Category Archives: Projects

Quilts, decorating house/cabin, sewing, painting

Threads of Grace……

07 Thursday Apr 2011

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A few months back a young lady from a local hospice came to our Quilt Guild and spoke to us about making something out of an item belonging to clients who had passed on.  Our finished product would be given to the loved who had provided the item. 

The program was called Threads of Grace and she brought an example  of what had been made by someone else.  The items provided could be a favorite dress, shirt, robe, blanket, handkerchief, tie,  gown, or pajamas, etc.  She asked for volunteers to sign up and she would give us a call when she had an item.

My call came a couple of months later and she gave me a soft yellow knit robe from an elderly lady.  The lady’s adult granddaughter brought it in along with a picture.

The hardest part to me was the deconstruction of the garment, not only physically but mentally.  What if I got it apart and couldn’t make anything out of it?  How do I make it represent the personality of the person who passed?  A lot of thought went into this and at times I didn’t know if I could do it!

The robe had a small inset satin embroidered collar, zipped up the front, and small scalloped trim on the pockets and sleeves.  After a few days or weeks of studying this,  I decided to make a small pillow with the grandmother’s picture on it and use some of the embellishments to add to it.

For those of you who sew, you know knit is not the easiest fabric to sew on, so the first thing I had to do after deconstruction was stabilize the fabric.  I used a fusible featherweight Pellon and adhered it with an iron on the wrong side of the fabric before I put the scissors to it.I then decided what size pillow I wanted and cut out the front and back of the pillow. 

The next step was to  transfer the picture to fabric using my scanner, printer and Printed Treasures fabric sheets for inkjet printers to create the cloth picture.  Then I sewed the trim to the picture and the picture to the front of the pillow.

 

I knew I wanted to use the embroidered collar in some way,  so here is what I envisioned.   

   

The next thing was to decide what else I needed to add and what to use. 

I love fabric roses and had made several for another project.  The knit fabric, being hard to control because of curling and raveling, gave me the idea to use the hem of the garment.  I cut it off  about an inch above the hem and ran a gathering stitch through it.  That way I had no raw edges on the petals of the roses.

I used the zipper pull to create the antennae of the butterfly and tacked it on with thread and a little Fabri-tac glue leaving the ends loose.  I attached the wings and the body of the butterfly so that it appeared 3-D.  Once all of that had been done, I sewed the back to the front and stuffed the pillow.  Whip stitched the opening and I was finished.

It gave me great joy and pleasure to make this for someone.  I know when my Daddy died, I got all of his ties and made pillows for my mother, my sister and my niece.  I never made one for myself and still have a few ties left.  Someday.

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It’s just paint……

24 Thursday Mar 2011

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In 2003 we moved from the ever growing and busy Roswell, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) back to middle Tennessee.  Although we miss our friends and our family in Georgia, we absolutely love being back home in Tennessee. 

In our search to find a new home, we lucked upon a new home in a great subdivision with an amazing view.

Of course, although a new home, some things were not our taste and HAD to be changed.  Walls and trim had to be repainted in some rooms, some structural changes in a bathroom to accommodate our son and his needs, but the biggest change was the kitchen.

Golden Oak cabinets and builder beige or white walls are definitely NOT me.  Below are the before pictures. Followed by the outcome after many laborious hours.

After scouring many, many magazines and conferring with my BFF, it was decided that the cabinets would be black and distressed.  I got out the sand paper, palm sander, tack cloth and began the work.

Results after many hours of  SANDING, priming, SANDING, painting and SANDING and painting.

I took the doors off the upper cabinets on one side, which I absolutely love, and stencilled a pattern on the wall inside those cabinets.

Now I needed a tile backsplash.  Didn’t want to spend the money at the time and not really sure what I wanted, so I painted  tumbled tile on the backsplash and over the cook top I made a  faux sculptured tile pattern with sheet rock mud.  No cleaning of grout or chipped tile to deal with!  YAY!!!  Hubby never wants me to change it.  Not sure if  it’s because he likes it so much or just don’t want to spend the money?

I installed bead board around the island and under the bar behind the sink. 

I textured the walls with a thin coat of sheet rock mud, and wiped on two different colors of glaze.  Once I was finished. my right arm refused to work  for weeks on end, but I love my kitchen, and all it cost me was a couple of cans of paint and the use of one good arm. 

