finishes to WIP stages

it seems that quite a bit in my life is WIP.... house, quilts, knitting.... heck, even me (although, we should always be a WIP ourselves).  i'm most excited about the exterior of my home.  

we had original 34 year old masonite panel siding until the past week.  it held for a good long time, with issues here or there over the 8 years i've been in the house.  but the past 3-4 months it has started to rapidly deteriorate.  touch it and you could pretty much put your hand through it.  time to replace, even though we were quite ready for it.

but today, i did the walk through and handed over the fat check.  then took this quick pic from my car after they drove the dumpster out of my driveway.  i have to do some yard work now that they're done and some tree trimming after all the crazy rain we've had.  i'm so happy at least the siding is secure and hurricane season started 8 days ago.  whew!

my black and white circle quilt has been chugging along and a baby quilt started.  my brother machine decided it no longer wanted to hold tension.  again.  so i brought out my featherweight to help with the piecing.  baby shower was last weekend... it didn't get finished in time....

that also meant that i got to learn to sew circles on the featherweight.  she stitched like a dream.  for some reason, i didn't get a photo of the quilt top once the blocks were all sewn together before i put this WIP into the closet with two UFOs... 

in the meantime, hubby surprised me with purchasing a bigger and very fancy computerized husqvarna machine.  i'm still trying to figure out how to use her and am foregoing the freemotion quilting for straight(ish) line quilting with the walking foot on the baby quilt.  picture later of that.

more updating to the house!!

and then there was siding to update....a little work inside and some major work to the outside.  it's been a looong time coming and this was the time to get it done.

i loved this green when it was first painted.  it faded, but not too much it looked so different.  but the 32 year old panel siding had outlived it's life.

instead, we're getting lovely new plank siding.  i don't even mind the "primed" look...

as of last night, most of the entry way was done with the exception of some minor trim, and the back of the house, plus one side (minus a window box).   i've got to powerwash the brick now!    

once they're finished and the house is painted, i get to go back to working on the gardens and the yard.  right now, they're a huge mess.  the redhead has it cut out for him on mowing.  maybe he'll be the power to the washing of the brick.  :) 

kitchen updating continues

just before the winter holidays, i started my kitchen update.  then i put it on hold after "phase 1" was completed so i could do baking and cooking (because frankly, would it be the holidays without baking??  not for me.  phase 1 was ripping out the wallpaper.  TWO layers of wallpaper, both of which had been painted over.  ugh.  i found the both of the old wallpapers behind the stove, without paint, and wow.... not good....  

nevertheless, i persisted (love those three words).  i pulled out the wallpaper, and the other layer.  i cried, i cursed and fought.  here in the greater houston area, home builders don't seem to prepare sheetrock properly, so 30+ year old wallpaper plus paint tears  your sheetrock.  and leaves you with the need to float a LOT of mud.

i spent many a weekend morning like this.  mud, several trowels and a french press of dark roast coffee and a splash of cream.  luckily, i'm a decent hand with floating mud.  the areas with the most sheetrock damage had to be primed with oilbased primer so i could float mud without getting too much water into the paper, causing a huge ripple effect.  

i primed the walls and then we decided instead of just paint all the walls, why not put up a fun tiled backsplash up to the bottom of the cabinets?  we sought out tile we both agreed on and something modern.  i like it quite a bit, even though we started off with some difficulty .  i thought starting here would work best:

   

and not so much.  all the measuring and trimming i did first to make it easier on me made it much more difficult.  hubby to my aid (very thankfully).  after this, we marked and cut each tile.  this modern tile was a lot more difficult than i anticipated, but i do love it.

after the tile was up, i started painting.  bright, bright yellow.  it's really bright.  after a few months, i'm a lot more used to it than i was once it went up.

we were all a bit tired and ready for a break.  then a few snags hit in january and we're getting it all together again in home repair and updating in the last couple weeks.  but....we do live in texas and it is getting HOT already.  some of the things i thought would come next are probably going to be delayed a little until we've got nicer temps again.  until then, we're waiting on the final approval for our new siding and paint - hopefully today!  

and yesterday, a nice addition to the kitchen earlier than i expected.  a new stove!!  with double convection ovens! it's the last appliance to be updated and i'm thrilled.  we all just have to get used to the glass cooktop and now i get to convert recipes to convection or bake regularly.   

next up:  floors.  or the countertops.  or the cabinets.  they all need updating.

boomerang!!!

trying a little something.... it was a scarf, but i frogged it on saturday.  now, whenever i have a few moments, i'm working on a boomerang shawl.  testing it out to see what i want to do later for a friend.

