Burlap Love–a giveaway!

Growing up, picnics and holidays were an excuse to make homemade ice cream!  My introduction to burlap began there—my dad would put a big chunk of ice in an old burlap sack and whack it with the flat side of an axe to crush ice for the ice cream freezer.

If I told my dad that people (meaning me) were using burlap for curtains and pillows, I *know* he would think I was crazy!

But take a look at these adorable pillows from Kijsa Studio!

She makes them out of old burlap sacks

Dad, I’m sure she washed them first.

…and she has generously offered to give one of her initial pillows (your choice) away to a Red Hen Home reader!

There are two ways to enter:

1.  (Mandatory) Please visit Kijsa Studio’s Etsy shop, then come back here and leave a comment telling me which pillow is your favorite (initial, zipcode, address, etc).

2.  (Optional) Leave another comment telling me something good that happened to you within the last 24 hours!

That’s it!  Winner will be determined via random number generator on Monday, February 27.  Good luck!

What are you waiting for?? Visit Kijsa Studio HERE.

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P.S.  For those sweet souls who are wondering, the table issue isn’t quite resolved yet.  Apparently the manager got an e-mail back from the corporate office finally on Wednesday, and they were firm but kind on the store-credit-only stance.  The manager said he would send a second e-mail back saying HE thought they should give us our money back.  We shall see!

Down Memory Lane / Pieced Bag

When I first started patchwork & quilting, there was nobody around me who did those types of things. Also, it was before the internet existed, I don't think the phrase "Google it" existed. After I got paid for my first job at 16 (seriously, I didn't make much but to me it was a lot of money...). I went to a book store and bought several books about quilt making. Slowly, I mean project by project I taught myself how to cut, piece, baste, quilt and bind to complete a quilt.

Since then, my quilt making skill hasn't progressed much, but the list of quilts I want to make is growing so much faster than I can do! Living in the capital of quilt making, I mean, you might have different opinions, but I am just saying, because Utah has so many amazing quilt shops, and it is so hard not to go in.

I think this bag was my third or fourth project. At the time I liked it a lot, but over time my style has changed, I don't care for it as much. Although, whenever I look at the bag with unmatched corners and seams with uneven quilt stitches, it humbles me and brings me back to where I started.

I think I would pick totally different fabrics for this if I were to make this now.


This hexagon was not paper pieced, I kind of like it though...



The bottom of the bag is even pieced and quilted...


There are two things that come to my mind while looking at this bag...

One, I had lots of patience before the kids wore it THIN.

Two, I LOVE LOVE doing hand quilting, but there are so many quilts that I want to make. If I were to hand quilt all of them, I wouldn’t be able to make them all before I die! I really need to get better at machine quilting. :)

Card Catalog Coffee Table

Where do the pictures hide on my computer?  I wish someone would tell me!  I am missing my “before” pictures of this card catalog, and I am not in the mood for hide-and-seek!

Last summer a friend showed up at my door.  He had a piece of furniture for me to look at before he went to D.I.  Did I want first dibs?

At this point my garage was stuffed with furniture, so I was practicing my polite refusal…

Then I saw it was a card catalog…a piece of one, actually…and I was a goner!

It looked like the middle section had been pulled out at some point.  There were no legs, and no top—just holes where pegs would have attached it to another section.

I used a piece of wood leftover from building the sewing armoire to fashion a new top…

…and a trip to IKEA supplied casters for some industrial-feel feet!

I painted the whole thing in an off white, and then glazed and distressed it all to show off all the knicks and scratches.  I used Rub-n-Buff in pewter and black to tone down the original brass handles—mostly to make them blend in with the casters, which were silver!

I kind of intended to take some more/better pictures this afternoon, but it sold before I could do that.  Not that that’s a bad thing.

Although I think this is a fun idea for a coffee table, I also thought it would be so cool at the end of a bed—to store gloves and scarfs, or maybe a variety of small toys.

Note:  Instructions for the Book Birdhouses can be found here.

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This project has been featured at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Elizabeth & Co., Mod Vintage Life, {aka} design, Simple Home Life, and Beyond the Picket Fence.

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Mod Vintage Life
Embracing Change	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Simply Klassic Sundays	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	{aka} design