10-5-10

Long time, no blog... I guess life gets in the way of things sometimes.

Spring and Summer have come & gone, we have jumped right into crisp & cool fall weather, too crisp & cool for my liking anyhow.

Last Saturday my daughter & I made a trip up to the pumpkin patch, along with several other family members, we visited a little, played around on all the activities, and brought home a few pumpkins too. This coming Saturday will be another nice visiting session with some old family friends... its been too long since we've all gotten together.

I hope my daughter will come with me to that too... we'll see. It will be boring for her, but everyone wants to see her.

Then by the end of the month I hope to make a long-overdue trip to Philly to see my oldest son, spend some time with him, and do some serious tourist-y things. Philly is a good place to do that. I think we'll also go to NYC for a day... my favorite place on this Earth. I am working on an itinerary... my son won't want to do all the things I want to do, but he'll be working some while I'm there, so hopefully I can get all the "boring" stuff out of the way while he works... haha

I've gotten quite a few sewing projects done, and even MORE started (but not done) over the spring/summer. In the living room, I have transformed the most ugly duckling sheer curtains and lacy drapes into a curtain for my sliding glass doors to the porch. I wanted something kinda sheer, so some light would come in, but not SO sheer that there is no privacy in the room. I think I got it just right. Although I wasn't thinking at first that I wanted such a "Victorian" look, that's not usually my style, it turned out pretty nice, I must say. I also touched up the smaller window treatments, mostly by cutting down on half their volume. They were just too heavy. I'm still not loving the fabric, but the curtains are very high quality, and everyone else seems to like them. AND, with the extra fabric I had from the original sliding glass door curtain and the extra from the smaller windows, I used part of that for a shade for the front door. I had a more "whimsical" looking one there for a while, but it didn't "go" with ANYthing in the living room, and seriously looked out of place. The one there now is a little more formal-looking, and looks like it belongs. I'm actually really proud of that shade... even tho, again, its not MY choice of fabric, but its what I have.

The "whimsical" shade that was on the front door originally? It got moved to the kitchen back door. Its more suitable for the kitchen, which is all full of light colors (actually mostly off-white, but the room is naturally more bright) and a lighter feel. And I have TWO windows in the kitchen, the bigger one had a curtain hanging that was a little too long, so I chopped off the bottom and made a valance for the smaller one. I didn't want a curtain covering the smaller one, so a valance was a perfect fit, to tie the windows together, again, like a designer swooped in and did it themselves.... haha

I'm still working on a chest/sitting thing for the living room, I'm going to cover it with the horrible fabric that I have on the small windows and door shade. But I have a TON of that stuff, and I may as well use it. The chest/sitting thing is from my grandma's bedroom... right this minute, its covered in some VERY DIRTY white & red quilted satin-y fabric, and looks just awful. I need to tear that yucky horrible red flowery stuff off right this minute, but I'm guessing the padding on the top needs replacing and I haven't gotten a piece of foam that size yet. Honestly, I haven't measured for what size I need the foam piece, but when I get around to that, I have a sewing machine and a staple gun, ready to go.

SPEAKING OF SEWING MACHINE, I made up a little area in the basement... my sewing room. Complete with my sewing machine (duh), a table and desk that I found both on craigslist, I covered the poor excuse for a "countertop" with some fabric and about 3 jars of Mod Podge, put some more lighting down there, a radio, and most of my fabrics and sewing & crafting supplies. Its almost perfect... I think I will have to rearrange the furniture again. And I'm looking for a large piece of carpet or rug (terribly affordable) to put on the floor... its friggin hard and cold on the feet in the basement. Hopefully if we ever get a terrible rain, the place won't flood on me. And I'm not convinced that the wiring is all that safe... but I have everything plugged into a surge bar, and I just flip off the power to the entire room when I leave.

I'm also working on (more like just now starting on) curtains for my bedroom. This, honestly, is going to be a chore. I have the design idea in my head, I know exactly what I want them to look like, its just measuring (done), cutting (some done), sewing all the correct pieces together, and hoping it turns out OK that I'm worried about. I have a few fabrics to use... I bought a bolt of muslin for the bulk of the curtains (there will be FOUR in total), but the top panels, tabs, and floral cut outs to applique on the muslin are all from old tablecloths from Grandma's house. The curtains will go to the floor, but I will have to use the tablecloths SPARINGLY, with no waste, to pull this one off. It will be close. It will be beautiful, if what is in my head turns out how I want.

