Pillow Talk- Final Quilt & Finished Bedroom

1)    Patchwork quilt

It took me a year but I’ve finally finished my patchwork quilt. It was the first project I undertook to make over our bedroom and the last thing to be finished.

I used this pattern, which was really easy to follow and nicely laid out with a ton of photos. I’d highly recommend it to others and I only went off the pattern twice.

I didn’t buy all my fabric at once; instead I bought multiple fat quarters here and there which resulted in some patches not being repeated throughout the quilt. I don’t mind this too much though because I think it looks more like a vintage quilt like the kind women used to make with scraps and old clothes.

I don’t think I really realized how much work I had to put in to this sucker. Cutting into squares, piecing them together, and resewing the pieces that I messed up. I cut some of the squares badly resulting in some of the squares not matching up.

I finally got the top finished in November, but I had to wait ages to buy the wadding (£40), the walking foot (£30) and then the back fabric (£50 for white fabric!!).

I really disliked the sandwiching process. All the flipping safety pins did my head in and I ran out half way through. I had to roll the whole thing back up and repeat the process with other pins. Note- I first bought fancy safety pins that were curved especially for quilting. When I ran out I bought super cheap normal pins for a fraction of the cost and they worked just as good as the expensive ones.

I CAN NOT sew straight lines to save my life. I quilted one side first and half way through I realized I was actually enjoying myself. I entertained myself with episodes of the Walking Dead and Molly Ringwald movies and got on with it.

I originally planned on using extra fabric to bind the quilt but on second decided to go with a solid blue. I wanted a dark blue, but on the day I went the shop didn’t have any so I settled for a light blue.

Here is where I went off pattern the first time. I absolutely refuse to hand stitch the binding. I absolutely hate hand stitching! I find it annoying and boring and bleck. Instead I watched many you tube videos on machine binding and it was pretty easy. I don’t mind have a top stitch on the binding and I actually think it goes with the quilt just fine.

The second time I went off pattern came at the end. When every thing was done I was supposed to stick it in the washing machine and then the dryer. Well, I wasn’t in the mood to take my hard work and wash it immediately so I decided I’d do this step when the quilt gets dirty. And besides, in the UK our washing machines are tiny and have really bad dryers built in.

All in all I’m super chuffed with my quilt and I’m really proud of myself. My mom’s first quilt still sits undone from when I was small. I think my grandma would be pleased with me even though she’d probably think I’m a heathen. Its okay, you can still use quilts in hell!

  

2)    Curtains

 

Before- with inherited curtains

I made these curtains myself without a pattern. I got the fabric on the sale table at the fabric shop and had it sitting under my bed for months. When I got my headboard and side table I decided it was time to get going on the curtains.

I laid the fabric next to the existing curtains that came with the flat and then I cut them out, did a basic hem and added the curtain stuff at top. I don’t know what it is called but it has a series of strings that you pull to give the nice pleated affect. All in all it took an hour to make then and they really cut out the light and since they were super thick they didn’t need to be lined.

3)    Embroidery and cross stitch

These are blogged about here.

  

4)    Side table

I am so kicking myself that I didn’t take a before picture of this side table. It was a hot mess when I found it at this charity shop in town. I bought it for £20 and spent about £5 fixing it up.

Before it was an faded white with a really disgusting mauve velvet underneath the glass on top. I had been looking for a nightstand and this, despite its state at the time, totally fit the bill. I wanted a concealed area where I could put extra books, magazines and my earplugs, which I’ve slept with every night since living in Edinburgh where empty lorries would barrel down the road to the brewery at 5 am everyday.

I dismantled the glass on top and took off the fabric revealing an unfinished top and then I painted the whole thing in a Habitat paint called mustard. It took two of the little pots of paints to cover the wicker, as it was difficult to get through all the layers.

