DIY Outdoor dinning table made with cabinet doors

       This is a project I made a few years ago and is by far one of my favorite and most used. I am blessed to have a wrap around porch on my house and during warm weather I serve my family every meal I can outside on this table. Eating outside is wonderful. Any mess is left out there and cleaned up by the cats, the working men can come eat without even having to take off their work boots, and since we are already outside the kids often go off to play and enjoy the outdoors when the meal is done.
       This dinning table shares many of the same construction steps and design elements as many of my other projects. See Large Bench, post or how I made the base for my Playhouse. The first thing I did in making this table was I visited my local reuse store and sot a selection of unfinished cabinet doors all in the same height but different widths. Once I had assembled then measured them to get the dimensions for the table top. I then used 2x4 boards to build the base of the table. I cut 2 boards to the total length of the table and then a number of boards that would lay across the short width of the table. I cut these 3 inches shorter than the total width to take into account the thickness of the 2 2x4 they will be connected to. My table is about 10 feet long so I cut 6 cross boards, one for each end and 4 spaced throughout the rest of the table. Attach these cross 2x4's to the long 2x4's.
        Since I knew I needed some way to attach the cabinet doors to the top of the table and didn't want to screw them down form the top I placed plywood cut to size on of the 2x4 frame I had crated. I screwed this down into place. I used reclaimed plywood from a shed we took down since this plywood will not be seen. Next step was to attach the 4 legs. I decided to use 4x4 posts for stability. I looked at tables around my house to get a sense of how tall I wanted my table to be. I would be good to know how tall your chairs are and then add some space for legs to fit under the table. Start with this length and then add 3.5 inches for the amount of board you will need to attach it to the table. On my legs I cut a notch on 2 sides of the top of the leg which were 3.5 inches long and 1.5 inches deep so that the corner 2x4's would sit on top of the legs. I then securely screwed the legs in place. Now turn it over and you have the start of a table.
       From the underside I screwed the cabinet doors in place with help from my husband holding them down form above so I made sure they were attached tightly.  I applied a number of coats of polyurethane to the door faces which brings out all the different wood colors and grains. No the challenge is that the door faces are not a flat serf ace to eat on so I went to the local glass store and had to order one very large piece of glass. This was by far the most expensive part of the project. Once the glass was placed I then used small door fronts found at my reuse store to frame the outside of the table. You could also use boards. These are place to over the 2x4 and hold the glass in place.  Now a little more polyurethane and some paint for the legs and you have a very heavy and durable table to use for years to come. I have leave mine out on the porch year round due to it's size and weight and it has made it well through many winters.
      Lessons I have learned in the project is that I should have sealed the glass down better because being outside things get under the glass and I have been leery about lifting this big piece of glass to clean under it. I don't quite know how one would best seal it down but maybe you can think up a good way.
      As I said this table is used daily if not more often during warm weather at my house and it is one of my favorite parts of summer. I don't know why but food always tastes better in the fresh air outside. Here are some pictures of enjoying the table on those beautiful summer days. Good luck on you project and enjoy the creativity of a DIY project.

Ag in the Classroom - Metro Visit

    Last week our family had to wonderful opportunity of visiting a school near Minneapolis and share our farm with the children and families there. Our visit was part of a year long connection that we have had with this school. Throughout the year they are integrating agricultural concepts and education into their everyday courses and we have the honor of being their Ag family. This has all been made possible by the Minnesota Ag in the Classroom program. They have produced wonderful videos of our farm for the school kids to watch, we have held a Skype field trip, and now we were invited to come visit them in person and bring some of the farm with us.

      We decided to bring along my daughter Mary's bunny Beverly, a few chickens, and our farm dog Holly. We had only just started calving and the 3 hour trip we had to take each way was not conducive to taking along a calf. We did however some them the cow TV we have on our phone so they could see the cattle in the barn in real time.

        The animals were a big hit and many of the kids enjoyed holding a chicken and learning some about them. We brought along a carton of the eggs that we collect from the chickens and many were surprised to see that not all eggs are white. The chickens behaved themselves well for never being held in their adults lives.

 

 

        Here Paul is showing Cow TV to a parent. Many were interested to learn that we watch and take such close care of the cows. Some were surprised to learn that we calve all 150 of our cows in the same 1-1.5 month time period.

         The bunny Beverly behaved herself very well letting young and old pet and hold her. Many remarked on how soft she is.

         Another visitor who got lots of pets and love was Holly our Border Collie/Australian Shepherd puppy we got for Christmas. She behaved herself very well and obeyed the leash which she has very worn before. The kids were surprised to hear that she lives outside in the winter and found it interesting to learn that as she gets older we will train her to work with the cattle and help us in many different ways. She is going to have a very important job on the farm.

