IKEA hack

Wanna see how I transformed two ugly and scratched LACK coffee tables from IKEA into a functional and fun coffee station? Side note, this is not my original idea, I originally saw it on pinterest from apartment therapy. See the original post here.
This is how it started:

You can buy these tables form IKEA for about $10 a piece and they come in a variety of colors. Why we choose to get the fake dark wood I have no idea! But I was completely over them and was about to donate them to Salvation Army when I saw the idea to transform them into something else.
I started by giving them a light sand and priming them white:

After they dried I gave them two coats of a super light grey paint that we also have in our living room and bedroom. Once they had dried over night I used wood glue to stack them on top of each other. I still find the paint to chip really easy and am planning on sealing them somehow (dad, any ideas?). I am still on the lookout for a butcher block or any piece wood really to attach to the top, but it's good for now, and I am so happy to have a designated coffee station in our kitchen. Here's a closer look at the bottom and top:

Total cost of this project:
2 coffee tables: 0 - rescued from heading out the door
Primer and paint: 0 - leftovers from painting earlier
Wood glue: 0 - already had
Green mats: 4 - these are simply to protect the paint

Total: 4 - not bad at all!

a wrap-up of sorts

I feel as though a wrap-up of sorts is necessary before I can jump into blogging 2013. This might be a bit scattered but bear with me because this has been nagging at the back of my mind to do for days now.
For those of you wondering, I did in fact finish my Christmas wall hanging that I shared some pictures in progress of here. I decided to leave it up hanging in my kitchen for at least a little while longer even though all the rest of the Christmas decorations came down at the beginning of the month.

I am really happy how it turned out, and for it being my first big applique piece I'm pretty impressed.

Second christmas-y project I finished was a tree skirt that I started here.

Quilting this turned into quite the challenge and I think I ended up ripping more out that I actually ended up sewing. I started with a red and green veregated thread that looked terrible, so out that came and white thread won out in the end.

I even ended up being able to finish a quilt for my mother in law. It was my first time making a full flannel quilt and after seeing how cozy the final product was I am tempted to make one for myself now.

Whew, so that's it for me, just a big post about Christmas craftiness! Bring it on 2013, we've got stuff to make happen!

applique: not for the faint of heart

Yikes! This is some tough business! I am in the middle of working on a Christmas wall hanging and I am aiming to have it done for December 1st. So much tracing, cutting, ironing, cutting, pressing, etc., etc.,! Oh well, the end will all be worth it if it turns out looking half as good as the picture!

Here's some sneak peeks:

simple bunny diy

My house was seriously lacking in the spring/easter decorations. Even though we are going to be away for easter I figured we needed some spring-y cheer!

This was super simple to make, and only took me about 5 minutes start to finish! I found a piece of striped paper that I liked and cut it to size for my frame. I also found a piece of textured white cardstock and cut it the same size. I drew a simple outline of a bunny on the back of the white paper and used a craft knife to cut it out. I used some blue ink on the inside edges of the silouette, but that step isn't really necessary. I then stuck both pieces of paper in my frame and voila, instant easter crafty goodness!

I think it would be a neat idea to switch out the paper and silouettes depending on the season. I'm thinking flowers for summer, pumpkins for fall, and a christmas tree for winter. I'm excited!

"you're making another quilt?"

Jordy asked me this question the other night as I yet again took over our living room by laying out out the quilt blocks for my latest quilt. "How many are you going to make?" was his next question, to which I promptly replied, "maybe five million" :)

That got me thinking though, "why do I quilt?" It really is an expensive hobby and when you break it down, it kind of seems a little silly -  buy fabric, cut it up into little pieces and stick it back together again. Really, it's kind of odd. So why do I have this urge to make so many quilts? I thought about it a bit and I realized that even though I'd never consciously thought or talked about this, I picture myself using them in the next fifty years, and curling up in them. I picture rocking my babies in them, and laying them out on the grass for picnics and tea parties. I realized that I treasured the thought of making an heirloom, something that will only increase with age and love.

