Living Remodel Done - Before and After Pix

Usually if I blog mid-week, I prefer to do it more Wednesday-ish. But here it is Friday, and I decided to just go ahead and blog today even though I will have my weekly Rainbow Scrap Challenge post tomorrow. Besides, the remodel may not interest a lot of the quilters, so they can come see this or not, as they choose.

We have lived in this house for about 14 years, and this remodel of the living room was the last really major thing we have attacked. I do still want to update the laundry room, but it’s nothing that we can’t handle ourselves in a weekend. But the living room...... that was a major project.

When we moved in, the living room (and indeed the house) was immaculate, but very dated.  It was built in 1963. The sage green carpet was almost everywhere in the house except for the bathroom and kitchen. But the kitchen had blue and pink indoor/outdoor carpet, so that was even worse! We gutted and remodeled the kitchen in 2006, and refreshed it last summer with white paint, a new light fixture and some sliding shutters for our sliding glass doors. Major improvement - and you will see parts of that in one of the pictures.

Here is a living room BEFORE photo, taken just before demolition began. Underwhelming. Obviously, a lot of the knick-knacks, etc. are already removed. In previous years, we had already replaced the large living room window with double pane windows (that open on the sides), insulated the ceiling, and added shutters. Infrastructure/basics first.

Before

When the demo began, we removed the bench hearth and had intended to remove the brick and mirror as well, but the brick was mortared to the exterior brick, so we brought the wall out in front of it by a few inches instead. That gave us the room and opportunity to insulate the wall. And as an engineer, DH was able to add in all the specialty wiring for electricity and media. Note that the 2x4’s around the fireplace are metal to meet code for a fireplace.

During

The former wood-burning fireplace had a gas line, so we converted to a gas-burning fireplace insert so we could enjoy the clean-burning fireplace often (due to environmental regs, we rarely ever burned wood). We were also able to make it smaller, shifting it to the right a bit so it would not be as noticeably off-center. It still is off center, but much better.

After

And here is the “after”! We didn’t get the leather couch and ottoman until the second week of January, but we were patient. The custom bookcases were painted white by the builder, and we (meaning me) painted the walls Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams. The cabinets on the right side (as you look at it) house all our media stuff, from DVD player, turntable, etc etc. They are remote controlled (as is the TV and fireplace) by DH when he sits in his leather recliner. The left cabinet contains grandkid toys for now, but eventually (as they grow up) it will be for extra quilts and seasonal pillows, etc.

The dark hardwood floors are a really elegant-looking contrast to the white and gray. The rug covers the seating area.  Sometimes I use the ottoman as a coffee table, and sometimes I drag it a couple feet over to my chair and use it as .... an ottoman!!

The cats prefer the cloth couch, which is no surprise. At least, they prefer it if our laps aren’t available, LOL. I still need to get something for the wall on either side of the clock (that I can finally SEE when I am in my chair!!) I’m thinking of a couple wall plants or sconces or something. Something that will contrast texturally with the hardness of the wall and clock. But that’s the decorator in me talking. 

This is the view looking back towards the entry (which would be behind my striped chair) and the dining area (through the left opening). The door (replaced last summer when we refreshed the kitchen) goes down to the basement. You can see how the dark of the new hardwood floors ends at the top of the stairs. We were pleasantly surprised to find the original hardwood - in excellent shape - throughout the upstairs, so we kept it. That meant we had extra dark hardwood, but our contractor really wanted it for his house. So we traded for labor and other expenses, and it was a win-win. The only repair on the floor was filling a few tiny carpet nail holes area across the threshold into the bedroom. Then it was swept and buffed. Done and done! The hallway and bedroom still got their new baseboards, though.

We are still looking for the perfect coat rack or shelf with hooks for the wall above and to the right of the vintage radio. All things in time. The above pic looks down the hall (this is just a small tract home) and into the library/study.

The plain floor of the bedroom required a rug, of course, and we opted for this sisal-type mat to go with the African theme (most of which you cannot see) in this room. To make it non-slippery, I Googled for an answer and Martha Stewart came to the rescue.

