Function, fashion, function

Well it's really sort of official now. Today I went and picked up the wall color paint and finally got a start on patching the holes in the south wall. I would have gotten much further but the weekend was taken up with a Boy Scout fundraiser and 4-H meeting. Oh well, it's not warm enough to take the furniture outside to paint yet anyway. If I get desperate enough I'll throw down an old cloth and paint indoors. . . if I get desperate enough, not likely though since I plan on using spray paint on it. Oh well that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Left over joint compound to fill holes and gouges

This wall had lots of holes

Let me explain what functions this roughly 11' x 11' room has to perform. First and foremost, it is the entryway into the house. It is the first room people see when they come in. So I am concerned about first impressions. As such it is also the most convenient place for coats. I don't say shoes because I finally got everybody in the house trained to put their shoes in their own rooms. The muddy boots come in the back door (which is an entirely different project down the road . . . shhhh don't tell my hubby).

The next function it must perform is a reception area for my sewing customers. This is where they drop off and pick up the items I alter or repair for them. I have a good system for this process in place, it just needs to be in a better spot and look much nicer. The current south wall that I am working on is where I will be putting up adjustable bracket shelving for the plastic cubes I have to keep customers items separated and well organized. This wall is sort of the priority at the moment because I constantly have customer items coming in and going out. It is also the easiest wall to access at the moment.

In addition to a reception area, my plan is to put window coverings on all the windows, including the front door and the door into the living room. The room will then be able to double as a fitting room by simply locking the front door and pulling the curtain over the living room doorway. Then I will not need those curtains you saw hanging in the middle of the room in the previous posts.

So that is three functions for this room so far. Next it also has to work as my office which includes a computer, printer, and filing cabinet. Eventually, I will be able to purchase a really nice wireless laptop but for now I'll make due. The filing cabinet and the computer equipment is also slated to go on this south wall.

The fifth and final and biggest function of this room is for scrapbooking, of which, I am WAAAAAY behind. All the shelving and elements for that area are going on the west wall. Which will also include a really cool custom made scrapbook paper organizer shelving system from some upcycled materials. I am also going to make my very own light table that will double as a work surface. After cruising Pinterest until midnight last night I may even add a sort of rolling slide out work table that will roll in under the light table. . . maybe . . . we'll see.

When I get back around to the north wall it will have been cleared away of all the other clutter and be replace with very minimal items. I like the window there and want easy access to it. But behind the  front door on that north wall I am going to put the coat rack which will be kind of lower with a shelf on top of it. The shelf is going to hold baskets for hats, gloves, and scarves. The jury, (me) is still out on whether or not I want a shoe rack underneath it. When I did that before no one took the time to put their shoes on it neatly and it mostly became a dumping ground for backpacks, bags and anything else they didn't feel like carting off to their rooms. Sometimes you could hardly get the door open. Talk about coming "unglued". So I'm guessing probably no shoe rack.

Now before I put all the furniture back in I am going to probably put in a new chunk of carpet. I'll have to measure and shop around for an inexpensive remnant. Anybody got a free piece about 11' x 12' in a fairly neutral tone?

So there you have it a very tiny small room that had a former life as a front porch serving no less than five functions. Wish me luck.

It's a start

Well I didn't post yesterday like I wanted to but I wasn't ready. Now I'm ready. I cleared off the south wall of the office with the exception of the mirror. I wanted to put up paint chips to see what I thought I wanted. 

Here is the semi empty wall it is currently a light green color:

View from living room.

Beat up wall

I left the mirror and
picture frame temporarily

Behind that curtain is the east wall for your viewing pleasure on another day.

I had a piece of scrapbook paper for inspiration but couldn't quite put my finger on what I wanted. Because originally I had other ideas. Basically, I needed a three color scheme. One neutral style color for the walls another semi darker color for the furniture, and a splash of color for the fabric treatments (curtains and stuff). 

Here is what I was trying to choose from and it wasn't tripping my trigger very well for some reason. I think it was because I had this other color scheme in my mind for so long:

I didn't want the furniture to stick out like a sore thumb so I was looking to paint it with a hammered silver gray but I couldn't tell what it might look like with the wall and the fabric color I had in mind. To find out I spray painted a paint chip with the paint to get a better idea. Then I remembered I had some fabric in the color I was thinking about in a really contemporary texture and I have plenty of it. Not sure if it is enough for all that I want to use it for but I will get to that after I write this post.

