Project round up

So, I'm almost 8 months along in this pregancy. So that means that the nesting "urge" is pretty damned strong.

I've been working on a lot of projects, which was a bit of an issue since my sewing machine had to be repaired. I just got it back on tuesday, and am working on stuff I wasn't able to for awhile.

Here's one of them.

Working on the Big Brother quilt

Just sewed the strips together today on my wonderfully working Bernina. Its like butter!! I'll muck it up soon enough, but oh, I could barely even hear it working. Even with all the oiling and cleaning I do, (probably not enough) it never sounds like that except when it's been serviced. Thanks go out to the Sew Little Time Bernina and Quilt Shop in New Braunfels.

Snow Tutu bodice

I'm in the process of updating/making new tutus' for Ballet New Braunfels "The Nutcracker".

 Let's hope I finish them before the time I have this baby. I will need volunteers to make this a reality. ........anyone willing?

My mother made this for the nursery. I LOVE IT, but I'm not sure if I like
where i've put it, so  I'll have to find a better
spot. It's got the bluebird of happiness on it :)

Shelves above the changing table, and a print from my
lullaby book, "Somewhere over the rainbow"

I thought since so much of what I was doing
reminded me of rainbows, then this was perfectly appropriate.

The picture quality is so bad, I don't have any ability as a photographer, and also, I just have a point and shoot. And not a lot of time or inclination to take beautifully staged and well let photos. SO, well, it all looks better in person I'm afraid.

Just take my word for it.

Ruth

works in progress

Idea for the headpieces for Waltz of the Flowers. 

I know it looks HUGE, but for costumes you need to make things big. Remember the audience is at least 30 feet away, and under harsh stage lights, "subtle" washes out.

The big brother quilt

I started packing it up before I realized I hadn't taken a picture of it all laid out. Oh, well, here it is almost laid out completely.

Thanks to everyone who helped me, I was in a crazy daze yesterday and was no fun to be around. Thanks for putting up with me. I was at my wits end due to what I consider "crazy pregnancy hormones" and emerging allergies.

Ruth

Big brother quilt and tutu's

I've gotten all the pieces of the big brother quilt cut, now onto the piecing.

I haven't laid it all out yet, just trying out the rainbow effect so far. I'm actually hurdling through another project.

I'm re-making tutu's for Ballet New Braunfels' production of The Nutcracker.

I was in the Nutcracker last year, as a snowflake and a flower. This year, what with me being pregnant and delivering my daughter a couple days before the show, I wasn't up to performing.

So I took on a helping roll. I knew the costumes needed some help. I had worn them last year. They were recital costumes so not a lot of thought or care was put into their creation. So, I began jazzing up the flower costumes which were in better shape than the snow, and starting from scratch on the snow costumes.

It's a big project, especially since my sewing machine broke and is a the mechanic for the next two weeks. I hope for lots of volunteers from the parents to help.

This is what we started with for Flowers costumes.

Not bad, just not very WOW.

With a little rick rack and glitter, they are more fun to look at .

While working at my Mom's since her sewing machine still works.

Wish me luck you guys.

Ruth

Big Brother Quilt

Now that I finished my daughter's "Care Bear Quilt" I have some fabric left over, actually, I have lot's of fabric. About 3/4 a yard of each color. So I decided I HAD TO make my son a big brother quilt.

Here's the mock up.

I'm going to use Amanda Jean's zig zag tutorial that uses no triangles.

She's the genius behind Crazy Mom Quilts blogspot.

I'm also trying to get my little corner of the garage into a more comfortable sewing room, and get other things done that involve that area. It gets hot in there, so we had removed a door and shoved a window unit into a cheap hollow door and patched it up. Well, it cooled pretty well, but the door was molding and rotting because of the rain that was diverted by the window unit. So we removed the ac unit, put it in our room, which was getting way too warm due to our failing HVAC and now I sleep in an ice cave and it's wonderful. But we got an in-room air conditioner for the garage since we don't have any windows. We put the original french door back and I got so much more LIGHT, and conversely, so much more heat. We'll see how this new arrangement works out. I wont be doing much sewing when my little girl is born, and she'll be born this fall so it will be cooler anyway. So, until then, many fans, and my ac will hum while I sew. And I'll just make sure I only sew when it's early morning or late night, when it's cooler naturally, and just never ever have the dryer working while I'm in there. I feel pretty blessed when I look back on all the years I had a sewing room (or nook) in the house. Once I went off to college I made sure of it. My roommate and I were both fashion majors so we just set up shop in the dining rooms of the very old historic homes we rented next to our campus. When I got married, we tried hiding it in nooks and finally just getting a house with an extra room just for my sewing room. When we moved here, it was just supposed to be temporary, 6 month at most. It's lasted much longer than that and I've just adjusted to having a much warmer sewing room than I had in the past. 

In the meantime though, my husband doesn't have to listen to it make so much noise when he's trying to watch tv or sleep.

So, you give and you take.

I'll post again when I have gotten further.

Ruth

changing table-Ikea hack turns Hobo

This is the no-good, stomach clenching, paint stripping mistake I made.....Ikea Hack.

