Note: I’ve been trying to post this all day long! Blogger has gremlins in the machinery today! And of course I told Cindy this morning that uploading pictures on Blogger is sooo easy-NOT! Anyway, I apologize for the photos all being out of order and in weird places. Just had to get this up!
Okay, so I made it to the thrift store last night! Yay! I immediately found one lonely black leather glove to make shoes with. I would have preferred brown, but I am so not complaining! It wasn’t even a pair! Just one leather glove in the whole store!
But then I found this wonderful piece of needlework. What is it? Is it crewel? Needlepunch? I don’t think it’s even finished. I think it is supposed to be completely filled in, but I love it just like this. I’ve given two photos. One with the flash and one without. Neither does it justice. It is so tactile and lovely. It will be a new throw pillow for this great chair that my boss gave me. He was about to throw it away! Yikes! I’ll be making a tufted back cushion and nice puffy seat cushion with the reverse print toile you see in the curtain.
Isn’t that curtain cute? I made it back in January. I used up my scraps leftover from the window curtains and the loveseat slipcover to make it. When we moved into our house, the garage had been converted to a rec room kind of thing and they had put in these french doors. We turned it back into a garage, but we’ve been unable to replace this door yet. It is very, very energy inefficient! So I made up this curtain. It’s actually a big pain in the butt to use! I’ll be really happy to have a regular door, but what shall I do with this curtain? It is backed with a forest green bedsheet. I could turn it into a quilted throw, I guess. Do you see the one square that is embroidered? That was a pillow top that I started for my grandmother when I was a teen and finished eight years later while pregnant with Carmen! When Grandma passed away, the pillow came back to me. After I had cut out all of my squares, I was laying them out on the floor and discovered that I was one short. I was about to cut out one more when my eye fell on the pillow cover in my fabric trunk. It was serendipity, I tell you! It’s my favorite part of the whole curtain!
Anyway, I have to re-do this little chair because my red toile loveseat has died. It’s actually been dying for a while! So out it goes. Of course I reclaimed the slipcover! It’s already been cut apart and I’ll be making the cushions for the new (old) chair and a white wicker rocker that’s been waiting to come into this room for a long time.
A few weeks ago I mentioned that we were seriously considering selling our house and buying a condo. Well, a meeting with a frank realtor convinced us that that would be a bad idea. We’re just going to make changes to our home that will make it function better for us. Mainly by creating a low maintenance backyard. I wish a pool were in the picture. We’ll see… Anyway, when we thought we were going to sell I had all kinds of ideas for redecorating this room to appeal to a more general taste. It was going to be lovely. I picked up an idea card from Lowe’s paint department Beautiful tan walls with white woodwork and curtains. White furniture and dramatic accents of black. In my mind I can still see it. Refined, elegant and still comfortable and inviting. But I love my red fabrics and Hulk Juice green walls. It still makes me happy to be in this room. The reality is that it’s the clutter that gets to me. But there are so many things that I love to have around me! I guess it’s just a matter of making it as pleasing to the eye as possible and then being very disciplined about keeping it orderly. Ha! Easier said then done! Do you, my fellow crafters, struggle like this too?
Speaking of things I love, on the toile loveseat there is a little clown. My mommy made that for me when I was a baby! It’s a panel doll and it demonstrates my mother’s complete lack of sewing skills! She did not leave a seam allowance when she cut the panel and she ended up whipstitching the entire thing! I love it anyway because a) it’s a tangible piece of my mom’s love and b) it demonstrates that sewing skill is not the key item in making a softie. It is and always has been Love.
My goodness, I have been a Chatty Cathy here. (Better than a Betsy Wetsy! Gee, do you think I’ve heard that one a few times?) But I have been so fixated on my swap dolls lately that it’s fun to open my eyes to future crafty expressions. Finding that piece of needlework has completely renewed me!