by Jen_F | Blog, DIY, How To, Jen_F, Our Art, Pat_T, Shari_T
It’s been pretty busy for a while all around the 4TexasSisters households. Lots going on but not a lot we’d want to write about, ya know …lol
Though I’ve got tons of stuff to share about what’s been going on, I’ll just give a recap of what’s coming up. How’s that?
And since it’s always hard to know where to start when there are four of us, I’ll start with the eldest and and work my way down the sister chain.
Pat’s been grandparent sitting. First we had Ethan, now we also have the new addition… Elise. sorry, no pics right now, but maybe in the future. However, you can get a glimpse of Ethan if you go to bcalease.com. You could say he’s the Christmas cover story over there… OR you could just say “he’s adorable” .. either works. Am sure Elise will end up as a star over there in the future, but right now she’s barely 2 months old, so we’ll let her grow up a bit first.
Anyway, that’s not all that’s happening in Pat’s house.
She’s pulled out those rusty paint brushes and I have to tell you, this woman needs no warm up time… when she paints, she paints.
Check this out. Gorgeous, huh?
Keep up the good work, Pat. We look forward to seeing more soon.
So, moving from the Pat house to the Deb house… Deb’s been super busy too, and evidently is the real jet-setter this year as she gets ready to go on a cruise. Yep, she’s our cruise child for the year. lol
She’s been tearing it up with her embroidery machine and sewing machine, revamping her clothes and stealing some of the husband’s to make into her own.
Check out this man’s pair of pants that Deb will now be sporting as a skirt… all trimmed out.
She’s also been burning up that embroidery work, but I don’t want to expose ALL our projects in one post.
I didn’t get invited on this cruise, but I did get invited to babysit Harley, the wiener dog and there may be a t-shirt involved in this deal ( lol )so, I guess, I’ll go for door number 2, babysitting the dog.
Moving on, to … ME? Well, I’ve been busy getting my sewing corner set back up and burning up a few threads myself. This is a bedside caddy I made for one of my grand nieces who has headed off to her first year of college as of the end of August.
I have to say, I honestly had no idea what I was doing as it all came together. And I discovered what I’ve probably always known, but kept a secret…. I am a POCKET FREAK. That bedside caddy ended up with 2 main panels and a total of 15 pockets… which is the dream come true for people who want everything literally within arm’s reach. I think the only thing that won’t fit in one of those pockets is the kitchen sink.. However, there’s a spot for a water bottle, so that’s close. Huh?
Oh, and the fabric? Well, the main solid blue came from the grand niece’s great grandmother on her granddad’s side. There’s some solid blue jean fabric on it. That came from her great grandmother on her grandmother’s side. the blue glittery fabric came from my stash I’ve been carrying around since before I moved back to Texas from Florida. AND the denim Jeans pockets, well, err uh, a few came off the behind of a pair of my old jean shorts.
So, moving along… to last but not least of the happenings in our 4TexasSisters households… Let’s go see what Shari’s been up to.
Pumpkins and furniture.
I have to say Shari and Pat both bring out the décor for each season and holiday. Sometimes visiting one of their houses is like visiting fantasy land. lol Always, always, looks so …. seasonal… oh and awesome, of course.
And since Fall is in the air… Shari is making pumpkins… and pumpkins and…… more pumpkins.. here are just a few that are still in the works.
AND… she’s become our furniture upcycle gal…. Yesterday she and Ryan were caught working on the springs of a chair. ok, so Ryan was caught. I guess Shari had to take the pic. lol
And there’s more going on with all of us, but I’ll save that for another post.
So, in the mean time….
Live Every Moment, Love Beyond Words, Laugh Everyday,
~Jen
by Jen_F | DIY, How To, Our Art, Shari_T, Transformations
From tacky to happy……
Thought I’d share my recently completed transformation.
It was a sad 70’s or early ’80’s end table that had seen better days. My plan was to love it back into use as a pet kennel for Spirit.
The inner shelf was completely removed, as was the glass panel.
I used a blue chalk paint and followed that with a black glaze to give it its current look. It appears a dog may have “loved” it in the past as there were chew marks on the corners. I chose to embrace those rather than repair them, and let he glaze settle in those areas.
The glass was replaced by a piece of plastic which we had purchased when Zazzy the cat was little to protect her from falling off the balcony.
This plastic sheeting allows plenty of light and airflow.
The hardware was spray painted with a specialty black paint known as “hammered”. It helps hide any imperfections.
So, how did it turn out?
Of course, the real question is: did Spirit like it?
You tell me.
Love,
Shari
by Deb D | Deb_D, Fabric, Our Art, Quilting
Last year, I created a Crown Royal patchwork quilt. This year I decided to use the fronts and backs to make this one.
There are 9 rows of 7 bags. The quilting will be along the edges of the bags. I edged the sides (all 4 sides) with a dark purple flowered print, then added the batting and a yellow gold satin for the backing. I will use the edges of the backing for the binding. I will add a picture of the finished quilt at a later date.
by Deb D | Deb_D, Fabric, Our Art, Quilting
One of my friends from the Richard A. Anderson VFW Post #8953 told me they had quite a few Crown Royal bags. For those of you who might not know what that is – I didn’t either because I don’t drink Crown Royal. It is a bag made of a very lightweight flannel in a size to fit the bottle. They come in small sizes & large sizes. After working with them for awhile, I found out that within each size, they are not even the same size all the time.
