Outdoor Seating on the Cheap

Yesterday while I was dropping off donations at the Goodwill, I picked up a light blue wooden chair for $5.97! Which got me thinking.

Since I was already on the "stealing from my son's room" kick, I decided to pair the new Goodwill chair with the wooden chair I painted and covered for his room a while ago. I thought they would look nice together outside on the back patio in some little nook.

All I needed to do was to re-cover the chair pad with fabric that would endure outdoor weather.

I already had some special plasticy fabric on hand, so 22 staples from the staple-gun later and I was ready to move this chair outdoors! 

Always interrupting my photo shoots...

I've been eyeing this tray table (in the dusty blue) from Bed, Bath & Beyond...

which I'd like to add to the nook where these two chairs will be, then a few potted plants, and maybe a new coat of paint(possibly Love Bird by Martha Stewart) to the little blue chair, yes! Oh, maybe I'll even try stenciling on the new chair, that'd be fun!

Allison

Chair Redo

This winter I picked up a chair from my favorite antique store for $15.00. I was looking for something that would be an easy first time reupholstery project, but would look completely different when finished.
I bought this chair before we knew we were pregnant and I wasn't quite sure what colors and fabric to choose because I didn't know where the chair would end up.

First, I removed the upholstery...a yucky green plastic seat cover existed underneath.

After choosing to make this chair a part of the nursery, I decided to use some fabric from the quilt I'm making for the nursery to cover the chair cushion. Reupholstering a chair of this design is super easy. All it takes is fabric the right size, folded tight and stapled underneath with a staple gun and lots of staples. With new fabric the chair was already worlds different!

Then, it was time to paint the chair! I found Valspar's New Avocado spray paint in satin and thought it would match the fabric and nursery color scheme perfectly!

I primed the chair first.

Then sprayed it with New Avocado until the can went dry!

Here's the new and colorfully improved chair! All set to add a dash of color to the nursery.

Before and After:

Linking to Home Stories A 2 Z

Auggie Crib Bedding

Lately my mind has been full of everything baby...I have an extreme case of nesting syndrome, but, our home situation is causing me to wait, and wait, wait....and wait some more before I can full on attack the nursery for our son due mid August.

So the situation goes like this:
My husband is slaving away on our master bathroom remodel. We have a tub, tile is laid, grout is coming, and lots and lots of sheetrock has been hung and even more is waiting to go up. We are currently using what will be the nursery as our bedroom and once the bathroom is close to being done we'll move back into the master (which is being used as a gigantic tool storage area). Once we're out of the (future) nursery I am going to town with paint and design, etc. etc!

Without the ability to commence this nesting process, I've found myself habitually looking at the same products and swooning over them again and again....this crib bedding is the worst of it, because well, to someone on a budget, it seems a tad out of reach (but not completely, right?)!

I first heard of Auggie bedding on Design*Sponge one day and immediately fell in love with the bright and bold colors against clean white.

I had been looking for something that would be gender neutral and wouldn't make you feel like you got sucked into a Sesame Street episode or suddenly had an infestation of some sort of animal because it was printed all over everything...sorry! (That's my soapbox and now I'm through)

I also wanted simple and as much as I want my son to enjoy his space, me and his father need to love being in it too!

I love the cross stitch pattern in fern, which is this lovely yellowy green color that will look so great with gray.

Auggie is a Canadian brand, everything is made with 100% cotton, crib bedding to queen size, just debuted in April of this year...see what else they offer here.

Now, back to more swooning...and waiting....:)

DIY Bird Mobile

I could also create a mixture of the two like this beautiful mobile:After looking through countless beautiful nurseries, I found the most simple and sweet crib mobile. The best part about this mobile is that it is fairly easy and you can add your own tweaks to it to make it your very own.
Use the Mister Bluebird pattern found here.
I used the same fabrics that I used in the quilt for the nursery and got started!
Here's what your fabric pieces will look like once you trace them and cut them out.

From left to right: back piece, 2 tummy pieces and another back piece folded in half.

I opted to leave the seam on the outside rather than sewing it and turning it inside out. Both ways look great, it's really just a matter of opinion, although keeping the seam on the outside is a tad bit easier.
Here's what the bird looks like after you've sewn everything together but the tail and before you begin stuffing.

To stuff the birds, I just used cotton balls. I stretched the cotton out and stuffed them really full to make sure they would keep their form.

Now I just have to decide whether I want to complete the mobile with twigs  and have the birds perched on top like this one:

From Spool Sewing

Or suspend the birds from a wreath like so:

From Naptime Novels

From The Virginia House

What do you think?

Attempt at Quilting Phase 3

I'm taking this quilting thing verrrrrry slow. I think I'm still apprehensive about royaly messing the whole thing up!
This past weekend I finished cutting all the fabric. One thing I've learned in this process...

You really don't need that much fabric!

Especially if you're using 8 different fabrics and you're making a small quilt. I definitely bought more than I needed! 

Anyways, after cutting I very hesitantly moved onto the next step: placing the squares in their pattern.

This part was so much fun! I laid the fabric down on the floor, alternating colors and patterns, but keeping in mind that it didn't need to be perfect.

I just continued lying fabric squares down in a pattern until I achieved my desired quilt size, keeping in mind that the squares will be smaller once sewn.

