Skip to main content

Second Chances

I don't always have a plan in mind when I repair something; I repaired this crazy quilt piece (the first I ever attempted) just because I didn't hate it anymore. I was sure I'd find a project I could use it for in the future.

Sure enough, later last month I bought this old dusty wooden hat box from a junk shop with the intention of refurbishing and redecorating it.

The repaired crazy quilt piece was just big enough to cut into a top for the lid.

I took my time (crazy quilted patchwork doesn't like to be cut up) and used low-loft batting and a piece of thin muslin to turn it into a circular quilt piece.

To bind it I used a very flexible length of gold metallic fabric and a lot of pins. I also found a matching ribbon -- one I bought many years ago and was saving for the right project -- to tie around the sides.

I still need to embroidery and embellish the crazy quilt piece, which is going to take a few months, and sew a proper lining (I'm just using an old cutter quilt piece to line it right now) but I'm very happy with how the project turned out. It's perfect for storing my perle embroidery thread.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...