Repurposed Cabinet

I have lots of stuff.....lots of stuff!!  And, I love cabinets with lots of little drawers, which works out great because I need them to store all my stuff! :)  So, I found a project to help with this....

 

Sadly, my Granny passed away in June of 2011.  She was a "collector" of lots of things!  She was a teacher, so she had lots of school stuff - books, crafts, and other stuff that she could never stand to get rid of.  She was an artist in many different ways - but, she loved quilting and painting most.  She liked teaching quilting classes, spent hours and hours reading through quilting books/patterns, and working through small projects.

Granny with my youngest Son - Thanksgiving 2010

When she passed away, my Mom and her sisters began sorting through her house.  My husband and I traveled back to her house to help them load up some moving trucks.  It was an exhausting weekend!!  We were planning on leaving behind this old metal cabinet full of dust sitting on the side of the garage.  We had some room left in the moving truck, and I had a big idea to paint it and clean it up to put in my little studio in my basement.  So we loaded it up and it came home with me!

My husband and I took it all apart (well...mainly my husband)!  We cleaned it up, drawer by drawer...  It took a lot of time to take all the little drawer pulls off - spray paint them and add them back on to the drawers.  I used a metallic silver spray paint for these:

We also painted each drawer and the outside cabinets with white spray paint. You can see from this photo we had quite an operation going in our garage.  (These are horrible photos that I just took with my cell phone!)

And, here's the finished product!

I am so upset that I didn't take a before photo so that you could really appreciate the transformation.  But, imagine a dirty, rusty, and matte gray version of the above.  I decided to put it in my "studio" and store all my scrapbooking stickers by categories, like Christmas, Halloween, July 4th, Summer, etc.

Took a while to get them all arranged and the drawers labeled - but, I am feeling very, very organized now!  As you pull the drawer open, the front drops for easy access to the contents.  I think the cabinet was originally used to store 8 1/2" by 11" sheets of paper - maybe handouts in school or something like that.  

It was a lot of work, but I love it!  And, I'm so glad that I decided to throw it in that moving truck.  I'm sure Granny would be glad to see it being used!!  :)

Lots to do!

I have tons to get done around here!  Many, many projects underway and I really haven't been doing too much sewing lately. With the holiday's, work, and getting some other stuff done - I just haven't had time!  First up, I have been working on a new quilt with 60 degree diamonds.

I actually took photos to put together a tutorial (my first!).  I will be posting that as soon as I get my top completed.  I keep changing my mind on how to piece the stars together!  I need some more fabric for my newest idea....so I might head to the quilt shop this afternoon.

I also started a Dresden Plate quilt out of Camille's Ruby collection.  I really like it, but struggled with the one shown in the photo above.  It isn't laying flat like it should, so I've been reading that I just need to sew the seams in more to make it lay flat.  Not a good sign because I plan to make 12 of them for a large quilt!  I do love the colors though - and it was fun to make.  Just need to sew more precise I guess!

I also plan to make a quilt from this fabric for a good friend who is expecting a baby boy in a few weeks.  I need to get on it to get this completed!

And, next in my plans is to start making this quilt.  I've had this pattern and fabric planned for quite a while - I just want to get it started.  The pattern is Basket Lattice by Sheri Pape Designs.  

And, the fabric is Amy Butler...which is gorgeous!

And, I took 3 quilts to the quilt shop right before the holidays that are just sitting there in piles waiting to be binded.  I will be posting about those when I'm finished as well.  I've also finished my French Roses quilt top - just need to get the back together and then off to the quilters for that one too!

So much to do, so little time!!!!