Crafty Weekends

Last weekend, I got off of my bum and made a big step forward in a project I've been working on for a while now.  Using all my t-shirts from college, I'm putting together a patchwork quilt, with a Colgate "sweatshirt blanket" as the backing.  A few years ago I did the same with my high school tshirts and was quite happy with the results.

This weekend I did a few smaller projects.  Saturday was my friend Katy's birthday, and in preparation for a new Colgate Alumni book club we are starting up, I made her a bookcover that is an appropriate size for all of those best seller books.  I was pretty happy with the design, but right away, of course, I thought of improvements - I do plan to make another one soon.  

On Sunday, Nate and I went for a lovely 4 hour brunch at our friends' Bob and Magda's apartment.  Magda has just bought them a large dining table and chair set which I think is probably from the late '60's, early '70's era.  Magda is thinking about recovering the dining chair seat cushions (or perhaps I talked her into it . . .) so we got to have a nice long talk about where are good places in the city and online to purchase neat fabric.  When we got home, still chilly from this Chicago winter, I was inspired to make some draft dodgers for the windows in our family room.  The chair where I sit most of the time when we're watching TV is right next to a window and I feel like the cold air is constantly blowing onto me.  I got out some fabric I bought a while ago at Ikea and got to work.  I filled them not quite full with pinto beans - making them not quite full I found helps them to be "moldable" to the contours of the window you're trying to insulate - and voila!  It was a pretty successful weekend, craft-wise, and I am especially proud because the book cover and the draft dodgers were both made from fabric that I bought with no specific project in mind, and now I've finally made use of it!