A Tale of Two Tables

I have been doing a little furniture painting and here's a couple of projects I have just completed. I bought the table below back in 2010 at Goodwill. The price was $5 but it gets better. When at the woman at the checkout pulled off the tag some of the finish came off and I uttered an "Oh". She then said "How about $2?' and I said Sold. So I was going to paint it because the wood was nothing special and I already had too much brown in the room it was in. But I could never get myself to commit to a color until now. 

Then I found the Annie Sloan paint in the color Arles. I am really liking a bit of golden yellow lately and this seems just right. It seems to go with everything. Love this table now and I am glad I waited until I found a color I love. I used the clear wax followed by the tinted wax and I love how it ended up.

Then a little background story on a coffee table I had at my camp. We had a table there that I found but it had a problem. It's legs were cantlevered out and it quickly got labeled the toe breaker. I am pretty sure I broke my toe on it early this summer. Several people kicked that darn table and when one of my grandsons got hurt on it I decided it had to go. So I found this round table which is ok. I'm not totally in love with it and I think it's actually a side table but it was a good height so I bought it in a shop near my camp that has a lot of furniture that gets paint and distressing. Unfortunately the distressing on the table was pretty bad. My husband said it looked like it had been dragged behind a car. So I painted it again.

 I painted it in Annie Sloan Old White with clear and tinted wax finish. Much better. No more broken toes!

My Lake Cottage

So today I thought I would show some of the little lake cottage my husband and I bought last year. This is something we always wanted to do and we had looked at places for a while. We had been renting one during the summer on a nearby lake, but with prices low, interests rates very low and our mortgage paid off, it was time. When I first walked in the door this is what I saw-a fabulous enclosed porch with a million dollar view of the lake. I was hooked!

Turn to the right and here's the living room and kitchen with the 2 bedrooms and bathroom to the left and folks, that's it! All 700 square feet of it. There's an attic for storage which is handy because there are no closets-at all. But it is open and feels much bigger than 700 square feet. What I also saw was a dark place with lots of bad 70's paneling, except for the bedrooms which had real wood tongue in groove planks.

This place was on the market for a while and I think that people just can't imagine it other than the way it was which was dark and dated. It was owned by the same family for 40 years who took good care of the structure but didn't do much to the inside which is fine with me. We added furniture and a big table for gathering around on the porch and this is now one of my favorite spots.

We added the cupboard for storage, which came from my sewing room, and added some accessories for color. To the upper left of the sink we took out the upper kitchen cabinet and moved it into the bathroom for storage and put in open shelves for dishes and glasses which everyone seems to love. But it was still a dark room and I don't do dark.

While most of the summer was fabulous, there was one rainy Saturday night that hubby and I were there and I got a bee in my bonnet to see what was under the horrible paneling. What we found was real wood tongue in groove planks like in the bedrooms so at that point, I couldn't get the fake stuff off fast enough! There was some damaged spots which we repaired but this meant we would have to paint it instead of white wash, which would have been my first choice.

We painted it Martha Stewart Blue Hubbard from Sherwin Williams. BTW, they don't officially carry this anymore but have it in their computer and will mix it for you. It is a barely tinted blue/green color, almost like sea glass. I would have preferred white but with the white cupboards in the kitchen I thought that would be too much white. A future solution would be to paint the cabinets a different color and paint the walls white. My husband will faint if he hears this plan! The wood planks up high were in good shape so we left those unpainted and I like the contrast and the addition of the warm wood tones there. And it is so much lighter and brighter in here.

The dish wall was actually plywood so it was fun coming up with a solution and what we did was apply paintable anaglypta wallpaper and painted it the same as the walls. It's hard to photograph but here it is. I love it.

So that's it for now. We will tackle the porch area next year. There doesn't seem to be anything under the paneling out there so we'll see what we come up with when the crappy stuff comes down. We did some improvements outside too so I'll show that soon. 

