A Gift

I recently received a box of goodies from my mom. There was a collection of fat quarters, some sets of blocks (which you will see later after I put them together), cookies and this cute clothes pin apron.

It is made from a hand towel and some cotton fabric. It has two pockets on the front for clothes pins. I like to hang our laundry outside on the line when the weather permits. Now I have a really cute apron to wear while I do this chore! Thanks Mom!

Laundry room floor - aaaaahhh!

Not a very quilty post today, but I am so excited to finally have a laundry floor I can be proud of. The house is a bit stinky from the silicone caulking used around the edges and the adhesive, but doesn't it look nice? Scroll down to the last photo to see ugly green "before" floor. It was painted linoleum and the paint came off a little bit every time I mopped it. I'm probably going to just go sit in there for a little while tomorrow (after the smell dissipates). We still need to put the cabinets back in along with a few other things and the ceiling still needs some work, but it feels so nice to have this project proceeding so nicely.

The ugly green went into this little half bath too, so it also got a face lift this morning!

Here is the before shot. This was taken before I painted too.

I have been busy making thread catchers this morning while the floor was being installed. My husband just got back from Walmart with more fish tank airline (used to make the bag hang open nicely) so I can finish these up. Photos to follow in a few days.

Disappearing 9 Patch for charity

This is the finish quilt top using the disappearing nine patch blocks that I am making for charity and as a sample for our next guild block swap. This top used 10 1/2 nine patch blocks, cut into quarters. I made the nine patch blocks from 5" squares. So the nine patch blocks measured 14" before cutting them into quarters. The top measures about 40" by 47" - a perfect size for a kids charity quilt in my opinion. My guild buys batting for the members to use in charity quilts. I picked up some batting yesterday to use for this quilt and a few others that I have ready to be quilted. Quilting these tops will be my main project for the next week or so.

My son has today and Monday off from school so I'm not sure how much quilting I'll get done before Tuesday - not much is my guess. In addition, my husband is going skiing AGAIN tomorrow. I thought ski season would be over by now, but not at Wolf Creek Ski Area. They got more snow yesterday.

I will soon be getting a new floor for my laundry room! Yesterday I pick out some nice vinyl and a guy came out to measure. I hope to hear from them today with an estimate for the installation and then schedule the job. I'm really motivated to get the ceiling finished up and have this room DONE, finally!

Laundry room painted - finally

I spent most of my day, up until now, painting my laundry room. It is done, everything is cleaned up and there is an hour left until Parker and his friend Jamie come home from school. I painted the high traffic areas first so that they would be dry by the time they get home.

I wasn't going to post today, because I was painting, but I read about this site on one of the blogs I follow. You must go over and check out these sheep made from telephones. Click on the image to enlarge them. These are fabulous and so creative, I think.

Thread Catchers

My guild is have a Quilt Demo Day at our next meeting, March 20th, which happens to also be National Quilting Day. If you are in the area and want to attend here are the details:

Monte Vista United Methodist Church, 215 Washington St. in Monte Vista, CO from 10 am until 2 pm. Members will be demonstrating various quilting and quilt related techniques. There will be quilts on display and a boutique selling member-made items.

I am thinking about making up a few more of these thread catchers to sell in the boutique. I made the one on the left months ago, maybe a year ago, but didn't finish it because I didn't have any sand for the pin cushion part. Recently I got some play sand and decided this morning to sew up the other one I had already cut out to see if this is something I could make up quickly. The jury is still out.

As I reported yesterday, Spring Break has begun here. In a surprise move, this morning my husband took Parker skiing. They will be skiing today, spending the night in a hotel near the ski area and skiing again tomorrow before returning home. So I have some unplanned time to myself! Woot! Woot! I don't know if I want to spend my free time making up these thread catchers or if I'd rather work on my Quilt University homework or if I should paint the laundry room or do something else. To add to the indecision, I was rearranging some more in my sewing room this morning and strained my back while setting a heavy basket of magazines in a hard-to-reach corner. Painting may not be a wise choice now, at least for today, but I really want this project done. I'm going to have a cup of tea and listen to a podcast before making a decision.

Another Baby Quilt

I'm making another baby quilt for yet another cousin who is expecting. This one is pretty simple. Just a center panel with 8 borders. I have fussy cut the dot fabrics which took a bit of time but the rest weren't too bad. I still have three more borders to cut out and sew on, then quilt, bind and mail. The baby is due in March and I've had the pattern and fabrics and batting (purchased by my mom) since Thanksgiving. Honestly, I haven't had much time to sew lately and when I do, I want to work on an art project or my king size mystery quilt (which is almost done, thank goodness!) or one of the other already started projects cluttering my sewing room right now. But I promised my mom I would make this before the baby comes, so I really need to get it done this week. Unfortunately that will mean that I probably won't be painting my laundry room this week and then shopping for flooring. **SIGH**

Priming

The blogs I like to read all post photos so I feel like I need to post one every time too. This one is of Parker and his cousin Isaiah. Aren't they cute! It was taken in late 2002 or early 2003, so they are both about 7 or 8 months old.

