patty "The quilt lady"

Are you tired of seeing that aqua quilt yet?

2012-01-27T04:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I mitered the corners, trimmed and got a little more than half way around the quilt with hand sewing the binding. I am like a turtle on this quilt - slow, but steady!

Yesterday I had made salmon bisque soup and this morning tomato basil in my Vitamix. I having been sharing my soup with a woman at work that just got braces and she can't eat anything but soup. She has been a great guiney pig for my mad experiments! I am having the leftover salmon bisque for breakfast this morning. Yum!

Here is a picture of my desk this morning. I have been getting stuff done and this is the best my desk has looked since I have returned from surgery. Remeber last summer when I was wrestling file boxes and drawings for storage? Well, I have been working and prepping more stuff for storage and I can handled the drawings and file boxes without feeling a thing from my surgery!

My plans for the weekend include finishing the aqua quilt, I am going to get that suit altered, and figure out what my next project will be. I plan on staying home all weekend and sew except for a haircut appointment Saturday morning. I just hope it quits snowing - it is coming down hard this morning.

Binding is on, but ...

2012-01-26T05:10:00.000-08:00

I still need to miter the corners, trim the edges, and do the hand sewing. I did give the quilt a good pressing before I attached the binding because one of the edges was a bit wavy with all the rows of quilting.

I got a new toy

2012-01-25T05:03:00.000-08:00

I have wanted a Vitamix every since I saw it on QVC. Well, they had them on special and I bought one. Last night I made hot soup in it. I made Smokey paprika pumpkin soup. There is no heating element in the unit - just the speed the soup spins so fast it causes enough friction for the soup to get hot - pretty neat. Tonight I am making salmon bisque. Being single I have a tendency not to eat a nutritous dinner. It is a pain to cook for one person, so now I can come home and make a batch of soup as quick as I can open a couple of cans, toss in some veggies, and in less than 10 minutes have tasty hot soup.

Today's lunch - yum!

I got the binding cut for the aqua quilt. Here it is on the design wall. I cut some of the strips into shorter pieces to mix things up and so the binding looked more like it was made with scraps.

The quilting is finally done!

2012-01-24T04:51:00.000-08:00

I finished the last three areas of the aqua broken log cabin quilt last evening. YEAH! I did forget to take a picture so here is a picture of my desk at work. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on still for the time I was off and we had a school bid right after I came back so I am trying to get all that paperwork together too. My desk is not nearly as bad as it looks.

I will be working on the binding tonight after gathering up the recycling and trash for tomorrow's pick up. I only have to take out the recycling and the trash once a month and its time.

Funny how plans change

2012-01-23T05:38:00.000-08:00

We had received about 2" of snow Friday night so traveling 20 miles to get my perm was stressful. Instead of 55 mph I did 25 to 30. I made it in one piece so that is all that mattered. On the way back home the roads were much better. I messed around doing a little of this, a little of that, and then got ready to go see my nephew play.
He played with the guitar behind his back during "Cold Shot" - he is not in pain; he is just very instense when he plays.

Then he played the harmonica for "Roadhouse Blues"

Sat and played with Jammin' Paul

Then a little behind the head guitar playing for "Pride and Joy"

He finished the night off by playing "Maggott brain" and got a standing ovation.

Father and son in front of the marque

Sunday I started on moving the fabric and shelving from Peg's bedroom back to the fabric storage room after I got the baseboards done. I needed to fill the nail holes, put on a final coat of paint and caulk the gaps.

Now lets move the fabric and shelves from one room to another

I still have a few things to move out of Peg's bedroom, but at least I have room to set up the bed frame. You might notice that the window treatments have changed. When I moved my bed upstairs I needed something for the windows so I borrowed the ones from this room. The ones here are just temporary until I can get ones made for the master bedroom. I still need to finish the window trim and there are four pieces of tile flooring I need to install and then this room will be done.

I did work on the baby quilt and this is all I have left to quilt - see the areas where the safety pins are? I didn't get the suit altered either, but I feel good about getting the the fabric storage room on its way to being finished.

Yeah is is Friday!

2012-01-20T05:11:00.000-08:00

My plans for the weekend are to finish the aqua improv quilt

Finally alter this suit for my neighbor

Saturday is perm day and going to see my nephew play

then it is planning my next project. I have two pin basted baby quilts that I think I will work on next.

I have a feeling this weekend is going to go by fast. What are your plans?

Sweating bullets

2012-01-19T04:27:00.000-08:00

I finished quilting the green and blue striped sections last night and I was sweating bullets if was going to have enough teal thread to finish. Here is what I had left - plenty!

I got the machine threaded up with the cream thread for the Kona snow areas left to quilt and quilted a few areas. Only a few more areas to finish.

Next I decided to start thinking about what fabric I wanted to use for the binding. I may use several fabrics - using one would look to static to me. Here is the fabric I pulled - the fabrics I used plus a few more that were from the same fabric line - Jane Sassaman Prairie Gothic - and an olive green dotted piece. I guess you will just have to come back and see what I ended up using.

A little quilting and a little organizing

2012-01-18T05:06:00.000-08:00

I wasn't that eager last evening to do much, but I did do a little quilting. I did not get all of the green and blue striped areas quilted. I will finish them tonight after I watch the season premier of Southland I taped last night.

I have been doing a little organizing and I decided to use this over the door rack (I got on closeout at Home Depot) in my studio for my TO DO items. Right now I just started hanging things. I must have TO DO stuff in four different rooms! So far I have 5 quilt tops, a pair of pants to hem, and a suit to alter for a neighbor. Now I know there is more stuff to hang here so don't think that I am some superwoman and that is all I have on my list! I will keep adding my TO DO items rack as I find them and hopefully get them done since they now will be in my sight all the time. The out of sight out of mind method is not working - I need to get this stuff done. I also hung the binding I have cut so I will be able to find it when I get the quilts quilted.

Making progress on finish number 2

2012-01-17T06:19:00.000-08:00

I finished quilting the solid aqua areas of this quilt. Next I will be on to the striped areas. At this rate I should easily have this one done by the end of the week - yeah! This will go into my stash of on-hand baby quilts.

1st finish of 2012, but where was my brain?

2012-01-16T04:47:00.000-08:00

I finished the pink, gray and brown zig zag quilt. But just look at it - where was my brain?! When I trimmed the sides I should have trimmed them the same. You can see what I did wrong can't you? I did not see my mistake until it was too late - like the binding was on it! Oh well, the kid is going to get it anyway.

Look at all the deer that were in my backyard on Sunday - eight of them in two groups. They were digging thru the snow looking for breakfast. We didn't get that much snow - only about a couple of inches.

Hancock's have been having some good sales lately and here is was I received Saturday. I loved the rock n' roll roses and bought 6 yards of that. It was only $3.98 a yard.

Here is my next project. I started this quilt last year, but never had time to finish it.

Quilting, snowing, reflecting, and babies

2012-01-13T04:49:00.000-08:00

I am now half way done with the quilting on the pink, gray, and brown quilt. I need to mail it Monday to my brother in California along with his glasses he forgot.

So far we have not received much snow, less than an inch so far - just enough to make it nasty to drive. I am just now seeing the plows out to throw down some salt. I thought at first the kids didn't have school since the roads were so bad. When the kids don't have school the city is not in a hurry to clean up. This is a shot out my garage door this morning. The wind just howled and there was no point in shoveling with wind blowing so hard.

I keep my my spools of cottong quilting thread for the year and it gives my a chance to reflect on what I have accomplished. Karen, at The Selvage Blog (a great, interesting blog - go check it out!) posted a picture of the spools she emptied in 2011. I saved mine too so here are mine. I emptied 32 spools and I posted on January 3, 2012 that I estimated I used 34,100 of cotton quilting thread. I have no idea how many yards of regular sewing thread or Sulky rayon I went thru, but one can only be so anal about what you keep track of.

Babies - well, I was cleaning out my e-mail and found some pictures I had forgotten about of babies on my quilts. I copied them over and will get them printed to put in the album.

Making progress on several fronts

2012-01-11T04:45:00.000-08:00

I picked up my second batch of photos and put them in the album last evening along with the thank you note that went with the quilt. I am now down to about 6 thank you notes I need to link up with the right quilt picture. It is hard to remember who you gave what quilt to! I will never let this get out of hand again! Gee, it only took me 20+ years to get a handle on this!

I also made progress on the pink, gray, and brown quilt. I need to get this done asap because I also need to mail to L.A. my brother his glasses and I thought the quilt would be perfect padding. My brother has other glasses, but the pair he left in Ohio are his favorite.

Photos and a little quilting

2012-01-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

I had been working on getting my quilt and remodeling photos into albums and labeled. The remodeling albums are caught up so now it was time to tackle the quilts. I had about 25 - 30 thank you notes for quilts that I had given away and now it was time to rack my brain and try to match up the quilts with the thank you notes. I went back thru my blog and that helped connect the notes with the quilts. I needed to print pictures of the quilts so I copied them over to a file and had them printed at Walgreen's since they had a printing sale. I picked up the first batch of photos last night and the rest I will get tonight. A local discount store had photo albums cheap so I picked up some of those so now I am all set to get this job done. I am finally getting my head around the best way to store and organize my photos so I have no excuse to let this become a mess again.

I quilted a bit more on the pink, gray, and brown zig zag quilt.

Again I wish I could take pictures when it is dark, because this morning there was a 6 or 8 point buck in the backyard. He was big! He was sitting there in the beam of the security light with a doe. When I left for work I open the mandoor of the garage and there were four more deer wandering thru.

Spring weather

2012-01-09T05:11:00.000-08:00

It was so warm this weekend (mid to high 40's)I decided to get out and do some of the yard work I was not able to do in November because of my surgery. The brush had gotten out of hand at the tree line in the backyard. I worked clearing the brush for 3 hours on Saturday using a pair of loppers. It is hard to tell in the pictures, but this on a hill so I had to drag all the brush up to the yard. Here is the before

And the after:

On Sunday, I got up and put together my fire pit I bought last summer so I could cut up the brush and burn it. I spent another three hours cutting material with the hand clippers down to a size to fit into the fire pit.

Here is the pile of brush before. It is about 20' by 20' and 3 - 4' tall.

The after - this is going to be slow work since most of what left is sticker bushes with these nasty thorns. The plies the left - the far left is larger sticks I will have to use the loppers to cut down so they will fit into the fire pit and the pile to the right of that is material all cut to size and ready to burn.

I found some daffodils that are confused. No it is not spring yet go back to sleep!

I did squeeze in some sewing. I got the pink, gray and brown zig zag top done. I trimmed it

Pinned it

And started quilting it

I will try to continue cutting up the brush after work this until it gets to dark, to cold, or rains/snow then I will head indoors to quilt. I think I have a busy week ahead.

A little sewing done

2012-01-05T04:20:00.000-08:00

I started sewing together the pink, gray and brown zig zag quilt that has been hanging on my design wall for at least a month. I have the first two rows in the lower left sewn together. Now I like to live on the edge so I will let you know that the outside triangles are half square pieces so the outside edge of this quilt will all be on bias. I have done this before and as long as I am careful with my pressing and machine quilting, I have never had a problem. I would not recommend this to beginners though.

Here is the next row at the machine ready for assembly.

Wednesday at 1:30 in the morning I was up for a natural break and looked out the bedroom window. There were five deer sleeping in the back yard. I couldn't take a picture so here is a picture I took as soon as I got home when it was still light. You can see the oval areas where they were laying. The other two deer were on the other side of the yard.

When I took the trash can out this morning I could see where the deer had come thru the yard last night and stopped to investigate the front flower bed for anything eatable.

Dutch wax quilt pictures and snow

2012-01-04T04:12:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures of the Dutch wax quilt I promised. I forgot to measure it as usual, but it does cover a queen sized bed with plenty of overhang.
The front

The back

We now have snow on the ground. We had another day last week that the ground was covered, but it warm up that day and it all melted. It has gotten cold - 20 degrees - so the snow is staying. We have lucked out with the weather up until now, but we did not get as much snow as those crazed weatherpeople said we were going to get which is a good thing! I was concerned about shoveling because of my surgery, but I haven't had to shovel since we haven't had much snow - another good thing. I have slowly started to exercise to strengthen my core and uppper body and I can tell the difference already. I need to be able to pull the starter cord on the mower next year and it takes a pretty good yank to get it going!

Finishes and looking back

2012-01-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

I have been keeping track of how much quilting thread I use - the cotton only not the rayon Sulky - for the last couple of years to gauge if I have accomplished anything or not. At the end of 2010 I estimated I had 111,000 yards of quilting thread. I bought another 19,200 yards during the year so that is a grand total of 130,200 yards. I took pictures and counted what I have on hand and I estimate it to be 96,100 yards. Than means I used 34,100 yards in 2011. Here are the pictures.

Dec. 31, 2010

January 3, 2012

Dec. 31, 2010

January 3, 2012

I finished the binding on the two baby quilts.

I post pictures of the dutch wax flag quilt as soon as I can hang the quilt to take the pictures.

I spent Sunday visiting the twins.

After I got home from visiting I had a voice mail to call my quilting buddy, Peg, who lives an hour away. I had just talked to her and her husband on New Year's eve so it was strange that she called me. We usually talk about every 2 to 3 weeks. She called to let me know her husband, Russell, died in his sleep. He was only 52. Russell was such a charater and I will miss him. Do you watch American Pickers? He looked just like Frank on that show. RIP Russell.

Finishes 16, 17, and 18 on the schedule

2011-12-30T06:58:00.000-08:00

I plan on finishing these two baby quilts and the Dutch Wax Flag quilt before the end of the year. I am having a quilting friend over this evening and she needs to learn how to attach and finish binding so we will work on the baby quilts. See there was a reason why I did not get these finished sooner!

The binding on the dutch wax quilt just needs the hand sewing done.

I need to get the fabric room baseboard done and the trim the windows so I can move my fabric back into this room. I just couldn't get it done over the couple of days I had off at Christmas.

I wish everyone a happy and safe new year!!!

Crazy days

2011-12-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

Work has been rough. Too much to do and not enough time.

It snowed Wednesday evening and I lost TV reception on the Dish dish. I had to figure out how to brush the snow of the dish when it is located a story and a half off the ground. I went out to the garage and found the extention handle for an electric chain saw. I extended it out all the way.

I knew it would not be long enough so I got out the painting extention pole and taped it onto the chain saw pole.

I finished it off by taping a cheap paintbrush on the end.

It was a little hard to manuver, but I managed to get the snow off the dish.

Here is a quilt I am working on for a friend of my brother's who is having a girl.

I picked up pictures last night that I had printed. Walgreen's was having a special - 75 prints or more for 9 cents each. I put all the remodeling photos in the photo albums so that job is done.

15th finish for 2011

2011-12-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

I didn't have the xmas quilt done for Christmas eve, but one of my brother that lives in the same city as I do won the quilt. So I finished the quilt on Christmas and delived it to him. He had cooked dinner for his finance and I ended up eating with them. They were both very happy they won the quilt.

I also managed to get the last minute pillow cases done for Christmas eve. The nieces and nephews were happy with their pillow cases. Since I was in a hurry I did put an accent strip on only one of the cases.

On Monday morning I had to spend time cleaning up the house because my brother and his finance were stopping over to drop off a zipper for a dress of her's that needed replaced. I finally did get the microwave cleaned - it was sad! Now every time I open it I smile. It is a small thing, but it just looks so much better.

Another job I was glad to get done was putting my remodeling photos in order and into the photo album. I found a good deal on some photo ablums and all I really wanted was the pages and not the albums. The refill pages are so expensive! I am glad to have this job done. Now when I get more pictures to add it will be easy to do. I did not get the baseboard caulked and painted, but it just did not work into my schedule. I was so tired I had to to what I could.

Here are three of the five deer that were in my backyard Monday. The other two are in the brush so you can't see them in the photo. I got up at 1:30 this morning when nature was calling and there were three deer in my front flower bed looking for something to eat. I opened the door and shooed them on. They just looked at me and then slowly wandered off.

Pillowcase, pie, and the Xmas quilt - oh my!

2011-12-23T05:43:00.000-08:00

I didn't get home until 10:30 last night from watching my nephew play. Let's see how long I last today until I crash! Michael did a great job playing. My brother was in from South Carolina and jamed with the band too. Another brother who nows lives in L.A. helped with the equipment - that's what he does for a living. After the set Michael said he was looking forward to xmas and getting a new musical pillowcase. Oops! I hadn't planned on making any pillowcases this year, but I don't want to disappoint him so that has been added to the list of things to do by noon tomorrow. We have xmas on xmas eve in my family. My Mom set that up years ago so everyone who had in-laws could go there for xmas day. I started digging out fabrics for the pillowcases this morning

I hope we get out of work early because I have to make a pumpkin pie, a pecan pie, and sweet potato casserole. I always make my own crust so that adds to the time this will take, but I just can't get myself to buy pie crust. As soon as I get the pies in the oven then I can concentrate on sewing. I don't know that the xmas quilt will be done - it wouldn't be the first time. Darn - being sick sure messed my schedule up, but then again I have a great excuse for not getting it done!

I plan on doing a little work in the fabric storage room after all the xmas stuff is over. Do you remember what was going on? I moved all the fabric and shelves next door into the bedroom I finished (except for the baseboard) and started on the fabric storage room.

My brother moved my bed upstairs, I had torn out the floor before I had gotten sick, along with painting the ceiling, walls, and trim.

While I was off the last six weeks, my brother came over and installed the baseboard for me. It needs caulked, nail holes filled, and a coat of touch up paint. I want to get that done so I can move the fabric back. Now that the bed is gone my brother moved in a desk that I had which will be great to lay fabric out on. The windows still need trimmed out, but the shelves will not be in front of the windows so I can still get them to finish that job. Once the windows are trimmed all I will need to do is make some window covers and the room will be done - yeah!

Have a wonderful holiday!

Progress on the Xmas quilt

2011-12-22T05:11:00.000-08:00

I was so tired after work the last couple of days I did not get anything done at home. I managed to cut the strips for the Xmas quilt binding before work on Wednesday and I sewed the strips together and sewed them on the quilt. I still need to miter the corners.

Tonight my nephew is playing at a local grill/bar and I really want to go see him play "Maggot brain" again. I think I may have to take a nap when I get home from work or else I won't be able to have the strength to stay awake. He plays from 8 to 9 and since I have been in bed by 8:20, 9 p.m. is late for me. If you google Michael Weber maggot brain, there is a video on Youtube of his last performance.

I'm back!

2011-12-19T08:56:00.000-08:00

I am back to work today. These six weeks have gone by fast. I started feeling much better about a week and a half ago. I still need lots of sleep. I tried to do some sewing and cleaning up around the house, but I got tired easily so I really had to pace myself.

I did get these quilts done while I was off.
This one I did everything except the hand stitching on the binding for a friend of mine. She needed it to give to someone who wanted it for a grand neice.

This baby quilt was for a woman at work. The colors of the nursery are cream, dirty yellow, brown, and maroon. Thank goodness I found those colors in my stash.

I did work on quilting the xmas quilt - it is about 60% done. It is going to be a real push this week to get this done by Saturday.

Here is the sunrise this morning. Too bad is overcast now.

Out and about

2011-11-21T13:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks you every one for your encouraging comments. I had to go to the doctor's today because my incision is still very red. They decided I needed an antibiotic so I thought I would stop at the library and say hello on my way to the drug store. The library gives me a chance to rest a bit before the next leg of my journey. The drug store is only a block from the library. Then I will head to the grocery which is only a block and half from the drug store then I have the trek home. It will be about a total of 3 1/4 miles. I will be tired tonight, but I need the exercise and I am trying to take advantage of the nice weather and the time off from work. If I don't get back to the library before Thanksgiving, I wish every one a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

I am feeling every day

2011-11-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

I walked 1 1/2 miles to the library today so I could catch up on my e-mail. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes! I am feeling better every day and finally did a little sewing yesterday. I just want all of this to be over with so I can get back to my life.

Where have I been?

2011-11-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Thursday, November 4, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning with pain in my belly. It went on for four hours so I decided to drive myself to the 24 hour emergency care facility. They took a CT scan of my belly and I had a five pound mass! Holy cow! The doctor said "You need surgery" and went off to find me the best doctor in American who is Dr. Jenison. I left the emergency facility and went home to wait for Dr. J's office to call. I did some dishes and headed to Dr. J's. He was still in surgery, but he saw my CT scan and the patient manager told him that I walked into the office bent over in pain so he said just to have me admitted. I went back home, finished the dishes, packed a bag, and waited for the hospital to call me when a bed was ready. My brother, Jim, came and picked me up and dropped me off. Now the fun begins!

I got checked in and the surgery prep began. I didn't know what time I was going to have surgery yet, because I was on stand-by. The gave that stuff to drink to clean out my guts, but after a half gallon of that stuff I was feeling pretty bad and sick to my stomach. Between the drinking and the IV my belly was really filling up with fluids and the pressure was getting painful. They gave me some percocet (spelling?) which really upset my stomach and I ended up hugging the toilet. Since I couldn't drink the stuff it was a matter of cleaning me out from the other end.

I went down to pre-op about 4 p.m. and had to have a chest x-ray. The joseling around on the gurney was not fun. The more I laid there the worst I felt. After about three or four hours in pre-op I asked to go to the bathroom. The nurses walked me down and when I went to get up I passed out and did a Steven Tyler! My son was there and heard me hit a table that was in the restroom and then I hit the floor. The was IV fluid all over the floor, I was all wet, and the nurses were frantic. They helped me up to a wheelchair, cleaned me up, and got me back to my bed. Next they had to take me to get a CT scan of my head to make sure I didn't have a brain bleed that caused me to faint. More bouncing around and I was blowing chunks. No broken bones, no brain bleed, so they could go ahead with the operation. Since I had fallen on my stomach, I was really in misery. I couldn't even cry because it hurt so bad.

Finally surgery happened at 6 p.m. and lasted to 11 p.m. Besides the mass, I had 3 liters of blood in my belly, and they had to remove my girl parts. I have to say the staff at Akron General were absolutely wonderful! It was like being at a five star hotel except for the being sick part! I truly appreciated all the care and support I received from all the staff and doctors. When I was really suffering, they held my hand and I felt how much they really cared.

I am recouping for a few days at my brother's Mike house before I go home by myself. I am not allowed to drive for a month. I have an appointment in two weeks to get my staples out and will be off work for six weeks. Glory, I feel like I have been run over by a truck and they backed over me a couple of times for good measure. I am feeling better every day and will just spend the next six weeks taking care of me. I will check in if I get a chance.

10 days to go and a little sewing too!

2011-11-02T04:34:00.000-07:00

I feel that I am on schedule or just a little ahead. I had a productive evening.
I got the first coat of paint on the window trim and the second coat on the closet doors. I will have to wait until tonight to see if I need a third coat. The people that lived in the house before me were smokers and sometimes the yellow comes thru as the case for the doors in this house. I had primed and painted them numerous times, but they still look a little yellow to me. Since the door to the fabric storage room was leaning against the wall I threw another coat of paint on one side. I will turn the door around and put another coat on the other side tonight. This was not in the schedule, but it did not take long and since I had the paint can out why not?

I also got the grille cover back on the heating duct and make some brown rice for breakfast tomorrow. I sat down at the sewing machine and put together those last 6 blocks for the third pink and brown quilt, trimmed them, and hung them on the design wall. Tonight I will put the top together.

I decided I needed to make an arty piece to celebrate National Metal Day 11-11-11. I made up a word doc and printed it on fabric. I plan on using some gray fabric paint to color it - it is just too white. I dug out my most metal fabrics that will go into the piece. I also bought some metal studs - pyramid shaped and some that are skulls to embellish this piece. Since I am so short on time, this will not be a big piece. I am aiming for around 30" x 38".

This piece will follow along with the look of this quilt I made earlier this year for a metalhead

How many of you out there is going to celebrate National Metal Day on 11-11-11? How do you plan on celebrating? VH1 Classic has a lot of great programming leading up to NMD and all day on the 11th. That ought to keep me moving while I continue my remodeling!

Yesterday's sunrise was beautiful and the day was also beautiful. I don't know how warm it got, but it was really nice outside. Here is this morning's sunrise. I think we could be in for another lovely day!

11 days and counting

2011-11-01T04:43:00.000-07:00

Last night I sat down after work to watch Holmes on Homes and Million Dollar Contractor that I had taped from the night before and next thing I know two hours had passed! Oops! I needed to get to work.

Here is one of the windows in the fabric storage room.

I took the trim pieces out, marked them, sanded them lightly to get the dust off, and primed them. Here they are drying on the sawhorses in the living room.

Here is what the window looks like with the pieces removed.

I have to do better tonight - 11 days until Peg comes.

Here is what the living room or should I say paint/workshop looks like right now - I didn't want you to think I don't have a messy room!

I press the piece of fabric I picked up when I was in Dover on Saturday. I found this for $5.00 a yard. I plan on using it for binding for one of the pink and brown quilts.

The sunrises have been very gray lately, but today we have a little color. The camera makes it look prettier than it really is, but I will take anything other than gray since it is THE FIRST OF NOVEMBER ALREADY! Where did this year go?

Busy, busy weekend

2011-10-31T04:48:00.000-07:00

Friday nights opening at the art museum was "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism". I didn't have time to see the paintings. I was told there are three Monet's in the exhibit. I will make time in the next few weeks to go and see the paintings. The lobby in the museum had a Fench street scene

Here is the food - French and American cheeses, grapes, crackers, etc.

Here are the roses I was to sell - that was my job. I only sold 8. People just did not want to carry them around.

The lady that ran the event gave the rest of them away when the event was winding down and sent me home with a half dozen.

Saturday after running around doing errands, I did some priming and painting trim.

Done

I soaked these Sunbonnet Sue blocks in Orvis and then gave them a gentle wash. I could not believe how dirty they were. They belong to the event coordiantor at the art museum and were made by her grandmother. I am making them into a quilt for her. There are two blocks that still have some brown spots on them. I will try washing them again.

Sunday I installed switchplate covers and receptacle covers. Now the room is starting to feel like I am getting somewhere.

Here is the closet in this room. The wood has never been painted so it was great that I didn't have to sand or strip varnish off before I could prime and paint.

