stone-belle

goal

2012-01-27T12:55:00.001-08:00

This week's goal was to figure out the color for the boy's bathroom. Since we moved back in in November no one has been able to take a shower. The bare plaster on the walls would absorb water. The boy's bathroom had a new ceiling that needed texture and paint. That is done but now there is still bare plaster on the top 6 inches of the walls and a few patches.... I thought we would just use the same paint as before but there wasn't enough of the bright turquoise that I had ragged a milky white on top of. The boys were tired of the pretty blue with flowers shower curtain that Liz had picked out 8? years ago.
So I went shopping for a new shower curtain. It is easier to choose the shower curtain first and then the paint. Bed, Bath and Beyond had a great selection, with about 6 that I liked. WalMart, not so many, and none I liked. Kohl's, nothing that interested me. Amazon had this that I thought the boys would like, no, that was vetoed. Finally I went to Anna's near the mall and found one that had seashells and a line of gray/blue that I thought would work. It was approved by the men and I got the gray/blue paint today...Maybe tomorrow you will see the finished room.

Garbonzo Bean Burgers

2012-01-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

Inspired by my son requesting a chick-pea patty, falafel, he'd had at a local Greek Restaurant and this recipe I made chick-pea burgers tonight;

Garbonzo Bean Burgers
1 Tablespoon tahinni
1 small onion, chopped into chunks
1 heaping Tablespoon Knorr vegetable recipe mix
2 teaspoons garlic
1/2 handful cilantro
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 carrot chopped into chunks (would be better grated)
1 can garbonzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Basically throw everything in food processor (everything but the beans first; then the beans,) form into patties. and bake at 400 degrees for12 minutes then turn over and cook another 10 minutes. I used my ice-cream scoop to get uniform patties and placed them on parchment paper. Since I doubled the recipe (and had a hard time getting them ground in my food processor; too much stuff for my regular sized processor) I got 18 burgers.verdict; good but a bit dry. Needs a sauce or some fat? in the burger. Maybe I cooked it too long? The flavor was good, the boys liked it and it's something that could be packed to school in a sandwich and look a little normal. I'll make this again with a few changes....

Okra

2012-01-23T12:08:00.000-08:00

I'm from Colorado and had never even seen a whole okra until I'd lived in the south for many years. Thanks to a friend, Diane, we LOVE okra now. It is the easiest vegetable to fix for dinner; here's how I do it: Rinse them, drain the water-it's okay if water clings to them. Put them in a glass dish;
Then cover, I use plastic wrap.

Zap in the microwave; I did 4 minutes for a mounded bowl of okra. You want them to be bright green still. Take the cover off and serve;
They are wonderful dipped in butter; but we just sprinkle with salt and pick them up by the handy dandy handle God gave them and bite the other end off. Yummy. EASY. Low fat AND low calorie. WIN. WIN.

great northern beans

2012-01-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

Another recipe I found on the internet; great northern bean stew.
When I read through the recipe I missed the 'canned beans' so used a small bag of Great Northern beans. Started them cooking and then re-read the recipe; consequently it was changed.

Start the beans; no need to pre-soak them just rinse them and cover them with an inch or 2 of water.
Add salt.
Get your head of garlic out and break it apart. Realize that it will take a week to peel them and set them in a cup of water and go(melt the chocolate for the cookies you want to make...write a letter...look at a few blogs.) After awhile...1 hour? peel them and drop them in with the beans.
An hour later start the onions, I only used 1. Fry them in a bit of olive oil.
Dump in the tomatoes and the onion.
Add the end of the bag of carrots
simmer until done....
Add the rest of the bag of spinach from the fridge; since there is no parsley.

No need to cook the spinach just stir it in and then serve. High protein. Good. And she was right the garlic is very mild. I got brave and actually ate a whole clove....after Roger tried it first.The boys ate it and took it to school for their lunches on the next day.

deep dark chocolate cookies

2012-01-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe on the internet and tried it last Wednesday. I bought eggs for the first time in about 10 months to try it.I made cookies for the first time in... 8 months? I did not roll them in sugar; they would be prettier if I had but frankly I was out of steam by the time I got that far. I added nuts. Frozen nuts which thickened up the batter to the point I could barely scoop them out. If I do these again I would use semi-sweet chocolate chips; although they taste great...you can only eat 1, maybe 2; on the other hand that's a good thing. ;)

Ironing board cover

2012-01-20T05:10:00.000-08:00

It's been two years since I replaced my ironing board cover. Two years to get it to look like this: Who knew water and starch and heat could get so ugly? Easy! Go to Wal-mart and get a new one...Not! Their 'standard' ironing board got shorter in the last couple of years. The last one I bought fit...the new one was 3 inches too short. So I made one out of some pretty blue fabric I had. It's cotton but not canvas so it probably will not last long but I have enough fabric to make ironing board covers until I'm 99 or so.
What I learned:

it will fit better if it isn't too big; just cover the edge and add the seam allowance
string pulled really tight will break; double the string
thread stitched across the under-side to pull it tighter will break when the board is closed
the bias cut 2 inches and folded in half worked great for holding the string

Quilts

2012-01-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

Finally a Quilt Post.
This is where my dear daughter in law put all the quilts she found as she was unpacking us. Since I had never stacked them all together I had no idea there were this many...of course there are some on beds too. And things that are not quilts are in that stack; 2 of Grandma's afghans, and a serape. Three on the stack I did not make.
Sew....how many quilts are in my house? Inquiring minds want to know. Can you guess?

progress

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

The trim is going up; which made it almost impossible to open the cupboard doors. You can see the blue tape that is substituting for knobs until we have time to drill the holes. We did not ask the contractor to do that. The junction box is our light switches for the above and lower cabinets; currently the little yellow wire caps get screwed on and off to turn them on or off. They have been on for 3 days.
Texture on the ceiling of the boys bathroom happens today. Maybe the slate will be sealed.

my walker

2012-01-17T06:44:00.000-08:00

I added the tennis balls to protect our floor AND the walker moves across the floor quieter.
I feel conspicuous when I push this around in front of me. Today I started driving the kids to seminary (5:45 A.M.) again....and started walking around the hallways of the church during their class. Three other ladies were doing the same but without walkers. I made three laps which is less than 1/2 half of mile...we think. The guess is that 8 laps is a mile. Tomorrow I do 1/2 mile.
The days in the wheel chair are becoming a faint memory; being waited on? The same. Exercise everyday 2 times a day. What fun I'm having. I came home ready for a nap...it was 6:50 A.M. Unfortunately I got a bad case of the hiccups and couldn't sleep...eventually they went away. The cure? Part of a SWEET piece of cake.

Progress

2012-01-11T12:08:00.001-08:00

Evidence that the contractor was here; fresh still wet grout on one section of the kitchen. You can also see the undercounter lights that Roger has so much fun installing. The finished kitchen the lights won't be so visible.

Walking

2012-01-11T06:31:00.000-08:00

The Dr. gave me the go ahead to put weight on my left leg. So although I'm allowed to walk it is closer to waddle, with low strength in the leg it is impossible to walk without ..kind of lurching forward. I certainly have a lot of work ahead of me. I HAVE climbed the stairs 3 times now; slowly and carefully and resting when I am finished.

All of a sudden I'm way behind. Visions of sewing are left behind since putting a load of laundry is slow and difficult but needs to be done. The bathrooms need cleaning and the construction dust is still settling and dusting is needed; badly. Physical therapy takes a couple hours 3 times a week and then I have to do the exercises at home too...bummer.

I promised pictures of the kitchen progress but I need to wait until the light is better. So 2 posts today.

slides

2012-01-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

I started this project; converting our slides to digital....I've done approximately 768. One box. 6 boxes to go plus a few miscellaneous envelopes that never made it to a cube. Here are are few:
1984
1986 That's only about 4,000 more slides.

Pizza for lunch

2012-01-04T18:50:00.001-08:00

While on school break one day for lunch Andrew and I fixed 'pizza.' One thing I have really missed since becoming half vegan. I can't justify ordering myself a pizza that I would have to eat all of. Here are the easy steps. (Inspired by a Pinterest posting of this blogpost.)