Anyway here is what I ultimately came up with:

The brown color at the top is called Meadowlark. It is a tan color with a green tone in it. It is more brown than green. The middle one is the hammered silver color made by Rustoleum. It makes what ever you paint with it look like hammered metal. I am using this on the furniture and shelving for a contemporary clean look. The third color is called Spinnaker which is sort of a blueish green color which is really popular right now. It is also a perfect match to my already on hand fabric. By the way the paint chips are from Glidden.

The textured fabric is woven with a grid pattern with gray/white/silver threads making it a perfect fit with my hammered silver paint. 

By the way I am keeping track of costs and will give you all a breakdown and final cost at the end of the project. So there you have it, I am ready to proceed. Tomorrow I am going to bring home our left over joint compound we loaned out to our church so I can start filling in holes and gouges. If the weather is warm enough I will paint the metal brackets for some of the shelving too. Right now I am going to measure windows and do some calculations. 

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now)

God Bless,

Nancy

New Year . . . New Look

Yes I know it has been ages since I have posted here. But alas, things are going right and the stress is lessening around here. I'm getting my many hats organized and ready to move on to new projects. I know it's only February but spring fever has hit me already. Besides being a secretary, a news writer, a seamstress, and a mom of two teens and a tween, and a wife, an archer, and a not so hot cook, I am going to add blogger to the collection. I am going to make a weekly or even daily effort to blog in some way.

To start with I have three blogs:

www.rethreadearth.blogspot.com

www.fearlessgrace.blogspot.com

and a blog at one of my websites

www.nelsonsewing.com

So I am going to try and blog on at least one of these each day. Today is Rethread Earth's turn.

I am starting a series that will follow the makeover of my office/front room/customer reception room/coat room. Yes, that will definitely be a challenge but I have a plan . . . see?!

I have my floor plan laid out complete with measurements of furniture that will remain in the room. In addition to that I laid out what each wall in the room is going to look like.

As you can see from the following pictures the room is extremely messy. I am embarrassed to even post them here but I want you to see the before so you can ooh and ahh over the after. 

Northwest corner

Southwest corner sideways . . . sorry.

Southeast corner with doorway to living room.

Door to outside on east wall and customer shelving on north wall.

UGLY carpet! May have to search for a remnant

North wall showing better shot of customer shelving and computer area.

Like I said messy, cramped and kaos! So here is the plan. First, I will use nearly everything in this room although it may be used or rebuilt differently than you currently see it. Second, the room is going to be completely emptied so I can patch nail holes, remove the dated border, and put on a coat of fresh paint. Third, all the furniture and shelving will be painted the same color to lessen the look of kaos. The color will coordinate with the wall color. Fourth, this series of blogs will take some time because there are only certain things I can do until our chilly northwest Iowa weather turns warm. But I will keep you posted on all the little things I do. 

Hey by the way if you have any suggestions or tips feel free to comment. Nobody has ever placed a comment and I would love some comments.

Thanks . . . and by the way HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Many Blessings,
Nancy

A Love Patch

You know how it goes plumbers have the worst plumbing, mechanics have the worst cars, etc. etc. Well, I am no exception, seamstress has the most repairs to make for family. For a couple of months now my husband has asked me to patch his coveralls for work so he can give me the other pair to repair the zipper. 

I don't know why I kept putting it off. I had a few other family projects to do too, so yesterday I FINALLY took care of them. First, I replaced a zipper in a sweat jacket for my oldest son, patched some jeans for my brother-in-law and yes the poor coveralls that laid on the floor on my side of the bed for the last couple of months. I think I just got tired of them being in my way. Thus, the reason my hubby put them there in the first place.

I decided I would be a total smart--- and patch them with piece of pink duck canvas in the shape of a heart. Since I already had some blaze orange duck canvas pieces with some Steam-a-Seam on them I opted for that but still used the heart shape. Then to add insult to injury I used PINK thread to stitch it down. I call it my "love patch". He wore them last night when he went into move snow but for some "odd" reason he didn't wear them into the office to pick up his duty list. The guys are gonna have a riot with him when they see it. It really doesn't matter to him what the patch looks like, he just wasn't in the mood for some razzing. Ah well I got great laugh out of it. 

