Decorator Fabric

Recently at one of our PTA meetings, one of the members had lots of "unwanted" pieces of decorator fabric samples. I took some of the larger ones with not a clue on what to do with them. 

 They sat and sat in my studio when one day, the lightbulb went on...not a genius idea lightbulb..but a lightbulb just the same. All these beautiful samples would make great placemats...certainly sturdy enough and each one different....what fun to put on a table.

 Each person can sit at their favorite placemat and hopefully everyone will want a different one.

 I used a purchased placemat as a template, and traced around each fabric sample on the wrong side. I cut them out leaving around 1/2" beyond the marked line. I bought buckram at a local chain sewing store and cut out pieces a little smaller than the placemat.

 The buckram was stitched in place using a white thread on top and a monofilament in the bobbin so the clear thread would show on the right side. I sewed a line of stitching around 1/4" from the marked line (photo above)

One of the really fun parts was finding different backing fabrics for each decorator fabric. I used cotton fabric...some were batiks, some prints...somewere very dated but worked well. Each cotton backing was cut the same size as the decorator fabric. It was then placed right side to right side of decorator fabric and stitched around on marked line. The buckram was not caught in the stitched line.

 I switched to using neutral thread in both top and bottom for this stitching. I left an opening of around 6" on one side to right side it. This was not difficult but it was cumbersome as the buckram is stiff. The opening was stitched closed by hand. The original stitching to hold the buckram in place was left and not visible because it was a monofilament and guaranteed no shifting of the buckram (during washing etc.)

 I wound up with 18 placemats...didn't even realize how many as each fabric was so much fun and I just kept going. So here are some of the results...

 and the backing fabric used on the 3 above ...

 The Egret is my favorite one in this bunch..

 with the pretty blue tulip print on back...

 I loved the flowered ones and will probably hold up better ...

 and the backs...

I loved the dragon......

and the back.. A fun project.

Jill's Quilt

 A couple of years ago or less, my daughter Jill bought this quilt kit because of the finished piece on display in a quilt shop. It was a great piece but I thought to myself, my daughter doesn't even own a needle and thread so hmmmm.....wonder how this is going to go together.

 Well, I found out quickly when I offered to do it and she jumped on the opportunity. It really is a wonderful piece even though I'm not prone to kits, but it would have been difficult. There were 5 pieces to each block - A, B, C, D, E,  but each letter had a different size depending on the block; Each block had to be handled individually. I've had the top done for ages, also had made throw pillows out of fabric we bought that matched some in the quilt.

 Well before the pillows wore out, I thought I needed to finish this piece. I did an overall quilt/stipple type pattern which was fine as the fabric patterns were busy.

 We chose the backing to be plain and I thought maybe to use it also as a binding, but no, it was way too light. What to do - I went to the quilt shop and bought a few I thought would work, but not so. Sometimes the best choices are right under our nose and we don't realize it.

 The scraps left over from the quilt might do, especially something dark, many tiny pieces except for this one piece which was used only once in the quilt.

 It was perfect as a binding, cut on the bias, making this strip like pattern easier to work with. And note that this was all that was left after binding this large quilt. Guess, luck was with me this day.

 The binding really was a winner for this piece....

and the final piece. I think Jill will love it. Like I mentioned before, I'm not usually thrilled with kits, but this one was darling and I love both the prints and the way they were combined.

Match Game

Just a quick post to share my latest project I made as a baby gift for a dear friend's daughter who just had a little boy -  her first baby! I made one of these for my granddaughter a while back, too young for her at first but now she's at the perfect age.

It's quite fun to make and many ways a small child can play with it as my daughter/ teacher pointed out. The pocket in front holds the pieces to be matched to the board below.

Baby Lucien was named after his grandpa LD. LD never lived to see his first little grandson - what a nice tribute to a wonderful man.

A Candlestick Makeover

I was planning to spend time in my studio today and in a way I did, but not on quilting.  I bought this great candlestick a while back - white with antiquing on it (ignore the blue on top where I started painting it).  It sits on the mantel in my family room and blends in with the antique white wall behind it. It hardly shows and I vowed to try and do something with it. 

 I was off to Michaels to get some craft paint; they have so many colors in these little paints.

 I wanted something in a very "grayed" blue green a blue and green with gray to tone it down.

 And started to paint....I really didn't know where I was going with this but as I wiped up spills and excess, the paint looked rather nice where it had been wiped off.

 So now I had a direction, but it still needed a lot more work. You can see where the original antiquing was when it was white.

 My husband suggested glazing it with ink or paint.  I have distress ink pads - great for working on paper and I thought - worth a try.

 When you lift the cover off, you have a pad of ink to lightly rub on the surface of something.  The only problem is that they work best on flat surfaces so I could only use it on the edges.

 I had to fill in with a liquid ink which I did using Winsor Newton Walnut ink.

 I brushed the ink all over and let it set up for a few seconds, then wiped it off. It's starting to look better but still needs more glazing.

 The finished new look for my white candlestick - you can really see it against the white walls.

 So I got the bug and found something else that needed some primping just by adding an ink glaze and then wiping it off.

 It looks better I think...2 fun projects .