A new quilt..

I get so much inspiration from blogland for decorating and sewing and quilting. I stumbled on V's blog quite by accident this past year and loved her projects and posts.

You can find her here

I have to tell you all about Vanessa. She started her blog a while back as a way for her then G.I.Joe hubby to keep in touch and see what the family was up to while he was deployed. She has made me laugh, cry and yes, even spit my cereal all over my laptop screen with some of her posts. She is funny, talented and she keeps it real when she posts. She is wonderful with color and when she posted about a quilt she was working on that would eventually find a home at the end of her bed....I couldn't help myself. I had to make one too! I love the simplicity of the pinwheel block and the white squares just makes them pop.

Vanessa used Shangri-La fabrics by 3 Sister's for Moda. That's her quilt over there on the right. Isn't it beautiful? I loved the color combo and immediately headed off to ebay to see if I could find some. I found some, but was outbid. **Sigh** So, I ended picking my own fabrics. I really love the Glacee line that has come out by Moda and thought the color combo would go well for where I want my quilt to reside. I plan on laying it over the sofa in my living room.

I finally got a chace to quilt the other day. A beautiful sunny day. I love to sew on my machine by a window with natural light. I spent some time cutting(not my fave part. Thank heavens for charm packs. Hmmm, wonder if they have charm packs for the white material too??? A little sewing and piecing later and voila! I was able to get three blocks done and then, unfortunately, I realized what time it was and had to cook dinner.

Incidently, I did find some yardage of Shangr-La and some of the wovens at my local quilt shop, but they didn't have enough variety in color and print, so I picked maybe one or two of them and the rest will be the Glacee. Enough babbling, here are my fabric picks so far.

See that red one??? It's my favorite. They also have it in a light blue. I just might have to make some pillows for my couch to match.

Here is a pic of my pinwheels.

V also has a tutorial on her blog on how to make a pinwheel block. You can find it here:http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2008/09/so-its-quilt-month-over-at-mr.html

I will keep you all updated on the progress as I go along. It will be slow going as V can attest to. But the end result will be worth it.

In the meantime, hop on over to V's and tell her Cheryl sent ya. She also is a frequent guest designer over at http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/07/fabric-strawberries.html Go check out one of her latest projects.

These strawberries are just the cutest thing

Have a blessed day!

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A NEW FEATURE.....

A while back I was trying to make the blog a bit more interesting for you all and I tried to incorporate a day where I shared recipes with you and another day where I shared papercrafts with you...specifically card making. Well, that ended up going to the wayside. I just didn't have time to make cards each week to share with you and I was quickly running out of recipes to share with you as well.

Well, I am at it again. I plan on starting a new feature. If you remember about a month or two ago I did a feature on the mason/ball jars. I have quite a few and I thought I would share them with you as well as their history.

Country Living Magazine does this in each of their issues and I always look forward to it. So, I will be doing a feature each month similiar to it. I haven't decided on what I will name the feature yet. It will either be "DID YOU KNOW?" or "HISTORY CLASSICS." If you have some suggestions for the name of the feature let me know in the comment section or drop me an email. You can find my email on the side bar.

I would also like to have some of those linky parties. Have you all seen them? Lotsa blogs have them and it's such a nice way to meet others and get to see other blogs; as well as, see all the other creativity and talent that so many folks have out there. I gotta figure out how that linky thing works first before I have a linky party though.

Oh, and here is a big one. LOL, this is supposed to be a quilting blog with other tidbits of things I like to do, but do you ever see me post about that??? Nope! Gonna try and change that. I am going to try and sew at least once or twice a week and share with you all on here. I have two quilts in progress at the moment and will be snapping some pics to share with you all. I also have a pieced top I need to get quilted and send it on to it's new owner. Oh, and I have not forgotten about the Cathedral window block tutorial. It's just a matter of time I need to snap and do each step. I want to do it correctly and have step-by-step pics so you know exactly how to do it....because if I can do it, you can too. It's really not hard at all. Just patience really.

I will be posting pics later today of the two quilt tops I am working on so check back later.

have a blessed day in whatever you do!Pin It Now!

