Pin It Weekly #210

I ran across this idea on Pinterest for displaying antique quilts using old windows. It got me to thinking about how old quilts that are torn or stained beyond repair might be repurposed. I hate the idea of cutting pieces out of a quilt, but some quilts are too far gone to do much else with them.

This is a different type of frame, but the idea is the same. I really like that the design is not centered in the frame. 

And another idea for repurposing old quilts--pillows!

And a final example of using old quilts as decor. 

Have you seen old quilts repurposed in another way? Tell us about it in the comments. 

Pin It Weekly #190

Hey, check it out: almost at 200 Pin It Weekly posts! That's a lot! I know I have it in me; I just wasn't sure whether I would stick with it very long. Of course, it's still too soon to celebrate--ten weeks left before getting 200 posts of Pin It Weekly. But we'll get there, don't you think?

A new follower, S Sue, has a great quilting board, which I've added to the many that I already follow.  ha! You can never have too many quilting boards. 

Rosa Solorio-Garcia, another follower, has a crafts board with 90 cool, interesting craft ideas in it. 

Her board includes these button stamps. It's one of those ideas that, when you see them, you wonder why you didn't think of it! Well, really! This idea is a twofer: why didn't I think of either one? 

First the idea of using buttons as stamps; second, hot gluing the buttons to cork so you have a holder. 



And from a couple of pins from my own boards...

Quick and Not-so-quick Finishes

Today I have two finishes: a quick one that I made this afternoon, and a not-so-quick one that I worked on over the course of several afternoons.

 First the quick finish...a little sewing assistant for when I'm sitting in my recliner with some hand-stitching. 

I have been working on the Quilty 365 circles for a couple of months now and often find that I've lost a pin, or the scissors, or papers. It's been making me a little nuts. So today, finally, I decided that I'd try to end some of the nutty problems. I pulled out this pretty piece left over from a pajama pants project of a couple of years ago and left-over muslin from who-knows-what project.

A small pincushion on the topmost section, two pockets on my side of the arm and another pocket on the outside of the chair arm to slip the freezer paper patterns into will keep most of my things tidy and organized. Or so I hope.

The second finish, which took quite some time at school, is a painting of a cotton plant. Our students are very lucky since we have a wonderful art teacher. However, Leta's strongest skills are in drawings and graphic arts. 

Leta readily admits that painting is not her favorite or best medium, so she asked a painter to come in and teach a class or two. Since I know Kay, I asked to sit in on the lessons, and Kay graciously encouraged me to do so. Unfortunately, that couldn't happen because I had testing duties and a meeting to attend. 

Leta helped me out by applying the gesso and texture mediums to the canvas. I dropped in one afternoon to block out the painting and begin the background. I had the idea of painting the background blue, purple and yellow, but that did not turn out as I had hoped. 

It was pretty bad. The blue/yellow mixed into a greenish color and the purple/yellow made a horrible greenish color. I did not like it, so when I was able to get back into the classroom, I covered most of the green with shades of blue, leaving small bits of the original colors. 

A few days later, I was able to get back to the painting and enjoyed playing with the cotton bolls.  It took another afternoon of tweaking and cleaning up the painting. I'd have liked another class to get it closer to what I planned, but I decided to stop on Wednesday so that I could bring it home when we began our spring break on Thursday. 

And there we are. Two finishes, both of which I really like and hope you like them also. 

Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts
TGIFF, which is at Anja Quilts this week

Studio Chair Recover

I've been meaning to recover my studio chair.  I'm a mess--spills are my thing. And the chair was a second-hand find. Which we bought years ago. But it has good bones and except for the stains on the upholstery, it didn't look too bad. But the stains bothered me. And I wanted something different. Colorful. Fun.

For some reason, I decided on Saturday morning that I should get started. Today. I had nothing planned.  Nothing in the way of colors. Nothing measured. Nothing.  Just a decision to get started.

Now if you're thinking that I'm crazy and should have considered at least a few of these, you don't know me! I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-britches kind of girl. I make the plans when I pick up the project. Or not.

Because there's always the option to make it up as I go along. That's my favorite way to create. So it works for me. Sometimes. 

Sometimes I make a big mess and regroup. Or kill the project.

On Saturday my creative mojo was on hyper-drive. I decided. I pulled scraps. Green scraps. I challenged myself with some black scraps that were lying around. I sewed, cut, sewed. I measured, but not much. More sewing, cutting, sewing. Ah, quilting.  

By Saturday night I had two big pieces of quilt ready to cover the chair. I had to steal minutes between cooking, playing with grands, cleaning, and visiting. 

But on Sunday night I had a totally new chair. Bright greens with splashes of black. I still have no idea why I wanted those bits of black in there, but I like!

No, I love! It's fun. It's colorful. It's different. I think it will work for a while. At least until I make a mess of stains!

 

Linking up with

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 

My Quilt Infatuation

Off the Wall Fridays at Creations Quilts Art Whatever  

Whistle Clean for NASCAR Grands

A few days weeks ago Glen over at Quilts and Dogs made mention of cleaning the wheels on her sewing chair. Actually, her exact words were, "Since I can't be trading on the NYSE today with my multi-million dollar stock accounts, I decided to clean out my chair." 

I needed that reminder and tacked up a mental note up to help it stay important.  I promptly forgot.  Today, however, this bit wad of thread, dust and fuzz entangled itself onto my note board.  In other words, it was clean the wheels or stop rolling.

I pulled out three tools I figured I would use.  It turns out that the middle tool, which is a razor-sharp craft knife, was the most important.  The old pair of scissors were of no use: the only time I touched them was when I moved them out of the way.

So it turns out that all five sets of wheels were pretty wadded.  I am a messy sewist or seamstress or, well heck, I'm messy no matter what I'm doing.  So this pile below, yeah, that's not so bad, actually.

Now, though, I can whistle and whiz and whirl past just about anything my heart desires.  

Of course, there's not enough room for whistling past, unless the rider is a grandchild.  


Those little people can ride a chair, let me tell you!  I clocked one at 50 mph in a curve, but she took a tumble and it hurt, so we've not had as much speeding since.  I figure it's just a matter of time till she gets back behind the wheel.

The only problem is that I'm cleaning wheels on my chair, not on the extra one that the grands use as a Nascar racer.

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: C H A I R S

I started out thinking that chairs could be the inspiration for making a quilt.  In my head the chair would be on the quilt.  

It turns out that my search brought up the opposite: the quilt is part of the chair.

I would say it's a novel idea but, it turns out, using a quilt to upholster a chair is fairly common among crafters.  I guess great minds do think alike!  Have a wonderful week.