While at Homebase buying my paint I looked for contact paper that I was going to use for the top under the glass, but its not that big in the UK. I ended up in the wallpaper aisle and I tore a small amount of wallpaper from the sample (they let you do this for free so you can take it home and see if it is right for the wall). It was also from the Habitat line so the colours matched perfectly. I do not feel guilty about doing this because people take loads of samples they don’t end up buying and the man who worked there said I could take as much as I wanted.

I ended up using the wallpaper on the top and on the back wall so that you can see it through the opening.

I kept the plastic rope trimming that originally covered where the nails secured the fabric. I almost tossed it out because it was spray painted a horrible gold colour but after giving it a wash and a coat of mustard paint it was good as new. I also kept the originally knob and coated it in the paint and let it hang upside down on a clothespin that had a suction cup attached.

I was really happy with how this project came out and I honestly think it was one of my best diy projects to date.

  

5)    Picture frames

While at Homebase I perused the sale rack and found some frames. They were an unfortunate burgundy colour and therefore super cheap. I took them home, sanded them and painted them in the same Mustard and threw some black and white prints I had in my huge print bin and viola- instant art.

The other frame holds a print from an English artist that Billy and I like and my darling husband surprised me on one of my weekends I worked. When I came home he bought two prints and painted the frames and they were hanging in our room.

  

6)    Bed Frame

While at the charity shop buying my side table I spotted this vintage wicker headboard hanging on the wall covered in the shop’s jewelry. I had already purchased my table when I caught site of the headboard and my jaw dropped. I had been looking for something like this FOR-EVER! I had intended on making my own headboard from this amazing (seriously this woman is incredibly inspiring) blog but had failed to source peg board, which is non-existent in UK home improvement stores.

But when I saw this I had to have it. The bad thing is my husband was not going to let me get two pieces at once despite my juvenile pleading. I think it was £20 but I can’t remember for sure. I knew that I would of paid more for it even though it was missing some pieces of spirals.

I spent the rest of my weekend on my side table and when Monday rolled around, my husband was sick of me whining about the headboard and he told be to go and get it if it was still there. Obviously it was, but the staff was none too happy to clear off all the jewelry to get to the head board. It was a bit of a disaster really.

I didn’t get to work on it till a few weeks later but I did try it out and it fits our bed frame perfectly! Honestly it fits like a glove. When I examined the head board more closely I realized it was really in bad shape. I went into my tool box and got out my wood glue and masking tape and went to work fixing spirals that were hanging on by a thread, breaking off pieces that didn’t have matching counterparts and using those to replace other missing pieces. It took awhile but the glue was super sturdy and the head board looks almost perfect.

I used a midnight blue I picked using a scrap piece of curtain fabric and it matches quite nicely. I am so happy with my head board!

Developing B&W Negatives

I finally purchased the chemicals I needed to develop black and white negatives. On Monday I processed a roll of 35 mm from a trip to Cambridge last year and two medium format rolls shot with my Hasselblad a few weekends ago in Felixstowe.

When I was a teenager, developing negatives was my least favorite part of hand development. The agitation with my old tanks used to do my head in but now I have better tanks and all, with darkroom gear super cheap these days, I have all the bells and whistles to make it a bit easier. And now with the stopwatch feature on my iPhone its a cinch. I'm even thinking about putting together a basic tutorial on how-to develop the negs for my photo blog.

You can see the rest on my photo website or on Flickr.

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Also, my quilt is nearing completion. I had to wait ages for my walking foot to come in at my local sewing shop and I ordered my wadding (or batting in the US) on line. Now all I need is my backing material and thread, which I'm hoping to pick up this weekend.

I think I am going to end up getting plain white backing material as I can't find any fabric used in the patchwork that is wide enough (or cheap enough) and I'm still not sure how I will bind it. Hopefully it will be done soon and I will have a lovely post for my neglected blog.

2012

This year started off with a round of redundancies at work, my husband unhappy with his job and lots of anxiety about not knowing what was going to happen.

