New Design Wall

I don't know if any of the rest of you have experienced this when you moved.  It seems to me that the craft/sewing area is always the last area to get set up or unpacked.  Other people wanted coffee cups and cereal bowls (sigh), clean sheets and towels (really?), and curtains (gasp!), more than they wanted fabric and yarn unpacked.  Go figure.

Main blocks and setting triangles

My sewing studio is very slowly coming together.  At our last address I had two areas for quilting: one corner/half of the dining room and a closet in the back bedroom.  This meant I had supplies, tools, and fabric in two areas.  (I won't tell you how many places I had stashed yarn.)  Since I have a dedicated studio now, everything is reunited again.  Which is both good and bad.   I have a door now and I'm not in a "public" area, so it's easier to hide the mess, which is good.  All my fabric is in one room again, also good.  The fabric has been unpacked and sorted by color which is good and bad.  For some reason, the two fullest to overflowing bins are polka dots and civil war reproductions.  If you skim through my blog, you'll see that I really don't make reproduction quilts.  I have two 9 patch quilts in repro fabrics that are both 30" square or smaller.  I have enough fabric to make a couple of bed-size quilts. Where did it all come from??  Why don't the Amy Butler prints do that?  I must not have a size-able enough breeding colony yet.  

Detail 1

My biggest achievement in tackling the mess is remaking and putting up my design wall.  I've had parts of this at three addresses now.  It's sheets of styrofoam with a layer of batting and a layer of cotton fabric.  I added another section, so now it's about 8' square.  The white fabric is two or three different kinds.  It's what i had on hand.  I stripped the outer layers off the old sections, washed them, then replaced them.  I had to get additional foam for the new section and all they had at the hardware store was pink.  It actually has a layer of fabric, then batting, then more fabric and it still looks gray.  Oh well.   I chose foam so it would be pin-able.  

I used screws to attach the sections to the wall.  I should have used longer screws, but it seems to be holding well enough.  Pretty much once you use a power screw driver, those screws are now permanently part of your foam.  Screws get hot; foam melts.  Of course the screws looked ugly, so I decided I would hot glue a button on each one.  So, yeaaaah.  I mentioned that it's 8' square?  And it's 18" off the floor so I don't cover up outlets. So the top is 9 1/2 feet high.  I have to have a step ladder to reach the top.  So I'm climbing a 6' step ladder one-handed while carrying a slippery button covered in volcanic hot glue.  I'm proud that I only glued one button to the carpet, and none to my fingers or the ladder.

Here's what's on my fabulous, new design wall right now:

This is Bonnie Hunter's mystery Easy Street from last year.  I got overwhelmed around step 3, so set it aside.  I was looking at the pile recently and realized I really loved the fabrics.  I blew through steps 3-7 last week and over the weekend.  I'm piecing the blocks now. I switched out her dark purple for navy because i have  a lot more of that.  Pretty much the entire quilt is out of stash. 

Stay tuned for more posts.  I'm getting caught up!

 

Detail 2

Fabriholics Anonymous

 

 So, you might have noticed a new button over there on the right.

It goes to : http://www.makingrebeccalynne.com/2013/11/fabriholics-anonymous.html

She's taking a 6 month fabric fast and inviting us along.  I'm just squeaking in by the deadline.  Good thing I haven't bought fabric since the first.

I realized after moving my entire studio and trying to organize it that I have a lot of fabric.  I also have a lot of unfinished projects.  I also have a truckload-sized pile of things I want to make - unstarted projects, if you will.  I'm also out of storage space for the most part.  Which is why I haven't put up many pictures of my studio.  I got tired of shifting the piles. Well, I could cram everything into the closet, but I'd like to be able to actually find things when I need them.

So, I pledge:
For the next 6 months, I will not buy random fabric.  I am allowed to buy fabric to finish a project (borders, backings, bindings) because I usually don't have yardage for those.  I am allowed to buy vacation fabric.   And I think there's a quilt show in my area in June, so I will allow myself shopping there, guilt-free.

This is actually kind of peripheral to my actual goal which is to FINISH STUFF UP!!

FINISH Four, START One!
My goal is to finish 4 projects before I start anything new.  I can work on anything I want when I go into the studio.  I can mess around with scraps, play with the colored pencils, make three new blocks then put the project away, but I can't start any new project til I have completed 4 old ones.   I also do not have to finish the "start".  I can, if I like, and it will count as one of the next 4 finishes, but I don't have to.  I'll still have a net gain on the unfinished list.  Hey, quilting is supposed to be fun.

