A Christmas Quilt done in January

I haven't done as much quilting as I would have liked, but did finally finish this Christmas quilt in January! Well, it will be nice to display during the holidays in the future. At least it's done! I mostly put it together using random patterns and made-up patterns. Inspiration was from one a friend made years ago and I swore one day to make a similar one.

Autumn Quilt

I'm calling this an Autumn quilt, since I didn't finish it before Halloween as planned. Oh, well. Still a few more weeks before I decorate for Christmas. In the meantime, my living room needed the added color.

A Friday Finish

Just another Jelly Roll Race quilt. I used a fabric called Midwinter Reds by Minick & Simpson for Moda. Appropriate name, I thought. These are just so fun and easy to make. Likely won't do anymore for awhile though, since I have plenty of other projects on the table.

Spring Turns Into Summer

There was a bird trying to build a nest in my front door wreath for three days in a row in early spring. I succeeded in chasing her away, but now it kind of makes me sad. Spring is quickly turning into the longer and warmer days of summer. Don't get me wrong! I'm not complaining, it's just that Spring seems so fleeting.

I am trying to enjoy these flowers for as long as I can. The Hyacinths and tulips and daffodils, etc. do not last long enough! I am hoping these Lily's will last much longer. We have cool nights here in Idaho, so that helps. But it also requires a few extra precautions, like putting my tomato plants in these cool greenhouses Terry made for us:

My summer is already booked with gardening galore and several trips off and on, so not much quilting getting done around here. This is my latest project:

Don't judge! At least it's cut out, right?! It's going to be a Downton Abbey-inspired lap size quilt for a niece...someday!

FINALLY! New Living Room Furniture

It took many weeks of shopping and research to decide what I wanted for my living room. I am so pleased with my choice. Now I need to find the perfect area rug.

Updates

To anyone who really cares, I have been working really loooong hours since the holidays and have done very little sewing. That quilt for our bed is the last one I did. I have been building up my stash this winter and have started making plans for some projects again someday.

Ended up ordering fabric to make slipcovers for my sofa pillows. Because I know some people may ask, I ordered this fabric through Warehousefabrics.com. It is called "Shoogie" and the color is Sky. The background is a cream with blue, grey, gold/tan print. I love the birds and the more modern look of this fabric, and that it has a touch of whimsy to it. It is a medium-weight (nice drape) upholstery fabric. Perfect for covering these pillows. I plan to re-cover the seats on my dining room chairs with this same fabric (as soon as I can find that darn staple gun).

I am hoping to order new blinds for the rest of the windows in our house. Long past due. I took down most of the old ones, so need to get the new one's in soon before it gets hot here in the Midwest. The blinds will likely be the last renovation project for the year. I have plans to be too busy with kids and grand-kids. We are in the process of selling a business, so that takes up a large amount of my time too. No simple endeavor, that's for sure.

I have been trying to catch up on reading some of your blogs out there. I can see many of you have been having very busy winter's as well. All those snow storms, work, illness in the family, etc. Life can just be so overwhelming at times.

Happy Spring everyone!

Fluttler Quilt Progress

Things are moving forward on my Flutter quilt. I have plans to do quite a bit of machine quilting on this one, but I would like to have it done by tomorrow night. I purchased two king-size white (high quality) sheets and I'm going to put together a plain, white spread for my bed. The Flutter quilt will be an accent quilt for the end of the bed. I hope to have pictures soon. I am excited about the new splashes of color going into our master bedroom. Bright and cheery!

Still need to work on making a new king-size platform base for our mattress though. If I can talk the spouse into working on that tomorrow....we shall see!

A New Addition

This is the newest addition to my sewing room. The OttLite of my dreams! I really love the sewing tray in this one. And it's perfect for this corner near one of my machines. It's also an early Christmas gift from my husband.

Sewing Studio

A sneak peak of some projects that are finally done in the sewing room. More to follow. Have to take some time to actually USE the sewing room before Christmas. After that I can work on getting more organized.