Buy poppin' biscuits-you know the one's that are in a can and you hit the edge of and they pop out. But, first read the labels of every single package to find one with out milk or eggs.

Open a jar of spaghetti sauce and blend it so there are no nasty lumps of tomatoes.
Spread and then lay the weird artificial cheese on top (not bad actually).
Bake at 400 degrees for about 9 minutes.
Repeat. We ate 4 packages of biscuits for lunch that day. We learned that we like the edges toasted like the ones above. And we like the ones with more sauce instead of less, tasted more like pizza. I would up the garlic in the sauce the next time. It was easy and was a great treat.

Tonight I tried to make a version of the Vietnamese sandwiches we have enjoyed so much. Not totally successful. I'll work on it and post about it soon. I'll have to wait since my 'wings' are clipped, so to speak.

1986 September

2012-01-04T11:12:00.001-08:00

Number 1 and 3. Darling girl. Wonderful son. Camping in Texas in August.

lonely

2012-01-04T05:13:00.000-08:00

It's only 7 A.M. my kids and husband have been gone almost 2 hours. They will get home about 4:30. It will be a long day, fortunately the contractor will come and at least be some noise in the other room. I stay out of his hair; when I could walk I went upstairs and worked... today I have some computer stuff to do then I'll work on moving some slides to the the computer. You will probably get to see some of them since they are of the CUTEST kids ever born; mine. It has to be sunny to get to do them since we purchased an adapter for our camera and it works only in great light.
I was wishing my sewing machine was down here...but when it was I could NOT stand the extra mess it caused. There is still construction going on; a bed in the dining room... and a toothpick bridge building zone. I can hold out another week.
A friend brought me a book; Roger got a book for Christmas that I'm reading and the hat to crochet, I'll do okay.

Progress

2012-01-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

Here is the beginning of our backsplash. Since it is slate it will need to be sealed when the work is done to make it a bit shinier....

Kitchen update

2012-01-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

Last Friday the new cabinets came in and the refrigerator surround was taken down, with the cabinets above, for the second time. It took most of the day for our contractor to move the 3 cabinets to the left 1/4 inch (which meant they had to be emptied) and to install the above refrigerator cabinet for the third time!
One of the things that got messed up with our cabinet order was the manufacturer neglecting to put on the soft close mechanism. Home Depot is trying to make us happy and today enough closures came for all the cabinet doors. They are easy to install; 1 screw, no pilot holes, and it is done. No. More. Slamming. Doors. I found them on line for $3.37 each at Amazon. Since we ordered them a million years ago I don't remember what our price was and it isn't on the order. (I guess that means the kitchen designer made the mistake.) The package calls it BLUMOTION for doors manufactured by blum. Roger spent the day installing them. It will take awhile to get used to closing a door and not hearing it shut.
My challenge is to keep the tools concentrated to one area of the kitchen; periodically I roll through in the wheelchair and move them all back to above the dishwasher.
Andrew is making bread in the bread machine on the floor in the corner; away from where the electrical work is being done so the power won't be turned off in the middle of a bread cycle.
Today Roger is finishing up the lights below the cabinets, I hope. The upper cabinet lights are up, just the switch needs to installed. I had no clue when I requested that little detail how difficult it would be accomplish. Once the lights are done then the contractor will do the tiling of the backsplash. That won't interrupt the kitchen work flow at all, jk.
The doors are on the pantry but they were driving me nuts. There has been no time to install a knob so they are almost impossible to open. I can't stand them open. So I shut them. I mentioned that I'd like 2 holes drilled so I could install the knobs, and Roger rigged up a neat opening system with blue painters tape.
Just grab the tape and pull. Easy and he could get back to installing the lights.

amazing tree

2012-01-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

Every year there is a tree in Friendswood that I love. I love old big live oaks all year but at Christmas this tree is lighted with thousands of lights. The pictures do not do it justice; it is huge and wrapped further up the branches this year than before. The leaves obscure some of the lights on the upper branches but maybe you get the idea.
My dear husband dragged out the tripod last night and trekked over to the tree to get some pictures of it. It's a fabulous sight on Sunset drive.

Happy New Year!

mitten project

2011-12-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

Back here I talked about projects to do while recovering and showed some mittens. I started the mittens 3 times while in the rehab hospital. The third time I was happy and was doing great; (the markers are the beginning of the thumb gusset-where I really need the pattern.)then I came home; then I couldn't find the pattern; I figured it would show up. I figured wrong. I finally ordered myself a new copy. Still waiting for it to show up. At this rate winter will be over before these get done.

fried bread

2011-12-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

Andrew made bread again today (that's 4 times this week) and I suggested that they fry some in some garlic and oil then dip it in the leftover Spaghetti sauce that was in the refrigerator. They loved it.

Tuesday

2011-12-27T06:51:00.000-08:00

Mel suggested I crochet her a hat while I recover. It does not look like the picture (It was supposed to look like this.) I added the last 4 rows since it just barely missed the top of my ears; why wear a hat that doesn't touch your ears?
Oh well I guess I have to go back to Hobby Lobby for another ball of yarn.....my boys will love that.

Therapy today.

Today's project

2011-12-26T14:08:00.001-08:00

Thought we could invite a few people over to spend the night....

(After letting the boys do this we read the warning on the package forbidding such behavior....)

This goes in our new closet! It will be filled with..stuff.

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

To all I love and hold dear, here is a picture of us this morning.

Christmas greetings

2011-12-23T21:26:00.000-08:00

This Christmas carol duet of David Bowie and Bing Crosby has been a favorite since it aired after Bing Crosby's death in1977 (the singing starts at 1.50). I hope you enjoy it too.

We are decorating a tiny 3 ft.? feather tree this evening, making garlicy white bean soup, watching the First Presidency Christmas message, wrapping a few presents, laying our stockings out and going to bed, hopefully EARLY.

I hope everyone has a peaceful and loving Christmas day.

I'm home

2011-12-11T05:22:00.000-08:00

I'm living in the old dining room. Turned out that I have a very small area of bone marrow in my femur; when the smallest artificial hip was wedged in I got a small crack in my bone. Therefore I cannot put any weight on that leg until the fracture heals. 6 weeks. 4.5 more weeks. The good news is that I have very little pain. Much less than before the surgery.
My family seems to have done fine while I was gone and with Angela here we will be great all next week too.

surgery

2011-11-29T17:57:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning bright and early I get to have my hip replaced. I imagine that I will be unable to post for awhile since we do not have the internet at the house and I did not arrange it today. Maybe Angela will be able to work miracles but she is already working miracles in my home with my boys and organizing my stuff. What a blessing having her come has been. (Reed was a great help too while he was here.)
The apartment is still ours until Friday, so we come and check out the internet then go back. Angela got me down for a nap today and then brought the boys here for a movie, cleaning and her internet business. This evening I'm printing homework for Andrew and killing time until time to pick up the boys at an activity.

open house

2011-11-28T17:52:00.001-08:00

Our front porch area;
Presenting the bride and groom, Alicia and Adam;
The couple looked great and had lots of people involved getting ready for the party. Fresh flowers, cake, dip, meatballs, green salsa, bean dip and chips. They brought purple candy left over from their reception n Utah...we still had some left after this party....the next youth dance may have a influx of purple gum balls for refreshments. They also served the punch I recommended and that we served at Melissa and Liz's receptions. I did nothing but sit and visit; a lovely party! (Everyone loved the house, too.)

life continues

2011-11-27T11:39:00.000-08:00

Wednesday our 'stuff' was delivered. Most of it anyways, we forgot to contact the piano storage and the electronic storage people. Which is a good thing; it was a madhouse anyway with Roger, Reed working on the house, the electrician trying to finish up in the kitchen AND the contractor, then throw in the mix 2 grandsons, 7 and 5, 5 women hired to unpack boxes and 3 men to unload the truck and it was wild. We ended up unpacking onto the family room floor since we could not get into the kitchen. If it didn't look like it was fragile we left it a box. The closets got full, to the ceiling full, but then they left and we continued working until late. (Angela and the younger boys left at 6 to go to the apartment and watch a movie and eat.)
We (that's the royal we since I mostly sat and directed workers) continued to work as much as possible until the open house started at 7 Saturday night. At 6 I ran to Home Depot to get door stops and paper towels, since we couldn't find the 6 already in the house. The house looked great, pictures will get posted soon....
We move into the house today.

tour of studios

2011-11-21T05:51:00.000-08:00

Saturday Angela (my daughter-in-law, Reed's wife) took the day off and visited the quilt studios of 6 quilters in Lakeview Quilt Guild. It was a fundraiser and fun to do. The homes were far from each other so we had a lot of driving to do.
All of the studios were amazing. The first home had antiques everywhere. Lovely home with pretty simple quilts; but lots of them (of course all of the homes had lots of quilts) Sue Garman mentioned 150 on her quilt table...instead of folding her quilts she had 3 banquet table up next to each other with her quilts laying flat on top. She also makes a living designing quilt patterns and does guild programs and needs lots of quilts for her business.
On the non-quilting side she had a garland of gingerbread cookie cutters that I thought was charming. (I took a picture but currently have no way to get the picture off my phone.) The cookie cutters were tied together with a short bow at each hand. Each cutter was a different size....I have lots of Christmas cookie cutters.....somewhere... I wouldn't have to just use gingerbread boys.
We identified a gift to purchase for Grandma and Granddad..
Angela decided on a new handwork project that she will work on for the next couple years; a yoyo quilt. Perfect for her to work on here since I have plenty of scraps for her to use, I doubt she can make a dent. She ordered these to get herself started. It will be a long project but she loves to have a 'small' project to work on. She just finished a king size English paper pieced Grandma's flower garden quilt. Who knows how big the yoyo project will become.
Last week we finished cleaning the boy's rooms; moved all the boxes to Jeffrey's room but you can still get to the bed in there. Then we started on the master; Angela encouraged me to get rid of 3 bags of clothes and 170 video cassettes, and our old world book encyclopedias. Who knows what will go out of the house once we start on the boxes....

house... continued

2011-11-20T05:46:00.001-08:00

Progress is being made daily now; The trim is propped up on saw horses being painted and I have doors and

a stove that is connected to power! Monday the floors get sealed (we have been banned-I wonder what we will do? Clean the apartment to make it easier to move out..)
Once the sink and the dishwasher is installed we will move in. The furniture is coming Wednesday morning; during my pre-op dr. appointment. I'll come home and the house will be all together! HA!

Granite upstairs

2011-11-16T06:09:00.000-08:00

I was too tired to climb the stairs again with a camera last night. It still looked great this morning.
Still so much to do, this morning I'm hand washing some of the doll clothes that got covered in dust and buying more purple cardstock for the wedding open house.

Granite. Is. In.

2011-11-15T18:49:00.000-08:00

Yellow River Granite was a good choice. Isn't is beautiful?
I particularly like this gray, almost blue strip;
The granite guy put small things on the surface and then couldn't find them; just what I wanted a granite that doesn't scream 'I'm dirty, I'm dirty every time you look at it. The stove is in but not connected.....
Our electrician had surgery last week...that means his work is going to stall for a bit.

If ya'll are in the Houston Area I have a granite/cabinet guy that did a great job and I can recommend him with no reservations.

Tomorrow I see some grandkids!

green drink

2011-11-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

I finally made my first green drink. I was too timid to actually taste it but my boys said it was good and ate it ALL.

rice milk
2 handfuls of frozen spinach
frozen pineapple
frozen mango
frozen raspberries
2 teaspoons frozen white grape juice concentrate
water

I don't have a blender so I put it in a pitcher and used my stick blender. I scooped out a bowlful and thawed in the microwave and then it blended up great.

We've been in the apartment 3 months and this splattered enough that the floor got sticky...now someone needs to mop. Go to the house, find a mop, bucket, bring it back, use. Will probably take at least 4 days to remember and do it. Or we could find the 2 rags we have here and do it on their knees, you know I won't be doing it.

I fixed a black cape for my grandson last week. Took the fabric to the house....scissors were at the apartment. Brought the fabric to the apartment...cut..... the black thread was at the house. Take it to the house, sew........... the Iron was at the apartment. Need envelope. Go to store. Hunt address, not in the apartment, call. Finally visit post office with teenager to stand in line for me.

J. came back with my change and I found out he had insured the cape for $200. He figured I'd spent so much time on it it was worth at least that much. Sweet boy.

Alicia loves Adam

2011-11-14T05:08:00.000-08:00

I had this idea....it was harder than I thought it would be. Here is the inspiration. Here is my first line;I think it would work really well...this is hanging from white thread (because it was in front of me on the table) and purple is Alicia's favorite color. What do you think? Another 20 lines across my living room ceiling and no one will notice that the house has no grout, trim, or furniture!

satin shrug? jacket.

2011-11-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

Nothing on my quilting life to post....I quilted a customer quilt (will be posted on other blog soon). I made a satin shrug for a friend's daughter's wedding. Not as easy as I thought, here are my plans;

Plan A; small nylon snaps to hold jacket in place.
small nylon snaps do not stay snapped if any stress is on them
Plan B; use large nylon snaps
calling ahead to find out if Hancock's has the big snaps was worthless
I have amazing children-son did not complain when I used his only hour in the evening to go on wild goose chase after big snaps, and then they did not have them.
Visited 4 fabric stores and called one downtown-no large nylon snaps
David's bridal will not sell snaps to the public, very nice though, offered to sew the snaps on for me if I got the gown to them immediately...the wedding was the next day.
Plan C; small strong magnets sewn in;
electronic store is sold out of their small strong magnets.
Plan D; clear buttons with loops.
Hancocks doesn't sell clear buttons, (yes, trip Number 2)
had to climb stairs and dig through jar of my buttons where I found many clear buttons. I only looked at the fabric store to save my poor hip from climbing the stairs at the house.
bracelet making elastic cord made a fine loop for the buttons.

Million dollar toilet

2011-11-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

The mystery is found. About 10 days ago Roger noticed water on the floor behind the sheetrock (water that would be hard to see once the floors and baseboards are finished.) Directly under the master bathroom where he had replaced a bent flange months ago. He took the toilet up and there was another bent flange, surely the reason for the leak. I found a new taller toilet for him to install. Installed. Leak still there. Each time until the 6th install he found something that might explain a leak...might should be in very small letters. (Months ago when he fixed the toilet the first time he said, 'there is no hurry to get a new toilet since replacing the toilet is so quick and easy.)
Last night after testing the drain pipe with a hose (with a spray nozzle) lowered and brought up 5 inches at a time he determined the leak was 5 feet down from the toilet. He cut off the newly textured, and painted sheet-rock and looked at the pipe. Two holes that look like they were made by a screw.... but no corresponding holes in the sheet-rock were found.
Now he gets to install the toilet for the 7th time.

edited Saturday evening; The holes are fixed, the wall fixed AND the toilet installed and working. Monday the painter will repaint the area.

zigzag setting

2011-11-11T06:11:00.000-08:00

I've used the zigzag setting once since I started quilting but it is still just a top. So I went looking for an antique one to show you. I found this at laurafisherquilts Some wonderful quilts here.

What to do?

2011-11-07T06:15:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about what to tackle when I can't tackle anything...i.e. while I'm recovering from surgery. One friend said she basically stayed in her room for 2 weeks rotating from the bed to the chair and back with a bit of a walk in between...So here is my pathetically short list:

make mittens for grandson #2. I made him a pr in July but they turned out too big so gifted them to Aunt Lynn. I'll try again after getting some gray, black and orange yarn.

(as you can see I could NOT edit this picture. It is from this book; Knit it! Felt it!, I have made other mittens from this book; blogged about here.)

embroidery some 'penny squares' for an Irish chain quilt in black and muslin. I have a black toile for the back...
copy ALL (or at least a good number) of our slides of our young children to a digital format.
read- a friend offered me her novels that have a quilting theme that should be fun. I asked her to NOT bring them early so that I don't read them before the surgery.

That's it. Of course one of those will keep me occupied for a good long while but I'm used to variety and I'm not sure how dexterous I will be on pain meds.

