Kitchen Linen Gift Set

I've been "scrap busting" again! This week I made another kitchen towel and pot holder gift set for a friend of mine. Its part of a belated anniversary/house warming gift.

I used several of my older Amy Butler fabrics along with linen. I don't know the colors of her kitchen, but I know she likes earth tones, so I'm hoping these will blend in. :-)

We've also been doing some demo work on the new house. We have removed all the carpet and trim moldings in the bedrooms and hallway, I have the master bedroom painted, wallpaper has been removed from the hall bath, and the hardwood flooring is acclimating in the house and waiting to be installed. I'll have a few very boring photos to share with you soon.

Stay warm, everyone! Its frigid here...brrrrrr

Vintage Alphabet ~ Velvet, Whitework, X-Stitch

It's time again for the Vintage Alphabet link party. This month's letters are V, W, and X.

For V I'd love to show my collection of vintage vases, but they have already been packed and sent to the new house, so I have several vintage Velvet fabrics that I don't think I've posted about yet. The photo above shows a few cut or voided velvets.

I just love the yellow! Its from a vintage bedspread that had a bit of sun damage on one side...the perfect piece to cut for projects!And below is a trio of 70's nylon velvets in bright floral designs.

For W I have a small grouping of vintage Whitework embroidery.

And for X (wow, this one was hard!) I have a piece of vintage X-stitch and a vintage drapery fabric with a faux X-stitch design.

Be sure to stop by the Etsy Cottage Style blog to see more vintage Alphabet collections or add your own to the list!

A New House

Wow! I can't believe I let an entire month go by without a single blog post! But, I have a good excuse...We bought a new house! You may remember way back in the New Industrial Singer post, I mentioned a crazy week and that I'd give more details about later. Well, the couple that had the yard sale where I bought my sewing machine, was also selling their home. They took us on a little tour, and 5 weeks later, the house was ours!

The pictures are not very good, but I wanted to give you a little tour before we start on the renovations.

As you can see from the first picture up there, its not a big house, just a 3 bedroom 70's ranch. But coming from the current tiny 2-bedroom, it feels like a mansion. LOL

Here's the back of the house with the sunroom and deck. It sits on a little over an acre and backs up to a small farm with one horse and one cow. :-)

It has a large eat in kitchen That opens up to both the sunroom and living room. We'd like to install granite or solid surface counter tops, eventually.

The L-shaped living/dining room has a large stone fireplace. I have a feeling that those two rooms will be a challenge as far as furniture placement, so I'm sure I'll be asking opinions on that soon. All three of the bedrooms are carpeted with a mauvey pinkish-purple. I can't live with that, so we're thinking hardwood. But the master has its own bath (something I've never had) and french doors that open onto the deck.
It also has a large finished basement. There is a small 12x12 room with 2 windows and lots of natural light, on the opposite side that will be my sewing room/studio/office. The plan is to move the wall and make it a bit larger (12x16 or so), remove the carpet and install laminate or hardwood, and have french doors that open into the main part of the basement. That project could take awhile, so I'll need to find an alternate work room until then.

We'll also be doing a few projects on the Tiny house, getting it ready to sell hopefully in the spring. I promise to be better about posting updates on all the home renovations. :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

A New Look for the Bedroom ~ Lovely Linen

I recently updated the look of our bedroom. I actually loved the yellow, but it needed to be repainted and hated to waste the opportunity to change it up a bit. We'll also probably be putting the house on the market soon, so I wanted it to be more neutral.

I painted the walls with a color from Restoration Hardware called Mediterranean White.

I purchased one of the nightstands from Home Goods and painted one of my old ones black to match. The bedside lamps are from Meijer's.

The Mantle headboard was reupholstered with linen and I purchased tan linen curtains from Pottery Barn.

The vintage quilt at the foot of the bed is made with squares of all vintage linen floral fabrics in fabulous fall colors. I also made a new pillow out of a vintage linen from my stash.