Here is Alfie showing how I used the leftover caulking to apply strips to the back of the rug. Let it dry for a few hours, and voila!  I may have to add a few more strips later - we’ll see.

And, that’s the end of the tour. I’m so thrilled that it’s finally done! It will be awhile before we tackle anything else, that’s for sure. Thanks for dropping by!

Until tomorrow,

First Finish of the Year

How has your week been? Here in the Salt Lake Valley it’s been cold and wet. The sun made a brief appearance yesterday but is back in hiding today. We’ve had rain and snow (mostly rain) all week. Great sewing weather!

In my last post (if you didn’t see it) I listed out my goals for the first quarter of this year’s Finish-Along. I have a finish to show later on in this post (a Rainbow Scrap finish!), so let’s move on to Rainbow Scrap Challenge matters. This month is purple, and this week I focused on working with strips.

First up are my four 8.5” strip blocks. I’m still on the fence about adding the lighter colors, but there you have them. These are really the dregs of my scraps, as the best pieces went into the bookcase project.

The bookcase project, you ask? Yep, a rainbow bookcase. Here are my four purple 12” blocks for 80% of the “bottom shelf”. The last block will be made of dark neutrals (black/gray) when we get to those....

I’ve got more pictures, close up, to show you while I talk about this FUN project. You can click on the pictures to see them better. And all my imperfections. What a learning experience! My favorite part is picking out the book titles from my selvages.

The names of fabric lines make good titles for books (or songs, come to think of it). I just cut them out of the tightly-woven selvage and stitched around them with a tiny stitch. Do you see the book Fairy Frost? Dover Hill? Between Friends? And of course, Prince Charming!

As you can see , the books aren’t perfectly rectangular. I just eyeballed rather than measured everything (and with my vision issues, I should know better). But look at those titles...... Jazz (with music notes!) Anything Goes. Architextures (on the wood-grain print).

The small leaning books on top were problematic; from now on I’ll stick to the stacked books (like in the Anything Goes and Quilters Candy group).  My favorite? Helen’s Garden, on the right.  The names do not match the fabrics - I was more concerned about which titles fit. And I want to explore doing a book series (like the gold banded books above). I can do better.

Why not join us over at So Scrappy for some more purple Rainbow Scrap “reading”????

And this was my first finish of the year - my Rainbow Rails.  It was a 2016 Rainbow Scrap project made of vintage sheets in the Rail Fence pattern. It is now quilted, bound and ready to use. As it was always intended to be summer weight, the batting is merely flannel. It finished at 72”x81”.  This was #1 on my list of Q1 goals, which you can see here.

I’m not sure if you can see it, but the binding is scrappy and roughly matches the colors it borders (orange-green-pink-blue).

Right now I’m in the process of quilting another Rainbow Scrap quilt (blue-green Improv) and will have that for next time.

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In remodeling news, we had a great surprise. When the carpet was ripped up from the hallway and back bedroom/study, we found the original hardwood floors. They were in beautiful condition, although there was one tiny patch to be filled, then the whole thing was buffed. It is generally not recommended to lay hardwood on hardwood unless you run it in different directions, but why would we want to? So yeah, we have three different types of hardwood in the house now. The upstairs hardwood is everywhere (except the 2 bathrooms, which are tile) - three bedrooms and the hall. We left the master bedroom and the girly guest room carpeted for now.

So the hall (and closets) and study are now restored to their original lovely sixties-era hardwood. The new baseboards still need touching up and caulking, and the stair treads will go on today. In fact, it will all be done today and tomorrow. Then we can move everything back into the bedroom and hall closets. And the last of our furniture (couch and ottoman) are being delivered today. YAY!!  If the sun ever shines again, I should be able to finally get some pictures this week!

The remodel feels like it’s been going on forever - and indeed, we started the kitchen refresh in August. But the whole thing is within inches of being done. I love FINISHES of any kind!

The Sewing Life

Winter at Wheeler Farm (a block from our house)

My winter (for the first six weeks or so of the year) consists of waking up, feeding cats, doing some chores, sewing, meals, running errands - as weather permits), sewing some more, playing/reading on the computer, watching Netflix now and then, sewing and going to bed. Rinse and repeat. It always seems dark and cold (or occasionally light and cold). It’s effectively my HIBERNATION period. I do my best not to go mad. Thank heavens I don’t live in Alaska; I wouldn’t last the winter.....

