Goodbye Miss America - - Hello Beautiful!!! (Deployment Project #121)

There truly wasn’t anything overly wrong with this chair before I re-upholstered it.  The fabric was in great condition.  And, for having a white background, it was also very clean.  In fact, this is the first chair that I have ever re-upholstered that I didn’t find popcorn in the chair when I took the old fabric off!!

The only thing wrong with this chair was her style.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a very patriotic lady, and so is my friend who is the proud owner of this chair.  But she was ready for a change.   We headed over to Joann's and perused their selection of fabrics - - we finally decided on this fabulous blue and cream fretwork fabric. 

I absolutely loved working with this fabric!  It was the perfect weight, had the perfect amount of stretch, and it looks fabulous on the chair!  It is “Lovely Lattice” by Waverly.

 

  

 

A Surprise for Daddy!!

My friend Laura is a SUPER talented photographer - - like the real professional kind!!  I didn’t know that when I met her in our small group at church, then one day I stumbled upon her blog and realized that I already knew this talented lady!!  She volunteered to take some pictures of the kids and I to surprise Handsome Hubby with while he is deployed.

The plan was to take pictures outside, but it was actually too sunny outside and Laura just started clicking away inside our house.  She completely blew me away when I saw the proofs.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but the thought of pictures inside my house certainly doesn’t sound inspiring to me. 

Laura did an awesome job!  She made it look like we were in a magazine shoot or something - - and really, she made my house look amazing!  It sure does help that my kiddos are so CUTE!!!

 

She captured us in our everyday activities.

  

And she took some shots of me so that I can put an up-to-date picture of me on my blog!!

 

We love you Daddy and we miss you so so much!!

We are going CRAZY without you!!

Laura specializes in engagement and wedding photography.  You defiantly need to check out her site and see all her work.  She  is getting ready to move to Fort Campbell, KY so if you are in that area, you may want to look her up!!

A Pretty Oops! (Deployment Projects #112- 120)

Today was a day filled with pillow making – and a few other projects!  I made 8 pillows and a cushion today - -  I call that a productive day!  Four of the pillows were for a friend, and 4 were for me. 

I wanted to change out the pillows in my living room - - nothing fancy, nothing too dramatic, I just wanted to bring in a little more blue.  Last week while I was perusing our local Salvation Army, I found a king size flat sheet that is the perfect color blue.  For $1.99 you can’t beat the price!  I was able to make 4 pillows and I still have fabric left over!

Two of the pillows are finished with a vintage crocheted lace trim.  They turned out so sweet! 

The other two were supposed to have a matching tiny knife pleat edge (this would be where the Pretty Oops comes in) - - I was a little sidetracked while I was sewing the second pillow and I didn’t pay attention to which direction I sewed the pleats on which meant that the rough edge ended up on the outside.  I decided that instead of ripping it all out, I would just go with it and see what happens.  Turns out, I really kind of like the effect.  It has a rough, fraying, ruffled effect.

Isn’t is a pretty look on the couch - - the blue really frame the bird pillows beautifully.

Here are the other pillows I made today - - this is a fabulous idea - - my friend is getting ready to move, and her new home has a front porch with plenty of room for a wicker couch and two chairs.   I’m working on the cushions for the furniture, but today I made the pillows.   She had me embroider the house number on one pillow and “Welcome” on the other.  These will be on the chairs right by her front door.  What a cute way to help people find your home!!  Love it!

This last pillow is for my friend’s new dining room.  She has an old church pew that she is going to put along one wall in there for extra seating.  I made the cushion for the pew today and this sweet pillow.

“The fondest memories are made gathered around the table.”     

“Dear Jesus, Please make the time go by quickly.” Breaking 100 in the Deployement Project #’s!!

Along with their other requests and praises, my kids pray this every night before they go to bed.  They want the time until Daddy comes back home to go quickly.  I couldn’t agree more, but I do have to say that I believe God is answering their prayers!  I tell you what, the time is flying - - and that is a good thing, but I’m not sure if I can keep up!!  I did not even realize that my last post was two weeks ago!  Yikes!!

