Monday, September 12, 2011

You little sew and sew... go sit on it and weave!

Ok, yeah... that's a cheesy ass title.  I can't help it!

 Bryan made me a sewing desk :-D  He isn't too thrilled with it, but it turned out exactly how I hoped it would.  I'm hoping that he will have enough odd scraps of wood eventually to make me some old style vegetable crates to use as drawers.  <3!!  It's got a huge work surface, which is truly awesome when I've got a curtain sized pile of fabric I'm trying to keep straight for sewing.

And an old hutch I was using as a book case has taken a place as a hutch again, which is why he suggested he build me a desk in the first place.  And because I'd hijacked the dining table as my sewing table, because there wasn't anywhere else with a work surface big enough for my projects.

I've got a super-amazing-awesome husband!

I've gotten several projects done since he set it up for me the other day, too.

Remember those polyester scraps of slacks I mentioned that used to be in the trunk turned coffee table?

 I took some of them and ripped the seams out for a crazy quilt pillow.

I've decided that crazy quilting is kind of a pain in the butt, because trying to get all those odd shaped pieces to fit together into the size and shape you want them to eventually be is challenging.  But I love the way it turned out!  Katie helped me lay out the colors, and it is Pup tested and nap approved.


I also sewed a curtain for the window over the stairs.  We hung it up with staples, because it was scary enough with the Pup balancing on the banister to try to reach just for that.  Having someone balancing up there with a power drill and multiple sharp pointy objects to try to hang a curtain rod was just not something I really wanted to contemplate.

They're not really purple and yellow.  That's just the result of the flash.  It's more a country blue and sunshine.  They don't block all the light, so you can still see to go up and down the stairs, but it still blocks some light and cools off the upstairs hall and stairwell a lot.  Katie helped me with this one, too, because I just wasn't sure about combining blue and yellow.  I like it, in spite of the ruffles.  The blue ruffled bit was a round table cloth that I cut in half, then only sewed half the cut edge to the top edge of the sheer yellow fabric.  The other half of the half circle I hemmed and let hang.  I was going to get all fancy, and cut the table cloth into quarters, then try to sew the quarters together into something like a scalloped panel, but I decided that would be more work than necessary and would make the curtains way too long for the small window.


Another staple gun curtain project.  This was a very sheer knit in a sunshiney yellow.  It actually almost perfectly matches a tablecloth I gave Ms. Terri this past summer.  If I had seen this when I gave her the table cloth, I would've given this to her, too, because I'm really not a big fan of pastel or bright colors.  But, it ended up working out great for the bathroom.  It shades, without cutting out all the light.  And when it's cool enough to open the windows, it lets a breeze through, without billowing around and showing you showering to the neighborhood ;-)  It also makes the bathroom a pretty warm sunlight color, even when it's cloudy out.

That's it for my projects so far.  I'm still not done, yet.  B made me a lap loom that I just have to try out with the spools of run yarn I scored.  80 lbs of yarn for under $80.  When you consider that a normal skein costs around $3, and it's usually only a few ounces, you're talking about a MAJOR price score.  I just can't knit with it, because it all wound up being rug yarn.

If you look at the second picture of the desk, up on top of the hutch, you'll see some of the spools of yarn.  Most of them are big, fluffy thick yarns, with lots of loft in various shades of earthy browns and greens.  I've got some that I think are a little obnoxious (mustard yellow with orange flecks???), and some bright gem tones like a cerulean blue, garnet red, and a deep purple that I really love.  I can't complain about the yarn, though.  Included in all that (until now) useless rug yarn were two HUGE skeins of merino lace weight yarn in a really nice spring/mossy green.  *That* in the amounts I have it in, is worth way more than $80.  You're talking about 1200 ft per lb, and each spool weighs several lbs.  I have some lace patterns I've been dying to try out, I just have to find the time!

Maybe I'll be unpacked all the way, one day LOL.  I'd probably make more progress if I quit playing with the sewing machine, huh?

2 comments:

  1. Busy busy busy girl!

    Glad Katie is making herself useful. Honestly she has a great eye and often challenges me to combine things I'm unsure of into something that looks terrific. She's made me more brave colorwise.

    I think your sewing desk looks great, too. And looky...I'm commenting without being anonymous!

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  2. Woohoo!!

    I'm glad the comments are working right again for you.

    Yeah, she's madame some color suggestions to sort of scramble the earthy palette in my bedroom. A dark navy border on the brown wool panels, both to widen them and add more variety of color to the primarily earthy colors. The closest to color in there is a reddish color that still s reminiscent of dark orange clay lol.

    She hasjme convinced that I can take all that old polyester, throw it in the air and sew it how it falls. She says it all pretty much goes together with the exception of some hot pink and white swirly stuff lol.

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