Uhhhh...Pennant Duvet, part 2

So I changed my plans. Originally I was going to make this into a quilt, but I decided on a duvet instead. There are several advantages of a duvet. First, I knew it would be mostly white, therefore I knew I'd be washing it a lot. As annoying as it is to restuff a duvet, I knew it would be easier to wash and dry. #2, I don't know how to quilt. That was a big one. And #3 I realized I had just donated any blanket that I could put in the middle of the quilt. And I'm trying to use things I have on hand. So anyway, as of the last post, I had pinned on the pennants. Next I sewed them on, first straight across, and then the rest of the little triangle. Last. Favorite. Part. I did it in probably 3 hour-long sessions. I decided to just straight stitch and let 'em fray, 'cause I thought it'd be cute and the zig-zag stitch and I are not BFFs.

Once I had the front stitched, I picked out a vintage sheet for the back that I had on hand and pinned the top to the bottom. I hope you're not looking for a tutorial, because I made this up as I went along! I picked up some giant red rickrack at Joanne's for a trim between the sheets. I pinned it the best I could, but as I sewed, the sheets moved along and my sides did not match anymore--groan! So, I would re-pin the other sides and hope for the best. Which brings me to another reason a duvet cover was a better choice for me: they can be rumplier and not perfect and it's OK. Whew!

Once I had them all toghether, I sewed some ribbon on the inside corners of the duvet and the corners of the down comforter I bought at Ikea. That way I can tie the comforter to the duvet and it won't shift around annoyingly. When I say this thing is not perfect, it isn't false modesty! Here you can see that on one corner the top sheet is about an inch longer than the bottom sheet. But when it's all tied up you can't tell. :0)

Aaaaand here is a hole I accidentally snipped in the bottom sheet about 2 seconds after I finished the thing. Thankfully it's right at the bottom and when I stitch it up you won't be able to tell. Oy.

Instead of risking more uneven seams, I just made ties for the bottom out of the extra fabric from the top sheet. It'll be easy to get the comforter in and out this way, too.

This is the bottom of the duvet. I used a vintage sheet instead of the fabric I originally intended to use. It was easy to use because it was already finished. Plus, I figure if the top side gets smudged, the bottom side is pretty enough to become the top side until I can wash it.

And here it is! I'm so glad I splurged on the rick rack. I think it really makes it. Can't wait to show you what it looks like on the Big Girl bed! Life has been busy, but we're making good progress on the room, and my grand to-do-before-the-baby-comes list. :0)

Cost breakdown:

Top sheet: $2.50 on consignment (bonus, it's already been washed a bunch and is super soft)

Bottom sheet: free, already had it

Pennant fabric: about $7 for two fat quarters (only used about half of them, though)

Rick rack: $11 with a 40% off coupon at Joann's.

Down comforter: $14 at Ikea

Total: $34.50.

Pennant Quilt

I have been thinking for awhile about making Ava a quilt for her new bedroom. I've seen a lot of really cute stuff online, and think I've found a way to make it easy enough for even me to do!

A few weeks ago, the fam was in Ashland, WI where there is a really cute shop that carries aDORable fabric. I got this for 1/2 price. $4.50/yd! I think it's Moda? I'm not sure how I'm going to use this fabric. Maybe as the back of the quilt and it can be reversible??? Each panel is so sweet:

I'm unashamedly copying this quilt from A Pretty Cool Life. I kinda figured I'd make pennants using all the fabrics in my stash.

But then I realized that part of the cuteness of the quilt inspiration is how she picks the colors and puts them together. So I decided to do some experimenting.


I was kinda liking this, but not getting very far with it:

I originally thought I wanted more primary colors, but it wasn't doing it for me:

Another try:

Then I remembered the fat quarters I had also gotten from the store in Ashland (I think it's called the Painted Cottage?)