The sun was shining and it was warm enough out to spray paint the bedrails for Peg's room. When she couldn't come in August I didn't bother to finish this job.
Before

After

I had this old mirror and decided to spray the frame yellow to go in the yellow and gray room
Before

After

I got the second coat of paint on the extention jamb and casing for the windows

Before I could tear into the floor I had to drag this 8.5' x 12' wool rug ...

up these stairs

I then pulled up the peel and stick tile so that I could prime the floor before installing more peel and stick. You may ask why? Well, I should have primed the floor before I installed the floor the first time because the tile did not adhere to the floor very well and the black petro based adhesive left from the original tile seeped thru the peel and stick and discolored it.

I pulled up a little more than half the tile and then primed the floor. I had a fan on it with the windows open to try and get it to dry so I could move the bed over and do the other half.

The other half before

after

I read on the the can of primer (Bulls-eye primer - it is my favorite - water based) that it is fully cured in 7 days. I am going to wait as long as possible before I install the new peel and stick to make sure I get good adhesion this time.

To say the least I was tired Sunday evening! I made a pot of vegetable soup for lunches and called it quits at 6 p.m. I feel I made a lot of progress on the house. I have 12 days to get the room done.

Had to make a list/schedule

2011-10-28T04:34:00.000-07:00

What list/schedule was I making now? I received a note from my friend that was suppose to come up for a quilting weekend in August but had to cancel. She is now looking at coming up Nov. 11. That means I need to get the fabric storage/my bedroom finished so I can move all the shelving and fabric that I temporary located in the new yellow and gray bedroom back into the fabric storage room. I started the list, but I need to add a few more items as I think about what needs to be done.

I still need to add installing the window trim and casing, installing the baseboards, and making the window treatments. Jo Ann's is having their home dec fabric on sale plus the weekend of the 4th there is coupon for an extra 25% off. So I will pencil making the window treatments the week of the Nov.6th.
I gathered up the extension jambs for the windows and the primer. I would prime them tonight except I am working at the art museum at an exhibit opening. It looks like I have all the baseboard and casing already painted so that's a good thing!

I have been making muffins this week to take to work. I found a recipe for pumpkin muffins and I wanted to try them out. I made them before work so they would be warm. The first batch I made on Monday were ok, but they didn't have much flavor. I made them again Tuesday morning and tweaked the recipe and they were really good. This morning I made blueberry. I decided to use applesause instead of butter to save a few calories. The pumpkin muffins were made with applesause instead of oil so I figured it would work with the blueberry muffins. I baked them about a minute too long, but they still taste pretty good.

So you know what I will be doing this weekend - working on the room and when I am waiting for the paint to dry, I will be working on the pink and brown quilts and cleaning. There is nothing like having company to get a person moving!

What are you doing this weekend? Whatever it is, I hope you have a great one!

Progess on the pink and brown, thank you note, and more!

2011-10-27T04:52:00.000-07:00

I managed to get the blocks cut out for the six more I need for the third pink and brown quilt last evening.

Remeber this quilt from last week?

Well, here is the thank you note I received in the mail the other day. Cy is the grandchild and is two years old. This is the reason why I quilt.

I bought this fabric at the same time I purchased the brown fabric I needed for the pink and brown quilts. I bought three yards since it was on sale and such a cute dot print. Here it is washed and ironed.

Progess on the pink and brown quilt - the tree is fixed

2011-10-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

I made two blocks with the puppy dog fabric - see the second one down on the right and the middle bottom blocks.

This morning while I was waiting for the tree men I sew the blocks for the other pink and brown quilt together into a top.

Here are the six blocks I have left over.

I can't believe I have used almost all my brown fabric. In order to make three more brown blocks I will have to mix fabrics so I laid out pieces that are close in color. I will rearrange the blocks so the mixed blocks are scattered thoughout the top.

Here is the pink I will use for the three pink blocks I need.

The tree men arrived this morning on time. It was a different crew. They looked at the tree and could see how it was improperly trimmed. Here is one of the men up in the tree. If you make the picture bigger you can see the end of the limb the other crew hacked off. This fellow fixed that.

Here is the final product. The tree looks much better. Yes, there is still some wildness at the top and toward the top right, but that was not in the original agreement and I was not about to try and take advantage of them. I was just glad they came back and fixed the side next to the house.

It will grow back, it will grow back, it will grow back ...

2011-10-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

I keep telling myself "it's is like a bad haircut, it will grow back." What am I refering to? My white pine tree that got butchered yesterday. I confirmed yesterday morning that the tree guys would be at the house after 2 P.M. because I wanted to be there to make sure they cut what I wanted. I got to the house at 2:15 the tree men were long gone and I was not happy with the job they did. They cut branches off they were not instructed to cut and they didn't cut off enough of the branches next to the house. I called them and they are coming back tomorrow to correct what they can. I questioned why the did not call me and I did not get a good answer only that the schedule was changed due to the early morning rain. As I said - I will just have to wait until it grows out. So my suggestion to all of you is if you have someone coming to work on a tree, chain yourself to that tree until they arrive and do not trust that they are going to show up when they said they would. Mike Holmes would be appalled with their behavior and workmanship! I know the tree doesn't look that bad in the picture, but in person it is bad. Some of the cuts were not made cleanly and there are places where when the limbs fell off there was tearing and striping of the bark. I know enough that this is not the correct way to trim a tree.
Before

After

The FQ of pink puppy dog fabric came in the mail yesterday. My friend who is making a baby quilt for someone was worried that the fabric wouldn't be quite right. I told her to make the quilt with the fabrics we can find and give the woman the quilt. I asked my friend "Do you think she will say she doesn't want it and give it back?" I don't think so.

This mornings sky. The temp is 36 degrees, but it doesn't feel that cold to me at all.

What a nice weekend

2011-10-24T05:16:00.000-07:00

The weather was beautiful Saturday and Sunday. The sun was shining and it was nice to be outside. After running my errands on Saturday moring I spent most of the day cutting out pink and brown fabrics for girl quilts. I bought a few more pink and brown pieces from fabric.com since they were having a sale.

I thought the third fabric from the left - the white and brown damask looking print - was too boring so I dyed it with hot pink fabric dye.

I shorted out the pieces and mixed up the colors to make up the block sets and here they are laying out all over my table.

I am still waiting for a FQ of puppy dog fabric to show up, but I at least have all the blocks made. I am not one for counting - I just cut fabric and figure see what I end up with. I ended up with enough blocks for two quilts, plus when I make the blocks with the puppy dog fabric I will have eight blocks left over. I will go back to my leftover fabrics and cut enought for four more blocks and then I will have a third quilt. These are simple quilts, but when I end up giving so many away I can't make complicated designs. I think the fabric choices make the quilts more interesing and with the intense quilting I will do, it brings them up a notch.

While I was cutting, I cut some 4" wide strips for a zig zag quilt.

I can't belive how I have gone thru my pink fabrics. I will have to put on my thinking cap when it comes to the binding, because I don't have enough fabric for four quilts.

I got my 40 square Scrap Splat challange piece done. I just made a simple doll quilt. Some of the 2 1/2" squares were not the same size, so I did not get hung up on perfection for this.

Since it was warm on Sunday and I could open the window, I put the second coat of paint on the fabric storage/bedroom after I mowed the grass. It only took me about and hour and twenty minutes from start to being done with clean up. The walls look so much better. Now it is on to paint the trim, extension jambs, and casing for these windows.

Here is the sky this morning. I hope it doesn't rain this afternoon. A tree company is suppose to come this afternoon to trim a big white pine tree that is next to the house.

So glad it is Friday!

2011-10-21T04:39:00.000-07:00

This week has been dragging. I have a lot planned for the weekend. Tonight I need to start a batch of yogurt and do up some dishes. Saturday I have a hair appointment. I will stop at the grocery in the town where I get my hair cut to fill my water jugs and get some of my favorite brown rice. On the way back to the house I will stop by Jo Ann's and pickup zippers I need for alterations and see if they have the Sullivan self sharping rotary cutting rulers. I have several 50% off coupons. I also want to get the second coat of paint on the fabric storage/bedroom and start to paint the trim on Saturday.

The rest of my time will be spent cutting out pink and brown blocks for girl baby quilts and working on a small project I almost forgot about. I signed up for a Scrap Splat challenge. I was sent 40 2 1/2" squares that I need to make something out of and I can add any solids I want, but no prints. I need to post the picture by Oct. 26th. I keep bouncing around ideas in my head, but since I am so short on time I think I will make a doll quilt. Here is my pile of squares

Here is this morning's sky. It is still sprinkling. It rained most of the night and the wind howled. It is 43 degrees right now. I don't know what the weather is suppose to be this weekend, but other than the road trip Saturday morning, I plan on staying indoors. The mailman told us yesterday that the weather people are predicting snow next week! We told him to go away!

Have a great weekend!

I won another book!

2011-10-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

On www.mbshaw.blogspot.com -Mary Beth Shaw's blog The Common Denominator I received a copy of Rice Freeman-Zachery's book Destination Creativity. It is nine art retreats that you can go thru a step at a time. It ranges from beads to painting and more. This is going to be fun!

More good news! My brother who lives in Texas is going to send me some Choc' Noir! Two of the women at work also are getting some upon my glowing recommendation. It will probably arrive next week.

Well, yesterday we never did get any sun. It just rained all day. It is still raining.

Cutting blocks and patching

2011-10-19T04:43:00.000-07:00

I pressed a piece of bown print and pink print fabric last evening. I cut a 15" square thru the 4 layers of fabric. I made a quick sketch of the sizes I wanted to cut the block into.

I wanted the first cut to be more than half way so I cut it at 8.5". The next cut was at 4", then 2 1/2" and the last cut was 3".

Here I flipped over the stack for the center so you can see the brown. I will cut a bunch and mix up the centers. Once I piece the blocks they will need trimmed. I am aiming for a 13 1/2" finish block.

Then to top off the evening I patched a couple of hole in a pair of jeans for one of the guys at work.

It started raining about 4 p.m. yesterday and rained off and on all night. The sky this morning looks like this. I was standing in the rain when I took this just a couple minutes ago. Maybe the sky is going to clear and we get some sunshine!

A cool pen and the next project

2011-10-18T04:41:00.000-07:00

I bought two of these pens when I was at Charm. They are Pilot FriXion and the pen marks disappear with heat. Really? Yes, really. They are so cool! They come in a wider felt tip or a ball point tip for a very thin line. I bought the felt tip. They only cost $1.50 each and the ball point ones were $2.30.

Here are the marks on a piece of cotton

Hit it with an iron

POW! the marks are gone!

I dug thru my stash to find pink and brown fabrics for girl baby quilts. I have a friend who needs to make one for a friend of her's so I will be helping her out. She can sew, but needs a lot more practice. Since I need to make a bunch of girl quilts so my brother has some choices this is as good as any color combo to get started.

This morning's sky. Someone told me yesterday that we are in for rain for the next week - bummer.

12th finish and painting

2011-10-17T04:48:00.000-07:00

I finished the John Deere quilt this weekend. It turned out as cute as it could for a whole cloth piece. I will get it in the mail today. I sure hope Marie likes it.

Saturday, I began painting the fabric storage/bedroom starting with the ceiling. This room is dark so I used bright white. Then I mixed up some paint for the walls from my leftovers. It seemed to take a long time for some reason to paint this room. After I was done I was debating about the color. It took a long time for it to dry because it was raining all day.

I got up Sunday and decided I hated the color - it was just too yellow. I went back into the utility/wet studio and starting adding more paint to the batch I threw together Saturday. I wanted to try and use up the paint I had left over. As I was digging thru the paint cans I found a light tan so I threw that in the bucket plus the quart of chocolate brown I found. Sunday, after finishing the John Deere quilt, I started painting with the new color.

The color is darker than what this picture shows. The flash really makes it look light. The good news is I like the color and the second coat will be going on next weekend unless I can find some time after work.

Here is what I have left - three empty cans (yeah!) and a gallon and 1/2 of my color that I will call warm linen.

I got an e-mail from my brother in Texas and he said that Sam' Club in Garland carries Choco' Noir. Right now Choco' Noir is not for sale in Ohio. This state is weird about what kind of alcohol can be sold here. I asked him to check on shipping me a case that I could split with a woman I work with.

Here is this morning's sunrise. It is a nice change of pace since we have had 5 days of gray skies. Saturday the wind just howled and it poured down rain. Sunday afternoon the sun came out a bit and it was warm enough I could open the window to get some fresh air while I painted. But about 3:30 p.m. it was overcast again and rained again.

A good start for the weekend

2011-10-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

I got up a little after 5 a.m. this morning so I could get my grocery shopping done before I went to work. Giant Eagle is open 24/7 so I headed there first. Then there were a few things on sale at Acme so I headed there next. They don't open officially until 7 a.m., but they open the doors early at 6:35 so that makes it easy to get in and out before work. I am glad this is done so I do not have to leave the house this weekend. Unfortuntely I did not find any Choco' Noir at either store and both have a huge wine shop. If push comes to shove, I guess I could have my brother in Texas see if he can find it (the beverage company that handles Choco' Noir is in Texas) and ship some to me.