I'm off to get the yarn, with my 40% off coupon that I found here and printed.

baby blanket dreams

2011-11-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

If I had some babies on the horizon I would have to make one or two of these. I went looking for some flannel in my sewing stuff (maybe I could get rid of 1 type of fabric all at once). I don't have big pieces so this went through my mind;

If I use one big piece for the back and lay the scraps on top; stitch, then cut will it look okay?
try it on a pillow first
could the pieces be random?
or cut a star then chenille through it? What about a mod bright flower?
Would they stay subtle or would they need to be 2 layers...

Not happening anytime soon.

21 days

2011-11-05T06:54:00.001-07:00

21 days left
We joyfully offered our home for Liz's high school friend's wedding reception.....months ago. The plan was to be done and move in November 3rd. Are we done? Have we moved home? NO!
Can we be done? I have no idea...These are the things that need to be done:

tile and grout...being done now
seal floor, 2 coats
cabinets...come November 8
crown molding on cabinets
countertops...November 10
backsplash tiled
fireplace tiled
lights installed under cabinets; above cabinets
another coat of paint
appliance's installed; dishwasher, ovens, stove, vent, microwave, washer, dryer,
island put together
baseboards installed
doors, doorknobs and trim installed
toilet downstairs
sink downstairs
kitchen faucet
boy's bathroom ceiling installed textured and painted
lights hung, outlets installed, switches installed
EVERYTHING CLEANED (our job)
TV purchased and installed (our job)
mantel designed and made and installed (our job)
yard cleaned up planted and beautiful (our job)
lighting outside (our job- but simply Christmas lights)
replace faucets in upstairs bath (our job)
pool fixed and cleaned (Roger)
MOVE
put furniture back (insurance guys say they will do that but will only hang things that still have nails in the wall)

That's a lot and I have probably missed mentioning many. Did I mention everything cleaned? I think we will need an army to finish everything. We do not have an army.

zigzag Friday

2011-11-04T07:35:00.001-07:00

It was fun but I have to much to do to get very far on this 'quilt'. Had to put it aside to work on Liz's Quilt and to make a brides shrug...finish a customer quilt start a customer quilt, design a mantle, shop for a toilet and faucets and towel bars and hand warmers.... get dr. appointments, apply for Jeffrey's passport, return stuff, ...LIFE got in the way.

floors

2011-11-02T16:55:00.001-07:00

Progress is being made...
a few glicks; a leaking toilet (not where any work was being done...) one of them. Now I'm getting the higher toilet I wanted anyway.... WHO designed the original toilets lower than chair height?

Halloween night about 7 Andrew asked if he could find a bag and go trick or treating. Lame teenage costume (no costume) that my kids were NEVER going to do. He just went around the block and got barely a handful of candy and he was happy. Half of it was chocolate which he will not eat. But he had a big smile. He joined up with a group of young children and parents and had fun. Much more fun than hanging out at the work zone our house is.

Did you know a standard bar height is 42 inches? Ours is 42.5 which will work fine I'm sure. I get to choose bar stools next... backs or backless? turning or not? wood, metal, wicker? So many choices.

If

2011-10-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

IF you wanted to have some fall decorations on the wall
and IF you wanted to make a quilt that had lots of triangles in it, like this;IF you wanted to only work on fall quilts in October which means you could not possibly finish in one year... (this is the second year I have not worked on my 2 fall quilts in the fall...no guilt here though)
You could sew all the triangles together like this;and hang them on the wall. Who knows; you could use the 'banner' year after year with no guilt for an unfinished project....
Of course I did not do this, but I could have. These are not fall colors but they do look pretty on the wall of our dull apartment.

Zigzag Friday

2011-10-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

I've actually spent some time working on a new project-just experimenting and seeing if it would work.
I had a lunch bag full of scraps...I grabbed them when I was locked out of my house this week. These were scraps thrown out by fellow quilters when I attended a retreat a few years ago. I remembered them being batik triangles.....not exactly right, but a lot of batiks and a lot of big prints. I just sewed them together as they came out of the bag.
Then when I had 3 rows and decided I liked it; I ripped them out and then fussy cut* each triangle to a single size; 1.5 inches.and then sewed them back together.
My zigzag made up of 1 inch half square triangles. These are all batiks, just as they came out of the bag, (they were already paired right sides together). I think it is a winner...it'll work for in the apartment since it is a small project and the other boxes will go back to the house....
Where I am headed now.

*fussy cut is not the right term... I cut each square, made up of 2 half square triangles, into a 'perfect' 1 1/2" square using a ruler with the diagonal seam line right under the 45 degreee line on the ruler. Time consuming but almost perfect. The 'quilt top' (it's hardly a quilt top since it is so small) lays very flat and is very nice to sew on now that the squares are cut right.

Halloween

2011-10-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

I remember Halloween being fun and exciting but I don't remember it being so loud! We had an activity last night at church where the kids were having a GREAT time. The adults not so much. I remember making costumes for my kids and LOVING it. I decorated. I gathered the perfect candy, chocolate, not wanting to be the house that handed out looser candy. Not this year; last night I handed my 14 year old some cash and sent him into Walgreens to get some candy to hand out at the trunk or treat....but then was to lazy to do it (or maybe that was the mosquitoes and the pain talking). Now I'm considering keeping it just to have some bribery on hand to use with Andrew. He loves starburst and we will most likely not go trick or treating this year.

Here's a post to just to show you the ugliest costume I ever made.

kicked out

2011-10-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

The sad fact is that because of floor issues..., cleaning, sealing, prepping, leveling, and then finally tiling I was kicked out of the house until Thursday. What will I do?
I had my husband bring a couple projects down from the sewing room. With 4 days surely I can finish;

a pastel Irish chain quilt
Liz and Ryan's quilt
finish the feathered star I started in class 2 weeks ago
sew rod-pocket on Reed and Angela's quilt
bury all the ends in a customer's quilt
cook dinner each night
shop for lights for under cabinets and above cabinets
get Andrew a flu shot
get Jeffrey's passport applied for (which will entail getting him out of school twice!)
attend Andrew's last cross country meet Wednesday

Took most of today to shop for the lights...
Dinner is started; lentil soup, AND the customer quilt has 1/2 of the ends buried (then I'll put it back in the longarm and finish the quilting next week.)

This is a baby size of the Irish chain I am doing. This one was finished in 1995. I organized an exchange previous to '95 where we exchanged parts of the chain. I planned to do a baby and 2 double quilt sizes. Later a friend gave me her exchange pieces for a double...so I have a LOT of pieces for the, now queen size, Irish chain.

zig zag

2011-10-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

I've shared a link, I believe, from Exuberant Color before of this quilt:This quilt or something somewhat similar is in my future. It is why I organized an exchange in my guild so I could gather some Kaffe fabrics. This is ALL Kaffe fabrics (mine will not be). I could look at this for hours, all those different prints and different shades of the same color in each zig and zag.
You need a design wall for this one though. Do I have a design wall? Sure I do, just no wall to put it up on yet.

plans...

2011-10-17T02:40:00.000-07:00

plans; HAH!

I PLANNED during last spring's shop hop to visit the Hen House this fall and take sock knitting classes.... NOT HAPPENING.
I PLANNED to quilt some of my projects; I have 2 Christmas quilts ready to quilt and 3 panels that would make great Christmas gifts...NOT HAPPENING.
I PLANNED to attend Quilt festival; I started attending when Reed was 2 1/2 months old, 31 years ago. I've missed 4 years during that time. I'm not going this year. It doesn't even sound like fun to rent a wheelchair and look at the quilts. I DO go to LOOK at the quilts, not to shop, although I skim the shops and usually buy a few things; it is not my focus. This year it is NOT HAPPENING.
I have looked at a hand project to do but need to go purchase some black embroidery floss. Keep forgetting when I'm at the store. It MIGHT HAPPEN.
I PLAN to buy groceries; I have figured out that if I go to the store I can't get the groceries into the apartment so I grab the bag or 2 that have perishables in them and leave the rest for when I have help. We have not lost any weight yet so I guess that IS HAPPENING.
I PLAN to do laundry but even that is hit and miss; the boys have started paying attention to their clothes more; even putting in a load now and again. I do fold the laundry since that is done sitting on the couch. (Incidentally that is the only time any of us go in the living room- we are just never here.) OCCASIONALLY HAPPENS.
I PLAN on getting a disabled sticker for my car; downloaded the form twice and am off to the Dr. with it ...probably today. MIGHT HAPPEN.
I PLAN to fill the front end of the driveway with flowers; since I can't get down or up I decided to ask for help for this one. (The plants we had there for 12 years died 2 years ago.) MIGHT HAPPEN.
I PLANNED to attend football games to see the band. We haven't been to any yet but Friday night I'll take some extra pain meds and sit through at least the first half to see Jeffrey march and sing in the choir. HAPPENING.