Thank goodness you all are patient, kind and loving readers!!  It is not for a lack of projects for me to post about, that is for sure!!  I have been sooooooooooo busy with projects, I feel like I have about a 100 to post (ok, maybe not 100 that might be an exaggeration) but actually finding the time to post seems to be the problem!!  Of course, tonight I am taking a project break while I  sit here writing a  post and  watching the Survivor Finale at the same time!!  Multi-tasking at it’s best.

So, here’s a Deployment Project Update:  (sorry, I didn’t take pictures of it all - - it’s that whole time management thing!!)

Since I last posted, I have made 14 pillows

 

Embroidered 4 more sheets

My mantra for now!  Keep calm and carry on!

Sewed 3 dresses and 1 shirt

Painted 2 more Station Signs

Re-upholstered 2 couch cushions

Sewed 3 camera straps

and Re-upholstered this sweet bench.

 

And - - through all of that I have taught school ( we are almost finished for the year - - wooohooooo!!!), kept the house fairly well maintained,  made it to they gym (although not as much as I would have like to!)  mowed the lawn (until the mower died, then I just gave up on that one!), chauffeured the kids back and forth to swimming, fencing, art lessons, guitar lessons,Awana,  and birthday parties, had my Mom and Dad visit for a long weekend to celebrate my birthday and Mother’s Day, had a great friend come this weekend and give me some “Design Intervention,”  picked up some sweet deals on craigslist (can’t wait to share those with you!) - - oh, and I even fed the kids a few well-rounded healthy meals! 

Whew!  See why there hasn’t been any posts lately?  That takes my Deployment count to 111!!!

I could sit and beat myself up about not posting as often as I would like, but I had a sweet new blogger friend, Linda, remind me in an email this week, “Looking forward to your next blog, but remember that your kids come first and your blog groupies understand that so we wait patiently.”    Thanks Linda!

Hopefully there will be more posts, more often, but I can’t promise that.   I can promise you that I do have some fabulous projects that I am currently working on and eventually I will post about them!! 

Bolster Pillow Tutorial (Deployment Project #81)

Let’s use all those sweet pleats I showed you how to make yesterday and use them on a bolster pillow!!

First I embroidered my words, “Always” & “Forever” on a piece of white fabric.

Then I cut this fabric down to pillow size.  For a bolster pillow, I cut it 2” wider than the pillow (for your seam allowance) and then - - this is really technical - - I wrap the fabric around my pillow and overlap it by 6” ( to allow for my button closure)

Next, it is time to attach the pleating.  Lay the pleating, even with your cut edge of your fabric…

Sew your pleating to your cover - - remember, you will want the finished edge of your pleating facing in and the rough edge matching up with the cut edge of your fabric.    Attach it from top to bottom – – we will finish the edge next.

Making the button closure:

 

Make a 1” hem along the top of your pillow cover.  Iron and sew it down.

 

Find the center of  your pillow cover – along the edge that you just sewed – and mark  it with a small dot.  This is where your center button hole is going to be.  Make a mark every 3” to the right and the left.  I usually try to have an odd number of buttons.  It just seems to look better (usually I go with 5).

 

Sew all your button holes.

A little trick for opening up your button holes is to put a straight pin at on end of the hole…

 

Poke your seam ripper into the opposite end of the button hole…

 

Slide your seam ripper up until it hits the straight pin.  See wasn’t that a fin little trick?!  ;)

Now it time to make your pillow a perfect fit.

Lay your cover face down…

 .

Place your pillow on top…

 

Fold your unfinished edge over your pillow…

 

Fold your button hole edge over the unfinished edge to determine exactly where you should finish the other side.  Remember that you want an overlap so that you can attach your buttons!!  Finish this edge exactly the same way that you did the first one.

 

Now, with the fabric wrapped around your pillow again, it is time to mark where your buttons are going to go.

 

Simply fold back at each button hole and make a small dot.

 

 

Sew all your buttons on.

 

Now, all we have left is to put the sides on your pillow.  Cut out 2 circles of fabric that are 1” wider all the way around than you pillow.

 

Clip along the rough edge of the side you attached your ruffle to - - this will help ease the seam as you sew around the circle.

Now, line up your end of rough ruffle edge that has the button hole end with the edge of one of your circles.  Sew this all the way around your circle overlapping the end that has the buttons attached over the button hole edge.

 

Repeat this with the other circle.

 

Turn your pillow right side out.

Insert your pillow form…

Button your buttons and enjoy your finished pillow!!