A Before and After

So I have a little before and after to share. I bought this chair last week at my local Goodwill for $12.99. Good solid chair but just a bit time worn, dirty and dated. After reading all this spring and summer about Annie Sloan chalk paint and seeing what a friend of mine has done with it I wanted to try it too. So off to my work room to try it out. 

And here is the after. I used Annie Sloan Old White with clear and dark wax. You can't see it totally in my cell phone picture here but the dark wax really highlights the wood turned arms and legs. I love how it came out!

I actually did the upholstery myself and here's one thing I learned; paying an upholsterer is worth every cent. Mine looks fine but don't look too close. I did like the AS chalk paint and will definitely use it again. I have never used wax before and I really liked that process especially the dark wax which really brought an old world look to the chair. 

I have always love to paint. there's just something relaxing about the whole process for me. So I am sure I'll be on the lookout for some other pieces I can also paint. I have a few here right now I would like to work on so stay tuned. If you have used Annie Sloan paint let me know. I'd love to see your projects.   

Swoon Continued

So, the last time I posted something about the Swoon quilt I am making was back in June. And then summer happened. I had a fabulous summer at the lake. I even brought a sewing machine with me there and used it once! I had other things to have fun with. So with the cooler weather starting to come back I am back sewing so now all 9 blocks are done and on to the sashing. Sorry for the lousy picture but the camera is not working and my smart phone does not have a great camera.

This is a total scrap Swoon quilt. I had all these fabrics on hand, mostly Heather Bailey, Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler a a few others. The original pattern calls for a background with 2 fabrics. But I have a background and 3-5 fabrics. The background is different in each block because I didn't have enough of any one and in some cases I have used 2 backgrounds in a block. It has a nice scrappy but organized look. So I hope to finish this one in the coming week. Don't have any solid plans on what to make after that so deciding will be fun. So how was everyone's summer? 

At My Lake Cottage

Or should I title this post, "Where the heck has Chris been"! I have been at our lake cottage that my husband and I bought last fall. I will eventually write a post with more pictures and before and afters but for now I am enjoying every drop of sunlight of every day which you have to do in NH since summers are short but glorious. 

My grandsons have been up a lot and are quite the swimmers and beginner water skiers. Yes a 3 and 5 year old can water ski.

I brought a sewing machine with me and have only used it once so my 6 Swoon blocks that I previously completed sit lonely on my design wall in my sewing room waiting for summer's end and me getting back to sewing the last three.

So until then I will enjoy the sunrise from my front porch each day which is why we named the cottage Sunny Side Up.

Talk to you soon.

Just Checking In

Just checking in here as I have been sewing but not so regularly lately. So here's the Swoon update. I have completed three more blocks. I just love making these blocks! Plus I am getting to re-visit favorite fabrics in this scrappy quilt. I guess that's why I like scrap quilts.

And my friend RaNae at Ewe Creek Cottage sent me a gift! For no particular reason other than she is a great person and very generous. Now, she's not a quilter from what I know but she sure puts together a great quilter's gift. Thanks RaNae! I love it. 

Other that that, I have been enjoying New Hampshire and it's great weather this time of year. We have been at our lake cottage quite a bit and are thoroughly enjoying the sailboat we bought this spring. The next blog post should be a before and after of what we did with the cottage after we bought it. Not that dramatic but it sure made a difference in how we feel about the place. So hope you are having some happy summer weather too! 

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Swoon block #3

I have completed block #3 for my Swoon quilt and again loved making it. But when I got done I thought the center was boring. So I changed the center.

While I love the green Amy Butler fabric I was using in the center star, it couldn't hold it's own in the center of the block. So I pulled out some scraps and came up with this 4 patch. Much better. The other two blocks I made were fine in the center because of the particular fabrics I used, but this one needed a little nudge. It's so much fun gatherings scraps. You get to visit again with favorite fabrics. 

