I have an announcement...

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.