What has been consuming my time?

So, what have I been up to lately?  I've been working like mad on a quilt.  Spending every spare minute working on it. Quilts are supposed to be a long ordeal.  A relaxing time spent maticulously planning, pinning, sewing and all around being exact.  Even if I were not in a time cruch, that would not be me!!  I am a no nonsense girl - - I like to see the finished product and sometimes that doesn't work out so well for me!  But this time it has worked just fine. 

Why the time crunch?  And why a quilt?  Well, handsome hubby is leaving soon (think Christmas) for a 6 month long - all expense paid - "vacation" with the Army.  Like my little positive twist on deployments?  Two weeks ago, he asked me if I would make a deployment quilt for him.  I did this last time he deployed also.  Last time, I had never made a quilt before, so it was a very simple big block quilt with lots of white squares that I ironed on pictures of the kids and I.  It really was pretty ugly!!  And all the pictures have since washed off.  Hubby doesn't ask for much, and he really never asks for any sewing projects, so how could I say no?  His only request was that he wanted a black background.

So, this is the quilt that I made him, it is a kaleidascope pattern that I absolutely love.  It is all made with just one piece of fabric.  Yeah!  No choosing 5 coordinating fabrics!  It is all fussy cut so that you have 6 exactly matching triangles, then you make the hexagons from there and sew it all together.  Sounds exact and time consuming, but if I can do it, anyone can!!

My favorite part about the whole thing is that from one piece of fabric, you get so many different hexagons and so many different color concentrations.  It's fun to figure out how to lay it all out so that the colors flow.  Here is the original fabric before I cut out the triangles...

I'm not really into dragons - - at all actually, but I knew that you would not see the dragons when the quilt was finised and the original fabric had great swirls and patterns in it that I knew would make fabulous hexagons.

Here is a close up of one of the hexagons.  This is one of my favorite types of quilts to make.  I have made a couple of other ones and even blogged about one of them here.

One of the special things I did with this quilt is that I embroidered Psalm 91 (typically known as the Soldiers Psalm) around the outside of the design.  It is hard to see in the pictures, but it turned out really nice. 

Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say

of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare

and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,

and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes

and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling—

even the Lord, who is my refuge—

then no harm will befall you,

no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him

and show him my salvation.”

I hope that as he is separated from us, he feels completely loved, prayed for, and missed as he snuggles (I'm sure he would really appreciate me using such a manly and tough word) in under his warm quilt.

Eeek! A Halloween Tour

Boo!

Since tomorrow is Halloween, and my kids are just bursting at the seams to get into costumes, I thought it would be fun to take a little Halloween tour.  Now, it would be really fun to take you room by room through my house and show you everything that I have done, but it would look something like this...

Yup, you guessed it, we are a Halloween blank canvas.  I'm still trying to unpack boxes here folks, there is not time for halloween decor!  Plus, you saw how many Christmas decorations I have (remember this) I cannot allow myself to start collecting decorations for any other holiday!  So, since my sweet friend Kristi does decorate for Halloween, she invited us in for a tour.  You might remember that we went on a tour of her house earlier this year, but here it is all spookified! 

Enjoy!

See those little containers?  They each have an perfect insect specimen in them that either Kristi or her son have collected - freaky cool!

Every well dressed witch has her hat, shoes, and transportation waiting for her by the door!

Spooky sillouettes!  Kristi made this creepy cute creation out of some salvaged architectural pieces, cardboard, pre-made Halloween decor, and Christmas ornaments, and ribbon.  Great combination! 

hocus pocus  -"spelled" out in tiny little vintage letter tiles

Danger!  Poison!

A spider resting on the coral.  No, this spider isn't real!

Lucky #13?  The funny thing is that unlucky 13 really is Kristi's lucky number!

Forks and moss - - so cute!  How does she think these things up?

Oh the details here - - make sure you look at each of the jars and their labels!  So cute!!!!  And the banner?  Fabulous - - these are Kristi's specialty, she custom hand makes them for all occasions and they all have so much detail in them!

Look at those!  It is the perfect blend of creepiness, vintageness, and creativness all displayed together!

Crows anyone?

The bug collection (or at least part of it).  And take a close look at those shells in the birdcage--they're all broken or parts have naturally been worn away, but their shapes are so interesting and some of their hidden beauty has been revealed.  Kristi purposely collected them that way! 

A close up of the nest those crows are watching over (or are trying to get at?).  Remember that Kristi collects nests?  This one was made of lavender and smells so good!  And yes, the eggs are real; the birds abandoned their sweet little nest before the eggs got a chance to hatch.