GIVEAWAY!!

Jodi from http://simplythisthatandtheother.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway. She is being featured over at http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/07/christmas-table-ensemble.html

She made a lovely Christmas table ensemble from one turnover and a yard of white fabric. Isn't it pretty?? If you click my link to her blog above you can read about the rules and how to enter.

Good Luck!

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Tour of my home....PART II

Thanks to everyone that posted suggestions on the foyer and the living room. Loved your ideas. I may have to do research on distressing furniture before I actually try it Christine.

I am definitely going to slipcover and do pillows...it's just a matter of when. I am excited and a little nervous about attempting the slipcover. I need to just get over it and DO IT!!

And now, the tour continues. Across from the living room is the dining room. This is what you see from the living room if you are sitting on the couch. I should of closed the curtains and put the chandelier light on. Sorry the room is so dark. You can click on it to see it bigger if you like. That table and buffet and four chairs we got on sale at a local furniture store. I wanted a table from Pottery Barn, but didn't want to pay the price. Their table was $1500 all by itself. We bought this table and four Windsor chairs and the buffet for less than $1400! And yes, it's all wood. No veneers. We wanted to be able to seat 12 people comfortably. We already had six ladder back chairs. One thing though that Idon't like is that the ladder back chairs are pine and we bought and stained them years ago...the finish kind of looks mahogany..reddish type of look and the Windsor chairs are Oak as is the table and buffet. All this to say that sometime in the future we are painting all the chairs black. I know, things don't have to be matchy , matchy, but I like uniformity and things pleasing to the eye.

Here is a closeup of the Windsor chair and part of the table. Love it! Those holes that you see on the apron of the table is where we slip the sleeves in and there are locks under the table to keep it secure. This table is huge with the sleeves. It can seat 12 people comfortably.

And here is a pic of the ladder back chair. Hopefully you can see it and see how the stain is dramatically red against the oak.

Directly behind the chair that you see to the right is the buffet. Love this piece. It's just deep enough to hold a lot of extra linens and other stuff that I can't fit in the kitchen cabinets. But as you will see in the next photo I am slacking in the vignette department on it. Again, not the greatest pic to see. You can click on it to see it bigger. We've moved a lot. Everyone time I start hanging stuff on the walls and getting the house fixed just the way I like it, We have to move. So, as you tour, you will see few things on my walls for that very reason. That runner is a Christmas runner. I really need to change that out. Mostly everything on that buffet will come off except the candle and the dough bowl. I plan to put that print in another room. I have purchased a vinyl phrase from Upper Case living and it will go above the buffet. The phrase says, "Come gather at our table."

I have one more of the dining room and lots more of the kitchen, but I have to pick up my son from golf camp. I will post more of the tour later this afternoon.

Enjoy!

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House Tour continued...the living room

Okay, to the right of the foyer is the living room. It's not a great big living room, but just the right size. Several years ago I was big into the country look. I especially liked the hunter greens and browns at the time. Black was in then and so I acquired a piece or two of black furniture to round things out. The end result...too dark or warm of a room. I also had cream berber carpet when all this furniture was bought. Looked nice on a cream colored carpet. Here, I think it's too dark. Anyhow, here I am standing in the foyer at the front door looking into the living room. That sofa is so comfortable. The fabric on there is chenille. Man, is it comfy. It is a Broyhill piece. So are the other two chairs in this room. Hubby and I bought the whole set on sale for less than $1200 five years ago. The only bad thing about that purchase was that we couldn't get the two chairs in any other fabrics. Because it was on sale, it was as is. At that time we had no living room furniture. We just moved into our house, so, I said okay, let's get it.

Next up is the wing chair. This is the piece I want to tackle making my own slipcover for. I can't tell you how many books I have checked out at the library and even bought one from Barnes and Noble about slipcovering. I think I should be able to do it. I just need a good week to get it done.

To the right is an end table that I really liked when I bought it. I was going for British Colonial when we moved into this house with this room. I thought this table was unique and had character and so, I bought two of them. Now that I want to do the Beach cottage look it's not so good. Matchy matchy is not beach cottage and I don't think this warm wood tone would qualify either.

