decorating – Page 5 – the long thread

February 16, 2008February 16, 2008

Table Makeover

Raise your hand if you own one of these IKEA lamp shades. I have seen them everywhere, but still love them. My mother bought these two tables at an estate sale and I painted them for the girls’ room. They are right next to each other because their beds are pushed up against the walls for now. You can see the before and after of the tables below.

I’m not sure that I’m happy with the colors as I was mixing acrylics with house paint that I had on hand, but oh well. It adds some brightness to their very pale pink room.

Then I finally finished these little runners for the tables that I’ve been thinking about for a while. I just cut fabric with no measuring at all, then snipped as I pieced it together in a random pattern.

January 16, 2008March 21, 2008

Patchwork and Quilted Pillows

I made these pillows last week in my patchwork frenzy and just finished them last night. I embroidered the flowers and lines and sewed them in with the cotton prints. I used upholstery fabric for the border and backing so I’ll need to have them dry cleaned after the inevitable jelly hands get to them.

After I made these, I found this totally amazing pillow from A Stitch in Dye which is giving my pillows an inferiority complex. You can see her beautiful work on her Flickr page here and more for sale in her Etsy shop. She also has a blog here. Wow, I’m a fan! I am really in love with the hand dyed look, inspired color choices and beautiful free form quilting. These must have taken hours to make and they are really inexpensive ($40 and $42 each).

Here are a couple of other nice quilted pillows:

This one is from Raeburn Ink, $70.

And this one by Neressa Bennett, $95.

All of these modern quilt designs make me think of the Quilts of Gee’s Bend. I felt inspired when I saw this exhibition and I urge you to take a look at the patterns, color and design for inspiration even if you are not a quilter.

January 11, 2008January 15, 2008

Embroidery Hoop Frames

Since finding the photo of Liberty of London fabrics framed in embroidery hoops at Purl (see post here), I’ve been meaning to try the idea. Here’s my interpretation with some embroidered birds on linen. I painted the hoops matte black. But I think that these would be great unpainted or painted with different bright colors and used in a child’s room.

I simply hooped the fabric and cut the excess, so this was a quick and easy project. I plan to add more to this grouping, mix in some plates or find some flea-market style small round mirrors. I embroidered the birds myself, but I think that vintage handkerchiefs would make a great display. You can find lots of vintage handkerchiefs online here and here.

January 4, 2008January 15, 2008

Playroom Update

So I managed to get a large number of toys to Goodwill before the onslaught of birthdays and Christmas, and I think we have it pared down pretty well. But our playroom has always been a mish-mash of furniture with toys thrown in baskets. I got some great storage from IKEA last year and I decided to finally put it all together last week. I had a few yards of the fabric pictured above (also from IKEA) that I had been planning to use for another project. Since it looks like there will be only female children around here, I went with the flowers.

I made these felt stool covers (for IKEA stools) with appliqued flowers. I made a few floor pillows and some quilted chair cushions. We painted our table and chairs by mixing up some leftover house paint (which sort of came out as weird colors), and now I need to add a coat of polyurethane. I say “we” because I let my very young children help. Oh how frustrating, but they enjoyed it. I’m also working on a checkerboard quilt and hope to have that completed this weekend. I really didn’t have to buy anything new, we just rearranged and renewed what we already had, which was nice.

November 19, 2007February 10, 2012

Liberty of London

In the midst of an unruly number of projects, holiday shopping, birthday planning and vacation preparation (not to mention that I can’t walk across a single room in my house without stepping on a bead or tiny toy), I’m thinking about spring. Perhaps this is a form of escapism? But I’ve had these Liberty of London fabrics stuck in my head all day. They are very expensive, but I’m thinking of Easter dresses now. I’ll need to hone my sewing skills a bit because it’s a different ball game when you’re working with fabric that’s $35 a yard. But aren’t these embroidery hoops such a nice display? I keep running across this image from PurlSoho. Ahh, I love fabric!