I also got some giant yellow rick-rack that I kept nearby for inspiration. It may or may not be used on the bed, but I liked the general feel of it

Once I pulled out those fabrics, I found I didn't need to be limited to 4 or 5 fabrics, but that I could add more. I found that using one pattern to pull colors out of made it alot easier to put them together. I got the darker blues out of there and it started to come together. I also found that a mix of large and small patterns made a big difference.

For the main part of the quilt, I found an off-white king sized flat sheet at a local consignment store. It was 70% off at $2.50. I just cut off the embellishment. Then I cut the sheet to 68x88 (ish.)

To make the pennants, I made a template from a piece of paper. It's totally not perfect. And the cutting wheel sliced off pieces of the template as I went along, so I know some of my pennants are smaller than others. But I don't mind. I think it'll only add to the final product.

I eyeballed what I wanted it to look like, and laid out the pennants. I found that different orders of the fabrics made a difference to me too, so I just played with it until I liked it. Then I pinned it. That's as far as I've gotten. Here's how it looks now!

I'm pleased at how it's turning out so far! I won't be able to get back to it for at least a week, but I'm excited about how it's coming together. :0)

The Great List and a Great Weekend

We just had a big weekend at our house. First off, Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Friday! They were gracious enough to offer to watch Ava so Mr. Wonderful and I could have a little getaway. We went up to a town called Minocqua--a pretty little town situated in the lakes of central WI with all of the trappings a tourist could want! We spent a day going out to eat, antiquing, lazing on the beach and playing putt-putt. Despite the fact that I got a hole in one and 3 birdies, Mr. Wonderful still beat me by 5 strokes. You might say he's a little more consistent than me. :0) It was an awesome day!

My parents are also uber productive, so they helped me get started on my list of things to do before the baby comes! Ava helped too:

She's good with a hammer :0). Here's the Great List:

1. Paint and modify wardrobe

2. Move wardrobe into the living room to be the entertainment center

3. Move current "entertainment center" (shelving) to Ava's new closet (and paint it) for storage

4. Make play kitchen for Ava (in process)

5. Modify built-ins in Ava's new room to be bookshelves (in process)

6. Move stripe-y chair from basement into nursery for late night feeding

7. Pare down Mr. Wonderful's wardrobe (in process)

8. Pare down my wardrobe (check!)

9. Combine our clothes into one closet (in process)

10. Move guest room bed into basement

11. Move twin mattresses into Ava's new room

12. Move an end table into nursery next to stripe-y chair

13. Make bedding for Ava's room

14. Make curtains for Ava's room

15. Make a bunting for Ava's room

16. Move a dresser into baby's closet

17. Move guest dresser (and paint it) into nursery to be new changing table

18. Put a shelf above the changing table

19. Find a different way to deal with diapers (Diaper Champ, etc.)

20. Put up a second rod in Ava's new closet.

21. Find a way to store Ava's toys in her new room.

22. Paint the beige "accent" wall in Ava's new room Cottage White

23. Paint the wall behind the built-in bookshelf something fun.

Yeah, I know a TON of stuff. But I'm excited for the way everything is going to come together. I think Ava's new room is gonna be super CUTE. Speaking of cute, here is what I picked up in Minocqua for Ava's new room:

Sooooo stinking cute. Especially since we call her Ava Bird. If one of you could tell Ava that this two week phase of not napping isn't cool that'd be great. If she went from 2-3 hour naps every day to no nap at all in the snap of a finger, I'd be sad. And please don't insert stories of how so-and-so's baby dropped their nap at 18 months, m'kay? Last week, I figured she was overtired because of VBS, last weekend I figured it was Grandma and Grandpa excitement, but now I don't have a reason!

A feature, Pinterest and a Crazy Nesting Pregnant Lady

Majorly quick post here, but I wanted to let you know that I'm so excited--Laurie from Tip Junkie featured my filing cabinet on her blog! It was really sweet of her. Here's the link. Tip Junkie is a great site that compiles great blog posts. Kinda like a one stop shop--there's so much awesome stuff to wade through in Blogland, it's nice to let other people do the wading sometimes!

