Pincushion is done

I finsihed my pincushion last evening and here is the back. I will post pictures of all the pincushions tomorrow. I took a nod from Victoria G, The Silly BooDilly and closed my back in the center rather than at the side and added some x's with the linen thread. I didn't want to toss the extra lenght of thread so I added some running stitches for fun and then a label.


If you haven't been to Victoria blog, you need to. She is a highly skilled craftperson in several different fields. Right now she is into weaving and she also has an etsy shop.

My brother is coming over tomorrow to work on the bathroom. I think what we are going to do is just do the bare minimum to make the bathroom functional to apease the stupid Rels appraser. Yes, I am naming names and I don't care - don't jerk me around! The floor will be the lovely plywood underlayment and the walls will not be tiled, but there will be taps on the tub, one sink (I will be putting in two eventually) and the toilet is already working. We will install the vent fan which we are ready for anyway since the ceiling is painted, install the sconces at the vanity, and install light switches and covers. After the appraiser comes back to see the bathroom is "functional", my brother and I will then take it back apart and finish it they way it is suppose to be. This is just stupid. Not having a second functioning to them is a marketability issue. I am not selling the house! Those people are just idiots! Don't ever let a mortgage company use Rels Appraisers!

Making a pincushion

For our MQG meeting we are to bring a pincushion. I started on mine last evening. I got out some beautiful linen thread to add a little hand quilting to the cushion. I don't want to show you it until after the meeting as a few members of the group read my blog. I guess it wouldn't really matter, but I just thought I wanted to keep it under wraps until after the meetingso here is the back of the cushion.



I did get my hardware for my bathroom yesterday. Here are two pieces. I got a good deal on ebay.



Just to let you know I am still having problems with posting pictures. No matter what I do the pictures attached at the beginning of the post so I have to cut and then paste them where I want it to be. I hate when Blogger thinks it is making things better. Is anyone else having this issue?

Progress on the tea towel quilt

I got the next border sewn on the tea towel quilt. I am not sure that I am calling it done. I am thinking about adding another boarder. THe border now is all bias cut fabric, so I was thinking about a simple border done with straight grain cut retangular blocks using up the fabric I have left. You can see the fabric I just pinned to the design wall for auditioning.



I was so tired this weekend I don't fell like I accomplished much. I did manage to get a couple of QOV blocks done.

Yeah it is Friday!

Yesterday evening I was just too tired to sew. I had hauled 13 file boxes and 10 rolls of drawing down to the storage room in less than an hour, made three trips to the recycling dumpster, took out the trash, and I was beat. Lots of physical labor for an office job! I don't mind though because it gets me up and moving.

I did pull some fabric for the QOV blocks.



Glen commented on how nice my new curtains and windows looked in the fabric storage room and that it would hold a lot of fabric. Well, here is some pictures of the fabric in the room. It is fairly well organized with labels on the bins and mostly organized by color.

The shelf on the left is my quilting thread and hand dyed fabrics. There is a roll of drapery lining and one of the fabric I use to make covers for my brother. On the right is backing, UFO's on the top shelf, my living room drapes that need made, and stacks of fabric cordinated for future projects. In the bins there are the t-shirts and orange fabric for a quilt for my niece, and bins with leftover clothes from previous projects.


On the opposite side of the room is all my color coordianted stacks by color or type. I have a stack of all my African prints, a stack of Jimmy Buffet fabrics, linens, and another with novelty fabrics. The bins are scraps that I just can't toss and on top is the wool pieces and parts for a bus bunk quilt for my brother that got put on hold. The little boxes on top hold elastic, velcro, cording, and some have scraps.


The desk in the middle is great for laying out fabric as I pull them from the stacks. There is some flannel for a quilt for my son laying there, a box of pieces and parts for zig zag quilts, some batting my sister-in-law gave me, and underneath a couple more bins. Humm - I think I need to do something about all these bins!


Lastly, here is the closet. I have fabric hanging that I have a lot of yardage of, a stash of baby quilts hanging, quilts, and more bins with vintage fabrics, scraps, and one with fancy fabrics. There is also leftover duck and denim that comes in handy.


