Another Quilt Finish!

I managed to get one more of my first quarter goals done and it's definitely standing out as one of my favorites- my scrappy string quilt is done!  

Maybe it's just the fact that I am so over winter, but the bright colors of this quilt just make me so very happy! It measures 72 x 72, which makes for a great throw sized blanket! I quilted diagonal lines criss-crossing about every 6 inches and it turned out great!   Even kitty cats can't resist it!

For the back I used some yardage of my some of my favorite fabrics, Michael Miller Grand Bazaar by Patty Young and the binding is a scrappy mix of the fabrics used in the quilt!

  I seriously cannot get enough of this quilt! And I am so excited to cross off yet another project on my goals list!

Now off for one last crazy sewing weekend before the quarter is over!

Linking up to Link-A-Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts, Thank Goodness it’s Finished Friday at Devoted Quilter and Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.


You can see my goal list in this post here.

 

Quilt Finish!

A finish long in the making, my book quilt is finally done! An unfinished project from 2012, I finally broke it out of it's storage box this month, ordered batting for it and got it quilted up!

  It's a nice throw sized quilt measuring 60 x 72 and I can definitely picture it being a staple on our living room couch!  I did some very simple straight line quilting in the sashing.

   And it is backed and has binding that is made out of scraps from the main fabrics in bright and cheery greens, oranges and florals. 

  I am beyond excited to cross another project off of my Q1 list. I definitely feel like I'm making good progress!

Linking up to Link-A-Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts, Thank Goodness it’s Finished Friday at Devoted Quilter and Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

  You can see my goal list in this post here.

Quilt Ladder

For Christmas, Jake gifted me my very own quilt ladder, but with the craziness of the holidays, he just got around to making it a couple weekends ago. He followed this tutorial from our vintage home love.

Our supplies. The kitties couldn't resist checking them out, and then tackling each other.

He drilled the holes and assembled it in our living room, since it's so darn cold outside!

And voila! My very own ladder!

  Now I just need to pick out a stain color, hang some quilts on it and find a more permanent home for it!

Driftwood Garland

Two summers ago, my family took a trip up to Northern Minnesota for a week of fishing, relaxing and catching up. It was a wonderful week, and while we we're bumming around town one of the shops had a great driftwood "garland". Being the DIYers and crafty ladies that we are, my mom and I immediately agreed that we could "sooo make one of those". There began my obsession with collecting driftwood. I've made Jake stuff his pockets with little pieces of driftwood more often than I would like to admit. But now, more than two years later, I had enough to make my garland. First I gathered my supplies: my box of driftwood, fishing line, and a drill. 

I drilled little holes in the middle of each piece of driftwood, and then simply threaded them on the fishing line. I kept doing that until I ran out of driftwood- I was convinced I would have enough to make it pretty long.

 

In the end my garland was about 3 feet long, and doesn't quite go end-to-end on top of our entertainment center. To make it easier to add more on later, I left one end of the fishing line open with a lot of extra.

Even if it's not long enough yet, I love the awesome texture and dimension that it has! I guess we'll have one more summer of collecting driftwood...

Dining Room Update!

As soon as we moved in last July, I knew what paint colors I wanted for pretty much every room. For our combined kitchen and dining room I wanted a light aqua and coral color scheme and it only took one color sample to find the right aqua for the walls. But since we painted, the walls have stayed bare and undecorated....  

UNTIL NOW!
I've always wanted a very mixed item gallery wall and with the size of this wall, I thought it would be the perfect space! So, we spent the afternoon hanging up the items that are going to make up the center of our gallery wall!  

The thing on the far left is an awesome weather center that was a thrift store find. The second thing on the left is an original painting that we found at our local record store. With Jake being such a big Leonard Cohen fan (plus it was the right color!) we couldn't pass it up. The "awesome" sign is something that I painted on a scrap piece of wood. And finally, the black mirror is from Ikea. This wall is definitely not done, and I can see some sort of white faux taxidermy item fitting in so very nicely!
Once all this was hung, I was on a roll and put together some matching items for the bookcase that is on the far left wall.

These are all thrift store finds except the white owl, which is from World Market. Excuse the extremely messy shelf and the fact that there's no gumballs in the gumball machine!

I can't wait to finish up this room! It's getting closer and I love how it's looking so far!

I'm back!

Well I had no intention of taking four weeks off from blogging, but there's been a lot going on lately! A birthday, an anniversary, plus Valentine's Day makes for a lot of celebrating! A two year anniversary trip to Duluth that was filled with good food, a great travel buddy and even colder temperatures!

A work trip to Nashville for Capella's Commencement ceremony. This trip reminded me of how much I love my job and the ladies I do it with and was just an all-around feel good trip!

With two trips squeezed into 4 weeks, I did actually manage to get some crafting, quilting and apartment decorating done! Here's a sneak peak of just a couple of the projects that will get their own post soon!