It's not all bad; I am reading more :) Sitting at the sewing machine more. Discovering which wheel chair goes the fastest at Home Depot, (one is very very slow and one is much faster---that is still slower than walking though.) I can't wait for the surgery; by Christmas I'll be in better shape than I am now.

master bathroom

2011-10-16T18:00:00.001-07:00

This was added to the master bathroom Saturday:

Pretty nice.

another zigzag railfence

2011-10-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

I wrote about my Mother's and my Rail Fence quilts over a year ago here. I loved how my Mother took a quilt I had made and improved it. I gave the dimensions of those quilts there so today I just played with the color in EQ7. I've wondered what it would look like with a red zigzag;
I also increased the size of the red rail to 1" finished width, to help the zig zag show up.

Here is a pastel version;And finally the black with the rails at 1/2"
Here is a drawing of the block. You can see that each section is the same but then I made them all up into 10" blocks. It made laying them out much easier. (This 10" block is made up of 4 -4 patches of the initial 'rail')
These mock-ups are a lot larger than the inspiration pieces...it's just fun to make these computer 'quilts'.

more cupboards

2011-10-13T20:26:00.001-07:00

Ya'll will notice that the doors are off the top cupboards. The wrong doors were put on and we took them off yesterday and they were sent back; it will be 2 weeks before the new ones come in. I think the 'boxes' will finish going up tomorrow!

kitchen cupboards!

2011-10-12T15:34:00.001-07:00

Its beginning to look a lot like.... a kitchen!

travertine update

2011-10-08T16:39:00.001-07:00

Here you can see our new floors. The corners are laid now but the grout is not done yet. The contractor is just doing the kitchen/dining room first so he can start the cabinets next Monday/Tuesday; so the granite guy can come, since it will take him 10 days.
It is going much faster now!

zigzag Friday

2011-10-07T05:22:00.000-07:00

This is a simple rail fence, set on point, that I made my 5 year old grandson when he was born. I chose i-spy type fabrics for the zig and zag portion and a water print for the background (middle rail).
The quilt is about 41 x 49. I quilted it in straight line on my domestic machine. I purchased 1/4 yard of each of the 'I spy" fabrics and 1.5 of the blue. I cut 3 strips of each i-spy and cut it at 2.5 inches. This is the back:
Here is an EQ version with some different colors.

If you are not careful the zigzag does not show up well. On my version AI tried to alternate the higher contrast zig fabric with lower contrast ones. It was fun and fast to make....in fact I made 2.

Post script to last week's post:
Unfortunately due to wind and my inability to stand for long and be patient with my kids the only picture I managed to get of last weeks zigzag quilt has my older son in it and he is unwilling to be posted on my blog. If you'd like I could send you a picture of the quilt via e-mail....

travertine

2011-10-05T16:40:00.001-07:00

This is the travertine we chose for our floors:This is my favorite layout:
This is the layout we are putting in the house:
I do not think there is a bad way to layout travertine.

Feathered Star

2011-10-04T05:02:00.000-07:00

I never thought I'd make one of these:but our guild hired Marsha McCloskey to come and teach a workshop for 2 days and I decided a couple of years ago that if they offered a workshop on a day other than Sunday that I would take it. So I learned how to draft one yesterday and cut out a red and white version of the above star.
This is one of the quilts she brought to show us.
beautiful. Then after class we listened to a lecture on 'blended quilts' where she is using early 1800 quilts as her inspiration. Chintz like fabrics (large florals) and more than 1.
I'm very happy to take this class just wish the rest of my life was not so busy.
It was Sunday night before I realized that I even though I had remembered all my appointments, I could not be 2 places at the same time, I needed 2 Mondays to fit them all in.

So, back to class for me! I hope you have as great a day.

progress

2011-10-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

The scrapping:
A very noisy machine. It creates lost of dust but it is slowly getting the old grout off the concrete. Roger rented the scrapper for 24 hours. During that time he slept 3 hours; the rest of it he was guiding this monster. I brought him some food, but never enough, we swept some for him, but never enough. The boys had homework and conference to do too.
Here are 2 shades of 'beige' that I thought I would like....not so much.

zig zag

2011-09-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

I promised a quilt today...unfortunately I have no 'holders' so you would only see part of it....and I cannot find a camera and the quilt is in the Pathfinder right behind the back seat...can't reach it from the side doors or the back window; crawling in would be too painful. So I decided to post the picture from the magazine. This magazine: January 1997; and this quilt:
I rarely buy quilt magazines anymore but I had this one; I could have picked it up at a guild give away or I may have purchased it. I had been thinking about a wool zigzag quilt when I saw this last year during my 'get rid of some of this Christmas fabric' phase. I cut the fabric then occasionally sewed some strips together over the last 6 weeks. I finished the top Tuesday.
The above quilt is all flannels. It had to have been a nightmare to sew together. ALL the vertical seams are on the bias ('cept for the ones between the 2 borders.)
The directions were great and it went together pretty quickly; but I don't think I'll be making one out of wool any time soon.

It's fall!

2011-09-27T04:37:00.000-07:00

Even though it is 98 degrees here we were told that fall has started so I got a new door decoration. I love sunflowers and Joanne's had several to choose from.
Yes, I took the photo at night. It is not on the apartment, since no one ever visits here...and I never see the front door since I enter through the garage.

Charity Quilts

2011-09-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the day I turned in the 4 charity quilts we made.
These 2 (details about the green one in a later post)
This cute thing was pieced by a friend then donated, I quilted it and Lisa bound it. The 4th quilt I purchased at our guild's auction and forgot to take a photo of it.

Now what will we start for next year?

Galveston Quilt Show

2011-09-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

I just went to a small quilt show in Galveston; you can read about it here.
The 44 quilts were made by 2 women and they are all story quilts. A fun show; if you live in the area try to get there before the show comes down on September 30th.
Next year, Jan. 14- April 2012 there will be a Judy Neimeyer exhibit in the same space. I can't wait!

housekeeping

2011-09-24T19:53:00.001-07:00

So I have some housecleaning to look forward to.

zig zag warm/cool squares finished!

2011-09-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

It turned out! I worried about this quilt but it IS fun and bright and colorful which is what I was trying for.
Finish size 66 x 76 I ended up cutting the borders at 5" instead of 4". 'Cause I had gotten the end of the bolt at Joanne's and purchased extra fabric at 50% off.

What I love about this quilt:

it was easy
others could do some of the sewing
very forgiving; one block came to me too narrow; I just added a strip to the side and I really have to hunt to find it in the quilt...go ahead and hunt; I left the file large so you could; one more hint, the strip is pink.

What I don't love about this quilt:

bias edges; starch it and then starch is some more.

So pretty good for 6 weeks work, mostly done by others! I did the binding; I cut 8 strips width of fabric at 3". I wanted the binding to be just a bit wider to hold in all that movement.

This gave me an idea; I have a bin of white scraps that I haven't started sewing yet. Why not use red scraps and white scraps? I also LOVE the ZIGZAG setting and am going to do a zigzag theme for the next several Fridays. I am working on this:
I'll show you more next week.

I'm also counting this as my OPAM project for September. I missed July AND August; I wonder why?

progress

2011-09-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

The plan is to hang a tv above the mantle. A bit lame but if we do that we do not have to buy a new piece of furniture to set a large tv on. So we asked the contractor to beef up the wall so there would be studs where needed to put the TV. I did the research and found out we needed them to be 20 inches apart. He set the 2x4's back 3/4 of an inch, put a sheet of plywood up, then the sheet rock.

