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Good grief.  Where did the Summer go?  Certainly it can't be August already?  

I am going to be taking two weeks off from work starting next Monday.  I am not going anywhere – I'm just going to putter around the house and sleep in and pretty much just do what ever I want to with each day.  Sounds pretty heavenly to me. 

Work has been taking up all my energy and attention and I really just need to decompress and not think about it for a while.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to take a break in the afternoon and headed over to the Antique Trove in Roseville.  I was looking for milk glass plates but was drawn to this old tobacco tin.  The seller had about two dozen of them in various sizes.  

I'm not a proponent of tobacco by any means but I did love the script and the elegance of black on white.  The lid came off, with a bit of coaxing, and there was a lovely aroma of tobacco still in the tin.  

Here's a funny tid bit of information for you – when I was pregnant with my first child I worked at a General Contractor's office.  Several of the engineers used to smoke pipes and while I was pregnant I LOVED the smell of it.  I would loiter outside their offices just breathing in the aroma.  Yikes!  No concern about second hand smoke or anything.  

Anyway – the tin makes a lovely holder for all my paintbrushes.  

 

I'm going to take a mini-break from blogging.  I'll be back on Friday with my favorites.  I just need a little recharging. 

Flickr Favorites 

• Cute presentation for a gift magazine subscription
• Slap a bird on it and I tend to love it – not sure if I like the cream version or the more colorful one better: hand painted bird bowls
• Cute Summer tote.  It's not too late to plan that beachy get away, is it?
• I don't think I've ever included a recipe in my FF's but I made these shrimp cakes this week and they were DIVINE.  The only mistake I made was halving the recipe since it was just Rick and me.  We could have eaten twice as much.  
• Now why didn't I think of that:  DIY baker's twine

I am getting a jump start on the weekend and I'm taking today off. It's time for our bi-annual palais de poulet major clean out so that's how I will be kicking off the festivities around here.  Then I plan to curl up with my two new decorating books.   Have a marvelous weekend everyone!

P.S. Thank you for the vintage sheet table runner love yesterday.  I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I made something!

And it only took me seven hours start to finish and that was with taking a break to make and eat dinner.  This is actually made entirely out of scraps.  Even the backing and batting are leftovers from long ago projects.

I admit to feeling a little anxious putting this out there because of the material.  The top is made entirely out of vintage sheet scraps.  I can just picture the quilters that read my blog recoiling in horror.  Vintage sheets (of this ilk anyway) tend to be a cotton/poly blend.  A rather lowly material.  

A few months back I saw this quilt and was instantly smitten with how sweet and humble it was.  I grew up in the 70's and this just instantly reminded me of that time.  

 

I started collecting vintage sheet fat quarters, buying them in small lots on Etsy.  I purchased from several different sellers and without fail each little bundle was beautifully laundered and pressed and sent off in a pretty package.  

I finally amassed enough to make a small lap quilt.  I envision it as the type of quilt you would throw over your legs while reading in a hammock or spread out on the lawn for a picnic.  Something not too precious. 

My plan is to cut 56 – 8.5 inch squares and just do a simple 7 x 8 plain block pattern like the inspiration quilt.   I started cutting out the squares this afternoon and had a long strip left from each piece of material.

I remembered seeing this quilt as you go table runner and thought I would to a trial run with my fabrics and see how it turned out.

Well it sure went together quickly!  You know me – I never finish anything!  I'm like the Sarah Winchester of quilting.

I know it is a quilt as you go pattern but I like the look of the added machine quilting.  Makes it a little more puckery and worn looking.  I opted to go with a plain white backing and binding because I think it gives a lighter and more blended look. 

Okay I got over my nervousness about putting this out there.  But what do you think a machine quilter is going to think when I show up with an entire quilt top made out of vintage sheets?