A Window Bench or 2

I started out with a wooden book shelf. I read on Instructables.com someone making a long window bench out of one and wanted to try it. I don't have enough room for the big one but 2 smaller ones would be perfect.

Canibalizing Furniture

I bought a kitchen cart from Target (I think), put it together and painted and covered it with some handmade paper from the art store. I liked and used it for several years but I have a tendency to repaint and change stuff like that so this is what I've done recently.

Before:



And After: (I wanted an ottoman I could put blankets in. I bought a yard of fabric from Ikea for $7 and painted the rest, then added tissue paper, painted again and then added the designs. I saw a painting I liked with similar designs.

Book Making

Someday I will be able to do all of this...

Quilts some old, some new...

This is from a couple years ago, I painted the center with acrylic then did some hand embroidery. I sold this one on ebay.


The center is hand-dyed satin stitched, also from a few years ago and sold on ebay.

Painted center, then embroidered, all of the fabric was hand-dyed.



One of the first ones I made, for my nephew who is almost 4. I dyed the fabric then satin stitched the knots, which I made up with graph paper.


A mixed media tree. The fabric was painted then salted (it sucks up the paint in a fractal pattern) and the yarn was sewn on.


Painted and dyed. I think this was one I had at a quilt show.



Painted and dyed.


Painted and dyed, more salt. I love the effect.



Mostly painted.

More quilts tomorrow, or whenever I get around to it....

Dragons

I need better pictures, I don't have any so far but this is mostly because I'm not 100% happy with the completed dragon. People really like them so I've decided to post this, I got the pattern from http://heavens-hellcat.livejournal.com/807.html yeah I know it's live journal but try and overlook that, there's no drama in the info.

Finished but not really.

I keep breaking needles so I'm holding off on the rest of the quilting but I got enough done to add the binding. I need to get sharper needles and adjust the alignment of the needle. I think it will be easier to just file the metal plate it hits. Probably a bad idea...

The Fairy Godmother Book

A Fractal

I had to find this picture from a coloring book and crop circle pictures because the actual thing is too complex to get some simple geometric shapes out of. I like fractals.
The yellow circles were made from painted fabric, buttons, beads and french knots. The rest of the fabric I hand dyed.

Inspiration From the International Quilt Show

I've tried bias quilting before though for not very long. It never worked. After the Quilt Show in Houston I decided to try again, and make it work this time. I bought a roll of fat quarters while there and I love this fabric but have no idea what to do with and it's perfect for this project but if I'd blown it again I would be unhappy to have lost any of the fabric. Here's what I've got so far, I think I'm getting the hang of it. I've burned my fingers too many times and poked myself with pins and none is all healed but I'm liking it. I'm going to look around for some stained glass ideas now to try quilting.

I'm actually happy these pictures are blurry. You can't see my screwups, blood and bad sewing.

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I wanted something to hang on my living room wall. We'll see if this makes the cut.

Weekend Waiting Projects

I was cleaning and waiting for something and that something was delayed a couple hours so I upholstered my computer chair. Then I stenciled it but it kinda bled so I'll redo it eventually.

This is a small drawer cabinet I bought from Ikea. On my sick day last week I covered it with scrapbook paper and painted a tree on the bottom one. Then a couple coats of polyeurethane and put it all back together.

Curtains...sorta

I was home sick from work last week and bored to death. I had planned to buy some textile fabric and make curtains to cover some towel shelves but after measuring I decided it would be too expensive(96 inches + a seam allowance on all sides and room for a curtain rod X2). I did have a bolt of quilting fabric I used so I cut it out and painted it blue with some metallic gold. After it dried I measured and sewed it all to the same length and the seams. I then stenciled in dark blue and red. After it was all done I used fabric glue and some glass beads and glued them to the bottom to give it weight. Overall it took a couple hours of mostly waiting for stuff to dry.

Shoes!!

These were hand-me-down canvas Keds that were boring. I don't have a before picture but after finding some awesome novelty fabric I took the canvas off and made a pattern out of it. My stitching isn't that straight and I'm scared to wear them even if they are glued with special shoe glue.

Books

I really love to make books and journals. Especially rebound books from thrift stores and handwritten fairy tales. They are usually a lot of work but really worth it in the end.

And a tutorial I made for www.instructables.com: http://www.instructables.com/id/A_Handmade_Fairytale/

The Stencil

Added to the new woodworking table, I still need to break it in...

Labor Day Weekend

It was pretty overcast for most of it which led to more time outside with the circular saw. I really need a good table saw if I'm going to make furniture though cause mine gouged the wood. The white is spackle to fill in holes and other marks. This wood was from a bedframe I made and no longer needed. It fits the clamps nicely and I've outlined where I can attach the dremmel drill press.

This is a stool I reupholstered with some ikea fabric and a foam cushion, the kind you tie to your chairs. I still need to cover the nails with another piece but it's close enough to done.

Since I now have a good work table and I want and need a decent kitchen table I bought some plywood and cut it to fit. It's about 8 inches longer and 3 inches wider than the original table top. It was covered in paint and glue from previous projects so I scraped it all off with turpenoid (odorless turpentine) and cleaned it off. I cut the wood and then screwed it onto the original top, rather than glueing and then screws, because I'm pretty sure I will destroy this at some point with a project and I want an easier way to redo it all. I stained it and sanded and at the last minute thought some stencils would look nice. It got all taped off and sprayed and once dry I put down a couple coats of polyeurethane and then sanded again. It looks great in my kitchen. Also, the original was from ikea with a metal frame which is still working fine so I kept it.