After I convinced myself that if I kept on going this quilt would end up being a lot more work, I moved onto the next step...

Part of me thought I should start pinning the fabric together...then I got some sense and realized that no pinning is necessary.

So, I numbered each row like this:

Then, being careful to keep the squares in order, I piled each row up, moving left to right.

In the end I ended up with 10 piles of neatly stacked fabric.

Now when I gain enough courage and time, all I have to do is grab a pile and begin sewing the squares together, top to bottom, left to right! I'm feeling more confident already! Except that now we know we're having a boy and I think if I hadn't been so convinced we were having a girl I would've picked manlier colors!

Attempt at Quilting Phase 2

Now that all the fabric is successfully washed, dried and pressed(uggh hate ironing!) I have begun cutting away with my awesome tools and have really made some headway in piles of square fabric pieces.

Cutting fabric has seriously never been this easy or fun, seriously! All you do is line your fabric up on the cutting mat and use your ruler to cut the width/length to your liking. For this quilt I'm cutting 5" squares, which just so happens to be the width of my ruler. Perfect! This is the main reason I decided to go with a patchwork quilt for my first time rather than a vertical row quilt.

And, after much deliberation paired with a temporary freak out session of thinking I hated the fabrics I had chosen (and bought), I am now certain that these will be the final fabrics used for the quilt!

I'm a little bit intimidated by cutting the striped fabric & keeping it straight...eeeeek!

The piece that really made it all come together is Amy Butler's Laurel Dots in Cilantro. This fabric was given to me for a super birthday present from my great friend Allie Pyles. She got the fabric at  My Little Sunshine Fabrics! Totally made my day! Thanks Allie!!

And after cutting away...

Can you say progress?!  The greatest thing is this really didn't take long at all. I was able to cut about 4 layers of fabric at a time.

I know it looks like a ton of squares, but I'm making extra for other quilted projects like pillows or a crib bumper. And I still don't really know what I'm doing & haven't done the math to find out exactly how many squares of each fabric I'll need, so I kind of just started cutting away! 

I guess I'm for real making a quilt! 

Attempt at Quilting Phase 1

Yesterday after talking with my friend Janna, I got motivated to begin entering into the world of sewing by making my first quilt!
Last year I watched my roommate Amy hand sew her first quilt together, and if I hadn't seen that, I would be completely lost!
After work I headed over to Hancock Fabrics and spent way too much time and money there, but I feel confident in purchasing these items, which have made cutting fabric so far much easier and efficient!

1. An Olfa Cutting Mat

This mat is self healing, which basically means it's kind of gooey and when you cut into it it'll morph to fill the slice back in, neat! It's like a superhero power!

2. An Olfa Ergonomic Rotary Cutter

This is basically like a pizza cutter on steroids! It's so fun to cut with!

3. A Lip Edge Ruler

This ruler hangs on to the edge of the cutting mat & keeps things straight, kind of like a t-square ruler.

I also picked up 7 different fabrics, but I still don't feel settled...I'm going to check out Tennessee Quilts for more fabric in Jonesborough as well (thanks Janna!).

My goal is to complete a small quilt, around 3x4 feet, and possibly a matching crib bumper, but who knows, this could turn out to be a learning lesson for future projects! Kind of like when I first learned how to knit, I made a knitted piece that resembled a blanket that a hamster would use...

Here's some inspiration:

Oooh Aaaah! I love the mixture of textures used in these pieces...I tried to mimic that idea and bought some cotton chenille fabric along with two different types of corduroy (is it bad that I had to Google the word corduroy to know how to spell it?).

And let me tell you, chenille is EXPENSIVE! No wonder these quilted beauties cost $$$!

Also, what's the deal with the lowsy selection of neutral fabrics?? Things seem to either be camo or flowers & butterflies. I could hardly find any stripes or polka dots! Mmmm seersucker would be nice! Did walk away with TONS of muslin though for super cheap, and I love the natural look it has! Thanks for the tip Ashley!

I'll stay updated with pictures as things progress, so far you haven't missed much, just washed and dried the fabric and tested out my supplies!

And here's a quote shared by Make it Do:

How much piecin’ a quilt is like livin’ a life! You can give the same kind of pieces to two persons, and one will make a “nine-patch” and one’ll make a “wild goose chase, ” and there will be two quilts made out of the same kind of pieces, and jest as different as they can be. And that is jest the way with livin’. The Lord sends us the pieces, but we cut them out and put ‘em together pretty much to suit ourselves, and there’s a heap more in the cuttin’ out and the sewin’ than there is in the caliker.

 -Eliza Calvert Hall in “Aunt Jane of Kentucky”

Any quilters out there have any advice for a newby??



Yellow Songbird Fabulous Fabric Giveaway!

I've been following the super sweet and incredbily talented Kim, creator of Yellow Songbird for just a few weeks now and can't get enough. Check out her shop Oh Sweet Joy! and her awesome blog, including sewing tutorials and inspiration! She makes me want to get the sewing machine out and go for it!
Well, today she's partnering up with My Little Sunshine fabric shop for a free giveaway!!

Click here to head over to Yellow Songbird and enter for your chance to get a $20 store credit to My Little Sunshine etsy shop!

Here's a sneak peak at some of the awesome fabrics...

Happy giveaway entering & fabric browsing!