Sunday, March 25, 2012

Irish Stars #1

Finshed Irish Stars (#1) this week. Hung it off the deck railing for pictures. it was slightly windy today, but the colors look much more accurate in real light than spread onthe floor or on one of the beds. That....and the fact that it's 18:45 PM.





As you can see, I opted NOT to make the piano key border. I love this red. I have been saving it for a while. I think I bought it at the Quilting Bee in Camden (TN). She doesn't sell many Civil War prints, she said they don't sell well....Darn it! & I LOVE them...


Oh! In case you think it's hung wrong...I didn't have any place I could hang it & get a full shot, so it's sideways........3 across & 4 DOWN.

Sam

More Shelves & The Last of Them

Prince Charming finished & put up the 4 shelves in the dining room. These look awesome in there. Again, we hung them with a ledger board. Wow, does THAT making hanging them easy peasy! We spent as much time measuring & centering as we did on anything...





This is the view of the dining room from the kitchen. When the dining room was RED it looked like a cave from this point. But now I really LOVE it.


I have decided that instead of making a cornice that will be upholstered, we are going to build one from wood & paint the same high gloss white as the wainscoting & the shelves. I think it will tie together lots better. Thankfully, Prince Charming has agreed too since he'll do the majority of the "work". Hee Hee!

Sam

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Crown Molding Shelf ~ On The Wall!

It looks exactly how I envisioned it would & I love how it looks onthe wall. I have not got ALL the pictures on it that I want...but I'll get there, I am sure.







Went to Lowe's this morning & bought enough wood to build the 4 smaller shelves to flank the china hutch in the dining room. The shelf in the bedroom does not have one, but the shelves for the dining room will have a plate groove in them.

Sam

Friday, March 16, 2012

E-Mail

My email got hacked & there have been some emails sent this week from my account. I have re-set my password & totally DELETED my contact list. I have had the same email adress for a long long time! Maybe since 2006? Possibly before that. At any rate, if you would like to be a contact of mine, you'll need to leave a comment on my blog so I can add you to my contact list in my email.

I have my comments set so that I have to approve or delete them. So if you DO choose to become one of my contacts again, I will delete the comment when I save your email address.

I dont' know what else to do & I am sorry if this caused any problems/hardships/issues. It happens......

I'm Sorry AGAIN

Sam

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Crown Molding Shelf / The Beginning

After the master bedroom got painted I begged Prince Charming to build a shelf from Crown Molding. I have seen them all over pinterest & certainly on the Pottery Barn website...but PB does not make them this long.

So, on the fly, he built this for me today. I labeled this post "the beginning", becasue I don't hthink you can accurately gauge the size of this shelf. Once it's on the wall, you'll have a better idea. I wanted it wider than the headboard. so Prince Charming made it 12 inches wider than the width of the headboard. It's 72 inches wide. I don't know how tall it is.







It will hand on the wall with a ledger board, that is already cut (that's what it's hanging on off the side of the plywood), and it will be painted high glass white. It turned out EXACTLY how I wanted it to look & I am totally jazzed that he decided to tackle it this weekend.

I still have to paint it with the high glass white, and I won't hang it until we have a 3rd pair of hands so that THEY can hold it up against the wall & I can decide where I want it ~ heightwise ~ onthe wall above the bed.

Sam

Ikea Purchase for The Sewing Room

Tuesday QB1 & I went to Ikea. I found these curtain rods & buckets & baskets in the housewares section. I thought that they would be perfect in my sewing room!

These 2 photos show the wall above my ironing board that I intend to hang the rods & buckets.



This is after! Aren't they perfect? I relaly like them.



I love Ikea! next time I go, I want to take more money & a PLAN.

Sam

American Beauty Blocks

These are the 5 (15) blocks of the American Beauty Quilt (s) that I completed this week.

They are not in any specific order & I can't even tell you which block is which month. (I dont' care, really) but I am putting a HUGE dent in the red basket!!







Not pictured are the 4 blocks for the 2 Ladies of Inspiration Quilts that I finished this week.

Sam

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Checking In

I feel like I have been neglecting my blog! But in my defense?, I have been BUSY!

