My favorite tools

Last night again I was out in the garage working on the dressers. I had to move things around a bit to set up the miter saw so I could cut the trim I needed for the bottom of the green dresser. I love my miter saw! I remember the days when I had no power tools and it was a pain trying to fix anything around the house. Using tools is a lot like quiltmaking, but not as forgiving. If a piece is cut too short you can just add another piece on, but I find some of the processes and the brain thinking are very similar.


Here is the trim with a 45 degree miter. Now it is ready to be attached to the dresser.


I needed to find the wood glue and set up the air compresser so I could attach the trim with my brad nailer. I love my air compresser and nailer! I also have an attachment for the compresser so I can put air in my tires.


The trim installed and before its first coat of paint.


I needed to drill holes in each side to install a handle/hanger bar on each side. I love my drill!


So here is the trim with one coat of paint - there are two coats now on the body of dresser.

I think I need to put a third coat on both pieces. The second coat looked so much better, but still I can see where a third coat will really help the finished look. Since the dressers won't be picked up until Saturday or Sunday I have the time. I just can't wait to get the hardware on them though.

Tonight I just need to put on the third coat and this project is close to being done. I am anxious to get back in the studio and work on my Thor Houhovd piece. I am still working on the binding tutorial. I think I missed taking a picture of one part of the process so I am going to have to review everything again before I post.

First coat of color

Here is the damage I told you about yesterday on the small dresser that I will be covering with baseboard.


Here's the first coat of paint. I used a small foam roller for most of the surfaces which made the painting go quickly. The colors are really going to pop with a second coat.


I got up this morning and decided to put a coat of paint on the inside on the drawers. I mixed some white with the green and have this lovely mint chocolate chip colored paint.

Tonight is the second coat and I am going to try and put the baseboard on the green dresser.

Priming done

Here are the cases and drawers sanded and before priming. Please don't mind the rest of the junk in my garage!



The After - I decided to prime the inside of the drawers instead of polying them. The wood is just ugly and painting will hide all of that. Before I paint the final color I will need to fix up the side bottoms of the small piece. It is made of plywood and over the years from it being dragged some of the outside layers have chipped off (I will post a picture tomorrow). I have some baseboard/skirting so I will cut a piece for each side and it will look like trim. I plan on adding longer handles at each side so the dresser can be lifted up when moved. The handles will also be a place where something could be hung.

TDF piece done

Time went slow this weekend for a change and I enjoyed that. I finished my TDF piece and took pictures for a tutorial on how I attached the binding. I will post that tomorrow. I spent almost 3 hours Sunday sanding the two dressers I need to paint. I need to have them done by this weekend so here is the schedule:

Monday: prime with Bullseye
Tuesday: first coat of color - each dresser is a different color
Wednesday: second coat of color
Thursday: poly the inside of the drawers for one of the dressers -
the other dresser has a nice finish on the drawers interior
Friday: install hardware

I will post picture of my progress.

I am back

I was sick Tuesday evening, but I went to work on Wednesday since we had an important meeting with some contractors. I still felt terrible and managed to hang in there, but I ended up staying home on Thursday because my stomach and head still hurt. I feel much better today!

I did get some quilting done on the TDF piece. It is coming along quickly and I plan on having it done this weekend. I will try and put together a tutorial on how I put on the binding. I plan on doing a facing method that is easy to do and looks great.


I finished piecing and stamping this top. I hope to have it quilted this weekend.


My exhibit at the library was moved to November due to another artist displaying their work. That will give me a little more time to get all my pieces ready.

Have a great weekend!

Cook or sew?

Cooking won out last evening. I didn't have anything for my lunches this week so I made stuffed shells last evening. I am eating them right now as I post and I must say they taste great. While I was waiting for the shells to bake, I worked on my mountain of dishes. I got the majority of them done and will finish them tonight. I am going to try and get my TDF piece pin basted and then I will see what else I may be able to get done. I try and have a couple of things planned and then just wing it.

So So weekend

I was rolling along this weekend getting stuff done. I had made no plans except to stay at the house and get some work done. Sunday at noon my sister who lives in Georgia called and said she was in Ohio for a few days visiting and that as many of us as possible were going to get together and meet for dinner. So I hooked up with one of my brothers whose family could not go - they had homework, the mom is a teacher and my nephew still had work to finish. So Mike and I headed out and from 2 pm till 9 pm was gone. It was good to see my sister and her family - we only see each other once or twice a year, but if I would have had a little more notice I would have planned my work differently. Oh well, I will just have to accomplish more every evening this week.