The "LOVE PATCH"

It's not the first time I've gotten the guys either. On another occasion my husband brought home a co-worker's coat that needed a zipper slide. For fun I put a bright pink slider which looked "lovely" against the bright safety yellow of the coat. . . yeah well he didn't care and they got a good laugh out of it.

Still, on another occasion, my husband's hunting buddy brought me some camo hunting coveralls to repair a tear he made in them crossing a fence. At the same time it was prom season and I was making a minor repair on his daughter's prom dress and making my nieces prom dresses. For fun, I put some bling on those camo hunting bibs. I stitched on some football shaped rhinestone appliques, three in all. One on each strap at the front and one on the cross piece in the back. Then, I slyly folded them and put them in the bag. His wife picked them up and I think they just got put away, he really has no idea yet. The winter hunting season was pretty mild and I don't think he has used them yet. But spring turkey season will be here soon enough and I am just waiting .  .  . patiently. . . I know I will get a call. 

I was telling my friend, Melissa, about the love patch and she told me about the time she patched some jeans for a friend who had ripped the rear end of his jeans. He had told her he didn't care what the patch looked like and so with her evil quick humor she stitched on a patch in the shape of red lips. (I thought that was great, I'm gonna borrow that for another time.)

So what's my point? . . . Have some fun with some of those dreary tasks once in a while.

Happy New Year

Sew . . . it's been a long while since I've made a post. My apologies, the holidays always have so much going on. Quite frankly I'm glad they are over. Last time I posted I promised to share photos of some completed projects. I did finish those fleece blankets that turned out really awesome. My daughter completed 95% of her 4H project we just have one last finishing touch.


Fleece blankets made from John Deere prints for a customer's grandchildren.



One 4H project nearly complete. A display board for all her Tae Kwon Do belts complete with a low block pose. She is currently on her first level of brown belt.

  Just last week I taught a 4H sewing class over the school break. We made "Ten Minute Table Runners" which took two hours because some of the kids had never sewn before. I'm so thankful we had several extra moms to help out. The directions for this project I found online were limited so I rewrote them with photos. I've posted them online in .pdf format if you are interested. The sample I made is now looking lovely on my buffet.


Ten Minute Table Runner (Click the photo for a link to the .pdf directions)

  In the afternoon we made reusable tote bags from pet food bags that are made from the woven plastic like those blue tarps are. They really had fun with that one because they didn't have to be so precise on the sewing. I have pictures of my sample too. There are many other things you can make from these bags too. For example, an apron to wear when washing your pets or working in the garden. A couple of years ago another 4H'er turned the rabbit food bags into a tarp with duct tape and grommets.



Reusable Tote from pet food bag. You can make these as big or as small as you like.

  The other day I took my sample bag to work with me to show my boss, because that's where we buy our dog food. When we came out from work it was really windy and he made the comment that if I held the bag up I could sail home. "Light bulb" went on and I think we might try to make a good old fashioned kite out of one of these bags. Yes my mom does tell me quite often that wheels in my brain are always going. I will never disagree with that fact.

I managed to make the valance for my kitchen window from some fabric I had previously made into table skirts. This was one of my Christmas presents to myself. The print and colors in it go well with my newly revised kitchen. I tried to make replacement curtain panels for the cabinet doors above my refrigerator with the same fabric. Much to my dismay I totally miscalculated and came up shamefully short. Alas, I have no more of this print available to me. I guess I will have to look around for a coordinating print instead. Oh darn . . . I have to go fabric shopping. . . and no I don't have anything in my stash that will work.

Another Christmas present to myself was a new ironing board. I made my own cover for it because it is much prettier to look at and of better quality. I also replaced the cheesy piece of foam they expect you to use with two layers of the batting used to make hot pads and such. I used the piece of foam that came with the ironing board as the pattern for the batting. However, I cut mine about 1-2" wider so they would wrap around the edges of the board. I guess I really didn't replace the foam. I laid it down first then the two layers of batting then covered it with my new cover.





My new ironing board complete with custom cover.

 For the cover, I used the one that came with the board as a pattern, again cutting it 1-2" wider so it would completely wrap around the edges. I used biased binding around the edges and thread a skinny 1/8" wide ribbon through it to gather and tighten it around the ironing board. So there you have it my new ironing board.

