Organizing a Kitchen Cabinet

Organizing a Kitchen Cabinet

I like organizing things. 
That's not to say I walk around the house in the middle of the night looking for things to organize. 
In fact, I am not a highly motivated organizer. 

That sounds like an oxymoron.  Let's just say that I like the results. 
I am so thrilled with completing an organizing project, I go out of my way to gaze lovingly at what a good job I've done.  Needless to say, the first thing I did the morning after I completed this task was to open the cabinet doors to look at the final project.

  

Here's the Before Picture

You don't need to go out and buy expensive boxes, bins, nor organizers. 
I use shoe boxes (and the like).  Don't be afraid to write on them.
It makes it easier to find what you/others are looking for.

Also, when you can't decide whether to throw something away,
or can't decide whether you are ready to part with it.
Donate it!

Somebody who really wants it will end up with it and you don't have to store it
for the rest of your life waiting for the right moment to use it. 

Here's the During Picture

 

The shelves were starting to show that they were bowing/bending from the weight.
I washed the shelves and then flipped them over.
That ought to keep them in great shape to last years to come.

Here's the After Picture

I like that I can find what I am looking for.

I like that I am not embarrassed should I need to open the door to get something
while someone else is standing there.

I like that there is space to put a new item in the cabinet.



Winning the Bed-Time Battle with Your Children

Go to Bed Now!

The youngest of my three children is now a Sophomore in college. 
I miss having small children around. 
I do not miss putting small children to bed.

My children smile when they admit I outsmarted them when they were young at bedtime.
When bedtime loomed I would ask, "Would you like to go to bed now, or in five minutes?"
They always picked "Five minutes." 

So I put the kitchen timer on five minutes, making the timer the "bad guy". 
When it rang, we scurried off to bed for tuck ins.

WINNER!

Choosing Fabric for a Quilt - LeMoyne Star

Mentioned earlier, I am attracted to LeMoyne Stars, probably because I had a great teacher

(Sally Palmer Fields) who taught me the trick of hand-piecing this pattern.  Sally passed away in the last few years and I wrote a letter to her relatives, thanking them for sharing her with me. 

I wish I had had a better understanding of color.  You cannot tell from the one color of purple I used, how much piecing went into this quilt.  Barbara Barber simply flipped the fabric over and had two tones of the same color.  I wish I had done that. 

I call this quilt; Purple Majesty.  I have put this away for a future grandchild (NO PRESSURE).

This utiilty quilt was made for my college-aged son, who loved to sleep with the window open.
I used Fat Batt and tied the quilt.  The quilt is very heavy.
The quilt fabric was repurposed from jeans/pants and was labor intensive getting all the fabric needed to make this extra long twin bed sized quilt.

I am getting better at understanding selecting color.

I believe the quilt is a real babe-magnet.



Repairing a Quilt

I have been fixing an old quilt over the Christmas vacation for my nephew. 
I gave him this quilt 16 years ago, when he was a newborn. 
The colors were chosen in the hope that the quilt would not become too "baby-ish" as he grew.
Like the Velveteen Rabbit, this quilt was loved real. 
I was unaware how much use the quilt had gotten until I inspected it closer.

Zoom in and you will see the wear this quilt has experienced.

 

With seam ripper in hand, I carefully pulled the bias tape off the whole quilt. 
This was, of course, very time consuming. 
At this point I realized that there had been some shifting among the layers along the edges. 

Notice how the brown from the front (bottom) is extending out from the tan fabric (top) of the back.

 

 

I trimmed (Gulp!) the excess away.

 

Then I tried to find a fabric that would compliment the quilt,
which would be destined to become the new bias.
Notice the faded lizard that I had stenciled on the quilt face.
I had this lizard fabric in my stash. 

 

Making bias tape.

 



 

 

I hand sewed the bias tape to the quilt edge and then matched up the ends.

 

 



Completed.

 

I love the LeMoyne Star pattern.

 

Future posts will show more of the LeMoyne Star



This site will contain projects, ideas, discoveries I'm currently Involved with.

The Christmas rush to complete gifts creates stress, but completing the project and seeing the final gift is rewarding.