I spent 4 hours this morning priming the laundry room walls. It's a pretty small room so I just bought a gallon of primer figuring that I wouldn't even need all of that. Wow! The walls just soaked up the primer. I was afraid that a gallon wouldn't be enough! I didn't have to dip the paint brush in the paint can to scrap paint off the sides to finish cutting in, but a gallon was enough, barely. I was tempted to run to the paint store and buy a gallon of the color I have picked out for the walls, but decided not to kill myself all in one day. My right wrist is sore as is my back, shoulders and neck. Nothing a couple of Advil, a cup of tea, a few pieces of chocolate and a short rest can't cure. So I decided to save the painting for another day. In a little while I will have to put the washer and dryer back in their places and hook everything back up. One of the hardest things about this project is that it is the laundry room - a much used room in our house. I can't be without a washer and dryer for more than a day or two. I don't want to have to lug everything to a laundry mat. I'm sure there is a laundry mat in town, but I don't know where it is! And this is a really small town! I can't do laundry and paint in the same day because I am a wet paint magnet. If I just walk into a room containing wet paint somewhere, I will get some on me. With my luck, I'd get paint on the clean clothes coming out of the dryer. I don't know how I would do that ... but I would.

By the way, the color I have chosen is called Sea Salt. It's a grayish green color. I think it will look nice against my white metal cabinets and the white washer and dryer. It is going to look horrible with the dark green painted floor, but that will be remedied as soon as I get new flooring. I'm going to get something neutral that hopefully will hide dirt. Maybe I should take some dirt from our yard with me to the flooring store!

While painting this morning I listened to several old episodes of a podcast called Within a Quarter Inch. Yes, I've started listening to podcasts. I am enjoying it much more than I thought I would. Pat Sloan got me started. I've been following her blog for a while and she recently started a podcast called Pat Sloan's Creative Talk Radio, so I thought I would give it a try. The good ones are really fun to listen to and there are podcasts in all genres.

Snow

This photo was taken after last weeks snow. Parker doesn't have much opportunity to be buried in sand, so we have to make do!

It has been snowing lightly since about 10 am. We got between 1 and 2 inches of snow last night in addition to whatever we have gotten today. It shows no signs of letting up. We'll see how much I have to shovel tomorrow morning.

Since I've no place to go, let is snow, let it snow, let it snow ...

I got the fourth and final section of my king size mystery quilt together today. And I'm done sanding the laundry room walls. I may be able to prime the walls tomorrow - if it's not a snow day - and then paint this weekend. After I paint I'm going to go shopping for new flooring, probably just vinyl. Still have to figure out what to do about the ceiling.

Stitched Crop Circles, Part 3

Here's a photo with all the fields completed. I've added backing and rebasted it for the quilting to go outside the fields. I have not yet decided how I want to quilt it, other than I will be defining the nine patch by quilting the drawn blue lines that run between the fields. I also don't know how I want to bind this. I'm considering a satin stitch or blank stitch or possibly couching some yarn along the edge. I've got time to think about it.

I really like this idea. It has the effect of stitched applique or piecing. I am already thinking about how to incorporate this technique into other projects. I have too many ideas now to list.

My sewing time is most likely over for today. Next on my list is doing a bit more sanding in the laundry room. Then shower and lunch. I need to do some laundry. I have to meet a student at 2 pm and then turn in some final grades for students who have finished up the ALEKS course I was teaching last semester. They got extensions since they weren't quite done at the end of the semester. Then Parker comes home along with his friend Jamie. I've already got dinner in the crock pot, Taco Soup. If there is time I have to continue working on my syllabii for the courses I'm teaching next semester. Yes, I'm teaching two ALEKS courses beginning next week. We'll see how this goes. Last semesters course didn't go as well as I would have liked. I am making some significant changes to the syllabus based on my experience last semester. If things don't improve this semester, I may not have a job after this semester.

Home Improvement project

The laundry room walls are on my agenda for today. This picture was taken yesterday and I've already done several sessions on the walls today. I can only work for about 45 minutes before my shoulders, neck and back need a break. I'd take another picture to post but I don't think you'll be able to see much difference at this point.

The project is to prepare the walls to be painted. The problem is that the walls are in really bad shape. When we bought the house all the walls along the exterior of the house had been crudely framed, insulated and covered with paneling. We ripped all that out the first week we lived here. Most of the walls were fine underneath with a really nice texture that has been impossible to imitate. But the laundry room walls had yellow and green peeling paint underneath. My dad scraped all the peeling paint off and then my husband slapped joint compound onto the walls. Unfortunately, he applied it too thick in places, so it cracked as it dried, and he textured it too much so it is impossible to paint. After 4 years (or more) of waiting for the walls to finish themselves, I'm just going to have to do it myself. The quote in the header of my blog is from the Lord of the Rings and is "it's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish." Around our house we don't have trouble starting things, it's the finishing! I am hoping that 2010 will be the year we finish all the projects we have started, or at least the laundry room.