One of my favorite blankets to have on my bed when I was younger was my mom's old white comforter. I don't think there was anything particularly special about it, except that it was soft and I liked that it had been my moms. It always felt the best when compared to my flowery one from wal-mart that I had. I hope that years down the road my kids, or guests staying at our house will feel the same way when going to sleep under one of these handmade quilts that are perfectly imperfect.

sudoku quilt

The other night I had a few hours to myself so I finished up this pretty in pink quilt top. It's actually a 'sudoku quilt,' which I'll explain in a minute. At Christmas I got a sudoku quilt kit from my mom. It was two charm packs that had been doctored up to have 9 charm squares of 9 fabrics each, for a total of 81. The fabric in the kit was 'Oasis' by 3 sisters. It's so dreamy and soft, I love it! The kit also comes with a sudoku puzzle to fill it out. After solving the puzzle you are to separate the fabrics into nine piles and assign each print a number from 1-9. Following that you lay out your squares using the puzzle as a guide. In the end you are left with 9 patches of 9 blocks with no repeats in the 9x9 block or in the horizontal or vertical line. Make sense?

Here are my blocks laid our prior to being sewn with the sashing in between:

And just for good measure, here is a picture of the finished puzzle that I used as a pattern for my prints:

If I have completely botched up my explanation, feel free to leave me a comment and I will do my best to try and explain myself better! And in case you were wondering, the quilt minus the  binding which I will get to eventually, is 56.5x56.5

suzy homemaker

I've had this fabric for a while now and I have been dying to use it! Mom found this aqua fabric with pink kitchen appliances on it somewhere in the States I believe and was nice enough to buy some for me.  I used an apron tutorial on the internet which I found to be a bit difficult, there is tons of pleating and ruffles which makes it a bit more time consuming, I'm really happy with the results though! I feel like such a suzy homemaker wearing it :)

basket make-over

I originally bought this basket for cheap from Wal-Mart before I headed to college. I don't know what my original intention was for it, but since moving out of dorms it has held our small games in the back of a closet since I no longer liked the fabric it came with. I pulled it out the other day since I figured it was something we used on a regular basis and it should be easier to access. The fabric just didn't work for me though so I decided to make a new lining for it.

Before:

After:

Ahh, so much better! (and as you can see I've been having fun playing around with Instagram on my new phone!) To make this, I picked apart the seams of the original lining, laid the pieces on a fat quarter of fabric I liked and cut around the pieces, so simple! Now why on earth hadn't I done this months ago?!

home tour: craft room

This post is a little bit later than I was expecting, but I hope you enjoy the little peek into my crafting space nevertheless. I still don't feel completely satisfied with this space, and I think some curtains would definitely help. One thing I've come to realize though is that a lot of things will never really be done. I'll always be tweaking different things in our home and trying to make them more my style as I continue to learn about what my style really is. I've been thinking about doing a post on overcoming the fear of white in a house, but more about that later.

This first picture is of my desk where I do all my sewing. It is actually an old computer desk that we bought at a garage sale for $5. The handy thing about this is that my small cutting mat fits on the pullout keyboard tray so I can cut smaller pieces while sewing.

Across from the desk is a pull-out couch which is probably older than me, but it's nice to have a little bit of seating. These two guys are the only stuffed animals I still have and they both have very special places in my heart so they hang out with me here. On the back of the couch is a lap quilt I made a few years ago using assorted browns and Amy Butler fabric. I think the pattern is called broken dishes.

Directly above the couch is several embroidery hoops using different vintage fabric that I really liked. I think it would be really cute to get some vintage enamel flower brooches and stick them on there.

One last thing to show you before I go - Behind the door there was an existing towel rack (?) that I now use to hang large pieces of fabric, or quilts I have on the go. Right now there are 4 quilted place mats, which I will share soon, and some fabric I cut out to make an apron. You can see more of my craft room by looking at my inspiration board post.

I hope you enjoyed looking around!

christmas star

While home the other week my auntie surprised me with a kit to make this christmas mat (not sure what to call it!). The pattern for it comes from www.free-quilting.com which I would definitely recommend you check out. The website has tons of free patterns for you to browse and print out. I haven't looked at the site other than downloading this pattern but I am anxious to do so! The finished size of this mat is 12x12 (give or take a little since I am not the most accurate fabric cutter!)

