February Projects

Winter is a good time for working on sewing and craft projects as I'm not tempted to go out and work in the garden. We still have a good snow cover. Here's what I've been up to lately.

A small project:
A winter garland to decorate our shelf.
A large project:
Sewing squares for a summer quilt for our bedroom. I've never made a bed-sized quilt before. It takes more perseverance to do the same squares repeatedly. I used blues, greens and purples from my stash for the center strips. I wasn't sure until I laid the squares out on the floor whether I was going to do them in straight rows or at an angle. I decided I like the angle better. Now I'm sewing them into long strips to put all the squares together.
Good thing there is at least another month before the garden will be calling outside. I hope to get the quilt to the point where I can work on quilting it at night.

Snow Day

Though I'm no longer teaching, I still get a thrill from a snow day. This morning I watched the birds fight at the feeder for the prime spots. The evening grosbeaks were there first.
But later, a large hairy woodpecker came and kept others at bay with its long beak. I watched the snow drift build up at the back door. Here it is around 11 am. And later in the afternoon. The layers are so even and interesting.
It's hard to know how much snow we got. I measured a range of 12 to 18" depending on the spot. The wind was moving so much of it around. It shaped the snow on my car to make it look like a Prius.

I did snow day things like bake pumpkin bread, and I finished my Christmas tree skirt. It was done except the binding before Christmas and since we've returned I've been working on the binding so I can put it away finished for next year. And of course I shoveled snow. I need to make sure there was a parking space for Matt when he came home. I left the snow drift at the back door for him to shovel, so photos of the garden in its deep blanket of snow will have to wait until tomorrow.

New Coat Rack

When we cleaned out the attic in late October to prepare for insulating, we found this interesting drawer. It had no bottom to it, nor any pulls but the crackled paint on the front seemed very interesting.
I'd seen a coat rack in the Gardener's Supply Catalog that was made from recycled wood and so it gave me the idea to make this interesting drawer front into a new coat rack.

First I tore the rest of the drawer off, and then glued the crack in the front to make it stronger. Then I put one coat of polyurethane on it to protect the beauty of the paint. I bought some simple trim and painted it white. But when I set it next to the drawer front, it was too stark. So I did a second coat of a brown, and then wiped it with a rag to give it a textured appearance.
With the pieces ready to go, I handed off the project to my husband and my dad who was in town for Thanksgiving. They mitered the corners of the trim and tacked it on. They also set in places where the screws to the wall would go. Then the hooks were put over the screws so you don't seem them when it is hung.
We hung it in the front hall. Now we have more places for coats when friends and family come to visit. And I think mine looks better than the one in the Gardener's Supply Catalog!

Jean & Corduroy Quilt

When I picked the name for this blog, I choose greens for the gardening and jeans for the crafts because I like to make things out of jeans. It seems like there has been more greens than jeans and in fact, few crafts made of jeans at all. This quilt remedies that.

It's for my cousin Lucy and her husband Keith for their wedding today. It is made re-used corduroy and jean pants. Each square is made from a center of corduroy, surrounded by strips of jeans sewn on log cabin style. When I laid out all the squares, I put the corduroy colors in a diagonal pattern.I also turned the squares to be facing different directions so not all the short or long sides would be facing the same way. I tied the quilt with a cotton yarn in the middle of each square.
I used the gray corduroy to make a border around the squares and then did another border of strips of jeans. I bound it with a charcoal gray fabric and backed it with a fun green print to brighten it up.
It measures 55" by 73".

One thing I love about jean quilts is the weight they have when you are under them. There is something very comforting about that.
I enjoyed making this quilt and it reminds me a lot of the last one I made with jeans. It also inspires me to maybe make a queen size jean quilt for the bed for winter. It would be a big project but it would be nice and warm. We'll see if I act on that inspiration or not. I still have curtains that need to be sewn.

Grape Vine Wreath

Our green grape vine on the front fence was getting out of control. It was making it hard to open the gate so I took the clippers to some of the longer pieces that were encroaching on the hydrangea and other flowers.

I let the pieces dry for a day to make stripping the leaves off easier. Once I stripped the leaves I made them into three piles based on size. The shortest were about a foot and the longest were closer to 3 or 4 feet.
I started with one of the longest pieces of vine and formed it into a rough circle, wrapping the ends together.
I slowly added other pieces of vine, wrapping both clockwise and counter clockwise.
I decided that I wanted a substantial wreath and that I have plenty of supply for the future, so I used all the vine for one wreath. When I had wrapped the large and medium pieces, I used the short pieces to wrap more around the tube of the wreath, tucking in ends to secure them.

Now it is hanging to dry on the back deck and then it will make a good base for fall decorations.