A new shaggy 8x10 rug (also from Home Goods) was a steal at only $150.00 and is nice and soft under foot. :-)


On the other side of the room still sits the deacon's bench and on top of the dresser, Hubby gets a new place to stash his guy stuff...a wonderful old wooden box from Gram's attic. I also framed a vintage sheet music cover, with a lovely art nouveau design, in an old frame.

Well, that's it for a tour of the bedroom. I have the shop and website on vacation mode for a few days, but I'll be listing new items on Monday November 1st.

Have a great week, everyone!

Vintage Alphabet ~ Sheet Music and Tins

Its time for the Vintage Alphabet Collections link party again! This month's letters are S, T, and U.

For the letter S I chose my collection of vintage Sheet Music. The covers are so pretty, like works of art! I even framed one of them and have it in my bedroom.

For the letter T I'm showing a collection of Tins. First, an assortment of colorful ones including a striped lard bucket and couple of sweet bird food tins.
I also have a few fun coffee tins.

Also for T I have a small grouping of vintage thermometers. Sorry, I couldn't come up with one for U. I have an old umbrella, but just one doesn't seem like a collection. :-)

Be sure to stop by the Etsy Cottage Style Blog to see more alphabet collections starting with the letters S, T, and U, or add your own to the link party!

A new (Old) Sewing Machine

I bought myself a new sewing machine over the weekend. A nearby yard sale advertised an industrial Singer for sale, so I had to go check it out.

I had read up a little on different industrial machines and knew that one good thing about them is that you can always find parts, even for the older models.

This is a Singer zig zag machine, although it also does a straight stitch. Its about 25-30 years old. The woman I bought it from used it mainly for home decorating projects... drapes, slipcovers, etc. She was also an avid quilter. It came with the manual, a bunch of bobbins, and several foot attachments including a ruffler, all purpose, zipper, and feet for making 2 different size rolled hems. There are a couple others too, but I forget what they're for.
This machine is FAST even through several layers of heavy fabric and maneuvers beautifully around corners (ha, sounds like a sports car). I haven't had a chance to play around with it much, yet as its been a pretty crazy week (more details on that later), but I'm excited to try out the satin stitch for applique.

I still have one blank wall in the bedroom I'd like to get filled, but then I'll be back with pictures of the finished room.

Have a great week everyone and happy sewing!

Vintage Alphabet P, Q, R ~ Quilts

Its time for another Vintage Alphabet Party! This month the letters are P, Q, and R.

P is for Pottery. And since I missed Last month's letters of N and O, lets call these Ohio Pottery and cover that letter as well. :-).

A Roseville wall pocket...

And a Rookwood vase. Both are from Gram's attic and have an Arts and Crafts feel to them.

Q is for Quilts. These first two are from my grandma's attic. They were made by her Aunt Mary. First a Double Wedding Ring with mostly 1940's fabrics.

Look at this cute bunny print!
And the other is a simple 9 Patch with a pretty pink border.

The next is a tied BowTie quilt. Soooo many gorgeous 1930's prints! I could spend all day just showing all the different fabrics in this one. Here's a few...

But there is a little surprise inside this one. It was filled with another quilt! From the few fabric squares I can see it looks to be from the 1880-1900's. I saw indigo and cadet blues, madder browns, and some novelty prints like this clover and horse head.

The last quilt is a little different. It is also a tied quilt, but is made out of what looks to be fabric sample squares... Several different colorways of the same design. One side is made with all vintage linen fabrics, which actully goes really well with my newly reworked bedroom (I'll show you in the next post).

The other side is equally pretty with colorful cotton floral bouquet fabrics. Its hard to pick a favorite .

And R is for Rhinestones. (and again, since I missed last month's N, this also doubles as my Necklace post :-) )

Some of these pieces were given to me by my mother and others were found at estate sales. I just love a little sparkle!

Be sure to stop by the Etsy Cottage Style Blog to see more Alphabet collections starting with the letters P Q and R, or add your own to the link party.