This winter routine is usually broken when we take off to visit family in Arizona sometime in the first half of February. Usually it’s warm there - south of Tucson, almost to the Mexican border. Shirt-sleeve weather, and gloriously sunny. Sometimes it’s as warm as the high 80’s (F), which feels wonderful. Once, a few years ago, it snowed twice the week we were there. That was not so fun.  I do take my sewing machine and/or some handwork (embroidery, crochet, etc). We do a lot of walking, visit the Tubac Arts Festival, visit family, just hang out and drink, nap or shop. Lots of cute shops there, but more about that when the time comes.

For now, let me just say that so far this winter, life is good. It helps having new things to look at since we just finished the living room remodel. The rest of our furniture should be here within 10 days or so. We did get a new big clock, but I’m still pondering the arrangement of Wall Stuff.  I really wanted numbers instead of Roman Numerals, and Bruce wanted a vintage map on the face. Neither one of us got what we wanted, but we compromised on this because we both liked it and it will go with our stuff nicely. Yes, pictures will come when it’s all done. Anyway, this weekend the laying of the hardwood floor down the hall and into the bedroom/study will start up.  I cannot tell you how much I love seeing the old carpet exit the premises.

4 Block Lotto January Heart Blocks

It’s no secret that I am a devout fan of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, sewing away diligently on my colored scraps each month. And I have plenty of other quilty projects to finish up and/or begin. Lots of variety. But this year I added in a new thing (which I have time for - I think -  since I closed my Etsy shop last summer). The Block Lotto. You’ve probably heard of it. Monthly blocks to make, or not, as you feel like it. Keep for yourself or donate. For every block donated, you get entered into the drawing to win the blocks. Whether I win or not, it will be a great way to use up my scraps. And we all know, the more we sew up our fabric, the more we can buy.  (Did I say that out loud?)


One final thing for this rather rambling post. Today Bruce and I had our weekly “Barnes and Noble Date”.  We go get coffee, read magazines, look at new books and music, etc etc.  I was looking at vinyl albums when I did a double-take. There on the cover was.... Bruce? No.... It was Neil Diamond. Long lost brothers? Judge for yourself....

Left: Neil            Right: Bruce

I’m rather fond of both of them...........

A Rainbow Scrap Flimsy and a Finish

Wow, another exciting blog title, LOL.

So this week my main finish was decorating the living room. Most of the furniture arrived on Monday as planned, and everything was squeaky clean and waiting for it.  But wait!  See the Christmas quilt and drawers on the right?  Well, the drawers are now put away (oops); the contractor had to shorten the depth per our drawings so that media cords could fit behind. Done and done. And that Christmas quilt covers the boxes of flooring for the hall. It’s in a good place for now (until January), since the other couch and ottoman will not arrive until then.

Darla is sitting on her Turbo Ball Toy and Alfie is sitting on the couch. Their couch. The cats love it. Thankfully, they prefer to sleep on the folded-up quilt that’s there. And Darla loves that we decorated in her fur colors.  Anyway, the rug isn’t centered and the existing couch may end up on the right wall when the new one arrives. We just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I am searching for a nice large clock (Bruce wants an antique-looking map clock) and other wall items for the large wall on the right which you can’t see. More pictures when everything is really done, in January.

But for now, we are loving our evenings in our respective chairs with tables, lamps (not shown, but they would be in foreground), with the fire going, reading our books or watching TV. That smaller left cabinet is filled with grandkid toys, and the right one now houses our DVDs, turntable, media computer, DVD player, receiver, etc. The speakers will eventually be added to the shelving once they are painted white.

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Another quilt finish! This one is November Rain for my son Ryan’s Christmas present. It, too, is in Darla’s colors, which she asked me to relay. It finished at 67x86 (or was it 83?). Anyway, the quilting is wonky/wavy line quilting and the back is fabric from half a cotton duvet cover from IKEA.

The November Rain Quilt was #10 on my Quarter 4 Finish-Along goals, which is listed HERE.

