Demolition Days at the Duck

There was some serious demolition going on at the Duck the last few days. .... ceilings coming down.

And ..... drum roll, please......the GOOD thing is.....my electricity is now all run and i am wired up. i just need to call the electric company to come back out and put my meter back in and hook me up to the pole. Rick spent days sitting on the milk crate....wiring in all the little boxes. the tedious part of the job.

On Tuesday...while Rick was wiring up....i worked on taking down some ceiling in the dining room. i got just a few feet of slats down. tough, nasty, dirty work.

On Wednesday i worked on the living room ceiling. pulling down slats again and insulation. i just got a corner of it done. i was up on the ladder and found piles of insulation up in that corner that was just left up there. about 6 long strips. i guess when they were finished with the job they just left the excess piled up there.

I saw the teenage boy that lives next door - Amos-  and asked him if he wanted to work....and he agreed. this ceiling demolition is for the young...LOL.  so, he came over after school on Thursday and within an hour....had the ceiling in the back room down. give a boy a hammer and he has fun. LOL

Then he moved to the office and got that ceiling down, too. i just need to go up and clean up the edges a bit and take out the nails.

Here is my office ceiling...all on the floor. it takes a lot of bags to pick up all that crap.

Then his mom, Tammy, came over...i guess to check on Amos and make sure i wasn't treating him bad. hahahaha    she said she wasn't doing anything and she could help, too. so i gave her a hammer and she took out the rest of the living room ceiling that i started. she is little but she is fearless and tough.

Here's my living room ceiling....on the floor.

Tammy said she was off work Friday and would come out and help me some more. gee....i like neighbors willing to help you work. so, Friday she took out the dining room ceiling....and then cleaned off all the nails from the rafters in two rooms. it was a long, dirty 6 hour day for her.

She helped me bag up all the insulation and plaster and cart it out to the garage. there are about 60 bags there....awaiting the next dumpster.

And i have learned to bundle the slats up instead of just throwing them in a pile. it is much easer to get them into the dumpster when it is time. so i bundled up all these slats and piled them neatly in a corner of the garage.

On Saturday i took a break for the morning and my sis and i went to the Salvation Army thrift store to see if there was anything interesting there. i scored this tv cabinet for $50. it is in great shape.

I am going to replace that back with another piece of wood without holes in it. there won't be a tv in here....probably quilts or something. 

All in all....it was a great few days of demolition. i'll be down again this weekend for more fun. i have 2 more ceilings to take down...the bedroom and the kitchen. then i believe the major demolition is completed and i can start rebuilding and prettying up. new insulation...drywall....lights...ceiling fans.....fun stuff.

Although i do need some pipes for plumbing, too. i belive that should be next.

So much to do...so little money. hahahahaha      but it will all get done...sooner or

Later

Working...working....

I have been absent a bit....but i have been working. a little of this and a little of that.

I have more Dear Jane blocks done. i just finished row J this morning. have 3 more blocks to do on row K...and then 2 1/2 borders.

Working on my June crazy quilt block for the CQJP. hard to get a pic of white. i still have more to add.

And making 16" patchwork blocks for a friends quilt. 122  2" square each. ugh!!  but it is working....very slowly.

And my candy paper project is coming along. i now have 8 blocks done.

Just got the borders on a selvage quilt. black and white selvages surrounding a middle square with red and pink flowers. this was ongoing for several months. now ready to quilt...someday.

Here's a closer look...somewhat fuzzy looks like.

I ran out of the middle fabric and needed a few more blocks...so i embroidered on 5 plain middles with pink variegated thread. necessity being the mother of invention and all that....LOL

And this is what is on the frame now. it is mine and it is large. i am changing colors and playing so it is taking a while. it is my UFO for this month's challenge so really hope it gets done in time.

I'm leaving town on Tuesday and will be gone most of the month. i need to get my rear in gear..

Later

Civil War quilt

This is a customer quilt that i just finished. It was designed and pieced by my friend Maralie...our quilt instructor. she does a great job. this is one of several in her civil war series. it is about 80" square

I put Xs in the little squares and feathers in the cross in the middle.

She gave me a design that she wanted in the empty spaces. its a diamond shape with feathers on the outside and crosshatching in the middle.

The little striped border got tiny piano keys and the outer border got feathers. of course you can hardly see it as the faric is busy.

Back is a lovely civil war print

Here it is a bit closer.

I used So Fine thread on the top and bottom....a tan color. it blended pretty well.

I have another one to do for her....

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What's on my Design Wall?

Judy Laquidara asks each Monday..."What's on your design wall." 

