Ottoman Slipcover

Don't you  love it when a plan comes together?  I showed you the early preparations on making the slip cover for the ottoman here.  Yesterday I finished the sewing AND fixed my serger so that the seams would be neat and not ravel.  The serger makes the finished seams so much nicer than just zig zag stitching over them.

Here are a few photos of the process.

The cording is pinned on ready for the skirt to be added.  I really did like the Monet like fabric when the ottoman was new, but later decided white was the way to go.

Keeping the zipper foot close to the cording is important.  I have a few places I think I'll go back and tighten a bit.

And we are ready for tea and lemon pound cake.  It was delicious!

Ahh....... tea and the latest Romantic Homes magazine - pure bliss!

Yep, this is the life!

Nice little pleats on the corners.  oops, need to pull it down a bit, there is a wrinkle.  Well, I have a few of those as well!

Now you can see the whole striped top.

Love those stripes!

Hope you like the ottoman redo. 

Maybe I'll share the lemon pound cake recipe another day.

XOXO

Lois

I'm sharing with French Country Cottage Feathered Nest Friday

Peek at Ottoman Redo

Quite some time ago I bought a drop cloth from Home Depot for two reasons.  I was needing to make a new slip cover for the ottoman in the family room and I had been reading about all the amazing things other bloggers were doing with these drop cloths.

I brought it home and washed it with detergent and bleach 3 times at least to soften it and lighten the color a bit.  And then it sat and sat and sat.  Christmas came and went and still it sat.

Finally earlier this week I cut the pieces that I needed from this huge piece or canvas cloth, but did not get to anything else on it that day.  Yesterday, I finally got the pieces out and started doing things.

First I taped off and using craft paint painted the piece that will be the top.

Sort of looks like driving down the road, huh, with the stripes getting narrower the further away it is.  It's the angle of the camera, though.  The stripes are pretty even, although I did want it to look like an old French grain bag so it wouldn't look perfect.  Underneath the cloth were two contact covered foam core boards taped together so there would be no gap.  Since I was working on the island in my kitchen, I didn't want to get paint where it wasn't supposed to be.  Hmmm, those two dots on my T-shirt don't count, do they?  I think the bottle burped when I opened it!

Here is a detail of what it looks like. 

The next thing I did was to make miles and miles of piping as this is a tailored slipcover.

This is really a pretty easy job, but I did break two needles because I forgot to move the needle to the left when I had to shut the machine off and do something else for a while.  The machine resets both the needle position and stitch length when turned off.

Today I will start stitching the pieces together.  It's been probably 7 or 8 years since the last slipcover was made, so it is definitely time for a new one!  The old one was made from white canvas and has been washed so many times, but no longer looks it's best.  We DO put our feet on this ottoman so it does not stay clean looking all the time!

In the next installment, I'll show you the finished slipcover.

XOXO

Lois

Transfer Tutorial

Joyce asked for a tutorial on how I do transfers as in yesterday's Travel Shoe Bag post.  This is how I do it.  There are probably other ways, this is just the way I've done all of the things I've made using transfer paper.

First you need to have an image you want to transfer.  I find a lot of things on The Graphics Fairy.  Be sure to read her terms.  Karen has new images daily!  You can do a search on her site to find what you want.  And they are FREE!

I put vintage shoes in the search box. You put whatever you want.  There are hundreds, maybe thousands of images to choose from!  Of course, you can use an image from other sources -- just be sure it is copyright free!

Isn't this high top boot cute?  Let's use it!

Open a Word document.

Insert the graphic.  Hint - I save the image on my computer when I find it, but you can copy it to insert the image in the Word doc. by right clicking on the mouse, choosing copy and then paste in the Word doc.

Enlarge to the size you want for your project.  I usually try to put a lot of images on the same Word doc because the transfer paper is expensive and I hate to waste it.  When I do this, sometimes I print out the images on plain paper and arrange them before I print on the transfer paper.

Remember if words are in the image, they MUST be mirror image BEFORE you print.  That would be another tutorial telling how to do that.

I use Avery Transfer paper for light fabric.  There may be other brands, but this is readily available at an office supply store.

Print the image.  Note that the toe is pointing to the right at this time.

Using paper scissors, cut out the image close to the outline.  If you don't you will have excess film on the fabric when you finish the ironing process.

Place the image on the fabric where you want it.  Note, the toe is now pointing to the left.  (This is why the words have to be mirror image before you can print them out or else they will be backwards!)

Using both hands and a HOT, DRY iron -- NO STEAM! Press down and hold for 10 seconds or more, making sure you do this on every inch of the image. Sorry, no photo - I didn't have another hand!

Sneak a peek to see if it is transferring well.  If not, continue to firmly press down on all areas of the image.

When the image has transferred well, peel all of the paper off.

If you have been successful in the transfer, there should be no ink left on the transfer paper.

And there you have the finished image.  You can now make it into whatever you wish.  I'll be making another travel shoe bag, but I've done this many times for pillows, my Kindle cover, a lamp shade, a small bag, etc.

Have fun playing!

XOXO

Lois

Travel Shoe Bags

A few years ago when I bought this pair of shoes, they came with a wonderful travel bag.

As I was doing a fair amount of travel at the time, I immediately made a second out some really ugly green plaid flannel I had just to use it up.  Both bags have served well.

Recently I saw some graphics on The Graphics Fairy that made my heart go pitter pat!  They were vintage shoe graphics and would be perfect for the outside of travel shoe bags.

Since I will soon be traveling to Columbus, Ohio for The National Quilting Association, Inc. 43rd show, it was the perfect time to make a couple of new travel bags for my shoes so my clothes don't get any shoe dust or polish on them.

