Pretty Pillows

A couple of weeks ago I found (upon recommendation) a beautiful quilting fabric store near my house. I don't quilt but they have the most beautiful fabrics in these stores, and who says they have to be quilts? Anyway I spent two hours so very excited wandering around the small shop, and eventually I decided on some Amy Butler fabric which I found in their sale section. (I'm a die hard sale shopper I find it very hard to purchase things at full price, almost offencive actually I don't know why I just do) so I got two yards of her Golden Covington Tile from the Charm collection, some fabric for my fall swap, and a bag of scraps. They let you stuff a plastic bag full of scraps and its five bucks for the whole bag. Let me tell you I can stuff A LOT of fabric in a bag. There were some fabulous scraps. Things that would have been quarter yard cuts, but they were length wise rather than width wise. All the more for me as it were. So I take the Amy Butler fabric home, with the intent of making a skirt or something out of it. I'm certain that my boyfriend, who we shall henceforth referrer to by his forum name Jem (from to kill a mocking bird if your curious), I'm certain he'll hate it. He hates nearly all the fabric I bring home to place oh so lovingly in my stash. I show it to him when he gets home. He likes it. I'm stunned. So I have a lot of projects on my plate and it sits on the shelf till this past weekend when I'm walking around the house with bits and pieces of my stash. What don't you do that? And I notice that the yellow matches my entertaining space walls, and the green matches the kitchen... and then I spy the shabby icky pillows on the couch. We have a craftsman style house which we are progressively working to make a real craftsman, its a pretend craftsman now. And I think this fabric is PERFECT for that style So I start making pillows. And then I'm thinking I'll make a nice little valance for the kitchen which is unusual cause I hate valances. The fabric starts to run out. I panic. And this ends with me pulling into the fabric store after work yesterday just as they are closing, they graciously let me in anyway, and searching high and low for the fabric, which is no longer in the sale section. Apparently it got put back in the wrong place, which may be good it probably saved it from someone else getting it. I bought the rest of the bolt. All four yards. So now I can make pillows and napkins, and valances and whatever else for the house with a little less omg I'm gonna run out panic.

I think the fabric's so pretty don't you?

Machine update

Ok so my brother machine died a couple weeks ago. And while I was at my boyfriends mom's house she says "Oh I heard your machine died, I have a machine in the closet that I bought and never used, its new in the box you can have it if you want" So I'm all excited... well apparently she bought it in 1983. and never used it... Who dose that? I mean really. Anyway so I take the machine, on the condition that if it doesn't do what I need it to I'm bringing it back to her. The machine weighs at least 80 pounds. For god's sake the treadle is lighter, WITH the cast iron base. I does run and it is a trouper, I have run through two layers of webbing with out issue. Doesn't like thin fabric though, and by thin I mean cotton, which seems a little weird to me. But the final kicker was it only has one speed. The best analogy I can give is that its like having a car that can only go 35 mph. Yeah you'll get there, and it's ok for neighborhood driving, but when you want to get on the freeway it just isn't going to cut it. So I'm still looking for a new machine. This one will stay with me till I get the new one, hopefully soon, and then it will return to the dark cave like closet from whence it came. Perhaps in another twenty something years someone else will like it.

Treadle Update

Ok as promised like forever ago, here are some pictures of my lovely treadle...
The first picture is the case, not really in good condition at all. I've since taken that particular piece off. Second pic is the sideways "I'm to lazy to rotate this pic" image of the base, which I have since resprayed. It had some serious rust. Next we have the also rusty silver thingamabob on the back of the machine. I don't know what it is but most of that rust came off with some help from my "bar keepers friend". Last but not least here are two shots of the gilt embellishment on the machine head. Its actually in pretty decent shape, not to much wear even where the fabric would have slid over it all the time. I think the person who last owned it knew it was going into storage for a long time, they caked the thing in machine oil. So it could have been worse. Now I have to figure out if I can replace the missing pieces. Need a new front half of the throat plate, and probably some other parts...

Busy as a bee

Sorry I've been awol lately. I've been working dilgently on my fall swap, and on the creation of a group blog for our EtsyAtlanta group. And then theirs the holiday season of shows comeing up, and looking for a new job etc. etc. etc. Anyway I've been overwhelmingly busy this past week, and probalby next week too, but I think things will be back to normal maybe mid november? Please? Anyway, Back to work!

Movin along

I picked up the treadle this weekend, and I took lots of pictures, which I of course havn't uploaded yet. I got it all cleaned off, and re enameled the iron base. I can't realy tell if the machine is in good order or not. It looks ok, cleaned up all right and all, but I think its missing some peices. The table however, we'll lets just say I'm thinking about painting it. That say A LOT about its condition considering I was a furniture conservator for quite a while, if the finish could be fixed I would. The veneer is all thin and broken, and someone in thier "brilliance" seemed to think it would be a good idea to coat it in a highly colored liquid wax, which has become something akin to paint by now. I'm frankly surprized that the machine hasn't just fallen out. I'll upload the pictures later, I promise!!