So there is the big tour! It is great having this space!

This weekend I have a few alterations to get done and then I will work on the house. My brother is coming over next Thrusday for a work day so I want to get things ready for that. Have a great weekend!

Blocks for Victoria's friend

I spent last evening making these anvil blocks for Victoria of Bumble Bean. I decided I just couldn't make one block since I had all the fabric out to cut, so I made four. Now she will have a few extra.



Next I need to make some blocks to send to a friend of Vicki, Field Trips in Fiber, for some QOV. The block requested is a very simple block so I will have to go thru my stash to find some funky fabrics that will liven up the blocks.

A hard time deciding...

Which fabric should I use for the last row of the Buffet baby quilt? I am out of shark, pirate, and parrot prints so I thought I would just use another music print, but I am not totally digging the print I picked for the bottom row.



So then I pulled out this multi colored print and pinned it up. Not sure about it either. See the square on the lower left?



Any opinions out there?

I did put a coat of paint on the ceiling last evening. It looks pretty good, but there are a couple places that could have been sanded better and will need some attention. From the floor I don't really see it, but then again my eyesight is not great. Once I had my nose up to the ceiling then I saw the little boo boos. So here is a picture of a white ceiling! I know it is what you are waiting for! LOL!

A little sewing, painting, caulking, and sanding - Oh my!

Here is what I accomplished this weekend on the home improvement front.

Fabric storage windows - install the casing, caulked, and made curtains.
Before





After



Bathroom window - in this picture the drywall is covering up part of the window.


and after



The bathroom ceiling - I had to put on a second coat of mud then I sanded it. Sanding a ceiling is the job from hell! Thank goodness it is a small bathroon! 6' x 11'-6". After sanding and cleaning up a lot of dust I primed the ceiling at 7 p.m. last night.


Primed ceiling



This doesn't seem like a lot of work for one weekend. There were a couple of small things I also did - added blocking for a cabinet and I had to prime and paint some of the trim first before I installed it this weekend. A real time sucker is when you have to make six trips to the miter saw in the garage to keep cutting one piece of casing trim so it fits just right. I didn't have to make six trips for each of the twelve pieces I installed this weekend, but I sure was tired from going up and down the ladder and steps!

So the Buffet quilt did not get touched except to stick a piece that was falling off the wall, but I did make the curtains.

Second post today - Forgot to show you ...

This is what I bought myself for valentine's day. I just love cacti and succulents! I had a Madagascar Palm for more than 20 years, but it caugh some kind of mold or fungus when I moved into my house in Akron. The house had a lot of moisture issues and I think the mold or fungus was in the air and attacked and killed my plant.

Progress on the Buffet quilt

I know the quilt doesn't look much different, but I sewed together all the rows last evening. This weekend I will sew the rest of the rows together the trim it to size. I need to add one more fabric at the bottom yet and add something to the lower right corner. The quilt looks so big, but once I trim the uneven edges it will reduce in size quickly!



I got an email from my mortage guy and he submitted my comments and pictures to the appraisal company for review and asked them to remove their remark that the bathroom needed to be done before the loan is granted. In the meantime, I will make a serious effort to work on the bathroom this weekend. My list includes sanding the ceiling (oh, I hate that job!), priming and painting the ceiling, cutting the drywall out at the window, pulling the window trim to prime and paint it and hopefully reinstall it this weekend, cut out the hole for the inset wall cabinet and add a piece of 2 x 4 to support the cabinet in the wall, and possibly start on the floor tile. Of course I will be taking lots of before and after shots which I will post here and send to my mortage guy so he knows I am serious.

When I can't find anything to do in the bathroom (ha ha ha!) I want to get the Buffet quilt sewn together. THe baby is not due until May so I have plenty of time to get it done - well at least I think I do. I looked at what I have on my calendar for March and it is going to be a busy month so I might not have as much time as I think. We will see.

Have a great weekend!

Done!