I'm also working on a simple quilt... I have the top sewn together, just need to do the "sandwich", then quilting and binding. It was made with a bunch (I think there are 20) of fat quarter squares, then white muslin sashing in between, for a summery look. The batting I got for it is pretty lightweight, so it will be nice for spring, and it looks like it won't be done before that anyway...

My dining room I had some very high hopes for, but sadly, I have not touched it. I was very lucky to have some awesome blinds in the windows in there, but the padded square fabric covered thing across the top of the 3-window area isn't my favorite design. Its probably going to stay exactly as it is... I just don't have the time. And everyone that comes over says how lovely it is... so there ya go, why fix something when its not broke? Hmmm... where have I heard that before? I did also want to get some shelving of some sort up on the wall above the computer & printer, as the area gets all cluttered and ugly with junk. So I feel like if I had somewhere to PUT the phone, somewhere to PUT the box of tissues, etc., then it wouldn't feel like things were weighing the area down.

I also made some quickie pillowcases and pillows for my bed. They are kinda fancy, I think the fabric is sari fabric, very luxurious feeling. They almost always end up on the floor by morning. I think I have too many pillows, and since those are the "slippery" ones, they get knocked onto the floor first...

That's enough of obsessing over unfinished projects for today... I'm already nursing a bad case of the hives and I don't want to stress over something new!

In the meantime, I will try & get some pics posted in the next few days of my finished projects, and maybe even my unfinished ones... that might put a flame under my butt to get moving on them! haha

2-25-10

OK, I have just bought the TWO most awesome-est books EVER (just today they arrived), and between the 2 of them, I don't know which projects to start on first! Holy cow, am I ever itchin to get to the fabric store, and like, RIGHT NOW! I have sooooooooo many projects to get done here at home first (read: curtains), but I am just ACHING for a new skirt, maybe that will hurry Spring along? and this new book of quilts is just fantastic, I want to get moving on another right away...

Oh, the horror. And the worst part of it is, that I really SHOULD get along on more curtains for the living room to go with the one I made for the front door. That room just looks horrid now. Maybe a trip to the fabric store for some inspiration is in order after all. I do love me a good look-see through the clearance bins! :-) Who knows? Maybe I'll find a good curtain bargain fabric, and something just so springy-fabulous it can't stay at the store any longer will just FALL into my cart? It could happen...

and the books, by the way? sew what! Skirts by Francesca Denhartog & Carole Ann Camp. I haven't actually MADE a skirt yet with their guidance, but I have practically read the whole book front to back, and will be reporting on a project from the book soon (hopefully sooner than later!). And the other book is Material Obession - Modern Quilts with Traditional Roots by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. I just LOVE the pictures and colors in this book, and so far, I've already gotten a BRAINSTORM of a marvelous idea for some half-made and mostly-cut-out flower-y squares. Yay!

Perhaps if I find a good fabric to finish up my "big" curtain, and get that done & out of the way, I can "reward" myself with a spring-y skirt-making session! Sounds glorious! Now, if only Spring would actually GET here. This snowy stuff better knock it off, real quick.

In my "real" life? Let's see... work is kicking my butt, I'm missing Ian more & more every day, sometimes almost to the point of tears... I just want him to come home for a visit, and of course I worry CONSTANTLY about the other 2 for one reason or another. Brenna with her grades and Robin with his constant avoidance of anything important whatsoever. And, ya know, there's always my constant stream of worry about money, bills, etc.

Stuff with the foreclosure isn't moving along as I would like it to. I can't get any information from anyone, and practically anytime I try to call about it, "the office is now closed", which means I have to call while I am at work, and that's not really what my boss is paying me for, plus, I get NO privacy whatsoever there, unless I want to get on my cell phone and go outside in the frigid cold and deep snow and try to carry on a conversation, oh yeah, and I need account numbers with me and 5 jillion other bits of information, which really isn't conducive to being outside in the freezing snow trying to get privacy... oh yes, and we know I can't count on Mr. Wonderful to make any calls or take responsibility for any of that stuff... grrr. Enough about that.

