Sunshine in Winter

With all of the turbulence of the last four months, I haven't had much opportunity to work on, much less complete, projects.  However, I did get one small (approximately 16" square) wall-hanging done, Sunshine in Winter.  It was a Christmas gift for P. at The Way I Sew It, who lives in Wisconsin.

I conceived of the project last summer when I was still living in sunny Nevada, and knew that P. would face a long Wisconsin winter.  For as long as I've been making the New York Beauty blocks, I've thought to myself that they look like sunbursts.  However, it wasn't until I tried to think of something cheery for P., that it occurred to me to try the New York Beauties in sunshiny colors.  (You all may have noticed that I tend to be a jewel tone, cool colors kind of gal.)

Finishing up the wall-hanging was a bright spot in amongst the trials of getting settled in a new home--a process that as yet continues.  I felt such satisfaction when I shipped off Sunshine in Winter.  Although the wall-hanging was wrapped in Christmas paper, I was secretly hoping that P. wouldn't wait until Christmas to open it.   Being a woman after my own heart, she didn't let the Christmas paper slow her down one bit, and opened it upon arrival. 

There's nothing like giving something quilted to another quilter.  Quilters know how to show appreciation for a quilty gift.  P. blogged about it here.  Her enjoyment has me walking on air.

Miscellaneous Monday

Painting:

Although I do not care for the paint job in our new house, the wood work is absolutely lovely.  Unfortunately, it is not really noticeable at this point, because the wood kind of fades into the colored walls.  Although I didn't get much of the slider (sliding glass door) in the picture below, if you look carefully, you'll see that the door is framed by wood.

Dining area BEFORE

Notice how the wood work pops with white walls?  (Please ignore our fancy window covering.  We're waiting for Home Depot to install our vertical blinds.)

Dining area AFTER

Speaking of blinds, normally we would install them ourselves, but we have a window over a stairway that we are unable to reach, and since Home Depot would do a whole house for $118, we decided to let them install the three blinds that we need. 

Quilting:

My mom is starting a new quilt.  She is making it for her cousin who was so helpful in regard to our move.  Naturally, the quilt inspector could not let her sally forth alone.

Let me make sure you're doing it right.

This fabric is delightfully relaxing.

It's Curtains For Me:

The previous tenants liked dark colors--dark paint and dark curtains.  I'll admit that I don't see the appeal, but perhaps the colors felt cozy to them?

These curtains were in my bedroom.  My bedroom is in the basement.  While the window lets in a lot of a light for a basement window, it's not exactly glaring.  Yet these curtains could block out the searing desert sun at high noon.  When I wake up in the morning, I have to look at the clock to ascertain if it's daylight yet, that's how dark these curtains make the room.  The only good thing about them is that they make the tan paint look light.

A quick little sewing project and I had new curtains.  You can't imagine how wonderful it was when I woke up this morning to find daylight coming in through these light-colored lovelies.  You can also see that the tan paint isn't as light as it looks, however, it is one of the lightest colors in the house.

I intend to make some beaded tie backs for the curtains like Mrs. P at Quilting in My Pyjamas made for hers.  I got permission from Mrs. P. to use one of her pictures of the lovely beaded tie-backs she made, but Blogger will not let me load it.  Not sure what's up with that.  Maybe Mrs. P.'s blog is snubbing mine?  Trying to keep this bit of loveliness all to itself?  So I encourage you to click on the link for a bit of eye-candy.

Favorite Things Friday: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

With a musician for a father, music has played an intense role in my life. Growing up, we seldom had music playing in the background while we did other things. Listening to music was an active event; not a passive past-time.  Naturally, we often listened to my dad play--either the guitar or the piano--but we gave the same attention to music we listened to on an album/tape/CD as we did listening to him.

I first really started paying attention to music when I was about five (1969).  I can remember Jimi Hendrix blasting out of the stereo speakers at 3AM.  (Eventually, my parents grew up and learned not to play the stereo in the wee of hours of the morning.  Ahem.  They were 23 and 24 when I was 5.)  Rock was my first introduction to music.

