Projects!

So I thought I'd show a few pictures of some of the projects that have been keeping me busy as I prepare for our baby girl. The biggest task has been moving rooms around. We changed this room upstairs from what had been our bedroom into a nursery for the baby. We moved our room down to the first floor guest room (pictures to come). And we made the basement bedroom/bathroom into a guest room suite. I needed to get a few pieces of furniture for these changes which I was able to find on craigslist. I'll show how the boys room is set up and the guest room in later posts.
I have one more thing to do for this room -- a rug, which I have picked out and am just waiting to save up for -- It is a 6' round shag rug that matches the dark brown (see picture below).

We already had a second crib (garage sale find) and a changing table (that I pulled out of storage) but I wanted them to look like they matched so I re-painted them to match the trim and bottom part of the nursery. The quilt is mostly made by my talented mother-in-law who pieced the top together -- I picked the fabric and pattern out from Anna Marie Horner's cotton voile Little Folks line. Then at the Lake Nancy showed me how to put the backing and binding on. Then I had the most fun hand-quilting with this great chunky vari-colored perla yarn/thread. I adore this quilt -- IT turned out exactly how I hoped it would and fits with who I truly feel this little girl will be (without of course knowing at all (-:). But it definitely what I want for her -- beauty, variety, color, joy, richness...texture...celebration of being a girl!

We have a great Dutalier glider rocker in the boys room but I decided I didn't want to take it out of there yet -- I still regularly use it for Lincoln -- and when I had more of a lap, even for the other two boys. I'm not ready to take that away from them yet. So I found this one for $25 on craigslist. I had fun re-upholstering the cushions with fun flowers and piping (Oh I love piping!).

The dresser is a family heirloom I have used as my dresser since I was a tiny girl. It has a full-size bed that matches it that is in storage right now. But it makes me so happy to have it be my daughter's. And a connection to our farm and my family history. I made a reversible dresser "scarf" and filled the basket with very girl-y receiving blankets and mega-swaddling blankets my mom sewed up for me (Thank you, Mom!).

The pink shiny crown is from the baby's brothers -- Atticus & Dietrich picked it out at the fabric store and said their little sister needed a princess crown. I totally agree. The little bowl is a piece of ruby depression glass I found at savers for $1.50 (-: I filled it with baby girl hair clips -- which I know is ridiculous since she probably won't have hair for awhile anyway, but they were so irresistible.

Other projects at the Lake were to try my hand at sewing baby dresses without a pattern -- a first for me. This one is made from a pillow case. It reminds me of old-school class-y baby style.

This one I wanted to do smocking or shirring but didn't figure out how to do that until I came home and looked it up properly. So I just put two casings in with regular elastic. But seriously it has gingham and rick-rack.

An experiment for Leah's little girl.

Similar one for our little girl...

I found a tutorial on how to make neckties. Atticus & Dietrich found this fabric and asked to have their ties made out it. Hmm. Anyway, making ties is very tedious and I know why they cost what they do. But I also felt cool that I can make a necktie. If the infrastructure of society collapses and no ties are available to buy, my boys and man will still be able to be dressed nicely, right? Weird Sarah -- These are the kind of thoughts I have.

Atticus also found this fabric for $2 on a remnant shelf. He wanted to make a tote bag. So he used the sewing machine and made his. Dietrich tried but mostly watched sitting in my "lap" -- that was interesting since using a sewing machine while with someone sitting in your not-pregnant lap is a challenge and this time, well, it was ridiculous but made my little boy feel involved in the creating process, so totally worth the awkwardness. (-:

I love babylegs leg warmers but they are usually so expensive. So I found a blogsite that showed how to make them from knee socks. These socks are $2 a pair at Target right now. So I made a few fun striped ones just because I could.

And I finally made a decision on a living room/study/playroom rug. My first grown-up wool "real" rug I have ever purchased. I love it. And it will be great for the kids playing this winter. We've already spent more time playing games, etc. on the floor.

More pictures of other projects to come...unless our baby show up before I can take and post photos. (-: