I have been lucky enough to receive furniture from my mom over the years. In this post I want to show you the dresser that she bought years ago for her bedroom and the buffet that lived for years in her dining room.

Mom has always bought quality furniture, so these are nice case pieces. That said, we have different tastes when it comes to furniture. Mom favors dark woods in a Queen Anne style. I prefer modern furniture that isn't quite so dark. I've been using these two pieces because 1) I have them and 2) they would be expensive to replace – but there's always been something about them that I just couldn't love. Here's the dresser:

And the buffet:

Today, when I was dusting, I had a revelation. It's not the furniture itself that I disliked, but the drawer pulls. They have a mass-produced, too-slick, early American flavor to me. This is easy to fix! 

I went to Lowe's and found simple pulls that have a subtle hint of bamboo styling in a bronze finish for the buffet. I studied furniture history back in the day and remember that the English were very influenced by Chinese styles during the Queen Anne period so a mash-up of the two works for me.

When I took off the original hardware I could see how much the wood has faded over the years. The ghost of the old hardware is right there – and Steve and I don't care. In fact, I kind of like it. It is uniform enough that it looks intentional, rather than being a mistake.

The pulls for the dresser are on 2 1/2" centers – they are narrower than Lowe's carries in stock. I went online and found the perfect hardware at House of Antique Hardware. They are solid brass and expensive, but this is a lot cheaper than it would be to replace the whole dresser. The style is Chippendale/modern, perfect for the room. 

Instead of this…

Can't wait for them to get here! It's like having new furniture!

I read magazines on the plane. As I go through them, I rip out pages that are interesting to me. The March 2013 issue of Dwell was very rip-worthy! First, for Jacquie… this is so you! If I had a room for it, it would be me, too.

(FYI – you can click on any picture to make it bigger.) I am sort of intrigued by the idea of inlaying tiles in a wood floor… I've not seen it done quite this way. At some point soon we are going to do a bit of remodeling and I wonder if this would be good in either my dining room or breakfast room…

Hexes really are everywhere! These are wall tiles by Form Us With Love for Traullit. I don't know where I would put them, but they are interesting – and very reminiscent of the 70s. The Traullit website has more.

I never could figure out who designed the iron screen, below. The house it is in was designed by architect William Massie. At any rate, I really love the design…

I went through Consumer Reports and found out that yellow Frog Tape is actually better than blue painter's tape in tests that involve actual paint. Good to know.

AND – the folks at Why Quilts Matter, a non-profit created by the Kentucky Quilt Project, is making episode 8 in their very informative series available on youtube. If you like it, you might consider purchasing the whole series – proceeds will be used by them for future quilt projects. There is a free Discussion Guide on their website if you want to watch the episode with friends and then disucss it. Watch episode 8 here or click here.

Have a good weekend – I hope you have time to sew!

Actually, I saw a lot more than I can show you here, but here are some designs that I saw that could absolutely inspire applique…

There was more tile than this, but it's hard to take a photo from a moving car. I like the simplicity of this design and I like the way the yellow negative space comes together to form a secondary design. I also like the way the pattern changed at the window…

It flattened. And look at the corner… nice!

Anna and Marian took me to the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi. It felt a lot like the church I grew up attending, familiar. The cathedral has been undergoing restoration and was lovely…

I like this design that was carved into the ends of the pews. But when I looked up, the ceiling was even better!

The block designs are similar to the tile I showed earlier, but in richer colors. 

I like the way the pattern above meets in the center.

I'm about to board my flight for home so I suppose I'd better sign off. I hope you are warm and dry, wherever you are. I have missed most of the news about the weather but I understand that there a lot of snow and ice out there…

I know I wrote about the fact that many of my ‘famous’ and not-so-famous-but-I-love-them quilts are hanging in a show at Austin College (in the gallery in the art building). I thought I’d share some photos of the exhibit (you can see more here).

Last week I took mom and her friend Cora Lee to see the quilts. It was fun to watch them looking at the quilts – made me see them with fresh eyes:

See that pieced quilt to the right of mom? That’s the Delectable Mountains and she may finally have convinced me that she needs to hang it at her house.

The show is up until mid-March if you happen to be in Sherman. I hope you enjoy it!

I think I have enough ugly fabric to work from – which is either a happy thought or one that makes you wonder just how this fabric made it to the bolt. I don't think all of it is ugly – only 97% of it.

The monkey clowns are just scary…

Oh my:

And, yes, my first thought was of Chucky (and here)!

This is one I like but just do not understand. It seems 'scientific' but Steve couldn't figure it out either. The printed stripe part is really nice…

I have more than this that I haven't taken pictures of. When I get home and get to work on it – eventually – I'll post more.

PS – I suppose if you still have something ugly to share, it's not too late… you can send it to me at 919 Starlight Dr., Sherman, TX 75090. Little pieces – not yardage :-).

I was just in San Antonio with the UUMCQG, University United Methodist Church Quilt Guild. Such a nice group! They meet at the church which is huge, beautiful and very well-run. I was the featured teacher and speaker.

I gave my lecture Friday morning in the sanctuary. I got to preach about color and quilting! After my talk the ladies finished putting together the show – in the sanctuary. This is a most interesting 1-day-only show – most of the quilts are draped over the pews and it is very pretty indeed:

Now I'm in Albuquerque – which, in our family, we call 'apple cookie' thanks to Christopher (when he was 3). That always makes me smile.