I covered up the ugly exhaust vent above the cooktop with an iron fire screen and made linen panels for the windows and hung them from individual hooks to help finish the look.

I had great fun doing this project.  Hope I inspired you!  Patience is one important tool in this redo.  Oil paint dries in its own good time!!

Log cabin, log cabin…..here it is

01 Tuesday Mar 2011

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Yesterday’s post was about how the cabin looked at first sight.  I guess I had on rose-colored glasses because I saw through all that.

To make the cabin ours and what we envisioned a cabin getaway should look like, we decided the walls needed to be board and bat.  The ceiling tiles made the rooms feel claustrophobic but we thought it was also for insulation and to hold duct work.

My great local guy (GLG) got a glimpse of what we might expect the ceilings to look like when he was re-wiring the electric panel in a bedroom.  Here’s a look at what he found…….

There was plenty of insulation above these ceilings so we decided to remove the drop ceilings in all rooms.  WOW!  Did that ever make a difference in the feel and look.

The dining room floor was a very dark wood and had a hole in it on the right hand side close to the fireplace.  Due to the problems with a leak we had in the kitchen, we thought it might be a result from that and had caused some rot.  GLG  said he would take a look and try to repair it to match the rest of the floor.  

Surprise, surprise, surprise……oh yeah, it was rotten because some brilliant person had laid the floor on top of the ground!!  Look around, are we on Candid Camera?

Along with GLG we figured out a fix.  He also took out the two large gas heaters, built a mantle out of another piece of wood found in the storage shed, took out the fluorescent lighting, and hung a chandelier.  It is cozy, quaint and somewhat romantic when the fireplace is lit.  Here’s a look…..

I found an antique farm table at a local antique shop, Loblolly Antiques, and the chairs came from two more antique shops, one between here and Atlanta and the other I can’t remember.  The churn is my hubby’s great grandmother’s, the little corner cabinet was his mother’s and the french grain sack on the table and the ones I made cushions out of were from an antique shop in Franklin, Tennessee.

Next are pictures of the great hall and family room. 

The ceilings and walls were treated the same way as the dining room. The floor in the great hall did not need repair but the one in the family room was repaired by putting a 3/4 inch subflooring with a finished side.  This made a world of difference in that room.  No more cracks and wondering what might come through the floor.  Actually nothing ever did except cold air.

The “great hall” substitutes as a part-time office and butler’s pantry.  The table is used as a desk when not needed otherwise and the buffet holds extra dishes. 

You may not be aware but I love roosters!  I have a collection at home and can’t seem to pass one up in a store, but it has to be special.

The furniture in the great room was left with the cabin except for a couple of tables, lamps and pictures.  Not really my choice of sofas and chair but we decided we could replace them some time later.

The little gas fireplace replaced the gas wall heater and when lit can heat up most of the cabin. 

The quilt you see on the small sofa was found in an antique shop, the picture above the large sofa we bought in the late 70’s or early 80’s from an artist at an art show in Brandon,  MS and is actually a cabin in the Tennessee mountains.  Who knew we would have one of our own some day.

The last two rooms are the bedrooms.  The walls and ceilings were treated the same as the other rooms and the floors were in good shape.  They each have identical fireplaces that are original to the cabin and gas log inserts.

The bed was left with the cabin.  I made the triple irish chain quilt along with the bedskirt and curtains.  They are blue and white toile from my fabric stash.  This is the bedroom my son sleeps in.  We decided to keep the fish pictures, lamps and a few other accessories to keep it a little more masculine.

 The ladder you see in this photo was one my daddy made a long time ago when he did carpentry work building houses.  It was actually more than twice as long, but we cut it in two and my niece, Orangie’s Attic, took the other half.  The chest, table and chair came from a local antique shop name Reminisce.

The last room is hubby’s and my bedroom.  Same ceiling and wall treatment as the previous bedroom.

The quilt on this bed is another one made by me.  I think the design is called “In Bloom” because of the fabric I used.

I wanted a somewhat old fashion, cut lace bedskirt but couldn’t find one long enough.  I decided I could use ready-made curtain panels and found some the exact length I needed.  NO SEWING required.  I used the little twist pins and attached the panels to the box springs.  I actually attach all my bed skirts this way.

