Hanging Bookshelf

My good friend Liz approached me and asked if I'd be willing to make/decorate her a small hanging bookshelf for a cozy cottage bunk bed room. I happily agreed!

The only things she said were:

• I should take a paint chip to match the yellow of the other furniture
• She showed me a particular quilt that would be living in that room
• She had the dimensions she wanted for the shelf unit.

The room has a yellow dresser and side table, a top twin sized bunk and a bottom double sized bunk.  I took a paint chip from the dresser so I could match the paint and went on my way.

I sat and thought a lot about how I was going to find a book shelf matching the dimensions... I normally create my projects from things I find in peoples trash or on craigslist. I did a little research and learned that there is a custom wood furniture/shelving place right around the corner from where I live. I talked to them and they said they could make me a shelf fitting those specs.  Perfect!

I went to the paint store in hopes of them matching the paintchip I had. Unfortunately I didn't bring enough of the paint color for them to match using their fancy machine, so it was up to my eye and Peters encouragement to get the right color or at least a close match. I finally settled on what would be the yellow and hoped it would match. IT DID!

I sketched out a number of designs for it, that incorporated the wedding ring quilt idea. I settled on one design and began. I painted the whole shelf yellow. Then I made a stencil, traced it on to the side of the shelf and painted it white. THEN came the decoupaged quilting.

The pictures can tell you the rest of the story.

I cut out paper 'patches' out of decorative paper. I decoupaged them onto the shelf using Mod Podge and a polycrylic top coat.

Next time I am at Liz's cottage I will try to take a picture of the whole room. You can see the quilt in the very last photo. I had fun making this for her, and am glad that it fits in so well with the rest of the decor.

Bow Tie Ben

My big brother Ben is a bow tie wearer. I don't think he wears long ties, I think he's pretty much exclusively a bow tie man. Just like my dad wears a handle bar mustache, my brother wears a bow tie.  Even for my wedding, all the guys wore matching long ties but I knew Ben needed his own matching bow tie so he'd feel like himself, so that's what he wore.


Ben was visiting and handed me a small strip of fabric and a bow tie that he likes wearing. He asked if I could make him a bow tie out of the fabric he gave me. It was kind of thick, almost a home decor weight fabric, which I wasn't sure how it would work up for such a small item, but it ended up being just fine. I guess this fabric is for a friends wedding and he wanted a bow tie to match the decor.


I traced half the bow tie that fit him onto the fabric he provided. I left enough fabric to make seams etc...  I made 4 matching pieces, so that I would have front left & right, and back left & right.  I added some light weight fusible interfacing (so it would hold its shape) to half of the bow tie, and sewed it together.  Did a little flip inside out (with the thicker fabric was not an easy maneuver) ironed it and BOOM ready to go.

I realize I haven't been quite up with taking the photos in action lately. I will try to be more aware of this, but once I get crafting, I like the freedom of just doing it and not documenting the whole thing. . . SO here are the photos I do have.