Now onto the black piece. Well, I really wanted to buy "good furniture." You know, well made furniture. That is why we bought the Broyhill set. Well, armoires or anything of that nature that were well made were out of my league price range wise, so we broke down and purchased this piece to hide the computer. It is a Sauder piece and cost less than $250. It survived our move without a scratch, so I am still happy with it. The nesting boxes on the shelf say "Faith, Hope, Love."

Here is a close up .
Two more pics and then that's it. The other chair in the room is to the left of the couch. The style is called English. I love this chair. We refer to it as the "stubby chair." Probably because of it's clean , but plump lines. It's very comfortable to read a book in too. I have fallen asleep there many a time. To the right of the chair is a piano. We got that for FREE!! It was a gift from someone at church to our daughter for Christmas when she was ten. She wanted to learn how to play the piano. Lastly is a pic looking in the living room from the dining room. We have a coffee table there and I am not sure if you can tell or not, but it matches the end tables. Surprise, surprise! LOL, all three of those pieces were from Target from their Woolrich line.

LOL, are you till with me. Sorry for such a long post. This is it for the first half of the tour. Saturday I will post the dining room and kitchen and then on Monday, I will post the family room and first floor powder room.

I am looking to change up my look to beach cottage, but not spend a terrible amount of money. I am thinking making Robins Egg Blue the accent color in there like on the pillows maybe or red. Slipcover the the wing chair and other chair in a drop cloth and change out those tacky lamps we have in there. They just are not doing it for me. LOL.

Any ideas or suggstions you have would be wonderful. Thanks in advance.

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MY HOUSE TOUR...

Well, grab yourself a cuppa sweet tea and join me on my house tour. Let me first start by saying that I totally kept it real. I didn't even tidy up for these pictures. So, look past the dust and the clutter.

Let's start at the front door in our foyer. It's a two story foyer...HUGE. We have never had such a big foyer before. It's nice especially when we have visitors over and we say goodbye and whatnot. Plenty of room to hug and hand out coats and such in the foyer.

I am standing at the front door in this picture. Looking straight on as I come in. The stair well to the second floor is on my right as well as the living room not show in this pic. To my left is a green bench and a HUGE expanse of a wall. Here is where I need your help. That three tiered piece of furniture you see is something the hubs made for me for Christmas years ago. I saw a piece exactly like it in the furniture store, but it was waaaay too much money. So, he went and got the meausurements and set out to make it for me himself...waaay cheaper. He finished it just in the nick of time for Christmas, but didn't have time to stain or paint it....and now five years and a move later, there it sits. Not painted or stained. Now, he says it can't be stained because all his imperfections will show up. Okay, fine so now I have to paint it, but what color??? Does it look better on the wall you see it? Or would it look better where the bench is? If I leave it on the wall where it is now, I would like to paint it cream. But if I switch it with the bench, I can't paint it cream because that wall is pretty close to a cream color. I don't want to paint it black if I put it on the cream wall. So, what color then?

If I leave both pieces where they are now, my goal is to hang a quilt above the bench on that wall expanse. I also want to use the tiered piece to display seasonal items. I am not too sure I like the barn star above it or not. I may have to spray paint it another color. Maybe cream. I am going for a lighter look in my home. Once you get the rest of the tour you will understand why.

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MY FIRST TUTORIAL

Tomorrow I will be posting my first ever tutorial. I sure hope you all find it easy to follow and you enjoy the finish product. If I get a good response from the tutorial, I will be posting a second one next week.

My dad sent me a new memory card, so I was busy snapping away today. I took lots of pics of my house...inside and out to share with you all. I have lotsa of ideas rumbling in my head about how to change the look of my decor and sure could use the help of all you all out in blogland. I see so many makeovers and trash to treasures that turn out so well . I get so inspired,but if it calls for paint, I never can make a decision. Hopefully I can get all the pics up late this evening for you all. Please leave comments on what I should change, colors, etc. Hopefully this will help me to finish up some of my projects.

Have a great evening.Pin It Now!