The window treatment is ready-made panels of gauze with two more cut lace panels hung in between to give a cafe curtain look and lengthen the window.  This all soften the look of the bedroom.

The armoire and chest of drawers were purchased because the closet in this room had shelves only and we use it for storage of supplies. 

There are still some things I need to do or would like to do, but for now,  I’m happy with the way it turned out. 

I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe got a few ideas for your own use.  Whoopee, now I have time for this……..

Aaaaah!  Iced tea or lemonade please?

Log cabin, log cabin….here’s more

28 Monday Feb 2011

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The last post I did on the cabin was the bathroom renovation and promised there would be more.  Well here it is…. or should I say here it was.  Sorry, can’t help myself.

We couldn’t believe someone thought they had improved the look of this cabin by putting in drop ceilings, fluorescent lights, and some sort of paneling on all the walls.

From the kitchen you walk into the “great hall” and directly to the right is the dining room or some area.  This is what we first saw…..

I mentioned the “great hall” in the earlier post “Log cabin, log cabin…..part 2“.  The great hall was named by my sister when she came for a visit.  I didn’t know what to call this area because it seemed to be just a go between from the kitchen to other areas.  My sister, being the world traveler that she is, said they called rooms such as this “the great hall” in Scotland.  Of course, we laughed and I remarked “this wasn’t so great” but we decided that would be a good name for it anyway.

Now, I looked to my right and what did I see?……..Another sad room looking at me!!!

This is what the dining area looked like when we first saw it.  It wasn’t used as a dining area so I guess it was supposed to be the den?!

This room steps down from the rest of the cabin.  It had dark wooden floors with a small hole in the wood near the wall back to back with the kitchen.  Not a problem, my great local guy (GLG) can fix that!! 

I knew I did not want this to be a den.  It needed to be the dining area.  The old rock fireplace was so great, I couldn’t believe someone would cover it up.  I knew it wasn’t a working fireplace but gas logs could be put in for Pete’s sake.  Furniture has to go…….OUTSIDE!!!!

Next we move on into the living room.  Not a lot going on but the walls were the same paneling and the sofa wall did have the exposed log walls.  Hip, hip, hooray!! 

Also, get ready for this…… the floor was just a simple plank floor.  Like a wooden plank porch. There were large cracks in between the boards and later we discovered if you would shine a flashlight through the cracks….you could see the ground underneath.  Yikes….more lions, tigers and bears….I mean opportunities.

Okay, how much more of this can you stand?  Looking back at these photos, I’m not sure I can stand much more myself, now that I think about it.

The two bedrooms are the only rooms left in this post to show you.  You see the original cabin consisted of these two rooms only.  If you remember, it is one hundred (100) years old.  Both bedrooms have a fireplace and doors leading to the porch facing the river.

These two rooms were not so bad except for the ceilings and walls.  They each had identical fireplaces and a small closet each.  One room has a storage closet and the other has a clothes closet.

Well, there you have it.  This is what the rest of the inside of this cabin looked like.  You’re probably saying to yourself, “What were they thinking when buying this ?”.  Well this is what my vision was (not necessarily hubby’s)………sorry, you’ll have to wait until the next post but here is a sneak peak.

Log cabin, log cabin….Bathroom renovation

21 Monday Feb 2011

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Okay time to get to the next most important room in the cabin…….the bath.  At first glance all I could think was EEEK!  It was screaming ” help me, help me”.

It had vinyl paneling on all the walls and ceiling that was supposed to look like tile with black grout, an old wall mounted sink in need of refinishing, an old tub with a “sneaky snake” looking shower head and that dark marble looking vinyl floor. OH, and guess where the electrical box was… yep… in the shower……ZZZAP….sorry for the shock!!!  Another great feature, a window located in the shower.  Not only did you have the “sneaky snake” to deal with but creatures both human and non, could look in and watch. Out, out I say!! 

Well, our GLG, had a “ripping good time”…..sorry.  Hey, you never know what you might find behind those walls and floors.  Buried treasure??  Well, we did find some things, like the commode leaking under the floor and the shower leaking behind the wall and the tub as well.  But wait, the wall to the right as you walk in revealed the original logs………YAAAY!!!!  What a treasure!  It’s gold, gold I say!