Thanks so much for taking us through your spookiness, Kristi.  You are always such and inspiration and you motivate me (and others I'm sure) to think outside the box, and be creative!

Lighter and Brighter and Miss 90's

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, you will know that since I moved I have been trying very hard to go "lighter and brighter."  A hard task for me at times since I seem to be naturally drawn to the darker, richer colors.  But it has been a fun challenge.  The easiest way to achive this has been by slipcovering my furniture.

Slipcovering is fantastic because you still have your original piece, without any damage done to it, it's kinda like a 2 for 1!  But even better, if you move alot, like we happen to (by the way, I just counted it up the other day... we have been married for 12 years and we have moved 24 times!  Gosh, that's like moving every six months, but in reality we have stayed in most places longer than 6 months!) then slipcovers are fantastic because you can very quickly and easily take them off before the packers come, throw them in the wash and pack them safely in a box yourself.  Then when you get to your new home, you can take it out, have a perfectly clean piece of furniture and if the movers happen to have scratched, dented, ripped, or otherwise mangled your piece, you can be non-stress about it and know you still have a beautiful cover to go on top.  When I make slip covers I do them very custom.  I like to have them look like it is an upholstered piece of furniture.  I know some people really like the loose fit, but for me, I like it to be snug and custom, so I use buttons and velcro to close up any seams that have to be able to open.   Here is one from a past post - - see how fitted it is and how the back is closed up by a row of buttons?

But when it comes to a piece of furniture that you absolutely can not stand the fabric on it, then I think it is time to reupholster!  Such was the case for my project this week.  I found this chair at the Salvation Army for $50. 

Not bad, it was in perfect shape as far as sturdiness, no smells, no odd stains that make you wonder.  It had a fabulous shape, look at the curved back...

It's one drawback?  It's  -"I'm still living in the early 90"s floral upholstery."  It definately was not fitting into "lighter and brighter."

 I did not want to keep Miss 90's current frock, so it was a perfect candidate for reupholstery.  One postive about reupholstery is that it take less fabric than slipcovers so I was able to look through my stash and use one of my fabrics that I have been wanting to use, but I knew I did not have enough for a slipcover. 

What do you think?  Isn't this a fabulous pattern?

And here is Miss 90's after her makeover!  I think she is showing herself quite well and she fits perfectly into my lighter and brighter livingroom makeover.  This room is almost done - - only 2 more slipcovers to go and then the big reveal!!

A Sneak Peek!

I had to put some sneak peeks on here of some projects I am working on!  First up... a chair before and after.  These chairs were saved from their trip to the trash pile but they obviously needed some work!  The fabric  on these chairs was in horrible condition, not to mention those UGLY legs! 

But look at this fabulous after!  A clean line, femanine, white slipcover.  I wanted to be able to keep the shape the curved top to these chairs, so the slipcover is  more like a jacket with the entire front fitting onto the chair and then closed with an entire row of buttons down the back.

Some closer details

And another sneak peek at a little Halloween  pillow I am working on.  So festive!

Broken

Oh, what a sad, sad day at my house :(  My sewing maching has broken down - - broken as in, can't pretend that it is working corectly - - broken as in, can't jerry rig it to make it work - - - broken as in... no sewing for me until it is fixed.    GRRRRR and I was working on so many fun projects right now!!!  I did pull out my old dinosaur machine.  The hamsters that are running around in it to make it go sound very tired and strangely metalic!  So no detailed or exact sewing on that one either.  Now all I have to do is figure out where to take my machine to get it serviced and figure out how to transfer my warranty from the CA shop to wherever the new shop is in VA.  Moving has so many little details that you just don't think of!

So, in light of the fact that no new crafty things are going on, I thought I would share some pictures of our little day trip to DC.  Going into "the city" is only a 30-45 min. drive depending on the traffic, but we like to take the metro in, so we don't have to worry about traffic or parking and we can just enjoy the day!  We love to go into DC, I would go at least once a week if I could still get everything else done that I needed to.  There is so much history and fun stuff to do.  I don't think we will ever be able to do it all, even if we are here for three years.  It is the perfect place for homeschooling.  Where better to learn American History than right where it all took place?  The best part about DC?  Being the "frugal" person that I am, I love the fact that almost everything is free!!  The Smithsonian -made up of something like 13 different museums in the DC area - and all of them FREE!!!

while we were walking toward the Washington Monument, we heard lots of helocopters going over...

and then we got to see Marine 1 land on the whitehoue lawn - - pretty cool!

looking from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument

Arlington Cemetary

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The view from the top of Arlington cemetary, over the cemetary, across the Potomac and the Washington Monument and Capitol in the background.  What a view and what a perspective.  Knowing that all of the people buried here have sacraficed their lives for everything that those monuments and buildings represent.  May we never take it for granted!