So far, so good!
I've finished:
Brown squares quilt originally for the living room (December, '13)
Birds jellyroll quilt

Pale green broken dishes lap quilt
Living on Key West Time

My new project is a pair of valentine quilts.  I'll get pix up soon on these.  

I actually have a number of posts almost ready to go.  Stay Tuned!  

Ann

Decked out

Yes, yes, I know.  Bad blogger, go sit in the corner.  I figure it's my blog; I'll write when i want to, and you can't make me, nyah.

Mostly I've been doing very little quilting the last year.  I've been focused on the yard and trying to get in into some kind of state that doesn't scream urban grunge.  I think I've climbed out of the ghetto chic hole though.  

So, yea,  Christmas has kind of jumped on us suddenly this year.  Or it seems so.  Fortunately I hosted the Christmas meeting for the quilting group, so I had plenty of incentive to get all my decorations up.  

Here's a bunch of pics of the living room, dining room and family room.  It isn't everything that's up, only about 2/3rds of it.  

Here's about the only quilting I've done:  One tree skirt

I did a DIY cupcake bar for the quilters.  Everyone got to pick what they liked.  

The label said it was a 7' tree, but we had to take off nearly 10" to get it to fit our 8' ceiling.  

Eventually I'll do a catch up quilting post. Stay tuned. 

And Happy Holidays.

Ann 

Finally gardening

We finally got some warm weather around here.  I've been planting seeds in the basement since March.  Spring is almost 6 weeks later than last year, though this is the normal time for it.  The forsythia have gone to town.  They are really lovely.

I've been working on cleaning up flower beds and dead spaces left by neglect.  Case in point is the backdoor below.  This is a dark, windswept corner.  The black area is where all the mulch blew off over the winter.  I think it will be a challenge to keep anything going, but I'm giving it a go. 

Here's the after.  Not much to look at yet, but I opted for smaller, cheaper hostas than the bigger ones.  I put in 8 different varieties.  I also got a great deal on some partially frozen heuchera.  The planter has dusty miller and some ivy.  Eventually the caladium bulbs will come up.  This area gets about 15 minutes of sun a day, but I think everything will do well.  I might fill in with some begonias later on. 

 Looking away from the door. 

Looking toward the corner.  There used to be a random scraggly shrub and a volunteer tree.  I cut those out as best I could and treated the stump.  You can see the white circle that's left.  I hope once the stump rots a bit that I can straighten out the downspout extension.  

On the left hand side of the walk is a narrow strip.  I don't hold much hope for these plants.  There's 4 small hostas here.  The soil is really dreadful.  

 My other weekend project was finally painting the front door.  I got the paint last fall, but ran out of warm weekends to do it.  This is the before with our swatches.  We had a running tally on the fridge. It was really entertaining.  The UPS guy liked Plumage, the TV repair guy and most of the trick-or-treaters voted for Rainstorm.  I think the third one was called Kingfisher.

The winner was Rainstorm. 

Here it is finished: 

And closer: 

 It was a pretty quick project even though it took three coats of paint like everything else in the house.  Next up, I'm putting in a vegetable garden and flowers, and fixing the years of general neglect.  Lots of pruning in my future. 

A

Kitchen month

 Happy New year...yea, I know.  Here's a blog post for those who have been pestering me.  Yes, I have been quilting a bit.  I'll do a catch up post later.  Right now, we're focusing on making the kitchen more functional since we're in there 3 times a day.  So far I've recaulked the counter around the sink, installed an undersink storage bin, hung a broom rack, and re-done the pantry.  The pantry was impossible before.  You couldn't take one thing out without causing an avalanche. Here's the pantry before:    

We decided to wallpaper the back wall just for fun.  Mr. Belfry found the wallpaper.  It was my first attempt so a closet is a good first project.  I'm not thrilled with how I lined up the designs, but again, closet.  I was surprised at out helpful my book and paper conservation skills helped.  Here's the during with the closet empty and the wallpaper in:

Here's a detail on the paper:

