So, I'm working on about 4 baby quilts right now for friends, etc who all decided to have babies around the same time... for one, I'm doing a Dr. Seuss-themed quilt, and wanted to do this blog post about it while it is still in progress to get some ideas...
It turns out that Dr. Seuss fabric is NOT easy to find. Apparently Dr. Seuss was real stingy with the licensing for products, etc. After searching through many fabric stores (complete dead-ends), yard sales, e-bay, etc, I located sheets from Pottery Barn Kids (thanks to Mandy's mom for the tip) - click here to see them. So from this bedding fabric, I cut squares out so that each different character is in its own square. The difficulty is that the layout was somewhat erratic, and the characters are all different sizes, resulting in various sizes of the squares. So I'm thinking of a couple of different options here - either piecing together the squares with various sized colored fabrics to make uniform sized squares, and then piecing those together to make the quilt top, or simply bordering each square and piecing them together somewhat erratically in a more funky pattern for the quilt top, rather than a structured, predictable look. Thoughts?
The other problem is the choice of fabric colors. I'd like to use two or three colors, and either solids or a small pattern. As you can see if you click on the link, the fabric is white with the brightly colored characters printed on it. There are so many different colors, and I'm not sure what would be the best way to go for a fabric choice? Any ideas???
Right now, the squares are spread out across a towel in my living room, so I can look at them and hopefully be inspired. Any thoughts or ideas from ya'll would be helpful!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Bookshelves and Drawer Unit
A couple of months ago, I started the process of re-doing some of the stuff in my office. In case you haven't seen it, the office itself has one red wall, and three off-white walls. I'm working with a chromatic scheme of red, white and black using those three colors repeated throughout the office, but with multiple patterns. So far, it is working well. The first project I undertook for this makeover was redoing my old, boring bookshelves. Unfortunately, I don't have a "before" picture, but basically they were plain, old and worn-out looking, and an ugly beige color.
Here's the "after" picture of the shelves themselves:
For the shelves and sides:
I removed all of the shelves from the two bookcases. I used a white paint (leftover from another furniture painting project) from Home Depot, and painted the frame (sides, bottom, top, etc) and the shelves themselves with two coats of paint. The paint on the frame will need to be dry before you apply the paper (see below) so you may want to do that part before the shelves.
For the back of the shelves:
I bought two large rolls of printed red, black and white wrapping paper. These rolls came from Hallmark and were part of the (RED) collection. Then I purchased a can of spray-on adhesive from the local hardware store. Attaching the paper to the inside of the bookcase was a two-person job, and cannot be done until the paint is dry. It was difficult to measure out the length of paper before we were ready to apply it because it was self-stick paper, but if you were using regular paper you should be able to measure first. What we did was spray the adhesive onto the inside back panel of the case, then starting from the top, carefully apply the paper. One person made sure it was lined up correctly and smoothed it out and the other person unrolled the paper as we went. When we got to the bottom, we smoothed it all the way into the bottom corner, and then used a knife to cut straight across.
Close up of the paper:
After the requisite time for the adhesive to dry, we made sure the shelves were dry and then we put it all back together.
I also repainted a small, simple three-drawer unit I had from IKEA. I've had this for years, and it was living inside my closet at home, but once I discovered it was the same depth as my shelves, I decided I wanted to use it at the office. Previously, it was a bare-wood pine dresser. Here is an "after" picture:
For the outside of the drawers:
First I took each of the drawers completely out, and painted the base/frame red, using leftover red paint in the same color as the wall in my office. I then painted the fronts and sides of the three drawers.
For the insides of the drawers:
I used the leftover paper from the bookshelf project to make a liner. I measured and cut each piece to fit the bottom and sides of the inside of the drawers and used the spray adhesive to attach the liner.
For the knobs:
Each knob was first painted white, and then I used a small rounded paint brush to make a dot-flower pattern sporadically on the knobs in red and black. Here is a close-up of the knobs.
Once the three pieces were done, I arranged them with the drawers in between the two shelves. On top of the drawers, I used alternating white with red, black and white patterned magazine holders I purchased at IKEA. On the wall above this, I hung a wall unit I bought from Pottery Barn (part of their "Daily System" collection), that goes with other wall hangings elsewhere in the office. On the shelves, I am using various red, black and white organizers / storage tools, including cute black suitcases and red baskets I got from www.landofnod.com, and more of the magazine holders.
Here it all is together:
Here's the "after" picture of the shelves themselves:
For the shelves and sides:
I removed all of the shelves from the two bookcases. I used a white paint (leftover from another furniture painting project) from Home Depot, and painted the frame (sides, bottom, top, etc) and the shelves themselves with two coats of paint. The paint on the frame will need to be dry before you apply the paper (see below) so you may want to do that part before the shelves.
For the back of the shelves:
I bought two large rolls of printed red, black and white wrapping paper. These rolls came from Hallmark and were part of the (RED) collection. Then I purchased a can of spray-on adhesive from the local hardware store. Attaching the paper to the inside of the bookcase was a two-person job, and cannot be done until the paint is dry. It was difficult to measure out the length of paper before we were ready to apply it because it was self-stick paper, but if you were using regular paper you should be able to measure first. What we did was spray the adhesive onto the inside back panel of the case, then starting from the top, carefully apply the paper. One person made sure it was lined up correctly and smoothed it out and the other person unrolled the paper as we went. When we got to the bottom, we smoothed it all the way into the bottom corner, and then used a knife to cut straight across.
Close up of the paper:
After the requisite time for the adhesive to dry, we made sure the shelves were dry and then we put it all back together.
I also repainted a small, simple three-drawer unit I had from IKEA. I've had this for years, and it was living inside my closet at home, but once I discovered it was the same depth as my shelves, I decided I wanted to use it at the office. Previously, it was a bare-wood pine dresser. Here is an "after" picture:
For the outside of the drawers:
First I took each of the drawers completely out, and painted the base/frame red, using leftover red paint in the same color as the wall in my office. I then painted the fronts and sides of the three drawers.
For the insides of the drawers:
I used the leftover paper from the bookshelf project to make a liner. I measured and cut each piece to fit the bottom and sides of the inside of the drawers and used the spray adhesive to attach the liner.
For the knobs:
Each knob was first painted white, and then I used a small rounded paint brush to make a dot-flower pattern sporadically on the knobs in red and black. Here is a close-up of the knobs.
Once the three pieces were done, I arranged them with the drawers in between the two shelves. On top of the drawers, I used alternating white with red, black and white patterned magazine holders I purchased at IKEA. On the wall above this, I hung a wall unit I bought from Pottery Barn (part of their "Daily System" collection), that goes with other wall hangings elsewhere in the office. On the shelves, I am using various red, black and white organizers / storage tools, including cute black suitcases and red baskets I got from www.landofnod.com, and more of the magazine holders.
Here it all is together:
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