I wish I was as cool as...

Amy Butler! Sigh. That woman is ridiculously talented. When her house in Ohio (!) was profiled I was insanely jealous. My thrift store/vintage finds are never that cool or look so chic--we still have the college dorm room-esque vibe going on with most of our furniture! So I was uber excited when I saw this:
Make a handbag inspired by Amy Butler!?! And win a sewing machine (the one I was looking at buying!)?!?! It's like they read my mind...
Apparently I'm a little slow on the uptake as this has been up for a while. Better get a move on!

Humdrum hutch goes bookish

Finally finished!
$30 Hutch via Craiglist plus a gallon of paint and a old hardback book have transformed this less than stylish hutch into a stylish piece of furniture. Check it out!Before: Ewww, not cool. Useful but ugly!
After: Much better!
Up close and personal: The back of the shelves are papered with pages from and old book for a neat effect.

I entered this in Blueprint magazine (so sad it's out of print!) and Apartment Therapy's January Jumpstart contest. Hopefully the judges will be as fond of it as I am.

My first "Uncommon Quilt"

Inspired by this book, I tried my hand at a so-called uncommon quilt:

"Overindulgence" 8x10

I used pieces of fabric that I pulled out of mom's scrap bin, some red, pink and purple nylon net, bits of gold ribbon I had stashed away, and red heart rhinestone that were left over from Jen and Ray's wedding gift. Most of the stitching was done on my mom's Bernina; I would have never been able to do that free-motion-esque heartbeat on my machine!

Christmas book reviews

The boy has promised to build me a new sewing table for my Christmas present. I'm such a lucky girl! But since he wanted me to have something to unwrap he got me two awesome books that I'm already in love with...This book is so inspiring. The author, Jeanne Williamson, pledge to make a small art quilt per week for a year--and then kept doing that for several more years! She amassed a collection of quilts and expanded her technique, using uncommon materials in her quilts. I'm a packrat too, so I'm inspired to try my own. I've started one that I'll post soon.Adorable! Aimee Ray has some great ideas. The projects are super cute, but the stitching ideas can easily be adapted for many more projects. She had a unique way of combining stitches and colors that wasn't obvious to me at first but now seems so intuitive. Pictures of my attempts will be here soon!