Sleepless Nights

Can't sleep, can't sleep. What to do? I think I'll pull out a UFO and see what happens.

Aha ~ a flannel raggy quilt. Just the mind-numbing task I need to put me to sleep.

I think the fabrics are pretty. They'll make the back of the quilt look so much prettier than the front, which is a hodgepodge of very old flannel scraps cut to squares for a four-patch block. Tonight I'm pinning the four-patches together in readiness for sewing them together tomorrow. Then they'll get joined to the large flannel squares. Stay tuned for more progress.

A Breath of Fresh Air

For the past nine years, our loungeroom has been full of the blahs. It was cluttered with odd bits of furniture ~ nothing went together ~ it was quite depressing, actually. My youngest daughter used it mostly, to watch TV and play her electric guitar. The place was a disaster area. On nights when it was my turn to host quilting, I'd madly rush round trying to tidy up and find clear spaces. Now, I love this room! Have a look.

We simply rearranged rooms. Instead of two large formal rooms that rarely got used, the dining table and chairs have been brought into the loungeroom for a combined sitting room/dining area. And it feels so nice.

This antique French dresser used to be filled with CDs. It was missing a shelf so things were just piled on top of one another.

I had our handyman Jeff make a new shelf and he got Dulux to match the antique grey paint inside. Voila ~ a nice place to show off treasured family heirlooms.

The needlepoint pictures on the wall were done by my great-aunt Helen Shand and the little lady to the left of the dresser was made by my quilting friend Ruth Buchanan.

Instead of a TV and grand piano in the room, we now have these lovely gold linen embroidered lounge chairs, picked up for a song on ebay.

They are so comfortable that you have to move Milo the cat if you want to sit down ~ he's already bagged his favourite spot.

The striped cushions came from an upholstery shop closing down in Belrose.

This is such a lovely spot in the bay window. Before, there was an antique oval table that belonged to Peter's parents and more often than not stuff was piled on it. These chairs go with our dining table but don't they look perfect in the window? The little table has extensions that fold out, just right for a cup of tea.

Isn't this chair rather sweet? It's a very old Victorian inlaid wood dining chair that came from the Astor Apartments in the city. It had belonged to Peter's Great Uncle Jack and Great Aunt Cecily, who built the Astor.

It had a 1960s turquoise striped fabric on it when we got it but our cats shredded that to pieces. This piece of fabric was one I had in my stash. Don McKay at Willoughby upholstered the chair for me.

Tomorrow, another ebay bargain buy arrives ~ a little two-seater Victorian style sofa to go with the comfy chairs seen earlier. Can't wait.

Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering what happened to the grand piano, it's now in the TV/music room, which was the old formal dining room. Will post pics of that when we've finished that room!