planning ahead....

This is the store bought wedding ring quilt I have on my bed now.  I'm thinking of replacing it with a red and white quilt.... I've found so many I like, it'll be tough to narrow it down to one favorite! 

Do you have a favorite red and white quilt you've seen online or in person?

a border

You know when you get an idea for a project and you just have to do it right then, no matter what else you have going on?  That's what happened yesterday.  Mid packing for kids, getting gear ready for my weekend, cleaning the whole house, getting laundry cleaned, dried, folded and - here's the hard part - put away, I woke up with an itch to start something to do with this border so I could feel as if I worked on something creative this month.  

After dragging out the bin, box and machine I though I'd try a rainbow border on my Olive quilt.  I have 2 1/2 inch strips of all the colors I put in the 9 patches, plus a few extras that didn't make the initial cut.  Here's a grouping of color shades.

  

 

Stitched them together into strips of 4.  

Cut 2 inch strips from these.

I added another 2 inch strip of white around the entire quilt.  I didn't really like the look of the colors directly against the block I did previously.

and here's the general layout.  

I think one more strip of white around the edges before trying to figure out a binding.

Now, I think I'll travel with the colors and the white up to the corner but I don't want to miter them.  I'd like to find something super extra fussy to do as a corner piece.   

Any suggestions?

so close and yet so far....

Almost to the end of the school year.  Almost to the time where I have a **little** time to myself. 

Hope to get back to the quilt once June rolls around!

Door knob coat hanger (and bonus shelf)

 

A few dozen years ago, I went to an auction with some friends of mine.   They were looking for political memorabilia but I was just looking.   The auction came up for a tomato bushel basket filled with these doorknobs and locks with the section of the door still attached.   So I bid and I got them.  

  The first thing I made with them is this hanging shelf above my claw-foot tub in the downstairs bathroom.  I put this together in the same way as I will describe in the next few photos.  The board came off the front porch when I replaced a few damaged sections.   The paint was there.  I sealed it with 2 coats clear exterior poly to keep the paint there, and to protect the board from wet hanging towels.

First I took the door knobs apart and away from the lock sets.  They just unscrewed under the ceramic knob with a small flat head screw.

                              

  I found a wooden dowel that fit into the base of the doorknob.  Then I drilled a hole into the wood where I wanted the knob to go. 

 Cut a short piece of dowel rod and pound it into the hole with a hammer.

Add a drop of wood glue and slip the knob onto the dowel.

paint

Hang finished panels.  This is the corner of my back porch.  I needed a spot to hang longer coats.  

Instant coat hanger.   

Assembly time - 10 minutes.       Drying time - 2 hours.       Hanging time - 5 minutes.