Tag: quilting

If I wait till it’s done… It will never get posted!

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Yes friends I am just that way.  I want it all to be perfect, but it is not.  I think it will take quite awhile for it all to shake out, and settle into where it goes.  That aside, here is the basic layout.

The window quilt is whole cloth, and was a practice piece for machine stippling and binding the edges.   It also instantly and dramatically warmed up my room!  The handbag collection was my Mother-in-laws.  The little bed by where I work is Tucker’s place.  🙂

So, it’s all here, and like I said it still needs a bit of fluffing and folding, but it will sort itself out as I use it and find the logical places for it all.

And this is very special to me…

The vintage telephone table was a recent purchase.  The vintage telephone belonged to Bob’s parents and still has the old phone number on it… the one I dialed so long ago and he answered…  AND IT STILL WORKS!  😉

Things I learned how to do:

  1. Use a pneumatic nail gun
  2. Use a radial miter saw (and didn’t hurt myself!)
  3. Build and install a sewing counter (it’s there on the left in the first photo)
  4. Lay and cut in vinyl flooring.
  5. Miter and nail in shoe to hold flooring

Bob painted the ceiling and helped me carrying the heavy stuff.  He also helped me with hanging the wire shelving and the peg board (it takes two for those jobs).  But the rest of it was all me.

Can’t you just feel me smiling?

Now, what else can I tear up fix around here?  OH, I know, the laundry/mud room!

No obvious signs of the Christmas spirit

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It’s just the two of us here, Bob and me.  Christmas is neither bought nor made, decorations are nil due to mass reconstruction on my craft room, whose contents BTW, have currently taken over the living room.  No tree, no trimmings here…  Oh wait, does the wreath on the door count?

The project was supposed to be easy-peasy:  Paint, hang shelves, pull up the old carpet and lay out new vinyl floor.  (insert sound of car crash here)

Nothing is ever easy when it comes to repairs in this house.

It was supposed to be easy, oh wait, I think I am repeating myself.  But it was supposed to be easy…

You know, like roll back the carpet, vacuum the floor and roll out the new vinyl.

NOT.

There was the carpet and pad, the old vinyl floor, the old 8 inch glued down tiles, and then it was the 4 by 8 ft piece of 3/4 inch rotten, smelly plywood that had to be lifted and replaced first.

My 13.5  X 9.25 future quilting/sewing space.  The pictures on the wall are photos of how I want my space to look…  I’ve a long way to go and they help keep me motivated.

It is all supposed to be done and moved back before Dec. 25th so I CAN decorate.   We’ll see!  In the meantime, I have my Christmas music to keep me motivated and in the spirit of the season.  I want this project DONE.  😉

~*~

Oh yeah, and  did I forget to mention the six holes I punched into the wall with a wonder-bar when I took out these?

A pair of sorta cute, but totally non practical corner shelves.

~*~

NOTE:   After  our best friends left to go back to California, I had given myself a week to enjoy our clean and tidy living space, then it was back to work!  I have made much progress since the picture above.  I hope to be posting completion pictures by this Friday, or Monday!  STAY TUNED!  😉

And Sew it Begins: avoiding alzheimers

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They say that if you want to avoid Alzheimers then you should teach yourself something new as you grow older.  And so I have chosen to teach myself to quilt.  When I started I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but I wanted quilts for my home and couldn’t think of any affordable way to get them other than to make them myself…

And so it is that I have discovered a new passion in life!  Quilting!  In my research I found the Missouri Star Quilting Company who offers lessons online.  I have also discovered Sir’s Fabrics in Fayetteville, TN, where I can go and get plenty of fabric for practicing my new-found craft… This allows me to learn, and make mistakes, for very little money.

Also of interest is the site called Civil War Quilts.  Here I can learn to quilt a block a week and I get a little history lesson via featured excerpts from diaries that were written by women of the period.  I find it fascinating and fun.

The following is a bit of what I am currently working on and yes I am working on more than one project.  (Weirdly, I often read more than one book at a time too.  I suspect that it is a hangover from study habits in my college days.)

The Sock Monkey

One row of blocks…

This quilt is called a disappearing nine patch.  You begin with the basic nine patch quilt block, cut it into fours, and rotate each piece.  The end result is a more modern mosaic of color vs. the old-fashioned pieced blocks.

So why call it the Sock Monkey?  It’s all about the colors…

Isn’t he adorable!

…and a lot about nostalgia!  Everybody’s Granny made these for their grandkids when I was little.  (Hmm… my Grannies missed out on this gene.)

Progress on the Sock Monkey?

Two rows of blocks sewn together and bout 1/4 done.

I had hoped to have this done for the guest room in October, that’s when some very good friends will be visiting, but it remains to be seen if I will get there.  Fact is, I have recently found out that if I want it machine quilted it will cost me about 1 cent per inch… or about $100.00.  (So much for economical quilts!)  So, I may be doing it the old-fashioned way with needle and tread.  That will take a while.

The Underground Railroad, from the Civil War Quilts site is my inspiration for a table runner I will be making.

Pattern:  The Underground Railroad

I found the lovely fabric at a little quilt shop called A Time 2 Sew in Collinsville, AL.  I just love the ladies there.  They are so friendly and full of advice and information.  Want to know a little secret about their shop?  It is housed in what was, until the mid seventies, the Collinsville Jail!  The cells are now used for storage and to display some of the antique quilts they have there!

I am dying to show you my nearly complete creation, but it is for a friend in Chicago and I don’t want to spoil the surprise!  I will share when it is done.  I promise!