Phase 3 & 4 Complete

Phase 3 of the "Big Project 2010" was to strip the wallpaper and get the room painted. Sounds easy, huh? I told Sweetheart he put that wallpaper up to survive Armageddon!! Finally it came down and I got the room taped and ready to paint. Thank goodness the new occupant was worth all the work!Yes, Kyle was moving back upstairs. I was thrilled! I never liked him 2 floors down and it was easy for him to separate himself from the rest of the family. He would not do this intentionally, but his basement room felt like he had his own "apartment", as he called it. Let me tell you, that paint job was NOT easy. I was certain the orange would cover the green easily and I would not need to prime. WRONG! It took FIVE (5) coats of orange. Good grief that was awful! DAYS later the painting was done and I quickly made up Kyle's new curtains in his beloved Bears fabric.Please note that the oranges in these pictures are WAY brighter than in real life. The orange in the curtains is a regular orange and the orange on the walls is more of a sherbet orange...very soft. Here are some pics of Kyle's finished room....Phase 4 was to move him upstairs.That back wall behind Kyle's bed is all orange with a white chair rail going around the entire room. The other 3 walls are orange on the bottom and a BRIGHT white on the top....the white is showing a tint from the lighting. It all reminded me of being in a dreamscicle! He loves it, as it is the Bears official colors!He slept upstairs for the first time last night and loved it. He had Charlotte in to watch a movie and Zach brought his legos next door and they played for a while. It was a great move and all worth the effort.

Phase 5, and the final phase is also complete, but I will share that next time. Also, the Man Room is all done as I put my next project up on my design wall......I even put 4 blocks together yesterday. Sewing in this room is wonderful. Someone in my comments asked how I would feel being so far removed from the family down here. Well, I think it would be great....a place to escape once in a while. Most of my quilting is done in the hoop in the family room so I spend little time at the machine. Still, it will never happen, as any time I am down here, so are the family.....they follow me where ever I go. ;)

We also got Sweetheart's guitar, mike, and amplifier set up in his area (I always share...and this was meant to be "our" space) and the weights are set up ready for use.Now it is ALL FINISHED! I can start this week fresh. The girls have crochet class this morning so I will take my big quilt along and hand quilt for a couple of hours. What could be better??!!

My New Digs

Phase 2 is complete, and I am officially moved into my new sewing room/office. In case you had not guessed, I am now in the "Man Room" which is the room Sweetheart finished in our basement last winter. I love this room as the color is so peaceful and the room is so large. It measures 13x24 feet. Exactly twice the size of my last sewing room, which was 13x12. At the front of the room is the office area. There is a desk (courtesy of Kyle) and the little TV stand.

One of the down sides to this room is the lighting. It is awful. I have wonderful lamps that really brighten it up for sewing, but for picture taking it is just a glare, so forgive the dark photos.
On the shorter inside wall (the one with the doorway) I have Ugly Betty, my treadmill and will also put my weight bench and weights just behind her. The TV stand is directly in front of the treadmill, so I have no reason to not get on her!!!
The large wall is the sewing area. I did have to store Grandma's table, as the 9 foot banquet table was much more functional for me.
Now I was not liking that look AT ALL. I miss the closet, but the table had enough space to house my boxes of supplies underneath. Still it looked messy to me. I decided to make a "curtain" to hide the mess.
Much better. My grandma's hutch is also being used to store supplies, when in the past, it housed very little in those drawers. My fabric drawers are at the end of the table, which is also the cutting end. It fits perfectly there. I did not want to cover the ends of the table with the curtain so I could have that drawer system there. My design wall is at that end of the table also....you can see it in the corner of the picture.From the other end of the table you can see where the office area is. Also that large white board on the wall....that is the design board, empty for the moment.It is a good move, I think. Now tomorrow starts Phase 3. Removing that wallpaper border that I loved so much, and taping....maybe some paint will even find it's way onto the wall tomorrow. We are expecting 8-12 inches of snow starting tonight, so I think it will be the perfect day to paint! Right now, I am going to get the next piecing project up on that design wall. I'll be back to show you Phase 3 of the big project in the next couple of days. Until then, be blessed!

(To see the old sewing room click here)

The Big Project-Phase 1

Phase one of my big project should be no surprise to anyone who has read here for very long. Though I have been in this room for 3 years now, this will be the 7th time in 9 years my sewing room will be moved (in this house)....over the years it is too many times to count.
That pretty border will not do for the new occupant, nor will the wall color.
Here are today's helpers..... .....not really helping at all. That big desk is staying in the room, so I had to empty it's contents out. Whew! This is a bigger job than I thought. I still have not replaced that broken glass panel in Grandma's hutch.The hutch is emptied out and ready to be moved tomorrow. It comes apart into 2 pieces, which is good, because it is a heavy booger!Stay tuned for phase 2!

A Clean Slate

My mom appreciated all your wonderful birthday wishes for her and says "thank you". She had a great day! Breakfast with a friend, lunch with her sister, and then.....well, she came to my house to take me to the doctor. Yes, I will be 49 in a month or so and I needed my mommy! She opened her gifts from us while she was there. A large cut crystal with a rod iron stand (she loves all that shimmers and sparkles) and a sunflower candle holder for her kitchen. She loved it all, but said her blog post was the best gift ever! We had a bunco night last night too, so the lady partied from morning til bedtime!!!

