Getting closer

Here is the picture of the papered wall I forgot to take so I could post it and show the after. The gray wall to the left will be papered tomorrow as my brother is coming over for one more work day to hep me paper the high areas of the foyer.

Last evening I papered one more wall in the office. Before I could get started I had to move the stack of boxes you see in the before picture. That is 24 boxes of glass tile for the master bathroom. The paper ends in what may look like a odd place on the left, but I don't have enough paper to do the closet and where the paper ends will be covered by the jamb when I install new closet doors.

I only have one more wall to paper - 4 strips - and the room will be papered. I plan on painting eventually. Slowly but surely it is getting done.

Progress on the house and an update on the tea towel quilt

I had another very busy weekend working on the house. I wanted to get started on the paintable wallpaper in the upper foyer, but first I needed to reinstall the baseboard I had salvaged. I saved this because it butted up to the stair trim and I knew it would be difficult to find material the same height and thickness. So after sanding and repainting the base went in. I did have to do some cutting on with the miter saw to get it to fit. This was because I changed the flooring and had a new front door installed. Her are the befores and afters. I still need to fill in the nail holes, caulk any gaps, and touch up the paint which I will do after I install the wallpaper.

So then I was ready for wallpaper. Thank goodness for my big sewing table! I used it to cut the wallpaper since it is 8 feet long it made measuring much easier.

Then I would take the strip upstairs to the kitchen and use the counter top for pasting.

The first piece I needed was a 16 foot long piece that would join the lower level wallpaper to the ceiling in the upper level foyer. That was a big piece for one person to handle and it was hard to reach to get it smoothed, but I did it!

With the 16' piece installed I could go ahead and finish the section to the office doorway. I am trying to get the paper installed everywhere I can so I don't waste my brother's time. He is going to come over and help me paper the high areas.

I also got this wall papered, but I forgot to take an after picture. Just let me say it looks good! I will try and post a picture tomorrow. I had to reach around the corner from a ladder set up in the living room to get the one long piece. It was a bit tricky.

I got the walls and ceiling patches sanded in the office. Next I painted the ceiling and installed the casing around the window.

To me the other walls still look crummy and just putting a coat of paint on them was not going to make them look good. So I decided to install more of my paintable wallpaper. I was hoping I had enough and after some serious measuring and figuring, I determined I would have just enough. I took the 7 full rolls and three part rolls and cut the rolls the most economical way I could to get the strips I needed. I did discover that the rolls of paper were not as long as what it said on the label! I needed every inch so that threw a kick in my calculations. Here are all the full cut strips for the office room ready and waiting for me to hang them.

I got two walls papered except for a piece for the corner. I will be splitting a full strip between this corner and another wall - this is what I meant by having just enought! - but I want to get the other wall papered befor I cut the strip. I know it is hard to see in the photos since the paper is off white, but it looks so much better!

This is the paper left to be installed.

I mudded and sanded the patch in my bedroom and brushed on the first coat of paint. It is just so great not to look at that plastic covered hole in the ceiling anymore!

We had company meetings yesterday and I just can't just sit and listen so I doodled a bit. I was playing around with rounds for the tea towel medallion quilt. I want to incorporate traditional elements like triangles, and piano key strips, but in a funkier way so those will be improv pieced. This won't be the final look - I can almost guarantee that I will change my mind as I go along.

I got some paperwork yesterday from my lender and I don't think they are going to send out an appraiser. That means I wouldn't have had to do all this work to impress him, but I am glad it is getting done. The other thing this means is I can slow down on the house stuff a bit and spend more time in the studio. I will find out today if this is the case - let's hope!

Tea Towel quilt and projects for the weekend

I am in a challange over at 15 minutes to play which is to make a medallion quilt using a tea towel as the center. Last evening I pieced together two sets of improvisationally cut strip strip sets. I am using the natural linen as my background fabric to tie in the linen the tea towel is printed on.

I plan on making a bunch of stripe strip sets out of this fabric. Once the sets are made I will start to play around with the quilt's layout on the design wall.

Part of the challenge is to put into words the decisions I make about the choices I make in designing this quilt. That is hard! Sometime I just do what feels or looks right to me. I am going to have to really concentrate to try to convey what is going on in my brain!

Last evening I also did some number crunching and planning for the paintable wallpaper that is for the foyer walls. I already papered and painted the downstairs foyer and they do share a wall. There are several very long strips of paper I will have to cut for pieces that go from the upstairs almost down to the lower level and I want to make sure I have enough paper. The rolls have 11 yards and 21 inches so I drew up some rough drawings of the walls, measured the heights, and marked the walls with the width of the paper. I don't want to waste any paper so I played around with the lenghts to get the most from each roll.

I can install some of the paper this weekend, but I will need help with some of the pieces that go up high and that will be a job for Mike/Cobra and his ladder.

