Tuesday, July 29, 2014

My week's adventures

I left town last Tuesday and just got home today....a whole week of adventure.

My nephew got a job in NYC....so he is officially moved out of the house. He ordered up a POD for his stuff...and came back home for a couple days to box up his stuff.  the job for me and my sister was to load all his stuff into the POD.

They aren't very large....7x8x5.  i didn't think all his boxes would fit. we actually had them leave a second one....just in case.


We started Tuesday night and got most of it in there....there was some creative packing going on here.


This is all that was left to pack....and we got it all in Wednesday morning.....in about an hour.


I sure hope there was no one around with a video camera. you would have gotten a laugh out of us trying to stuff his mattress on the top of all this. hahahaha   but it all went in...we slammed the door...put on the lock....and wished it luck. it is on it's way to NY.

So then when that was finished, i headed on out to the Duck. i had my sister's library card catalog cabinet in the back of my truck....in pieces. once she got to the Beast, we unloaded all the parts and got it all set up in the library. it looks great.



Then i headed over to the Duck and painted the first hutch in the dining room.


Inside all the little cubbies at the top are little houses and people that i find here and there.


Most of them are chunks of wood that someone painted.





My piece of stained glass that i had made was finished, so i went and picked that up. i hope to get it installed above the door soon.



On Thursday i was back at it.....

I did some tape and bed work in the office. i pretty much sucked at this for the first couple of pieces. hahaha but i started down at the bottom...by that plug. i should have started at an easier spot. i haven't done this in YEARS...and it is NOT like riding a bicycle. hahaha


But as i moved around the wall i got a bit better...the second plug didn't intimidate me.


I even got a horizontal strip on there.


While i was in the office...my sister was doing her thing in the dressing room area. she is already at the top half of the wall. she is more experienced at this than i am.



And i hung some drywall also. i had 3 pieces laying on the floor.....in the way....in the bedroom and i was determined to get them up off the floor one way or another.

The first piece i hung on a bathroom wall.



These pieces were being saved to cover this wall where the pocket doors are. but my handyman never got out to hang the doors....so i just cut the drywall down and hung them in place anyway. they might have to come down for the doors to get hung properly....but i just have them up there with 4 screws, so that will be easy enough.  this is the right side.


This is the left side.


You can tell a pro job by how the plugs fit. hahahaha  i managed to get both of those pieces up there pretty well.


I also carried in the pieces of a cabinet to put together. but that's as far as i got. enough for thursday.


Friday....more fun and games.

I got that cabinet assembled....after a couple of false starts. the instructions sort of sucked. and i didn't have faith that the construction would stay together, so i put some screws in the sides to hold it all together....just in case.


I got extra drawers to add to the cabinets. those instructions rather sucked, too. what is it with instruction writing people?


I think they will look nice in the end. i like the doors. i still have to install the door....that is a 2 person job.


I will have 2 of these narrow cabinets and 4 wider ones in the dressing area. i just had to put one together to see how it looked. of course, by the time i assemble the rest of them i will have forgotten my issues with this one and have to start all over again. hahahaha the shelves are adjustable....and the drawer can be installed anywhere also. wonder why they didn't make the drawer white like the shelves.


I did some more tape and bed work in the office.....got 8 more pieces up.

Then i painted the second hutch in the dining room. i love the glass in the top and that i found a perfect little quilt to hang behind it. it's the first thing you see when you come in the back door.


That was enough for Friday.

After a good night's sleep....it was on to Saturday. it was a slower day.

I rescued this ugly buffet last year from some destructive children. here it is before.... i got the electric sander after it....


And...here it is after some sanding and painting.


And after i got the hardware on. why does everything have to be a big deal?  sheesh!  i had the 4 handles that are on the longer drawers. they were in the drawers, so i assumed they fit.  wrong...the bolts were too short. so, off to the hardware store for more bolts. well, then the heads of the bolts went through the holes...damn.....off to the coffee can to find washers to hold the bolts in place.  

Then off to the hardware store to find handles for the top 3 drawers. found an appropriate color match but the holes in the bottom pulls are further apart than most pulls made today. so, was sent to another store and found pulls there that would match. the newer pulls now have 2 sets of holes...genius.  what should have taken a few minutes....was a couple hour project.


Then hung a Splendid lemon sign that my sister gave me. she thought it was peaches at first. then we thought oranges....finally decided it was lemons. the sign was not clear.


And hung up my Fried Green Tomatoes sign, too.


Then i cleaned up a bit......i had made quite a mess in the last few days. called it a day.

Sunday found me back in the saddle again.

I decided to work on the baseboards for the dining room. when i was destroying the house i saved all the woodwork and such that i could.

