This week I checked out the Fat Quarter Shop 24-Hour Flash Sale on the right day. I found some lovely layer cakes I just couldn't resist. No particular plans for them at the moment.
While I was there I took the opportunity to also pick up some of the Cotton and Steel Basics, a Charm Pack (which was actually four smaller charm packs put together as a set), and a few pieces of yardage. Yum!
I'm linking up to Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles.
There's been a lot of progress this week, but not so much in the finishes department.
I designed my quilt for the American Made Brand Farm to Fabric Challenge due at the end of this month. I'm looking forward to getting to work on that and hope it comes together in time to submit it.
As I've quilted and sewn more over the last few months I have been inspired to get my stash under control. It's been a process, but I'm slowly chipping away at it. I made my own mini bolts using foam board ($1 each at the Dollar Tree which made four 9 1/2" by 13 1/2" bolts).
Inspired by Jeni Baker, I've been folding and folding and folding. Yesterday I got all those lovely fabrics up onto the shelf. You also get a glimpse of the rest of my shelving area... to the left of the fabric are photo boxes being used to collect selvages, hold leftover binding pieces, and keep my snap pliers. At the upper left are the boxes holding my pre-cut scraps. And the upper right bins hold my cookie decorating supplies. I've creatively cropped out the less organized part of the shelves. :-)
Inspired by Jo and her Memory Cats, I've decided to make Memory houses. I'll use the scraps from each of the quilts I've made to make a block representing that quilt. My plan is to make improv houses. I am just looking for some fabric from a quilt I don't seem to have scraps from, and making a plan for how I'll represent my t-shirt quilt. Other than that I think I have all my scraps bagged and labeled from my 13 completed quilts. I hope to have some more finishes soon to add to the pile.
I'm making great progress on the quiet book pages for round two of our page swap. You can check out this previous post to see the results of round one.
Some of that fabric I bought last week got cut into strips for the borders on the Giant Wonky Star quilt.
And in the non-quilting arena, I'm trying to decide on paint colors for The Girl's room. One wall will be painted like the background pattern found on this puzzle, with four shades of blue. I'm not sure any of these palettes are working for me, but the reminder of this pile sitting on her dresser will hopefully expedite the process.
Oh, and I never get tired of seeing the kids enjoy the quilts. Here you can see it being used as a dance floor.
Linking up to Fabric Frenzy Friday.
When we bought our house two years ago The Boy was not quite 2 years old. The room that was to be his had a storage room attached to it. Our roof pitch is really steep next to his room, so it forms a triangular room 7 feet by 12 feet. The door is about 2 feet by 4 feet.
The storage room, aka "The Secret Room" had an old linoleum floor, a light with a switch, some wood paneling and some exposed insulation. At the time it was certainly not fit for the kids to use. And we didn't figure a 2-year-old needed an extra room, but we agreed it would make an awesome surprise for The Boy at some point. So the dresser was parked in front of the door and The Boy had no idea for over two years! Here's a peek at the before:
Sometime after his 3rd birthday we decided that The Secret Room would be his 4th birthday present. This meant getting it fixed up. We had our contractor, Steve, come work on it only during the hours that The Boy was at school. And I started talking excitedly about the project to friends and family. A lot of people were in on the secret. (Luckily, we never blew it before the big reveal on his birthday last month.) Steve ripped out the linoleum and wood paneling, then installed new drywall, wood laminate flooring, base molding and put on a fresh coat of paint. I decided to have him paint an accent wall, using a darker shade of the paint in The Boy's bedroom. Steve also installed a proper light fixture.
Then I got to work on decorating the space. Most of it was from Ikea or found around the house. I got a white Kritter table and two chairs to provide space for drawing, writing and small craft projects. I added a Bekvam spice rack, also from Ikea, on the wall to hold writing and drawing supplies, including note cards and stickers. The pencil holders on the table are two plant pots from Ikea, the same kind I use at the kids art table downstairs. I snagged the name banner that The Boy made at school to add to the wall.
I added the world map to the accent wall. The Boy has the US map from the Costco set in his bedroom, but I hadn't found an appropriate wall space to put up the world map anywhere yet. Similarly, I didn't have a great place for where to store dress-up clothes, so I knew I wanted to put them in The Secret Room as well. We have friends who use this Ikea box for dress-up and it was just the size to fit by the door. I added a rug from Ikea to the middle of the room and relocated a floor pillow and quilt from elsewhere in the house to provide a comfy reading area. (We've since added a backrest pillow as well.)
It was a hit! There was a treasure hunt around the house with clues on The Boy's birthday morning for him to find his gift. His last clue was to push on the dresser to slide it over. He needed a bit of help since it was “really, really hard.” Then he could see the door. “What do you see?” I asked. “That door there,” he declared.
Me: “What do you think we should do?”
The Boy: “I think we should peek inside it.”
Me: “What do you think is in there?”
The Boy: “Some treasure is in there." He walked in wide eyed and asked, “where is my birthday present?”
Me: “You are in your birthday present.”
The Boy: “What is it?”
Me: “It is a whole room.”
“A treasure room!” As he took it in he got very excited and declared that he would show it to everyone.
I gave him the tour of the room. “Oh, this is pretty cool, mother.”
Then it really sank in. “A secret treasure room! I like this room so much,” he jumped up and down. “Thank you father and mother.”
Here he is enjoying his birthday bedtime story with dad in the secret treasure room.
Thank you for visiting!
