Revamped Patio Chair and Side Table

Lately, I have been crazy busy with both boys being in lacrosse.  I ended up becoming the High School Lacrosse Booster's President (v.p., treasurer and secretary).  So that has taken up the rest of my free time. 

In between the craziness, I managed to repaint my new (new to me since I bought them at an antique store) patio chairs and make some cushions for them. 

I saw the outdoor material at Walmart.  I love the playful look of it.  I found the foam for the cushions at a local store (not a craft store).  One morning after the the boys went off to work and school I started to mae my pattern for the first set of cushions.  Boy was this a pain in the behind.  But, the look is more "tailored" than the one I took the short cut on.  Although the short cut used less fabric.  Oh well.  I do like the way they came out.

Before

After

Now onto recovering my pool lounge chairs.

She's Done!!!!

I have finally finished my Red, Black & White quilt.  Last week I took a class on how to quilt using a longarm quilting machine.  Man, was I nervous.  Thankfully a really nice lady helped me for a little while.  When I was "on my own" I got sweety hands and thought how am I going to finished this thing.

Well I managed with little assistance.  As I got closer to the middle of the quilt I was comfortable with the machine. 

Here are a few photos of my completed quilt.  The first one is obviously the front of the quilt. The second one is of the back. 

The third photo is the finished quilt folded.  The fourth photo is a shot of the back.  The last photo shows the Daisy pantograph design I used to quilt the entire quilt.  I used black and white varigated thread. 

I have to say I really love the way my quilt came out.   

Peppermint Tini floral arrangement

I love having flowers in the house, especially for the holidays.  This year for New Year's I wanted to make something really different.  While I was looking for ideas for my Mother-In-Law's arrangement I stumbled upon a "martini" themed arrangement.  That surely was up my alley. 

I had a bugger of a time looking for an extra large martini glass, without driving all over the state to find one.  I saw these large sangria glasses at Micheal's and figured this was my only option.  I bought two.  After that hurdle was accomplished I ran into another one, finding the flowers I wanted.  No one had plain white flowers at all, without breaking the bank account.  You see I was inspired by this arrangement. 

Well good thing I had a print out of other arrangement ideas. 

What I ended up making was a Peppermint Tini arrangement. 

I will say this arrangement was not an easy one. 

Flower Cake

We usually buy my Mother-In-Law some flowers for her birthday.  I didn't want to buy one of the usual bouquets.  I wanted something different.  So I did what I also do for inspiration, surf the internet.  I looked at the regular FTD, 1800Flowers, Telefora and found something I really liked.  It was a Flower Cake. 

I found a video on You Tube and thought it was very simple to do.  It was after driving all over creation to find some flowers that I liked.  Three seperate trips to two different florist is not cost effective.  I guess next year I will call a florist in advance with what I will need..

I used roughly 3 dozen white carnations (full size), 2 dozen mini dark cranberry carnations, 6 spider mums and one purple rose.  I made some cranberry organza ribbons to decorate the sides. 

This was a very easy arrangement to make.  I got a kick out of everyone's question - Can you eat it???  Me, not sure if you can eat these flowers but I wouldn't.  lol..

Black, White & Red Quilt

As you all should know by now I love the color combo black/white & whatever color for some punch.  Last year I made a hobo bag out of black/white/red fabric, which I have been hoarding the rest of since then.  I have been looking for more fabric to match and finally found some.  Yes, I had to stop myself.

Once I was happy with the fabric selection, I found the perfect pattern for the quilt.  Man, I sure do love simple easy quilt patterns.  This quilt pattern is from AllPeopleQuilt.com called High Light.   

One thing I have to say about simple easy patterns, you can spend a couple of hours cutting out the pieces and still have time to spend with the family.  While the guys went to a hunting/fishing expo this past Saturday, I spent the time cutting out the fabric.  When they got home the hubster and I watched the NFL games.  I worked on sewing the blocks together while everyone was at work/school.  This morning I worked on the borders.  Now I am at the point to sandwich it all together and bind it. 

Here is the quilt so far. 

I will post in a couple of days when I am done with it...