Some Remodeling

I have been buried in some home remodeling projects. Here are just a few:

Before the backsplash:

 After the backsplash installation:

What an awesome transformation, right? Why didn't we do this years ago?!  LOL. Well, one big reason was because we didn't think we could afford it. Believe me, this is a very affordable project. A couple hundred dollars and a few hours of your time and it looks so much better. We didn't hire anyone to do this. We have gotten more brave in our old age. It wasn't as hard as we thought it would be.

Lots and lots of painting...

Living room before painting:

Living room after:

The dining room before painting, removing wallpaper border, (ugh! that was awful), and before installing a new chandelier:

After:

These gray walls are a little darker than in the living room. And this project is not complete. We will be adding a breakfast nook in the bay window area, some beadboard (wainscoting) and chair rail, and most likely somemore trim where the wall meets the ceiling. The china cabinet is also missing from this picture. It's still in our basement.

Painted the front door inside and out. I'm not sure why I didn't take pictures of the 'before'. Must have had another senior moment. It was burgundy before. I like touches of yellow here and there.

 

I took an older garage sale mirror (thank you, Adri!) and spray painted it with a nickel finish for our master bathroom. Once again, I must have forgotten to take the before picture. There was an unframed mirror on the wall here before. It was a mirror that we removed from the old farmhouse that was on our property, so it had some sentimental value, but it was ugly.

Before painting the garage sale mirror:

After:

Here's another project we just completed:

I'm guessing my kids are laughing out loud about this little project. Recycled pallet wood for a coat rack. Because we own a pallet recycling/manufacturing company and I have access to tons of this kind of stuff. You will see more projects in the future. This cost me about $5 to make, since I only had to purchase the hooks. I swore I would never put this wood in my house! But the aged wood looks good on my walls :)

That's it for now, but I will be adding more projects later. I am currently trying to get my sewing room together again. No painting in that room, but plenty of other stuff to do.

Latest Project

Something went terribly wrong! I was so close to cleaning and repairing this beauty when the bobbin case jammed up. Well, at least I think that is what's wrong! I will have to call in reinforcements (my spouse) to see if we can get it figured out.

My daughter, Jessica, wanted the cabinet painted this pretty aqua color. The machine is one I've had in storage, just waiting for some TLC. It is a Pfaff 130 that I picked up for next to nothing at a garage sale. Finally got around to working on it and it was running great. Some thread got caught in the casing and I can't remove it to clean it. The little screws have obviously been used a lot and they are worn out. Or maybe something else is wrong ?? Hopefully there will be a happy ending to this story because Jessica has her heart set on using this machine soon.
Anyone else out there have a obsession love for vintage sewing machines? I have a couple and have sold a couple, and given away a few. Try not to get carried away, but think that could happen if I had more room.

Bedside Book Bag

I've been working on some odd projects here and there. Just so many clever ideas out there, so try to do something new now and then.  One pocket holds my Kindle, and the other my favorite magazine. I should have done this a long time ago!

Bathroom Scales Re-do

I was getting sick and tired of looking at these bathroom scales.  Really didn't want to go out and buy a new one because it works fine.
Before and After:

I am going to paint the walls in this bathroom gray.  So, when it's all done I will post some pictures.  I like teal and gray, so that's the direction I think I'll go.

The re-do was super easy.  I removed the (sort of) glued-on vinyl/paper:

 

Cleaned the surface by scraping away most of the glue with a butter knife.  I'm sure you could use a razor blade or something similar. Finished cleaning with a damp cloth and a drop of dish soap.  Wiped dry. Carefully removed the little plastic shield.  It came off easily with the end of that butter knife.

I traced around the old blue piece of whatever it is, adding a couple of inches all around.  Could just leave an opening for the plastic shield thing, but that was an after thought for me, so mine still shows the name brand at the top of the scales.  Totally not necessary, so could cover that right up.
Also cut two thin pieces of quilt batting the same size as that blue thing.  Spray glued the surface (covering up the hole first because I sprayed it with the plastic shield removed), then I placed the batting on top, the fabric over that, then folded and tucked (and a touch of spray glue) around the edges.  Popped the plastic shield back in. Finished in 30 minutes or so.  Sure beats buying a new one.

Now I really need to go buy that paint because I'm tired of looking at plain white walls :)