Mother's Day Photos and Pillow Covers

It's been a while since I updated my blog, so this is a belated post about the pillow covers I made for my mom for Mother's day. She's always complaining about how she's bored by her bedroom, so I decided to make it a little more visually interesting. To start with, I edited and blew up some photos she took from her trip to Ireland. (My mom is a bit of an amateur photographer, so it was hard picking just three good-looking pictures!) Costco was a great resource for printing the photos inexpensively, and the quality was great. After I'd picked out the pictures and stuck them in white frames picked up at Michael's Crafts, I quilted a couple of pillows in blue, white, and green to coordinate. I kind of made it up as a I went along, so there are green saw stars in the middle and some fancy HSTs making up the border. They have a simple envelope backing.

O's Baby Quilt: Half Square Triangles

     I  love making the Magic 8 Half Square Triangles (HSTs) using this method from Craftsy. It's easy, fun, and fast, which were all the requirements I needed to make a little quilt for my friend Sarah's new baby girl O.  I alternated the triangles and sewed them into nine 12" blocks, and then assembled the blocks in a 3x3 pattern, so it all came together quickly.
     I used a white-on-white chevron print and a purple batik that I purchased from Joann's, along with an aqua Kona Cotton. The final bits of fabric were from the Timeless Treasures Mini White Mini Garden Rainboots fabric purchased online at Hancocks of Paducah. ($2 for a half yard. Can't beat that with a stick.) The quilt is backed with a dark green/aqua leaf print from Joann's, which will help hide dirt and grass stains when it's stuck on ground for Baby O. I wanted the colors to be appropriate for a girl, but also be usable if a baby boy comes along in the future. The quilting is straight lines about an inch apart, and while the thread is a light pink, it blends pretty well.

Dining Room Chairs

Yesterday, my da and I recovered the chairs in the dining room. It took the entire day, but we finished! We pulled the staples out from the worn out previous fabric, which was a kind of red and blue tribal print my parents used over 25 years ag.

I polished all of the chair frames with Old English and attempted to fill in all of the nicks in the wood. They still look a little rough, but aged wood is trendy, amiright?

We put in new 1 inch foam, high loft batting, and a pretty aqua woven home decor fabric I found at Joann's. Watching A LOT of YouTube tutorials to figure the process out - especially those tricky corners - was super helpful.

The new rug from Costco arrived a couple of days before we started, so the living room redecorating project is almost finished! Although, I might do something with those curtains, and possibly a new chandelier...

Origami Bouquet

I love origami - there's something so satisfying about making a 3D object or decoration out of paper. I have an old Page-a-Day origami calendar that has really bright colors (the instructions are weird on it, but the paper is fancy). So I used some bright (majority pink) papers to whip up a bouquet of tulips and lilies for the entry table. For the stems, I painted a few kebab sticks from the kitchen green and just popped them on. Super cheerful little craft.

Spring Wreath (Origami + Pool Noodle)

I duct taped a red pool noodle that I found in the basement into a circle to make my wreath. I wrapped it in brown fabric donated by family friend Audrey to cover up the red. Next came layer of brown burlap that I had hanging around, and then some white burlap ribbon that was in the dollar bin at Target.
     After the main wreath was finished, I folded up some origami lilies with paper I had lying around, cut out and folded a few bright green leaves, and stuck it all together with colored pearl tipped pins from my quilting projects. I used the same pins to spell out SPRING.
     I finally painted a couple of kebab sticks that I found in a kitchen drawer green, snapped them in half, and stuck them into the white burlap ribbon at a few key intervals. To hang it and cover up my neon orange duct tape marks (I only have fancy duct tape), I looped some old blue ribbon cut from last year's Easter decorations through the top. And voila. The wreath is finished.

Offset Chevron Potholder

The top of this potholder is a square using the Improve Chevron tutorial and the rest of it followed this Quilted Potholder tutorial. I used several layers of insulated quilt batting (it has this silver stuff in it that reflects heat), so it works pretty well. I should put a loop on it so I can hang it on the handle of the oven.

Long Spring-time Table Runner

This runner used left over triangles from my Bookcase Runners With Triangles project. The purple batik in the center was from a fat quarter that I found at Joann Fabrics, and the rest were scrap fabrics I had in my supply box. The border is composed of one inch squares in various shades of green sewn together into strips. I quilted this with the "quilt as you go" technique.