This year ended pretty good. Both my husband and I got down to our goal weights (I lost twenty pounds!) though its shifted up a bit with all the Christmas food. Billy is happy with his job and no longer leaves a 6am and returns at 9pm as he did at his old job in London.

Here are the highlights of my year:

I stopped eatting meat for five months to make the most of our orgainic veg box and in the process started taking loads of vitamins that I still take. (That is always a new year's resolution that I forget to do). I'm now back to a carnavore.

In January we went to the Cotswolds to visit friends:

We took our annual May holiday in Copenhagen home to my great grandfather.

In July, Olympic fever took over and I got to follow the torch around England.

In August I got to fly over Suffolk in a helicopter which made a centre spread in my paper.

 In September we went home to Florida to see my family and had a few days to ourselves in Key West for our fourth wedding anniversary.

For Billy's birthday on December 23rd we went on the London Eye and ate Danish pancakes before meeting friends for bowling on Brick Lane.

It was a pretty good year and I hope next year is even better! Click here to see my work photos of the year.

Cross Stitch Project #2-5 / Embroidery Project #3

I've sorely neglected this blog in the last few months and now I have to play massive catch-up. I made these projects a few months ago and now they are hanging on my bedroom wall. My bedroom will be a post on its own as it is undergoing serious style refurbishment as it was also very neglected (see a theme here). I got bored with the cross stitching after awhile so I added in a little embroidered salsa lady that kind of reminds me of my sassy Mo'ma.

I really like embroidery but I feel like my cross stitch always looks better because I use the Aida fabric specifically made for the craft. I use left over fabric for embroidery (this one was a cotton sheet with fusible webbing to make it stronger) but I don't love it. I think if I bought linen I might like the results better.

I have red Aida fabric and was going to cross stitch some Christmas ornaments but I bought it off a roll and ended up getting the kind with smaller holes that are really hard to see and not very fun to work with so we'll see if I can handle it.

I 've also knitted myself a hat and a cowl, but that will wait for a future post. I am crocheting covers for stools we just bought to go with our new kitchen island. And lastly I finished the top of my quilt and have to wait until Christmas is over and I can afford the batting and back fabric.

So you see I haven't just been sitting here in the cold doing nothing!

One day to go! And Quilt Project #1

Only one day to go until FLORIDA!! I am so excited to be going home to see MoMa. It feels like I haven't had a holiday in ages but really its only been since May. Two glorious weeks in the sun sounds amazing now that the Autumn word has been bandied about around here. If I wasn't going home I'd feel absolutely cheated by not having a real summer.

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I've been working on a quilt for awhile (well I got this much done and it's been sitting in a pile in my living room waiting to be completed) and I'm really liking how its coming along. As its my first quilt I chose I simple patchwork design inspired by this quilt. I have loads of squares cut out already but I've been sneaking in cross stitch projects between the quilt as I can sit on the couch while Billy watches football.

This will be for our bedroom as it is the only room that we don't actually like. It is really small so much so that Billy as to walk sideways around his side of the bed and we never really got around to decorating it as we focussed on the rest of the flat. I chose yellow and blue because they are not overly feminine yet I could still through some pretty patterns into it.

I bought most of my fabric as fat quarters, which in hindsight may not of been the best idea because I ran out of some of the fabrics. I have since bought and cut different fabrics to try and add to the mix. I hope to have this finished pretty soon after I get back from holiday and then I have to make curtains. I found this pretty cool material that's navy and a yellowy gold and very nautical. I would also love to make a headboard in a yellowy-goldish like this one here.

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Well I'm off now to finish packing! See y'all later.

Three weeks to go...

Three agonisingly long weeks are the only thing between me and my holiday! I have had a serious case of holidayitis for the past month as I've longed for sandy beaches instead of the rocky shores of England. It's actually quite nice as summer is winding down here in the UK and I'll get to go home and have two glorious weeks with Moma and maybe even a visit from my favourite friend Arielle from Atlanta!!

