Getting little things done

I went to the drug store at lunch yestday. They had Excedrine on sale and playtex gloves two for the price of one. Their slogan is "Discount Drug Mart saves you the run around, they have everything you need" and it is true! I find things I didn't know I needed! When I was in there I found some inexpesive plant pots I needed for my cactus and suculents I brought back from California, and the correct potting mix for them. It is hard to find cactus and succulent potting mix in Ohio in the winter! So I repotted my little friends last night and gave them a good drink of water. I have been afraid of overwatering them and here I haven't been giving them enough so it was a good thing I did this last night because they were parched! Drug Mart also has a nice grocery area and I bought a box of large pasta shells for stuffing since they are hard to find, but Drug Mart has them!


I went outside last evening to get the weekly free newpaper and my neighbor was out cleaning the inside of her car. I have not seen them all winter and she is due with her second child in three weeks. We talked a bit and I asked about the baby's room. It is a girl and the room is pink and gray. Perfect! I had made a quilt for her boy when he was born so I have to make one for Mikala! I knew I had some left over blocks in pink and gray. I was able to lay my hands on them and stuck them on the design wall.

There were also some pieces cut out for more blocks so I will sew them together and have a quilt top very quickly.


I am hoping to stay home like a hermit all weekend. I know it is Easter, but my family got together last weekend for my dad's b-day so ... I haven't had a weekend to do what I want to do for so long I just need to keep burning the incense and relax. I have a lot of cleaning to do so I will try to sprinkle that in with getting some sewing done.

The MQG meeting was well attended and we had a great time. My demo was well received and it spurred lots of questions, imput, and discusstion. Joanna demonstrated making improv pods which I forgot to take pictures of because I was so busy watching what she was doing!. The techniuque is in the book Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering, but it was great to see it demonstrated. Thank you Joanna!

Here are pictures of most of the show and tell quilts. The first two, which are mine, and the next two will be going into a quilt exhibit at the local Cascade Quilt Guild annual quilt show next weekend. Joanna, who is a member of the Cascade, was looking for pieces to show the modern quilt movement. There were a couple more pieces she gathered at the meeting that I missed taking photos of. I will go to the show and post pictures. The rest of the pics are quilts in progress and completed projects. A nice variety of work!

What a deal!

Last week Hancock's of Paducah was having free shipping for a couple of days. I went to the clearance section and found these lovely Moda fabrics for $3.99 a yard! The print is for the back of a quilt (5 yards), the orange will be put with the other orange fabrics for my niece's quilt (2 yards) , and the others are just for stash (1 yard of each). I am thinking now I should have bought more!


Last evening I decided to release the daffodils from their plastic prison. I had covered the one large planting bed with both black and clear plastic sheeting to try and kill some of the weeds that took over the bed last year. I was unable to keep up with the weeding due to still recovering from surgery and the horrible heat we had. I had dug up some of the bulbs, but apparently there were a lot more that were left in the ground. I think the plastic caused a greenhouse effect since they were under the clear plastic. I kept seeing this areas bubble up and wondered what was going on. Here the daffodils were growing like crazy so I cut the plastic and now they can feel the sunshine directly. It is still cold, but they are tuff.

Look at the color of the daffodils that were under the black plastic - they are in the upper left hand corner and bright yellow. Crazy hun? I will keep watching them to see if they turn green since they now have sunshine on them.

The appraiser person is coming today. Let's hope my nightmare will be over.

I spent last evening working on a few more samples for my improv demonstration tonight. I will just have to pack up my stuff as soon as I get home after work, deal with the appraiser, and then I will be out the door to the Akron MQG meeting.

MQG demonstration

Ihave been working on samples for my demonstration for this week's MQG meeting which I am hosting. I am using the Holloween fabric I have been buying the last couple of months in the blocks since this is the way I was going to construct this quilt for my brother. I will be showing cutting two layers of fabrics and switching their positions, showing samples of fat stripes and skinny stripes, joining sections together, improv triangles, and cutting diagonally using multiple layers. One of the ladies is going to show how to make a improv pod piece since she has done this in a piece she recently made. I will have to gather all the stuff I will need so tonight will be a busy evening.



I was asked if I was going to have a handout. I planned on doing that so I have been taking pictures of each step.

Busy three days

Friday I went to the IX center in Cleveland for the Quiltng and Sewing Expo. It was ok. I think they could make the show a lot better with more exhibits and vendors. The quilting fabric was on the expensive side - $11 to $27 at yard. I found some African dutch wax that was $29 at yard. Lets just say it did not come home with me. I did get to see Victoria Findley Wolf's quilts from 15 Minutes of Play. Here is what I bought - one large spool of thread, a Holloween fabric, some vintage fabric with hot air ballons (2 yards for $6.00!) and some overpriced cookies.

