I spent the better part of this past week's sewing time making new pillow covers for this little window seat nook on our front stair landing. It's been on my mental to-do list for the better part of a year and I have looked at home dec fabric from time to time with this project in mind. I wasn't sure how I was going to combine the soft blues and greens that I love with the yellow in our stained glass until I saw that bird fabric. The colors are just what I wanted, the aqua and teal, soft green and the gold and bonus points for raspberry!

I had the cushion recovered by my upholsterer. She did it so quickly - about a week! - that I wasn't really ready to jump into the pillows, but I did anyways. Smartest move ever. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw the progression: fussy cutting the birds, making the aqua welt, moving on to the aqua pillows, layering and sewing down the flat trims, putting the brush fringe on the polka dots. What you didn't see was the good 40 minutes I fussed with an invisible zipper on the first pillow that just would not work. After a ton of wrestling and some swearing, I ripped that sucker out, threw it in the trash and decided to sew the pillow shut by hand. And I kept on hand stitching them shut as I realized that I had never once removed the covers on the previous pillows in 10+ years.

The result makes me happy, happy, happy! I smile every time I walk by. It was such a simple project - I am not sure what took me so long to get to it. But now that I have started, I may not stop. The family room pillows are looking a little worse for the wear....

(My tutorials on how to add a lapped zipper to your pillow and how to make piping for a pillow can be found here and here. I swear the zipper thing is easy - I just had a bum zip! Happy sewing!)

I am completely overwhelmed by the amazing comments and response you all had to my book news. I read each and every comment as it came in and want to thank you all for your enthusiasm. After working quietly behind the scenes and keeping the project under wraps for so long, it was wonderful to be able to blab about it. I am super excited to share even more about the book over the coming months.

We started ripping out the carpet on our third floor at the end of last week. This space is one larger room which doubles as a guest room and play room with a large walk-in closet, which has been my little sewing studio. At first glance, the pine subfloor looked like it was in great condition. I was very hopeful that we'd be able to sand it and paint it.

Of course, it didn't work out as planned. As more carpet and particle board was removed, we found all sorts of old holes patched with random boards and plywood. On to Plan B.

New pine floors were laid and have been sanded. For about a minute I thought about putting hardwood in, but I really don't want to worry about that floor. I want to be able to baste quilts on it and work on paintings without worrying. I also want the girls to feel like they can get messy and be creative without me freaking out about the floor. So the new floor will be painted by me. The walls and the woodwork are getting a fresh coat, too. I know this is going to eat up a lot of my energy and time over the next weeks, but I am determined to get it done as quickly as possible so I can start using that space.

So to wrap it up, I'm floored - by your sweet comments about my book (thank you, thank you, thank you) and this crazy project I've gotten myself into.

And today I turned 42. I have a very good feeling about this year. Very good, indeed.

When we redid our kitchen in the spring of 2010, we also redid the mudroom which is down the stairs from our eating area. We put in wainscotting, a new tile floor, cubbies for jackets and shoes, and new treads for the stairs. To make it all work the way we wanted, we had to give up a small built-in bench. I wasn't really sad about that as the bench really was used more for throwing random stuff on and no one ever sat on it. But I also knew that it would be nice to have a place to sit and put on shoes so I started searching craigslist for a schoolhouse or windsor chair. I hit the jackpot towards the end of our project and scooped this one up for $15. A few coats of spray paint later, I had a cheery, red chair.

One of the household projects on my to-do list for 2012 was sewing a cushion for this chair. Sure, it was cute and bright, but it wasn't the most comfortable chair. I had a hard time deciding on what I wanted the cushion to look like. One of the major concerns was that we have an outdoor rug in this space that doesn't have any red in it. While searching the sewing room for something else entirely, I came across this fabric that I bought a few years ago with the family room or kitchen in mind. When I realized it had green, brown, blue and red, I knew this was the fabric for my chair!

I had everything else I needed on hand. I covered plain cording with the navy polka dot fabric (tutorial here) and used 2" high density foam covered with a layer of low-loft polyester batting. The cushion has a lapped zipper in back (tutorial here) and ties to the chair.

Now that this is finished, only one of my five household sewing projects for 2012 remains. Dang. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised by this. It may appear as if I have given up my procrastinating ways, but I don't think that is the case. For me, just saying that I was going to do these things gave me a clear path as to what to tackle project-wise. I've pretty much just put my head down and made them happen. Bonus: I saved the easiest one for last.

Never did I think I would be taking photos of my laundry room and posting them on my blog.

But I am.

Across from our washer and dryer is a countertop with upper cabinets. I think it was probably intended to be used as a folding station with room for laundry baskets or the like underneath. For us, though, it works best as a desktop/command central.

I keep the calendar here along with all pens, pencils and markers that the girls and I use frequently. There is also a huge stack of looseleaf paper and other office essentials like a stapler, pencil sharpener and paper shredder. We each have our own clipboard for keeping important papers and invitations. It's not always this neat and tidy, and often a lot of what should be here is on the kitchen counter, but I'm trying to be more organized this year and so it recently got a good cleaning.

Here's where the sewing part comes into play.

Underneath the counter is the litter box and the cat food. No one wants to look at that so I have made it all disappear with a little slight of hand. Oh, okay, not really. A curtain does the trick. Scout, the cat, can slide right behind that fabric to do her business and no one is the wiser. I used home dec weight fabric - 2 yards cut into 1 yard lengths, pre-washed and sewn together. A quick hem at the bottom and casing at the top was all it took to neaten and soften up this utilitarian space. Bonus: I can easily take it off and throw it in the wash if need be. Also, I love that this stripe has green and blue in it because it's directly across the hall from our powder room and off of our family room - it all looks so good together.

