Dining Room Table Runners

I finally finished sewing the dining room table runners! It's taken days because working with the linen was really frustrating, so on this particular project I became really distractible. Anything—even laundry and dishes—seemed more fun than finishing these runners.

It seemed like it took forever to cut them out, because I was being anal careful to make sure they were nice and "square." I even pulled threads to make sure the edge was nice and straight, which was not easy since this particular linen is fairly nubby and the threads kept breaking.

And I was frustrated when after "cutting" out the first runner for the dining room table, it turned out to be 2-inches too short. I don't know how that happened . . . I was being so careful with my measuring. (Too much thread pulling?) So, I had to make a second. (That linen strip will not go to waste—it will be used elsewhere.)

Then I needed to iron what felt like a mile of edges to turn them to make the mitered corners. There was a lot of scorching of fingers as I measured and held down the fabric the right amount and then set down the steamy iron next to my fingers.

This was a bit of a learning process. I got better at the mitered corners and the final hemming as I went along. Maybe I should have started on the dresser runners first, because they won't get seen as closely, but the dining room runners happened to be at the top of the pile.

As shown in the photo, I deliberately made these runners a bit shorter than the store-bought ones; I wanted to make sure they cleared the tops of the chairs as I don't like getting tangled up in table coverings when I'm getting up from the table. The stencil does still fit on that short overhang.

But, now that I've learned what a hassle these are to make, I don't think I want to apply my not-so-smoothly-cut stencil. I might need to hold out for the stencil cutting machine, since I'll probably end up buying one. And I have now exhausted my linen supply so if I need to make a new set for some reason, I'd have to buy more of this matching linen.

So, after posting this post, it occurred to me that if I wanted to be able to use these with a family gathering, I would have to make a longer one for when the table had the leaves in it. So, there you go, I'll have to make another long one and perhaps another short one. I am going to have to buy more linen the next time it goes on sale. Hopefully, with my newfound skills, I'll be able to whip it out a bit more quickly and less grumpily next time. =)

Stencil Cutter?

Just when I say I don't want to spend any more money, I may have found something I need to buy. Today, on craigslist, I ran across something that might cut stencils for me. It's called the "Silhouette CAMEO." From  the company's website: "It is an electronic cutting tool for personal use. Like a home printer, it plugs into your PC or Mac® with a simple USB cable. However, instead of printing it uses a small blade to cut paper, cardstock, vinyl, fabric and more up to 12" wide and 10 feet long. The machine also has the ability to register and cut printed materials."

Coupled with their optional design software, you're supposed to be able to import images. Then I could easily make some of these awesome old stencil images I've found. Forget the razor blades.

Someone blogged about making pillow stencils with their Cameo here. Hmm, my mind is racing with the possibilitles.

Have any of you ever used or heard of one of these machines?

Shopping Again

After our binge last year, I've been trying not to spend money on the house this winter. But this month we've been looking around our main floor and we had a few glaringly modern items we really wanted to replace with more traditional style options.

The first to arrive was this Pyle music player. I looked far and wide for a player in wood that could handle iPods; this was the only one I found. It's a little larger than I wanted because it also has a record player (though we don't own a single record), but it was the best value I found.

The iPod plugs in over on the side.

The main drawback of this player over the Apple Hi-Fi system is it doesn't charge the iPod so you can only listen so long, and then you need to go find a place to plug in and charge your iPod. This is what the old system looked like, so I think it's a bit of an improvement.

I also bought this neat phone based on a 1911 design.

But I have now detected a slight oversight in our remodel planning—phone jacks. We use remote phones, so phone jacks just weren't part of the planning. In fact, this house used to have quite a few phone jacks, but they were those big, ugly plastic boxes tacked onto the wall, so all of them, but one in the den, were removed during the remodel. Oops. I think we need to put a phone jack back in just for this phone. Hmm, wouldn't it be fun to put in an old fashioned phone nook . . . like this one. Maybe someday.

I also found a neat wastebasket made from recycled lath boards. Compared to many of the other handmade wastebaskets I've seen, this was a bargain ($10 + shipping). I bought it from a local person, so I've written to see if they've got more. Now I'm trying to decide what to do for a liner; perhaps a washable fabric sleeve that fits inside.

Dreaming of a Pretty Yard

Last year when I was looking for fence designs, I had a real problem finding any in modern sources. This winter, I sort of hit a bonanza in antique books. This post is pretty heavy in pictures so  I'm going to insert a page break. If you want to see them all, you'll have to open the post. Sorry.

These three fence designs are from the Morgan Woodwork Org. catalog (1921). The catalog also included the following pergola and arbor.

Cut Out a Stencil

I started on my new craft project this afternoon. I'm making linen runners for tables and dressers throughout the house. As usual, I try out color combinations on paper before I apply them to fabric.

I cut out today's stencil with a craft knife. While the edge on the mylar is much nicer to clean after stenciling, cutting the stencil was not fun. I may have bought mylar a bit too thick for hand-cutting because it was a significant effort to cut this stencil out. Also, it was difficult to cut a smooth curve so some of my edges are a bit rough. Since stenciling, I've tried to smooth out some of the curves so hopefully the next round will look better.

I tried this stencil in a couple of color combos. The purple is fun and I may use it someday, but for this project I'm going to go with the navy-green-yellow because it matches the dining room rug better.

I had been planning on cutting a few more stencils to try out for this project, but now I think I'll try harder to use stencils I already have.

Here is what I'm going to use for the master bedroom. This particular stencil was purchased from "Bungalow Borders" by Helen Foster a couple years ago, before she sold out to Fair Oaks. I poked around their website, but this design seems to have been discontinued.

I'm going to make a curtain for my closet door with this panel.

And I'm going to use this arrangement for the dresser scarf. These colors match the iris quilt and they should go well together.

Now that I've got these two rooms figured out, I can get started cutting and hemming up linen strips.

Jeff's Quilt Done

I actually almost finished it on Friday night; I just had the two end pieces to finish, but they were being difficult to get lined up properly and I was tired. And we had to get up early Saturday morning to go off to an event in Eugene, so it waited until this morning for the finish.

For a nice change, daylight for photos, though they're still not very good because the only space large enough to lay out this quilt is the upstairs hallway and that's the darkest spot upstairs.

I've had enough quilting for the season; time to move on to some linen table dressings.

Today's Quilt Progress

Now that I have another sewing project I want to work on, I'm motivated to finish my current project. I made good progress on Jeff's hex river quilt today. There's still a fair amount of sewing to put these strips together, but I should be able to mostly finish in another day.

Forgive the quality of the picture. As usual, the light is bad, because it is rare that I actually finish projects when it is still light outside. And I laid this quilt out on the guest bed to organize the pieces, but the bed is too short. So I'm just going to show the middle section.