Kitchen Grapes

I have a great post for you today; I want to share the darling hand towels I made for my new kitchen makeover.  Just a bit of background about my recent decorating projects, I decided I did not like the coffee shop décor I chose for our newest home, it was something I had actually picked out for another home and just dropped everything into place when we moved in, without really thinking things through.  After living with it for almost three years I was not a happy camper, I started to think about what would make me happy and the answer was to go back to what I originally had in my first/favorite home.  I really adored my wine/Tuscan inspired home, the colors really spoke to me and everything complemented each other nicely.  Time to decorate with what I loved no matter what anyone else thought or what the decorating trends and colors are now, no more brown, gold and red.  I decided to use my sage green, burgundy, cream and Tuscan gold, all elegant colors when put together in small doses.  I did not have to purchase much since I had all my décor items in those colors in storage, all I had to do was go get everything and put it out.  I was short on curtains for the kitchen window and the family room windows, lucky for me Bed, Bath & Beyond still had more of the same drapes for the windows in the family room and I had great fabrics in my stash which would pull it all together for the kitchen window.

Most of my kitchen accessories were a bit worn out making it time to create some new ones using one of my own patterns.  Since it is a pattern I sell I won’t be doing a tutorial here but I will share that the tops of the towels are machine quilted and they also have some really sweet pleats on the back side and I was able to sew up four in just a couple of hours. Aren’t they darling! I just love the rich colors which are repeated throughout the kitchen through accessories and artwork. You will be seeing photos of the whole kitchen makeover when I share the kitchen valance tutorial next time.

I hope you enjoyed your first peek at one of the projects I did for my kitchen makeover. Keep reading to see the new kitchen window valance tutorial I will be sharing in a few days.

See you soon.

Laurette

The Blue Dress

Hello everyone, I have been away from my blog for some time now due to unforeseen medical problems and a nasty fall resulting in several sprains and a concussion. Yikes!! I have been a mess but I am finally healing from my fall so I can get back to doing what I love most, creating, sewing and blogging.  I have several quick sewing projects I was able to get done before all of that stuff happened so I will start posting them so we can all get caught up. I will also have new posts on my other blog page as well so look for those in the next few days as I get going again. I completely missed Easter so you may see some out of time projects from that as well.  So…. Let’s get going here is the first sewing project I want to share with you.

I decided I needed a new dress for Easter so off to my sewing and pattern stash I went and chose a beautiful blue double knit fabric and a dress pattern by McCall’s, pattern number M6112.  It was easy to cut out both the pattern and the fabric; I was sewing in no time and had the top half completed quickly, the best part of the dress is the kimono sleeves.  The pattern also had options for pockets, a cowl neck or kimono sleeves with a slit on the top, I pretty much did my own thing to get just the right look.

The rest of the dress went just as quickly and it was finished in no time, about two hours start to finish. Isn’t it cute! Very light and airy, I can wear it alone or with boots and a turtleneck underneath it if I want to wear the dress as a jumper during the winter months.  I usually try to make garments which can be worn for dual seasons, I get more use out of them that way and I can justify spending a bit more on a great fabric when I find one.  Too bad I did not get to wear it to Easter dinner at my daughter’s house, I had to stay home and get well instead, oh well, there will be another occasion to wear it soon.

Thanks for letting me share my little blue dress with you; it was fun to show you my new outfit.  I have some sewing projects I made for my kitchen makeover to show you next time; one of them is an easy tutorial, look for those in a day or so.

See you soon.

Laurette

Watch for a new blog post on Create*Upcycle*Decorate*Organize, coming very soon, it is about our new stone patio just completed last weekend; my husband did a fantastic job on it.