I started quilting the John Deere quilt last evening. I worked on it for about an hour. I won't have any problem getting it quilted and bound this weekend. I just wish I could see Marie's face (that is the grandmother) when she opens it. I sure hope she likes it.
Here is the front

and the back

I borrowed these two books from the library and plan on spending some quiet time looking at these while I sip a Mike's hard limeade. I love, love, love the quilt on the cover of Kaffe's book, but I have to make it my own in some way so I will have to think about this quilt for awhile.

I want to get my fabric storage room painted this weekend. I don't know if I will get to installing the window trim, but I want to at least get all the trim painted.

No, this is not the same picture as yesterday - it is another gray morning. At least yesterday about 11 a.m. the sun came out and it was sunny until late afternoon.

Have a great weekend.

A quilt delivered, another one to make, one that needs mailed, ones to look at

2011-10-13T04:53:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this quilt I made last year? I had posted on on August 9, 2010 and I was delivered yesterday. Ok, here is more information. My brother has had this quilt in his road case (he tours with rock bands) since August last year. He said he would either run into the person who I made this quilt for his son or he would be in Austin, Texas and deliver it to the man's non-profit organization. Well, my brother was in Austin and delivered it yesterday. I made this quilt for Max Armstong, son of Lance Armstrong. The seven yellow zig zag strips are for Lance's seven TDF wins. The zig zag pattern is for the mountains he had to climb. One of the zig zag has sun flowers which the riders always ride past during the tour. The 28 on the back was from the number all the Radio Shack riders worn on their jersey's the last day of the tour. It represents the 28,000,000 people battling cancer. Yellow and black are the colors of the Livestrong Organization. I did put a lable on the quilt that was red, gray, and yellow which are the Team Radio Shack colors. My brother gave the quilt to a lady at the Livestrong Offices and she said she would make sure Lance got the quilt.

While I was working in Charm I waited on a sweet lady who wanted to make a sinple quilt with John Deere fabric for her grandson. The more I talked to her the more frustrated she was getting, because she doesn't sew much. She was getting overwhelmed with my questions about making sure she had everything she needed - batting , backing, binding - and how she was going to secure the layer together. I felt so bad for her that I asked her if she wanted me to make it for her. I know, I know, but I just couldn't help myself. She was such a nice lady and I felt bad for her. She smiled and said yes. It is a simple whole cloth piece and won't take long to do. I have the layers pin basted and I plan on getting it quilted this weekend.

I have an x-cousin by marriage whose daughter is pregnant and the shower is Sunday. I won't be attending the shower so I need to get a quilt in the mail. That goodness for a stash of baby quilts! The baby's room will be blue and yellow with touches of orange and green. This was the best fit I could find. I will have to mail it at lunch today.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KarenGriskaQuilts?ref=em
Thia is the link to Karen Griska's new etsy shop. Karen has the Selvage Blog and has the most inspiring quilts in her etsy shop. Check it out.

This morning's sky.

Chocolate wine is all the rage

2011-10-12T05:13:00.000-07:00

Who knew? I worked at the Grape Expections wine tasting event at the Akron Art Museum last evening and had a great time. Yes, chocolate wine is the hot item on the market. I took it upon myself to taste every chocolate wine that was being offered.
This I was told was the first chocolate wine. It is made in Holland. It was good, but not my favorite.

Then I tried this in chocolate and the chocolate/strawberry. It was ok, but not my favorite.

Then there was this chocolate flavored port. I couldn't taste the chocolate or the port. Thumbs down.

My absolute favorite was Choco' Noir. I thought I took a picture of the bottle, but it doesn't seem to be on my camera! Darn! The Choco' Noir was creamy, not too sweet, and full of chocolate flavor. It is made with dutch chocolate - not syrup like some other types. It was like drinking the best chocolate milk you have ever had with a kick! 14% alcohol! I am going to have to buy some of this! Only $10.00 a bottle.

Then there was the food
Cabot cheese sponsored this beautiful tower of cheese. Cabot is a Vermont farmers owned co-op and I have been a customer of their's ever since the first time I tasted their smokey bacon cheddar at a museun event 7 years ago.

The desserts were furnished by a local grocer Acme.

There were several resturants with food including lobster salad sliders (yummy), Cuban gumbo (didn't try), stir fry roll ups (ok), pork belly (yuck), mini crab cakes (I have tasted better but they were good), and seared tuna (so freakin' good!).

Here is one of the flower arrangements. Just beautiful!

We got to take home our wine glass and I put a rose in mine that I snagged off the empty cheese tower. I was home by 7:30 and sleep like a baby after all that wine tasting!

This morning's sky. It is raining.

Fabric I bought in Charm

2011-10-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning to buy much fabric this trip, but if I saw some fabric that would go with pieces I already had in my stash or really good deals I was going to take it home! I checked out the music fabric and these came home with me. I volunteered to make a music theme quilt for a public radio fundraiser next year and these prints will fit in nicely.

Then there was the odds and ends. There were a 3 yard and 1 3/4 yard pieces of white Kona that were headed downstairs to the flat flolds $4 table that I snagged. I got 20% off of that and I found a 3/4 yard piece of 120" wide that I can cut in half, insert some printed fabric, and use for the back of a baby quilt. At $4 minus 20% is a good deal. Normally it would be $9.98 a yard. I went ahead and marked each piece so I would know what the fabric was and the size for the future.

I got this tennis fabric for $6.00 - 20% - it was headed to the yard bin. The tea dyed muslin was in the bargin basement for $2.00 a yard minus 20%. I bought 4 yards.

I found a 1/2 yard piece of this great dotted fabric in the red and then found on the bolt the piece with the gray dots. The gray dots were $8.98 a yard with 20% off. I loved it so much I bought 5 yards. I can see it going with lots of fabrics.

I found this great neutral fabric for $6 at yard in the bargin basement. It will make a great background fabric. With the discount I paid $4.80 a yard and there was 6 yards.

A customer came to my cutting station with this fabric and I just had to have a piece of this great gray and pink small print.

Here is the piece with the other fabrics I already had in my stash. It goes perfectly with them and and is the small scale print that I needed.

Remember the twin girls that were born last year? Here they are at there first birthday party sitting on the quilts I made them.

This morning's sunrise

Back from Charm, Ohio

2011-10-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

Had a great time in Charm this weekend working at Miller' Dry Goods on Friday and Saturday. I left Akron at 5:30 am on Friday and arrived in Charm at 7 am. It was a little foggy in Holmes County, but I arrived safely watching out for buggies and bicycles on the back roads. There were people in the shop before 8 am - are offical opening time and I finally left at 7:15 p.m. It was a long day, but it was so good to see all the women who work at the shop full time, part time, and at the special sales like me twice a year. We had lots of customers, the weather was beautiful, and everyone was enjoying themselves. This picture is where all the quilting fabric is located. There is another room with flannels, minky, charm packs, jelly rolls, patterns, and batting. Then in the bargan basement is all of the above discounted plus dress fabric for the Amish women and home dec fabrics. The building next door is more patterns, embroidery supplies, quilts, stencils, home made goods, and books. The log cabin behind the shop is rented out for quilt retreats. It is quite a complex!

I took a shower and headed for bed at 9 p.m. I was beat. After a good night's sleep I was up at 6:30 and by 7:20 Mary (the Amish lady that lets me stay at her house - she lives next door to the quilt shop) and I were headed back to the store. Customers piled in at 8 am and the shop was busy. For lunch the Owner sends all of the helpers to the lunch stand across the street and down the road about 50 yards. The lunch stand is all by donation and the money goes to someone in the community who has big hospital bills. The group of ladies I was working with at the first cutting table got to go to lunch first since we went last on Friday. There were only a couple of people in line at the lunch stand so we got our food right away. They set up benches under the trees so we found a shady spot and enjoyed our lunch and the rest for about 20 minutes. We walked down the hill to head back to the shop and oh my goodness - the line for lunch had grown! In this picture the lunch stand is on the left (The angled roof under that beautiful red orange tree) and you can see people standing in line. We could not even see the end of line!

Then there was the traffic! The cars were lined up as far as the eye could see! I think it was everyone's last big road trip before winter set in.
Facing east

To the west

I left Charm about 5 p.m. and stopped in Sugarcreek at the bulk food store on my way back to Akron. I got back to Akron at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Tomorrow I will post the fabric I bought. I will leave you with this morning sunrise.

Soap and what is hanging in my office

2011-10-06T05:06:00.000-07:00

I buy the best goat milk soap and cream from Rose of Sharon Acres in Maud, Texas. I seem to have become more sensitive to a lot of products so I was happy to find some lovely natural soaps and creams. I also by her tooth soap - not as ickey as it sounds - I love the stuff and will never go back to regular tooth paste. Monica has a shop on etsy and always has interesting types of soaps. This time I bought Dead Sea Mud soap, Black beauty charcoal soap, Facial Carrot/Honey, and a jar of the unscented goat milk cream. I do not receive anything for this endorcement. I just appreciate a hard working, goat raising family, that makes wonderful natural products. They also take great care in packaging their products so nicely. Check her out on etsy and tell her Patty from Ohio says hello!

I installed a new piece for October in my office. This piece was exhibited at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in 2006 in the Orange You Glad exhibit. This is "For the love of Cheetos". It is made with batiks and was improvsationaly pieced. The black dots are fabric paint. I hand painted the fabric for the back a soft orange and stamped cheeto shapes with a kitchen sponge that I cut to right shape. I picked this to hang for October because of the color. It reminds me of pumpkins and Halloween.

I am off to Charm tomorrow. I am excited to be seeing all the ladies and the customers who return every year for this event. I will try and have pictures to post on Monday. Have a great weekend!

A pile of quilty goodness

2011-10-05T04:06:00.000-07:00

I sewed the binding on the dutch wax quilt last evening. Tonight I will press it to the back side and maybe start hand stitching it down if I have time. I need to do laundry and start getting my stuff together for my overnighter to Charm this weekend first.

Here is the quilt in a pile - just a riot of color!

I will post pictures of both sides once I get the binding sewn on and reveal the name of that I might give this piece.

Back to the Dutch wax quilt

2011-10-04T04:14:00.000-07:00

Remeber this pucker I had on the Dutch wax quilt? That was August 25th post.

Well, I got the quilting ripped out and I tried again. I pressed, smoothed, and pin basted and I managed to get about 6 more inches quilted before it was puckering again. So I ended up ripping out about 3 inches - by this time I am getting good at the ripping out part! I dug around and found a can a basting spray I have had for years. I sprayed the front, the back, and tried again. Success! So now the quilting is done! I cut out the binding so tonight I will work on sewing that on. I know the binding doesn't look like it belongs with this quilt, but the back is completely different from the front. I am going to do a facing type binding, so the binding will not show on the front.

11th finish of 2011

2011-10-03T04:26:00.000-07:00

I finished Sophia's quilt this weekend. Here is the front again and the back of both Sophia's and Claire's quilts. I washed them and they are nice and wrinkled.

I got the bridesmade dress altered along with hemming 2 knit dresses, shorten the sleeves of the lined jacket with the buttonholes, and hemmed 2 pairs of pants.

I had on my list to paint the fabric storage room, but that didn't happen because I got slammed at work and had to take drawings home for estimating this weekend. I did get the walls sanded so the room is ready to go. Here is what my sewing room was looking like with drawings all over the place. The only good thing about having to do this at home is at least I can drink. Yes, that is a Mike's hard limeade on the table.

My only focus this week is to get my part of this school estimated by Thrusday. Friday I am heading to Charm, OHio to work at Miller's Dry Goods for the annual Charm Days sale.

It is Friday already

2011-09-30T04:23:00.000-07:00

This week has flown by. Tomorrow is Oct. 1 and good grief the holidays will be here before we know it.

I got the flower girl dress fixed last evening. First I took the lining apart a few inches at the neckline and armhole opening. Next I shorten the dress strap by a total of 2". I ended up stitching the lining back in by hand. There was no way to do it by machine. I am just glad it is done. I know this picture looks just like the one I posted yesterday, but it is the after shot.

My plans for the weekend are to hand stitch the other I Spy quilt, paint the fabric storage room, paint the trim for the windows in the fabric storage room and hopefully get it installed, alter the bridesmaid's dress that belongs to the mother of the flower girls dress wearer, and finish that hemming the sleeves of that jacket with the buttonholes I ripped out. If I can get all of this done I will be one happy camper!

Have a great weekend!

What is next on the agenda

2011-09-29T04:18:00.000-07:00

Last evening I mowed for an hour and then had to get out the week wacker to finish cutting down the grass in the backyard. Yes, it was that long and gotten completely out of hand. My little 18" Toro mower was struggling and was not going to able to get thru that mess, so the weed wacker was my only choice unless I could have gotten my hands on a couple of sheep! I will let the mounds of grass dry for a couple of day and then go out and rake it up.

Tonight's project is a little girls dress for a wedding. I have to take it up at the shoulders. Of course the width of the front is narrower than the back, so on the way to work I devised a plan in my head on how I am going to attack this.

My plan is after it is taken apart I will shorten the strap on the fabric and the lining and recut the curve at the neckline. I can machine sew the lining and fabric at the neck, but I am going to have to sew the fabric and lining at the the armhole by hand. I figure it is going to take me at least a couple of hours to do this. I taped the last hour of the X Factor and Property Brothers so I will watch that while I fix this dress. Then I still have the mother dress to fix. I promised them to be done Oct. 1 and I think that is going to happen! The wedding is not until the 8th so we're in good shape!