There was also more framing below the support bean that the tape measure is on; also with the plywood to support the mantle and the tile surround. I THINK it will hold up a tank!It's lovely to see the walls go up.
Now I need to choose the paint colors. I had almost every room a different color but I think this time they will all be the same.
I bought a couple of sample colors. the 'antique beige' is the color of the bathroom cabinet we are getting in the master bathroom. So I think I'm going with the beige for the trim. So do I go lighter or darker for the walls?

diet

2011-09-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

I started dieting...first step was to eliminate buying candy. I'm on my second week and gained a pound yesterday! I was hoping that cutting the candy out would make the pounds drop off...so I'll have to make another change. I added exercise this week; water aerobics and stationary bicycle were recommended by the dr. I just came home from the pool....

Exciting blog post I know.

Nutalla

2011-09-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

Nut-alla instead of nutella since it is almonds not hazelnuts.
Reasons to make the Almond spread again;

the boys liked it
we still had almonds
the food processor was already dirty from the first batch
the chocolate on my shirt needed company

So I changed it. A little more oil a lot more chocolate chips- almost a cup, no cocoa and no powdered sugar. It is better.

Now I'll hide it in the refrigerator before anyone sees it and we'll have it for lunches.

Sure feels good to 'cook' something.

Nutella

2011-09-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Nutella is not vegan. It was one of my kids' favorite treats but they would not eat it after they gave up dairy. Two weeks ago Andrew and I tried our hand at making a vegan nutella. We used this recipe. It was very good but getting the skins of the hazelnuts was a difficult job. These nuts were particularly tough to skin. (I've done it before and it was easy...was our oven not working hot enough?) It took about an hour. I started looking for blanched hazelnuts and found that they were $9.99 @ lb plus shipping.
Today I made nutella again but this time I used almonds. Cheaper and we liked it better.

Almond Nutella

2 cups almonds, raw, with the skins on!
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
bit of vegetable oil
bit of salt
1 T. cocoa powder
1 T. powdered sugar

Grind the almonds in the food processor until smooth...you have to feel them to check. Mine still looked a bit grainy but they were not. It still took a while in the food processor....10 minutes? about that. Melt the chocolate with about a teaspoon of oil; add to nut mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients and taste. I had to add a little more oil to get it to a spreading consistency.

The only thing we had to taste it with was some wheat thins. I laid down after eating about 3. Ten minutes later I came out of my room and the bowl was empty. I guess they liked it. :)
The hazelnut spread lasted a week. The Almond one 10 minutes.

Found it!

2011-09-17T08:18:00.000-07:00

This is the summer 2011 issue of Beautiful Kitchens. I bought it in July; looked through it and showed Roger what I wanted my island to be like. Then lost the magazine. Andrew found it today. So now I can share with you what I think would work great in my new kitchen.

This:
Not the stove/ovens, the island. Mine won't be exactly like this but this is the inspiration. Stainless Steel is a bit over our budget but I think we could put cork on the under shelf and a butcherblock top. It will also be on wheels. So cool and Roger is convinced now too; initially he thought it a crazy idea. I do not plan on keeping dishes on it. A few cookbooks....we'll see what else.

Wouldn't this be cool made so it could hold a sewing machine? Picture your sewing machine table bare and reaching under for the seam ripper, scissors etc...

Soon I'll have to find a metal fabricator to weld the support for the butcherblock; but not yet.

The 'mudder' is at our house putting paper on the seams of the sheet rock. He should finish Monday!

cool/warm strip quilt

2011-09-16T05:12:00.000-07:00

Here are 3 different layouts for the quilt...(it needs a name; cool/warm strips is not a great name.)

Frankly, I wish I'd done the squares. The plan was to lay out the real blocks a couple of ways and photograph them and share them with you. It didn't happen. I am in too much pain to do it more than once; I felt that I was really pushing it to get it laid out once. (I have found that I have better luck doing anything that involves walking or standing in the morning; this I laid out in the evening.)Remember, I have no design wall now, so this is on my bed and I'm standing on a stool. I took it with me to choose border fabric and 2 strangers told me how much they loved this quilt.... I'll make my kids hold it up next week when the borders are on AND it is quilted. Promise.
According to EQ7 I need 1 3/8 yards to do the border. Doing the math with a calculator says I'll need 31.5 inches for a 4.5 border. So I'll buy a yard.

quilt post

2011-09-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

Don't fall over! I really do think of quilting and not just housing projects. On vacation I took some photos of quilts I'd made to share with you. Here's the story about one of them:
When my oldest was born my parents gave me a cradle and I found that my old doll quilt worked very well to cover her after wrapping her tight in a receiving blanket. This was made for me by my Grandmother and it got a lot of use on my dolls. I didn't want to wear it out on my babies but it got used occasionally and always made me smile and think of Grandmother.I soon made a rod pocket for it and hung it on the wall instead of using it. When I was expecting our 5th I set about making a new bedding set for the cradle. Part of that bedding was a cheater cloth 'doll' quilt. (I also had a broken foot that had to be elevated a great deal of the time so I got a bunch of stuff sewn.) Although #5 was a boy and so was #6 they still got this blanket laid over them in the cradle.It now resides with the cradle at my son's house.

Another step in the right direction

2011-09-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

Sheet rock was supposed to go up fast; right? I sewed all day yesterday (except when at the dr.) and heard them pounding, sawing, pounding and then went down and was disappointed that all the sheet rock was not up. Slow, slow progress.
The washer and freezer got out last night and the rest of the plastic part of the linoleum was pulled. Now all that pesky paper has to come up.

On a positive note I went to an orthopedic dr. yesterday and he confirmed that the pain in my left hip is not psychosomatic. The x-rays showed bone rubbing bone and I am scheduled for a 'full hip replacement' on November 30th. I tried to figure out a way we could do it sooner but there is too much for Roger to do at the house and band, for Jeffrey, takes a chunk of driving, not to mention cross-country for Andrew. The Dr. taught me how to use a crutch that really helps cut down on the pain.

I have a good excuse now to not clean or walk but I can still take the kids to their activities and I manage to cook a bit. And sew. And choose parts for the house...today I need to choose a new toilet. FUN; not.

floors

2011-09-13T03:06:00.000-07:00

I am such a problem. I want all the floors on the downstairs to be the same....that means the laundry room too. So we started on the laundry room. That's the royal WE. Actually I packed out the room; Roger moved the dryer out and started scrapping the floor. THE LINOLEUM WANTS TO STAY THERE FOREVER.The washer and freezer still need to be moved out....Still a long way to go.

Late, late last night we realized that our phone line would need another wire....we had it going into the closet for the router but not for a phone....just a little awkward having your phone inside a closet....it also needs an electrical outlet nearby....the electrician finished yesterday and we hadn't thought of it before....Roger left for the house at 4:30 this morning to see what he could do since the dry wall is supposed to be put up today....

electronics

2011-09-12T05:19:00.000-07:00

Last week we realized that we would like some of our electronic wires hidden in the wall, preferably before the sheet-rock. So I went to the library and found a few books that mentioned 'smart wiring' your home. They really did not cover what we wanted. Luckily our electrician has a brother that came over Saturday and told the boys what to do.

we are wired for surround sound; thanks Jeffrey. (I think Jeffrey now expects us to buy some great new speakers to attach to those wires.)
wires to the computer from command center (internet connection) inside the closet and to 2 other places in the living room.
tubes that will make it EASY to snake whatever wires needed from the TV to the dvd/Wii stuff AND to the computer. (The gray tubes seen in the picture)

These tubes bend pretty easily as long as you have a torch of some kind to heat the side that has to stretch.
Here you can see the position of both tubes; their connection is to be installed behind the TV or family portrait that will hang above the mantle...
Which meant we had to decide exactly where the mantle would be. Not an easy decision since there are very few guidelines. We tried to use the magic rectangle formulation and it was not going to work; we worked an hour and a half trying to make it work. Finally Roger put a ladder on either side of the fireplace and then we propped up a 2x8 on 2x4's until we got a height we could live with.
I sure hope it doesn't look dumb.

This week they will continue the dry walling now that the electrical is finished....Well, not exactly finished but 'stubbed' in; ready for the contractor attach the plugs, switches, covers, lights etc. Some of which will not be attached until after the cabinets are put up, so that they will be in exactly the right place.

