Lounge Room Make over part 1 OR 'Found my motivation!'

Brace yourselves. This is the second blog post in as many days. AND I've been exceedingly productive. You may need to sit down and grab a cuppa for this one, 'cause I'm gunna hog the entire show 'n' tell session like the naughty girl I am :p

To start with - remember this?

Peas, no carrots handspun yarn. Machine Washable merino, 3 ply. 

Well - it's all gone. Pretty much anyways, I only have a small amount left. Half of it became some fingerless mitts for my mum for mothers day, which I forgot to take photos of before gifting, like the idjit I am. The other half became its main purpose - a beanie for the Master of Mayhem, given he chose the fibre for his requested 'bright green beanie'.

He thinks it's allright :) He says it keeps his ears warm, so I guess thats what matters! It was also him who chose for the left over handspun to be used for his Nanni's mitts because 'Nanni likes green too'. Clever boy, that one :p

Akward segway here - not long after mothers day, we had a house inspection. Eek. We have some mark on the wall in our bedroom which - while eminently fixable - we did not have the time to fix before the inspection. I thought and thought, and came up with the bright idea of asking my friend Susan for a lend of a wall hanging quilt to cover it up. She obliged beautifully, lending me something which matched my bedspread beautifully and looked like it belonged there. I was sad to give such a work of art back, but not before I snapped off a few pics of it hanging there for posterity's sake. 

Stunning, no? A short note about Susan's work though - it's not only beautiful, and inventive, but meticulously pieced with great care and a fabulous eye for detail. She has won many awards for her quilt, been in magazines and taught classes, and every accolade she has received is well deserved in my book! You will find her blog here: Susan In Stitches and it is well worth checking out. 

Now while I am not even close to measuring up to Susan's level of skill or her artists eye for design, I'm giving things a bash anyways. 

It was never a purposeful thing you see, for 90% of my furniture and decor to be green. Most of our things are opshop, or hand me downs. With 2 small kids, there's little to no point in having new flashy stuff. It just happenned that way that our dining table has green upholstery, the computer desk is green, the couches are green and so are the window trims in this house. I am over the green, and well over the blend of pale colours in the lounge room in particular. 

I feel it is lacking personality. It's boring. Even to me, who lives here, it doesn't feel warm and inviting and homely. Given we rent our home, there's very little I can do about that, unless it is not permanent. 

So I have been sewing. A stack of fabrics from Amy Butlers Lotus revisted range, paired with some chocolate mock suede left over from a skirt I made a couple of years ago (see?! It does pay to save your fabric offcuts) made a great blend of colours. 

The first Cushion cover is finished, hand cut and sewn paper pieced hexagons injects a little bit of colour into the room where there was none before. 

- it does need to be said here though that while the mock suede is soft, and luxurious and fantastic for something cosy - its grippiness does make it a complete bitch to work with. I feel the end result is worth it though!

This cushion cover is the first of many, a plan to inject some life into the room by use of loads of colours. I'm hoping that by the end, with many different cushion covers, a throw rug or two and some thinking outside the square, I can make the lounge room a much nicer place to hang out. 

The second cushion cover, this time a much bigger euro pillow size, is already over half done too. 

Its been quite the productive few weeks really! And with loads of projects on the go, no time for stopping. There's cushion covers and throw rugs to sew, cardigans and beautiful gift shawls for amazing people to knit, Sock Clubs to dye and get out the door, and of course gorgeous colours to spin.. speaking of, there's some Golden Orb calling my name.. 

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