Journey's of An Artist Mom: Crafty Things

Showing posts with label Crafty Things. Show all posts

Happy Hearts

On a deliciously quiet Monday afternoon, Eva and I crafted. I cut out paper hearts for her, while she took a needle and thread and sewed them together.

I tied the strands of hearts to a coat hanger and hung them in the dining room. I'm not much of a "decorator for the holidays" but those little hearts make me so happy.

An afternoon spent crafting with my girl, stringing hearts together and chatting about our day. So lovely.

Refinishing a Dining Room Table

I had a reader comment on this post that they liked my table and chairs, and wondered where I got them from. Since they were something we made and didn't buy in a store, I thought I'd let you know how we did it.

For the first 4 years of our marriage, my husband and I lived in and rented my Mother-in-Law's condo since she was living in Guatemala as a missionary. The condo was fully furnished, so we never needed to buy big pieces of furniture like a table and chairs or couches or anything like that. When we bought our first house just over a year ago, we were smacked with the realization that we had a beautiful new house with no furniture to put in it. As I browsed the price of dining sets I couldn't believe that even a cheap set was going to run us about $500. Um, not going to happen. We considered putting our patio set in our dining room until we could figure out a solution.

Then about a month before we were about to move, I started browsing used items on kijiji. I started seeing the potential in the pieces, and knew we were capable of refinishing them. We bought a dining room table for $20.

It was a light coloured pine on top with a thick layer of clear varnish to protect it. Steve began by using a stripper on the table top so he could get down to just the wood. Once that was removed, he sanded it smooth and then applied three coats of a really dark wood stain. With that many coats, the top of the table looks black, but you can still see some of the wood grain coming through which I love. After a few days the stain had cured and he was able to apply a couple coats of clear varnish to protect our new table top.

The underside of the table as well as the legs were already white, so I gave them a couple new coats of paint to spruce them up. I wanted a really graphic table with the black and white juxtaposed against each other.

We then had to go searching for some chairs. Brand new ones were anywhere between $50-$100 each which I couldn't stomach. I held out for a good deal and finally found these beauties: all four for $15 total.

They were in really rough shape, but I knew the bones of them were beautiful. I removed the seat, and painted the chair frame with a couple coats of high-adhesive black paint.

The seats were really uncomfortable, so we removed the two layers of hideous fabric that originally must have been from the 50's but had been recovered with equally hideous fabric from the 70's. We discovered a pitiful 1/4 inch padding between the fabric and the wooden seat. We chucked all the layers in the trash and started fresh with just the wooden seat. We purchased a big chunk of 2 inch foam for $50, which ended up being the most expensive part of our project. We placed the wooden seat on top of the foam, traced around it and then cut out all four pieces.

I fell in love with this Alexander Henry Livingston Seagulls fabric, so I ordered it online. It was a discontinued fabric so we ordered twice what we needed so each chair could be recovered once if need be (you know, sticky hands and painting projects and all).

My favourite thing about this fabric is that it isn't uniform. The big and little seagulls float and fly all over the black sea in random order, making each chair slightly unique. It also meant we didn't have to be super careful when wrapping the fabric around the foam and wooden seat. To upholster the seats, it was as easy as wrapping a square of fabric around the foam and wood, flipping it over and stapling it.

My husband and I were thrilled with our efforts. It took some elbow grease and some patience waiting for the right items at a good price. But SO worth it.

This entire dining set, including the materials to refinish it, was about $125. A price that was easy on our wallets and we ended up with a product that we LOVE.

Sneak Peek

Lovin' The Wonk

I've spent the last two months drooling over designer fabrics and dreaming about the beautiful quilts I would make with them. While not knowing exactly how to quilt, I've spent hours watching videos on youtube and reading tutorials online. This weekend I stocked up on quilting gear with a mat, ruler and rotary cutter and some inexpensive flannel. As much as I would love to delve into the designer fabrics right away I really can't afford to pay $15 a meter and then botch it up. Instead I am making Isabella a soft and cuddly quilt out of these surprisingly cute flannel fabrics.
I tried to sign up for a quilting class, but it doesn't start until the end of April. I figured in the meantime I could just teach myself. I'm absolutely loving some of the modern quilts I have seen at many different blogs like Tall Grass Prairie Studio and A Quilt is Nice. For my first quilt I am following Tall Grass Prairie Studio's tutorial for making a wonky log cabin. These are a few of my favorite blocks.

I am almost done the quilt top; I have 10 blocks and I want to have 12 with some cream sashing. The tutorial for this was easy to follow but I think I have my work cut out for me teaching myself how to quilt the three layers together and finish with the binding. But so far I'm loving the process.

Non-Ambitious Ambition

I think I spent all my nesting energy on preparing for Christmas. I took a couple days to make a bunch of meals for the freezer, clean out and organize the freezer, and fold my mountains of laundry...but that was almost a week ago and since then I've been spending my days perched on the couch. I can't seem to fall asleep before 2am (sometimes 5 or 6am), so it makes me really tired during the day. I look around and still see things I'd like to accomplish before the baby comes, but motivation is definitely lacking. I convince myself that the best way to prepare for the baby's arrival is to save up my energy for labor...which basically means watch t.v., browse the internet and eat all the leftover chocolate from Christmas.

One "productive" thing I have done is search for fabric samples online. Eva will be passing on her baby bedding in the next few months and graduating to a big girl bed, so I've been thinking about making her a quilt instead of buying a comforter set. I have absolutely fallen in love with the fabric samples I picked out and can't wait to get started making the quilt.