After repairing floors, walls and plumbing, we decided on no tub just a shower, a pedestal sink and an ADA approved commode.  We installed a slate looking vinyl floor (remember no level floors, no square walls), white subway tiles around the shower stall and board and bat on the walls, except for the log wall which we left exposed.  We put the bead board paneling on the ceiling and took out the window and replaced it with glass block.  It was clear block, the patterned or textured blocks were expensive and had to be special ordered…no time for that, so I got etching cream and etched them myself.  It still let light into the bathroom and looked great.  Added an overhead light, new mirror with medicine cabinet and a light fixture over that.  The electrical panel was moved to the room that backs up to the bathroom.  Now no added shock to the daily shower.

I found a small cabinet in a little shop in Spring Hill, Tennessee called Backdoor Antiques that holds our towels, and has a drawer to hold my makeup.  I had the fabric in my stash and made a surround for the sink, which I attached with industrial strength velcro and made a matching shower curtain.  By the way, we replaced the bathroom door, that was made of plywood and opened to the opposite side against the commode.  We found more old planks in the storage shed and my GLG made a plank door and hinged it on the opposite side.  No extra maneuvering around for our son. 

Whew!!! One more room done and more to come.  I know you are all thinking, this is costing a fortune but I really have searched for the most economical appliances and fixtures.  Some of the things I have purchased have been in the closeout section and I love getting bargains.

I will step away from the log cabin for a while to post on other subjects but will be back with more log cabin……be ready…. more AMAZING uncovered finds.

Log cabin, log cabin….Part 2

20 Sunday Feb 2011

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In my previous post,  I left you with a glimpse of  what we did to renovate the kitchen in our 100-year-old log cabin.  Of course what you saw in that picture was more on the decorating part than the renovation.  We kept absolutely NOTHING of the old kitchen except the refrigerator, which we put in a cubby hole on our front porch, for extra drinks, etc.   This comes in really handy especially while we sit and rock in our rocker, swing in our swing and watch the river go by…….

OOOH, this is nice.  Could you get me an ice-cold drink please?  Tea or lemonade would be great!

Oh, sorry, I was day dreaming about summer.  Enough relaxing for now, back to work!

We found a great local guy (GLG) to do the renovations for us and he was able to see my vision for the cabin.  We did start in the kitchen and he ripped out every thing.  The stove, sink, water heater, washer, dryer, cabinets, paneling, and dark green marble looking vinyl.  Whew, this makes me tired.  After repairing a few areas in the wall and floor, he put up bead board on the walls and a new vinyl floor (I know, a tile would have been nice, but you need to know that nothing is square OR level in the cabin) and we were ready to paint and continue to the next step.

I bought a stock cabinet from Lowe’s to hold my sink and my GLG installed it along with a place to put in a front loading washer and dryer.  Hey, you know this camping isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!  Laundry? Oh, please? 

Anyway, he raised the sink cabinet to the same height as the washer and dryer and we found some old walnut boards in a storage shed on the property that he made into my counter tops.  Stain and linseed oil and the countertops were finished.  I painted the sink cabinet a soft apple green and made curtains to hide the washer and dryer.

Not much room for overhead cabinets, so I found an antique bookcase and stood it in the corner and GLG installed a couple of shelves on iron brackets to store dishes, cups and glasses.

I found a tall cabinet for a pantry with old shutter doors which fit perfectly beside the entry into the great hall (more on that later).  We installed a tankless water heater to save space as well as energy, a small apartment size stove and a smaller refrigerator.

All that’s left is decorating the walls and what fun we had looking for the signs, chalkboard,  clock, the wire rack, etc.   I also found a cabinet that doubles as a garbage can holder to sit beside the  stove which has a drawer in it.  The top comes in handy when cooking.  Cooking?  Not if I can help it !  

I just like sitting on my porch, watching the river and sipping iced tea or lemonade.  Oh by the way, now there is room in the kitchen for me to dance by myself or with my hubby and a couple of other people (close or not).

Catch my next post Part 3……….Bathroom renovation……..

Log Cabin, log cabin….