I made pumpkin pie monday night.... it's all gone now but oh it was good ;) Ther's nothing quite like the first pumpkin pie of fall!
And this morning I got my swap partner for the fall swap I'm SOOO excited. This is my first swap and I've been compiling ideas for two weeks now, but paitently waiting for my partner so I can properly tailor the package. So Neila, prepare to be spoiled!!

Requiescat in pace

My first sewing machine has died. It is no longer capable of maintaining thread tension. Normally I would fix these sorts of things myself, but the panel that this particular broken part is hidden behind is locked in place by a machine stripped screw and I have no way to get it out. I guess it will go to the donation pile where some other unfortunate soul might take it to the repair shop, and I suppose I will be asking for a new machine this Christmas instead of filling out my kitchen a little more. Much sadness all around.

More Loot

Good day for thrift shopping I got three table cloths three skirts and a bunch of fabric. Almost makes up for having to go to the dentist this morning. Hmm thats sideways, oh well you can turn your head right? My apologies to those who can't.

Beer! AND loot!!!

On Monday we went to a beer tasting dinner at the River Room, very tasty, AND they let us keep the glasses. The other people at the table didn't want their glasses, and I have no shame so I also asked the guy cleaning up if I could have the glasses other people left. Here's my loot!

Going places...

Ok since I didn't post this right after it happened its a little out of order. A couple of weeks ago I went with my boyfriend to Barber Motor Sports Park, so he could drive his car super fast, as he is want to do. Anyway to keep myself occupied I brought some sewing, I'm making embroidered covers for passports, here's the elephant one in progress, the embroidery is done now but it hasn't magically turned into a passport cover yet. And here's a bonus picture of him driving all fast:

Flip Flops

I made the flip flops last night. I'll post a picture on friday. While I absoloutly love them, I think I should have stuck more to the tutorial. I added two layers of padding to mine, so they would be nice and coushy. As it turns out that makes them to thick to put all the layers in my sewing machine. Consequently they are currently missing the bottom layer, which if I'm realy ambitious I may hand sew on later but knowing me I won't. My boyfriend liked them though so maybe I will make him a pair tonight, he's off at the track again today (driving not watching) and wont be back till late so I have lots ot sewing time this evening. Ooh that reminds me I took pictures last time I went to the track with him I should post those, not cause anyone wants to see my boyfriend drive fast, but because I took sewing projects with me...

update, I apparently forgot to take a picture to upload today so it'll have to wait. :(

On another note...

I know its only been a month, but I'm thinking the bags arn't going anywhere in my etsy shop. Maybe they need some reworking, but I'm not feeling up to it at the moment. I think I'm going to take my shop in a diferent direction for the holiday season and work on some prints and other small things, I'll post pictures as soon as I figure out whatI'm doing...

I came accross this great tutoral yesterday via Craft. I'm so gonna have to make these for everyone for Christmas!

New Sewing Machine...

The bad news is that my boyfriends father is very ill, he's on top of a waiting list to get a new liver atm and is home from work possibly indefinatly. As he is thinking of retiring he is now spending his time going through thier house organizing, and getting ready for what will undoubtably be the yard sale to end all yard sales. Their house which is a 5/3 is packed to the gills with antiques from the days when they used to go to flea markets and yard sales. So my boy friend and I were over visiting the other day while this cleaning was going on. And what should I spy over in the corner but yet another treadle machine. (I say yet another becuase my boyfriends mom has like thirty. they are scattered about the house used as tables, which makes me sad, but thats another story) anyway, most of the treadles are closed with a bunch of stuff on them, but this one was in a sad corner in the garage and had recently been uncovered. So I lift the lid, just out of curiosity. Its a sphinx modle Singer, I close the lid quickly. I've been trying to get my hands on one of these for the last three years, and here she's had it sitting covered by I think tires and hunting equipment in the garage for who knows how long.... sigh. So like all their other valuble antiques I mention that it realy shouldn't be kept in the garage. The humidity is bad for the case and the machine. He says, "you want it? She don't sew, she might let you have it" I can see my boyfriend out of the corner of my eye shaking his head no. Doing the please dont encourage them to give us more furniture face and motion. I say its a lovely machine and make some other non commital comments. ( I do want it very badly but I'm trying not to start one of the conversations where they try to fill our car with stuff when we come over.) Anyway, so we leave with out the machine. The next day we meet for lunch, and my boyfriends mom says, "So when are you gonna come get your machine?" At which point his dad declairs that I can't have it yet, he's fixing it. He's made a new belt for it and he's making sure all the mechanical bits are in good working order, but he'll bring it to me when its done. So I'm VERY excited that I will have the machine, and its something that he's worked on that we'll have long after they are gone to remind us of them. Now if only I can find a place to put it, my sewing room is already the depository of antiques from my boyfriends parents. It has a full size antique bedroom set that I need to restore and well nearly all my crafting supplies, and one 1970's singer. My other sewing machine is out on the dining room table, because thiers no room. And I still want to make a cutting table.... I need a bigger crafting room, I hope we finishe the up stairs soon!

(note the machine in the picture is just an example of the machine, which I found online. I havnt had the chance to take a picture of the one that will be mine yet)