A Night in My Father's Vineyard

So this past weekend, I was invited to my Mom's church for a women's dinner.  "A Night In My Father's Vineyard."  While my Mom read various devotional selections about vineyards relating to John 15:5, "I am the Vine and you are the branches..." I painted.  It has been a long time since I have painted and I have to tell you I was a little nervous about pulling out the brushes for the first time in 3 years in front of a large room full of women!!  But it all worked out well.  I painted a landscape of a vineyard and then one large grape vine/plant with lots of grape clusters on it.  I wasn't 100% sold on it the night of the dinner, but after a little tweaking and some repainting the next day, I am quite pleased.  The church is going to hang it in their "meeting room" and put a frame around it.  It is a very large picture 8ft x 6 ft so it should make quite a statement!  Here are some pictures of the during - and wouldn't yuu know it, I didn't get any pictures of it completed!  Story of my life!

A Simple Slipcover

Everytime we move, I rearrange everything.  Nothing goes back in the same room it came out of (except for the obvious things like the dining room table and chairs - and maybe the couch)  it makes everything feel new and exciting again and it is an adventure for me to see how many different ways I can use an item.  My curtains always move rooms.  My former living room curtains, are now in the guestroom and my dining room curtains have been moved to the kitchen.  Before we moved I had a big garage sale and got rid of alot of stuff that had served it's purpose, but it was now time for them to move on and be someone elses treasures!  My policyis if it is still with us after two moves and I didn't use it in the last year, it is time to be repurposed!

This little beauty of a couch - I think technically it is called a settee - is a fabulous garage sale find!  I got it a little over a year ago.  It was a random morning that I decided to go "saling" and miracle upon miracles I did not even have a child with me!!  I was pulling up into a little cul de sac that had about 4 family garage sales, kinda just getting ready to do the drive by thing, when this beauty literally made me squeel my tires as I simultaneously stopped the van, put it in park, and jumped out.  I just knew she was going to have a sold sign on her already - but she didn't (woohoo!).  I asked how much and when they said $20, I couldn't whip my cash out fast enough!!  Twenty dollard - you have got to be kidding me?!  Actually, she didn't look so good, she had a green metalic paint gracing her legs and a horrible metalic gold upholstery job, but I could see her potential!!

here she is after I fixed her all up in our old home (obviously at Chirstmas time!)

I packed her up and brought her home with me.  At the time I wanted a golden colored upholstery fabric on her and I spraypainted the frame black - - it served it's purpose at our old house right in front of the kitchen counter/bar area that opened up into the diningroom.  It was a great place for people to hangout while last minute preperations were being made on dinner and it was a great stepstool for the kids to reach the sink from the backside!

When we moved here, she needed a new home.  So she got moved to our bedroom.  The creamy yellow/gold fabric does not work in there at all, so I thought it was a great opportunity to make a very simple slipcover.  I wanted something that still showed off her details and her "curves!"

here she is with her new slipcover - - I think that I need to paint her frame white and distress it a little...What do you think?

I love the details of this simple slipcover, I gently rounded the sides of the arms to follow the curve of the frame

Besides just draping a large piece of fabric over a piece of furniture, this is by far the easist slipcover I have ever done.  Hardly any precision work, no separate cushion, and no funny angles.  In fact, other than hemming it, the only sewing I had to do was to attach the two arms - - so easy!!

Just attaching the entire thing with simple twill tape bows, keeps it feminine and oh so easy!!

and just because she is so pretty, here she is again!!

I do have to admit, that this is a very poor before and after because the before picture, in my opinion, is a lot better than the after. It was Christmas for goodness sakes and the picture was taken just minutes before lots and lots of people walked through my home for "Tour of Homes" - - so the house was as close to perfect as it was ever going to get!  Just remember that my house is a work in progress, and that we aren't painting any walls here, but eventually when I get my bedroom all put together, it is going to be a very white, spa-like, very relaxing room.  Are you seeing it?  Yes, I probably need to paint the woodwork and distress it or maybe do a blue glaze over it to show off the carving details.  What do you think?

I took pictures as I went along, but I am now second guessing myself as far as posting a "how to" - - just not sure if anyone would really be interested.  So if you would like to see how to, just leave me a comment and I will work it up.