They are a mixture of Amy Butler, Alexander Henry, Joel Dewberry and Heather Bailey fabrics. I actually thought it wouldn't be that hard to make a quilt...I once cut up a bunch of jeans and "made" a jean quilt. But after I sewed all the squares together I gave it to my boyfriend's mom and she did the actual "quilting" by putting it all together. I figured it couldn't be that hard. I watched a bunch of "How To" video's on youtube and I realized I know absolutely nothing about quilting and that I may be in over my head...but I am so in love with the fabrics I can't imagine just buying her a bed-in-a-bag.

Maybe just to practice, I'll get some of these Paula Prass fabrics and make some smaller quilted items. How cute is that bird in the left corner?

Or maybe I'll just be a new mom adjusting to life with a toddler and a new baby and I'll be lucky if I get to take a shower. We'll see.

I've Been Sewing...Is That Good Enough?

Lately I have thoroughly enjoyed crafting. Trips to the fabric store, busting out the sewing machine, passing along gifts, and all in all just CREATING. I sometimes get frustrated with the term "artist". I went to art school and I make art so I am labeled an "artist". Yet friends and family don't always find validity in my creativity unless I'm painting. As if PAINTING is the be-all and end-all of art. Art is only valid if it's in paint form. Apparently.

"Art For Art's Sake" was a philosophy that came about in the early 19th century that artists adopted when they were challenged if their art didn't have a moral or purpose. They just wanted to make art for the sake of making art. No frills, no gimmicks. So why can't that be said for forms of art? Why can't sewing be art? Why can't drawing be art?

Why can't I create just for the sake of creating?

Crafty Bibs

I've continued to work on those bibs I started making the other day. I've enjoyed working on them so much. So much so, that I can barely put them down. As soon as I finish one, I've started another. I spent all day yesterday and a couple hours this morning working on these two little gems.

I decided to give them to friend at church who just had a baby boy. My sister-in-law gave me her sewing machine, but it's from like 1940 or something so I couldn't get it working. She's out of town for the week, so I'm going to have to wait until she gets back so she can get this ancient piece working for me.

Ignore our extremely cluttered garage.

I really wanted to give these bibs to my friend on Sunday, so I didn't have time for my sis to get back. I decided to sew everything by hand. There was a bit of trial and effort on my part. This is what the neck originally looked like on the back ...

It's hard to see, but it looked CRAPPY.

...until I decided that it looked to shoddy for me to continue. I had worked on these for hours so far and I wasn't going to let that go to waste to have them look REALLY homemade. There's homemade and then there's HOMEMADE...I didn't want it to look crappy, so even though I had spent 45 minutes sewing this part by hand, I ripped it all out and started again doing something different. I'm SO glad I did, because now it looks like this.

I love that instead of the back being super hideous and "oh don't look there, that's just the back"...now it's reversible. Here's the back of both bibs (I made the back the opposite color of the front of the bib).

And here's a closer look at the detail on the front.

Sorry these colors aren't really accurate. I used the exact same material for both the watermelon and the airplane and yet the pics look totally different. The airplane is the more accurate color version.

Here's my little gift packaged up and ready to go to my friend.

You know, it's been so long since I've created something with my hands...that started as an idea in my head and then the finished product looks EXACTLY like what I imagined. Creating is making me so happy. It's been awhile.

Homemade Baby Bib

By 11am it was an idea.

By this evening they were some cool homemade baby bibs. Here's what I did.

I took these old t-shirts that were in the salvation army pile

And this ugly bib my Grandma gave to Eva. While I was feeding Eva this morning, I was looking at this ugly bib, and realizing that I always choose it because of how big it is, and because it's so easy to get over her head. That's when I decided to make my own cool looking ones. I layed the ugly bib over top of t-shirt and then traced it and cut it out.
Then I drew some cute designs and some paper, then cut it out. I placed them on the leftover t-shirt scraps and cut out pieces.
I pinned the cut out pieces of fabric on the bib.
And sewed the fabric by hand onto the bib (sorry the colors are so different in all the pics. The lighting was weird. It's supposed to be dark purple, light blue, light green and dark green/khaki)
Here are my finished bibs.
This guy already had a design on it, so I just sewed a few buttons on to give it a little pizazz.
I love this butterfly and those wooden buttons.
You can barely tell, but this is a light blue bird with a light green wing. It's so cute!
I'm really happy with how my little creative project went today. It was a lot of fun, but once I got started I really didn't get much else done. I'm still excited that I have one bib left to sew a design onto...I'm thinkin' I'll make a watermelon wedge and sew little black buttons as the seeds. Yay for craftyness!

An Old Hobby Resurfaces

A couple weeks ago, I started scrapbooking again. It was one of my favorite things to do with my mom, but I haven't scrapbooked in 3 or 4 years. Having all this time on my hands, I decided to dig my wedding photo's out of the closet. I hadn't even put them into an album yet, so I decided that was a good place to start with my scrapbooking. I invested in a bunch of supplies, and it was so much fun to shop for! Since then, my kitchen table has been taken over with scrapbooking gear. Colorful papers, ribbons, brads, flowers, buttons...Oh my! It's been great to have a break from laundry and dishes, and to do something I enjoy so much.

Surprisingly, my hubby loves it too! He's not scrapbooking with me, he just enjoys how it's turning out. He's so supportive. He hasn't even gotten mad that I took over the kitchen table!

One element I have found to be really important is journaling. Writing out what Steve and I were thinking and feeling, or stories surrounding a certain picture...It'll be really cool one day when Eva looks through it, or our grandchildren look through it and can read about what we thought and felt.

It would have been cool if my mom or grandma had done that.