the new college quilt in action!

Earlier this month,

I mentioned I was making a quilt

for Brick Master for the beginning of his college life.

Well Friday we dropped him off

to school to start Monday!

Here is his quilt,

all finished, bringing some colors 

to a pretty stark room!

I used his favorite colors

 (that also happened to be the colors of his school),

a simple weaving pattern

and a large appliqued M,

his initial and the school, 

like if it was meant to be!

A few people have asked me more details about this quilt,so here are the quilted dimensions of the various pieces:

The back of the quilt is just red fleece with the school logo,

(which stained my sewing machine!)

 So far the only decor in his room is the quilt

and the 2 airplanes pics!

Go Terps!
Happy sewing!

a modern quilt for a teen

It is almost the end of the school year, just one more week to go before summer freedom! So it is the perfect time for a school photoshoot...on the football field.

Brick Master does not play but enjoys going to the games with his friends.

And this quilt looks perfect there!

It was quite unintentional but black and orange are his school colors!

I was just inspired by this little speaker, with a fun houndstooth pattern:

The pattern from this quilt is V and Co houndstooth.

It is supposed to be 2 colors, but I went with 4,

it is a little trickier but not much.

It is quite a bold and modern quilt, quite different from the ones I usually make,

but just right for my cool 16 year old almost junior!

I chose to only use fleece instead of batting and backing,

it is lighter but still quite warm.

I quilted it lightly as I did not want it to distract from the design.

It should hold up just fine as they are only 2 layers together.

I took a short cut with the binding by sewing it by machine, (I usually finished by hand....) It turned out to be just fine, the corners are good on both sides,  I just stitched in the ditch all around on the top side catching the binding on the back side.  I used black thread which is barely visible on the front. Quick and very satisfying!

And of course, it is perfect in Brick Master updated bedroom during the One Room Challenge.
Happy sewing!

teen boy bedroom {the ORC edition} week six: the big reveal!

Today is the end of the One Room Challenge. For this challenge, I chose to redo my 16 years old son's bedroom. His room was never really updated since we moved into this house 6 years ago, so it was time to do something special, before he goes away to college!

And because he will be leaving in 2 years, I wanted to keep the update simple and on the cheap, which I did: I spent about $300 on his room. Not bad for a good paint job, a brick accent wall, and some seriously sturdy shelves.
It all started with a visit to Ikea and this picture:

Brick Master and I really liked the feel of this "room" and realized we could make something like that happened with his room.
So I repainted the walls white, and then we installed one brick wall, the feature wall when you enter the room.

All of his art went back on the wall and then some, Brick Master is a huge Star Wars fan, and he likes to acquire prints when we travel, like the painting from Paris skyline, the cartoon print from the Tate museum in London, the airplanes prints from Pearl Harbor, and the Lego"Free Hugs" from DC. And let's not forget Miss C.'s Star Wars paintings she made for him as presents, or the boomerang Mon Cheri brought back from Australia.
The next thing we addressed was a cool bedding, he currently likes his comforter and bed set so we opted to not change anything there, so instead I finally finished a quilt I had started many years ago.... and it is perfect for the room with its black, white, grey and orange!

don't you love that giant houndstooth? so bold and graphic!
Finally we took care of displaying Brick Master's many collections: of airplanes with this little shelf,

and of tanks, and WWII vehicles, and helicopters, and Star Wars with these shelves below:

(and karate trophies, he is now a brown belt, hoping for the black one soon!)
That's what I called some serious shelves!

I made them out of very popular plumbing parts, it is quite sturdy but expensive, compare to regular shelves.
But it really showcases Brick Master's collection:

perfect view from his bed.
So overall it is a great upgrade of his bedroom for about $300, with $100 for the 4 brick panels, $120 for the shelves (plumbing parts) and about $80 of paint, wood and miscellaneous parts.

And the best part, I have a happy teenager!

teen boy bedroom {the ORC edition} week five

There is only one week left for this spring One Room Challenge! And we have had some progress, yeah!
Last week, I only had part of the quilt to show, but this week, there is an airplane shelf, new blinds and the beginning of more shelves!
Let's start with the airplane shelf:

Brick Master has a thing about airplanes, especially model ones,

so he has this neat collection of WWII planes that he wanted displayed.

So I built him a simple shelf, very similar to these ones from my previous baking corner.

It fits perfectly above some of his Legos,

just next to his desk, in plain sight for him.

And next to the window with one of the new blinds!

I installed another 2 on the main window.

The previous ones had lost their strings and it was no longer possible to open them,

giving this room a cave feeling, perfect for a sleep deprived teenager!

So I spent about 2h uninstalling the old blinds,

and installing the new ones, I chose them cordless for safety,

2 blackouts and 1 light filtering....

it might help to get up in the morning on the weekend!

My last project is to make some more shelves for this side of the room:

Originally he had a tv but never really watched it,

so Miss C. was happy to take it off his hands!

He has a few more collection of tanks and helicopters,

and some Star Wars helmets he wants to display.

The art needs to be rehanged above his bed...

So I am planning on making shelves like these:

(picture from Dandelion Patina)

I already purchase the hardware,

I just run out of the time this week end,

Brick Master was studying for his AP government,

so I did not want to make too much mess in his room.

The test is this Thursday, on May the 4th,

a great sign for him

and all the other Star Wars fans out there!

teen boy bedroom {the ORC edition} week four

So this is week 4 of the One Room Challenge, which means only 2 weeks left, so technically last weekend should have seen super productive.... well it wasn't! Instead we had the Science Walk downtown DC, more specifically for me watching my niece and nephew while their parents and Mon Cheri went marching downtown! They came from NY, the least I could do is spend the days with the kids, we had fun but no work was done... And on Sunday, it was our town Science day, so Brick Master and the robotic team were on display, which means me too, as I am a parent volunteer.

Not everything was lost, I had a little bite of time at night to do some sewing. I am finally finishing the quilt I started years ago, more exactly I finished the top in April 2014!
(we had a lot of snow that year)
It just sat there in my sewing room waiting for me to quilt and bind it.  At the time I had even purchased some black and white fleece  for the back and cut the binding. But I felt overwhelmed by the size of the quilt and the challenge  of putting all that bulk in my sewing machine.
Well no more, with this room redo, we need a good quilt, and this is it.
I just finished quilting and attached part of the bidding, it will be done, in time for the room reveal.
So at least we will have painted walls, brick wall and a handmade quilt!

We are moving along toward this mood board:

Better chance next week!