ikea hack

It started with a dresser I bought little over a year ago that I repainted. A move and a year later, the drawers on the dresser were finally giving up the proverbial ghost, though the cabinet was still in great shape (damn crying shame I don't have space for it, it would make GREAT shelves with some custom cut MDF)

To keep the morning rolling smoothly instead of peppered with explicatives everytime a drawer came apart, I ambled over to IKEA and purchased a GORM (as mentioned previously in terrarium 2.ohnoes)

I did some browsing on Ikea hackers for some ideas, and settled on simply cutting down the framing materials to height. Since the square footage in my apartment is pretty small, I didn't waste floor space on the dresser; it lived inside one half of one of my closets. I'd never been pleased with it living there, as there still seemed to be a lot of wasted space involved

GORM, as I hacked it

GORM, as IKEA intended it

Now the inside of my closet looks like an over glorified clothes press - back around the American Revolution, people folded their clothes in piles instead of hanging them up. Which is partly why so many old homes don't have closets - they used a wardrobe (clothes press) instead. Less monkeying with building materials and what not when building a house, I guess. I know they had WAY less clothing and accessories than we do, because keeping those clothes clean was a time consuming pain.

I have several knobs left over from other projects, so I decided to take advantage of the many pre-drilled holes in the GORM unit, giving me space to hang up anything from hand bags to my pain clothes.

Looking at it, I realized I could really use the left over scrap from the pieces I cut off, so I pulled out a few more knobs and created a hook rack for incidentals like umbrellas, my day pack, or anything else I've otherwise had to fish for in the bottom of the closet. The only thing I had to do was sink a few nails into it.

terrarium 2.0K

terrarium 2.ohnoes

Discovered a gaping hole in the bottom of my terrarium the other day. Bad, bad bad since the terrarium was a re-purposed glass vase. No idea when the chunk decided to fall out, but it did. Thus began the search for a suitable replacement and I almost bought this beautiful terrarium from IKEA -

so... when did IKEA climb on the Shabby-Chic bandwagen?

And there's more where that came from. I wouldn't have said S/C went with Scandinavian Minimalism, but there is something appealing about accenting the spartan with a little frill. The plant stand makes me think of made over Mission/Arts and Crafts, which painted white does go with the whole cottage thing more than the traditional dark, oxidized oak hallmark of the A/C movement.

Did I mention I'm ADD? Sorry. Terrarium. Found a $5 goldfish bowl at a thrift shop. Twice the real estate as the vase, so I added a little more plant life to it, and some other umm... decor. 

While at IKEA, I purchased a GORM for the reduced price of $30 (the website lied and quoted me $40). This to replace the dresser that I guess I never posted about... I gave the dresser a face lift, and then discovered that the glue holding the drawers together was failing... again, and again, and again I got tired of running to the hardware store and purchasing brackets to keep it together. I can't install a ClosetMaid so I went with the next closest thing I could think of. I chose a GORM simply because it was wood, and I would be able to cut it down to the height requirements of the closet, unlike the other metal shelving options avalible. Since GORM has all these handy pre-drilled holes for positioning shelves, I was able to put my knob and drawer pull collection to work, installing them as decorative hooks for holding purses and other accessories. If I were going all out, this puppy would be framed in bead board, whitewashed, have a pretty paper on the back, and have pretty matching bins corralling my socks, tee-shirts and the like. Hackers gotta hack. When they have the money to do it :). Baby steps.

simon's cat

I made these for my Lyd! Lovingly ripped from Simon's mischievous cat, I found images of Cat making a ruckus about being fed, which is pretty consistent with Lyd's behavior at 06:30 in the morning [Google search: "simon's cat+ feed me"] They turned out so well, I think I want to make a few more... They will be living in the store window through the week until the studio/ humane society event this Sunday. Then teh Lydia can eat in style. 

upcoming fun

• June 24, 2012 (Sun) -- Quilts in the Gardens
  . . The Miller Homestead on Stone Manse Drive in Allegheny County's South Park
  . . 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.; admission $2
  . . (412) 835-1554 or www.olivermiller.org for information
  
• September 21-22, 2012 (Fri-Sat) -- Peggy's Patchwork Pals Sixth Annual Quilt Show and Sale
  . . Slate Lick United Presbyterian Church, 106 Brown Road, Freeport, PA 16229
  . . 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Vendors and lunch will be available.
  . . For more information call Peggy Coriale (724) 295-3734 or Judy Kois (724) 337-1129

There was a show this weekend that I missed that I had wanted to go to, but thought it was happening in May. Missed my chance. I'm not aware of any other upcoming events this summer that I will be able to get to. Some of this is planning way in advance, but that's life as a grad student. Figure life out for the next six months, and it's pretty well set in stone. 

I cleaned house this weekend... sort of.  The upshot of all this:

1. Winter wardrobe and bedding is all put away. Mostly all in one container.
2. Clothes that I didn't wear for the entire season have been pulled out for resale/donation. 
3. I discovered that I have 2 bags of queen sized batting, 1 double, and 4 [four, priced at $2 a pop from thrift stores] of baby/crib batting stashed in a closet. Fab.U.Louis.
4. In removing my CD collection from the bookshelf to the fireplace cubby, I freed up space for more craft related things to be stored with all the other craft related things. 

The downside is that I can't find anything. Missing in action:

1. My rotary cutters. The new Gingher, the pretty owl-covered Fiskers. Gone. Probably hanging out with the missing floral enameled Gingers that I haven't been able to find since I moved last May. 
2. My acrylic rulers. All three of them. 
3. Kaleidoscopic Heart and Human Again. I had set these albums aside to lend to people

Some bonus action: the sampler is done! After a lot of seam releasing, restitching, and additional patchwork construction to fill in new holes, I got the sashing stitched on sometime Saturday. 

It is now 5th in a queue of quilts waiting to be basted with a back and batting. I'll finish them all eventually. Maybe it's time to schedule the long arm quilting lessons...

Happy Friday! I'm having the oil changed in my car this morning (about 75 miles overdue). I picked up my Singer from the repair shop last week after almost forgetting it was there, and I stopped at a thrift shop a few doors down on the way home.

I love thrift shops.What I need is a "find-a-thrift-shop" app. Concerning is the rising prices at the thrift shops, but I suppose they are feeling the squeeze just like the rest of us. Delightful for quilters unfamiliar with an area is the Quilt Shop Locator from Quilters Club of America and Fons and Porter. Did we mention it is free? On wifi enabled devices it only works where wifi is available, of course, but with a data plan, it works whenever, wherever, as long as there's power. The downside is that the app can only locate stores that have contacted Fons and Porter, AND if you are running a system other than Apple, certain devices remain unsupported. Sorry, KindleFire owners. You can't play in the app sandbox.

stalled and terrarium fun

two, well, really, one and a half weeks of school left before I have a month (!) off from school. Then I have four summer classes, but details. I am very seriously thinking of purchasing a serger, after years of threatening, I think it's coming down to the wire. Preempted by a garment project that I am loath to start because the material will be fray-happy, and I just don't want to deal with that.

last month I took a class on terrarium building at Creative Reuse with GreenSinner. Since then, my container took one for hte team, and is missing a chunk out of the boom... so I'm watching it a little more carefully, and on the look-out for a new container.

setting it up with little plants...

A companion container!

All finished!

Chillin' on the patio outside

"You may not like him Minister but, you can't deny...Dumbledore's got style"

Last early summer at Joann Fabrics, they were featuring a North African/ Indian decorating scheme replete with exotic furnishings, and, as I recall, a fair amount of paisley. At the time, I knew I was moving into a small apartment, and had been doing some homework about what sort of furniture pieces people felt worked best for small spaces. The repeat offender? Objects that pulled double duty and or were not "heavy" in the dual  sense of physical weight, but also visually - small spaces needed objects that allowed light to pass through them. I knew I would need a coffee table, and after reading other's blogs about small space dwelling, I also knew that unless said table could be moved quickly and easily, and was adaptable, I would hate it. 

While a LACK table from IKEA would have fit the bill, I'm just not that minimalist. 

And then these kids went on sale for $10 a pop. 

I did a little more homework, and armed with a can of spray-on primer and a can of Rustoleum #7929830 Lagoon, I got to work refinishing the Mallard and Avocado green side tables. The primer step is absolutely worth it, even though the dark table color was so close to the new, and the light would have been easily camouflaged. 

