Crochet Wall Art

Remember my orange and green Tussy-Mussy 12" Square? 

It was a very interesting design by Rebecca Bisbing (here) with stitches that challenged me (view my projects here).  

I had pinned it up on the wall next to a framed hand-embroidery crewel flower design sewn by my Mother-in-Law in the same colors. 

But...I wasn't happy with it pinned up and realized it needed to be framed properly.  

Several weeks ago I had bought two black frames at Ikea with the intent of framing some black and white prints from vacations that I had rolled up and put away many years ago. 

Of course, I didn't bother to take measurements of the prints and bought the frames hoping they were the right size.  And you guessed right.. duh...the frames were too small. 

So today I'm sitting here thinking about those frames and decided to use one to frame my orange and green Tussy-Mussy square. 

The frame's mat opening wasn't a square shape so I added three rolls of double crochet to the top and bottom of the square to make it a rectanglar shape.

Then I cut out a piece of Muslim the size of the frame and sprayed some adhesive on a piece of stabilizer and attached it to the fabric.

  Next I pinned the crochet design to the chalk marked outline of the mat opening and loosely stitched the design to the fabric. 

The last step I dropped the fabric with the sewn on design into the frame opening and closed it up. 

For now I've hung it in our hallway from the dinning room to the kitchen so I can look at it close up so I can admire it as I pass through. 

I love it!  

I've always thought of displaying my crochet pieces framed and I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome.  

This won't be the last crochet piece I frame!

Have you ever framed your crochet?  

Loving My IKEA Shelves

Last week we journeyed to IKEA to look at cabinets and shelves.

We liked this white shelf unit and brackets combination. 

 We knew we would need smaller length shelves and were pleased that these shelves could be cut to size.

This is my little laptop corner in our kitchen I use for blogging. 

 Hubby installed this tiny IKEA desk shelf previously (here).

It was working very well for me but I wanted to have some shelves next to the little desk to put my coffee cup, land phone, weather radio, lamp and books.

Back out to the garage to cut one long shelf into two shelves.

Measure twice, cut once!

Poor Hubby - he is always working (for moi) in tight, dark corners!

Up go the brackets.

These shelves are in solid - they aren't moving at all.

My little blogging corner all finished!

I moved my Teddy Bear cookie jars over here to free up space on my kitchen counter.

This thing sat on the floor on the other side of our half wall with all the black cords hanging down - an ugly eye sore viewing from the family room.  

Look at all the dust!

Now it sits on the bottom shelf on the kitchen side with all the large black plugs hidden.

 I still have to tie up the hanging loose blacks wires - but what an improvement.

We have another small project to show you soon in my craft/sewing room. 

 But I have to give Hubby a break - he's been working hard on my projects.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Join me for:

Tweak It Tuesday

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IKEA Billy Bookcases

Going to get our IKEA Billy Bookcases!

Tuesday morning we got up fairly early for us so we could arrive at the IKEA store a little after opening at 10:00 AM.

We drove our one ton Ford F350 pick up truck so we could load and bring home any bookcases we purchased.

We decided on a total of five Billy units, three of what we call double bookcases, and two single bookcases in birch veneer.

Let me tell you these bookcase units were HEAVY!

There isn't much customer service at IKEA - I guess it's to keep costs down.  You have to select the items you want and carefully write down the item, aisle and bin number.

On the way to check out we grabbed a loading cart and found the items in the pick up area ourselves.

The only checkouts were self service too.

I don't know but I would hope that someone could assist you if you needed help because as a woman there was no way I could lift any of the packages by myself.  But I don't know if that is true as there were no signs telling you to ask for assistance if you needed it.  

At least we didn't have to worry about the weight with our one ton pick up truck!

At first we were only going to put one of the single units downstairs for my Christmas china but after putting one in place we decided two together balanced out better on the wall.

  Hubby assembled both single units and even attached them to the wall.

We bought an extension so the unit would go to the ceiling but then we realized we couldn't use it in our living room with the crown molding.  

We only have one glass door and we need two so next week we will return to IKEA.

This whole project started because we needed to add a wall of bookcases in our upstairs paperback library so we could move some of our hardcover books upstairs.

When we got the units home I thought wouldn't it be wonderful if we used one of the single units in the living room for my Christmas china.  So that's how two single units ended up there instead of upstairs.

I had so much fun gathering all our Christmas china together last night and putting it in one display.

Read about my Christmas China Pattern (here).

I'm assisting Hubby with assembling the double units for upstairs.

We'll have to buy two more single units to go with the three double units to make a full wall of bookcases 9 feet in length for the library room.  We may buy extensions for all the upstairs bookcases.  I think some doors would look nice too and help to control the dust.

Have you visited IKEA yet?  

The price is good - for five Billy Bookcase units, one extension and one glass door - the total was just under $500.  We're trying to control our collections and clutter one step at a time.

You'll have to wait to see the upstairs library units installed in a future post.

Join me for:

Cindy's Show & Tell Friday

IKEA Laptop Table

I love my Apple MAC Laptop.  

It was great to use on my kitchen counter top if we were looking something up quickly but it was tiring if we spent any amount of time there.  It also worked well at the kitchen table if I was surfing or blogging until it was time to set the table for meals.   

Clearly I needed a table just for my laptop.  We looked at desks but they would have stuck out too far into the dinette area.  So, we journeyed to IKEA the other day to see what they had.  

This is our kitchen corner BEFORE photo:

Now the AFTER photos:

We had a small dresser in the corner.  After moving it out we had this blank space:

 Hubby started to install the new IKEA laptop table.

After bolting the support bracket to the wall hubby inserted the felt drawer.

And then put the top on.  This is the top in the closed position.

And this is the top in the open position with the black felt drawer showing.

  The pulled out position gives room for the computer top to open up.

And this is my computer laptop table all hooked up.

 The drawer holds light weight items:  a pencil, memo pad, camera thumb, portable backup hard drive and IntelliScanner (handheld unit that reads barcodes for inventory gathering).  

I have lots of natural light from the Pella French doors and I can watch TV too.  Now my dining table and kitchen counter are not cluttered with my laptop.  This laptop table doesn't intrude into the dinette area at all.   

I love it!