Gingerbread Girl's Quilting Adventures: Thanksgiving Weekend

Hi folks, how was your Thanksgiving weekend? Like the rest of America, I stuffed myself (at Lucille's), shopped (the midnight sale at Macy's) and did some home improvement/decorating.

My most notable project last weekend was painting a 6 foot tall bookcase. The bookcase lives in my sewing room. I inherited the bookcase and it is probably from Ikea. It is laminated wood and the back panel is cardboard. Here is a "Before" photo.

I used an oil based primer and painted on the first coat on Thursday and the second coat on Friday. Dad assisted with the painting and was in charge of the shelves. I painted the bookcase.

Here is an "After" photo after 2 coats. I also lined the back of the shelf with a shelf liner.

The funny thing is you can hardly find shelf liners anymore. I shopped at the Home Depot when I picked up my paint and supplies and all they had were plain white, a granite and a dark wood grain pattern. I also went to the usual places such as Target and finally found 2 rolls of this pink and white polka dot at Big Lots. Yay for Big Lots even though there were only 2 rolls of this pattern. Shelf liners must not be a popular item to carry at stores anymore.

Anyway, if I were to do it again, I would trim the liner paper so they wouldn't overlap as it was harder to reposition it when the paper overlaps. It guess I was a bit lazy and was anxious to put my sewing room back together again.

Here's a couple more "After" photos.

I'm quite happy with the result. And even if it was probably easier to pick up a new bookcase from Ikea, I'm glad I took the time to repurpose an old eyesore.

Now on to quilting news. The good news is I completed all the blocks to my Mon Ami quilt. I started this quilt last October 2010 at a quilt retreat with Verna Mosquera. It took about a year to complete the applique and embroidery of all the blocks and I am now piecing the rows together and getting it ready for quilting. I'm not sure at this time if I will be sending it out to be quilted or not. I have a domestic machine and the thought of quilting this myself is already giving me back spasms.

Here are a couple of the blocks I completed.