this alpaca blend is super soft.  i love the silkiness and the texture so far.  i cannot wait to wear it later!

it's kinda nice having something relaxing for the moment.  my "all anew" has been received by the show hosts and now i just have to wait until the summer to hear back on it.  they did post a sneak peek on their FB page of it, so that made me incredibly happy.  oh!  and i'm back to making my black and white circles for the quilt.  decided to make it another row wider, so i made more work for myself.  plus, there's a little something fun added to the new blocks.

hooray for fun projects!

getting back to my something new

i had finally started working on that great little quilt design that i posted about here and then i ran into a snag.  the dimensions i was working towards was bigger than it was supposed to be.  when you go from 48 x 48 to 40 x 40....big difference.  and i was a smidgen on the large side to begin with, knowing i'd have to lose a little on the outer work.  i was ok with that.  and then the 8 inch difference.  yikes!

so i started over.

see the little on the left and the big on the right?

and i made awesome progress thanks to my parents who helped print out my drawing full size and i worked from that instead of guessing.  accuracy is so much easier than guessing when you're restricted.

all those bias edges are a bit tricky.  and they don't always lay perfectly flat after you've sewn them and pressed them.  turned out the top corner was a bit short, but that was easy.  i just added in a mid-section and love it more.  happy accident!

i got it sandwiched and basted.  seemed like i was on a good roll for time.  i even picked up a thick crochet thread to use on the handquilting that matched the aqua perfectly (while i forgot my fabric sample at home even!).  quilting commenced....the bobbin tension started to be a pest.  it was a little wonky and i adjusted.  i frogged a few sections.  then it caused birds nests on the back and wouldn't hold even straight-line stitch tension.  at that point, i knew i couldn't delay the servicing any longer.

a month.  4 long weeks of my baby in the shop and i did a tiny bit of handquilting while i impatiently waited.  and i knit and awful lot of pink i-cord for a squishy brain.

and voila!  

my lovely hubby and son ran up to town and picked up my machine friday afternoon so i could start working again.  and she's been running ever since.  a little adjustment here and there and some more frogging getting it back where i need, but i almost have it quilted up.  my plans are by the end of the week, she's got all the hand and maching quilting finished and i'm working on the binding or the hanger sleeve.

progress on something all anew

months ago, i started a sketch for a wallhanging quilt.  it's for a show i want to try this year - gave me inspiration and that's part of the idea of the show.  a few weeks ago, i set out to actually start the piecing process.  i had all the fabrics gathered and it was time.

you can see the start...it was a great start...  i completed several sections and was loving the expanse.  the flow of fabrics.  the variety of prints.

until the size was updated.  smaller.

(insert freak out here)

well.... some ideas were tossed around and my parents came to my rescue.  they helped print out my design on a large format, and i was able to make an exact template instead of free-handing it to make sure i fit it *just* right. 

oh look... some of those same section.  MUCH smaller. (and i realized much later that i reversed that top piece, throwing off a bit of my design.  sigh)

i spent the entire weekend standing over my dining room table, taken over by a massive pile of fabric and my cutting mats.  i got in my daily steps going to my studio and back, and repeat.  my back and shoulders sore.  but oh so worth it!

i am so in love with this quilt.

postage stamps in blue.... so much blue!

it's nearly complete.... and it's so much blue!

my redhead turned 14 a few weeks ago and he has been asking for a new quilt for his bed.  specifically, a postage stamp quilt like i have on my bed.  originally, i was collecting various cool "boy" fabrics - you know.... dr who, marvel superheros, game stuff, scout fabrics, bacon.  and then he asked for all blue.  hmm....

so, blue it was.  and i added in some of those fun fabrics to the quilt.  the non-blue ones became larger blocks to break up the postage stamps (he approved).

but man.  i tell you, blue is not as easy as you think!  especially since his room is a bright bright shade of blue he picked out a few years back.  "little boy blue" was the paint color.  i had to mix in darks and lights just to get enough.  i've been piecing this thing together for a while and it's past his birthday unfortunately.

bacon!!

but i think it has all worked out in the end.  he was surprised happily with his bacon block, which i managed to keep secret until it was together and in the quilting process.  he could eat bacon every day, every meal.  along with peanut butter, but not at the same time.

now all that's left is the binding, also a blue in stripes.  i can finally get to more of my welding cap orders and get them out the door.  and back to my circle blocks, which have not made any progress since august.  :(  and then - the wall hanging quilt for the show!!  i cannot wait to work on that one.

happy friday everyone.  do something fun!