Although my dad could play just about anything he set his mind to, his favorites were blues and jazz.  I learned to love the blues from my dad.  To this day, it remains my favorite music genre.

Recently though, I've become acquainted with yet another genre of music.  Swing.  (It seems I am going backwards chronologically through the music genres: rock, blues, jazz, and now swing.)  There is a modern group doing swing--both writing their own songs and remaking some of the old greats.  Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  With no further ado, I give you a sample of my new favorite musical talent:  The song Save My Soul from the album by the same name.



I'm linking up over at Quilting in My Pyjamas for another fabulous Favorite Things Friday. Come on over and join the fun!

Free Motion Hand-Quilting

What's a quilter to do?

I love the black and white checked fabric in the first border. It adds a bit of feisty-ness to the quilt. However, I quickly discovered that I was not going to enjoy quilting it. The lines don't run true enough to use them as a guide for any major straight-line pattern, and I couldn't see any way to mark the fabric. Whether I used white or black, part of the markings would always to fade into the fabric.

My apologies for the poor photo quality

Aha! Free-motion hand-quilting. If I can do free motion quilting on a sewing machine, why couldn't I do it by hand? And so, the checked border is filled with free motion flowers and vines.

Click on the photos to make them larger

Alas, I've discovered that as much as I like hand-quilting blocks, I'm not at all fond of hand-quilting borders.  They go on FOREVER.  With a block, I get that sense of satisfaction of having another one done.  Borders take so long that by the time I've finished a side, the thrill is definitely gone.

I've got two more borders to do on this quilt after I finish the checked border, and I'm seriously considering doing them on the machine.  How bad is that?  Would that be considered mixed media?

Monday Miscellaneous

The Button Bandwagon:

I've jumped on the button bandwagon.  Everybody climb aboard.  Seriously, anybody who would like to have my button feel free to take the code, but don't feel obligated.  Mostly, I was interested to see if I could actually make a button.  Since the directions and the code are easily had with a little bit of Googling and some tweaking, it wasn't overly difficult.  Although HTML is essentially a foreign language to me, I enjoyed doing it.  Kind of like exercising the few Spanish words and phrases I can put together.

Painting:

The utility room is done.

Before (sort of)

After

We've moved on to the kitchen.  I failed to take a before picture, but will certainly have an after picture.  Yep, you're going to get the blow by blow painted run down.  But I'm not complaining.  The effort is worth the result.

Speaking with Authority:

Have you ever been fooled by the Voice of Authority?  It happened to us the other day in regard to having paint mixed at Wal-mart.  No, we're not using straight Arctic Blast white (my name; not theirs).  The color is called Swiss Almond, and is essentially white with a bit of warmth, for lack of a better description.  The first gallon mixed was lovely.  It required a gallon of "Base One" and few drips of other colors.  When we went to have paint mixed the next time, Wal-mart was out of Base One.  We were told to check back in a couple of days.  No biggie since there are plenty of walls that need priming.  When we returned there was still no Base One, but the gal who helped us said, "You don't have to use Base One, you can use white.  Some people don't know that."  She used no uncertain phrases that would have caused me to question, like, "I think it's all right to use white instead of Base One."  Nope it was just a flat out statement of fact.  Not knowing much about paint, I listened to her Voice of Authority.  That was a mistake.  In retrospect, I remember wondering in the back of my mind that if the two are interchangeable, why would Base One even be necessary.  However, the Voice of Authority trumped my doubt.

Skip to today's painting session in the kitchen.  I'm doing the edges nearing the ceiling using the bit left from the first properly mixed can of paint, and my mom is rolling using the newly mixed paint.  At about the halfway point, my mom steps back, and says, "Does my paint look different from yours just because it's not as dry yet?"  It didn't take much studying to figure out that the two paints were different.

Wal-mart graciously refunded our money, and as luck would have it the Base One had come in.  We will finish the kitchen that we thought we'd finish yesterday today.