We opted with an Elfa system from The Container Store.  They were having a 30% off sale, and do every year in January.  Elfa is a Scandinavian company, like Ikea.  Except Ikea is good, affordable design; Elfa is good, quality design.  I had the measurements and they laid everything out, listed all the parts, cut everything to size, polished the cut bits so they weren't sharp, printed directions and helped load it all in the car. I installed the whole thing in about an hour and a half, not including the time to go out and get the right size drill bit. The top shelf wasn't fun to get in because I'm short   

Here's the after with most everything loaded back in.  I don't have to move multiple items to get one thing out anymore.  Mr. Belfry's beer brewing equipment is out of the basement now.  I need to get a couple more uprights for the cookie sheets and label a few things, but so far it's just wonderful.  I walk by and open it often just to look at it.  

 So, that's what I've been doing with my time.  I've got three cabinets to fix, then I'm on to the next room which is where the Christmas closet is.  Which will be good because I still have a tree up because i have nowhere to go with the decorations.  Don't worry, it's artificial.  ;)

ta!

a

I've been held house-stage.

So.  Um. Yea. Blogging.  See I have an excuse...

I've been held house-stage.  That's like being held hostage, but with less weaponry and more paint brushes.  See, so we bought this house, right?  And I figured, that we'd paint and what-not, and I would blissfully update my blog with copious before/after pix weekly.  Yea...not so much.  Sorry if this is picture heavy. 

(Here's a pretty hydrangea from the yard to break up the text.)

Firstly: Buying a house is a Learning. Experience.  I learned more about the financial industry than I ever wanted to know.  I signed more paper than I thought humanly possible.  I signed a sheet of paper that I acknowledged that I would be investigated by the FBI if I committed mortgage fraud and/or laundered money for terrorists.  Whut?  Why do I have to sign that?  Aren't they gonna do that anyway whether I sign that or not?  So much for the paperwork reduction act.  Also people who work in this industry use industry terms.  It's like another language.  They also assume you know what they mean.  If they aren't willing to explain themselves in English a 5th grader would understand, get someone else.   They will not explain anything over email. 

Secondly: Owning a house is a Learning. Experience., and it's a completely different one than buying it.  Here are some of the things I have learned so far:

1.  Things will start to break before the ink is dry on the closing documents, and it will be different things than you are expecting and/or budgeting for. 

For us that list includes one toilet leaking into the basement like it was raining, part of the deck railing getting broken by a piece of tree falling on it, and more than half the lightbulbs burning out, especially all the specialty ones.  I won't count the light fixture Mr Belfry broke.  That wasn't really the light fixture's fault.  Though we still haven't found the circuit breaker for it.  I was gonna replace that one anyway.  

(The white bits are pieces of deck railing.)

2.  The fun-ness of painting decreases in proportion to the amount of it you have to do.  See graph:

Painting one room is fun.  Painting two rooms is sorta fun.  Painting any more than that is drudgery.  I figured it would be fun and quick and we'd be done in no time.  We painted my sister's house in a week!  Of course, I conveniently forgot that even though it was about the same number of rooms, she has about half the square footage; there were between 4-8 people working the whole time; and my knees were almost 10 years younger. 

    2b Cathedral ceilings suck. Invest in the best ladder possible or hire it done. 

3. Washing a wall before you paint is Very Hard Work.  Washing walls and having the previous paint job (not ours) peel off is demoralizing. 

    3b. Primer stinks, but sometimes it's the best and fastest solution.  


4. Painting the trim makes a huge difference. 

 (before)                                                            (after, Olivia's happy)


5. If you're painting one room, it makes less difference.  But if you're painting a bunch, buy the highest quality paintbrush and roller handle.  Yes, it hurts to spend $15 or more on a single paintbrush. The higher the quality, the less the brush weighs.  That makes a difference after 4 or 5 hours.  You can either spend $15 on the best paintbrush or you can spend $20 on the cheap paintbrush and the best paintbrush you use to replace the cheap one you bought first. 

5b. You can use cheap roller pads if you first wrap them in painter's tape to get the fuzz off.  

6. Oven cleaner takes latex paint off a stainless steel sink.

7. Buy the best quality of furnace filter you can afford.  What?  You'd rather dust? 

8. Don't talk your spouse out of replacing all the carpet.  No really.  Spring for new the carpet/floor refinishing before you move in.  Do you really want to move the furniture twice?  At least spring for a professional carpet cleaning.