MQG meeting

It was a small group last evening of eight - I think because it was so cold outside, but we had a great time! We were to bring our favorite sissors. Here are the sissors

Three members out of the eight of us are left handed so there was a lively discussion about lefties using right handed sissors. Lots of good tips were shared about using wavey rotary cutter blades and sharpening sissors. Oh, by the way, I forgot to take my sissors (duh!) so here is a picture of mine I took when I got home. It includes my Ginghers - 2 pair of 8" shears, 5" shears, a small pair of embroidery sissors, a pair of nips, and a Gingher sharpening stone. We also talked a bit about seam rippers and here are my two favorites with my spares still in the package.

We then had show and tell. Joanna brought a beautiful silk and cotton table runner

I brought two of my step zig zag quilts.

Next month we are having a pincushion swap. I am going to put that on my calendar so I don't forget. I don't know what I am going to make, but when the question came up of what to fill your pincushion with, someone said to put some steel wool in the middle and wrap it with the fiberfill so that the steel wool will sharpen your pins. I thought that was a great idea.

A productive day

Before my brother showed up at the house for our workday, I made a batch of cinnamon rolls and installed the trim around the front door.

Mike arrived at 7:50 a.m. and after we sat and had a roll and juice, we got to work.
First project - repair hole in bedroom ceiling. The hole happened when I put my foot thru a space in the attic floorboards when we were in the attic adding more insulation - oops!
Mike trimmed the hole and I held the shop vac wand to catch the dust

Mike patching the hole and I was on ground duty handing him screws, tape, mud, etc and clean up detail. Mike also put the shade in the ceiling fixture while we were in the bedroom.

Next, install the new light fixture in the foyer. I only have had the fixture for seven years! Mike is on the ladder and I am holding the old fixture. Can you see the dust on that light? Wow.

Mike figure out a way for me to hold up the fixture while he connects the wires and fixture to the electrical box. This is a fixture on a stick! Well, it is really a 2 x 4 x 8'.

So here is a shot with me holding the fixture in place as Mike secures it to the box.

Mike was so proud of getting this done. Old versus new.

Mike attacked that ugly remaining wall paper and painted out the last bit of that awful wine paint color. It is a long way up there on a ladder!

While Mike mudded the master bathroom, I fixed the door bell, and threw one more roll of insulation up in the attic to fill in this area.

One of the last jobs was installing the last piece of backsplash in the kitchen.

Now look at my brother's poor hand.

He dislocated his pinky last week playing basketball. He plays basketball twice a week. His b-ball name is Cobra. Well, Cobra has an appointment to see a hand specialist next week and he may need surgery. If his hand wasn't against the wall, his little finger goes east and west when it should be north and south. It just about make you nauseous to look at it flopping around (I am cringing right now!)

Mike stayed until almost 5 so by then I was beat and no sewing happened. Tonight is MQG meeting so I should have some sewing related stuff to report tomorrow.

Next sewing project, mud and trim

I spend Saturday mudding the office wall and started mudding the master bathroom. I can't say that I am fast or good at mudding, but I get the job done and try to make it so I don't have to sand a lot.
Office

One wall in the master bath. The mud job does not have to be perfect - I am going to tile the bathroom floor to ceiling on all 4 walls.

While the mud was drying I started installing trim. I installed 36 pieces this weekend which seems like a lot, but it seems like I only got a few areas done.
Here is the downstairs foyer. I install the trim on the bathroom door opening and the baseboard.
Before

The two detail shots show a corner the needs a small piece of baseboard. These are always so hard to install and line up with the longer pieces. I decided to cut the small pieces and attached them to the long pieces before I installed the baseboard. I glued and brad nailed them first.

After

Then I needed to install the shoe mold at the steps (the steps are diagonal) from the bathroom door)

The four pieces of shoe mold installed

I had the painting station in operation painting more trim - will it ever end?!

Next it was on to the fabric storage room windows. I cut and install the extension jambs and the trim around each window.
Before

Here are the windows after with all the trim except for the window casing

I couldn't finish the casing because I need these three pieces of trim ripped (FYI incase you don't know that is a lenghwise cut on a piece of lumber). The distance between the bottom extension jamb and the sill is less than the width of the trim.
One of the guys I work with has a table saw (no I have not bought one of those) and said he would rip my trim for me.

I found a couple of inexpensive frames and framed two pictures I had enlarged from my trip to California. I have the sunset hanging next to my desk at work now.

Now the next sewing project is a medallion quilt using a tea towel for the center. I decided to participate in this challenge over at Victoria's 15 minutes to play blog. There is a lady from Canada who saw my post on 15 minutes to play and recognized one of the tea towels I was thinking about using for my challenge. She said she has one just like it and wanted to send it to me. That way sewing the two towels together will help with the proportions of the final piece. Thanks Brenda! I dug thru my stash to see what I could come up with. I am still working on in my head what this quilt will end up looking like - maybe!