Kaffe fabric!

2011-09-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

I finished the Kaffe exchange that I organized in my guild. We had 6 exchanges of 10x11 rectangles of fabric. We exchanged a group each of cool, warm, dark and light colors. So I have about 80 different rectangles of his fabric. How cool is that? Now the race is on; who will use it first? in a quilt? I already used 2 pieces in 2 different zipper pouches.

Quilt along

2011-09-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

I promised the next step of my charity quilt today. Here is a block ready to trim;
It is pressed and starched.
I cut it to 13 x 13.Then lay a warm block on top of a cool block with the seams running perpendicular to each other. In other words if the green one's seams are from side to side the pink one's seams will run up and down.
Then sew 1/4 inch seams all the way around the block.
Then cut in fourths diagonally across the block; both directions. The 4 blocks will look like this;
I'm hoping I get more of the warm colored blocks this week and can show you some of the design options in real fabric next week.

Melissa's birthday

2011-09-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the day that we celebrate Melissa coming into our lives. It seem as if I have always been a mother now. She was and is a joy to us; she just lives too far away. Airplanes are such a blessing in our lives I love to go visit her and have her visit us. (Although I am glad she is not visiting right now; wouldn't a 1 and 3 year old have a blast climbing the boxes in my house?) This was taken this summer in Los Angeles. Not the greatest of the rest of us but I love Melissa's smile here. Shes holding her baby; Lewis, and Jeffrey is next to her holding Liz's baby Landon.

Okay I have to show a good picture of the babies;What a joy Motherhood is. Oh this was supposed to be about Melissa not me. Maybe ' What a joy being alive is whether you are a child or a Mother!'

box kitchen

2011-09-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Here they are! My kitchen! On the far right you can see the front of one of the cabinets. A nice honey color. Now if only

the electrician would finish
the dry waller would finish
the plasterer would start and finish
Roger would get the old grout scrapped off
The floors installed
the windows replaced
painting done? maybe that gets done after the cabinets...

then I would have a kitchen.

sheet rock

2011-09-08T05:20:00.000-07:00

Here you can see where the can lights are and see that progress is being made...but it is so slow. Today we figured out where to put the mantle...so we could figure out where to put the outlet so it would be behind a picture and not right above the mantle (or behind the mantle.) Roger is finishing up putting a tube from behind the mantle to the computer and to the entertainment center so it will be easy to snake cords to the TV that will be above the fireplace.

just a note

2011-09-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

My cell-phone has gone nuts; I cannot access my phone book. This is why it is a good idea to have your phone numbers someplace other than your phone.
Luckily it has been less than 30 days since I bought this phone so I will return it today and get a different one.

edited; all I needed to do was take out the battery and put it back in and it works fine how.

mantle education

2011-09-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

Lowes has a group of mantle pieces that I got all excited about. It's like Legos for mantles. Choose 1 o f 6 mantles, choose what you like for the uppy part (pilasters can be columns or fluted pieces of wood) put it together and, Voila! a fireplace surround.
In the fine print; 'designed for fireplaces with a maximum of 36" across the fire box'. Ours is 42.125. ..................Back to the drawing board.

So it's a custom length mantle...if you make it wider you also need to make it taller to keep the proportions right.....so that probably means custom.

Roger suggested putting some cardboard up around the firebox and drawing directly onto it. We'll see.

The good news is that the fire box we have comes very close to having the 'magic rectangle' dimensions, so it is only a matter of keeping those proportions and we'll have a beautiful fireplace; someday.

mantles

2011-09-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

This week I"m supposed to research and figure out the fireplace/mantle thing. WE decided to hang our as yet to be purchased TV over the mantle but are not sure how. Roger doesn't think we need a mantle....but really he is just unsure how to fit everything together. We're going to use our old entertainment center to hold the electronics and have put wires in the wall to go from behind it to the above the mantle position....but how high? That is my goal this week.
I HAD planned to go to the Houston architectural salvage center...but it closed in May, to find a mantle....so now I have to get one another way. So here are 2 that I found on the internet....

another zipper pouch!

2011-09-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

I am down to only 59 zippers! I've made 13 of these pouches.
A gift for a neighbor's birthday. I think it is a nice way to package a gift card.

Lights

2011-09-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today the electrician got the can lights up in the kitchen, breakfast area and above the stove-top. Still has the lights in the dining room/office and the bar area to do. Then we asked him to move the light switch for ceiling fan in the family room from the back wall (a stupid place for a switch) to the entry of the room.
Progress!

bar

2011-09-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

We bought this house in 1997. It had an ugly dark brown bar.
A couple of years later I painted it a nice cream color (our trim color and it looked great but was still a bar.) I had a sink; I turned the water off to it, I had an ice maker, but I turned it off. A Mormon with a bar! It actually was used as a closet most of the time; stacks of boxes stuck in there for years, except near Christmas when I would empty it so it would look nicer.I loved it at Christmas but it was hardly used as a bar. We did use it to serve punch at our daughters open-house though.
After the flood but before pack-out...not a pretty site; it had been a catchall.

Here they had started to take stuff out.
I'm glad I wasn't welding the crow-bar here.
Here it is on the curb:
Here is the bar today.
The contractor is building a box for shelves in the large opening, moving the doorway over and making it a real closet. Stay tune for the reveal....months from now.
Now what should I store in there?

vegan lunch

2011-09-03T05:10:00.000-07:00

My son is in band and there is an away football game tonight. When the game is away the band booster club (with the parent's money) has a meal catered in. It is lovely. No stress for mom. I did get to serve at one last year and it involves about 300 kids. They have until 4:15 to eat. NO EATING allowed once they are in uniform. So they do not serve vegan meals. So I have to come up with something for him for tonight. No beans or hummus since they made him feel bad the last time he ate them and then marched.
This is what I came up with;

Vegan wrap

wrapper (bread)
lentil soup (just a tablespoon dipped and drained from a can of soup)
lettuce
green beans cooked his favorite way (fried with garlic and almonds)
spicy seasonings (Tony's)

He said, 'great, thanks, Mom.'

Quilt along

2011-09-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

I am hosting (hostessing) a quilt along. Who wants to play? I am using my scraps; well we are using my scraps. This is how it works; I make or direct the making of this quilt:
I post the steps here. If you want to sew along with us, great! If not I'm doing this anyway so I might as well post the directions.

I have been asked to help the women in our congregation make 3 quilts for charity. The deadline is September 24th, I think. Last spring we got a great start on some blocks. Unfortunately my house flooded and although the sewing room, where I knew the blocks were, was not touched, the blocks disappeared. Yep, all of these were together in a box, labeled, and the box must be packed in a warehouse in Houston somewhere. So we have a head start for next year, this year we are starting over with this quilt. (I had a baby quilt finished that I donated, someone else donated a couple of polar fleece blankets and 1 set of finished log cabin blocks were at a friend's house and she's working on setting those together.)

I asked at church for volunteer's and, for the ladies with no quilting scraps, I delivered boxes of scraps to their homes with a bit of instruction. These are their instructions:

Use long scraps about 15 inches long. Sew them together using at least 1/4 inch seams, bigger is fine, smaller is not. Do not use wider than 3" strips, nor smaller than 1". Put *cool colors or *warm colors in a block, don't mix them (that was easy since they only got warm or cool colored scraps). Sew until your block is at least 13 tall. Press all the seams one direction. Return them to me.
Here's one ready to trim:
I found it easier, once I had one finished and trimmed to keep it next to the machine so I could lay the new one against it to see if I needed to sew more strips.

I have received some and I have starched them and pressed them and trimmed them to 13"X13". (I have a big square up ruler so it was easier for me than for them.)
That's it for step one. Easy. Oh, yes make 14 cool squares and 14 warm squares.

The next step will be posted by next Friday.

*cool colors; blue, green, purple
*warm colors; red, yellow, pink, orange

walls? what walls?

2011-09-01T12:30:00.001-07:00

Two of these beams are responsible
for the following view: as seen from my kitchen sink...or what would be my kitchen sink if I had one! The kitchen is going to be so much brighter due to that big window on the right. But why is it open? It is 103 or there about outside, we can't keep the house cool but it is certainly cooler than that!

