Homespun Harbor a Fabric Heaven

Finally, a peak into my very favorite quilt shop, Homespun Harbor, a beautiful, colorful feast for the eyes with hundreds and hundreds of bolts of stunning fabrics.  There is so much to see and absorb it takes hours to really take it all in, unless you are a regular customer like I am.  I am very blessed to have this fantastic quilt shop right here in my own hometown, I can go shopping for new fabrics or just get inspiration for my projects anytime I want.  Instead of going on and on about it, I think I will let the pictures entice and inspire you instead of writing a long post praising all its wonders, you can see for yourself why I love it so much.

As you enter the shop you are greeted with a smile and a warm hello.  The shop is owned by husband and wife team, Dennis & Ghleanna.  Shown in the photo are Dennis and his little helper, his granddaughter.

On the right side of the doorway as you enter the store, you will see a bright, cheery selection of fabrics appropriate for making all the cute little quilts and projects you can think of for children.  This is only a very small view of the great selection, it would not all fit in the photo, you will have to go in to see it for yourself.

Just past that area are the reds, pinks and black and whites section.  Hanging above the red fabrics are some very cute projects you can make by taking a class or purchasing a pattern.

Speaking of patterns and books, there is a great selection of those to choose from.

The notions wall is really fantastic and has a pretty good variety of items any quilter or seamstress might need.  The town is a good 25 miles from any of the big box fabric stores, to far too just run down to the store for a forgotten item.  The notions wall is a huge lifesaver when you are trying to finish a project and run out of thread or need a new rotary cutting blade, happens to me all the time, thank goodness for those notions.

A peak down the long isles.

Lots of yummy fabrics all sorted into sections by color and fabric styles.

Elegant quilts and holiday fabrics for all those parties and decorating.

Last but not least, for all you quilters, the fat quarter wall.  So far it is one of the largest selections of fat quarters in a variety of colors and fabrics, I have had the pleasure to see, and with really great prices too!  It takes me forever to go through them each time I go into the store; it is always changing, what fun.

If you live in or around Hollister, CA you just have to take the time to go in and look around, be sure you allow enough time to get through the whole store, there is so much more to see.  If you don’t live in California you can go to their great website to check out their on-line store.  They also put out a wonderful newsletter and their class schedules with pictures of class projects, www.homespunharbor.com .

You will see many, many projects on my blog featuring their wonderful fabrics in future posts.  Thanks for taking a little tour of my favorite quilt shop; I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  Look for that bit of bling I keep promising you.  See you soon.

How to find them:

Homespun Harbor A Quilt Shop

341 Tres Pinos Rd. Ste. 101

Hollister, CA  95023

831-630-9438

www.homespunharbor.com

Closed Sunday and Monday

                   

Fall Floral Arrangements

As each season arrives it brings a certain kind of renewal depending upon which season it is.  Fall brings warmth, a new golden light and host of beautiful colors to our flowers, mountains and trees.  I love this time of year and do my best to bring fall to all of my surroundings, even though I live in California and we don’t get the real fall like the mid-west and the east coast.

This is one of the seasonal changes I make every year; four fall flower arrangements. I thought I would include a few pictures of the process as I worked on my projects.

I purchased a box load of high quality silk flowers in all my favorite rich, elegant colors, along with some floral foam.

Out came my box of tools; scissors, wire cutters, box cutter, foam, wire, floral tape and silk stems.

I cut foam and stems to fit the size of the containers I was using then began the process of arranging my flowers.

Time to make some pretty bows for two of my flower arrangements.  See the posting, Pumpkin Bling, for instructions on how to make bows using wired ribbons.

All finished, isn't it pretty and fall fantastic.

I made the above arrangement and another one just like it to take to my Mom’s grave site and these two outdoor arrangements, in the silver containers, for my Father-in-Law’s.  I like to change their arrangements at the beginning of each season if possible; these were done around the first of September and will be changed again at the beginning of December.  It is a good way to honor those we love, who have passed away, giving a little color, love and care to their final resting places.

Thanks for letting me share this project with you.  Look for a bit of bling and some other colorful ventures coming from my studio.  See you soon.

Paisley Crazy - Room Makeover

*Here it is the post I keep promising you, it is a big one with lots and lots of before and after photos of my guest room makeover.  So much to see and share, I debated breaking it up into several posts, but I decided what the heck, just do it, so grab your coffee or soda, sit back and enjoy. Here we go.

