The big girls' room

As promised, here is the completed transformation of what used to be Analee's room to Rebekah and Analee's room. We made the big move before Christmas, but it's taken me months of sewing and waiting to finally have Ana's bedspread done and therefore deem the room finished.

Ta-dah! More on this later ...

So, here's the complete look:

View from the doorway. Love that blue carpet. It's the only blue carpet in the entire house.

• Bekah's name tags from preschool adorn her bedpost. Of course, we put the older child on the top bunk.
• Analee's dresser that was a hand-me-down from my sister-in-law to my sister and then to us is in the corner. Bekah's dresser is a hand-me-down from my parents. The big stuffed animals are perched in the corner.
• I made the valance with leftover fabric from both girls' quilts.

View from the closet corner.

• Both girls' beds and quilts.
• I found the little fence bookcase at D.I. for $8.
• The curtain rods and pockets next to each bed were bought on clearance. The girls put their treasures that they don't want the other girl to get to in their pockets.

View from the dresser corner.

• I can't believe the number of clips/bows we have accumulated with two girls. They have their own home hanging on the wall.
• Each girl has her own coat rack. Ana's is the shorter one to the left of the door. Bekah's is the taller one behind the door.The girls' shoes hang on the back of the door.
• I made the bulletin board (again, out of leftover fabric from Bekah's quilt) that hangs above Bekah's coat rack.

View from the bed corner.

• The girls' princess calendar hangs on the wall.
• The doors that were on the closet when we moved in were pretty worthless. They only allowed you to have half of the closet open at a time, and they were constantly falling off the tracks. So we bought some fabric and a curtain rod and came up with this solution. There's a hook next to the princess calendar that the girls can hang their closet curtain on so they can get to the toys inside.

View from the closet wall.

Even though we've already gone 360 degrees around the room, I had to include this picture for two reasons:

• (1) The stripes. I love those stripes. When we first moved in and I painted this room yellow for the then-baby Rebekah, I had yellow and darker yellow stripes on this wall. When Seth and I decided to move the baby's room and make this the big girls' room, I had to keep the stripes but make them green to match the bedspreads.
• (2) The art clothesline. Since Bekah's preschool experience, she has been super art-happy. She's constantly asking us to hang up her pictures and projects, so I got this idea off the Interwebs. We put a few eye screws into the wall and tied some ribbon on.

And last but not least, the quilts:

Before Ana was born, Seth and I reasoned that someday, the two oldest kids would share a room. So I started planning. I wanted to paint their room green, and I would make each a bedspread that included two main colors: the bright green and something else. I didn't let Bekah choose her purple and green bedspread (the pattern or the colors). She wasn't even two yet when I made it. But when I started Ana's bedspread a few months ago, I told her she could choose pink, orange or turquoise to go with the green in her quilt. Ana chose turquoise (I think because the word sounded cool to her).

So after months of picking out fabric and a pattern, piecing the top together, waiting for the quilting to be done and then cutting, sewing and stitching the binding, it's finally finished. In fact, I finished it last night while Seth entertained the girls by playing Legend of Zelda on the Wii.

I love the way both turned out, three years apart from each other. And I LOVE the quilting. The lady who did it (she lives in our stake) did an awesome job. If you click on each picture, you can see the details. Ana's white squares have little swirlies. Bekah's white squares have loop-the-loops. So adorable.

Even though it wasn't necessary (Ana obviously wasn't suffering without her bedspread because she's been without it for months already), I must say it's a relief to have the quilt finished before Miriam gets here. Now if only I could get all the trees pruned before then, too ...