Billy and I will celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary while we are there and we have booked a hotel in Key West for a few days. Key West is my favourite spot in the whole of Florida because its so laid back but quite like a mini New Orleans. I love Ernest Hemmingway's house and how you are so close to Cuba but you'd have to fly to Canada to get there and I love the carcass of the original Flagler bridge eerily shadowing the seven-mile bridge.  Oh and did I mention the Key Lime Pie. You can get it on a stick there! And to top it off we are hoping to book a convertible to drive down in.

I have been stocking up of Florida friendly clothes for months as I can't stand wearing certain fabrics in the heat. I wear a lot of jersey as it is really soft on sun burned skin. I have bought a fedora to keep my face out of the sun and I found this adorable one piece honeycombed swimming costume apparently designed by Bettie Page (who lived in Key West for awhile so it was quite suiting- yes that was a bad pun). I also picked up another pair Bensimon Elastique tennis shoes which are essentially an integral part of my summer wardrobe as they are really comfy and slip on quick for spur of the moment bike rides. And they were on sale!! Score.

I have a few skirts and dresses I've acquired at various Gap sales the past few months as well so I'm pretty set. I really wanted some nice flip flops instead of the cheap plastic Old Navy ones I always seem to end up with.

I am seriously beyond excited and Billy and I are in desperate need of down time. Hurry up holiday.

100th Post!!

100th Post!!:
Wow I can't believe I'm writing my 100th post!  It actually feels like it should be more when I look back through my posts from the past few year, which I have been doing the past couple of days.  I started this blog when I was in a haze of anxiety from a job that literally gave me nightmares and this blog was a way to channel the good things in my life and gave me something to focus on. I blame this blog and my eagerness to add posts about baking for gaining twenty odd pounds, which I'm just now getting rid of. But I also am grateful for this blog for the creative outlet it provides. I learned to bake for catharsis, I was inspired to rediscover sewing and to immerse myself in new crafts that I had never the time or ambition to take on.

Catching up:
I have a lot of things to post now since I've been adding up my finished crafts. I haven't cook many new recipes as the past two months at work have been chaotic with the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics and it's all I can do to whip up something quick. Billy has more time at home now that he isn't commuting into London everyday. We actually go for bike rides in the countryside after work now when he had been getting home at 8 or 9 o'clock at night only to wake back up for 5:30 at his last job. I'm still not eating meat, though I did have bacon for the first time a few weeks ago, which I thoroughly regretted. We still get our veg box weekly but now we get a smaller veg and additionally a small fruit supply that's quite refreshing in the summertime.

Summertime:
Speaking of summertime… On our afternoon bike rides in the English countryside I have been nostalgic for porches and lemonade. Its only now getting hot and it feels like summer is almost over and loads of blogs are already talking about Autumn!! NOOO NOT YET! I definitely think that summer is my favourite time of the year again (it ceased being my favourite season when i managed a firework store for many years whilst in my teens and I would work for two months straight without a day off for a meagre amount of money). But it really hasn't felt like summer. Its almost the end of July and I haven't gone strawberry picking yet and I'm reading the second in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series because I wanted to mindless summer book to get me in the mood! Billy and I are going home to Florida at the end of September, which also happens to coincide with our fourth wedding anniversary. This trip will extend our summer as its always hot in September in Florida though it is still technically hurricane season. I really just want to get a book, sip some sweet tea on the hammock in the shade of my momma's back yard. That is going to be summer for me.

Projects:

Here are some of the projects I've been working on. I crocheted a rug. Well I tried to crochet a rug. I tested out several patterns and they all start curling up when they get bigger. I wanted a really big rug but I had to stop because of the puckering. I used this pattern which looks great on a smaller rug as does most of the items Pickles create.