    Here are a few of the videos that were made by the Minnesota Department of Ag for the students to watch at our host school. They are done very well and super cute.
    Thank you to our host school Cedar Park STEM Elementary and all the staff there who have helped this grate experience take place. Also thank you to all the wonderful people who work with Minnesota Ag in the Classroom for facilitating this great experience for our kids and those at the participating schools.

First calf

      The first cutie calf of the year has arrived on our farm. He arrived a little early but is healthy and doing well.  Seeing this cute soft new life sure gets me excited for spring and all the little ones yet to come.

          Standing with his mother a first calf heifer who is doing very well. Her and the calf look comfortable in the barn with the fresh corn stalk bedding.

          Today the temps got up to freezing after a number of days with the temps in the negative numbers. The milder temps and the bright sunshine called to me and the kids and we put on the hat and gloves and headed out on a adventure and to welcome the new calf to the farm.

         Rose found some fun playing and climbing the corn gluten pile that is being used to feed the cattle. With the lack of snow this winter she slid down it a few times pretending it was a snow pile.

          Luke, like all boys, was attracted to the tractors and had to try out the loader tractor. I think he could stay in there for hours pushing buttons and turning the wheel.

          He did take a little brake from the tractor driving to look at the new calf.

           Then it was back to more tractor driving. This time on the old "bouncy seat" tractor as the kids have called it over the years. It has been a favorite of all the kids and it looks like Luke approves of it too.

          I love these sunny days on the farm and seeing the first little signs of spring. It feels so good to be back outside again and see the kids having some good old farm fun.

Foundation/Paper Pieced Quilt Squares

       I think that I am just one of those people who likes having a project going. If you have looked around my blog any you have seen that some of my favorite projects involve wood working, but here in the north it is not as enjoyable working out in the garage with the power tools when it is freezing outside. So when the weather turns cold outside I start up some of my inside projects which mostly include needle work in some form or another.
      I have also admired quilt making but have never had any luck with traditional quilting. Last winter I discovered foundation, or paper pieced, quilting and quickly fell in love with it. I find it super easy to do.  If you can sew in a straight line you can do it, and the patterns are so cute. Let me show you how it is done.

      Step 1 is to go to your computer and print off a copy of the pattern you would like to made in the size that you want. I have found a number of wonderful pattern books that are accompanied with a CD filled with patterns. I am doing 8 inch squares and they fit nicely onto one piece of paper. I use normal printer paper for my projects and it works well.

    Next I get out the crayons and color code the pattern. Some patterns print out with the squares colored already but this one does not. I find it important to color code because once the pieces are cut apart it is hard to picture the full square and they look like a lots of odd shapes. After coloring time is done cut out the pattern separating the pieces along the bold lines. Each piece should have one letter on it with many numbered shapes.

    Now it is time piece the fabric together. Start with shape #1 and keep building from there. In the 3rd picture above you can see I have done number 1-5. To place shape 6 I fold the paper along the line that separates 6 from the lower numbers. The paper is folded so the printed sides are touching.

    Next step is to trim the exposed fabric to about 1/4 inch along the folded side of the pattern. Now find a piece of fabric in the correct color for your pattern that is big enough to cover shape 6 with at least a 1/4 inch border around the edge. Do not worry about which way the pattern on the fabric is facing. You should be able to see the shape though the paper and compare you fabric patch to this.

    Place the fabric  behind the existing fabric making sure to align the fabric at the top and have right sides of the fabric facing each other.

     Now for the easy part. Open up the paper making sure the fabric doesn't move underneath and then straight stitch along the line separating 6 from the lesser numbers. Stitch through the paper and the fabric. Use a tight/small stitch so that later the paper will tear away easier when you are done.

     Take the  pattern over to the ironing board and press open the piece you just added. Then turn over the patter and fold it along the #7 line and repeat the previous steps. 

     Here are some tips that I have learned along the way. 1. When doing shape #1 put some glue on the back of the paper where shape 1 is and place on the wrong side of the fabric so that it stays in place. 2. When finding  fabric to cover a shape, the fabric should cover the shape when it is folded over. Some shapes are odd shaped and come off at different angles.

      One you have all the numbers completed turn the pattern over and trim the fabric to leave a 1/4 inch border.

        Once all the pieces of the pattern are complete is it is time to assemble them. The rule of thumb is to sew them together in the alphabetical order. Often there will be grouping of letters to be sewn together and then a long seam will connect them all. Pay attention to how you cut them apart and how they would best go back together.  You want to sew along the paper edge and then press the pieces open as you go.
      After it is all assembled turn it over and tear off the paper pieces and you now have a finished beautiful quilt square.

      I have made a number of squares and find each one fun and beautiful. I would recommend starting with and easy one like the tree above, this was my first square. As you can see I have also added embroidery to my squares and am going to make them into a memory quilt for my children and godchildren when they graduate from high school. I like giving presents with meaning and think this can be a keepsake they can have for a long time.
 
These are two books that I have found and are my favorites. I have linked them to Amazon. They both come with CD's containing patterns have lots of fun squares. Have fun stitching.