New piece hung at work

2011-09-28T04:32:00.000-07:00

This piece is new to work, but I made it awhile ago. I have gotten favorable comments on it. It is about 24" wide and 34" high.

My job at the museum last evening was to put wrist bands on the members who came to the lecture and annual meeting. The lecture was a glass artist that makes the most amazing paperweights. I am sorry I don't have the artist name. The paperweights had little scenes in them of flowers, animals, and/or bugs made out of lamp glass and then encased in clear glass to make the paperweight. The detail was amazing. There were snacks for the patrons after the lecture and we got to sample them while they were in the lecture. I ended up leaving about 6:30 so I was glad to get home earlier than I had expected.

Patience is a key in this case

2011-09-27T04:20:00.000-07:00

I sat down last evening and started working on a lined jacket that needed the sleeves shorten. This jacket has three faux buttonholes and buttons on each sleeve. The only way to shorten the sleeves is to rip out the faux buttonholes. Here is one of the sleeves after I ripped out one buttonhole and have the button removed off the middle buttonhole. The fabric is slick and not tightly woven. One false move with the seam ripper and I am going to put a hole in this!

I managed to get all three buttonholes ripped out of one sleeve and one out of the other sleeve. It took me about 2 hours. Here is the sleeve with all taken apart. I think after I press it the buttonhole marks will dimish. I will sew the buttons back on the jacket after I hem the sleeve and that will disguise any remaining marks.

The only other thing I could have done would be to take the sleeves out of the jacket and shorten the sleeves from the cap (which I have done on other jackets for this lady), but since this fabric is delicate I didn't want to go that route. Tonight I work at the art museum so my seam ripper will get a rest tonight.

10th Finish of 2011

2011-09-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

I really rocked on the quilting this weekend and I am ahead of schedule for once! I finished Claire's quilt and for Sophia's is quilted and the binding is machined sewn on so all that is left is to hand sew the binding and put on the label.

Sunday I spent some time spackling holes in the fabric storage room walls, made a batch of yogurt, doctored up some blueberry jam that was pretty tasteless, and worked on alterations. I managed to get a lined skirt hemmed, shorten sleeves on a lined jacket, and hemmed a pair of lined pants. I have lots more to do and most of my evenings will be doing alterations this week. I have a bridesmaid dress, a flower girl's dress, another lined jacket that needs the sleeves shortened, and a skirt that needs a new zipper. I need to find the time to go buy a zipper - I don't have one the right color. I hate that when that happens! I will be glad to get this stuff done and out of the house!

And let the quilting begin!

2011-09-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

I started quilting a bit on the I Spy quilts last evening. It's a start. The weekend is here already and on the schedule is machine quilting and painting the trim and extension jambs for the fabric storage room windows.

Have a great weekend!

Giveaways, fabric and midgees oh my!

2011-09-22T04:23:00.000-07:00

I packaged up the fabric I had in my two giveaways last evening so it will be off to the post office.

Here is what I won in a recent giveaway by Lark Books and on Laura Wasilosk's blog. It was a blog hop for an autograhed copy of the new Masters Art Quilt Vol. 2. It is a beautiful book although I have not had time to throughly look at it. Thank you so much Lark Books!

My brother was home for three days and he brought me a present. He was in Anchorage, Alaska on tour with K.D. Lang and ended up in a quilt shop called The Quilted Raven! Now he is the most unlikely person to go into a quilt shop! He must have been bored out of his mind. Well, he said he went in and asked for some of the most Alaskian fabric they had and this is what he brought me.

I love it! There are two fat quarters of each of the fabric with the bear and the fabric with the Native American bear claws, and one fat quarter of each color of the deer fabric. I showed the fabric to a lady I work with and she pointed to the deer piece and said "Bubba"! This fabric will make a real manly boy baby quilt!

Speaking of baby quilts I am know of 10 people that are having babies! Holy cow! I guess once I get the I Spy quilts and the family xmas quilt done I will be working on building my stash of baby quilts. I have about 6 ready to quilt so I will work on those first, but they are mostly boy looking quilts. I have been building up my girl fabric stash and since several people are having girls I will need to get some girl quilts done.

This time of year I finally get to buy one of my favorite treats - vanilla tootie rolls. They carry them at Giant Eagle only at Holloween. Yum!

More progress on the I Spy quilts

2011-09-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

Last night I pin basted Sophia's quilt. I also got Clair's pined basted after sewing on the last row of patches. Tonight I will wind bobbins and get ready for some serious machine quilting this weekend.

I Spy quilt progress

2011-09-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the novelty fabric Glen, Janet, and Karen sent me I am finishing up the I Spy quilt tops. Here is the one for Sophia ready for pinning. I am now down to 17 days to get these quilts done. I need to have them done by Oct. 6th. The birthday party is Oct. 9th, but I am working in Charm, Ohio at Miller's Dry Goods Quilt Shop Oct. 7 and 8th for Charm Days. No problem - I will quilt and bind one this weekend and one the weekend of Oct. 1 and 2 so I am money!

The fabric that cracked me up the most was from Janet - a cow that just bought itself a two pair of cowboy boots!

Here are a few of the great novelty fabrics from Karen. All of them were wonderful!

I had to do some cleaning up in the garage last evening. My brother who is home from California for a few days is planning on moving his car out of my driveway today. He has been storing it there for almost 3 years. He needs to get into the garage to get to the air compressor in case he needs to add air to the tires and I had a bunch of stuff sitting in front of the man door. I had to move that stuff , dig out the dehumidifier that I am giving him, and put his keys where he could find them. His car has been in my driveway for so long it will be strange not seeing it there.

I Spy quilts progress, the next house project, giveaway winner

2011-09-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

I had a crazy busy weekend. I tried real hard not to waste any time.
Here are the backs of the I Spy quilts.

I drew lines on the fabric with a Sharpie like school paper and then stamped the numbers 0 thru 59 using fabric paint.

Here I stamped using fabric inks some basic colors and then with the fabric paint I stamped the alphabet. I did goof and print a couple letters backward so I just X then out and stamped the letter correctly. What the heck, I wasn't going to start over and it is a lesson that life is not perfect - make lemonade out of those lemons!

I decided the next room I am going to finish is my fabric storage room where I sleep. So the first thing was to move the five shelving units and all the fabric. Gosh fabric is heavy! I decided to tackle the job one shelving unit at a time. My system was to take every thing off the shelf unit, place it on the bed, and sort into piles as I went. After I move the shelf to it temporary location, I moved the pile of fabric back onto the shelves. There was a lot of going back and forth between the fabric storage room and the temporary storage area when I would find fabric that needed to go on a particular pile already moved. I worked for hours and hours on Saturday sorting and moving all the fabric and moving the other decorative items that were displayed in this room.
Before:

After:

You may ask "Where are you storing your stash for the time being?" Well, hold on to your hats - I moved it next door into the bedroom I just re-did!

The fabric storage room will not take as long to re-do as the bedroom I just did. The closet and the electrical are already done and so is the floor although I may have to do some fixing up on the floor - I get into that later. But the room is cleared out and ready for finishing. So did I find any suprises? Not really, but there were some spools of quilting thread that were under the shelving units and I found a bunch of strips of Kona snow I had cut for zig zag blocks.

As I was moving I came across the PITT fabric I wanted to make a pillowcase for my dentist out of. My dentist was on a National Championship team 30 some years ago. He is not a very big guy so looking at him you would never know he played college football. I went ahead and make the pillowcase so it is ready to give next month at my next appointment.

I went ahead and made the second set of tie back for the drapes.

8:30 Saturday morning Bubba and Mom were in the front yard munching on my lovely weeds
Bubba

Here is Mom stomping her feet at me and giving me the evil eye. You can just see Bubba in the middle of the bed

I did pull some weeds this weekend and tore out a barberry bush, but the bed in which Bubba was standing did not get done. It is one heck of a mess!

The giveaway winner of the gray and yellow fat quarters is Marie from North Carolina. Marie send me an email with your address and I will get your fabric in the mail this week. The next giveaway will happen when I get the fabric storage room/bedroom done so keep tuned and get ready for another crazy ride!

Roadblock

2011-09-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

After work I went upstairs to wash dishes and no water. I tried the faucet at the laundry tub and the cold was spitting a bit and nothing was coming out of the hot. I called the water department and here there had been a water main break down the hill from where I live. They said the water had just been turned on and to wait a couple of hours before trying to get the air out of the pipes. So the dishes did not get done and the backing for the I Spy quilts did not get washed, but the water is back on although the chlorine smell is very strong. So tonight I will get those dishes done and the backing washed and I will have busted down the roadblock and be back on schedule.
So I worked on cutting and sewing up patches with the musical fabric and adding another row to Sophia's quilt. Another blogger has contacted me and is sending me some novelty prints. With her's and the ones coming from Janet, and the ones I received from Glen, I will be in great shape to finish these. Thanks everyone for your help!

I have a long list of things that need done around the house and I have no idea at this time what I might get into. Much of what I do will depend on the weather.

Make sure you sign up on my 9-12-2011 post for the fat quarter giveaway. One of the goodies I decided to add in was some selvages. I know there are a lot of quilters using selvages and I would love to make a selvage quilt, but I don't see that I am going to have time to make one in the near future.

Have a great weekend!

More progress on Sophia's quilt

2011-09-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

I spent about an hour last evening sewing together more patches for this quilt.

While I wait for the postman to bring me the novelty fabris Janet sent me, I noticed that I hadn't used many music fabric prints. I headed to the fabric storage room and dug out fabric that have musical instruments on them. I will fussy cut them tonight and add them on to the quilts.

Now that I am close to having these tops done, I can cut the fabric for the back and start to stamp them. On the back of one I will put numbers and on the other I will stamp the alphabet and colors. I want to get these pin basted this weekend so I need to get started on the stamping tonight. I have about 23 days to get these done.

Loretta, I have no idea how to put the accent mark over the o in your email address. How about you email me at paltier at rpj-aps dot com so I have your email address so I can contact you in case you win the fat quarters? Thanks! Patty

I Spy quilt and what I think of Microsoft

2011-09-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

I worked on Sophia's I Spy quilt last night and got this much done. I am expecting a package of novelty fabric from Janet any day now and those will be needed in order to finish this quilt.

Now my rant about Microsoft. I come in this morning and I get this message that my desktop sticky notes file is corrupt and I have a choice of hitting the ok button which makes them disappear forever or hit ok for help. I hit ok for help but no help comes up. I have a love/hate relationship with this type of issue. You can't get a hold of a human being at Microsoft or even get a hold of tech support. I tried going thru their website, but I don't know the answers to some of the questions they are asking and if you don't answer them you are dead in the water. If I knew the sticky notes feature was not reliable, I would have not used them. If they are not reliable, then Microsoft needs to go back to the drawing board and fix it or scrap it and not put out junk. And the world wants to go all electronic! There is nothing like a piece of paper and a pencil!

Oops! I did it again!

2011-09-13T04:21:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to buy any more fabric, but oops I did! When I was in Dover on Saturday to install the drapes, The Material Girl was having their 4th anniversary sale. Fabric, books, and patterns were 20% off, but if you cleaned off a bolt or bought 5 yards you got an extra 20% off - that was 40% off not an additional 20% after the first 20%. They had the Habitat fabric I had my eye on so I bought three five yard pieces, cleaned off two bolts, and then bought half yard and yard pieces of the rest.

The piano key and large scale musical notes were clean off the bolt pieces. I bought a 1/2 yard of the other two for a music quilt I need to make next year for a fund raiser.

The floral with the black background was an end of the bolt. I bought a yard of each of the other pieces.

Speaking of installing the drapes, the mother asked me if I would help her strip the wallpaper off her kitchen and paint the ceiling, walls and trim. The baby girls are now entertaining themselves by picking and ripping off the wallpaper in the kitchen! The wallpaper is old so no real loss. I guess I will be doing this re-do after the holidays.

Mom and Bubba chillin' in the backyard this weekend. Bubba has gotten big and he still has his spots.

The drummer in my nephew's band is having problems with the zipper slides on his Beato drum bags. (FYI the Beato drum bags with the gold lettering are Chinese made and the ones with the white lettering are made in the USA. I am dealing with the Chinese bags.) So of course I was asked if I could fix them - ugh! The bags are too old for Beato to do anything about, so next step was to get new sliders for the zippers. The zippers were fine it is just the sliders that are breaking. So here is my shout out to Stan's Sewing Supplies for having all the info on their website to figure out what size sliders I needed. I ordered the sliders on Friday and received them on Monday! This is not my first order with Stan's and they are the solution for all you custom zipper issues. I have received nothing from Stan's for this endorsement, they are just a great company to work with and I wanted my readers to know this in case they have a zipper issue. Here is how big these #10 sliders are

I took the bag apart just enought to expose one end of the zipper so I could get the slider on. It must had taken me a half an hour of messing around to get the slider on and to be able to start zipping. I put some silicone on the zipper to try and make it slide easier. I had to hand sew a stop at the end of the zipper I had loosen up, but it is fixed and I am glad to had this job done. Unfortunately the drummer had a couple more bags with zipper slider issues so I will end up fixing those too, but I learned a lot from the first one so the rest should go faster.