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Swoon

Since I finished my last two quilts which were pretty easy to put together, I wanted my next quilt to be more of a challenge and this is what I chose-Swoon. I have been watching everyone's Swoon quilts on blogs and on Pinterest and have fallen in love with it. The original pattern calls for two colors and a background for each block using fat quarters. But since, as usual, I am using scraps, I sometimes don't have enough fabric. So I am using three fabrics and the background in each block and I love how it looks. I have some really great fabrics to use up and I had so much fun pulling fabrics for this. So block one and two are done and block three is almost done. While not a hard block to make, it does take some thinking which I like so I am thoroughly enjoying making these blocks. These blocks are big too, 24 inches, so it's very satisfying to get one done. So let me know if you have made a Swoon quilt so I can check yours out.    

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My Daughter

Congratulations to my daughter who today was awarded her Master of Education degree. You go girl!

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Camp Quilts

As promised, I have some pictures of the bunk bed quilts I made for our lake camp. This one is from a pattern by Camille of Thimble Blossoms called Jelly Bean. Very easy.

I wanted to make something to go with but not match the string quilt I recently made and I think this fits the bill.

We were at the lake this past weekend to get boats in and do some chores. It's nice to be able to get away. We have a loon that hangs out in front of our camp. My grandsons have decided it's a girl and have named her Raina! She was there Sunday morning so hubby and I got to eat our breakfast while watching her.

Then on Sunday this was the sunrise. It was foggy and beautiful. About and hour later the fog was gone.

By the way, the bunk beds and quilts are for these two monkeys.

While I loved making the two quilts I found them easy and I want my next project to be a little more challenging. I have loved seeing the Swoon quilts everywhere so I think that may be my next project. Time to pull some fabric!

Have you Schnibbled?

Just a quick check in here. One of my Schnibble quilts is being features here at the Martingale Blog so check it out. Mine is the Imagine quilt which is #3 in the slide show. I really haven't fallen off the face of the earth here in NH. I just completed two quilts that will be going  at our lake camp so I am sewing. It's been so dark here this week that I haven't gotten a good picture of my quilts so I will take a picture this weekend for sure.

This is where we have increasingly been, at our camp, getting it ready for summer. We had a new dock put in as the old one was falling apart. Just need to get the motor and sail boats in the water. This lake is actually drained down 6 feet every winter to allow for the snow melt. The problem is that this winter we had virtually no snow, so there is no snow melt. The water level is coming up slowly but so far it's still too low for boats. It rained all week so that should help.

And one more note. A year and a half ago I found out that I have a serious illness that involves my pancreas (cysts) and stomach (cancerous tumors). I have since had 5 MRI's, 2 CAT scans, tumor removal and several biopsies, 5 Endoscopic Ultrasounds and many, many doctor's appointments. April was a month that I had a lot of these appointments but I had my final one today for now with my fantastic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and she declared that I (as in my innards) am "looking pretty darn good"! So that was good to hear and I am now looking forward to summer. Next MRI is in July. I may at some point have to have part of my pancreas removed but I'll deal with that when it comes along. For now bring on summer!

Scrappy Quilt Along Update

I have been doing a scrappy quilt along with Sew Lux Fabric and Gifts blog and here I am with a finished quilt! This QAL is supposed to last for a while so if you want to jump in and join there's plenty of time. This block is easy and lots of fun. I had been saving strings for quilt a while and used plenty of them in this project. This is a quilt that will reside in my lake camp on one of the bunk beds.  

I chose to add some borders on this quilt because I wanted to stabilize the very bias edges and I think I accomplished that. I need to make another quilt for the other bunk bed but may not get to it before summer. If I am going to make another one like this I will need to start collecting strings but I think I am inclined to make something completely different.

By the way, as I mentioned on my last post I was taking the test to get a boating license a week ago and I am happy to report I passed. In fact I got  97%! My husband got 95%. I am very happy but I really wanted 100%. I am an overachiever. I am glad I beat my husband's score though. 

Sorry for the not great pictures. I can't seem to find my camera cord and have been using my phone. Have a wonderful Easter weekend. 