I did get top is done and the backing dyed. I decided to add the colors of the awarded jerseys at the bottom - white is best young rider, green is the sprint points winner, polka dot is the mountain points winner (King of the mountain), and yellow is the general classification winner. It may look a little odd to some people, but once the concept is explained I think it makes perfect sense.


This piece is my salute to Thor Hushovd "the god of thunder" who was the sprint point winner at the 2009 TDF. He is such a great rider and is one of my favorites. I still need to sew the two section together and then I am going to do some stamping on it of Thor's stats from 2009.


So the big push for the next two weeks is to get these two pieces done for my library show.

Good progress

I dived in after work yesterday on this Tour de France (TDF) piece. First I carefully cut the shirts apart then press iron on interfacing on all the pieces. I cut out the motif on each shirt and just played from there.


This is where I left this piece at bedtime last night.


This is where I am this morning. I was up early and pieced together two more sections of border stripes. If I can scrap enough black fabric together, I think I will border both sides of the tour de France pieces in black. With limiting myself to only using the t-shirt fabric for the top from the three TDF shirts, I have plenty of yellow and I will have to use every scrap of black.

Next Project

I am now working on my exhibit for the library. I want to make two more pieces. Here are t-shirts that I bought on ebay that will be turned into a piece that will go with the series I am hanging.


I want to start another series using rock band t-shirts. So far I have not had much luck finding any at the Goodwill or second hand stores. Buying them on ebay is too expensive for my budget, so it might take awhile before I have enough material gathered to really dive into this.

I am also going to sell my collection of vintage feedsacks and quilts. I don't think I have enough traffic on my blog to sell them here so I will probably post on ebay. I will let you know what I am posting on ebay in case anyone is interested.

7 out of 7 done

A jean clothing quilt done - that's five out of seven!


The other jean clothing quilt done! That's six out of seven!


Here is the queen sized green block quilt done. That's seven of seven.


I took a cue from Candied Fabrics and dyed these onesies for the baby shower. I also got the cookies made and everybody love them.


Then to finish last week's insanity, I went to the KISS concert last night.


The next item on the agenda is to get my show hung at the library.

4 out of 7 quilts done

I will post a better picture on Monday of this quilt. I finished handsewing the binding at 9:30 last night so it was too late for me to hang it up to take a shot of the whole quilt. The second whirly gig quilt is bound and ready for handstitching. The jeans quilts are partially quilted and I have the binding ready. I am taking that half day of vacation today - still too much to do for tomorrow.

I could not find any Orvus in the area. All the quilt shops were out. I am not sure I have any Synpathol. I have some other soap/cleaner that is environmentally friendly and is fantastic on grease stains, I may give it a try this afternoon. Then I am going on-line and buy some Orvus so I have it on hand. Thanks for the suggestions Wanda and Vicki!

Three out of seven quilts done

I finished handsewing the binding on the twin to yestdays quilt and handsewed the binding on one of the pink whirley gig quilts. I am happy with the progress I am making. Let's see how much I can get done before I report back on Friday morning.



The dark pink batik in the lower left hand corner bled. I can put the label over the bleeding on the back, but does anyone have any suggestions on removing this? I could not find color catchers and I had no idea the fabric was going to bleed. Before I wash the twin to this, I am going to soak and hand wash this block before I throw it in the washer to see if that helps to control the staining.

One of seven done

Here is the first of seven quilts I need to finish this week. I sewed and quilting the entire holiday weekend except for running to the grocery twice and spending a few hours on Saturday to see my nephew's band play. The shower is on Saturday and here is what else I need to get done this week:

2. the twin to this quilt. Binding needs handsewned. I can get at least 3/4 of it done at lunch today.
3. Left pink whirley gig quilt. Binding needs handsewned.
4. Right pink whirley gig quilt. It is 1/3 quilted.
5. Left side jean quilt. Needs quilted and bound.
6. Right side jean quilt. Needs quilted and bound.
7. Green and turquoise queen block quilt. Binding needs handsewn.

I am taking the day off Thurday to bake cookies (somehow I got roped into baking), get a perm, and of course sew. I may take the afternoon on Friday off also depending on how much I get done. I want to dye some onesies too. Wish me luck!



It may look like the front is shadowing thru to the back, but I used the green, yellow, and navy in the bobbin. I think it looks kind of cool.