And I also was able to finish the flimsy for one of my RSC quilts this week. Here is the Improv quilt blocks in green, blue, purple and teal.  It measures 72x72 and has a couple quilts ahead of it in line for quilting..... So it may or may not be finished this month.

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I’ve been trying to grab time to read this week, and the book is Rubbing Stones, pictured below. The author, Nancy Burkey is a longtime friend of mine and this is her first book. Nancy and I were best friends in our high school and early college years. We were in Job’s Daughters together (a Masonic organization for girls) and she was my Maid of Honor at my wedding in 1974. She went on to become an MD (OB-GYN) and then switched her specialty to Psychiatry, which she practiced for nearly 30 years. She is now semi-retired (does some locum tenens) and writes. She uses her psychiatry background in her writing.

The book can be found on Amazon here, which gives a good description of it.  The book is exciting and VERY good, and I am reading slowly, savoring every morsel. I would recommend it as a great read (all the reviews so far are 5-star), even though I’m only 1/4 through!  I’ve bought six hard copies (even though I usually read e-books because I can make the print bigger for my eyes), and lots of my family and friends will be getting copies of it for Christmas.

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Today I will finish up the third kitty quilt - it’s about half quilted now. That will complete the Christmas presents, and the shopping is done. All that’s left is for me to do some grocery shopping and baking. Just a bit; everyone is coming for brunch on the 24th or 25th, so I`m only worrying about those things. Bruce and I have a rib roast together that evening by ourselves.

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Angela’s So Scrappy blog, where the ladies are all finishing up their 2016 quilts. And I will link up to Oh Scrap! too (If I can remember on Sunday!!)

Another Week of Sewing and ....

In between everything else, I got rows sewn together this week on a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt. These are the 8.5” improv blocks that I made all year, and this quilt will include the colors of blue, green, teal and purple. I have an identical quilt planned (but maybe with a white or other color sashing) for the orange, yellow, red and pink blocks. They are a low priority until the Christmas quilts are done (more about that below), but I wanted to show you this for now. The backing will be random FQs in the colors of the quilt. It’ll help me clean out some of my orphaned fabric. It should finish at about 72x72”.

Great news! The living room will be finished up this weekend!  Here is a picture of it after last weekend after the cabinetry and mantel, etc was installed - but before both our cousin/contractor Jeff and my DH Bruce worked on it Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Jeff finished up the crown molding and baseboard trims, caulking, etc. Bruce finished up all the electrical and media wiring. Now the cabinet doors and drawers can go on/in.

This weekend they will add the can lights in the ceiling, mount the door hardware and the TV. And then the big clean-up. The furniture (except the backordered leather couch and ottoman) will arrive on Monday. And work will continue down the hallway and into the back bedroom with the hardwood floors and baseboards, so there will still be some baseboards and boxes of flooring lying around (where the leather couch will eventually go, on the right side of the picture) until it’s all installed.

But at least I will be able to have seating and do some decorating in the living room! I ran around doing errands yesterday, and one stop was JoAnn Fabrics to get some updated floral decorations for my outdoor wreath. Now, if I can just find the heavy duty magnet that attaches it to our steel front door, I’ll be set!

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This week I managed to get a lot of basting and quilting done. Cousin Kim came over and we basted the Cozy Christmas quilt and November Rain. I was able to finish quilting the Big Game Quilt (designed by Emily Herrick for Pattern Jam) for my SIL Mike.

The panel was purchased last year, and I added the two borders and the backing. It is quilted with straight lines only to keep the masculine feel. The batting is the same as always - The Warm Co.’s Warm and Plush 100% cotton. I like the little bit of extra loft it gives. (I buy it online from JoAnn by the 25-yard bolt when they have free shipping or a great sale).  Anyway, it measures 62x74”.

And here is Cozy Christmas Quilt finished. This is NOT the official post for this quilt finish; I will do a separate one soon to comply with the Finish Along rules.