In other news, get ready because my second trimester bod is ready to NEST. I made a list of things I need to do to get ready for baby, also known as Ziggy #2 (Ziggy being short for zygote, of course.)

The list is SUBSTANTIAL, but I know many of my 3rd trimester friends would encourage me to start NOW. I'm definitely heeding the advice, because it doesn't look like we're moving any time soon so we gotta make this house work for us!

I've been compiling ideas on my new Pinterest, and have been particularly excited to outfit Ava's big girl room. If you are interested in checking out my boards, here's the link!

We're From the Island of...

We have this window in our bedroom. It's kind of a misfit. It's not shaped the way the other windows are. It's wide but short. To make matters crazier, the window is practically flush with the trim, which means we can't mount anything inside. Any window covering or shade we put up has to be mounted on the wall or on the trim itself. It's just not like the other windows. It's okay. It was born that way.

Mr. Wonderful is not a good sleeper. Lots of light can make it harder for him to sleep in (sleeping in is not really in his vocab, you might say) So last fall I pinned up some dark fabric over the windows. This made Mr. Wonderful very glad, but I was not so enamored. It was UG! So I started sifting through my options.

Shades were not going to be SUPER effective due to the mounting issue. Then I looked at blackout curtains. Most of them have vinyl, which is supposed to off-gas terribly. Then I thought maybe I could just find some thick fabric. But I didn't want it to be severe and dark. Then I found this fabric at Joanne's. (back view)

It was $21/yard down from $35 a yard. It doesn't look terribly thick in the pics, but it really does block a lot of light, and manages to not look dark or depressing. I ended up buying just a yard and hemming all sides, one of which being a long hem so I could have a little rod pocket.

I ended up buying some brown grosgrain ribbon so I could tie it up and let the light in during the daytime.

I safety pinned the ribbon to the curtain in back so when I let it down the ribbons don't fall off. Totally mistreated. Awww, yeah. Also, the window is not crooked, the ceiling is slanted. Do not adjust your monitors. :0)

Not as pretty down, but it's gonna help the mister and much improved from what we had. What's that you say? The bed is not centered on the window? Some of us are pregnant and need a little extra space, mkay?

Oh, and speaking of pregnant, we had our ultrasound on Monday--baby is looking good, and we can't wait to be surprised when he or she is born!!!

Uh Oh.

Do you see that hinge at the top of the cupboard? Do you see how there are still screws left in it? Looks like the door hanging on them was stripped...maybe open shelving is in our future???

Lovely Lanterns

I finished my garden project! It was super cheap, fast and easy and I'm so glad I took the time to figure it out and do it. I have been collecting aqua Ball jars for awhile now, so those were free, as well as the candles I already had. All I bought was some wire and sand at Joanne's (on a gift card!) So it was fa-reee! Here is how it ended up (in daylight): Here is the early evening glow:

I ended up getting the sand because I wanted the candles to stay put. I wiggled them down in the sand so they wouldn't shift around and get by the glass and break it. It also helps me reach the candles in the bigger jars. In the biggest jar I first put a bunch of rocks in the bottom to save on sand. I wrapped the wire around underneath the threads and then looped it over to make a handle before securing it on the opposite side.

Here's what it looked like from the ground later:

And of course, the pictures don't do it justice. It is really pretty and it made us want to linger as we sat underneath.

I really wanted this to be a low maintenance project. Something I could put up and leave up all summer without having to worry about rain or bugs. I spent a day racking my brain trying to figure out a way that I wouldn't have to take them up and down. And then I realized, duh, put the lids back on! Now they'll be super easy to care for. Another advantage to these lanterns is that they are totally kid proof. We don't have to worry about Ava getting into them.

So there they are--our romantic, free, ambient lighting for these beautiful summer nights!




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