19 Saturday Feb 2011

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Okay, what’s this all about?  WHY did I repeat these words?   Should the words be capitalized,  did I just studder??  Actually I’m just stalling because I’m having bloggers  block, I mean writers block……could it be I was thinking of the children’s song “Little Cabin in the Woods”…….maybe I was thinking of Lincoln Logs…..ENOUGH ALREADY!

Actually this post is about two totally different log cabins in my life.  One is the log cabin quilt or quilt block and the other is our little 100-year-old log cabin on the river.   So I’ll start with the log cabin. 

 OH, sorry, the one on the river. 

About four years ago, my husband and I bought a small cabin on the Buffalo River just outside of our home town.  We had been looking for a get away on the river ever since we moved back to Tennessee in 2003.  We happened upon this cabin by pure luck and it happened to need a lot of work.  Just what I wanted…..a project!!!   Yay!  Here it is as we first saw it.We didn’t know it was built of logs because it had been covered with siding.  The site was beautiful and had an added attraction that I wasn’t so sure about.  Here it is….

You guessed it…. A STATUE OF LIBERTY!  Better known as “Miss Liberty”.  However, she grows on you and we have named our place “Camp Liberty”.   We have friends whose parents and other relatives have camps about half a mile up the river and when they found out we bought the camp and she was part of the deal, they called us and said they were calling on behalf of the  “Committee of Preservation of Statues on the Buffalo River” and they had voted for it to stay.  When asked who was on the committee he said, “his mother, his dad, his uncle, his aunt and himself”.  Of course she stayed and has become an icon of the camp.  Everyone who visits loves her.

Next came the inside of the cabin.  We were so excited to see what it looked like on the inside.  When we opened the door here is the first thing we saw……the “kitchen”!  One person could get in there and turn around but two would be doing a slow, close dance with each other. 

 

Bells, whistles and light bulbs started going off in my head.  LIONS, and TIGERS and BEARS, oh my!!!!   Get out the design board and start ripping it out.  There  was nothing that I considered functional in this space.    Here is a sneak peek at the next post.

Things were removed, ripped out, painted, moved in , etc.  Check with my next post and you’ll see the transformation.  STAY TUNED……

Pillows and Pillowcases……

16 Wednesday Feb 2011

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A few years ago,  I had a small booth in a local Antique Shop.  The owners were also agreeable to put in handmade items.  I decided to put together my sewing skills with my painting skills and create some pillows and pillow shams for children’s rooms.  I had several yards of blue and white ticking as well as red and white ticking.  I don’t have pictures of the actual steps I used to create these but I can give them to you and show the final results.

First I decided what size and shape of the pillows I wanted to make.  Then I played around with a design until I got what I wanted.  Once that was done, I put the design on tracing paper and pinned it to the unfinished top of the pillow.  I used a temporary adhesive to attach the fabric to a piece of foam core so I would have a hard surface to paint on.  I placed a piece of  graphite paper under the tracing paper and I transferred the design to the fabric.  Using acrylic fabric paint and a fairly stiff brush, I blocked in the design and added a few highlights and some shading.   When this was dry,  I used a permanent marker and outlined the design and added some words.   Once they were completely dry, I finished the pillow sewing the front to the back and adding trim if needed.

These are simple patterns and you could even get patterns from children’s coloring books and use most any fabric, however, smooth surface fabric would be best, like cotton.  If you choose cotton just wash and press it first to get the sizing out ( so the paint will adhere better) and to preshrink it. Here are pictures of the results.

 These are obviously for little boys.

These are for little girls.  In both cases I also show a couple of pillow shams.  The flowers on these were painted freehand without a pattern, along with the vases.

Here are some photos of individual pillows.  This one of the bunny was created for a good friend of mine for her granddaughter.   It, of course, is on a different fabric and was a little more involved with shading and highlights.

I am showing you the back and front of this pillow, because I added some writing to the back.

On this pillow, I added some writing on the front and some waves to give some added interest to the tug boat.

 This is the last picture, I used a bright fabric for the back as well as for the flange on the sides along with some rickrack.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and it has given you some ideas on creating fun and decorative pillows for the kids in your family or friends.  Deciding on colors and fabric is the hardest part of this project.  Enjoy!!!