I was pretty tired on Saturday, but I did wash all my latest purchases of fabric. I went to a birthday party for my dad, which was an hour drive. I went with my brother, sister-in-law and Michael - no sense in me driving by myself. After dinner everyone (10 of us) went over to the bowling alley where my son works. I needed to drop off some pans and a quilt. The kids wanted to bowl so they bowled one game and had a great time. This was not planned, but everyone including my dad had a good time.


Sunday I worked on my improv piecing demo for quilt group this week and it felt so good to sit and doing some sewing. Then it was back to the bathroon. I grounted and worked on some other details. The bathroom is now 100% functional, so now it is just getting that appraisal woman. She left a message on my phone that she would be at the house between 12 and 12:30 to look at the bathroom and she needed access to the property. This was a good time for her since she would be in the area. WTF?!!! It is not a good time for me! I will be at work. I have left her two messages and have not heard from her. She needs to be reminded that I am the customer. Here are a couple of shots of where I am with the bathroom.

Here are my poor hands. The grout is literally taking the skin off my hands and my hands are swollen and ache. Thanks goodness for my Mango Butter Goat Milk cream that I get from Rose of Sharon Acres! The cream really helps, but I am going to have to keep my hands out of water as much as possible for the next few days.

Too tired to think!

Last evening I needed to grout around the light switch boxes and the heat vent so Mike could install today. Done.


I needed a small distraction from the bathroom so last night I worked on this too. When I bought this house there was an ugly cupboard in this alcove. I ripped it out and when the guys built the wall for the master bedroom entry the wall levels were not the same.


Here you can see the difference between the wall surfaces.


It finally dawned on me after years of thinking about this that the solution would be to add a layer of drywall. Duh! More screws are needed - Mike will help me out there - and then some tape and mud and the wall will be even. I will add a shelf and use this for display.


I located the mirror frames and some spray paint. I salvaged the doors from the medicine cabinets that were in the lower level bathroon and with a little spray paint and hangers they will become the mirrors for the new master bathroom. I am not sure if I want the frames white or black, so I thought I would go with white first and see how that looks. If I don't like the white, then I will paint them black. I figure it would be easier to cover the white with black than black with white.


My mortage guy is placing the order today for the apprasier to come back and verify that I installed a working bathroom. They probably won't come until next week so I can finish grouting this weekend and hang the mirrors.

Tomorrow I am going on a road trip with Peg. We are catching the bus hired by the quilt shop to go to the Quilting and Sewing Expo in Cleveland. This will be a welcomed break!

I did get my order from Hancock's yesterday. I bought the fish fabric for the back of the Jimmy Buffet inspired baby quilt. Oh, did you forget about that one? I didn't! I will be glad to get back to working on it and finishing it! Hancock's is running a free shipping promotion right now so guess what? I just had to buy some sale fabric for the back of another planned quilt, some orange fabric for that quilt for my niece, and a couple pieces of tone on tone for baby quilts.


Have a great weekend!

A long 36 hours

Monday night I started in with grouting the areas that needed done so Mike and I could install the toilet, vanity, and shower fixtures. I finally went to bed at 2 am. I got up at 6 so I could make rolls and stuffed shells for Mike. We got the vanity, countertop, sinks, sconces installed. I needed to make a trip to HD for some washers for the water hook ups. I know we thought we had everything we needed, but the washer supplied by the faucet manufacture was too small, so thus a trip to HD. We still need to install the drawer fronts and door on the vanity - what you are seeing is just the drawer boxes.


We got the toilet installed - I took out the cabinet above the toilet so it would be easier to grout around.



3/14 – Thursday – tiling
3/15 – Friday – work at the museum
3/16 – Saturday –
• Morning - sand and spot prime ceiling – while I had the primer out I primed the door jamb
• Install casing around door
• Tile
3/17 – Sunday
• Tile
3/18- Monday
• Pick up countertop after work
• Grout
• Paint trim on mirrors
3/19 – Tuesday
• Set vanity
• Set countertop
• Set sinks
• Set toilet
• Hook up sink faucets and shower faucets
3/20 Wednesday
• Cuyahoga Falls Home Depot to pick up misc items – 6 a.m.
• Fairlawn Home Depot to get rest of the grout – lunchtime
• grout

Remaining items – Tuesday and/or Thursday
• Install switches
• Install sconces
• Install drawers – install drawer fronts and hardware last on list – not needed for functionality
• Install doors on vanity – last on list – not needed for functionality
• Install doors on cabinet – last on list – not need for functionality
• final coat of paint on ceiling

Since I moved out of the bedroom to the downstairs room we used the bed as a layout area for parts. Crazy huh?


Then we set up another workstation in the bedroom which help when putting the faucet and drain pop up on the sinks.


