Sneak Peek: My Americana Lap Quilt in the Making

Good morning, friends! I hope that you had a nice weekend! On Saturday morning I met up with my sweet friend Robbi R. for breakfast at Panera, and we had a great time catching up on the goings-on of our lives. After leaving Panera I ran a few errands and then headed home for a peaceful afternoon nap snuggled up with my sweet little dog, Tony. :)

A while back I started making a lap quilt in Americana colors, so I thought I'd show you the blocks that I hand-stitched for the quilt:

Lemoyne Star:

Applique Rose:

Ohio Star:

Hearts 'A Bloom:

To see what the quilt will look like when it's all put together, I laid out the blocks and their adjoining pieces on a throw on my guest bed and took a photo:

My sweet sister-in-law Sandy, who is an AMAZING quilter, has agreed to finish/machine quilt it for me! She worked on it this past Saturday and got the top all sewn together, so now she'll machine quilt it for me. I am super excited to see it all finished up, so be sure to stay-tuned and I'll show you the completed lap quilt in the near future!

Thanks for dropping by today!! Have a SUPER week!

Altered Window Photo Display Board

Happy Monday, All! I hope that you had a fun, relaxing and safe 4th of July weekend! It was so nice to have my sweetie home for a 4 day weekend!! We just hung out around the house, watched a movie and enjoyed our time together...nothing major, just some much needed down time for my sweetie!

Now, on to the fun project that I've been working on! My pal Jamie recently mentioned to me that she needed something to hang in her office to display photos of her kiddos; something that would be easy for her to change the photos out quickly without having to take a frame all apart. Her office is decorated in a super cute Americana theme, so my mental crafty wheels started turnin' and this is what I came up with for her:

I started out with an old window that Jamie's husband, Dustin, had given me a while back from a window replacement job that he had done. My sweetie took the glass out of the wooden window frame and then stapled chicken wire to the back of it for me:

I tore strips of gingham, denim from old jeans, and some red/white heart printed fabric and tied them to the wood strip that runs across the center of the window:

After rummaging around in my button stash, I came across some really cute buttons in the shape of American flags and stars. I tied baker's twine through the button holes and then glued the buttons to clothespins. Jamie can clip her photos to the chicken wire easily with these! (Sorry for the bad quality photo...took this one with my IPhone and it came out a bit fuzzy.)

Using some salvaged pockets from some of Justin's old jeans, I created a pocket banner and attached it to the base of the window frame by tying it tightly with torn gingham strips. (I used my Crop-A-Dial to punch holes in the corners of the pockets to run the gingham strips through, which formed the banner). Jamie can use the pockets on the banner to tuck memorabilia and additional photos in for future use on the display board.

While I was rummaging through my craft stash for the buttons, I came across a wooden star painted to resemble an American flag, so I knew that I had to incorporate it into this project! I formed a wire hanger and ran it through a hole in the top of the star. I then tied coordinating ribbon around the wire hanger and then simply attached this element to the rusty window latch at the top of the frame.

Here's another look at the finished project that I will give to Jamie tomorrow when we go out to lunch! (I used photos of my family and friends to clip on the wires for this post, so you can see how it looks all pulled together!)

I really LOVE how this turned out, and I plan on making some more of these using different themes/designs!

Thanks for popping over to my blog today! Have a WONDERFUL week!

Girl's Night Out and Americana Artwork

Last week I enjoyed a girl's night out with my pal Jamie and her daughter Kennedie. We had dinner at Mi Cocina, a nice Mexican restaurant in the Cherry Street district of Tulsa, and then attended a painting class at Pinot's Palette where the instructor taught us how to paint an antiqued/rustic American flag canvas. (You can check out the Pinot's Palette website HERE.) Oh! Jamie and I tried a new kind of wine while we were there, Cupcake Moscato, which was sooooo delicious! I am not a big drinker, and have never cared much for wine, but I LOVED this one! We had a TERRIFIC time, and plan on making this a regular activity!!

Here are a few photos from our fun evening...first is a pic of Jamie and me before we started painting:

The next two photos are of us, and the other folks in the class, working on our paintings...

TADAH!! Here is a photo of Jamie, me and Kennedie with our completed canvases:

Here's a close-up shot of my painting...but I decided that it needed a little something more...

...so I added buttons, stitch marks, outlining and the Pledge of Allegiance to it! I am really pleased at how it turned out, and I think that I may get a barn wood frame to put it in to hang in my office at work. (Note: It was hard to get a good, clear photograph without a glare...you can click on the photo and zoom in to see the detail work that I added, if you like.)

Thanks for dropping by today to see my artwork! Have a WONDERFUL week!