Progress

 

As soon as Sydney loaded up her clean laundry to head back to UF, I started moving sewing things back into the studio.  It should be permanent this time!  Rather than cutting the design walls down 6 inches in height, I hung them horizontally for now.   I would like to build some bookshelves into that back wall eventually.   There is a staircase on the other side with lots of dead space which could be put to good use.   One thing at time though.  

Kurt is making good progress on the bathroom.  Every so often I help him hold something, but other than that, he has been chipping away at it slowly.  I will need to work on some major wall prep which is my fault as I didn't want more tile than was necessary.   We sent with a seamless penny tile floor instead of the big step up triangle shower pan that was there before.   I tried to find the most minimal round shower enclosure that I could. I guess there just aren't that many choices in round glass showers.     

In honor of blue for January, I sewed a blue binding on Streak of Lightning and started the hand sewing process.   There is a nice comfy chair downstairs where I can sit and sew while I keep the dog company.  She is in her last days now, and can't do the stairs anymore.   When she is downstairs we can keep the door open and she loves to wander in and out.   Do you have any slow stitching going on today?  You should head over to Kathy's Quilts where she celebrates the patient art of hand sewing.   

Totally NOT a Quilt

 The girls picked fabric for curtains when we painted their bathroom.  That was a while ago.  They are having birthday parties this month and wanted to get everything finished up.  So there are two new curtains for the windows.

And one new shower curtain.  That wasn't what I had planned for today, but it is nice to cross it off the list -- finally.  

Could I Possibly be More Oblivious?

I never switch feet. I just slap the quarter inch foot on my Bernina and go in fast forward. If I do ever switch, it is to the darning foot for free motion or the walking foot. The Girl Scouts on Monday made fabric shopping bags which need a zig-zag foot. I had just sewn the last diagonal row of Old Hurricane Road together when I realized that I had been using the wrong foot all weekend! Most of the top was done, with just the last few rows left to sew on. All with a 3/8 inch seam allowance. I'll be curious to find out what the final measurements are. I thought the blocks seemed to be shrinking up an awful lot, but I just kept going, oblivious. Lesson learned, if something seems strange, it is better to check right away. I decided at that point is was best to save the rest for tomorrow when I can reassess in the light of day.
I spent most of the afternoon prepping and painting in the master bathroom. Kurt has been plugging away in there for ages and I was starting to feel guilty for not participating. Also, he is not to be trusted with a tube of caulk. There is a certain amount of finesse in the finishing work that he seems to be lacking. So I got the woodwork all sanded and caulked, taped off the edges and got most of the trim freshened up. There was a bit of repair work to be done from the baseboards that he reattached after Jeanne a few years ago. I tried to fix it at the time, but I think I handled it wrong and hurt his feelings. All of the holes in the walls have been filled and sanded and the wall paper mural has been removed. I just need to finish up the woodwork and then the walls should be ready for a fresh coat of paint. We are going with a color called Pale Sand 4. Most of the house is Pale Sand 2 or Pale Sand 1. This is just a slightly darker version of the same thing. It is sage green right now, but I think beige will go better with all the new tile. I am of course wishing now that I hadn't painted the closets green as well. One thing at a time I guess.

Quilted Tile

"I've messed up massively and I need your help." Those are words you never want to hear in the middle of a bathroom remodeling project. We had finished the bathtub portion of the tile work and were moving over to the shower portion. I say "we" but I really mean Kurt was doing the tile work, I was watching the talking word factory with Sydney and eating popcorn. In transitioning from one section to the other, he worked from the right to the left, and then shifted over to the left and worked back toward the middle again. When he got to the part where the left and the right were supposed to meet, they didn't. Somehow his math skills were off and he was shifted by half a tile. So I spent the rest of the afternoon helping him peel (thankfully) still wet tiles off the wall and repositioning them. Anyway, it occurred to me in the middle of all of this scraping and sticking that doing tile is so much like making a quilt. So even if I wasn't quilting, I was thinking about quilting while all of this was going on.

Then last night the men's marathon was on the Olympics. I recorded it so I could do some sewing and then fast forward through the commercials. I still ended up watching the end at about the right time, but I managed to get a batch of crumb blocks done while it was happening. My scrap bin was overflowing and I had already done a couple of sessions of cutting squares and strips. Those drawers are all pretty well stocked, so I decided to go for random piecing. I did segregate the scraps in to brights, muted and pastels. I was trying for random, but I can only push myself so far out of my comfort zone. Each color family is getting squared up into a different size, and I'll set them all aside for a rainy day. I also got the final border on my Dad's Plaids quilt yesterday, so I'll be getting that ironed and layered sometime soon.

Weekend Work

I was up early this morning for a run. As painful as it was at the time, I'm glad now that I got it done. It's sad to see how much slower I am now than I used to be, but it's still better to be out there, even if I'm not setting any records. Every bodies already starting to make noises about fall marathons. I'll have to wait and see what they decide to do. I can see another couple of halves this year. I think the half marathon is a wonderful distance, challenging but not deadly. July is really the time to start serious training for those. I can coast for a while longer. Kurt kept plugging away at the bathroom. I think the tub has been out of commission for about 4 weeks now, but it should be getting close to usable again. I'm glad he decided to finish the tub before he tore apart the shower. I know we have 2 other bathrooms, I just like this one better.

My formal living room looks like a fabric store exploded in it! I have a total of 17 quilts kitted and ready to go. After my last session, I made a list of missing fabrics and had a field trip to the fabric store. After a peaceful lunch at Jason's Deli, I got about 5 different solidish fabrics that should allow me to round out the majority of the patterns that remain. They were having a fabulous sale, and the woman in line next to me gave me a coupon for an extra 10% off. She was only buying one piece of fabric and had another coupon for her batting. So for about $24.00 I should be able to come up with at least 10 more kits. Not bad at all. One of my running partners had some more fabric to add to the collection, so I can go through that next and see what I can come up with.
I cut and pieced the border for the Dresden plates quilt while I was at it, and should be able to get that put on today, and piece together a back as well. I don't know If I have any batting in a twin size, but I can always cut down something larger.