I know a lot of Mom's who never used their changing table. I wasn't one of them. Until my son was 2 1/2 and way to heavy for me to lift, I used my changing table. Now, the one I had was large, too large to fit into the room, we got all new furniture to outfit my son's and my daughters nursery. But the one thing I needed was a changing table. A very small one. I liked the ones that just perched on the crib railing.

I couldn't find any to buy though,and wasn't sure it was very safe. So I went to my go to place for cheap and small....Ikea.

I thought the gulliver table would work.

The website said it was $10 cheaper that it was in the store, so I went and saved $10 and got an even cheaper one that I thought was kind've ugly....the Sundvik or something or another.

When I got it home and put it together I was dismayed at how HUGE it was. It was 3 inches taller than the crib and I KNEW I would just destroy my hips, elbows and other body parts trying to squeeze past it. Plus, the ugly black screws just don't make sense to me. So it came part with the help of my trusty Allen wrench and went back into the box.  

I didn't know what to do. I grabbed the changing pad and tried to get an idea of how the hell I was going to make this work. Would I just change the baby where-ever? Well, I could, but in the night....ugh. I like a known entity. I spied an old side table I had gotten from IKEA before my son was born. I placed the changing pad on top of it. And an IDEA was born. A bad no good, terrible idea.

I seem to labor under the delusion that I am very handy. That I can build anything. My husband doesn't seem to agree but then, he's a bit more "practical" than I am.

It was a solid idea, but my bad craftsmanship came calling and made it not so great a realization.

So we went to Home Depot and got lot's of the wood/mdf/screws and paint we would need. And since we have no circular saw we had to have the guy there cut them to my precise measurements. He cut them incorrectly again, I found out when we got home. By about 1/4" on the table legs. He's done this before, I think he hates me.

I didn't wait for my husband to help/direct/instruct me. I just went on an started building. I am woman, hear the whine of my black and decker drill!!!

Except for the badly cut wood, it was going well and I was feeling damn proud of myself.

I started sanding, priming and spray painting and you're thinking.....OHmagherd! You cannot paint/spray paint, walk outside on a misty day because you're pregnant!!! And I would go......I wore a mask buddy. Because I care. The color was very off so I went back and had an exact match made. This meant I would have to paint it with a brush (oh horror) but I persevered. Here's where this ikea Hack went from hack to hobo*. (hobo is a term my husband uses when you patch things together in a bad way that kind've works but will fall apart at any moment.)

One of the  stupid table legs fell off. IT JUST FELL OFF. I used TWO screws. How obnoxious. So I hurriedly screwed it back in and added  some wood glue for good measure. I screwed in some L braces to help them stay together. The screws were too long and pushed thru the top of the table. Oh Jeez.

I wasn't ready to give up yet, so I just went with it. I told myself it wasn't THAT noticeable and that the changing pad would be on top so no worries. (I had also told myself that when I was done using it as a changing table it would work perfectly as a child's desk. --great idea in theory. Until my son/daughter tries to draw over it and gets bumpy looking coloring.)

I started painting again. And it was OK. And then something happened. It wouldn't dry. I researched paint dry times and found out that even though it was latex, it takes a good 30 days to cure, so it would feel sticky and tacky to the skin for 30 damn days. I thought latex was supposed to dry faster. Apparently it dries from the outside in, so the top layer feels "a little" dry, while the under layer is still all gooey.

As my husband said, "Like hoover dam."

I gave up on waiting since it was going to take forever, and just put the door and the shelves back in. After much shoving and a lot of paint peeling. It was finished. And I cried. Because it was all wonky, even with the leveling I did to fix the damn table legs, the paint was never going to dry correctly since I only sanded part of the pieces, and I was a big damn failure. 

I put it back in the humid garage (it rained for a couple days----I live in Texas in a perpetual drought but when I want to paint, deluge.)

I just gave up and tried to find something else to use. Lot's of internet searching later I came up with Nada. I was at that point, glad I didn't take a hammer and go all Gallager on the changing table. 

Somehow in the middle of the night I found a glimmer of hope and decided to just paint over the messy parts, and just use the damn thing, whether it was perfect or not.  So I did. I waited a couple days to put it in the house just in case it wanted to spontaneously combust....it didn't so I carried it into the nursery. 

So now it sit's in the nursery, waiting to be used, I just put the changing pad on it for pictures, then I took it off for fear of paint peeling and am just waiting for it to dry. (for 30 freaking days) 

So here it is, my Ikea hack. I'm coming around to thinking it's going to be fine. It's just furniture, pressed particle board furniture that serves a purpose and that purpose isn't to make my eyeballs jump out of my sockets in furniture lust. 

So there. Ikea score one=Ruth score 1/2 a point, for damned effort.

Ruth

ps.

My pictures are horrible, I cannot take a good picture. Not with a small un-dslr camera, bad lighting and the propensity to never try all that hard.  So, alas, my blog will not be filled with beautiful styled pictures, it will just look, well homemade. I have not the money, nor the time to figure out how to make it look like something out of Dwell magazine. Oh well. Maybe when I have more followers.