Busy, busy weekend

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

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!

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

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 ...

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

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!

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!

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.