Home Improvements

So many things can be knocked out if one knows how to sew. I am using the most affordable material EVER to make curtains and other accessories here in our Florida home. Drop cloth fabric. Yes. Go to your local hardware or big box store and buy a drop cloth. The one DH brought me was less than $20 and I yielded 2 full length curtains from it.

The guest room window looks out into the lanai and it definitely needed window treatment. The panels here are the easiest type of curtains to make. Hem the bottom and create a channel at the top for the rod. Bing-badda-bing. Done.

You are also seeing how I use that one corner of the bed. I sit at the sewing machine right in that area, and the bed affords me easy access to the 1.5-inch strips I have paired up for the 9-patches. (see previous posts)

Another window treatment needing to be addressed was above the kitchen sink. I had blinds in place, but valances were needed, too. For these, I went to the scraps from last year's window treatments and found enough left over to make these.

Besides curtains, I have also made one set of slipcovers. My cousins gave me two very old and worn cubes - squares that can be used as stools. We have a low bar in the kitchen at which seating could be used, but had nothing in particular in mind for such seating. These were a perfect solution. DH and I added casters to the bottom of the stools and then I made easy-peasy slip covers for them. Awesome. I love how they fit so perfectly in that space. Here's a couple of before and after shots.

We slowly make progress on turning this double wide mobile home into our winter getaway. It has become more homey as each day passes, and we find we are quite comfortable. You see evidence there on the counter of DH's duck decoy collection. He has upwards of a couple dozen, I would say. They are pretty and will look nice grouped together on a shelf we hope to hang after we upgrade the lanai.

I have acquired a couple of sewing jobs from the cousins. One cousin wants valances made of drop cloth fabric for her dining space. Another cousin wants me to recover a bench cushion with some upholstery fabric that matches her curtains. I think I will knock those out this afternoon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Body Shop

I built a truck yesterday.

A few weeks ago, I decided that I would make a pillow using the red pickup truck motif that is so popular in Christmas decorations. I checked for one to buy at Hobby Lobby, but the only one they had didn't appeal to me, so that's when I decided I would just make one instead.

Then I decided that it would look good on rough and tough fabric like drop cloth canvas. You can see where this is going, right? Sometimes, the simplest project turns into quite the production, you know.

Off to Lowe's to buy a drop cloth. Then to borrow a couple of truck patterns from quilting friend Sheryll.  Then to find the Wonder Under. Then to buy a pillow form.

Above is a progress shot of truck construction work. I really didn't like that goofy front fender, so I trimmed it down a bit. Added later to the above was the black running board, headlight, and white walls for the tires.

Prepping the canvas fabric involved cutting away the hemmed edge. My pillow form is 16" square, so I cut 18" clear across one end. The extra 2 inches were my precautions for the potentially excessive raveling nature of canvas.

I marked the sewing line on the front panel at 16.5" - this seemed like enough of a seam allowance given that the canvas would be bulky and all. I finger-pressed the center point so everything would look pleasing. Then I placed the truck parts and ironed them on. No turning back at this point!

It had been years since I last machine-appliqued, so I figured I'd better do some practicing first. This little tree is the result of my practice. I will use this in something. Cute, right?

Then I settled in to do the truck on my pillow front panel. It occurs to me that my learning curve might have needed additional practice time. But too late now; it's finished and all its imperfections just add to its charm. That's what I'm telling myself.

The back is envelop-style, so the remaining 18" of my original cut was divided into two parts that overlapped for a neat finish. I sewed it all together, trimmed and zigzagged the seam allowances, and turned it right side out.

Voila! My pillow doesn't look half bad.

I have a lot of canvas drop cloth fabric left over. I suspect I will be coming up with future projects for this versatile material.

Happy Quilting, Friends!