Why I love these pieces

At 16" tall and 11" square, they fit EVERYWHERE. When I have people over, no one is tripping over them, they're easy to move, and they carry the pop of color that I wanted to put on the walls, but would have turned this tiny space into a cave. They also have a hint of flair. I only wish I had two more, so that I could pull them together into a square. However, I would be equally as happy finding a tray that would nest over the tops

science experiment

This blog is usually about sewing quilting, however, in the interest of my own memory as well as documentation for class, I'm submitting my rock candy experiment, which I will be tracking for purposes of science over the next few days.

my recipe came from candy.about.com

materials:
2 cups of water
4 cups of sugar (a 2 pound bag works in terms of quantity)
1 medium sauce pan
a rubber or silicon spatula or spoon
1 glass mason jar, 1 1/2 cup qty.
one clothes pin, pref. the spring loaded variety
one bamboo skewer or disposable chop stick (such as you get with an order from an Asian restaurant)

optional
1 qt. sized glass mason jar, plus lid, one piece or a ring and top.
vessel for holding 4 cups of sugar
one separate measuring utensil for the water
one separate measuring utensil for the sugar

Also helpful if not already in a kitchen -
a dish pan of hot, soapy water standing by to immediately soak used measuring cups and sauce pan in. Trust me.

in case you don't have a skewer and a clothes pin...*
a clean length of cotton string
a pencil
a clean paper clip

I opted not to use food coloring or flavoring. Mostly because I didn't want to make a special trip to the store this morning.

2 cups (500 mL) of water. I used cold water straight from the tap.
I set the burner (it's a gas stove) on Medium heat.

My very large mug and a small, 2# bag of sugar.
I measured it out ahead of time into the mug to make sure I had the right amount.

measuring out the sugar

The water +1 cup of sugar

water (obviously boiling now) plus 2 cups of sugar
it is important that the water is hot enough for the sugar to dissolve, but not boiling so much that the sugar is forming bubbles and threatening to overflow the pan. Keep the heat at medium or slightly lower, and KEEP STIRRING! This might be a good time to dampen your skewer or string, since there is already sugar in the water. A skewer is very easy to swirl around in the syrup, and can be set aside in it's small mason jar until the syrup is finished.

adding the rest of the sugar.

Now we are at 2 cups of water + 4 cups of dissolved sugar. It feels fairly syrupy at
this point when stirring. again, make sure the sugar is dissolved - none should be visible.

Before pouring the syrup into the experiment container (ie: small mason jar), it is a good idea to have something underneath it to catch any spills. The jumbo mug is the perfect vessel since it already had sugar in it. The skewer and clothes pin do not need to be in place, in fact, it's more helpful if they aren't.

the treated skewer submerged in the sugar syrup with a little space between
the end of the skewer and the bottom of the jar

The materials sacrificed on the alter of science being immediately cleaned with dish soap and hot water. Crusty sugar syrup is a nasty mess to clean up when dry.

*I hate putting this at the end, but I wanted to get on with the pictures. 

The string, paper clip and pencil are in place of the skewer and clothes pin, either are for the sugar crystals to form on.
For the string method, tie one end of the string to the paper clip, and the other end to the pencil. Dampen the string in a little water and lightly coat it with granulated sugar (this will help the crystals latch on) When the syrup solution is ready, submerge the paper and string into the liquid, and roll the string up until there is about an inch of space between the bottom of the jar and the paperclip when the pencil rests on the top of the jar.

Whether or not a skewer or a string and paperclip is used, it is important to set the jar aside somewhere out of the way. If the liquid is agitated, the crystals won't form.

3 Rivers Quilt Show, Part 4, or all the small stuff

 "Rainbow Diamonds"
47" x 48.5"
S.M., Carnegie, PA

"Seasons"

                              16.5" x 45.5"
                             S.S., Mars, PA


This whole piece makes me think of Haiku poetry. I'm not sure why.










"I Love the Desert"
18.5" x 27.5"
A.C., Pgh, PA

"VFW Special"

41" x 41"
P.G., Bethel Park, PA










"Log Cabin Sunny Side Up"
42.5" x 42.5" 
V.B., Pgh, PA

"Scrappy Vines"
8" x 9.5".B.N., Canfield, OH


This one takes the tiny cake.