Pepper is getting used to the new digs, actually, she isn't all freaky-like, as she was when we first moved here. I haven't had to "drug" her at night so she will sleep for a long time. That was only the first couple of weeks. Oh my gosh I thought I might never get any rest. Thank god for the wise advice of the vet! And I think she is really enjoying her new very big backyard. The doggie on the other side of the duplex is kinda terrified of her, and rightly so, as Pepper just is always trying to hump him, and he is about half her size. She is going to squish the poor little guy. I really have to watch her if they are both outside at the same time, she is trying to "dominate", which is NOT good. I don't like that kind of behavior, its just not good manners. Ha! Well, I'm off to dream about floral, polkadots, stripes & plaids! Sewing is good therapy. Spring & Summer will bring some gardening therapy, so I can switch things up a little. Still waiting for Spring...

2-19-10

OHmygosh I haven't posted my front door window blind yet. I have it finished (almost, just need to get a new actual curtain ROD that doesn't look horrid) and its up on the door. I just need to get my pics downloaded and posted. Geesh, life sure gets in the way of things, eh?

Grandpa is sick. Like, REAL sick. This has been a long time coming, but it looks like things may not turn around for him this time. I don't know if the human body is capable of holding together much longer than 97 years, but who knows.

Enough on that for now. I will get pics published here soon of the window treatment. Already working on the curtain for the sliding glass door, and have many MANY ideas on more curtain-y projects! Too many ideas, not enough time! Yikes!

Mom & Dad's Christmas Gift (very late, but finally finished)

This is not really made for MY own particular bed, so its not really wide enough (made it for a double bed, and mine is queen), but I wanted to put it on my bed to see what it looks like all spread out. Pretty nice, I must say. And, I just LOVE the fabrics... I totally wish I had more.

2-12-10

Its DONE! Yippee and Hallelujah! The quilt is all bound, washed, & in the dryer. I wasn't going to wash it, but there were still markings on it from when I was hand-quilting the basket design on the plain squares, plus I had been dragging that thing all around with me, it was starting to pick up some serious dog hair and dust. Blech.

I will post a pic as SOON as I can get it out of the dryer. Well, and as soon as I can find the battery charger for my camera. That might prove to be more difficult than finishing my project! Yikes.

Its high time I get to bed at a decent hour for a change. No TV, no reading, just get my jammies on, turn off the lights, and climb into bed. Ahhh, heaven.

2-11-10

Well I'm still not finished with the binding on the quilt, but I had to take a night off to get some VERY OVERDUE housework done. Plus, if I wanted to wear clean underwear to work today? Well, let's just say it was an evening for some serious "catch up" chores to get done. Tonight, so far, more of the same. That quilt is beckoning my name from my bed... I think it will get finished tonight, if I don't fall asleep mid-threading! Ha! Still waiting for my last load of laundry to finish up in the washer so I can transfer it over to the dryer and get myself to bed!

I'm already thinking of what I'll do with the front door. The mini-blinds are toast, thanks to one of Miss Pepper's frantic "Oh no don't you DARE walk with your person along the sidewalk past MY door!" moments. See for yourself:


"BAD dog, BAD dog!" SOOO... while I do hate, I mean HATE mini-blinds, I was kinda hoping that this little project would just have to wait a while, but it turns out the front door needs some sort of coverage... and I'm really diggin the fabric I found in my stash that I used for the grocery bag holder, so I think I might do a muslin-backed roll-up blind. So during the day, the blind can be all rolled up, for Miss Pepper to attend to her Guard Dog Duties, and in the evenings, when I'm thinkin I want a little privacy, its rolled down. And, IF Miss Pepper finds the need to start howling like a rabid killer at whatever it is that she thinks might be out there in the darkness, her big ole' head will just be able to tuck UNDER the fabric; there won't be a need for her to "pull up the blinds". I think it will be quite simple-like, with ties made from ribbon... maybe. Obviously I'm still working out the details. I still haven't gotten to the fabric store for some muslin and I also want to look at some fabulous ribbon. Oh and I need to get a curtain rod that doesn't look stupid.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: Get that darn quilt done! I totally get ahead of myself all the time on stuff like that. I mean, when I SHOULD be stitchin, stitchin, stitchin, I'm measuring the window on the door, holding up different fabrics to my living room rug, to the couches, thinking if I have enough fabric to make curtains for the sliding glass door and also the other windows (so of course then now I'm measuring how many yards of fabric I have left), measuring windows too, frantically searching my still unpacked boxes of "stash" for ribbon or more fabric, and so on and so on... Why oh why do I get distracted so easily??? Geesh. I guess I just love to start a new project.