I have also grown a slew of herbs from seeds in the past few months. I was given seeds whilst on an assignment and I picked up a few other on my own. I have coriander, parsley, chives, dill and the plant shown is a chilli plant (which was actually in Billy's Xmas stocking that he never bothered to plant). I am also growing lettuce and have a Calamondin plant. This is the first time in my life I have grown something successfully!! I always say I have a black thumb instead of a green thumb due to all the foliage i have murdered in my life. I did the same science experiment every year in elementary school: Which one grows better: Marigolds grown in full sunlight or Marigolds grown in the dark. My Hypothesis: Marigolds need sun to create photosynthesis. (Seriously thats pretty much verbatim from what I did and needless to say it garnered me seriously average grades).

And lastly, the thing that made me giddy like a little girl: Billy bought me a darkroom!! I got a black and white enlarger with all the fixings and I am so incredibly eager to use it but alas chemicals are taking FOREVER to arrive. So until then my lovely darkroom kit is sitting in our spare bedroom. I am lucky that we have two bathrooms and the one we don't use often is large enough that we keep our bikes in there. There aren't any windows either so it will be really light tight. I set up my first darkroom in my house in Florida not long after my dad died and I would spend hours in there. I'd go in at 4pm and come out with sore eyes at 4am not knowing where the time went.

I think my 100th post may be my longest, but that's what happens when i put it off for ages!!

Sewing Project #13

I'm so excited this will be my third weekend off in a row! First it was because we were in Copenhagen, then last weekend I took off mainly because of the Queen's Jubilee. I am so sick of Union Jacks and everything to do with queenie.

Instead of working Billy and I went to a music festival in London called Field Day. It was an amazing line-up and I got to see Andrew Bird (swoon) and Beirut, and I found I really like The Savages, an all girl, intense quartet. Also the in-laws were in London so Sunday was spent entertaining.

Today is Billy's last day at his job at a law firm in London and next week he starts a job for the council so we are going into London tomorrow to do a celebratory wine tasting (Billy's birthday gift from December!), a good curry on Brick Lane and some record and vintage shopping. Yay.

With all that's been going on, I forgot to post a photo of a dress I made for Copenhagen. It's a simple pattern from Burda called Anda and some stripy fabric, but I used elastic at the waist instead of a drawstring. It was the first piece of clothing I've sewn in ages! I am being crafty now too. I'm crocheting a colourful rug and I am going to do my first quilt for our bedroom (more on that one later).

I'm really enjoying my quiet Friday night with some wine, Nina Simone and my crocheting until my husband gets home from his after work drinks!

We got back from Copenhagen yesterday with sunburned skin, full tummies and two souvenirs, a pen and a card. Copenhagen, or Kopenhavn as it is called in Denmark, is a city very similar to Amsterdam with bicycles outnumbering cars almost 3-1 but without the charming Dutch architecture (though it can be found here and there).

Copenhagen is also the birthplace of my great-grandfather Johan Petersen, or George Petersen as he changed it after immigrated to the US in 1900, who incidentally invented the Petersen flusher, which can be found in most toilets!

The highlights of our holiday were the Carlsberg brewery, the Vesterbro Music Festival and renting bikes and cycling across the city. Our hotel, the Axel, was pretty great as well. It was a completely organic operation and the only bad thing was the less than fluffy yet eco-friendly towels.

Vesterbro was an amazing neighborhood to stay in, only a block from the central station and really close to hip restaurants and the aforementioned music festival, which we just happened upon. It is also the Copenhagen’s red light district so there was an area called the Erotic Triangle with shady people.

I think if you had to go to Amsterdam or Copenhagen I would pick Amsterdam for its sheer beauty, but I definitely have a soft spot for Copenhagen now.

My new font

I'm really excited about my new font. I made it by printing a template, writing all my letters with my favorite pen, scanning it high-res, massively photoshopping and hours worth of scaling and sizing each character in font creating software. Was it worth it? YES!! Its pretty weird seeing your handwriting as a font. Its not quite the same as when I write because I connect most of my letters but its pretty darn close. I am using it as my header on my professional site and its nice knowing that no one else is using the same font. If anyone else whats to make their own, here's the tutorial I used. You do need basic photoshop skills and the font software.