Quilt Market in Pittsburgh

This is the view from the convention center of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as I looked across the Allegheny River toward the baseball stadium (Pittsburgh Pirates), near the hotel where we stayed. The Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers merge, not too far from this area, and form the Ohio River.

We experienced a little rain, and the resulting humidity, but it was pleasant enough and we found plenty of wonderful places to eat and shop. Not too far east of the convention center is what the locals call 'the strip.' On Saturday morning, it is very crowded, but I went up in the afternoon to do a little shopping. I found a great t-shirt for my baseball-crazy husband, and a nice little spice store which had amazing concoctions to smell, then buy. I picked up some Tandoori, something called 'Fox Point Seasoning' (for chicken or fish), and some fennel seeds. All smelled freshly ground--not like the stuff in the grocery store! I tried the Fox Point on our trout last night, and it was wonderful!

This was on the strip--a very charming dried floral and live potted plant store!

So, this is what Quilt Market looks like, from the glassed-in walkway above--or rather what about one fourth of it looks like. It's large, to say the least. I LOVED the convention center! No florescent lights! That is all natural light streaming into the building. Finally, an architect with brains. 

Here's the Riley Blake Halloween fabric--Their booth still had plenty of the 'Chevron' fabric, which I am a little tired of, but they do have a lot of cute things, and very imaginative fabrics. Did you know they are from Alpine, Utah? A lot of the new fabric designers are from Utah. 

There was a lot of raw-edge appliqué and I really do love it! The fabrics are usually kept in place by a sewable product like Heat 'n Bond or a good basting spray. The The free-form quilting keeps the appliqués in place permanently, and if you wash them, you have the additional perk of ragged edges. 

Now, just look at these little skirts with some soft ruffles of tulle.....

So many darling quilt patterns....

And look at this beautiful woman in this booth--she reminded me of a mermaid!

This wonderful fabric line were beautiful little scenes with kitties and farm animals.....

With a moo-moo here, and a quack-quack there....

 A lot of 'block-of-the-month quilts everywhere!

Wonderful graphic quilting!

There were a lot of cute embroidery pieces--that's still very popular!

These were mounted on foam core, then onto fabric-covered foam core to display them!

Cute little dollies...

Bright, pretty and easy!

More quilt happiness...

Space themed kids' quilts! So cute! 

Wonderful 'cheese-cloth' materials, specialty fabrics embellished and mounted for display!

This project utilized hand-dyed fabrics, embellishments, and machine quilting (echo quilting). You can certainly create your own brand of art work this way! 

Next time, we will see Vanessa's Moda booth, some of the things I made for Marcus Fabrics (and their booth), and the Quilt Market quilt display--from the best and most creative minds in the world!

Hope you enjoyed this little visit to Quilt Market!

Le Bain Acquires New Chandelier!!!

Yes, Christmas day was a red-letter day!!!! My daughter-in-law Carly lugged in a large box, and said, "Be careful--it's fragile." So, once we got everyone gathered in the living room, we all took our turns opening our gifts. Eventually, the big box came to me, and I carefully ripped off the paper and took a look! Voila! The RED chandelier emerged!

Now, I have to tell you that I had been looking for just the right chandelier for this little bathroom, which also has a wonderful soaking tub in the left side of the room....and the hunt had not been too successful. I was looking for something a little different!

Meanwhile, Carly knew what I was looking for--and she has enough panache to know a treasure when she finds it--so when she found the HOT PINK (Yes, that's right, hot pink!) chandelier, she knew that my chinese red cabinets (which I think you already know about from an earlier post) needed to have that color repeated in the little soaking tub room! Is this perfect!!!!! And my friend, Betsy said, "Oh, I have some extra crystals--real crystals--that will add greatly to this light fixture!" So, they are on their way, and will bling this up even more!

Carly used spray paint. Easy, yes? Now, just think of what you can do!!!!

Updating Bathroom Cabinets....and More!

Once upon a time, a couple found their 'dream home' which needed some loving care..... one of the things our heroine found was oak cabinets, stained a 'pink-ish' tone (probably from the era of mauve, back in the 90's).

Don't worry--the drawers aren't missing, I just removed them to repair them. A little Liquid Nails and wire nails are marvelous things for fixing drawers with loose bottom panels! I also used a sanding sponge to even out areas, remove drips and drabs of this and that. After I removed the drawer pulls, I took one of them with me to the hardware store, so the new pulls would be the right size. 

Additionally, I tried the new handle to see if the screws were the right size. They weren't--one was too short and the other was too long (the drawer pull package included two of each size). I used my Dremel tool to cut off the end of the longer screw to make it fit. Actually, I cut almost through the screw, then used pliers to bend the end back and forth until it popped off. If you don't have a Dremel tool, you can go back to the hardware store and find a screw that is exactly the right size, if you have the patience! 

 I found my new drawer pulls at Lowe's, but I bought the paint at Home Depot. I bought Behr's Premium Plus Ultra, which doesn't require a coat of primer. It's beautiful stuff. The color I bought for this bathroom is Stealth Jet. Now doesn't that sound interesting. It is a very dark grey, very sophisticated, and reminiscent of Restoration Hardware! 

It was a fairly quick job--it took me several hours, mostly waiting for paint to dry so I could do two coats! Voila!

Further updates in this bathroom will involve a plumber: New faucet and I'll add a big dark-framed mirror hung on top of the mirror!

The master bathroom started with the same pink-ish oak cabinets, but since you have already seen the bedroom update, with the Chinese red/tan/cream bedding against the pale robin-egg blue walls, you know that painting the cabinets dark grey isn't probably going to work well....but what color? I tried several cream and beige, and it was just blah! Remembering the old rule of thumb of repeating colors throughout the room or suite, it made sense to do them Chinese red!

