Ambitious Sewing for a (sort of) newbie: Triangle Quilt

Since I first saw this triangle baby blanket on See Kate Sew’s blog (pattern and tutorial on link), I’ve been in love. Me, a person who has never quilted in my life, decided I wanted to give this pattern a try. And not on a baby blanket, nooooo. The overachiever here, decided that she would use the triangle pattern from Kate to make herself a new duvet cover (scroll down for what the covers looked like before).

And let me tell you, it was quite the process. I cut 455 triangles in 6 different colors (9 yards of fabric total for all the triangles). I then attached all of those triangles into 12 rows, so then I had enough fabric to cut to the size I needed… which I miscalculated (how? how? I measured FOUR times) and ended up with a cover a little bit on the smaller side (bummer), but by then I had it cut already, so it was too late, and, let’s face it, it still looks quite awesome. To finish it off, I got that sweet penguin pillow cover from West Elm, another brown pillow I already had, and made two very simple covers for the bigger pillows. Ta-da! Quilt done. I love it, and every time I look at it, it warms my heart.

I have a few more pictures to share of the process and the details. This was so huge, it would completely cover me and my sewing desk while I was stichting it together! FUN!

And did you notice the cute little embroidered detail? I was planning on just signing my name and Michael signing his on a triangle, but a friend at work suggested embroidery and I loved the idea! So I asked Twitter, and Twitter answered: a friend of a friend, (who was also actually my friend too, just not on Twitter!) did embroidery, and she helped me out with this cute little triangle as our quilt’s “signature.” I involved Mike in the process of constructing this, he helped me choose the colors and fabric. I wanted to make sure this was something we’d both love.

The artist that helped me with the embroidery is Sara M.K. Neal, and you might now her from her blog Sara Victorious.

And check out the progress of my bedroom! Still not finished, maybe it never will, but I love it how it is now.

I shared a few of my progress pictures for this room. I still feel like it needs a bit more art on the wall, which I already have, but need to get some matting cut for it. But I love my crazy quilt, and how much color it added to the room! And I love all the different rugs I got. I love the laminate floor (carpets suck!), but it gets really cold in the winter, so it’s so nice to have those little rugs spread everywhere.

Credits:
All Furniture/Curtains: Ikea
Furry rugs: Amazon
Floral rug: Urban Outfitters
Penguin Pillow: West Elm
Wall Art: Photo by me, from a DC trip; frame bought at Michaels

A Tour of Our House

A house is a permanent work in progress, right? As I write this post to update family and friends on what our house looks like now (my last post on the subject was a mere week after we had moved into this place, click to compare the difference before and now!), I’m already thinking that it’s time to give the bedroom a new coat of paint, and that I may attempt to paint that room myself in the summer. But right now, we’re on a place that I really love with our house decor. So I snapped some pictures of the house this weekend, to share with you some of my favorite corners in it.

The basement is rarely this neat. And it’s intentional. The basement is our place to relax and watch tv under the blankets, so most of the time, this room is a complete mess. Right next to our tv room, there’s an alcove where I set up my office. Mike has his own office around here as well, but it’s not pictured because mine is cuter. I just got a big cutting mat (the green thing on the desk), and the only place it fit nicely was on this desk. So I do my sewing upstairs, where it’s brighter, and my cutting downstairs where I have space. It’s good though, I get some extra exercise going up and down the stairs.

Our small dining room has this little shelf and mirror, and it used to be pretty empty. But recently I decided to decorate it with some of my broken cameras, and my dad’s old lenses that actually still work, but I don’t take them out with me as often. I spray painted those tiny dinosaurs gold, and they now stand guard among those giant cameras. Behind them, I have a few framed stamps from my small collection. On the other side of the shelf, it’s Mike’s coffee bar, with a bunch of different types of coffee and a grinder. And no, your eyes are not fooling you, it is THE cookie monster sitting at our table.

Upstairs is our bedroom and a loft, where I have all my sewing things. It used to be just a space that I didn’t know what to do with, and mostly only used it when I needed to sort the laundry, but now it is my happy place.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Christmas time!

Confession? I decorated my home for Christmas the first weekend after Halloween. My goal for that weekend was to organize and clean, but I ended up decorating it as well (easiest way for me to keep the house organized too, because it looks so pretty). And I’ve been saving those photos to publish now, that is basically Thanksgiving, a.k.a. the time of the year you can decorate your house for Christmas and not be considered “too soon.” Of couse I ruined that by telling you I decorated a month ago!

I thought about having a theme, but all I managed was to match all colors. The scheme is bright: pink, green, blue, and silver… I quite love it, and the ornaments I bought ended up matching perfectly. I didn’t mean to end up with a Disney-themed tree, but well, it kind of happened. It looks beautiful though, so I guess if I had to guess what theme my decor is, would be a Disney candy shop I guess! Here are some more pictures:

In search of the perfect Throw Pillows – Buy or DIY?

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Mike and I moved into our house about a year ago, and I still in the process of slowly decorating it. I’ve had this plan for the bedroom for more than a few months already, but have not gave the finishing touches on it yet. I wanted one or two very graphical black and white throw pillows for the bed. I like how the ones above look, and I’m thinking I could buy them (all from Etsy and all reasonably priced) or make them. I made two throw pillows for a friend, and they looked awesome! I think I could make something like one of those happen, but do I want to? Well, probably, but will I have time? And find the right fabric? Those are more important questions.

The pillows in the pictures below are also good options. The bedroom is basically white, brown, and tiffany blue (somewhat similar to picture #3). So those would look pretty too, and I probably can’t DIY them myself.

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