Sewing Projects: Cloth Napkins

 In an effort to use less disposable paper products, I set out to the thrift store to find an old tablecloth.  The plan was to cut them into cloth napkins.  Luckily, I came across a set of four cloth napkins, already finished and in a nice cream color.  All I did was embroider a couple running stitches in blue across each napkin to add a little character.  Enjoy a couple more photos below!

Around Home: My Parents' House

In the fall of 2009, my parents sold their 21-year-old house and moved into a 175-year-old house, fulfilling a long-time dream of theirs to fix up and live in a historic home.  The house, a Dutch colonial style built in 1835, was originally a general store and was converted to a house a few years after it was built.  My parents have been working one room at a time to restore it.  Here are just a couple photos from the main floor entryway and living room.  Enjoy!

Sewing Projects: Sweater Vest Pillow

This project, a pillow made out of a sweater vest and some plaid wool fabric, was a Christmas gift for my dad, and I finally got around to photographing it while I stayed at their house last weekend.  I came across this 100% shetland wool vest at a thrift store while on the hunt for a wool sweater to make my brother-in-law's mittens.  I didn't yet have a project in mind for the vest, but with the charming argyle pattern, I couldn't pass it up.  Read on for more details and photos.

Home Decor Projects: Old Window Picture Frame

This one has been up in our house for quite some time, but I still wanted to share it with all of you.  We bought this window frame from an antique market for $6, then filled each pane with a photograph from our wedding.  The panes happened to fit 8x10 photos, with an inch of margin around each one.  The idea was for the photos to look like they are floating within each frame.  We thought of buying a separate pane of glass to go behind each photo and "sandwich" the photo into place.  However, we ended up going a much cheaper and simpler route by tacking each corner into place with a small square of Scotch tape!  If you look closely, you can see about 1/8" of tape sticking out from each corner, but for simplicity's sake we were willing to compromise.  The entire frame is hung with some nails and wire in the back, with a heavy duty hook.  We get lots of compliments on this!

More pictures below...