Extreme Makeover - Crafting Nook Edition

You might want to go refill your coffee and make a sandwich, because this is going to be One Huge Post.  Today's Show N Tell is the kind you'd get in trouble for in Kindergarten, because hogging the spotlight isn't fair to others.

But...today is my BIRTHDAY so I am gonna take up the entire 20 minutes anyway.

First, today's post is dedicated to my wonderful husband of 13 years.  He is all sorts of awesome.  Mostly because he does 90% of the cooking around here and doesn't complain about my crafting mess or mild OCD traits.   He's also an amazingly creative man, and for my birthday, he built me a new sewing/crafting area.  Really, he did.    And I looveee it!

He installed this a couple of weeks ago, and I've been just bursting at the seams to share it with you all.  I've been using all my spare time to sort, organize, and move in to the new space.   I have not finished going through the sewing books and magazines, but there is a shelf all ready for them in the right side cabinet there.

I get all giddy just looking at it!  It's so refreshing to have everything organized.  I've been sewing some things for the new space, too.  Now that my sewing machine and serger get to sit out all the time, I thought they might want some covers.  (It also keeps the cat from chewing the threads which he loves to do.)

See it?  Look close.

I made quilt block letters, stitched them together and quilted it, then quilted panels for the backs and sides.  The whole thing is easily assembled with a little precise measuring and bias binding.  I forgot to take a picture of the backsides!  They've got some crazy fabric goin' on.  But the fronts are the best.

A co-worker (Hi Carole!) gave me an old cork board she no longer needed.  A boring old brown board just wouldn't suit, so I painted the frame a pretty blue, then attached a piece of fabric to it with the old-fashioned style flat thumb tacks.    Now I have a place to hang those little inspirational bits that get torn out of magazines, or design ideas that get scribbled on restaurant napkins.

The kids liked this idea so much, that we did the same to the cork boards in their bedrooms.  My daughter now has a lovely geometric flowered design on hers, and my son is sporting Batman comics on his.  Its a very easy, no-sew project.

Oh, remember the Blooming Flower Cushion I took apart last week?  Well, it had a crocheted backside, which was re-purposed into a topper for the little stool I sit on when sewing.  Look how bright and cheerful a boring black folding stool can be!

Ok, moving on then.  You might be asking yourself where all this crafting paraphernalia was housed before the grand makeover here?  Believe it or not, I was working out of a dresser (with a topper, so it wasn't all that bad)  Here's the old space:

That front panel is hinged and comes down. That's where the sewing machine used to sit, and that's where I'd make all the things.

This dresser has been painted about 45 times.  Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration, but this dresser does have a long history.  My mother bought it years ago from a garage sale, and painted it in 1970's colors for my brother's bedroom when he was a baby.  Later it was painted again and used in another room in the house.  Eventually it was repainted white and used in HER crafting/sewing nook.  Some time after that it was painted taupe (ack!) and hauled around to craft shows as a display piece.  When I grew up and moved out, it came with me and I used it as a dresser in the spare room.  When my daughter was born, I painted it purple to match her nursery.  Three years after that it was painted to the colors you see here and used in my son's nursery, then later as MY crafting/sewing nook.  And now, it has undergone yet another transformation, and is now my daughter's desk.

She loves to play school, and this is the perfect piece for that.  All her "teacher things" are organized and she folds everything up at the end of the day.

Some families hand down antiques.  We hand down garage-sale dressers.  I wonder what form this dresser will take in the coming years?  Maybe it'll go off to college with one of my children someday.  Maybe it will be in a grand-baby's nursery.  Maybe it'll even end up in another garage sale looking for a new home.  Who knows.

In other news, my son was with me in Jo Ann Fabrics over the weekend, and he saw this world map fabric panel.  He really enjoys geography and reading about the world in his National Geographic Junior Atlas, so I caved and bought the fabric.  Plus, I had a 50% off coupon.  ;-)

My daughter was equally delighted when she saw it, and she declared that we must quilt it!  The printed latitude and longitude lines really do make for logical quilting.  I agreed.  Lucky for us,  a co-worker friend had given me a substantial amount of yellow fabric that she no longer needed (Hello again, Carole!) and the yellow matched perfectly with the United States and other assorted countries.  I finished the edges with a bit of quilt binding leftover from another project, and voila...Map Quilt.

The whole thing took about three hours, so this would make a quick and easy gift idea for a child.  Pair it with a geography book and it would be a big hit, at least with kids like mine.  The panel is exactly the right size for a twin bed topper.

Ok, Show N Tell time is up no doubt.  Next post I hope to be finished with the tunic sweater I'm working on.  It's coming along just beautifully!   Tonight we're going out for my birthday dinner, and I've requested Mexican food.  Specifically, chicken enchiladas with a giant margarita.  Oh yeah.