I also managed to empty out one of my "to do" project boxes. They were framed ornaments in the shape of stockings. I've had about four of these cut out and ready to make from years and years ago. I had made a bunch for my mother-in-law for pictures of all her grandchildren to go on her tree. She liked them very much. My sister-in-law informed me that she needed a few more for the now great-grandchildren that have arrived.

So I made up the last four I had. Three for my nieces children and her stepson. The extra is for when my nephew, who is finally getting married next summer, starts his family. I wonder how long we'll have to wait for that event? He's 30 years old and the oldest of the grandchildren and we thought he'd never get married. Anyway, gramma loved them and I got to clear out an old "to do" project box. Yay for me!

 I'm not one to make new year resolutions because I can't keep them anyway. However, I do have plans for some major organizing this year. I got started with my sewing area last night and was up until 2 a.m. organizing buttons and zippers. Today I finished that process and cleaned up my tables so I had room to get back to work on sewing for customers tomorrow. I still have some other parts in that area to organize but with the stress of holidays gone I can take some evenings to mess around with doing that. I'll share some photos and some neat storage ideas that I came up with. (Again with the brain always going.)

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and are looking forward to a new and fresh year. God Bless!

Next blog . . . my top favorite projects completed in 2011.



Settling In

I am now somewhat back to a normal routine. If you consider replacing zippers, patching jeans, altering formal gowns and other such sewing a routine. When I last posted I talked about all the things I had plans to do. Out of all those things I have started two of them. The 4-H project and one of the t-shirt quilts.

On the t-shirt quilt I am considering backing it with polar fleece which would eliminate the need for separate batting and backing. It would certainly make it easier to quilt on my sewing machine. I don't yet have a fancy quilting machine. That's a way down the road someday thing. Even if I had one, I don't have a place to put it anyway, unless Barry finishes off the garage into a workshop for me. Which, by the way, he claims he would like to do for me someday. . . when we are rich and famous.

On this quilt I only have 6 t-shirt blocks to work with so I have to beef it up a bit. I've cut them into 12-1/2" squares and plan on adding strips around the edges in log cabin fashion to make them into 18" squares. Then I'll sew all those together in a two by three grid and the borders around that will make up the difference into a twin size quilt. I plan on continuing the log cabin routine with borders too. Tonights project is to get the strips cut for the log cabin around the t-shirt blocks.

The 4-H project is my daughter's project. She is making a display for all of her Tae Kwon Do belts. We have found an old narrow bulletin board which was green. She painted it all white. Then she is going to cover it in white fabric similar to the weight of fabric in her uniform. She may decide to use her uniform since she is about to out grow it. Anyway, she is then going to tie the belts around the board as if the board is wearing the belts. Her first rank will be at the bottom and her last completed highest rank will be at the top. I am anxious for her to finish it. It should be very cute and unique. Don't worry I will be posting pictures of both projects.

Ta Ta for now and have a great day.

"Falling" Into Place

Well September was a LOOOOONG month. Why? Because I moved my sewing business into my home. I never new I had so much "stuff". It took me all month because I wanted to put stuff away as I brought it home and before I brought home another load. It worked for the most part until I got down to the very end. I am now set back up and organized in my basement. The front entry, used to be a porch is now my office/fitting room/scrapbooking room/cash register area. Needless to say I have had to get fairly creative. I'll have to take photos later and post them. Right now I have bazillion projects I have to do and then there are the ones I want to do. My daughter (10 years old) is standing behind me right now pestering me to go work on a project, she wants to help. She is also telling me I have gray hair which I generally give credit for that to my boys including my husband.

SEW . . . what are my next projects. For starters I have to make three t-shirt quilts,  a denim quilt, along with four fleece blankets, and the usual alterations, repairs and mending. The projects I want to do include a rainbow quilt found at http://www.hookedonneedles.com/2011/09/rainbow-quilt-picture-tutorial.html. I love a good stash buster especially when it involves chain sewing. Oh yeah! I have a need for speed. Let's see, I am also going to make myself my own Christmas presents. Yes, you read that right. I am going make three gifts for me, wrap them up, and one is going to be from me, the other from myself and the last from I. It'll be fun to see how my family reacts to that one.  Finally, my daughter and I are also going to work on a couple of 4-H projects. Don't worry I will share them all with you as we make progress.

'Til next time keep your creative fingers working.

Nancy