It is official, I have gone paisley crazy.  I came across a beautiful set of paisley prints at my favorite quilt shop, Homespun Harbor and just had to have them.  When I first saw the fabrics, I had no idea what I would do with them, they were a mid to large scale size print with some smaller matching prints and the colors were very bright.  I was considering a guest room makeover, in my new home, I hadn’t done anything to the room except drop furniture into it and make up the bed with the linens I purchased for another home. 

As much as I love color, could I be that daring and use those bright new paisley prints in conjunction with the bed linens already on the bed?  Was I that daring? The only other really bright colors were in the toy room, hot pink, and orange, lime green and bright blue.  The answer was “Yes I Could!”  I just had to convince my husband to go along with it, I told him it was just a guest room, not one he would be sleeping in so what could it hurt (unless he ended up in the dog house)?  He didn’t think it was funny but he was willing to work on the room with me (what a great guy).

I used these four coordinating prints in the room on a variety of projects. The fabrics are Gypsy Bandana by Pillow & Maxfield for Michael Miller Fabrics.  These great fabrics also come in a pink, green and red pallet as well as a red, yellow and green mixed pallet.  You will see some of those other color prints in future sewing projects.  I really did go paisley crazy when purchasing this line, I don’t know if I bought every color combination but I gave it a good try. 

First up is a reversible pillow from two of the blue complementary fabrics.  This little pillow was not the first project I did; in fact, it was the final piece before company came to visit the next day.  Talk about cutting it short.

Part of the guest room makeover was due to a relocation of my computer desk from the studio into the rarely used guest room.  I needed a better flow in the studio and more counter space, which meant I would need an office, so we moved it to one wall of the guest room.  This allows for use of all of the upstairs rooms, no empty unused spaces. I wanted to make all the accessories fit into the guest room so they would not stick out, requiring a bulletin board makeover.  I gave two frames a quick re-paint, with paint I had custom color matched, and then recovered them in one of the coordinating fabrics.

Next up was a new cushion for the top of my Mom’s cedar chest; it makes a great window seat on cold winter days.  The green paisley fabric was just the right fabric for the project.

An old chair was given to me by a friend who thought I could “do something” with it.  It sat in storage forever before I decided it would be a good fit for the desk.  This time I used spray paint instead of trying to hand paint all the nooks and crannies.  I pulled up my big girl panties and got to work spray painting it a lime green, oh boy was I stepping out of my comfort zone, but what the heck, it is only paint and could be re-done if I did not like it.

Next came recovering the chair pad with new batting and the green paisley fabric to match the window cushion.

Good as new and looking fun and funky.

The chair was not the only thing in the room to get a makeover, the desk the chair sat at was a complete disaster, it is over 60 years old and it was the desk my Dad sat at to study while he went to law school.  My older sister, I and my daughter all did our homework at that cute little desk and now it was back with me in my office.  The first thing I did was sand the heck out of it with my mouse sander (palm sander), rubbed it down, much better already.

I painted the desk to match the bulletin boards and the lighter blue paisley fabric, very pretty and ready to go back into the room.

Two low dressers were next; they are probably as old as the desk and needed the same treatment as the desk and chair.

This time only the dresser shells got the blue paint, with the drawers all getting the icy blue paint, we used on the guest room walls.  I added silver brushed nickel knobs in place of the old gold ones, very trendy.

Last but not least was the headboard, it was a wooden style headboard very dated and not good color matches for the other furniture.  I did not want to paint it since it belongs to another set of furniture I have in another room, what to do?I got the idea to make a headboard cozy to put over the wooden one, it could be removed to be washed or to change the look if I got tired of the paisley fabrics.  I used a matching piping along the top edge to give it some body, I was set to go.  I had several extra king sized pillows hanging around so I made custom pillow cases to create a softer headboard to sit against, kind of like body pillows.  See previous post for easy pillow case instructions any level sewer can use.

The paisley fabrics really brought life to a dull room making it colorful, fun and trendy, a great place to work and for guests to stay in, no dark burgundy and forest green for me.  Stepping out of my comfort zone was scary but lots and lots of fun to do. After all it is only fabric and paint and can be changed at anytime, but not too soon, I’m still tired from all the work.

Thanks for letting me share my office/guest room makeover with you.  See you soon with more colorful ventures from my studio and a peak into my all time favorite quilt shop.  Lots more creative fun coming your way.

Where to buy:

Homespun Harbor A Quilt Shop

341 Tres Pinos Rd. Ste.101

Hollister, CA  95023

831-630-9438

www.homespunharbor.com

Custom mixed paint and spray paints:

Ace Hardware

Hollister, CA 95023

Check your local area for an Ace Hardware near you.