Crowned

When we were cleaning out my grandma's house after she passed away, I asked if I could have this grubby little old cabinet that was in her basement.

It was my Great Grandpa's, then my grandpa's and now it's mine.

My grandpa kept it in the laundry room and used it to hold his tools. It was dirty, and dusty, and for me, full of memories, of my grandpa building things as I grew up. My grandpa was a carpenter, and a cabinet maker. He was always building something or fixing something or jerry rigging something. I have so many memories of my grandpa with a tool in his hand.

I knew this little cupboard needed a makeover to help it blend into my home and I was scared to death to do what I wanted to do, for fear of screwing it up and having regrets.

I painted the whole thing cream, then dry brushed a light aqua leaving just the panels in the doors and on the sides cream.

I then used a projector to trace an image from The Graphics Fairy Blog onto the front of the cabinet. I tried to do this in my walk in closet because my house is too light and I was too impatient to wait for night. Unfortunately, my closet door is really narrow and I couldn't get the cabinet through the door so I sat it my closet with the cabinet up against the door frame trying to see the projection. It didn't work well enough for me to see anything but the basic outline so that is all I traced. I traced the outline onto the cabinet with a black sharpie marker, then used the marker to sort of free hand shade in the drawing while referencing the picture.

Yes, those are towels, that tile floor in the bathroom is HARD =0P I don't have an artistic bone in my body so I was really worried about whether or not I could pull this off.

But eventually I finished, and hey, it didn't look too horrible either.

After that I just distressed it with my sander, waxed it, and put the hardware back on.

I have to say I am pretty darn proud of myself. I think this turned out so wonderful. Better even than I could have hoped. I know both of my grandpa's are up in heaven rolling their eyes wondering why I had to go and girlie it up, but I also know my Great Grandma is cheering for me. If ever there was a girl more girlie than me, it was my Great Grandma! This little cabinet now sits in my living room, right next to my Great Grandma's rocker. I can't help but think that two sweethearts have been re-united =0)

I can't wait to try this technique again! Go out and try something that scares you, you just might surprise yourself!

Chugging along

It is my goal to have this quilt top finished and ready for quilting by the time I head back to school in August. I think I have a very realistic chance of actually making my deadline too. If you know me, you know I get overwhelmed by large projects so I finish very few large quilts. I'm much more comfortable with small, wall size quilts because they are so much more manageable, but since this is a bucket list quilt, I want it to be a BIG one. I'm hoping for bed size. I made a lot of extra blocks but we will see how far I can get before I run out of fabric.

Ring of Roses

I've been sewing up a storm and I have to say that this quilt is much more involved than I thought, and I already thought it was going to be tricky.

I have had a few hair pulling moments so far but have managed to piece four blocks together to get a little sneak peek of what this quilt will eventually look like.

(Don't look too closely, these blocks aren't squared yet.) I do think I will love this quilt when it's done, if I don't shoot myself before it's finished =0P The directions on this pattern could be a little (or a lot) more clear, I have had to go on a scavenger hunt to find blogs with tutorials to figure out what the heck the lady is talking about on the pattern, but I still think that this method is MUCH easier than the traditional method so I am going to just go with it.

Now I have to walk away from them for several days because I am going to go hang with my mom and my sister and have some girl time with our Grandmother's Flower Gardens. Have a great Fourth of July!

And so it begins...

Do you have a "Lifetime Achievement Project"? You know, that one thing you really really want to do, but you don't see it happening...ever?

I have several.

One of them is a Double Wedding Ring quilt. It's something that seems so complicated and so far beyond my skill set. But guess what?

I've begun. It may turn out to be a total nightmare, or I may surprise myself and have something beautiful when (if) I'm finished.

I chose Lecien florals for the most part. I really want this quilt to be soft and romantic and "Make your heart flutter" lovely.

This is definitely a lifetime achievement quilt for me. Along with my Grandmother's Flower Garden that I am still plugging away at five years later *Sigh* I don't know how the pioneers did it!

Chalky Pink Perfection

I have wanted to dip my toes in the Chalk Paint waters for quite some time now, but I'm a coward, what can I say?

I was cleaning my bedroom the other day and I have a HUGE long wall in my bedroom, seriously, it's like 18' long! In my old house I had all these tiny walls broken up by doorways so I had multiple small dressers. In this house, they were lined up along this big long wall like a dresser parade. They made my bedroom feel really cluttered and I just...snapped. I couldn't take it anymore.

I got on the local classifieds website and did a search for dressers. I came across this beauty but it was 56 miles away, up two canyons. But it was a huge 71" long! I called her right away and told her I wanted it before I even discussed it with the husband (Who would have to get off work early, drive up there, cuz I had no idea where I was going, and load this beast onto a trailer).

Yes, I'm pathetic, the only before picture I have is a picture I took, of the listing on my iPad, with my phone. Don't judge =0P

I think my mom still wants to shoot me because I painted a beautiful piece of wood furniture. But I can't help it, I'm in love with the outcome =0) It is so perfect with my cross stitch rose and my 18 year old wedding bouquet.

The only drawback was that I had to completely rearrange my bedroom. I'm still working on getting it put together but at least it's finally being put together after a year of being in limbo/the catch all room where everything gets thrown when we don't know what to do with it.

I'm finally going to have a real bedroom, not a storage room in this house =0)

Stitch til you Twitch

So I went a little crazy.

It all started the day I stumbled across this on Pintrest

Does it make your heart flutter when you look at it? It does mine! At first I thought it was done on pegboard but after visiting the site, I found out it was a rug made by an artist and cross stitched on wool padding. It's also horrifically expensive, at least for my budget.

That didn't stop me from loving it however.

Fast forward a few months and we are cleaning out my grandma's house to get it ready to sell. My grandpa, who has been gone for 15 years, was a cabinet maker, and while we were working in his barn/shop out behind the house, I found this piece of peg board and I knew instantly what I wanted to do with it.

I dry brushed it with some mis-tint paint from the hardware store to make it look like linen, then got to work. The entire family worked on this project. I would sit in front of the board putting the needle through, then my helper in the back of the board would push the needle back through the hole that I indicated with my finger.

I feel pretty impressed that all three of my teenage boys took time to help me with this, and even my husband. I have great men in my life!

The only problem? It's huge. 4'X5' and I can't figure out what I'm going to do with it now. I sure do love it though! The neatest thing about it is how it changes depending on what angle you view it from. If you catch it from the side it's very saturated and vibrant. As you move around to the front, it's more washed out and water colorish. Give peg board cross stitch a try, it's so much fun, I am trying to figure out where I could possibly hang another one =0P

Zippered Project Pouch

The pattern for this project pouch was the finishing prize for our local Quilt Shop Hop a couple of years ago. I never made it because...well, it involves a zipper and I am terrified of zippers!

When I was in South Dakota a in October, mom and I hit the local quilt shops while dad was at work and I found this quilting themed fabric there. I knew instantly what I wanted to use it for, and I finally got around to making this cute little bag.

I kinda winged it on the zipper, but I think it turned out ok and this little bag will be handy to keep my stitching in when we go camping next month. The raw edges showing through the plastic window go against every perfectionistic grain in my body and I'm pretty sure I will end up putting bias tape over those before too long, but for now I'm counting this as a finished project.