Don't forget to leave a comment on the September 12th post for a chance to win a set of fat quarters.

Lots to report and the re-do bedroom giveaway!

2011-09-12T05:01:00.000-07:00

I ended up going to see my nephew play, because the friend who was going to come over for a binding lesson had to cancel. Apparently if you machine quilt for too long on her machine it overheats and melts some of the plastic gears inside. What the heck?! Added comment: I will post what the service person finds once she gets her machine back. Maybe there is something else other than machine quilting for hours that contributed to the problem.So she couldn't finish the machine quilting and will have to wait two weeks to get it back from the repairman. She has a Husqvarna. Here is my nephew playing with Colin John. After the first set I asked Michael if he knew all the songs they played and he said he only had heard two of the songs, all the rest of the material was new to him!

Here are the drapes installed. They are short enough to clear the baseboard heaters. I only made one set of tie backs and the mother asked for another set for the front window. I have enough fabric leftover so that is not a problem. The tie backs are installed high so the babies can't reach them.

I worked Saturday and Sunday on the I Spy quilts. Here is where they are right now

Gosh I made their names BIG! Claire's is sewn together, but I think I want to add another row along each side to make it a bit wider. I haven't started sewing Sophia's together yet. Oh, I have to have these done by Oct. 9.

And now the giveaway. As you all know I have been working on the re-do bedroom for a while now. Well, it is as done as it can be at this point in time. I still have to solve the water issue before I can install the baseboards and I have to wait until I save a little money until I can buy the closet doors. I have a room upstairs that also needs closet doors so I want to buy both sets at the same time so when I get my brother over to help me install them, we can do both at the same time. I will eventually move in the bed frame. It rained or threaten to rain all weekend so I could not spray paint the metal bed frame. The shelf along the west wall still needs some primping. I installed the door on Sunday - not an easy job to do by yourself! I ended up having to plane the top of the door because it was sticking and would not close. But it is installed with new hinges and a new door handle and I am a happy camper!

Here are the befores and afters - then I will talk about the giveaway.

Now the giveaway. The winner gets a group of fat quarters that is inspired by the rooms colors. I am feeling pretty generous so I will probably throw a few more goodies.

You have three chances to win! 1. Enter a comment - come on I need some love. Let me know what you like or don't like about the room. Do you have a question about how I did something? I started this project about August 1 so you could always go back and see what I was doing.
2. Become a follower and leave me another comment saying you became a follower.
3. Post it on you blog about the giveaway and leave me a comment saying you did this.

I will draw a name Monday morning, September 19. Thanks for stopping by!

Thank goodness it is Friday

2011-09-09T04:25:00.000-07:00

I sat down to catch up on Project Runway and worked on pieceing the names for the I Spy quilts. I did get one done. I used Red Letter Day in the pink and gray stripe. The name came out rather large so I am thinking I may change the layout of the quilt a bit. I was suprised I finish it as tired as I was.

Tonight one of my quilting friends is coming over so we can put the binding on the baby quilt she has been working on. My nephew is playing tonight with an older long time local musician, but he doesn't go on until 10 P.M. and I have to get up very early Saturday to get my haircut and then head to Dover to hang the drapes so I don't think I will be able to see him play tonight. I may stop at The Material Girl quilt shop in Dover as they are having an anniversary sale. 20% off fabric, books, and patterns plus if you buy 5 yards of more or finish the bolt you get another 20% off. I wish I could go today, but I have to work. I sure hope there is something left tomorrow for me!

Have a great weekend!

How I design

2011-09-08T04:18:00.000-07:00

Many of the quilts I make are designed in my head. I go right from the concept in my head to fabric and then the design wall. On occasion I make a quick sketch. Here is my sketch for the I Spy quilts. I spent some time last evening playing around with the lettering. I need to go over to Tonya Ricucci's blog Lazy Gal Quilting because I need a visual on making the letters a and r.

I will leave the giveaway open to anyone who would like to send me a novelty print for these I Spy quilts until Friday, Sept. 9 - see my post on 9/2 for details. I will announce the winners on Monday along with a new giveaway to celebrate my re-do bedroom being as done as it can be at this point in time.

What cute novelty fabric

2011-09-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

One of my blog buddies sent me some cute novelty fabric for the I Spy quilts I am working on. There are Mardi Gras masks, Bob the Builder, LSU tiger, and shopping bag fabric to name a few. Thank you Glen! All of these will look great in the I Spy quilts and they are fabrics I have never seen before.

Another blogger buddy from the Yukon is also sending me some novelty fabric scraps. I will post a picture when I receive them.

What a weekend!

2011-09-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know what has gotten into me, but I have this new energy and a need to get stuff done. Friday night I cleaned house, because company was coming. My company came, we went to dinner, and my friend's husband checked out my big sewing table. We never made it upstairs where I had spent the majority of my time cleaning, but I didn't care. It was all straightened up and looking good.

Saturday I started working on this

What is it? A pile of drapes someone had given to me. I remodeled them for a family member and by Monday I finished the last of them - two pairs of pinch pleated drapes, a door curtian, and a pair of tie backs.

If there is anyone out there in cyberspace that wants to know a great easy method for making pinch pleated drapes let me know. I took a bunch of pictures and I could put together a post on it.

Saturday I did take a break from working on the drapes to go see my nephew's band play. My goodness it was hot - 91 degrees. One of the families had brought a open air tent, so we all huddled in the shade. The kids did a great job and were happy with the icy towels I brought them.

Sunday was all about the drapes. I decided to replace the lining. The lining with the drapes was cheap and very discolored. I had some lining in my storage room that I had bought years ago for my still unmade living room drapes, so I thought I may have enough to do these. I was a foot short of having enough - darn! JoAnn's had lining 50% off plus a coupon for 10% off your total purchase so I ran to JoAnn's and bought the lining I needed plus enought for my living room drapes. I also started a batch of homemade yogurt and made the dough for pizza.

Monday the electrician came and fixed up my re-do room. Here is the before:

and the after:

I am so glad this is done! While he was working the electric was off so I switched projects and trimmed all the blocks for the I Spy quilts. I am making two so you can see that I am a little short. I have two of my blogging buddies who are going to send me some prints to help me out. Thanks so much!

Here is my to list from Monday. I always think I can get more done than what is possible! The drapes just took longer than I thought, but they are done and that to me is huge. Now I just need to find the time to install them.

Hope your holiday weekend was great!

Need help/giveaway, a shout out to Brandon, and e-bay posting

2011-09-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

After sewing the novelty patches onto the Kona strips I realize I do not have enought novelty prints for two quilts. SO, I am having a giveaway. There will be two prizes! If you are interested in sending me a few patches at least 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" and you will have a chance to win a bundle of four fat quarters of my hand dyed fabric in either a gradient of pink, yellow or purple.

I will also giveaway another bundle to the person who sends me the most unique, strange, odd, weird, offensive?, or bizarre fabric. I like strange so suprise me! Leave a comment and E-mail me at pattynubs at gmail dot com and I will send you my address. I won't have computer access Saturday, Sunday, or Monday so if you leave me a message, I will respond to it on Tuesday.

I have to give a shout out to Brandon at the Apple store in Fairlawn, Ohio. I was in the store last evening with my son who needed to get his iPhone looked at and purchase a computer. While my son was getting his phone checked out, I was hanging out by the iPads wondering to myself "What is the deal with these. Why would anybody want one? What is all the hoopla about?" Well Brandon came up to me and we got talking. Next thing I know we fired up one of those iPads to look up the Walter Tool site so see if the Fein Multimasters were still on sale - we were talking about home improvement projects. Next we went to my blog so I could show him the windows I trimmed out - he thought I did a good job. Then the conversation led to quilting and he said he has some t-shirts that his wife doesn't like him to wear because they have holes, but he can't get rid of them. I said "T-shirt quilt". So I maybe making Brandon a quilt. I gave him my blog address, so if you are reading this - Hello Brandon and the iPads are pretty darn cool!

I am going to post these books on e-bay today Yvonne Porcella Magical Four and Nine Patch Quilts, Dye it! Paint it! Quilt it! by Joyce Mori, and Hand dyed Fabric made Easy. The item number is 330609320700 if you are interested.

Yeah, it is Friday and I have a three day weekend. My plans are to work on the I Spy quilts, get to some of those pesky alterations, remodel some draperies for a family member, and complete the final touches on the bedroom re-do so that I can have the giveaway on Tuesday to celebrate the 95% completion of the room. I hope it is not too hot this weekend so that I can get some weeding done and maybe get to gathering more stuff for the garage sale. I am having company tonight and Saturday I will go watch my nephew's band play at an outdoor festival, but the rest of the time I will need to stay home and work. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

A new sewing project started

2011-09-01T04:28:00.000-07:00

I wandered around looking for the parts I had started for a couple of I Spy quilts. With everything moved and reorgaized with the bedroom re-do, I was having trouble remembering where I had put the pieces I had already cut for these quilts. Eventually I found them along with a piece of Kona snow. I cut the snow into strips 3 1/2" wide. My novelty pieces are cut 3 1/2" x 4 1/2".

I sewed the pieces on the strip of Kona

The pieces were cut apart, trimmed and this is a sampling of how I plan to arrange them. Simple, but I like the space to rest the eyes between the prints. I have no idea what size these will turn out. I am just winging it as usual and will just put blocks together until I am happy with the size. So at this point I have no idea if I have enough prints, but I guess we'll find out!

Soup and what's bugging me

2011-08-31T04:51:00.000-07:00

I made a big pot of vegetable beef soup for lunches. Even with my cold it smells good.

What's bugging me - Public schools wasting money on stupid stuff and then wanting more.
There was another murder about 6 blocks from where I work in the middle of the afternoon. The guy had "at least six children". WTF! Nobody knows how many kids this guy had? He had a rap sheet 5 pages long including non-payment of child support.
The government giving out free cell phones
The IRS making deals with people who own more taxes than they can pay. This is what is bugging me - you don't have to agree or disagree - I just feel like I am living in a world gone mad.

Another detail

2011-08-30T04:30:00.000-07:00

Here is the return air grille from the redo bedroom. I did buy a new one, but it was lightweight and the screw holes did not line up with the old ones. This old paint encrusted, dirty grille is make from steel so I decided to striped it, scraped it, then wire brushed to get those last crusty bits off and use steel wool to smooth the surfaces.

Here it is before painting.

Here it is after one coat of paint.

I am pleased with how it turned out. I will give it another coat of gloss white paint, install it, and that will be one more thing done. I am getting so close to being done with everything except the closet doors which will have to wait and the baseboards. I will finish the touch up painting and electrical this weekend the room will be done. That means I will have a giveaway on Tuesday to celebrate the room being as done as I can at this time. The giveaway will be sewing related - not remodeling!

Details and fixing stuff

2011-08-29T05:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday my nose ran all day. I have the starting of a cold. Every 5 minutes I was blowing my nose so I decided to work on the small details for the room re-do and fixing stuff. Here is a shade for the floor lamp I had spray painted a couple of weeks ago. The shade had a crack in it already, but when I went to clean the shade the piece cracked the rest of the way. I got out the Goop and glued it back together.

While I had the Goop out I tacked this diffuser cover that was broken.

Fixed.

Next - I forgot to spray paint the part that screws on the top of a lamp to hold the shade - I don't remember what it is called. This is a table lamp which is going into the redo room.
Sprayed

Installed

Here are some screws for the return air grilles that I spray painted white.

To finish out Saturday I worked on the window treatments for the redo room and mowed most of the grass. I will have to take the week wacker to cut down some of the grass in the back. My poor mower was trying it's best, but the grass was just too long and it was still wet underneath.

Sunday I trimed out the other window in the redo bedroom.
Extension jambs - installed

Trim pieces at the ready

Before the first trim piece was put in place

I have to sand the ends of any excess paint on these trim pieces or they will not fit

First piece installed

All eight installed

Next is the casing. As I installed each piece, I filled the gap with spray foam for doors and windows. I learned not to go all the way around the window and then install the casing, because the stuff expands and then you have to wipe the excess away and it is a big mess.

Here is a reminder of what the before looked like.

Here is the casing done. I still need to finish the caulking and give it a touch up coat of paint, but the hard part is done!

I finished up the other window treatment on Sunday. The fabric width ended up being too narrow for the windows so I put on my thinking cap, and rumaged thru my stash and found some black duck left over from a lighting mask I had made for my brother when he toured with Bruce Springsteen. I cut strips and added it to the sides. I still need to get some hardware to wind the cords on.

So what is left to do in this space? The electrical will be cleaned up on Labor Day weekend and I still need to sort out the water issue before I can install the baseboards. The casing at the doorway needs a touch up coat of paint (I will do that when I put the final coat on the window), I need to hang the door, and put a few more coats of yellow paint on the bed. The closet doors will have to wait until I save up some money, but I am getting close to having the work done in this room.

I did get about 6" of the 17" of unquilting I need to do on the Dutch wax quilt.