Let's see............last weekend, Prince Charming & trimmed all the bushes around the house & picked up parts of trees that blew into or off our trees from the storm. We didn't suffer any storm damage. It took all day Saturday to do that. We had to trim downt he knock-out roses & the hydrangeas before everything is convinced it's Spring (we know it's not...winter is no way over, not in TN) Then we started to insulate the garage doors. He caulked all the areas around the garage doors that didn't seal (it's brick on the outside) and then we cut 2 pieces of 3/4" foam insullation sheeting to fit each panel in the garage door. There are 8 per door. Sounds easy? It wasn't difficult. It was very time consuming. And believe it or not, styrofaom dulls blades rather quickly!! We ran out of the sheeting & decided to finish the following weekend (which is today) So TODAY we finished the top 4 panels & it took nearly as long as all 12 of the others together because we had to cut out for the little windows. We also painted the wall that has the garage doors on it, as well as trimmed out the door & put baseboard in. Please don't ask me why we waited so long, but it's a project we can check off our honey-do list. I am tired & I am glad its done. It makes a huge difference in the temperature of the garage too. HUGE.

I have been off from work all week. Vacation. Of sorts. Y'all know I keep my grandson while my daughter is in grad-school. Well it's a break from school, so I took it off too.

Monday & Tuesday QB1 & I went to North Carolina & visited with Joan. We also went to Mary-Jo's. Spending time with Joan @ her home & having her show us her quilts was a BLAST. I am so glad I was able to see her! She took us to Mary-Jo's & I didn't buy ANY fabric. For quilts! Not 1 piece for any quilt. But I dropped a boatload of money. I bought 10 yards of a green/blue plaid for drapes in my dining room. I thought that the green was going to be too bright. But it's a perfect match!! YAY!! I also bought 15 yards of a blue denim & 3 yards of red denim. The last 2 are for a slipcover for our family room couch. Prince Charming likes the denim but really does ot have an opinion (which means he does not hate it...) on the green for the dining room!

Before we got to Mary-Jo's we went to Ikea in Charlotte. #1 I did not have enough money to go hom with everything I wanted from Ikea. That's the plain simple fact. I bought an easel & train set & some cars for the baby & I got a curtain rod/bucket thing for my sewing room. Got a new shower curtain for the hall bathroom, and 2 hurrican lantern type things....I have already put up the rod/bucket thing in my sewing room. It looks great & holds a LOT of stuff. Yah, stuff. I'll post pictures if I can take one in natural light.

On our way TO North Carolina, QB1 & I stopeed at 3 fabric stores. 2 were open. Loose Threads is a nice little shop & the lady that was there could not have been MORE helpful. She was just so sweet & very chatty. I am sorry I don't know her name, but if you're ever in there, tell them I complimented them on thier customer service!! We went to MawMaw's Thimble in Knoxville. Nice lady too! Lot's of nice fabric & she has many free/easy patterns. Lot's of nice Civil War fabrics!

Driving through the mountains was awesome & breathtaking. Stunning. We had beautiful weather to be driving in too! No rain.

We got back late on Tuesday night. Wednesday I stayed home & sewed. Thursday my freind Deb (from Collinsville...remember back then? ONly Deb now lives in GA & was in Frnklin to visit with her daughter) We sewed. I have been working on the 2010 American Beauty BOM. Well 3 BOM's......I started with 2, QB1 hated the templates so bad, she gave me her quilt kit.So that's 3. Oh, and I started the 2012 BOM from Garnny B's. It's another quilt with templates by Marti Michell. I think this year's quilt is called Ladies of Inspiration. Oh, yah, I am making 2 of them. So if you're following closely and doing the math, that's 5 quilts. Right now, I am caught up with the 2 for 2012. The shop does not have the March blocks cut. Thank goodness for small blessings. And I have 4 blocks completed for the American Beauty Quilts. So , again, if yo're doing the math........that's 14 blocks that I have made this week. All 14 of them use those dinky little templates. The joints in my fingers are killing me. But! I am determined. Determined. DETERMINED to do them! (if you think I am trying to convince myself or brainwash myself into doing them, you would be right!)

Friday I spent sewing more of those BOM blocks. That's why I have 14 ~ people!!

Today ~ Saturday & this is where we finished the garage doors.

I am really hoping hard, that other than having breakfast OUT, that there are no more plans for home improvement projects. I would like to see if I can put the other half of my Irish Stars together!!

Well, that's what I have been up too. When I get aournd to it? I'll post pictures!!

TTYL
Sam