No not the Buffet quilt - the scarf. I just was having the most relaxing time knitting. I finished the scarf this morning and wore it to work. This yarn had been sitting around the house for at least 4 years. Now it is being put to use. As my mom would always say "That's a good job done!". Using this up cleans out a spot on my storage shelf - yeah!



Since this scarf didn't use much yarn, I may keep my eyes out for some pretty yarn and make a few more.

Buffet baby quilt and scarf

Yesterday was a stressful day so I was a whipped puppy when I got home. I decided to chill and knit a bit. Here is the gray yarn I dyed last weekend. It is just a simple scarf.



I did work on the Buffet inspired baby quilt. I cut the strips from cheeseburger fabric, sew it to the correct ajoining fabric and now have the blocks laid out on the design wall. I was suprised how many of these prints were one way designs. I had to be aware of how I was sewing the strips together so I didn't get my images upside down.



Well, blogger has changed there method for adding pictures which is fine except it puts the pictures at the beginning and you have to cut and paste them where you want them. What is up with that? I guess no body tested that! Oh well, I have dealt with worse so I can deal with this goof.

Fabric arrived and in for a fight

My fabric arrived yesterday - yeah! I bought 1/2 yard of the cheeseburger for the baby quilt, a yard of the circle fabric for the medallion tea towel quilt, a 1/2 yard of margerita fabric which I was going to use in the baby quilt, but not now because it has glitter on it, and 5 yards of Kona turquoise. I bought the Kona because it was marked down and I had a 15% off coupon so I got it real cheap. The fabric is all washed and ready to be cut.

I wound the rest of the yarn I dyed this past weekend into balls. I am mailing my sister the pink and turquoise/yellow yard. I am keeping the gray and started knitting last evening a scarf for me.

The rest of my evening I spent gathering up the rest of the materials I have already purchased for the master bathroom so I could photograph them. Why you may ask? Well, I am refying my house and the woman who appraised my house is recommending not to give me the loan (with the same company I am have been with for 9 1/2 years!) until I get the bathroom done. Son of a bitch! All you readers out there know how hard I have been working on the house in January and all the work that I and my brother have gotten done. I am putting together a letter and documentation of all the work I have done and my wonderful mortgage guy is going to go to battle for me. Do they think I am not going to finish the bathroom when I have invested my money in materials? - Here is the wall tile, floor tile, mastic, grout, sinks, foucets, shower head, shower waterproofing, floor underlayment, wall sconces, ceiling fan/light, and custom vanity. Wish me luck!

Another project started

This weekend I decided to first dye the six skeins of cotton yarn.

I used the winder thingy that my dad made and gave to me last Xmas to change the balls into hanks.

After dyeing and when the yarn was dry, I wound it from hanks back into balls. The hardest part was waiting for the yarn to dry. I didn't let the pink and yellow/turquoise batch as long as I should have - they came out rather light, but they are still pretty. I am mailing the pink to my sister in Georgia. She has been making scarves to sell and using the money to go on church missionary trips to visit the child she sponsors. She now sponsoring a child in Eucuador which she went and visited in September (remember the quilt for Victor?) and she is now sponoring a child in Thailand and is now saving money and selling knitted scarves to raise money for that trip. I may send her the yellow and turquoise yarn also.

Next I sewed the checkerboard borders on the medallion tea towel quilt. I didn't work on the next border since I was waiting for some fabric I bought to arrive to see if I want to use it in the next border.

So in the meantime, I decided to work on a Jimmy Buffet inspired baby quilt for some friends. I decided to try and make the wackyiest zig zag quilt so every zig zag is a different fabric which includes parrots, flamingos, sharks, guitars, music, manatees, and pirate skull and cross bones. I got the upper section sewn together but came to a stand still as I am waiting for one more fabric to arrive - cheese burgers of course! I had to clear off my other design wall and it is a squeeze working between it and my big table. I just realized I don't have the sections lines up correctly, but you get the drift!

I am crossing my fingers that my fabric order arrives today so I can continue to work on these two projects.

Those boxes are heavy!

I hauled 15 boxes to the basement storage room yesterday so I was too tired from womanhandling those boxes to sew last evening. I bet some of those boxes weigh at least 50 pounds. See how packed they are?

