• Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    T Tuesday: scrap quilt edition

    Thanks for joining me today for T stands for Tuesday with Elizabeth and the gang. I missed last week completely and for the life of me, I can’t even remember what kept me from my weekly post!!! Oh well…on with the show!

    scrap quilt in progress

    I’ve been sorting through my bins of fabric and separating out all the long strips and random shapes to be cut down for my new string quilt project. This pile is 70% blues as I was collecting them for a little boy quilt over a decade ago.  After ironing, I cut each piece down to between 1.5 and 2.5 inches wide.

    scrap quilt progress

    I am piecing the quilt using paper squares with a white strip down the center to serve as a design element in the completed quilt. I’ve used a gluestick to adhere it to each sheet so they are ready to go as I sew. I just eyeballed it so they won’t be perfect but I’m ok with that. It is a scrappy quilt after all.

    scrap quilt in progress

    I shortened my stitch length so that the paper gets perforated and is easy to remove from the fabric once trimmed.

    scrap quilt in progress

    I have a nice little stack of them already.

    scrap quilt in progress

    And look how fun they are going to look when sewn together.

    scrap quilt in progress

    Colorful and scrappy. The other really fun thing for me is that it will be sort of a memory quilt or perhaps fabric journal of previous projects, clothing I’ve salvaged and reminders of people who have passed on but a little part of them lives on for me in the fabric as a memory.  Now just look at that, I’m getting all nostalgic.

    Since this is a post about quilts on T stands for Tuesday, I thought it was a good time to share a bottle of wine my in-laws brought over. I remembered to nab a photo at the very last glass.

    barn quilt wine

    It’s called Barn Quilt Red. This winery is one of three in a small town west of here. The soil must be good for grapes out there. This wine gives a nod to the barn quilts of Carver County.

    barn quilt wine

    The barn quilts are really cool. I haven’t seen all 24 but the ones I have seen are really cool. In fact I think I have a photo of one here on the blog somewhere…hmmm….must look now….here it is!

    rural landscape 1

    This one can be seen from the MN Landscape Arboretum.

    Anyway…more sewing, ironing and cutting,,,not necessarily in that order are in store for me as well as the standard household duties.

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Blog - Crafts - Creativity - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: domestically inclined edition

    Hello there…you came back for yet another edition of T stands for Tuesday! Thank you! For those of you who are new to my blog, WELCOME and let me tell you a little about T stands for Tuesday. Elizabeth aka alteredbooklover hosts a weekly link up or virtual tea party, if you will, where we share what ever the heck we want for the week as long as we can somehow tie a beverage or beverage related item into the mix. Pretty simple huh? So lets get on with it, shall we…

    This week I’ve been a mix of artsy and domestic. I’ve previously posted a couple of artsy things so now you get to see some of my domesticity. Last week…no, two weeks ago (geez where does the time go) I shared our “new” hutch for T stands for Tuesday. I mentioned that I need to make a curtain to cover the wine rack shelf. I went searching through a box of vintage linens and found the perfect solution.

    vintage linen

    Simple beauty. These were my Grandma’s as well. Or perhaps her sisters…a cousin of mine just told me a story that my grandma talked her sister out of a bunch of linens saying that she needed them more in the parsonage than her sister did on the farm.  Hmmm…

    vintage linen

    I’m guessing these were purchased by my grandparents in Minneapolis if the stickers are to be believed. Dayton’s became a upscale department store here in the midwest and started the discount chain Target.

    After ironically running to Target to pick up a tension rod, I realized that I wouldn’t even have to cut these linens. I folded them in half and ran a straight line of stitching an inch from the fold.

    vintage linen curtain

    This gave me a double layer of fabric providing more light blocking which was exactly what I was going for with this project.

    vintage linen curtain The linen curtain makes this piece feel more Scandinavian. Marvin still loves his spot by the door and really could care less about the curtain.

    canning

    I did a bit of canning and baking as well when the weather cooled down.

    spicy beans

    I made spicy beans, zucchini bread and pumpkin bread. I like having a little bit of baked goods in the freezer just in case we are suddenly having company and I was completely out.

    I also have to share a day that Mini-me  and I had about a month ago. I keep meaning to share but it just hasn’t worked out. She’s been wanting to dye her hair…not all of it but some. A streak or some underneath. She just couldn’t decided so we waited. She finally decided, so we did it.


    IMG_1210

    IMG_1211

    It’s faded now quite a bit so we are going to redo it likely in the next couple weeks before school starts.

    We went out to eat at Old Chicago to celebrate her fun new hair. It’s one of her favorite restaurants.

    20160723_9733

    Well that’s it for today. I’ve got another busy Tuesday ahead of me but I’ll be around eventually to visit.

    What are you doing today?

  • Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    Holy scrap!

    I made this barn wood and fabric cross piece entirely from scraps. Yep, leftovers from other projects…not a dime spent.

    Holy scrap barnwood and fabric cross

    The printed fabric was from the curtains I recently shortened and lined, the barn wood came from the same gal as they had leftovers from remodel project and the brown suede was from a jacket I cut up long ago.

    My inspiration was from Pinterest. There were no directions but the idea seemed simple enough. I used a staple gun to attach the fabric and a hot glue gun to adhere the suede center piece. Five minute project…seriously. I gave it to the family that just remodeled as sort of a “new space” warming gift since it perfectly matched the room. 🙂