2-9-10

Sewing, sewing, sewing... I feel like my eyes are crossed. Trying to finish up the binding on mom & dad's WAY overdue Christmas gift... yikes! I'd like to give it back to them this weekend, when I see them at our "Redneck Superbowl" party... yes, you are right, its Daytona weekend.

More snow coming tonight, we probably had about 5 or so inches fall today during the day. I did some shoveling when I got home from work, but didn't finish. My back was screaming at me to stop. There will be more tomorrow, so I can get it then, or just say screw it... hey, it works for some people.

Tomorrow Baby Josh turns 31. I think. Maybe 32, I can't remember. I will need to call him. Right now my #1 priority is to get to bed.

2-8-10

Whoa, its been a long time since I've posted. Life gets in the way of blogging, I guess... Ha! Well, 2010 has brought me some BIG-TIME changes, and we're only about 6 weeks in. Me & the kiddies (the dog too) moved on January 1, back to the neighborhood where we belong, right where we've always wanted to be... SOOOO nice. We are "tenants" now, so decorating the new place will prove to be more challenging, but absolutely doable. I am sooooooooo excited about having my very own place, for the very first time, at the age of 43. Its very exciting, and absolutely terrifying all at the same time. Still unpacking, though. I think I found a PERFECT spot for a sewing room. I just want to make sure its not a "flood-y" spot (its in the basement) before I pull everything out and make it all pretty.

The snow and cold air has been challenging too, however its kept me inside more than I would be normally, which means ONE THING. More time to sew!!! Yippeeeee! I have ALMOST finished up mom & dad's quilt, which was actually a Christmas present that didn't get finished on account of MOVING, etc., but all it needs now is some binding, which is QUICK, compared to all that hand-quilting! I don't know if I will ever do that again, at least not for the entire quilt. Its not all that "lovely", and certainly not the pattern I would have chosen for myself, but it was already started, and mom & dad think its just swell, being that it came from their very own personal daughter, and my dad's Aunt Vera... from many many moons ago. I actually think its very cool, trying to finish up a "UFO" that my Aunt Vera had to let go decades ago, on account of poor health, bad eyesight, or whatever the reason was. When I was spending all those countless hours hand-quilting, I often thought of her and wondered if this was the finished look she was going for, or what did she have in mind for these blocks that she left behind? A quilt? A wall hanging? A gift for someone? Did a friend help her with this project? What was her life like? What made her choose these fabrics and patterns? I wonder soooo much about her when I'm working on this quilt. I also wonder if she would have approved of what I have finished from her work. I don't think my sewing skills are at the level of hers. My points don't all match up perfectly, by a longshot, not like hers.

I hope to have the quilt ALL FINISHED and delivered back to its recipients before the weekend. (Thanks for your patience, mom & dad!!!)

THEN, last night, as a last minute "I'm tired of this mess and just what am I going to do about it" moment... I started AND FINISHED a quick project that I had been putting off for a while. At my new place, I don't have a specified "pantry" for my kitchen stuff. So, you know those plastic bags from the grocery store that just multiply (I use them for poop bags on doggie walks, but I still have way more than I really need)? I used to keep those in the bottom of my pantry closet at home, but at the new place, they have just been collecting under the kitchen sink, with really no good place to keep them. I was searching under there yesterday for something, however those pesky bags just kept getting in the way! So I spent literally a HALF HOUR (yes, that's IT!) making up a bag dispenser that I had seen posted on a blog online, HERE:

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/01/grocery-bag-holder.html

Actually, I made 2, it was practically just as fast. Its actually a VERY cute design, and I think they would made fantastic gifts, being so easy to make and all. I had an ugly spot in a corner of my kitchen that needed covered up with something, so I hung a hook, and here is the end result:

Time to get back to life now. More snow comin tomorrow... aaarrgh.