So, I took on the project of making a Crown Royal quilt. Let’s step back here a minute – why is it that when you sew, everybody thinks you can do everything? I have NEVER in my life made a quilt. This was to be my first quilt & I was scared to death.
I spent months & months researching patterns for the quilt, bought books, searched on the internet, & thought about it a lot. Since this was probably going to be my one & only quilt, I turned to an Excel spreadsheet to lay out the pattern instead of buying a quilting program for my computer. For those who don’t know me, I am slightly Obsessive Compulsive Anal Retentive, to some maybe a bit more than slightly. I laid out 3 different patterns that I liked & this is my final decision:
This is a King/Queen size quilt and there are 625 individual squares that make up this quilt. I sewed 5 squares together in a line & then sewed 4 more rows of 5 squares. I combined these 5 rows into one big square. I repeated this 24 more times (giving me twenty-five 5″ square squares).
I started with a specialty square in the middle of the quilt & built my strips, alternating colors as I went. I used the flannel bags, front & back, & light fleece – white, purple tie-dye, darker purple & a light lilac, for the front. Finding the right colors was another time consuming thing.
Now remember, I am using a home sewing machine, with this HUGE quilt once it is all put together. By rolling the quilt up so I only had a little bit at a time under the needle, I finally got all of the squares within squares put together. Now comes the fun part – putting the batting & backing on the front. I laid the quilt front side down & laid the batting on the back then, after piecing the backing together (wasn’t large enough), I pinned the 3 layers together to do the quilting. What to do! what to do!
More tight rolling to get it in the needle area & turning it around to do only 1/4 at a time. I decided to do the quilting in the corners only instead of across the whole quilt & started in the middle & worked my way to the outside of the quilt.
I decided to use the sides of the bags as my binding so I had to cut them & sew them into a long strip – long enough to go around the outside of the quilt. I pinned it on the back side & folded it over & sewed it. I had a few problems with the corners but persevered & completed the quilt. It only took me 2 years or so to complete it because as I ran into a problem, I would put it aside so I could do some more research. I don’t like to keep working on a problem after I become frustrated with it – I just get in more trouble.
Here is a picture of the quilt before I put the batting, backing or binding on it.
by Deb D | Deb_D, Fabric, Our Art, Quilting
I had purchased several t-shirts for a benefit run by our local VFW over the years. I decided to make a quilt for the benefit using the previous year’s t-shirts as the basis. Each t-shirt had two design faces so that enabled me to have 8 panels. I found additional t-shirts of a patriotic theme so that I would have an even number (12). This quilt was a personal size quilt (or maybe it would fit a twin size bed).
I cut out the panels in 12″x12″ squares. In order to strengthen the fabric, I used some iron-on stabilizer. I laid the pattern out in 3 panels across and 4 panels down. For one of the extra panels, I had to manufacture. I was trying to keep my additional colors to either a black or blue background. The only other suitable panel I found was on a white t-shirt. So, I cut out & glued the white part I cut out onto one of the black t-shirt backs & stitched some rick-rack around the edge to cover the white border. I thought it came out pretty good.
I used the edges of the backing as the binding. I quilted it & then cut & folded the sides to make the binding.
by Jen_F | Jen_F, Musings, Our Art
All things being what they are, even though I managed to bring my dressmaker’s body form back with me from my years in Florida, it’s a shy too small in some areas for Shari. (Let me backup to say at this point, it;s been more than a BIT shy small for me for years.) So, Deb went out on the Internet, did some research and learned that she could create her on body form using Duct Tape.
Yes, you heard that right- Duct tape, Texas Fix-it. What I didn’t know and what you may not know is that: (from Wikipedia)
The first material called “duck tape” was long strips of plain cotton duck cloth used in making shoes stronger, for decoration on clothing, and for wrapping steel cables or electrical conductors to protect them from corrosion or wear.
From there, over time, and for different need requirements, the face of Duck tape changed to what we use all the time and call duct tape.
Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program…
The body form Shari is styling in the video and following out-take pictures is 3 layers. Technically you could say it’s 4 layers if you want to count the T-Shirt… but to talk just about the taping. First layer being applied horizontally, second layer was vertically applied and then the third layer was, again, applied horizontally all in short pieces in each layer.
What wasn’t shown in the video is cutting Shari out of it once they were finished. So just to cover that here, it was a process of taking the scissors and cutting straight up the back.
Deb’s plan, now that the body form is made, is to put it over the the commercial body form I brought back and then put stuffing in between. We’ll let you know how that all works out as we go through the process.
Here are the out-take pictures
Oh, and if you are wondering why, I, Jennifer Fisher, the video cam girl kept turning the camera sideways, it’s because I was testing out the camcorder Shari gave me and not even sure it was recording all the time. LOL. Think I’ve figured that out now.?
Til the next time!
You’re never too young or too old…So…
Live Every Moment,
Love Beyond Words,
Laugh Everyday,
~Jennifer