All I have left to finish for Christmas gift-giving is the wavy-line quilting (and binding) of November Rain for my son Ryan, and the basting/quilting of Kitty Quilt #3. Should be a easy to finish by next weekend. And that will leave me two weeks to finish up another Rainbow Scrap Quilt (maybe the vintage sheet rainbows?) by year-end. Or maybe the Let it Snow quilt I cut out this week (oops!) (wink) that you can see here on Heather Mulder Peterson’s Pinterest.  I will also be focusing on finishing up the other RSC quilts over December and January, so stay tuned for those.

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge Scrappy Saturday.

A Rainbow Scrap Finish!

Welcome to another Rainbow Scrap post! Today I get to show off (finally) my sampler for the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. For the first 10 months of the year, Angela at SoScrappy gave us a new color and a new block pattern and away we went!  My sampler finally got quilted (managed it in one afternoon on my Bernina) and bound this week. It finished at 60x72” and was so much fun!

This quilt is a potential Christmas present for one of my dear step-daughters. She will have a choice of one of three: this RSC sampler, The Birds and Bees quilt, or the Notting Hill Sampler quilt. Anyway, this is backed in a cute hexie and bee print from Connecting Threads, and I noticed that there are actually a couple bee references here and there on the quilt with the fabrics used.

This quilt finish was also one of my Finish Along 4th Quarter Goals.  It was # 7 on my list.
I am also linking up to Angela’s So Scrappy blog for Scrappy Saturday, where everyone is showing their rainbow scrap projects as they finish up. Join us!

Moving right along, here is a promised picture of the black, white and red quilt that my cousin and sewing-partner-in-crime Kim finished (and I quilted) for her sweet granddaughter Zoe.  Zoe is in the picture and is absolutely THRILLED with the quilt. She is such a cutie (and may or may not have shorts on under her T-shirt, LOL). Kim took this picture with her phone and sent it to me, so I was not able to lighten it. Didn’t the quilt turn out beautifully?? Way to go, Colonel Cousin Kimmie!!

I had a blast this week finishing up the piecing on November Rain for my son Ryan. I had said I would do a mid-week post with possible layout ideas, but there were so many blocks and not enough design wall area to making playing around easy. And finally, I decided on the layout that Rob Appel used in his Man Sewing Video shown here.

So, the above picture shows all the blocks pinned and taped on (and over and under) my design wall. Below they are sewn together with a 1” black border and a 4” outer border added. The dimensions are 67x86", and it is slated to be quilted (by me) probably week after next.

It’s not perfect, but I LOVE love love it. It was so much fun playing with color placement and planning, sewing and matching up blocks. In the process I learned a lot about sewing on the bias (it is very forgiving, but you must be careful).  I definitely want to do another one of these quilts again in some outrageous interesting color way.  The backing for this quilt will be half of a duvet cover that Kim bought at Ikea for $10 (in the “as is” bin) - and it is 100% cotton. Those duvet covers have two sides, so using only one was the equivalent of a $5 backing. Small economies sure help when one is cranking out about 10 quilts for Christmas!

And you know I had to bore you fill you in on the remodeling of our living room. The cabinetry, bookshelves, mantel and surround were delivered on Thursday. Jeff will begin installing them this weekend. He has this weekend and next before the furniture arrives on Monday the 12th. Well, part of the furniture. We will get one couch, my chair, the rug and a small end table (to add to the end table and new recliner we already had). The leather couch and ottoman is coming from Italy and is back ordered until mid-January. Our salesperson is checking the warehouse daily for the possibility of someone changing their mind or scheduling later deliveries (meaning we could grab it), but we are resigned to patiently waiting until January. So, as per usual, Christmas seating will be scarce, so we’ll just have to pull in some kitchen chairs.  But there is a silver lining; without the second couch and ottoman, I will have room to place the Christmas tree without wracking my brain.

So here is Alfie on the new hardwood floor (the small part that isn’t covered with drop cloths by the front door).

And here is the current state of affairs. The baseboards are painted and mostly strung across the sawhorses waiting their installation - which is the final thing - in the living room, hallway and back bedroom. Also up on the sawhorses are the (wrapped from the carpenter) crown moldings. Leaning against the fireplace stone is the base of the mantel; the shelf and molding trims are somewhere in that mess. The cabinet bases (rear left) and bookshelves (upside down in left foreground) are ready to be installed. The drawers and shelves are either under the sawhorses or stacked in front (not in picture).