The last little project wasn't in a bathroom, but it still belongs in the category of transforming something ordinary into something extraordinary! In my entry, I had a small table underneath a painting. It was brown and black, and I decided to Mod Podge aluminum foil onto it to give it a little more pizazz! I cut the squares into random sizes, 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" or so, then glued them in place, overlapping them and wrinkling them occasionally, to add texture. Once the whole thing was dry, I mixed some black acrylic paint into a gel medium, and 'antiqued' the surface, wiping some off to leave the color in the cracks and crevices.



The arrangement is one I created, and I found a wonderful large leaf in my collection of Razz decor items! The candles, shaped like pears, are from England, and the candle sticks are from Finland. The painting is my own.

How to Make a Cornice

Windows look very plain with just blinds, so I decided to make a cornice for this little window. It will be the first of a few changes to this bathroom. It involves two main steps--making the cornice box, and upholstering it:

First, go to your local lumber store, or to a construction site where you can beg for some scraps of 1/2" plywood. My friend Betsy actually found the wood for me--and talked the construction worker into cutting the wood the right sizes for me! Of course, Betsy could talk the hind leg off a mule, so I am sure this was no major feat for her. Of course, if you need to have all the measurements calculated before hand. Remember to include the 1/2" thickness in your calculations.

The sides were 4" x 12" and the front piece was 12" x 28," so the top was 4 1/2" x 28". I used Liquid Nails in my calking gun to adhere the sides to the front piece before I used finish nails to secure it. I did the same with the top piece. (I tried screws, but they started to split the plywood, so I opted for the nails instead.)

The next step will be to pad the box. I used Fairfield's wonderful Tru-Foam to pad the outside. I used 

a heavy-duty stapler to attach the foam--I thought about hot glue, but thought staples would be better. 

Once the outside is covered with Tru-Foam, it is then covered with a thin batting--I used Fairfield's bamboo batting. 

The fabric will be applied in the same way as the batting--but make sure you press the fabric to remove all the wrinkles! 

Center the cornice box onto the fabric, then start in the center at the bottom, overlap the fabric over the batting, and staple. 

Stretch the fabric slightly over the top of the box and staple. Go back and forth, working out from the center until the fabric is almost to the corners. 

Wrap the corners like you would a package, staple inside the cornice box. 

Prepare the lining by pressing under 1" of one long edge. This will go along the lower edge of the inside of the cornice. Put in place, and pin the fold on the lining to the main fabric and batting. Fold back and staple inside the folded edge.

Fold the lining upward, use your finger to crease the fabric at the top so you can trim it. 

Trim sides so you can fold under 1" and staple in place. Staple along top as well.

Just need to get a small L-bracket to attach to each side of the window. Hold the finished cornice up and have someone help you pencil the wall at the desired height. That will help you place the L-brackets. 

Hang the cornice on the brackets, and use a small screw on each side to secure the cornice to the L-bracket on the inside of the cornice.

Le Boudoir

I have collected fabrics for several years, hoping that when I had a permanent place to live, I could make the master bedroom into one I really loved. I started by painting the walls a pale robin-egg blue, and decided I would add taupe, cream, and cranberry red accents. As you can see, I got a pretty good start last week.

The 24" box-edge pillows are at the back of the bed, and are nice for reading in bed! I finished them with a very narrow piping, from a taupe/cream check. I decided to make two new sets of pillow cases, as well. First thing you need to do for pillowcase fabric is to wash and dry it! You don't want those finished cases shrinking after you wash them for the first time!

I found some beautiful batik fabric and used that for the front sets, trimmed with taupe/cream and a little folded edge of the red print. The second set are a brown/cream print, trimmed with a small brown/cream print, and a folded edge of red print.

Since the batik has a taupe flower design, I chose some wonderful pin-tucked taupe fabric, and covered medium-size cording with red fabric to trim the outside edge.

Now, I'm not really finished with the pillows, but will add more later. Of course you will get to see those, too!

I have a wonderful antique cupboard. I removed the glass door, and decided to store extra quilts and linens inside!

The beautiful lace and embroidered doilies that hang over the edge of the containers inside were made by my mother. There are a few other treasures, as well, including a little doll made in Poland, which was given to me back in the 1950's by my Aunt Emily. The antique quilt on the bottom was pieced by my paternal grandmother, and lovingly hand-quilted by my sister and mother, given to me as a wedding present. The little picture is a pen-and-ink drawing by my mother, depicting our childhood home. The little box on top belonged to my maternal grandmother.

I decided to add a pleat in the center of each side of the dust ruffle. I trimmed the bottom edge with a taupe/cream polka dot, for a little whimsy. The red buttons are covered and stitched to hold the bottom of the pleat open.

I love the little wrought-iron table, and thought it a perfect place to showcase my painting of Adam and Eve. This is the moment Eve has consumed the apple and is letting Adam finish his nap before she tells him what she has done. Every woman knows what she is thinking at this moment!!!

How I love toile! I have been saving this piece to cover the pad on this little wrought-iron bench. It was pretty easy. I stitched a zipper into the back side piece, then made some tiny piping (tan/cream check again), and stitched it together! The bench used to be cream--I made a bad mistake in painting it black--now I'm going to have to make it cream again! It will have pillows soon, as well! Something left to do another time!

I found this wonderful little towel hanger a few years ago. I loved the look of the old spigots and thought this would be perfect in my bathroom. The print was a purchase I made when I visited London many years ago.

And here is the towel holder in the soaking-tub room. I do love that shabby chic look! I'll give you a peek at the tub soon....I have some hand-painting I am doing above the tub.

I hope you have enjoyed this peek into 'la boudoir.' It's one of my favorite places in the house!