Here's my answer today.....our class secession quilt top....only 3 more blocks to go....and several borders.

Next class is Monday, April 30...when we will get 2 more blocks....perhaps all 3. but these blocks will be the most difficult...with many pieces.

Then a small plain border....then a border with appliqued swags....then 2 more borders. check back on this one much

Later

April Color Palette Challenge

I have my April color palette challenge pieced. this month was a very strange inspiration.....a picture of a moldy pie.....forgotten in the back of Judy's refrigerator. LOL

I couldn't for the life of me decide on a design...i had about 4 or 5 in EQ but couldn't commit to one. finally i decided i wanted to make a 'pie'. so i made one large block....crazy quilt fashion.  this is my EQ drawing

This is my pie. i think when i quilt it at the end of the year....along with all the other palettes for the year....i will applique some moldy spots on this pie. LOL

It's a bit strange but i actually like it. don't know what that says about me. this was my first time to paper piece this lage a block....15". that was a challenge in itself.

So, i got to check one thing off this month's to-do list. i need to quit playing with other things and get more crossed off that list.

I almost have a customer quilt finished....another day or 2.

I'm leaving town the 24th and will be gone the rest of the month....so things better get hopping around here....sooner rather than

Later

The Crumbs are together

Back in February i showed you the crumb top that i had pieced....with 4,979 pieces.  here is the post with all the particulars.   http://www.brunerwoman.blogspot.com/2012/02/crumb-quilt-top-is-pieced.html

I have it quilted....woohoo!   i didn't want it to lay around in the cabinet forever and had a free couple of days on the machine....so i got it out and finished it up. that sucker is large.

There were many months of making 5" blocks with very small pieces.

I am so happy to have this all finished.

I quilted it with a variegated King Tut thread...in fact ran out of thread about a foot from the bottom and just switched to another variegated and you can't really tell the difference. i used the clamshell designs from Quiltazoid to quilt it. And i ran out of green thread on the bottom, too so just used another green.

This was really a 'use it up' quilt.....fabric pieces, thread, batting, and even backing. i started out piecing fat quarters for the back and soon ran out of those.....so then cut some that were 18"x17" and used those for every other row. the backing has 33 different fabrics....more stash busting. this is the top of the backing..

And this is the bottom of the backing. for the binding i just cut strips that were left over from the backing.

I am still saving the little pieces that i have left over from projects but won't be piecing another crumb quilt any time soon. but i feel one in my future.....later....much...

Later

The Roosters are Crowing

This rooster fabric was rescued from my friend, Maralie's garage sale last summer. i finally decided to use the rest of it up. so i cut blocks of roosters and flowers. it came out about 60x70". the blocks are 5.5" finished.

The alternate blocks are yellow selvage squares.

The only 'rule' i gave myself was that each square had to be the same selvage. so i could only use longer selvages that would fill up a square.

Sometimes there were enough selvages to make a square but there were several pieces...different widths. so, some blocks have thin pieces of selvages and some have thicker. and some have some of both. LOL

I was running out of yellows...so had to use some golds, beige and 'almost' yellows. that's ok...it's my rules.

The green is another Maralie sale fabric.

The back was pieced with the green of the border and the last of the rooster fabrics.

It would have made it easier for me had the rooster design people put those blocks in a straight line instead of staggering them. some of my roosters lost their feet in the cutting process and some baskets lost their bottoms.

It will be a donation quilt somewhere. i quilted it with my Quiltazoid templates with Bright Neon Yellow Glide thread on the top and a green Bottom Line in the bobbin that matched so exactly i could hardly see it on the back.

Another bit of stash used up. now to go and pull more stash to piece the next backing. it will be wild, i think. i'll let you see it

Later

May Crazy Quilt Journal Project

I have finished the May section of my CQJP. this one took a while...it kept getting set aside for other things.

Here are the other 8 blocks that go with it. they did not get extra embellishments as i did in previous months. i may still go back and do that.

I don't seem to have as many purple scraps as other colors.

I had mislaid these for a while. they got covered up with other projects and never got worked on again. when i was ready to put them all together...i couldn't find them.

I started to make more...and after the first re-do...i was SURE i had made them already....just had to find them.

Finally uncovered where they were hiding. so, no further embellishment for now. hopefully, later.

Here is the section all together. it is all dreary and rainy here today so i had to lay it out on the deck to get a half decent picture.

It is not my favorite out of the bunch....maybe it's the purple. couldn't get 'into' it like the others. gotta get my mojo back. LOL  i think i will do the next month in neutrals.

Gotta go play with fabrics and see if i can find the mojo. talk to ya

Later