Freezer Paper Stenciled Beach Chairs

We went to the beach last weekend and realized as we were packing up that we didn't have any chairs or a sun umbrella (to shade our baby's sensitive little skin). So as we were driving (in the drenching rain), we passed a Wal Mart and decided to wait out the storm and find some chairs. We found some great ones with backpack straps and a big storage pocket built in. They'll be perfect for our family trip to the beach in September. We ride bikes a couple of blocks to the beach and it's a hassle to carry chair, cooler and beach bag while riding. This will make it so much easier. They were only $20!

Imagine a beautiful beach and ocean where you see wall and ironing board...

You'll need freezer paper, some kind of drawing (you can print one out or free hand it-this is the Iskoola Pota font in Microsoft Word, size 440), an exacto knife, a cutting board or self-healing mat, fabric paint (I like tulip), foam brush and a small paint brush.

Tape your chosen design to the freezer paper (shiny side should be down), then tape the freezer paper to your cutting surface. You'll need to stabilize all the layers as you cut (taping or using your hands).

Measure your chosen area to help center your design. I used a couple of pins to keep my place as I transferred the whole chair to the ironing board...

I ended up having to fold the ironing board flat and kneel on the floor to deal deal with the awkward chair while I tried to iron. Always use a cover cloth when ironing on something synthetic like nylon. I had to give up on the border piece because it lost its "stickiness." Instead I used strips of scotch tape to create the border.

Try to make sure there aren't gaps between the stencil and the fabric, it was particularly difficult on this slick fabric.

Here's the stencil with tape border after painting.

The tape came off really cleanly, but you can see there are some blobs where my freezer paper stencil pulled away a bit.

Yuck, blobs... so I whipped out a little more fabric paint and a small, detail brush.

Much better, remember that when free-hand painting, less is usually more. Don't get carried away or you might end up with more painted area than you originally wanted.

I like it! It was a pretty easy upgrade. Here's my second attempt. It came out with no blobs and I

decided not to do the border.           

My Etsy Shop

I have one item posted on Etsy! More to come, but I'm just getting started. Two sellers added my item to their "favorites" list yesterday and I was very excited!

It's a boy romper made out of sweet, cotton seersucker. I made a row of pintucks along the neckline, it's nice to have little details like that on boy clothes. There is an optional single initial monogram on the fabric covered buttons, I think that would be really cute!

 I was really excited last week when my labels arrived! I'm really happy with the way they look! I'll post info on where I purchased them and the estimate process soon!

My Quilt

I love the look of quilts! Love, love, love. Here are a few quilt ideas that I'm stashing away for future home makeovers!

Real Simple

Pottery Barn

So fun and whimsical! I love those painted metal chairs and the industrial style hanging lights.

House Beautiful

That pop of bright orange is gorgeous!

These are all beautiful...however, I don't love the thought of cutting (precisely and accurately) for weeks, piecing for weeks, and then quilting for weeks before enjoying a finished product. Not too long ago, Sew Mama Sew posted this tutorial for a "Shoo Fly Quilt" using oversized quilt blocks by Malka Dubrawsky

Here is Malka's supersize "Shoo Fly" alongside her original "Shoo Fly" which is featured on the cover of her book Color Your Cloth.

Sooo...It was such a great tutorial and the giant squares seemed so non-threatening that I decided to give it a try! There is also the possibility that I'm in a new city without friends yet and have a good deal of time on my hands, but I'll leave that conversation for another day.

Malka's tutorial shows a crib sized quilt, but I wanted a large version. I cut 6.5 inch squares, combined them to make 18 inch blocks. Six rows of five blocks came together to form my 90 x 108 inch queen sized quilt.

As you can see, I sewed my bias tape on in the "cheating" way so it's not exactly perfect on the backside, but I was going for an easy, comfy quilt on my first attempt, so I'm happy with the results.

I chose six colored patterns-3 yellow and 3 blue, ranging from light to medium to dark in each color. I also used a solid, bright white muslin and an off-white cotton printed with faint blue, floral design for the background. Two of the blue patterns were my own designs, which I had printed at spoonflower.com. Since we're living in New Orleans I wanted to incorporate fleur de lis (they are absolutely iconic here and we see them all over the place) in at least one of the prints and since many of my choices turned out to be floral, I wanted a bold, geometric for the sixth fabric (the big squares). All of the other fabrics came from Hancocks.

I am a novice quilter. After trying to quilt several rows and making a mess of things, I pulled out the handy stitch ripper and took a new approach. I made tacking stitches at the corners of every block (about ever six inches) using a wide, very dense zig zag stitch.  It didn't take very long at all and I am very happy with how it looks. There aren't weird wrinkles and it feels light and soft. It would also be easy enough to take them out and quilt it all together if I ever learn how to do it or decide to pay someone to quilt it for me.

I'm wild about my quilt and sleep with it every night! It feels wonderful and isn't too warm or too cool. It makes me want to sew up a whole bunch more-I especially love the thought of lap quilts. Maybe Christmas?

Doodle Stitching!

I'm so excited! The items I ordered from Amazon came yesterday!

I was hooked when I saw the fanciful cover and there's something I just love about handstitched embroidery. I imagine it on baby shirts, sheets, pillowcases, pillows (projects that take a very long time to finish). The book is great! Lots of pictures, I love the author's color choices and ideas.

There are really good, clear explanations of all the different stitches with photos.

Here's a really original idea, stitching on balsa wood to make charms for bracelets or necklaces.

There's also a CD in the back with templates for embroidery ideas. With all these ideas, I started thinking about this little shirt I found for Baby P on clearance at Old Navy.

I thought it would be easy to outline a few things with embroidery thread, but where to start! The birds were easy, but I didn't know what to highlight on the dune buggy.

The tires seemed fun and maybe the main body of the car, but I thought that thick orange line on the left side brought out the wrong perspective and looked odd.

So...I took out some things and added some others, but still thought it was too much.

Here's what I ended up with, just a few things highlighted, a few drops of water on the surfboard and light reflecting on the windshield.

Not perfect, but interesting. I think it might be harder to embellish an existing design than to embroider something from scratch. It's too easy to accidentally highlight the wrong parts or overwhelm what's already there.

The other thing I ordered from Amazon is this 2 inch, Clover, bias tape maker. It's humongous! I can't even tell you how big it looks compared to my 1 inch. I can finally finish my quilt!

Here I am making tape out of white muslin for the edging on my quilt...many, many yards.