(This is the water tank off the carpet cleaner after working on the carpeted stairs. No the black part isn't plastic. The whole thing is clear.  Yea, I know.)

9. Just because you moved it into the new house is no reason to have to keep it, whatever IT is.  Thank goodness there's a Sally store down the street. 

10.  Hanging a towel bar and getting it level is really damn satisfying.


Someday we will sell this house.  Here are some things I have learned that I will do (or not do) before I sell.  Maybe this list will benefit you too.

1. Scented candles, especially in mass quantities, are Very Bad.  Do not use them or paint often.  Besides not everyone likes Hollyhock Pomander Citrus Brownie.   (Beside the issue of the smoke, anything scented and heated uses oils for the scent.  Those oils linger and turn rancid over time. Do you want your house to smell like rancid oil? Ask me how I know.) 

2. Wash the windows before you list.

3. If you have machine washable curtains, wash them once in awhile.  At least wash them once before you sell.  

(This is the wash cycle with most of the curtains in it.  Yes, it looks like coffee.  I can't tell you how bad they smelled.  Seriously 100% polyester curtains really can be washed once a decade or so.)

4. When your rugs sound like toast when you walk on them, it is time to throw it away.  

     4b. When the non-slip backing is crunchy and no longer keeps the rug from slipping, do not adhere it to the floor with duct tape. 

5. If we are not living in the house while we are trying to sell it, I will hire a cleaning company to come in periodically to do touch-ups. 

    5b. I will clean the oven.  With Easy Off No Fume oven cleaner, it takes 3 hours and 15 minutes.  1 minute to spray the whole thing; 3 hours to soak; 14 minutes and one roll of paper towels to wipe it out.  (Not paid to say that. Two ovens later, just damn impressed.  Gas ovens even.)


I have been doing a little quilting and a fair amount of knitting.  I've been working on one quilt since January.  It's only 4' square,but it's got close to 1000 pieces. Pictures after the intended receiver gets it.   I started some mindless sewing while perched on boxes of unassembled Ikea furniture.  Eventually, my studio is gonna be awesome.  I love the paint color.    But right now, it and most of the rest of the house are still adrift in a sea of cardboard. 

a

No UFOs, but a house update

 So, yea...I've been a bad blogger. I've also been neglecting my quilting, so not much progress on my UFO list.  There's been some, but I'll catch you up another time. The big news is we bought a house.  We're now into our third weekend of painting.  Everything needs to be painted.  Everything.  


Here's our first room: This is Mr.Belfry's office.  It's kind of long and rectangular.  Originally the room had stripes running around it. The "white" color is actually a beige. You can see the difference up near the ceiling.

We sampled paint colors which was a lot of fun.  Lots like finger painting. There are three shades of blue, one turquoise, one white and two browns.  We picked the medium blue. 

Here's the in process shot.  This corner is opposite the door.  

While mama didn't raise people afraid of a little hard work, she did raise people with short arms.  The three upstairs rooms all have vaulted ceilings, so we're waiting on a taller ladder to finish up this room.  There's one or two small spots that need a second coat as well, and we need to replace the outlet covers.  

The second weekend we worked on our bedroom which will get a second coat tomorrow.  Pics forthcoming. 


Today we're working on the guest room which does not have vaulted ceilings (Thank God!).  It does however have to be washed.  Have you ever washed walls?  Not fun.  The previous owner sold scented candles.  We also now think this room hasn't been painted since the house was built in the early 50s.  


So the picture below is one wall....You're seeing about an 8 foot square. There's just the top of an outlet visible.  All those gray streaks are dirt and grime.  It's been washed three times already. It's been washed three times with the stuff from the hardware store that requires you wear gloves and long sleeves. 


We painted one wall as a test to see how well the paint will cover the grime.  We'll find out in about an hour when we head over.  Fortunately, we think there's only one other room with walls like this.  We've been using the paint + primer and it's covering really nicely, but we might have to break down and use a straight primer.  I hate them because they smell so noxious.  

My advice to you, if you're selling a house: Paint everything a nice neutral color.  Heck, just prime everything.  It will increase your sales price. We have stripes to paint over, one room that's royal blue, one room closet and hallway that are a dark golden tan, plus two rooms and a half bath that are just dirty.  There's a reason we got our house for almost $100K less than the original asking price.  

Well, off to the salt mines!  More updates later

Ann