Boring? Probably. But it's checked off the list. Two more household projects left to complete and I will have sewn all the household projects I intended to make in 2012. Not too shabby, huh?

Happy weekend, folks. I hope you have a great one.

Bad puns aside, I am thrilled that this bed skirt for Jane's room is finished. It has been a long time coming. I've had the fabric for at least 8 months, but couldn't motivate myself to get sewing it. I guess that is what the New Year is good for - getting those lagging projects completed. Well, at least, that's the way it works for me.

While this project isn't for beginners, it is pretty straightforward if you have some experience gathering and sewing waistbands (like on a skirt or an apron). Instead of making a fabric deck to cover the entire box spring, I attached the gathered fabric to a strip of cotton. This makes maneuvering all that fabric much easier and less swear-inducing. It's also super easy to attach to the box spring. The secret? Twisted upholstery pins.

Brilliant, right? I think so.

I'm so happy with how this room is coming together. It's been a work in progress for about two years now. I wanted to make sure that what she (and I) chose would carry through her teenage years and maybe even beyond. I think we are on the right track. The furniture needs painting, but one thing at a time.

The lowdown:

Jane's bed is a full. I used 8 widths of fabric (54" wide), each 21" tall before hemming. That's slightly over two times the linear measurement of the box spring.

It has a 3.5" hem (1.5" pressed and then another 2" pressed) that I sewed with the blind hem foot and stitch on my machine. I gathered it in sections - two widths of fabric to each quarter measurement of decking - to make the sewing less cumbersome. I highly recommend this approach.

The finished deck is about 4" tall - I cut 10" strips and pieced them until I had the right length. I sewed the deck to the skirt using a 1/2" seam allowance and then finished it just like you would a skirt waistband (folded in the middle and topstitched down to enclose the raw, gathered edges).

The fabric is Annie Selke Links in pink. It coordinates with the headboard fabric, Annie Selke Shalini Ivory Raspberry. The duvet and white shams are from PBTeen. Monogramming was done locally. The aqua check fabric is unknown. Details on the quilt can be found here and the throw pillow here. Upholstery pins were bought at JoAnn's.

I've been feeling rather quiet lately. Everything is fine. I just need a little break from all the noise.

In other news, the headboard for Jane's room was delivered on Saturday. It's better than I could have imagined. She loves it, too.

I finally settled on a backing for her quilt. Yesterday I sandwiched it and started quilting. It's slow-going, but looking good.

I've been watching The Good Wife - season 2. And after that I am going to take one of the many fantastic suggestions you all gave me so I can finish this quilt. There are so many good options! Thank you.

Once this quilt is finished, it'll be time to paint some furniture and make a bed skirt. Time to get the paint deck out to find the perfect shade. Big surprise - we're going with green.

I feel like there's something else I wanted to say, but I can't remember what it was. I'll be back as soon as I think of it.

I finished stitching my Daisychain Sampler this past weekend. I enjoyed every last stitch! This project was a great reminder of how much I love handwork. I am on the search for my next take and go embroidery or crewel work. I also might just design my own!

The sampler will be framed and hung in Jane's room which is undergoing a bit of a makeover. Two summers ago, I painted it and made her new curtains and then moved onto other things. I'm back to finishing her room - we've added a bookcase, sent fabric out for an upholstered headboard and bought new bedding. There is a bedskirt to make and furniture to paint. Still, I couldn't resist starting a quilt for her. I hope to finish cutting it tonight and start sewing tomorrow.

I promise to show and tell when it's all finished. I'm also sprucing up some other corners in the house. More on those later.

I spent the majority of yesterday (more than 6 hours) trashing out the girls' rooms. They helped. They also whined quite a bit about it. And I just stood my ground and got it done.  In the end, everyone was happy.  There are bags and bags of clothes and toys to donate and another four laundry baskets of clothes that can be handed down or maybe sold on ebay. I on the fence about that as I haven't done it before and am not sure it's worth the time. Anyone have experience - good, bad or otherwise - selling on ebay? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Both of the girls' rooms are in a state of flux. Kate is waiting on her quilts (I cannot, absolutely can't, figure out how to quilt them) and I'd like to reupholster her headboards and make new bedskirts. We rearranged some of her furniture, but I'm not sure it's the right solution. We'll see. Jane has the furniture that I had growing up. My parents bought it - four poster full size bed, two nightstands, dresser, dressing table, large mirror - at an estate sale when I was in second grade for $200. It's solid cherry and quite lovely, but the bed is on its last legs. I got a repair estimate and for the same price, I could have an upholstered headboard made for her. I'm leaning in that direction as the repair would likely not stay for more than a couple of years.  I'd like to paint the rest of the furniture and update the hardware. I realize that this is a whole boat load of work which will take a great deal of time, but I'm going to try to do it all before the fall. That's the goal, anyhow.

In the meantime, it was nice to freshen things up a bit. I pulled a quilt out of the linen closet that Fatty's grandmother made and put it on Jane's bed. It's a lovely yellow double wedding ring that immediately cheered up her rather dark room. It wasn't doing anyone any good in the closet so I'm happy that it has a new home for now.

All of this has got me thinking even more about using the stuff we have, making more quilts and decorating on budget.  And spring cleaning because almost every room in this house could use this kind of overhaul. I just wish there were a few more hours in the day.

Back here with the auction info soon - I think I'm going to just cover everything in a bare bones kind of way. I hope that's ok. Enjoy your Sunday.