I have no idea how long it takes to install them from this point. Measuring, installing the toe kicks, bracing against the walls, shims and molding and cutting access to electrical on the wall, etc etc. But we’ll take whatever progress we get.

And all this has caused me to re-think the traditional Christmas carols to fit our situation this year.  My favorites include:

Have Yourself a Merry Dusty Little Christmas
O Little Town of Bethlehem House of Construction
Silver Bells Bills
Do You Hear What I Hear? (no change needed, but imagine the air compressor or hammers)
All I Want For Christmas (is my living room)
Away in a Manger the Back Room (no space for TV)
Rudolph Alfie the Nosy Cat-child (had a very frisky day...)

I could go on and on, but I’ll spare you. You’re welcome. Have a great week!

Thankful for ..... A Finish!

Business first. I finished quilting and binding the quilt for my DDIL Kim for Christmas. She selected the orange peels and Hello Darling by Bonnie & Camille.  The quilt finished at 64x75”.

I couldn’t show it on Instagram because she follows my feed there. But here is a picture we snapped between stiff breezes a couple days ago. This was goal #9 on my Quarter 4 Finish Along Goals, which you can see here. This is my fifth finish for this quarter with several more to go. Yikes!!

Back in the early days of my blog (I have been blogging nearly 10 years - that anniversary will come next summer), I used to post vintage graphics for various holidays. As most of them are from old Victorian postcards, and as Thanksgiving was not a national holiday a hundred-plus years ago as it is now, Thanksgiving graphics are hard to come by.  But I did find a few seasonally appropriate ones, so I will include them here. Feel free to right click and save them on your computer; they are copyright-free. So, while I blather on talk about a few things, the pictures will be interspersed.

I don’t usually get sappy at this time of year, but a few readers have remarked (and one even wrote personally) to say how upbeat I seem in my posts, especially given not only the end-of-year Holiday preparations and tons of sewing projects to finish, but our ongoing construction. And let’s not kid ourselves, as adults (and regardless of which candidate you were rooting for), this election cycle has taken a lot out of us these last few weeks. There was no hiding from it.

I am a Glass Half Full person. So, yes, I am upbeat, despite the disappointing-to-me election results (and the sheer number of persons who voted for his intolerance), despite the colder and darker weather that is upon us as autumn turns into fall, and despite the continual delays and messes that the living room (and eventually the hall and back bedroom) remodel throw at us. Why? Because there is so much to be thankful for!

During the election, I was bothered by the phrase “Make America Great Again”. To me, that was a Glass-Half-Empty viewpoint. Excuse me, folks, but America is ALREADY great.  We are free to live and worship (or not) as we like, to own homes, raise families, obtain medical care, get in our cars and drive when and where we want for leisure and entertainment.

We have myriad opportunities to work and a system that allows us to retire and continue to live well when we are old and tired. We can mail a letter across the country for less than 50 cents for crying out loud! We can talk or Skype on the phone to friends and family around the world. We have freedom of speech. Our water is clean (unless we live in Flint - shame on those crooked politicians!), our air is relatively clean (and they are working on it), and we have ready access to more food than we could possibly need.  And we are in the minority of humans on this planet who can say all those things. 

Anyway, those are major things that I often take for granted, but am truly thankful for. There are also bazillions of tiny things that we take for granted, and for those I am thankful as well. That my family comes to visit and play regularly. That my house is warm and my cats love us and keep us company when we are home. That we can go out to dinner if I don’t feel like cooking. That my order from the fabric store arrived today so I can begin my next quilt. And even that a lace client placed a large order today (and that commission will finish off my Christmas shopping). 

I am also grateful for a loving husband with a great sense of humor. We have been together for 14.5 years (married 13.5), and we are still laughing together and planning together and having fun. Plus, he feels it’s his manly duty to clean the turkey and prepare it for the roasting bag. How lucky am I?

Yes, dear, the turkey is cooking!

