My husband called me one day from work to tell me that they were having an employee furniture sale- (he’s the executive chef of a 48-room hotel here in Charlottesville that was once the home of (now deceased) Sir Bernard Ashley- as in the husband of the late fabric designer Laura Ashley).  When Sir Ashley sold the home in 1999, all of the furniture and decor was included- I’ve heard that at the time it was decked out in Laura Ashley everything… curtains, wallpaper, bedding, you name it. 

So you can imagine, there are lots of treasures tucked away in the attic of hotel today.  Anyway, the hotel decided to clear up some space by selling some furniture that didn’t really have a place anymore.  So Dean called with a few things he thought we’d like, and though it was hard to give the go-ahead without seeing everything, I knew he’d do me proud.  We scored 2 beautiful vintage wooden sleigh beds for $15 each, and a great old white desk for $30 (which has now become my spacious sewing table).  Seriously good deal if you ask me- good job Deano!

  I wonder if they actually belonged to the Ashleys or if that’s something I just like to daydream about since it sounds cool… hmmm. 

We finally set one of the beds up in Ellery’s room yesterday.  She calls it her ‘Princess Bed’ :).  Hey, whatever keeps her in it at night, right?! 

Not! 

Ah… don’t even make me get into it….

So, for such a special bed, I decided this princess deserves a new bedspread… A quilt to be exact.  Made by… a-hem…ME.

Since I started sewing 2 years ago, making a quilt has been the last thing to interest me.  I don’t like busy geometric designs, I am not a pro at math, and between making clothes and having babies, I haven’t really given it much thought.  BUT, I’ve really started to become interested in making one after finding ones I liked on certain sites- my favorite blogs for quilt-spiration are this one and this one.  I love the simple, clean asthetic that they both have.  (go to their sites and then search for quilts to see the many beautiful ones they’ve made.)

So, I’m holding myself to it.  I’ve got a lot of scraps lying around- I’m going to make a Chinese-coin quilt, which I can use lots of little squares and rectangles for…. and then lots of white to break it up and keep it clean looking.  Plus, it’s an easy enough design for me to (hopefully) not screw up.

I’m happy with my color-scheme, especially since it reminds me of springtime- which is when my sweet girl was born.

I’ll post my progress as I go. 

Wish me luck-  I have no idea what I’m doing!

-Erin