Darn that yellow paint

2011-08-26T04:23:00.000-07:00

Last evening I sanded and primed the extension jambs for the other window in the re-do bedroom. I should have gotten up early to put the first coat of paint on them before I went to work, but I had a cool dream instead. I was dreaming that I was starting to work in a fabric printing shop, but not like anything normal. Everything was custom and very edgy.

I put another coat of paint on this chair. This is the fourth coat. It looks ok in the picture, but in person there are still places where the wood is showing thru.

While I had yellow on the brush, I put another coat on the back side of the head and foot board for the bed. I can only paint one side at a time, so right now there are two coats of paint on each side. I know I will have to do at least one more and possibly two more coats.

This weekend I plan on getting the finish coats on the extension jambs so I can install the trim on Sunday. I will try and get another coat of paint on the bed. I need to get back to alterations and maybe work on unquilting the Dutch wax quilt. I guess I will be busy - again!

Back to the Dutch Wax flag quilt

2011-08-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

Last evening I decided to finish quilting the last 3 square feet of the Dutch wax quilt.

It looked great until I turned it over. I ended up with a ridge between the two rows of quilting. I will have to unquilt the last 17" and try again.

A little of this and a little of that

2011-08-24T05:17:00.000-07:00

My friend stopped over last evening with her machine and the baby quilt that she is making. She was having trouble quilting it so I had to put on my thinking cap. The problems were: the thread she was using in the bobbin was a slick-it-tee shiny thread, the stitch lenght was too short, and she did not have one of those wooden spool inserts for the oversized spool of quilting thread. She is borrowing my wood insert - I need to find another one. Does anyone out there know where I can get one?

Here is the completed zig zag top. It will finish 75" x 85".

A co-worker dropped off my extension jambs yesterday. I can now get the ones for the re-do bedroom painted over the next couple of evenings and then I can install the trim on the other window in the re-do bedroom this weekend.

Other news - I got my electric bill yesterday. I almost did not want to open it for fear of how much it was going to be since I ran A/C every day with all the heat and humidity. To my suprise it was only $87.22! Usually my electric bill is about $22 to $26 a month without heat or A/C. I am glad to pay that for all the comfort I received!

Yes, it was interesting yesterday afternoon with the earthquake. I have felt them before in Ohio so it was no big deal although yesterday's much lasted longer than any I have felt in the past. The blinds were shaking along with the fake ficus tree. I am just glad that no one was killed or injured and the damage was minor compared to other earthquakes that have taken place in the world.

ig Zag top is done

2011-08-23T04:16:00.000-07:00

This what the top looked like before I finished it last evening. I forgot my camera at work so I could not take a picture of the finished top. I will post it tomorrow. I am so glad to have the top done and I really like it. I think it is a fun piece.

I also made salmon paddies with a sesame seed crust and watched the prolog of the American Pro Cycling Challange which is being held in Colorado. All the top riders are there including Cadel Evans and the Schleck brothers. Men on bicycles - HOT!

Great weekend

2011-08-22T04:57:00.000-07:00

I am having sewing company Tuesday evening so I needed to get the downstairs cleaned up. I had four piles - garage sale, keep, my son, and trash. This is the downstairs foyer. I started out clearing out the shelf on the right wall in this picture. Not a good shot of it, but it had three shelves and was packed full of my containers I used to sort scraps.

Once I moved the shelf and its contents (some when into to closet in the re-do bedroom) it was time to deal with the floor. Here is where I had not installed the floor tile yet.

I got the tile installed along with the baseboard between the doorways.

Next it was time to sort the boxes on top of that yellow and gree toy box. Now the only thing on top of it is my tools.

I had to go out and work in the garage Sunday a bit to make a spot for the garage sale items. Once I made a decision about an item to go to the sale, I just wanted to get it out of the house. It was very humid and after 1 1/2 hours I deemed the spot clean enough, started bringing stuff out to the garage, and them went back into the A/c.
Before:

After:

I went thru every box and made hard decisions about everything. I even went thru all my xmas ornaments and sorted out a box of them to go to the garage sale. I went from 5 boxes of xmas stuff to two.

The box of my son's trophies has not been unpacked for over 15 years and it was time to deal with them. I cut off all the plaques and will be using them in a memory box project I have started. The trophies will be going to the garage sale.

The oddest thing I found was a pair of beat up metallic shoes worn by James Tayler from Kool and the Gang. My brother tourned with Kool and the Gang a very long time ago and he "saved" these from the trash for my son. I remember at the party when my brother brought these shoes that my son, who was probably 9 or 10 at the time, putting on the shoes and dancing around in them. It was too funny. What should I do with these? E-bay?

I did sew a little last night and managed to sew together the blocks for the last two rows of the xmas family zig zag quilt, and dumped out my yogurt for straining that I had started Sunday morning. A neighbor stopped over with a couple of alterations about 7 PM so after she left I threw in the towel and called it a night.

Tonight I have to finish cleaning up the kitchen since company is coming and cook something for lunches this week.

Mess, extension jambs, and future giveaway - OH MY!

2011-08-19T04:38:00.000-07:00

Here comes the weekend! I want to get my sewing room and foyer cleaned up of all the stuff I pulled out of the re-do bedroom. I am posting pictures of the ugly mess/dirty laundry so to speak. It is very humid this morning and I hope this is not the case for the whole weekend. I need to get some of this stuff out to the garage and organized for the garage sale my neighbor invited me to sell at in a few weeks. My garage faces south and it gets hot!

I even have stuff stuffed behind my big table.

Here is a view the opposite direction looking toward the foyer and the re-do bedroom. What a pile of stuff!

The foyer

The extension jambs were in the garage when I got to the house after work - YEAH! I broke the bundle apart, measured the windows, marked the jambs with the measurment I need them ripped to, and bundled them back up by window. All four windows had different measurements. I loaded them up in the car with the mt beer bottles (in the white boxes) and my friend, Mike, will be taking them home and ripping them for me. I will be glad to get them back so I can finish trimming the other window in the re-do bedroom.

I need to get another coat or two of paint on the other yellow pieces that are going into the room this weekend. Who knows what else I will end up doing!

I came up with an idea this morning. I think I will have a giveaway inspired by this re-do once I get the room done. As I continue to finish rooms, I plan on having some kind of giveaway for each room finished. You will have to keep encouraging me to finish rooms so the giveaways happen!

More yellow

2011-08-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

I bought these bookends several years ago and they are just butt ugly.

To solve that problem I painted them yellow! Now I think they are cute and will look nice in the new bedroom. The framed piece is one my son did in high school art class. It is a tribute to Kirk Cobane of Nirvana. I framed this piece several years ago and it will be perfect for the new bedroom.

Here is a picture of a room that inspired me to use yellow as my accent color. What a fun room!

Keim Lumber is delivering my extention jambs this morning. Tonight I will measure the windows and hand them off tomorrow to a fellow worker - the one I have been saving the beer bottles for - who will rip them down to the correct size. This extension jamb issue has slowed the project along with the foundation issue. The foundation waterproofers are coming Friday to look at the situation. I have not heard back from the electrician with a date and time to do the electrical.

I needed something for breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week so I dug thru the cupboards and found chicken broth, a can of carrots, a can of peas, and noodles. With the leftover turkey in the freezer, celery and parsley flakes, I made a soup/stew. I am eating it as I post and it is quite good.

End table re-do

2011-08-17T04:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the before again for this ugly end table.

After primer and three coats of paint this is what it looks like.

The yellow paint is not covering well and I am not completely satified with the result after 3 coats. It looks a lot better with the 3rd, but I may put a fourth coat on.

An evening off?

2011-08-16T04:17:00.000-07:00

Last evening I did not work on the room. I took the evening off and did a couple loads of laundry, met with the electrician, mowed the grass, and made the appointment with the foundation waterproofer.

I have a pair of these end tables. They are over 20 years old and in very good condition. I have been dragging them around all these years and they are ugly. I have sanded one of the tables down and am painting it to go into the new bedroom. There is primer and two coats of paint so far on the piece, but I ran out of steel wool to give it a quick sand before I put on the final coat. Maybe I will go to Home Depot on my lunch hour today so I can work on this table tonight. Here is the before:

I saw the twins in the backyard. They are getting big and losing there spots. Sorry the picture is so dark. It was early in the morning when I took this and the flash does no good with the distance the twins were from me.

Day 15 - good news and bad news

2011-08-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start. Ok. let's start with some good news. I decided to start with installing the window trim on Sunday after I got the primer and two finish coats on 40 pieces of trim on Saturday. Here is the before

I needed two sizes of nail guns and my compressor

I got my miter saw fired up

and of course hearing protection

Sixteen pieces of trim later, here is the after.

I had put on the touchup paint and it was still wet so installing the hardware will be a quick job tonight. The bad news is that the extension jambs I have are too narrow for the other window so I could not work on it. I will have to call the lumber yard, get wider jambs, and have a friend who has a table saw rip the jambs down to the width I need.

The bad news/good news is that I did not get the baseboards installed. Why this is good news is because with the heavy rain we had yesterday water leaked under the foundation into this room in two places. If I had installed the baseboard it would have got ruined. The bad news is now I need to spend the money to get the foundation waterproofed. I know now that this leaking has been going on for a while and it explains some of the issues with the dampness and all the bugs!

The house is still a mess - bad news - but the good news is that a neighbor is having a garage sale in September and said I could bring down all the stuff I want to get rid of. So as I clean up I will be seriously sorting and organizing stuff for the sale.

I have a several pieces of furniture I am painting, but they are not done. will post pictures as I get them done.

Oh, the really bad news is that my friend had to cancel the quilting weekend we had planned - the whole reason why I started this project! The good news is I found the water leaks, I will be getting the stuff cleared out at the yard sale, and I can now pace myself getting the room done for when my friend comes up in October instead of having to work so hard.

Good news - the electrican is coming tonight so hopefully he will go ahead and install the receptacles and the light fixture so that would be one more thing done.

The friend I have been helping learn how to quilt has started a blog. She posted a picture of the quilt she is making and I have helped guide her on. Her blog is http://mansfieldsmaterialgirl.blogspot.com. Her first post talks about how I have been an influence - not sure I am a good one - LOL!!

Busy, busy, busy!

2011-08-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

The last Downtown @ Dusk party at the Art Museum went well last evening. The temperature has dropped and the humidity is gone so it was a very pleasant evening. I managed to get two more dozen mt beer bottles for a friend who is brewing their own beer. One of the other volunteers asked me if I would donate a quilt for a cancer fund raiser she was having and of course I said yes. I went home last night, rumaged thru my stash, and found this cute orange and blue number. I put a label on it and wrapped it up for her. She stopped by my office this morning to pick it up.

I will be heading out today to buy the twin sized mattress and box spring I need for the re-do. This weekend will be all about paint trim and furniture and getting the trim installed. I will have lots of before and afters on Monday. I hope to have the room done soon so I can get back to sewing! Have a great weekend!

Day 12 - late post

2011-08-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

My computer took a dump this morning, but it is up and running again.
Here is what I accomplished last evening: I dug the head and foot boards of an old twin bed that I have dragging with me for years. My son used this bed for years - it was his dad's when his dad was a kid. I sanded it down and will be painting this weekend for the new bedroom.
Before:

After - I used the sanding pad on my handy dandy Multimaster. I wasn't concerned with getting every little bit of varnish off the bed - just get it cleaned and smooth for priming and painting.

I got the second coat of spray paint on this lamp. I still need to do the shade, but it is going to take some time to tape and paper the glass so that I only paint the metal on the shade. The shade is made up of curved art glass with metal beading between the sections of glass. I know this lamp is vintage, but I painted it anyway. It doesn't look bad in the pictures, but the finish was ugly and splotchy.
Before:

After:

I quickly spray painted another old lamp with a worn finish.
Before

After

I want to have a selection of lamps to pick from when I finally get the redo bedroom set up.

Then lastly I made some cookies to take to the museum tonight as a little treat. They are so easy to make and are really tasty! Martha Stewart French Butter Cookies - yum!

Day 11

2011-08-10T04:28:00.000-07:00

I did not get much done on the room last night since my friend came over to have me help her with her first quilt. I did make an appointment with an electrician next week to clean up the receptacles, add a receptacle under the switch and add a wall sconce. There is no ceiling fixture in this room so the receptacles run off the switch. What this means is that if you plug a lamp in the receptacle and turn the lamp on, you can turn the light out by using the switch. Crazy! What I want is the wall sconce to be controled by the switch and the receptacles are powered on their own. Here are my supplies I already have on hand for the electrician. I bought the wall sconce on ebay for less than $5.00.

Here is where the new receptacle and the wall sconce will be installed.

I had the same work done in my bedroom/fabric storage room.

My friend and I were so busy talking I forgot to take pictures! We trimmed the edges of the top - she did a wonderful job finishing it by herself. She had a piece of fabric for the back, but it was not big enough so we went shopping in my fabric storage room and found a piece that went with the rest of the quilt. We make a striped section and inserted it side to side to lengthen the large piece she had so the back was big enough. We got the quilt pin basted and she plans on quilting it this weekend. Next week when she come back for a binding lesson I promise I will take pictures. Here is a picture of the goodies she brought me last evening - jams and salsa. After we had a cup of my veggie soup, we had my homemade yogurt with the spicy blueberry jam for dessert. Oh my goodness, so good! I told my friend that I could hardly wait for tomorrow morning to come so I could have it for breakfast! I am eating as I write this post :)

Day 10 of redo

2011-08-09T04:26:00.000-07:00

I am having sewing company tonight so I had to clean up the sewing studio and the kitchen which didn't leave me a lot of time to work on the redo. I did get the border tile installed on the north and east walls. I was going to install the return air grille, but the screw holes don't line up where the old ones were. I am not crazy about the grille as it sticks out from the wall farther than the old one. I know how to modify the opening so the screws have something to grab on to, but I think I will try stripping the old grille and spray paint it.
North and east borders done!

