Me Likey

I am looking out for a chest of drawers from Dorothy Draper but they are so expensive (between US$1,400 and $16,000) and I was wondering if there was a way for me to create one on my own. Her pieces are so rare and I feel envious when people write on blog posts how they pick it up at garage sales for $50 or something unbelievable!

 This one is available from a cool shop in DC called Sixteen Fifty Nine.

This one is probably more tame in colour but it comes in pink, orange...I love it, love it, want it! Hope I find it at a flea market!

My Christmas Quilt

I seriously don't know if this will be in time for Christmas because embroidering it has taken me such a long time.

I wanted to do a redwork quilt for some time and had some Christmas fabric leftover so this was what I worked on. The pattern is not mine, it was from an Australian Quilt magazine I bought back in the 1990s (yes I keep all my quilt magazines!) but I changed the redwork pictures because some of them were a little bit strange looking.

More to come later! I am in the process of basting the quilt (I do it the old fashioned way, sticking it to the floor and running large stitches through the sandwiched quilt.)

Hans Olsen Table

I know this is a Craft blog but in a way, furniture making is a craft in itself and I love furniture, especially when they are not mass produced and hand made. When we first moved from Singapore to the USA, we needed a dining table but I was disappointed by all the MDF and veneered top stuff we were finding in the stores. There is a chap in DC who makes great furniture called Thos Moser and his furniture is like poetry.

Through daily reading of Apartment Therapy, I became influenced and started liking Mid Century Modern furniture, especially those by Danish/Scandinavian furniture makers.  We were particularly taken with a table by Hans Olsen and were prepared to buy it - but it would have cost us a lot of moolah as the seller was going to ship it by air. The seller was based in Denmark.

Then one day, while scouting around in ebay, we saw the same table and chairs by Hans Olsen and it was at a ridiculously good price and even though we already bought a teak dining table via Craiglist, I knew we just had to have it. We won the auction and now it is sitting in our basement, away from the children's harmful hands, ha ha ha. When we move into a better place, we will be able to place it in the right room.

Here are photos of it...

The table is round.

It can extend out to seat 6 people. That is not Matt's hand by the way. It is the seller's.

The chairs slide and fit perfectly under the table.

Look at this joinery. What an amazing work. No nails.

The six chairs.

The chair has only three legs.

We love it! It is a keeper! I said it to the boys, that it will be theirs when we get too old and we need to downside. So Cameron asks if he could photocopy it since he knows they won't be able to share it!

This is the one from Denmark that we let go. I prefer ours more because of the three legs!

Lonny Magazine

Through other blogs, I came across this great online magazine, Lonny Magazine and they just released their second issue. It is such a neat magazine, I had to blog about it in this blog and my other one so that you do not miss it! Here is the link. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

I Need A Blog Makeover!

I am entering into a giveaway - a chance to win a blog makeover here by Bloggy Blog Designz - I hope I win. I am so bad at making my blog look nicer, I am also hopeless when it comes to the simple things like formatting paragraphs and such.

Enter it for a chance to win!

Fleece Blanket.

Ok, I have been so busy lately, but still found the time to make a fleece blanket for Cameron. James' one is coming up next.

I went to the Black Friday sales - to Joann's the fabric and craft shop, where else, LOL? I spent the whole morning there after church, I skipped lunch and just wanted to buy the right things, not to overspend (if that is possible, me in a fabric shop!)

The quilt fabric was already priced at $3.99 and then there was another $1 off.  Notions were all at 50% off and because I started quilting again, I found out that my huge cutting board was warped from the trip from Singapore to here. I bought the biggest one priced at US$49 and got it for $24.50. Ace man, ace!

As I was done, I queued up at the cutting counter when two ladies, a mum and her teenage daughter had bales and bales of fleeced stacked up in their trolley. They had with them a snuggly blanket and it looked so cute. They were talking loudly about how much to price it at to sell to people and she said something like "$30". It was so cute that I wanted to buy it from them but then I stopped short and took a good look at it to see if I could make it myself. Fleece was on sale, slashed from $9.99 to $2.99.

I then thought, there must be an article on the internet that teaches you how to make fleece blankets and I was right!

I bought these and got down to work.

For James as he loves space

For Cameron.

First, I placed the two fabrics, wrong sides together. Then I trim the edges so that they are all the same. I used 2 yards but now I think I should have bought 2.5 yards because my kids are tall.

Then I trim off the corners. I used about 4" for the side against the grain and 5" for along the grain.

Then I cut the fringes an inch apart. They are then tied into double knots to secure them. Repeat all until the very end and voila! Nice and warm blanket. I used it last night as the boys found it too hot.

Top of the blanket.

Reverse side of the blanket. Note, the room is very sparse, like the rest of our house. My reasoning is that we are going to move out in a year and don't really want to hang things up the walls and fix it up after we leave.

Cam pleased with his new blanket. Actually, he was a little cross because I stopped him mid-play to make him take the photo!

Total cost $12. Not bad, eh? Now to start on James' blanket!