Tile Coasters, part 1

Sara and I saw these various places and thought we'd give it a try.

We mainly worked from the tutorial at Prudent Baby but we used fabric instead.

Sara read the directions better, those wrinkles are because I was impatient and didn't let the Mod Podge dry. Also in the picture below is a coaster made with paper on top.

I backed mine with felt using a hot glue gun. Then since I had polyurethane left over from finishing my desk, I tried using that as a sealant on top. Seems to work pretty well.

Next to try is sealant spray and maybe an idea I have for covering the edges on the fabric ones.

Completion!

Months ago I purchased an old desk from this guy (who I seriously think was a hoarder).

It's been sitting in various stages of progress on the front porch since then.

I had to wash it, remove the hardware, sand it, oil it, and seal it with the polyurethane.

Here's the finished product:

This was a new adventure for me... learned a lot about wood finishing.

Contest

Terri over at Dixie Samplar is doing a giveaway!

She just restarted her blog and wants to give a lucky reader a welcome back present.

Entries here for the next hour (man I procrastinate)

Please do go visit, I am a new reader and so far I like what I see.

:)

New Stitching project

A couple weeks ago I treated myself to a Lizzie Kate pattern at the local needle shop. It is the called Summer Alphabet.

My progress so far:

I am using DMC floss and 16 ct mocha colored aida. I didn't like the way the colors looked after stitching these, so I've been frogging them out and substituting colors that are a little brighter (you can see there's still two yellows). I still need to change the brown and green, but it's never any fun picking stitches out.

Also pictured is my cup of scraps. Though not actively participating in TUSAL, I have been similarly inspired. It's pretty to look at anyway.

I have come across others stitching this piece as well:

Nicole's Needlework

Suburban Stitcher

progress!

and my progress as of this morning:

Stitching Progress

I decided to start a large project. Since grandma got me a pattern book for Christmas- I picked one of the designs out of it. There are 21 different colors and the design is on 4 pages.

I started from the center and am doing the bottom right corner first.

Here is my work as of 1/27: