, so it got a new coat too.

Here they are.  The pictures don't really do justice to the change, but trust me, it's a great improvement. They are all the same color, and I'm lovin' the new shades! The lights on picture was last night, the brighter one was this morning, the colors are much better. Notice also I decluttered the frig a bit for the pic.  

Don't love this light, but it will do for now.

I forgot to take a picture of the before clock, but here it is. Like my new black accents!

Well that's it for this week. I also refinished a table, but I'll show you that another day.

Thanks for stopping by.....

Cargo Pants Messenger Bag via Pinterest

I finally finished what I thought would be a quick project.  I started it a week ago Saturday, ran out of matching thread, and it sat there until today.  Quite awhile ago I pinned a tutorial to make a messenger bag out of a pair of cargo pants. Lucky for me, my son had a pair of army greenish ones that he said were ugly, and would never wear again. I'm pretty sure they were his choice a year ago, but his loss is my gain. Saved myself a trip to the thrift store, and a couple of bucks.

I think it turned out awesome!  Here is the link to the original post. noodle-head cargo pant messenger bag

I have used her patterns before, and really like them. I won't bother with a tutorial, you can just follow hers. It was pretty easy, and made from stuff I had on hand. The only thing I changed, was I made the strap adjustable with buttons.

I wasn't sure if I would want it as a shoulder bag, or a cross body messenger bag. This way, I can use it either way. I used a rectangular ring from an old strap in my stash. Not much gets thrown away around here, never know when you'll have a use for something. It's a bit of a curse, but usually works out for us!

You cut the front flap piece from one of the sides of the pant with the cargo pocket on it. My pair had these pockets on one side, and one larger pocket on the other. Not sure if these pockets are super useful, but they look cool, so I chose this side. My cell phone will fit in the bottom one.

I lined the bag and the strap with this fun print in a reddish coral print. I really like this color, and have a jacket in it that will look great together. I chose another floral print with a lot of colors to bind the flap and make inside pockets. Hoping spring will hurry up.  :) 

Put one of my labels on the outside pocket, I just like how it looks.

So there it is, my new bag. Another pinterest idea finished successfully. Yea!! Pretty sure I'll never get around to trying all of them, but it's still fun to have lots of ideas to choose from. 

Keep pinning!

Two Dollar Chair

Well, here it is.

 We were heading out to dinner one evening, and happened on an almost over garage sale. My husband and I jumped out, (against our children's wishes), and took a look. We saw this chair, and  I think it was marked down from $10 to $5. My husband and I looked at it, and the woman came up to us and said we could have it for $2. SOLD! Now, it looked pretty rough, but we could see it's potential.

The fabric was, as you can see, really worn out, and the arms were beyond filthy. I ripped the trim and nails from around the arms, to get rid of some of the yuck. 

Then I draped a blanket over it and there it sat, just like that for well over a year. Funny how after awhile you just get used to something, even if you don't like it. I couldn't decide on a fabric or color to recover it, so, it waited.

Then, when I put the chevron fabric on my wing back chair, I was inspired to finally do something with this chair. So, we un-upholstered it. It is the not fun part of upholstery, but not only to you get the yucky fabric off, you get patterns for your new pieces. 

You start at the bottom, taking it off piece by piece, and take a lot of pictures and remember the order that they came off. They will go back on in reverse order. This chair had 2 layers of cotton and horse hair on the seat, which I replaced with foam and dacron batting. It also had a major spring issue too, which required retying and new metal straps. Lucky I have an amazingly handy hubby, who loves to do that part for me.

This is what the bottom looked like after we took the black fabric cover off.

This is what it looked like after we took the straps and burlap off. It needed some major work. It was kind of wobbly too, and after removing the fabric and batting, we found the frame had a crack along the top. Again my hubby glued and screwed all the joints to make it sturdy again. 

After all that, we were ready to start putting it back together. I had found a fabric at Hobby Lobby that I liked, but it was a little pricey. That's probably why it sat for so long. But, with the 40% coupon, I decided it was my choice. I laid out all my removed pieces, figured yardage and went and bought fabric, gimp, foam, batting, staples and nail head trim. After I got the fabric home and started upholstering, I really fell in love with it. It's the coolest piece I have ever done.

It makes me happy every time I look at it!

The design on the fabric is shiny silver metallic. If you look in the cabinet to the right of the chair, the candlesticks are mercury glass I found at a garage sale last year. Perfect!

After

Before

It had great lines and the wood was in great shape, so it was worth the effort. I first just had gimp glued over the staples, but the nail trim really made it. 

One more shot of my new favorite!