I just got word today that our cabinets won’t be ready until NEXT Wednesday (Nov. 30). That will be almost 4 weeks to construct it all when it was supposed to be 2 weeks. Oh well, what can I do? In the meantime, the flooring project will move down the hall and hubby can begin hooking up all the wired-in electronics. I can still schedule the delivery of the furniture on time, because it wasn’t going to be ready until Dec. 7-8 anyway.  And the silver lining is that Alfie and Darla will have more time to run around on the floors (sans furniture) like idiots.

Our Thanksgiving will be just Bruce and me, along with my adult son Shane. Shane is a single dad, and his daughter London will be with her mom for Thanksgiving this year. We’ll have turkey, veggies (some from the garden), stuffing, mashed potatoes (also from the garden), pumpkin pie, and beer/wine/coffee. After eating, the guys will putter around with electronics and projects in Bruce’s laBORatory, then they’ll probably whip out their guitars. I will sew, or peruse Pinterest. We’ll talk and relax. So much to be thankful for!!

What are you doing? Whatever it is, may it be joyous, delicious and warm!!

Hugs,

A Quilt Finished, A Living Room Unfinished

What is a living room called when you don’t live in it? It’s just another room, or in our case, a Room Under Construction.  I knew it wouldn’t be done by Thanksgiving, but I still have my fingers crossed for Christmas.

What I forgot about, however, is that instead of hosting Thanksgiving for our family (kids are married and go to in-laws, etc), we have Fiesta. Fiesta is on the Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving, and everyone comes for Mexican Food (so, by the end of the month, we are sick of turkey leftovers AND Mexican food leftovers, LOL). But there will be no Fiesta this year. Because....

Yes, Alfie is inspecting (lower right)

This picture was taken a week ago. It took our contractor the better part of a working day to level out the sub-floor (long story having to do with the height of the cement base of the former hearth). But after this picture, he was able to get about 25% of the hardwood flooring down. The cats love to thunder around on this floor (subfloor and the new hardwood); their toys roll really well. This weekend we hope the living room flooring will be done and then we are expecting the custom cabinets and mantel to arrive, all of which will flank and surround the fireplace. That means Thanksgiving weekend will see a lot of activity of the construction variety, if not the family celebration variety.

In between painting the hallway walls, trim and doors (ongoing), I did manage to sew another litter of cats this week; the penultimate litter. Green. Now there is just one pink litter left to sew before Kitty Quilt #3 can be assembled. Why not join us over at Angela’s So Scrappy blog for Scrappy Saturday? The participants of this year’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge are all putting together their rainbow quilts!

If we ever have a Rainbow Scrap Challenge Slumber Party, Sally and I will be the ones sewing these kitties in our sleep!

This week I also finished a quilt. The quilting on Magic Carpet took For.Ev.Er. (It finished at 75x84”). After looking at several pictures of other finished quilts online, I realized that the color choices and piecing pattern would dictate what stood out and what receded, so I just  ended up choosing some basic quilting styles for each color.

I am not crazy about the lines on the bright pink, but they are staying. Other than that, I am quite pleased with how it turned out.  Below is a detail shot of some of the quilting I did. Keep in mind that I am a quilting hack. But practice makes better, and I’ve been getting a lot of practice lately. This quilt is also a finish for my Finish Along 2016 Quarter 4 goals. My list is here, and this is #5 on my list.

Now I am working on the quilt for my DIL Kim. I got half of it quilted yesterday and plan to finish the quilting (and maybe the binding) today.  This is also a Christmas present. I’ll do a separate finish post for this one later this week.

On Wednesday, my cousin Kim came over and we basted two quilts; the above orange peel and my RSC Sampler. I will start quilting the sampler this week and hope to finish it. If I can do that, I will begin on the final litter of pink kitties and baste my Cozy Christmas quilt this week.  Luckily, my new 25-yard roll of batting arrived last week, so I am good to go for the season.  :-)

I am on track to finish everything in time for Christmas gift-giving. Christmas presents for family will be quilts and gift cards, so that is covered. Presents for friends and neighbors are jars of apricot jam, prepped last summer. Nothing to decorate for Christmas (except put up a tree? that would be nice....)  So, all I need to do is keep the house relatively tidy and SEW. Not a bad prospect....