The Garden Shed

You may remember that I posted last fall about the garden shed that we bought and had moved  into our yard from the vacant property next to us.  This is the picture that I took at that time to have a "before," knowing that we'd be sprucing it up this spring.

It was built years ago by the first owners of this house as a playhouse for their children, and I think it must have been a marvelous place for the kids.  If Lily was a little bit younger, I can imagine her playing house out there and maybe even having sleepovers in the shed.  Well, it's been used as a storage shed for the past how many years and has been sorely neglected, and frankly, it looks quite dismal in this picture.  We're still using it as a storage shed but after some paint and flowers, it doesn't look as bad.  

We decided on a yellow and blue color scheme with white trim and Don managed to get all the painting finished before we went on our trip to Maine.  When we returned, I placed the blue window shelves and the red flowers in the window boxes. And here's the shed today!

Now I have to find some azalea bushes to plant along the side of the shed on the left in this pic and Don wants to fit some kind of step at the door, and then it should be finished.

I found this little bird house at a garden center and thought it would be a cute accent on the shed.  We have lots of birds in our yard thanks to our nearness to the river and to the abundance of trees in the neighborhood.  I think the house is decorative, but one day I actually saw a bird perched on it, househunting!  I think the "for sale" sign is still out on this one tho!

I also neglected to post pictures of the fabric find I made the other day. I had to go to Rice Lake (50 miles away) for business and while there, I had to stop in at one of my favorite quilting shops, The Busy Bobbin, which carries the world's largest selection of batiks, I think!  (I'm not associated in any way with this shop other than being, probably, one of their best customers!)  

 

There is a large sale room in the basement that I always have to check out whenever I go there and I usually find something either to add to my stash, or in the case the other day, to make a complete bed quilt. 

I found this panel of pink and girly floral prints and a coordinating border print.

I thought I'd cut the panels into squares and make sawtooth stars out of them using these colored fabrics for the star points. Each block will have the same color points on it instead of mixing them all up.  The white on white is for the background of the stars.  The pinks and the purple were in the sale room and the other fabrics came from the full price part of the shop.

I will use the bug strip from the border print for the sashing with cornerstones cut from the fabrics above.  

I'll probably add a solid color for a mini border around the entire center and then finish off with the 6" wide floral panel of the border fabric.  

This will be a queen sized quilt for my guest bedroom which already has pink, raspberry, green and white striped curtains on the window.  This winter, we'll be painting that room and I'll choose a color to coordinate.  This is the room that Lily uses when she's here and I think she'll like this quilt.

So, that brings you up to date on the happenings in my household.  Today is cool and dry so I want to spend a few hours in the garden finishing the things I began on Sunday.  How are you planning on spending the day?