Volume 24: Fall Sewing for Whimsy

I had some time last week to do some frivolous Fall sewing! I don’t actually have a ton of Fall decor, but I’ve been adding a few little things each year and now I really love the little collection I do have!

This week’s YouTube video included TWO tutorials and a bunch of ideas for what to do with your Fall fabric stash. Seasonal fabrics are so hard to resist, but we don’t often have plans for them, so if you need some ideas for using them up, here ya go.

House Projects

I painted my front door a very fun color a couple weeks ago and I LOVE how it looks. I also took my daughter Layla’s barn quilt class at the art studio where she works and hung it next to the door. It changed/updated the look of our whole front facade. This project unleashed a flood of ideas for house projects, so naturally, I started painting our entire main floor that very week, ha!

We’ve lived in this house for almost a year and after our last house experience, it was nice to relax for awhile and not tackle any big projects. I knew when we moved in I would eventually want to paint the “greige” walls (that’s literally the name of the color!), and now is the time. I’m painting everything a fresh white and planning some pops of color in strategic places.

We’re also starting on a minor kitchen renovation! We have honey oak cabinets and I know people often hate them, but we think they’re beautiful, they just need the right paint and counters and hardware. I’ll definitely show you when we finish, it’s looking so good already!

Change of Perspective

Moving my sewing room upstairs has been the best possible thing for my mental state and my productivity. I had no idea how much I didn’t like the basement until I got outta there! As a result, my mind is overflowing with project ideas, pattern possibilities and holiday projects to share with you all and I am so excited to work in my sewing room every day.

Here’s a shot of five different projects happening on my desk yesterday! (The opossums are for a baby gift, soooo cute).

Beginner’s Quilting Course

See those brightly colored blocks up there? Those are for the Beginner’s Quilting Course I’m feverishly working on! If you like the way I teach on YouTube and you would like to learn quilting in a low pressure way, stay tuned. I’m very excited about this and I hope to have it ready sometime in November.

Website Update

I’m currently revamping my website a little bit, so if things look a little different while I work everything over, that’s why. Luckily, I have a resident artist in the house and I’m going to pay her to do the design part for me, with new colors, logo, etc … (my resident artist has a YouTube channel, by the way ;)

Layla finished this large oil painting last week and I LOVE IT, so she let me hang it in the perfect spot on our stairs. Fun fact, I’ve been doing the New York Times crossword every single day for about 15 years, way before it was cool.

And in other Layla news, after a gap year, (which provided a ton of clarity and direction, I must say), she’s going to be starting college next semester! She’s going to a local Christian college for her gen ed classes and then she’ll go to our city’s University for an art history degree. She’s very excited about it and I just want to encourage other parents whose kids might seem to be floundering about what to do with their lives — it will all work out. I promise. Our son is currently a dual enrollment student at the same college and plans to continue there as a college student next Fall. So we’ll have two college students in the house! Pray for our bank account and buy lots of patterns LOL.

My other daughter Natalie filmed a video with me all about the crafts and DIY wedding projects we made, so stay tuned for that video on Monday!

Cheers for now :)

Nikki

P.S. I made this cute wrap cardigan using the Seamwork Elmira pattern and I’ve been able to style it in different ways, so it’s a great addition to my wardrobe.