TV FREE....

Yes, you read that correctly. We are doing TV free month. We started this years ago with our kids. Each summer, for one month, we don't watch TV. Now, that means we don't turn it on to watch the news, our shows or anything of that nature. We do however, occassionally rent a couple of videos. That is permissable. It's been nice over the years doing this.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not all peaches and cream. As a matter of fact, the very first time we did this was back in 2003 the kids and I had withdrawals ....BAD! Being at home all day during the summer with the kids and no TV! It was torture, I tell ya. Now, I am a hardcore HGTV and FOODNETWORK watching fool. It was hard, but we managed. We found other things to do rather than sitting in front of the proverbial box. We played board games, cards, chess, backgammon or my favorite...."READ."

I never realized how much we watched TV. You know, we have it on while we cook for background noise. We have our favorite TV shows we like to tune into each week and then we just turn it on because it's habit.

Well, this summer we started TV free month the weekend leading up to Fourth of July. So, around the end of this month, TV free month will be over. However, we have done something different this time than we have done in the past. We've always had cable or satellite and this time, before we went TV the hubs cancelled the satellite services. So, no more HGTV or FOODNETWORK for this gal. It will be interesting to be abe to watch TV again when we are able to. There may be nothing on to watch with just regular ole TV with no cable or satellite services. Who knows, we may just keep it off all the time.

I will let you know how it all fairs when we are able to turn the "box" back on again.

Have you done TV free month, week, or day? Share your family experiences with me. I would love to hear them.Pin It Now!

HAPPY MONDAY!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

I am still not able to share pics with you all yet. I mentioned in a previous post that I got my dad a digital photo frame for Father's Day and used my memory card to drop in the frame. Well, that was a BIG no no I found out. My dear husband informed me that was a pretty big memory card and a little pricey and I need to go out and get another small megabyte one and snap some pics of the kiddos to send to my dad. My dad was so sweet and understanding. He is sending back the memory card. So, hopefully soon I will have some pics to show you. I know I like seeing pics on other blogs. They make the writing come to life.

In other news, I am on a quest. A quest to lose weight. 35lbs. to be exact. So far I have lost seven. I feel good so far. Have lots more energy and clothes are starting to fit a little better. I am exercising six days a week. Lifting weights every other day and watching what I eat. Meaning no seconds, no matter how good the meal was. I am also finding out that my love of desserts may have to take a back seat to maybe once or twice a month.

Enjoy your day!Pin It Now!

Drop Cloth love...

Some folks have been doing some awesome stuff with dropcloths. Take a look at this. Jen over http://sanctuaryart.blogspot.com/2009/06/just-in-case-you-werent-sure.html is very creative. I love anything with wording. I may just have to copy this one. Click on the link to see how she used the drop cloth she had.

Wendy over at http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/ loves to use numbers on just about anything. She is another creative lady. Take a look around her blog and also check out her post for today. She used a dropcloth to recover a chair recently with a little help from a friend.

http://vintagechica.typepad.com/the_life_and_times_of_thi/2009/04/upcycle-a-painters-drop-cloth-tree-house-pillows.html Go give the Vintage Chica a looksee. She has used drop cloths in some utilitarian ways. I am all for decorating up and making things look great on the cheap, but I also am very practical. Here is another way she used a dropcloth.http://vintagechica.typepad.com/the_life_and_times_of_thi/2009/03/how-to-make-a-spill-proof-tablecloth.html I love this idea as well. She didn't just throw it on the table she personalized it and it looks great.

I still have to show you my drop cloth drapes. I also have several other projects I am using canvas fabric or dropcloths on making a few things. So stay tuned to for that.

It's another lovely day here. Sun is out. Great temps and STILL much to be done out in the yard. We are still doing yardwork. Mulching the whole back yard, staining our deck and this weekend the hubs did some work with patio pavers....nope, no patio. That would be nice, but he didn't do a patio. We have an area just below the steps from our deck where we put our trash can and water hose holder and we needed a better area for them to be on so he paved the way! (Pun intended.)

Enjoy your day in your part of the world!Pin It Now!