At first I didn't know about the gold fabric, but now I really like it, and it works well with my decor since my tree is red and gold. For a fun Christmas present idea you could skip the borders and make pot holders for a relatively easy and handmade gift!

a new advent calendar

Last year I bought this adorable fabric panel from a little fabric shop in Cold Lake, AB. I backed it with the striped fabric you see as the binding. You were supposed to sew it inside out and then turn it but I much preferred to sew it the traditional quilt way. This was also my second time free motion quilting and I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I wasn't as scared as I was my first time!

I just need to buy some little green buttons to sew onto each snowman. On each day of December I can then move a little star (that I already made) onto each new snowman with the corresponding date. So cute!

52 crafts: part 10

If you know me at all you will know that I am a sucker for anything girly! That being said, I love this new bracelet! I can't wait to make some more in bright and fun colors. This will be the perfect accessory for Spring!

Is anyone else ecstatic that it is almost the weekend?!

production mode

I wanted to share with you some new coffee cozy's I made for an order of teacher's gifts. The four on the right are a new design for me and not as feminine so they would be the perfect gift for male friends.

The next three pictures are all available designs of coffee cozy's in my shop for $6.00 each. Make sure you check them out!

52 crafts: part 3

I love love love this week's craft! I was inspired by an episode on the diy dish, which I changed a bit to make this little beauty:

I think this just might be my favorite bag I've ever made!

P.S. Feel free to contact me at lauren.stennett@yahoo.ca because almost anything I make is for sale! I also accept custom orders!

Happy Crafting everyone! I've got a great day planned of sewing with one of my besties :)

handmade gift guide: part 3

Here's the last of my handmade Christmas gifts I wanted to share with you. I made this bag for my mom out of a camping line of fabric that Michael Miller has out. I made the straps out of a reddish color print that I already had on hand and made a large pocket on the interior of the bag out of a yellow print I also had on hand.

When I saw this fabric line I knew that it was perfect for my mom and I just had to make something out of it for her. I ordered one yard of it from a seller on etsy.

Kind of on a whim I decided to hand embroider the word 'joy' on a piece of coordinating fabric and sew it onto the interior pocket. To stop it from fraying to badly I just whipped around the edge with a pinking rotary blade. I think it is really cute and love how it makes the bag a little bit more personal and happy. Everything could use a little dose of joy I'm sure!

handmade gift guide: part 2

This gift was one I made for Jordy. It is a cd holder for the visor in his Jeep. It has adjustable velcro straps made from the same striped fabric and is made more sturdy with a thin layer of card board between the layers of fabric. There are five pockets for cd's but I suppose you could squeeze more in if you really wanted to. I really liked how it turned out and hope he does too!

a cute little pin

Just wanted to pop in and show you a cute little pin I made over the holidays. I brought literally no accessories with me to go on holidays so I quickly whipped this up before heading out to a movie one night!

I used a 2.5" strip of a holiday fabric found in the scrap pile...

stitched into a little flower...

added a piece of felt and a safety pin...

and voila! a little pin to attach to a low ponytail to head out to the movies, or a fun accessory to add to your outfit for christmas eve festivities!

handmade gift guide: part 1

I attempted this year to make as many handmade gifts as I could. I'm really happy with how they all turned out and hope that the recipients like them as much as I enjoyed making them. Part 1 isn't the prettiest of the gifts that I made but it shows how you can still make a handmade gift for the men in your life; something that I had a hard time coming up with ideas for previously!

It's a matching headpiece (not quite sure what to call it) that has snaps on the one side. I made it out of 3 pieces and stitched binding around it using the same camouflage material. I used a balaclava as a template but then attempted to make it larger, which just plain didn't work and it looked more like a camouflage dunce cap so I basically just made my own template!
More handmade goodies coming up soon (if all goes according to plan!)

craft sale preview

Hey Briercresters! So I realize that probably none of you take craft sales as seriously as I do, but here's a fun way to help out a wanna-be-future-small-business-owner; come visit my table after the banquet tomorrow!
Here are some things that I will be selling:

7 x 4" fully lined zippered pouches, perfect for pencils and pens, money, make-up, or you name it!

Two-tone button hair clips, would look so cute with any outfit!

Fully lined and insulated coffee cozy's with a cute flower and button addition!

Hand bound notebooks with unlined paper crafted with love! There will hopefully be more notebooks by tomorrow!!

Hope to see you there!