South and east walls need the border tile yet.

Here is the fabric I bought for the window treatments. I am going to make a simple roman shade. I also purchased blackout lining since the light is strong from the east and south facing windows. I was in a hurry to find something so I didn't go any place other than JoAnn's. They did not have much of a selection in the gray family so I went with the black. So now black will be one of the accent colors in the room. While we are on the subject of JoAnn's - have you been in one of the stores lately? The one I went to has more than one type of music playing at the same time! It just about drove me crazy. I couldn't even think! One of the sales persons gave me their corporate headquarter's phone number, 330-656-2600, and I plan on calling them today to complain. I would have wandered around the store and maybe picked up a few more items, but I couldn't stand hearing two different songs at the same time - I just had to get out of there!

I received my 2 yards of Michael Miller Cool Zen Garden in gray. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find some on the internet. Apparently the gray was the most popular of the colors this fabric came in and many places were sold out. I finally found some on Esty. I wanted this for the project my friend and I are going to do when she comes up for our quilting weekend August 19 and 20. The quilt we are making will be the one that goes on the bed in the new bedroom that I am working on. I don't have a gray quilt for this room, so this is a perfect opportunity to make one.

A big hello to my anonymous fan in Wyoming!

Days 7, 8, & 9 of the room redo

2011-08-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Friday night I went to see my nephew do his guest appearance. I thought I would be home by 8 so I could get started on the room, but it ran a bit over and I stayed to watch a really good KISS tribute band. I think I got home about 10:30 so no work happened on the room Friday.

Saturday I got hard at it.
I got the walls primed and two coates have been applied.
North

East

South

West

Ripping out old ugly tile

Done ripping

Thank goodness for my handy dandy Fein Multimaster!!

Floor primed

Full pieces of tile installed - 132 square feet. I will have to cut a bunch of tile to go around the outside edges.

Set up trim painting station in the living room. The are 24 pieces of trim for each window unit!
Window trim - yes, I marked every piece so I would not have to guess where it belonged.

Baseboard

Baseboard, window casing, and window extension jambs

I am having sewing company Tuesday evening so I started cleaning up last night. I mean the whole downstairs is a wreck with this redo project going on. I got the laundry/utility/dyeing studio cleaned up and tonight I will work on the sewing studio. I have some furniture I need to paint so I made room in the laundry for that.

No sewing was done this weekend.

I'm tired.

Slinging beer

2011-08-05T04:30:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures from the parking deck across from the museum. The beer/beverage stand is deep in the shadows under the canopy and the band is in the parking lot to the right of the canopy. We were so busy! I ended up with over 100 empty bottles for a co-worker who is brewing his own beer. Then the 96 gallon recycle bin was about 7/8th full of mt bottles. That doesn't even count for the plastic bottles that went out into the crowd. I was tired, hot, sweaty and glad to go home about 8:15.

My nephew is a guest performer with a band tonight at Rockin' on the River so I will go see him play. He is very busy this summer doing many guest performances with different bands. The band he has with his classmates is playing the 13th at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I don't think I will go to that because the main drag in Cleveland is being shut down for the next month for a movie filming and I just don't know my way around Cleveland very well. They only get to play for 45 minutes and his parents will tape it so I will go to their house and watch the performance and here the stories.

Have a great weekend!

Day 6 of the room redo

2011-08-04T04:11:00.000-07:00

Second coat on ceiling - Done!

Third coat on wall cap trim - Done!

Walls patched - Done!

I feel like I am making such great progress on this project. Tonight I am volunteering at the Art Museum so no working on the room. Keim Lumber is delivering the baseboard and casing I need today. This works out great because I will have it to prime and paint this weekend. I need to borrow my brother 2 1/4" nail gun to install the trim. I only have a 1 1/2" nail gun and those nails are just not long enough for installing trim. I have a schedule for working on the room this weekend and I think I will have some time to do a little sewing too.

Fun mixing colors

2011-08-03T04:28:00.000-07:00

I put the first coat of paint on this trim last night and a second coat before I went to work this morning. I think it is going to need a third coat - I can still see the gray coming thru.

I want to paint the wall gray and so I went into my utility room and pulled out all the paint in storage. I started with some opps paint that I bought for $4.00 several years ago. Into the little more than a half gallon of the awful dirty looking pink opps paint I dumped about 1/3 of a quart of the envious green paint. The paint then had a green cast so I mixed up what artist red in a tube that I had - maybe a couple of tablespoons - and the same amount of Burnt Umber. The did chill out the green, but the paint was more a greenish tan than gray. I dumped in some black paint leftover from the master bedroom ceiling and then some white. I now have almost a gallon gray paint using up stuff that was just sitting around and saving myself $26.00!

I painted a sample patch on the bedroom so I could get a better sense of what it was going to look like dry. I think it is still a bit too dark so I will add more white. Now I will be ready to pick up some coordinating fabric this weekend for the curtians.

I ordered my baseboard trim and window casing from Keim Lumber in Charm, Ohio. I bought enough for the bedroom and my fabric storage room which is another bedroom where I sleep also. The next big thing I will need to buy is a box spring and mattress for the twin frame I already have. The pieces are falling into place, yeah!

Progress on the room redo

2011-08-02T05:07:00.000-07:00

Here are all the items I used to install this:

Tonight I will put the second coat on the ceiling and paint the wall cap trim on the east wall that is currently gray.

JoAnn's is having their Home Dec fabric on sale this weekend so I need to get my paint color for the walls mixed so I can get some fabric for the window treatments. I have a bunch of odds and ends of paint so I plan on mixing them until I get a color that will work. I am trying to do this room as economically as possible.

Where did all this stuff come from?

2011-08-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

I worked and worked on the bedroom redo this weekend. Even with the AC on I will still sweating buckets. The first job was to find a home for all the stuff stored in this room. I moved quite a bit out and the rest I put in the middle of the room. I am not done paring down. Once I get the closet done I can put in there what I plan on keeping, get all the Xmas stuff together and sort thru it, and maybe by then have a plan for all the stuff I don't want. I feel I accomplished a lot: closet shelf and door frame ripped out, closet primed and painted two coats, wallpaper borders stripped, ceiling painted with first coat, and baseboards ripped out. I did a lot of clean up as I went and only came across one big spider. This week I plan on patching the walls, get the second coat on the ceiling, and working on the windows which means installing extention jams, paint and install casing trim, and paint and install window trim. Then this weekend I will be ready to paint the wall and once I move the rest of the crap in the room, I will pull up the tiles, prime the floor and install new peel and stick which I have had for several years just waiting in boxes.
Closet Before

North wall before

North all after wallpaper removed and closet painted

East wall before

East wall now

South wall before

South wall now

West wall before

West wall now

Why the floor tile and baseboard has to be replaced. The tile is all broken when the tack strips were installed by the previous owner for carpeting and the baseboard is beat up and moldy.

I worked on the room Friday night, Saturday from 11:30 am to 9:30 (yes, I took a couple of breaks) and most of Sunday. I made the mistake of having a Hoarders marathon on the TV while I worked and all it did was make me want to work more and get this mess cleaned up! I finally stopped on the room to try and get some quilting done on the Dutch wax flag quilt. I only have 3 square feet left to quilt.

The best news of all - with not eating after 6 PM and all this work, I lost 9 pounds in July! I won't say how many more I have to lose, but it's better than a stick in the eye or gaining 9 pounds!

A second post today!

2011-07-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

I forgot to add this to the post today. I joined 15 other quilt artists in a group project. We each received a piece of a photo, backing, and batting. We had to translate the photo into fabric. Our group leader assemblied the pieces and submitted it to the IQA in Houston. It was accepted! My piece? The bottom right corner - yes, the piece that looks all green with the black lines. The photo was all green except for a tiny bit of red and orange. It looked like celery and lemon grass. I used my hand dyed fabric for the background and every color of green Sulky rayon that I had for the quilting.

Some like it hot - not me!

2011-07-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

I was just listening to Robert Palmer "Some like it hot." It was miserable at the museum last night. We were outside under the canopy and after it rained, it was so humid! Not many people showed up because of the weather so I left early since there was nothing to do.

I pulled in the driveway at 8:15 and there was momma teaching Bubba how to eat my daylilly flowers in the front yard. They ran off to the side of the house and I got a picture of Bubba (thru the window and screen) and one of momma giving me the evil eye. If you click on the picture of momma and make it bigger you can see her better. She was under a pine tree and the light was fading so the picture is dark. After I open the window and told momma not to teach Bubba to eat my flowers, they walked off into the woods. I don't think momma got the message!

I plan on going to Home Depot at lunch and pick up some supplies for the bedroom redecorating/improvement project. So my goal this weekend is to get the closet done, finish the flag quilt and work on those alterations again.

Have a great weekend!

Chipping away

2011-07-28T04:30:00.000-07:00

I now only have 12 square feet left to quilt. Here is the corner section that is left to be quilted.

Tonight I am working at the art museum selling beer, water, pop, and tea. I have not worked the last three Thursdays because of the TdF. It is raining right now and 72 degree, but it is a little muggy. The rain is suppose to clear out, but a long as it doesn't get as hot as last Thursday was I will be a happy camper!

A little more quilted

2011-07-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

I mowed a bit, made meatballs, and quilted 2 square feet on the Dutch wax flag quilt last evening. So now that is 32 square feet done and 17 square feet to go. Little by little ...

More quilting done and a bedroom project

2011-07-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Last evening I got another 3.5 square feet quilted on the Dutch wax flag quilt. So that is 30 square feet done and 19 square feet to go.

Do you remember this from May? I did the first pass thru this room to clean it up and get rid of any trash since I could hardly walk into it for all the stuff. Well, I am going to transform this room by Aug. 20, because my quilting friend is coming for a couple of days of nothing but quilting. Last time she slept on the couch. I have a plan and it really will not take that much to get the room in decent shape. My plans are:
1. Move all the stuff somewhere!
2. start with the closet - rip out the old wood shelf, rip out the old door frame, patch, paint, and install Closetmaid shelving
3. the room - remove wallpaper border, remove baseboards, patch holes (there are about a billion - teenage boy - not mine - does that explain it?!), prime and paint the ceiling and walls, pull up old tiles, prime floor, install new floor tile, replace baseboard, paint and trim windows.
Yep, sounds like a plan!

More progress on the dutch wax flag and the tour is over

2011-07-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

I now have 26.5 square feet of the quilt quilted - 22.5 feet to go. I had the TdF on trying to catch up on Friday's stage on Saturday since Friday evening I went to see my nephew's band play. Those kids played on under the shelter during a downpour to a small crowd that was brave enough to stay. When I say I watch the Tdf while I machine quilt I really mean that I listen and look up every few minutes to see the time gaps or if there is a problem. It makes me too nervous to watch some of the mountain stages when the crowds of people get so close to the riders. This way I hear what is going on and keep up with the progress of the stage. Hope that answers your question Janet.

Speaking of the TdF - congratulations to Aussie Cadel Evans Team BMC for the GC yellow jersey win, Isle of Man Mark Cavendish for the green jersey, and Team Garmin Cervelo for the team win (this is the team Thor Hushovd is on), Pierre Rolland for the best young rider jersey, Jeremy Roy for the most aggressive rider prize, and Sammy Sanchez for the King of the Mountain Jersey.

Cadel Evans

Flag quilt and Tdf

2011-07-22T04:48:00.000-07:00

I switched projects last evening and decided to machine quilt on the flag quilt. I got 4 1/3 square feet done in about 2 1/2 hours. I was watching yesterday's stage of the TdF and I kept stopping to fast forward the tape thru the commercials so that slowed me down a bit. For the blue section I am using a varigated blue thread by Coat and Clark called Star. I am not a fan of Star thread because of the knots I find in the spools. That drives me crazy!

Speaking of the Tdf:
Yesterday's race profile

Going up hill (aka mountain)

Summit of the first climb

Going downhill

Riding thru the valley

Heading up the climb

The summit of this climb is in the clouds. The boys had a total of 38 miles of climbing yesterday.

Zig Zag quilt progress

2011-07-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

I decided to work on the zig zag quilt last evening instead of alterations. I got rows 12 thru 15 sewn together in a group. A few more seams and the top will be done.

Here are a few pictures of the Alps from last night's TdF.
You can see the roads cutting right to left. They were biking from the lower road up to the upper road.

Another part of the climb. You see the road on the bottom right? Well, they are headed to the road on the upper left!

These S curves can be tricky, but so beautiful like a ballet as you watch the riders snake there way thru the curves. Here they are going downhill.

Today is going to be a brutal day in the mountains. There was a snow storm a few days ago on top of one of the mountains they are going over today. The weather has gotten warmer so hopefully the snow is gone.