I have not shared on my blog the health issues I have been experiencing, but now that I know the outcome, I will share that I will be facing a hysterectomy in the very near future. I am feeling it will be a great relief in my life and am trusting God in this situation.

I was able to get to the opening day of Acorn Quilts.The fabrics are incredible!!!! Look what I got. 1/2 yard cuts of these pretties for use in upcoming gifts.I was quite disappointed that there were no hand quilting supplies. We need very little, but what we need is very important. Little did I know, the owner was just waiting to speak to a hand quilter to find out what we would want her to carry!! WOO HOO!!! I gave her my list and she will be getting those things immediately! LOVE IT! I plan on taking my camera in and doing a post on Acorn Quilts....the owner was thrilled with that!

This morning was a "no school" time, so I decided to clean up the sty my sewing room/office had become. No before pics, but believe me, it was as bad as it had ever been. FILTHY and the dust was so thick you could write in it!....really. No floor space was empty, as my mess from sorting scraps was still everywhere. My cutting table, computer table, and ironing board were loaded with clutter. The closet....well that has been bad for quite a while. I started there....the closet. Now organized and neat!You can walk right into the room and not trip on anything!The cutting table is cleaned off, and Pine Ridge is split between the design wall and the paisley box under the left side of the desk, waiting til those Christmas projects are finished!Fabrics for those Christmas miniatures are set out and ready to be cut up!A clean slate. Ready to begin again!!!!!Thanks for stopping in!! Don't forget to give part of your day to Him.

A Clean Slate

I have 4 projects going...all of equal importance...and my sewing room was a MESS! My design wall is busy, as you can see.I could have shut the door for the Open House, but decided to do the "right" thing and not the "easy" thing...a lesson I preach here daily to my kids! My office/studio was put to a place of perfection! Forgive the blur.... What did I do with those projects that were all in progress???

My friend Niki made a shawl for me last year and gave it to me in this box....I LOVE this box! I even have the gorgeous turquoise and brown tissue paper! I keep thinking I will use it when I give a gift to someone, but I can never part with it. Soooo, I put my 3 projects in their various stages in the box!!Now I know I said I have 4 projects.....I went ahead and finished one up! I will show it to you when it is washed and all "crinkle-y"!

Now that the Open House is over, I can pull those other 3 projects out of the box and mess up my studio once again....as it should be!

Deep Freeze

It is beyond cold here. 25 BELOW zero this morning and that is not the wind chill. Home is warm and full the last couple of days. Too cold to send Kyle to work (even if they were not closed down) No Awana's for us Wednesday night. Just home...the 5 of us. We have kept up with homeschool and I have been sewing up a storm. My new separate cutting table is wonderful. Throw on some Little House on the Prairie and I have a great afternoon of working on the Star blocks. The deadline is the end of this month and I only have 2 blocks left to make. It will be done with time to spare...I usually work to the last minute.

The set up for my pressing space is perfect, though portable.I can not find any fault in this new set up. Though the sewing table, pressing table, and cutting table do not form a triangle (the perfect set up) it is very convenient. It was nice when Sweetheart was at the computer and I was at my machine. We could just look over and chat to each other. My time at the machine did not come without problems. I was to make 8 of these sections (or so I thought) Just before piecing section number 6, I noticed something was off. Upon reading the directions, (no, I had not read the directions) I found these were to be 4 of the above pictured and 4 of a mirror image. Ok, not to late, I saved it before it was a complete loss. So I re cut 2, and piece a mirror image. HOW it ended up wrong I will never know (it is really not suppose to be a mirror image is the "HOW"), but when I flipped it over it was the same as the first 4...this time I did all 4 before seeing I had made a mistake. OK, soooo, I pull the book over and do it from the picture. Finally I have 4 of each of these....Did I mention this is not the first time I have made this block? And that the first time I made the exact same mistake? Some people never learn!!! So finally I end up with 4 of each of these sets...To make 4 of these....I ended up happy with this as an outcome of all the frustration and wasted fabric (unless of course I make another one in exactly the same fabrics).The design wall has been a God send! I would have never been able to lay all these blocks out on the floor and maintain some semblance of a plan. So, today I will finish the last 2 blocks and put the top together, sans borders. I still need to go out and buy the fabric and that is not happening in this weather!!

Before the cold came in, we had the pleasure of an evening with our oldest son and his beautiful family. Little Emerson is a dolly!! Full of smiles and flirt!She is beginning to understand the "black box" and after the flash gives a huge smile....I said after the flash.

TJ wanted to help me with dinner so he put on an apron and became "a cooker"!!We made a meat loaf together. He added all the ingredients into the bowl....Once all the "stuff" was in the bowl, Grandma showed him how we mix it all up with our, just washed, hands.Yeah, he wasn't too thrilled with the feel of raw meat. Look at that face....It got done though and was delicious. He is a great "cooker".

We played a round of Phase 10 after dinner. Rachel is pretty competitive...look at this face she is giving her father-in-law just before she skunks him!!!!TJ tried his hand at photography and did quite well. His muse...the Yahtzee can. He played a round of Yahtzee with us too, He sat on Paw Paw's lap and blew on the dice before he rolled them out. I think they won!

It is time to start my day. Housekeeping, homeschool, and quilting, in that order. For those of you who are in this deep freeze with me, stay warm and safe...for those of you running barefoot in green grass (Cheryl...) go barefoot for me too!!!