Of Chairs and Pillows

Now that school's over (and graduation is only a day away!), I finally have some time to post a couple of pictures that are "domestic" related.

First of all, you might remember from this post that I found two way cool FREE patio chairs on the side of the road. Well, above is one of them (at the time only one had made its home on the new house's front porch, while the other hung out in our kitchen, but now the pair is back together). Their not exactly beautiful, but I kind of liked the style, they were comfortable, and given a cushion and a coat of paint they'll be awesome.

Secondly, in that second picture, you'll notice some pillows. Remember waaaaay back to one of my first posts? All that fabric? Well, I ended up taking a bunch of it and decided to do pillows for our bed in the new house. So, these are the first three pillows. I'm currently working on a minky blanky for Lizzie, but as soon as that's done (probably finish it today or tomorrow night and will post pictures soon after), I'm going to go back the pillows and make a bunch of square ones. Maybe with a button in the center. We'll see.

Anyway, I love the pillows. They're comfy, pretty, and my stitches all came out real nicely (I've probably mentioned this, but I only sew by hand). I'd like to dress them up a bit, but I'm not exactly sure how. I'm a good basic sewer (meaning I can slap some pieces of fabric together), but there isn't much else I can do. 

The next goal, besides finishing the pillows themselves, is finding a white coverlet or duvet to put on our bed. I think the white bed covering with the pops of color from the pillows will look really lovely. Can't wait to post some picture soon!

Hey, At Least It's Not Crack

I love fabric. Love it. Just love it. Some people collect stamps, vintage toys, cats, whatever, but I have a real soft spot for beautiful, soft, quality fabirc. I used to be of the opinion that if you're going to buy any amount of fabric, you darn well be ready to do something with it. I was a little overly practical, I guess. Once I was broken of that habit, I started fabric hoarding. Seriously. It's not as out of control as it could be, because of our limited amount of space (and, erm, funds), but we're on the path to some serious fabric dominations in at least one of our closets.

Here's just some of what I've got:

Love these fabrics, especially the middle with the Russian

nesting dolls--homage to my Russian heritage.

Here are some Minky-esque fabrics. SO soft and cozy. I'm using one

of them to back a blanket for Lizzie.

This fabric is part of a collection. I picked these up (along with some others) at Marden's (a truly Mainer store with significantly discounted products). Our new governor hasn't done much right in my opinion, but he did run a chain of stores with a damn fine selection of fabric on the cheap.

Flannel and fleece! No idea what I'll ever do with the fleece or the blue flannel (I originally was going to make PJs for our neighbor's son, but I never got around to it). I used the larger checked flannel to make a seat cover for my rocker glider...until I ran out of fabric. Now I have enough in the smaller check.

Here are a few fabric projects I have completed:

 

Curtain I made for our kitchen window. Hi neighbors!! (I'll be happy when this view switches out for our new house's big backyard.)

An apron for Lizzie! We gave her a play kitchen for Christmas this year, so I had to make her an apron to go with it.

This is a quilt I made this summer for Lizzie. I sew EVERYTHING by hand. I'm afraid of my sewing machine and really need to learn how to use it, but I love sewing by hand, so I'm not feeling the pressure to learn. It's too bad, really, because I inherited a really nice Janome from my grandmother when she passed a couple of years ago. I hate that it's just sitting in my closet and not being used. Maybe learning how to use it will be a summer project?



There is a whole mess of other projects I'd like to get to, but I'm waiting until I have a bit more time, money, and reasons to be decorating (it's been difficult to feel like doing that when I know our living situation is temporary). Hopefully things will be in a crafting upswing once we move into the new house!