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My Blog Title's Origin

I finished this quilt yesterday to bring up to our camp today but first Miss Penny found it as she always does. She loves quilts! This was made this past winter with all stash scraps and cut on my Accuquilt cutter with the large tumbler die. Easy peasy. It just took me forever to sew down the binding but yesterday afternoon I watched a movie and got to it.

This afternoon I take the second part of my test to get my boating license so wish me luck.

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Slacker

Since I last posted on March 1st, I decided I better post again before April arrives. I've been a slacker! On March 1st we were in the midst of a snowstorm and the rest of the month was warm-in the 80's for several of the days. I was out enjoying it. So here's what's been happening.

I want to apologize to Kate who awarded me the Liebster Blog Award. It is an award for bloggers with 200 or less followers. I am supposed to pass it along to 5 other bloggers and before I could do that my sister Angela gave me the same award! So since I am a slacker, I am going to pass on tagging anyone else. Clearly Kate is not a slacker since she posts nearly every day and my sister is not a slacker either since she produces so much beautiful stuff. Go check out the knitted hats she has on her blog today. She is an expert knitter along with being a quilter.

During the wonderful warm weather hubby and I made our way to our lake camp to start getting things ready for summer. I finally got the binding done on this quilt for one of the bedrooms.

Believe it of not I am standing in the doorway taking this picture-it is a small room!

And I continue to work on my string blocks and I have them all completed for the twin size quilt I am making so next comes assembly. These blocks are fun to make. I need to make two of these quilts for bunk beds at the camp but I used most of my stash of strings I had cut so I am going to have to start saving again.

So that's what happening in NH. I'll try to be less of a blog slacker. 

A Perfect Sewing Day

On my last post I said I would be working on bindings or getting distracted by a new project. Well, I got distracted. I have had this bag bookmarked to make for quite a while and finally whipped it up. It's an easy pattern. It's by the fabulous Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Studios and you can find it here. I've been collecting home dec fabrics whenever I see some I like and I liked this combo. By the way, that roll of paper I have had forever. It was my Mom's in her sewing room and I have had it for years. It came in really handy for my next distraction I will show you.

 Today arrived with the first snow storm since last October-I am not kidding-we have had no storms since last October so it was a perfect day for some sewing. We got about 8 inches here which is a small snowstorn for NH. I have been using my stash quite a lot these past two years and when ever I am doing a project I slice up any scraps into strings and dump them in this basket. I wanted to someday make some kind of string quilt or a spider web quilt and then I found this tutorial I liked.

There is a quilt-a-long being sponsored by Sew Lux Fabric and Gifts and the easy tutorial for these blocks is here. These block are super simple and work up fast. The common foundation of the white string looks great with a few blocks done. This is semi-paper pieced. I say semi because you only sew one seam through the paper so ripping off the paper is a breeze.

I did make a couple of changes that may help you if you try it. The tutorial calls for a 6 inch square of paper for the foundation but I am using a 6.5 inch. The reason I am doing that is because I have an Accuquilt Go Cutter and the 6.5 inch die so I am cutting my paper with the Go. Did you know you can cut paper with it and not damage the die? So if you have this die, use it! The next thing I did was cut my white strings on the length of the grain, not the width. There are a lot of diagonal seams going on and I think you need a strong foundation in the middle that is less likely to stretch. As you can see below this is what you end up with on the front and back and the directions call for you to use the grid on the cutting mat and proceed to cut basically on the edge of the paper from the back. But I was finding that cutting blind like that, I was not getting quite in the center of my white strings sometimes.

Then I remembered my favorite tool in my sewing room. My Precision Trimmer which also is 6.5 inches. So I ripped the paper off the back before I trimmed and I did my trimming from the front so I could place that diagonal line on the ruler right down the center of the white string. Perfect block!

So that's what I have been up to. That and talking to my cat. She was watching me sew and I kept saying, "These blocks are so much fun!" It's just me and the cat here most days so I gotta talk to someone.

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