So we’ve been having a little fun today doing some decorative yet utilitarian designs for our house. A few years back I saw these custom air return grates that were just so much prettier than the metal slat style we have but it was going to be pricy to do the whole house; consistency is key with these things given how open our architecture is. But now, well, lumber is a lot more expensive than it used to be but still more affordable than buying these made to order. So off we went!

Let it be said that my sewing room/studio and the craft room (yes I need two rooms and yes, they’re both full) are places of fun and creative flow for me, so my approach is unrestrained in my sewing room ????. I’m attaching a video that was recorded without sound for context. For anyone wondering, no, the rest of the house isn’t orange. The video starts in my fabric closet.

Now for the air return cover!

We went with a more geometric design for the rest of the house. Eventually the vents on the ceilings, walls, and floors will all be done in this design. I’ll stain the ones for the floors to match the hardwood. The covers for the walls and ceilings will be in high gloss white to make them easy to rinse off. I might even coat them in some clear PolyCrylic for good measure.

In addition to the wood projects I wanted a few new designs for my greeting cards so I chose a couple of bird vector files. One was easy to export but another gave Cameron a bit of a tussle. But as always, my hero prevailed! He amazes me ????

I tried using an AI art app to create some original vector files and had a few cool designs come out before the app stopped working. Anyone out there using generative AI for vector files, give me a holler. I’m willing to pay for access if it will follow prompts to create the images. Here are a few that came out.

My sewing friends will be interested in the percentage of waste with these. Cameron fits them as closely together as the shapes allow; I’m starting with randomly sized scraps from other projects so each beginning canvas is a different size (and I only did blues today) so my guess on waste is about 15% with this run. If I did even half yards he could lay them out, mirrored, more closely together but I really didn’t have a plan beyond denting my scrap bin and creating something that is both pretty and useful! Mission accomplished!

Oh, and for anyone cutting quilted shapes like this, our settings are 20% power at 200 mm/sec and three passes for indiscernible char.