The upstairs storage room is getting empty! Here is what it looks like today. Yes, I have two boxes on the orange cart ready to take down. Besides this boxes in this room I have been moving files from the file cabinets and taking them directly downstairs. The storage room was for jobs that had not been closed out. More than you wanted to know hun?

I may spend some time this weekend dyeing this cotton yarn. I would like to knit some scarves. I will have to rewind them into hanks, but I have a nifty winder thing my dad made that I plan on using to accomplish this task. I will post pics on Monday if it all falls into place.

The rest of the weekend will be about working on my tea towel quilt. I made my first purchase of fabric this year and I bought a piece that I think I would like to use in the next border. I don't know if it will come today in the mail - today. Let's hope it does or I will have to change my plans.

All of you on the east coast take care! The weather people are saying you are in for snow that will be measured by the foot! Here in Ohio it is raining which I will take any day over that much snow.

Have a great weekend!

Little by little ...

I am getting the checkerboard/nine patch border ready to attach to the previous border. I sewed together the top and bottom borders. I decided to recut some of the pieces for the sides as some of the pieced were a bit narrow. I think it now looks better. I will sew the border on tonight and then figure out what will be next.

At work I am busy again moving file boxes to the basement storage room. Darn those boxes full of paper get heavy! Here is the upstairs storage room right now. We will be moving out of the office we are in right now by Sept. 30 so I want to get as much moved downstairs as possible before the big push to move comes in September. There are a bunch of other files and drawings that belong to other projects that will have to be moved out of the building and cannot be stored downstairs. I have a feeling that stuff is going to sit until the last minute and I am going to be stuck helping move that crap stuff. I mentioned it to the people who the stuff belongs to, but I didn't get any sense of urgency to deal with the piles.

You can see there is empty space on the shelves as I had moved 6 boxes downstairs already this week.

Moving right along on the tea towel quilt

I got busy after work and cranked out a bunch of nine patches and strips for the next border. I just stuck up the two blocks that need to be recut and shuffled at the bottom right corner just so I could get a better sense of how the quilt was going to look. Again this border was all about chenging the porportions of the quilt so now it is longer than it is wide.

The next border round started on the medallion tea towel quilt

I am still following my original design on this quilt which is kind of unusual for me. Usually I change something, but then again it is not done yet! I worked on the the checkerboard/nine patch blocks out of the vintage drapery fabric and the natural linen. I will need to make a few more before I decide if I like it.

I was so happy when I went to the grocery and found Excedrin back on the shelves! I was down to my last tem pills so now I am resupplied! I don't take it that often, but when I am hurting after a long day of working on the house or in the yard, it just smooths out the rough edges.

Progress on the tea towel challange quilt

I did no home improvement work this weekend! I took the weekend off to work on my medallion tea towel challange quilt for the 15 minutes to play blog. The piece right now is 56" wide and 51" high. I will work on changing the size of the piece so it is taller than it is wide - more the norm for a quilt! I improv pieced the triangles as well as the striped border.

The fabric hanging at the left will be the next round for this medallion style quilt. Right now the plan is to make either 4 or nine patch blocks and assemble them into a checkerboard pattern. It was a good weekend to stay inside and sew as it was cold and it snowed all day Saturday.

Another good day's work

I finished papering the office on Wednesday evening. Yeah! I will have to paint, but just getting the papering done feels so good!

Glen, your wall paper sample is in the mail.

Here are the before and afters of Mike and I's adventure in finishing up the wallpaper in the foyer on Thrusday. It is mind blowing how good it looks - such a huge change from what I had been looking at for years!

These jobs that I could not do by myself have held me up from getting some of the projects around the house done. I now have no excuses! I will be pacing myself and balancing my time between working on the house and making time for sewing.

I did receive the matching tea towel from Brenda for my medallion tea towel quilt challange. I took out the hems and hung it up on the design wall along with the fabric that I pieced last week. I just noticed my container of hardware made the photo. It is sitting on top of a roll of insulation - that for another project.

This weekend I will probably paint some and sew some. It is very cold here so I am going to hide in the house!