My hands are an absolute wreck! The only thing saving them thru this is my Mango butter goat milk cream from Rose of Sharon Acres.

Here is the shopping cart with my purchases from the HD this morning. They open at 6 am and I was the first on in the store. They only had one box of bright white non-sanded grout left so I will have to go to another HD to get the three more boxes I need. We are getting so close to being done. Mike is coming over tomorrow to finish the plumbing at the sink and shower, and finish up the electrical. YEAH!


I have bought some fabric in preparation for me going back to sewing. The first two pictures are African fabrics. The solids are a bit shiny since they have not been washed yet.


Thanks to everyone with the lovely comments on this bathroom project. Your postive encouragement helps so much!

Weekend progress on the tiling

I spent 17.25 hours tiling the bathroom Saturday and Sunday. I could have almost finished my tea towel quilt in that amount of time! Saturday I got a phone message from the mortage company asking me about the progress on the bathroom. I didn't hear the phone ring because I had the Motorhead cranking on the iPod and I was too busy TILING MY BATHROOM! I called my mortgage guy and told him I didn't have time to talk to Debbie so if she wanted to know what was going on she needed to read my blog. My schedule is posted there. I have never had so many people interested in this stupid bathroom! I missed going to see my nephew's band plan on Saturday because I HAD TO TILE MY BATHROOM! I sliced the heck out of my finger when I ran my hand across a sheet of installed tile on Saturday. One of the tiles was broken and I didn't see it. I cleaned and bandaged it and kept on working because I HAVE TO GET THE BATHROOM DONE!


The vanity wall finished


Before




Before




The pile of empty tile boxes and adhesive pail sitting the master bedroom. I moved out of this room and started sleeping downstairs in Peg's room because of the adhesive fumes.



Here is another $38.00 in plumbing supplies. I had a knowledgeable fellow at Home Depot that gather all the pieces and parts Mike and I will need to get the sinks hooked up tomorrow. I sure hope I have all the right parts so we don't have to waste time on a trip the the HD. I don't know that much about plumbing except it is a pain when it doesn't work so I was relying on Steve's expertise.


So tomorrow will be the last big push to get the fixtures, lights and switches installed. The schedule has been updated and changed slightly. I was thinking it would take me between 10 and 13 hours to finish the tiling. Grout is easier and quicker than tiling so I don't think this will impact the finish goal.

3/14 – Thursday – tiling
3/15 – Friday – work at the museum
3/16 – Saturday –
• Morning - sand and spot prime ceiling – while I had the primer out I primed the door jamb
• Install casing around door
• Tile
3/17 – Sunday
• Tile
3/18- Monday
• Pick up countertop after work
• Grout
• Paint trim on mirrors
3/19 – Tuesday
• Set vanity
• Set countertop
• Set sinks
• Set toilet
• Hook up sink faucets and shower faucets
Remaining items – Tuesday and/or Thursday
• Install switches
• Install sconces
• Install drawers – last on list – not needed for functionality
• Install doors on vanity – last on list – not needed for functionality
• Install doors on cabinet – last on list – not need for functionality
• final coat of paint on ceiling

Tiling progress

This was end of day Wednesday


and this is the wall as of last night's tiling. I find that I am getting less adhesive on me! I had a bit of an issue with the sheets of tile not all being the same size - you would think they all would be the same size, but they are not. I opened a different box and found some that were a bit smaller than the two I first used last night and then the tiling went much quicker. See, I learned something new!


At lunch yesterday I went to the Home Depot for more supplies for the bathroom. I bought four boxes of grout, grout sealer, grout caulk, roller covers, and washers to level out the vanity. I think I bought more grout than I need, but when I am grouting on Sunday I don't want to run out and I can take back any unopened boxes. After talking to my brother yesterday I will have to make one more trip to Home Depot to buy some plumbing parts for the drain hookup and maybe longer flex line for the faucet. I don't know a lot about plumbing, but I guess I will learn now!


Updated schedule:
3/14 – Thursday – tiling
3/15 – Friday – work at the museum
3/16 – Saturday –
• Morning - sand and spot prime ceiling
• Install casing around door
• Tile between painting and casing until it is done! 10 - 13 hours total
• Afternoon – final coat of paint on ceiling
3/17 – Sunday
• Grout - 5 - 6 hours
• Paint trim on mirrors
3/18- Monday
• I will pick up countertop after work
3/19 – Tuesday
• Set vanity
• Set countertop
• Set sinks
• Set toilet
• Hook up sink faucets and shower faucets
Remaining items – Tuesday and/or Thursday
• Install switches
• Install sconces
• Install drawers – last on list – not needed for functionality
• Install doors on vanity – last on list – not needed for functionality
• Install doors on cabinet – last on list – not need for functionality


Have a great weekend!