Side Board Table: bare naked

Remember the Side Board Table?  With that awful texture on it?  Well now the texture is gone.  I have gotten it all cleaned up.  Thanks to

This stuff is Suped De-Duper Amazing!  Seriously.  Its non toxic.  Perfect!  It worked great.  It would have worked even better if I wasn't so impatient.  But I was so dang excited to see what was underneath all that crap.

I did learn one other thing...the citrus stripper residue comes off a lot easier if you don't let it dry out.  I did use a little mineral wash to clean it up a little.

Now I have it all cleaned up and sanded and it is really awesome looking wood!  Seriously so excited to try and stain it.  My next dilemma is whether I should not start the next project until this one is done or should I strip all 10 different things that need stripped first?  

Side Board Table

This little beauty has been my little project lately (besides being a mom, and running my etsy shop)

I forgot to take a picture of it before I took everything apart on it.  So let me explain it a bit...

Those dark wood pieces are the tops to it.  I have sanded them down to stain them a dark mahogany

I have been stripping all that nasty texture off of the rest of it. It has a drawer on the top and a cupboard on the bottom. 

It sat on wheels which I am debating putting back on or not....I think it will depend on how tall I need it for the place I am going to put it in our house.  

My plans for this beauty is to be a sofa table in the living room.  My couches are black so here is my dilema:

I was planning on painting it black but I am finding out that the wood is BEAUTIFUL under neath.  So I don't really want to cover up that wood.  I want to showcase it.  But it is going to take me a long time of sanding to get it to the staining point.  So I can't paint it black (cause it would blend in with my couch) I am dreading the work of staining.  

One more bit of information:  most of my furniture (and cabinetry in the house) is/will be a dark cherry wood.  I love tuscany and a bit fancier feel.  Oh and my colors are going to be burnt orange and black.  So what is your all opinions? 

 

Fabric Organization

I am always struggling with how to organize my fabric.  I have a TON of it...ok maybe not quite a ton but a 1/2 ton!

I have pieces from 1/8th of a yard to 15 yards.  So how do I organize it?  Here is what works best for me:

I bought a couple of those plastic drawers when they were $10 at Walmart.  Then I folded my fabrics so that they will fit nicely in the drawer.  I can fit 3 rows of fabric in each drawer.  I have found that fabrics smaller than 2 yards fit best in the drawers. 

Here is the drawers:

Then for those pieces that are larger than that when I am in my local fabric store I ask if they have any of those cardboard pieces that their fabric is on that are empty.  Then I take them home and roll those pieces of fabric onto the cardboard pieces

Those are the ones I rolled this morning (my hubby picked some up for me the other day.  Nice huh?)

Then I hide them all behind the couch I have in my craft room.  It works great.  Right now we are building a house and I will have a room dedicated to my sewing.  I can't wait to have an entire WALL to display all my fun fabrics on.

How do you display/organize your fabrics?

Adding Minky to Rag Quilts

I love minky.  It is for sure one of my favorite fabrics.  Not necessarily to sew because it is so slippery but because it is super soft and warm.  My girls will only use their rag quilts that have minky on the back. 

 I don't like sewing minky into a rag quilt because the edges don't fray.  Its just a personal preference of mine.  But I still love to have minky on the back of my quilts. 

 I have had several requests to add minky to the back of car seat tents or rag quilts lately so I thought I would take a picture while I was doing one for you all.  This should work with all types of quilts there is one small place that could be a problem depending on the look you are going for.  I will let you know in that step. 

 Rag quilt from the top.  You can see the minky on the back and the nice finished edge of the rag quilt:

 This will also work with adding ruffle fabric (or any other fabric) to the back of your quilts. 

 1.  Measure your quilt that you will be adding the minky to.  Mine was 44x44
2.  Cut a piece of minky the same size.  Minky is great for this because it is so wide (60 inches)  So most of the time you don't have to piece pieces together.

Lay the minky on the ground with the soft side facing up and the quilt on top with the back facing up.  Right sides together.

The right sides are together

Pin in place with as many pins as you need.  I pinned 4 times on each side.  A walking foot is really helpful with sewing with minky if you have one.

Then sew around the outside of the quilt with about a 1/2 inch seam.  You could use a smaller one but I like to use that large of one with Minky because it has a tendency to move on me.

3.  Now is the part that could be complicated with a regular quilt.
Lay the quilt flat on the ground and find a couple of raggy seams in the middle of the quilt.  Pin the quilt to the minky.  I sew along those seams through the quilt and the minky.  I do this to hold those 2 fabrics in place.  If you want you could quilt a pretty design in a few of the squares.  This step is not necessary but keep in mind that those 2 pieces of fabric will not be secured to each other. 

 

Scrap Project: Ruffled Flower Wreath

As you all know....I am a scrap hoarder.   I have at least 3 large garbage bags full.  Seriously!  I need to use it...well at least some of it.  So here is my first project a Ruffled Flower Wreath...

 Don't you just love it!

 I do!

I used 2 different methods to ruffle the fabric.  One is from HERE and the other from HERE

My fabric pieces were anywhere from 1/2 inch to 2 inches wide.  Most were 44 inches long some were a little shorter.  They all were not exactly straight cuts.  Many of them were the pieces that I trimmed off the edge of fabric to straighten it up or the little leftover piece when I finished off a piece of fabric. 

Then after I ruffled all the pieces I rolled them into flower looking pieces.  Then I cut a piece of cardboard into a square about 18 x 18 inches.  Then I hot glued all the fabric onto the cardboard.  It was really easy and with those easy ruffling techniques it was really quick (about an hour)

What do you all think should be my next project?