Treasured finds - Turn DIY

My husband and I love to go out and look around at what people have put out for council clean up (kerb side clean up) and you would be amazed at the quality of some of the stuff that you can find and with a little TLC or a whole new freshen up of a paint job you can totally transform a piece of furniture to be what you want it to be. This weekend just gone and the weekend before we found 2 great quality  pieces and together with my husbands help have totally transformed them and I love how they have turned out.

The first piece that we found and transformed was this lovely little bedside table.

 

Brown draws with ugly green laminated top

 

So first of all my husband sanded and sprayed the outside of the table with white (antique white USA)  paint and I painted the fronts of the draws with a Turquoise green (Tempting aqua) paint with a paint brush and just di a fairly light coat of it so that some of the timber would be showing through to give it more of the shabby chic look. And I love who it has turned out.

 

After Photo

 

Then our second piece of furniture was this very rustic chest of draws which I actually really liked in its rustic nature but want to keep it the same as the other chest of draws which are all going into my quilting studio.

We did the same application on these draws as the previous ones and sprayed the outside with white (antique white USA) and the draws were painted with the turquoise (Tempting aqua) and were also painted one coat sparingly to give it more of the shabby chic look and  on this one I also sprayed the handles with a satin black finish and once again I love how they have turned out.

There are so many things you can do with things that other people might see as trash that may  just turn out to be treasure for you. Its always worth keeping an eye out. In fact my whole quilting studio has been created with furniture that other people have thrown out or given away free on gumtree.

Thanks for reading and hope you have some fun of your own recreating some furniture that was once destined for the scrap heap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My tabletop quilt basting technique

Today I have my table top version of how I baste my quilts. For those of you that are out there suffering from chronic  pain conditions and find it difficult to crawl around on the floor to baste a quilt this is the perfect solution. This is also a great quilt basting technique if you are also limited to space especially on those large quilts we all love to make.

I use a large plastic table but you can use any table that you have or any size table this works for. You will only need a few supplies. you will need 4 bamboo skewers (I cut the sharp point end off mine), Masking tape, and between 4 and 10 large clamps.  depending on the size of your table. ( I use these plastic type from the $2 shop.

To start with you want to find the centre point of your table. I have mine permanently marked as you can see in the photo above  but you could also mark out the middle point of your table each time with some masking tape or washi tape. Then once you have your middle point you want to use your 4 bamboo skewers to make a cross out from that middle point and tape it down with masking tape.

Then I fold my backing fabric in quarters and with an iron I mark the middle point of the backing fabric and unfold it. You then want to lay your backing fabric on the table matching up the centre
 point of you fabric to the centre  point of the cross marked on your table and pull it out nice and straight and clamp it to your table with your clamps. Then you follow that same procedure with your batting. You want to make sure you have clamps on all 4 sides of your table holding it nice and firm. On my long table I use 2 clamps per shorter side and 3 clamps per long side

Next I do the same with my quilt back by marking the middle point of my top by folding it in quarters and marking it with the iron. then lay that on top matching that middle line of the quilt top with the middle point of the bamboo skewers and smooth out and clamp to the table pulling nice and tight as I go. I have each layer clamped to the table smooth out the next layer and remove the clamps and reclamp that next layer. On this layer it doesn't matter if your  top doesn't reach the ends just so long as your sides are clamped but still leave the other layers of the ends clamped. Then start pin basting starting from the centre and working your way out and smoothing our your quilt top as you go if needed.

Once you have pin basted your middle section that is covering the table unclamp your quilt and move it to one of the sides straighten and smooth it back out and reclamp your layers for that side and continue. Then you do the same for the other side and your ends if needed.

Then you are finished and ready for some happy quilting.

The Tale of a broken Quilt

This week marked my first experience with a quilt casualty. One of my dogs had ripped a big whole in one of my quilts. (my first quilt that I ever made actually)

And we have the guilty culprit here trying to cover up the whole and sulking.

I am not he most experienced of quilters as yet and have only been quilting for a little over 2 1/2 years  but this is how I choose to fix the problem and I am more than thrilled with how it all turned out. In actual fact I love it even more now than before. Nothing beats having your quilts being used and the birth marks that they receive are a sign of well loved and used quilts.

First of all I cut a piece of batting to fit inside the whole as the dog had ripped a chunk of the batting out as well.

 

 

 

 

Then I inserted the batting into the whole and I whipped stitched the whole closed. (nothing fancy cause it will be covered up)

Then I made myself up a flower template and cut out a flower motive more than big enough to cover the area and I tried my first hand at needle turn applique and appliqued it on to cover the hole

Then I decided that it just needed a little bit more so I decided to add some hand quilting with perle 8 thread and I was so happy that I decided to as I feel like it really finished it off.

And this is what my finished product ended up looking like and I was more than happy with how it turned out and think that the repair worked brilliantly. So if you find yourself in the same predicament ( which hope no one ever does) don't panic there might be some way in which you can repair it.

Later on that night when I got up to check on everyone I found that we had our guard cat on duty to make sure that there were no naughty puppies to make the same mistake twice.

My First blog post

Well it's time to bite the bullet (so to speak) and finally get on the blog bandwagon. It's something that I have been wanting to do for ages. So if you are into quilting and crafting and having some fun along the way come and join in on my journey.