So, i spent a few hours pulling nails, scraping paint, sanding boards, and painting boards. i found enough to do what i wanted to do. here's a few of them.


I also saved the corner pieces. i couldn't scrape the top of the corner pieces too easily so i tried some stripper stuff. that didn't work ideally, but it will have to do. i just painted over what was left. so, if you come to my house.....don't look at the corner pieces too closely...ok?  i also saved the pieces that go in the doorways.


Scraping the paint off those curvy doorway pieces was a bitch i'm here to tell you. my hands were sore.


And i gave myself a blister in the palm of my hand from all that scraping. that is why i saved some of them for next time. so, next trip will be scraping the rest of them and painting and attaching them all.


I also got 2 pieces of wood attached to the inside of the doorway but failed to get a pic of that. just pretend.

I spent the evening pulling weeds from the side of the house....pulling poison oak from under the porch....and pulling weeds out of the flower beds. at least it was in the shade.

And my sister came down and did some more drywall tape and bedding in the dressing room. that wrapped up sunday.

I was intending to come home on Monday, but i had a guy coming out to give me an estimate for rebuilding my enclosed front porch floor....so i stayed another day.

So, as long as i was there.....i worked a bit on more baseboards......picked up the weeds that i pulled yesterday....and...

Pulled up some boards on the front porch to see what it looked like under there.


It didn't look too good. this joist is rotted...whether termites or weather...who knows.


And this one is not much better. but at some point someone had added another joist to it.


We will be shoring it up some, adding more 2x8s, putting in a subfloor and laying a new floor. it should look like gray slate.  that happens next week.

So, i have a few days to rest up.....and think of more things to do....LOL.....and get back out there and have more fun.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Disappearing 16 patch

For a simple pattern....this sure took me weeks to put together. hahaha



I might be the world's best procrastinator.



But the top is done. i am debating if it needs a border. perhaps by the time it is time to quilt it up....i will have decided on the border.


But...one more project completed....5 yards fabric out of the stash....1 more top to be quilted. 

LOL    it's a never ending cycle.

Friday, July 18, 2014

How many Selvage quilts?

As i was working on a selvage quilt this morning....i wondered....just how many selvage quilts have i made over the years. so, i decided to go and look for pics and see what i had done.

This is from 2009....the first year i kept pics and records.    this background is made of selvages and the flowers have buttons and other buttons on the bottom.  sold at a craft sale.


I made myself several jackets....and i still wear them today.


Inside of this one is a man's shirt from the thrift store.


This one was sold. inside is a sweatshirt...it's a pullover


This has a satin lining ... the first jacket i ever made....from a pattern.


I even made shorts...which i still wear today. inside is men's boxers.


And there were quite a few bags...sold at craft sales.




And i had a vest phase...sold at craft sales. these were all reversible.





And i managed a quilt.  this one is blue diamonds



Now for 2010....stuck with quilts and made a few more.

A rail fence type in yellow, orange and brown


Log cabins in red and blacks


And one in blues.


And a neutral



In 2011....

I made one for Halloween with embroidered items in the squares.  .... given away



Playing with words....says.. Put some selvages in your quilts....hanging in my studio


Blue diamonds on point


Another Halloween ghoulie quilt...donated




2012....i've been busy...huh?   didn't know i had that many selvages. 

I made this bathmat for the Duck. that will be the colors in the bathroom.


This one is black and white with pink flowers....a bit tilted.


Using up those blues and greens.


Color plan....hanging in my studio.



Pink and chocolate...given away


Red, white and blue...donated



And, in 2013....

Can you believe i have nothing? .... that doesn't seem right. but i think i started things....they just haven't been finished yet.  i quilted up a lot of them that were just tops in the past year. perhaps i was taking a break...haha

But in 2014....let's see

I just finished quilting this bookcase for me.


These little squares are all framed in selvages.


Using the brown family.....framed garden pictures.


Selvages pieced into strips...then cut into triangles...and assembled into 'circles'...with trim around edges.


Something a friend showed me a picture of....so i had to do it. it was fun and fast.


This is a work in progress.  i need enough dots to make 9 more 6" blocks. it will be queen size when finished....really close.


And a work in progress is a basket quilt made of yellow selvages.
And a selvage sun that i am working on now. ... about a third finished.

And there are a few projects in boxes...that i thought of an idea....and made a block....and put it away for future finishing.

I'd say i am a bit selvage obsessed.  hahahahaha  

Selvages might be my favorite quilts.  let's see that is:

Wall hangings ........ 2
Jackets ................. 4
Shorts .................. 1
Bags .................... 3
Vests ................... 4
Quilts ..................18
Bathmat .............. 1
In progress .........  3

I have also made hats, place mats, potholders and who knows what else. 

I love selvages.


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