Thursday, February 27, 2014

Beyond Busy......

Wow!  I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post, but really, we have been very busy here at the old homestead.
 
But there is always some quilting going on somewhere.  Here's a sneak peek.
 
 
More about that in a minute. (just a teaser!)
 
The house has been torn up.  Furniture displaced from the great room into every other room in the house except the bathrooms (thank goodness). We have been laying hardwood floors in our great room and hallway to the bedrooms ....by ourselves..... with the help of our son and sons-in-law and even my daughter and grandson at one point.
 
Here are some before and after pictures.
 
 

 
These were from the front foyer.
 
 
 
Down the hallway to the bedrooms.
 
 
 
From the hallway into the great room. 
 
Guess I didn't do such a good job of standing in the same position for my pictures, but you get the idea. 
 
These pictures show the wear and tear on the carpet....pretty sad since it wasn't that long ago that we had it cleaned, so when I suggested hardwoods to my husband, it took a little while before it became "his idea" and then it was a go.  :D
 
Anyways, it is always rewarding to do something yourself (and I think that is why many of us are quilters or crafters) and I hope the hardwood will be so much easier to care for. 
 
Well, back to my teaser.  You know when you are in turmoil, you just have to have some sanity in your life and quilting is that for me. 
 
My youngest daughter's best friend is having a baby in May and since the last baby quilt that I made was so quick and easy  I thought I would throw another one together.  Well, my daughter was telling me that the baby's room is done and it had a very pretty and unique fabric in it, so we got the baby's daddy to take some pictures of it and tell us where they bought it.  They made curtains and some accessories for the bedroom with this fabric.
 
 
It's an indoor/outdoor fabric so it is too heavy to use for a quilt, but I picked up a 1/4 yard just for reference and ran to a quilt shop with it and picked up these fabrics to go along with it. 
 
 
The top fabrics are the chevrons, the white is the background and the big dots is the backing. I am thinking it will be perfect.
 
Since then, I have cut it out, sewed the strips, cut the blocks and had all my blocks laid out and now they are pinned in rows and are ready to stitch together. 
 
Here it is laid out in its chevron form. 
 
 
Here's the focus fabric next to the blocks.
 
 
Gosh!  Wouldn't that make a great border.  Too bad that fabric won't work.  Anyways, I think this quilt is going to really turn out great. 
 
I'll keep you updated when I get it all sewn together. 
 
oh....and I am still working on my dual challenge quilt (still can't share).  All the rest of the  blocks are cut out, 28 are pinned together and ready to stitch and 10 are stitched and ready to be sub-cut.  26 are done.  So, I will be plugging away at this quilt, too. 
 
Well, hopefully life will settle down a little around here and I can devote more time to sewing.  Gotta get busy on my two projects because there are plenty of other ones waiting  in line. 
 
Happy quilting! 

Michigan quilters, take note

  Come see us at our first Quilter's to Quilter's sale.   Don't know what that is?  Well, it will be 28 quilters/vendors selling...