Alive

2011-08-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

Just so you know I'm still living.
I found a great deal on a dishwasher yesterday and am carrying it around in my Pathfinder until we have time to unload it. It was a scratch and dent deal so I have 30 days to check it out and make sure it works. So unload it, install it, run it, uninstall it, hid it in the garage with the other ton of stuff waiting to be used.
The contractor has received an order of sheet-rock, 2x4's, insulation and assorted stuff that is now filling our garage. I have until Friday to add the SKu's to the order of all the other stuff we want to piggyback unto that big order...the more you buy the bigger the discount so the idea is to think of everything this project needs down to the screws and get them ordered now. I spent yesterday at Home Depot writing down numbers....still more to do.
I have a lead on different cabinets for the bathroom so have to find them, evaluate them, order them or get the ones they have at home depot onto the order...
Same deal with the lights...
Got to run to the High School.....

Apartment

2011-08-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

We moved into an apartment a few weeks ago. Here is the floor plan:
It is smaller than our first house but works very well for us. We have an additional closet in the laundry room, it goes under the stairway of the apartment above us. The kitchen is tiny; smaller than it looks , although there is a dishwasher. The rooms are just large enough for the furniture that was rented for us and then the closets are for all the clutter of life. For some reason the truck brought us 4 twin beds for the boys. There is NO WAY 2 twins would have fit in their rooms. We even have a television; just no time to watch it.This is the flower bed that greets me each time I arrive at our apartment complex. Next year I plan on using the same combination of plants and have something blooming during July and August. Blue Salvia, a purple verbena, penta, and some vinca's. Some coleus is in the background.

One crazy thing the apartment office staff does; bake cookies all day. Any time you go to the clubhouse there are fresh chocolate chip cookies and raisin cookies. All day, every day, at least during the work week, I haven't been there on Saturday or Sunday.

Since we had just arrived home from vacation when we moved to the hotel we already had our bags packed. Unfortunately that means I wore the same skirt to church every Sunday from the middle of JUNE to August 7--that's only 8 weeks. Many times when I went to the house I had the idea to get a different dress.. by the time we left it wasn't important enough to climb those stairs one more time. Since we had packed light for our road trip I also wore the same 3 pairs of pants for 9 weeks. The same pair of sandals for 11 weeks! Every single day.

As they were packing out house I grabbed a few essentials that I've been very happy to have. Some we were able to dig out of boxes to bring to the apartment. So this is what we are living with:

crock pot
garlic powder
salt
pepper grinder
stick blender
crock pot
rice cooker
food processor
cutting board
3 knives
stainless
1 big pot
1 small pot
1 potholder

no bowls, no pans, 1 potholder! What was I thinking?

3 hours

2011-08-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

If you had to guess how long it takes to modify kitchen plan and order 2 kitchen cabinets would you guess 3 hours? Part of that was travel time so not quite that long. Good thing I went because we discovered a big error on the original order... the wrong cabinet fronts had been ordered!

I added a 9 inch wide cabinet to the left of the refrigerator, hoping that that corner won't feel as tight with the additional inches.

fun time.

2011-08-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

So here is the plan. The pencil lines show approximately the original kitchen. (I left the picture file big so you can click on it and see it better.) The lines in the middle are just mistakes...the 2 yellow rectangles are the island...I have a really cool idea about it but can't find the pictures so that will have to be a different post.
In the bottom picture is the stove top but it doesn't show that there will be a 'bar' raised up from the cooking surface to hide the mess and make a spot to sit on bar stools and eat or visit with the cook...

kitchen peeves and greats

2011-08-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

This is our family room. A wall of brick and stone has come down now we have to get the plies out of the house, by Wednesday! Unfortunately school starts Monday and with it goes homework and kids to busy to help.So, I'm planning a new different kitchen...What are some of your favorite things about your kitchen? I've asked several friends and have these responses:

my island
the granite counters
my convection oven
my double ovens
the lights under the cabinets
one said that it is indoors...and has a door to leave it... there is sure to be story behind that response....

Please leave me a comment I am anxious about making this a better kitchen than I had.

What do you hate about your kitchen? I only had 3 things I really disliked about mine;

The 'narrow neck of land' to get into the kitchen..gone!
The PLASTIC drawers...gone!
the oven! almost gone...I've bought a new oven but the old has not been hauled off...

Floor destruction

2011-08-20T06:08:00.000-07:00

Of course I did not get to do the things I'd planned yesterday. No floor shopping at all but I did get some laundry done and got the book Andrew was supposed to read over the summer; Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. He finished it last night while Roger and I went to the temple.

Tearing up the wood and the tile is done! It was hard work with a lot of pounding and chiseling. Now it has to be picked up and swept and put in a landfill somewhere. It is much more fun to break it up than it is to pick it up and get it out of the house. The glue and mastic residue is still there and has to come up. Doesn't that sound like fun?

The cabinet people called and will deliver them September 9th!

I'm back!

2011-08-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

The comcast guy just left! Too many things to tell you about. I'll have to share over several posts, I have pictures; I have stores and frustrations to share. So many things inquiring minds want to know! So should I tell you...

In order?

just skip the past 2 months and go on?

skip and jump all over the place until everyone is as confused as I am?

Today I get to choose tile or wood or laminate or just put linoleum down and let the next people who purchase our house decide (meanwhile I'll have to live with it for years.). Many of these surfaces are very permanent and a little intimidating.

We chose cabinets and paid for them Wed. This link will show you some cabinets similar to ours. But we did not choose the hickory that I think this picture shows. Ours will be maple with a different stain. This just has the style of cabinet doors and is using the yellow river granite that we are seriously considering for the counters. I am not going to do granite backsplash...

I tried

2011-08-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

I tried to load a picture... too frustrating. We will have internet service Monday. then I'll start blogging again.

moved

2011-08-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

We moved out of the hotel into an apartment last Thursday. Today I'm supposed to get information and hopefully get internet to the apartment. The clubhouse has WiFi.
Our main computer is working, the kid's is toast, too much water. The apartment has a desk and is really okay; only 30 inches of counter in the kitchen though. But Who has time to cook. I brought the crockpot and rice cooker over and I see a lot of beans and rice in our future.

I'm home...or nearly.

2011-07-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

We got home from nearly 3 weeks of vacation and over 5,000 miles of driving. We got home a day early and opened the front door to this:
water in our house!
Those are footprints; if you step on a saturated rug the water fills the holes your feet make. The dusty stuff is mold.
So we are having an adventure that we had not planned...I'm sure I'll have lots of stuff to post about in the coming weeks.

zipper storage

2011-07-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to deplete my stash of zippers, meanwhile I needed a handy spot for them. I had 96 of them but I'm down to 62 now.
I have 2 hooks behind the door in the sewing room. I figured out a way to hang my zippers from them.
Take a safety pin, and
pin the zippers together;

and hang on the hook. Near instant storage.

sun protection

2011-07-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

As I was hunting a great picture of Jeffrey I found this one of Brian, 13 years old. I'm pretty sure that this is on the banks of the New River in Virginia, 1995. They had been white water canoeing. Reed is wearing the typical river wear; swimsuit and life jacket. Brian, a redhead, is in front of him in a long sleeved shirt, long pants and a handkerchief protecting the back of his neck. I'm sure he had on sunblock also. What do you do to protect yourself from the sun?

new pouches

2011-07-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

If you take a Laurie on a trip she will need a new pouch...
or two. Both are from thrift store linen dresses. Both zippers are from my stash of zippers. The 'SAVANNAH' is the only label from my label collection that I thought would work.
Linen is different to sew. It stretches more than cotton. Next time I think I'd put a strip on iron on interfacing on the edge where the zipper is.
I have a little collection of pill bottles that I refill for trips (22 big calcium pills fit in one) the label comes off easily and then I write on the bottle; name of medicine, size of pill, dose, and expiration date;
with a letter designating the pill on the top it is easy to see what I want in the blue bag.
So would you rather take this on a trip?
or this?
The pink one? I think toothbrush, lipstick, lotion, and sunblock. I use my toothbrush to help me stay awake while driving....it works and is low calorie!