Friday-the best day of the weekend!

Oh, the anticipation of a 3 day weekend and the start of summer!  We started our weekend with another basement project.  Michael installed the 2 mini blinds in the windows!  Our daughter is moving home for 3 weeks and will be in the basement.  The longest part of the installation was shortening the length of the blinds!!!  They are in and look fabulous!

Unemployed Tuesday

A good friend joined me today for some cutting of church fabric.  She was surprised how long it took to get a couple of good piles.  I think it is because each piece is a different size and shape and you have to figure out what is the best way to use that one piece of fabric.  We spent about 4 hours cutting and this is what we were able to cut up.   She also took home a bag of fabric to work on!   Wow!

This morning I was able to cut and sew the border onto the strip quilt that I made for church so it is complete and ready to go for batting and backing.  I like it.

I didn't show you the photo of the 2 coats of white paint on the shop wall from the weekend so here is the "after" photo.  It really looks good!

Blessed Friday...

Did some major moving in the workshop with Michael.  Fought with the vacumn getting plugged up.   Here is the small section of wall that was painted with a first coat tonight.

Did some sewing on the 3rd giant quilt block for the 2nd camping quilt.

Monday Blues

Just have a hard time getting motivated on Monday nights.  Gave that piece of basement wall a second coat.  My gallon of paint is getting pretty low so decided to move one more rack out from the wall and give it a first coat. 

Not productive at all tonight....

Busy Sunday

I believe church was my peace in the day.  Worked a bit with Michael on his shop today.   Then moved the garment bag that holds my summer clothes and painted a first coat on the cement block behind it.  Here are the before and after photos.

It will need a second coat, but it already looks so much better!

This evening I made 200 copies which is all I should need to make the rest of the blocks for the 2nd camping quilt.  Cool thing is that all of that paper had been used on one side so I printed on the other.  I ran a bit short of that paper and printed on lined notebook paper left over from the kids spiral notebooks from their school days.  So all was recycled paper!

I did go through that garment bag and parted with about 13 pieces of clothing as I have a truck stopping by on Tuesday to pick up my donations.  Also re-read a great little book called "The Quilt" by T. Davis Bunn.

It was a fast read and a gal from my church quilting group loaned it to me.  When I began to read it I realized that I had already read the story (I have my own book) but it was worth reading again.

Sunday's go too fast.

Full day today.  After church and saying good bye to our son going back to school, Michael did this for me!

A new garbage disposal in the kitchen! Ours hadn't worked in maybe 9 months or so!

Then I was able to move into the new shelves in the laundryroom.

Before I shove the freezer back into its place I decided to paint the cinderblock wall.

Here is the before and after.

Before and after.

I got all but one row sewed onto this church quilt.

Did a bit of beading too.

So goes the first rainy day of Spring 2011.  Wow.

Fancy Living.

My shelves are up in the laundry room!  It has been a year since my single shelf came down and this evening we were able to put up BRAND NEW WIRE CLOSET SHELVING!!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! 

Did some sewing on the last church quilt too.  Now have 8 rows together.

An oldie but a goodie

Took a drive out to see the folks this afternoon and decided I had to change it up from the "car yo-yo's".  So I went back to something I haven't done in a couple of years- the mini handmade baskets.  Everything was together in the little container and I wanted to give it a try in the car.  It took a bit to remember how these are made but I have several started in various stages of doneness and did get the hand of it again.  Will be easier to work on these without the bulk of the winter coat in my way.  Ok, so the container is still upstairs and I am too lazy to go and get it to take a photo.  I will get a photo soon.  I think that this is a good new direction to take for car rides!
This evening Michael and I got the first coat of cement waterproof sealer white paint on the wall behind the washer dryer.  It will need a second coat...here is what it looks like now.

Church Quilters Saturday

So we met from 9 am to 12 noon.  We are working on assembling kits for church members to help us sew.

Remember last March when our dryer stopped working?  We got a new one, converted from electric to gas but had to take down the shelf above the dryer.  There was some conversion work that had to be done.  Since then there has been nowhere to store cleaning/laundry supplies so they have been in open boxes lining the hallway.  Michael said he would install 2 new shelves where there had been one.  Well, anyone owning a "mature" home knows that the simplest projects that should take an hour ALWAYS become at minimum a weekend project (if you are lucky) or even a week long project.  Here is the brand new dryer the day it was  installed.

Here is the dryer and the wall above where we want to install 2 wire shelves...

Here is the wall with the pegboard removed.  Now we need to paint the wall before we can install the shelves...so it goes...

Day 305 - Counted Cross Stitch

Did a bit more on the new counted cross stitch piece.

Look what my Dad made for me for the studio!

It is a wonderful place to store/display my quilts-in-progress

and completed quilt tops!

Michael installed it today in the studio.

At this point in time I have 4 quilt tops ready to go and the last rung

is the strips for the 2 church quilts ready to be sewn together.

No Crafting today...

Busy morning becoming new members at our church. All of the children made time in their very busy schedules to join us...it was wonderful.
The rest of the day was spent working on the basement.  No time for anything crafty.  Michael completed the built in shelf.  Needs some trim and some stain but basically done!  Oh, I need some new speakers...

Pete has a place near the computer to lay now with a smaller phone and some rearranging.

I repainted this shelf and Michael hung it up for me tonight.

Then I put away some more tools and wood.  The door to the laundry room is still in the corner as is the piece of carpet that is in the black garbage bags.  Still not time to lay it down yet.

Day 291 - Busy, snowy day

(Just discovered that I forgot last night to push the button "publish post" for my entry yesterday evening!)

This is what I awoke to this morning....

Off to church to work from 9-12 on sewing for the craft sale next Saturday.

Then more snow and a drive to go to the first craft sale that my daughter Micaela had ever participated in.

Did a little repair sewing on my couch cushions.

Pete helped a lot today.

Michael worked on the built in shelf for the sewing room.

Last was a couple more pages of the "Dream Big" book.

Day 288 - Cross Stitch

Worked just a bit on the cross stitch project tonight.

Here is the lampshade that I completed for the downstairs bathroom (finally).

The shelf for my sewing area that I repainted....

This is the uncovered wall in the basement that I filled all of the holes in and then oiled it twice with English oil.  The plywood standing against the wall is for the new built in shelf unit in the next photo.

Finally, the "hole in the wall" to the shop area-

we are going to make a shelf to put my CD player and CD's and DVDS on.

Day 279 - Finished Fringe Quilt

It is officially finished and boy and I glad!!!

Ready for the church sale!

Some more changes in the basement too and it is very exciting.

We put up dry wall in the laundry room and it

looks so very different I can hardly stand it!

The wall on the left is new drywall.

Moving all of the sheetrock allowed me to see a wall

in the basement that I haven't seen in at least a

year!  Have to fill the holes in the wall and then

polish it all with Old English...it will be a fun job.