First I made this one.

Aren't you glad we don't have to button our shoes?

Even with a nifty silver button hook, it would take all day!

Ah, this is better!  Slip on shoes!

If you look closely, you can see that there is a mariner's compass on the toe of this shoe.  How cool is that?  That's the theme of this year's show!

These travel shoe bags were fast and easy to make.  The fabric is Osnaburg which is sort of an oatmeal color.  I cut a 20" x 15" rectangle for each bag.  The shoes were printed out on Avery Ink Jet Transfer paper and ironed on to the fabric.  First I folded it in half for placement.  Then it was simple to sew around one side and the bottom leaving about 3" on the top right side unsewn.  I later hemmed the 3" opening and made a casing at the top.  The Laura Ashley bag had cording through the casing, but I did not have any, so I simply used some quarter inch cream colored satin ribbon.

I think it almost took as long to iron the transfers on to the fabric as it did to sew them.

Now get busy!  Before your next trip, make some shoe bags to protect your clothes and to make you smile!

XOXO

Lois

It's PINK!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Saturday! 

For those of you who know me well, you know I'm not a fan of pink.  Oh, I like it okay, but not in large doses.  When we moved to Alabama a few years ago we bought a pink house.  And I mean pink!  Every room was pink.  The carpet was pink.  There was pink tile on the fireplace.  The trim was painted pink!  There was pink wallpaper in the kitchen.  There was pink floral wallpaper in two bathrooms! Fortunately the house was brick or it would have been pink -- in fact it sort of was pinkish, but not PINK!  My studio was Pepto Bismol pink!  I spent the first 2 months painting over the pink.

Yesterday morning, we had a tragedy.  My hair dryer broke!  Now for those of you with long straight hair, I'm sure you are thinking, "Big Deal!"  Those of you who wear your hair really short are having the same thoughts.  But I just had my hair cut earlier this week in a chin length A-line cut. AND my hair is wavy.  This is not a good combination.  If my hair is cut right, I can get by with it curling up on me, but this cut just didn't work with the waves and curls.  This cut needs a hair dryer and a bog round brush to look right.

Since I had to go to the Post Office anyway, I went to buy a hair dryer. Fortunately, I did not see anyone I knew so no one knew how really bad I looked!  It's not pretty folks!  Well, actually, the hair dryer kind of is, even if it is pink.

I was about to pick up another boring grey dryer when I noticed the one next to it by the same manufacturer was ON SALE!  Of course, the photo on the box was pink, but it was HOT pink.  That's the best pink there is unless we are talking roses, then the best is pale pink, but that's another topic.

So here is what I brought home.

It is kind of cute, isn't it?

It is definitely not boring grey and has 3 settings so I can keep from burning my head and frying my hair!

I know, it's not a quilt and it's not even what many people would consider a "good thing".  However, when I go out tonight, I won't have to hope no one sees me because my hair is nice and smooth, the way it is supposed to be.

XOXO,

Lois

Saw Tooth Star Top - Finally!

You've been getting bits and pieces of the Saw Tooth Star Quilt top and it is finally finished!

I can see from the photo that it is not quite straight on the design wall. It sort of goes down hill on the right side!  My arms are only so long, you know! On a quilt this size, I couldn't reach both corners at once!

Here are a few of the blocks up close and personal.  Yep, it's scrappy!

And here is how the string pieced setting triangles work with the blocks.

And here is how the corner triangles turn so the strings align on the sides and the bottom and tops.

Now this quilt gets to join the other tops waiting to be quilted.  I really need to stop making tops and finish the ones that are just waiting backing, batting and quilting.  Do you do that?  I think the making of the top must be my favorite part of the quilt making process.  What is your favorite part?  Design, stitching it together or quilting?  Or do you send your quilt to a long arm quilter to be quilted?

Now, the next project is to make some order in this studio.  It needs cleaning up, organizing and vacuuming up those bits of foundation paper from the setting triangles.  Sheesh!  That stuff goes everywhere!

I also have a couple of other projects in the works.  The wicker chairs are going to get new denim cushions and the loft needs new color coordinated pillows.  Then there is the ottoman in the family room that desperately needs a new slipcover.  Also I'm in the process of changing the "pink room" into an office so I can get the office things out of the studio.  Wish me luck!

XOXO,

Lois

Spring in Arizona!

Sunday we broke a heat record.  It was 105 degrees!  This is early for that hot, but it does tell us to enjoy what is left of Spring here in the desert.

Often people think that the desert means only cacti and sand, but we really do have some color and beautiful flowers.  They are just different from other areas of the country.  I still miss the forsythia, hydrangeas, daffodils, lilacs and wisteria of the other places we have lived around the country, but I thought you might like to see what greets us as we walk out the front door of our home.

It's not forsythia, but the yellow blooms are quite pretty.

This is the view looking at our home from the street.

Ahchoo!  This is what is under the tree covering the granite stones.  This is why Arizona is NOT the place to come if you have allergies!  Combine that with the dust storms and look out!

We almost lost this little tree during the monsoon season last year.  It is recovering, but has a ways to go.  It has lovely yellow trumpet shaped flowers.

We have brilliant pink bougainvillea in the back yard, and some shrubs that have blue flowers, as well as lavender and a few other shrubs that bloom occasionally depending on the amount of rain and temperature.

I have not worked at having flowers since we came back to AZ.  Our old house here had a lot of flowers that I had planted.  Maybe this Fall I'll get some more things in.  It is a lot of work to keep some flowers blooming here year round as the Summers are just too hot and dry.

Hope you enjoyed a little peek at Arizona in the Spring.

Until next time,

Lois