Saturday Pix

Let's see, where to start...

This is Shelby.  I caught her sifting through MOTU's underwear drawer while he wasn't looking.  Unfortunately, me raising the camera looked a lot like "come here, I'm going to pet you" to her.  She's only this friendly when MOTU isn't around (she's his) for a while, but is still home.  She HATES me when he's not here.  She's gonna hate me so much come October...sigh.

Where was MOTU?  In the master suite, preparing the floors.  I guess it's a little hard to tell, but they look SO different now.  He's going to finish up the edges tomorrow, then we'll lay down some varnish tomorrow afternoon.

What was I doing while he was working his cute lil buns off? I was working away at the stack of quilts I brought with me.  This one here is the pirates QFK.

I decided to get brave with this one...small success!  I made waves!  Please don't enlarge the picture...they're good from far but far from good.

Waves!  So many waves!  Again, don't enlarge.

I learned an important lesson here though...when they say "work from the middle", that includes blocks...I did the waves after I did the outlines, which lead to fabric mooshing.  Not good.

Grisgris was also busy, wondering what the heck was going on behind that curtain (and why I kept telling him not to go back there).

Here's what was going on behind that curtain.  Sorry for the awful quality...it was blurry without the flash, but so dusty that the flash picked up everything *but* the floor.  Sigh.

And, of course, the man of the house doing his man thing.

I also finished quilting the aliens vs robots QFK, but that was just ditches and diagonals...nothing exciting.  I'll post pix when they're both finished.  With any luck, I should be able to get Abby's Road quilted tomorrow (not sure what color thread to use...debating a veragated one (however you spell it), but I'd need to go get some new bobbins if I did that.  I have a blue/white, pink/white, and rainbow thread to choose from.  I'm thinking the rainbow one would stay with the crazy color theme, but maybe picking a neutral color would be better.  Maybe gray?  I'm just stitching in the ditch...nothing fancy.  Thoughts?

Stay Dry!

Hearing warnings of tsunamis possibly hitting NZ and Australia...I hope everyone down there is staying safe.  Keep us posted!

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20100227/NEWS01/100227007/BREAKING+NEWS+9+50+p.m.+Feb.+27+—+Tsunami+warning+in+effect+for+Pacific+islands

spoils of war

mai and I hit the arcade last night...good times. I got the last foam sword.

tumbleweeds

it's so empty and sad. I found myself apologizing (yes, out loud) to the fabrics and threads I left behind.

have box, will travel

what you're seeing is the makings for 4 quilts, crammed into a box so I don't have to watch tv all weekend. this is 2 QFK quilts and abby's road, basted, then a third QFK kit, and the completed QFK quilt. so I was wrong...5 quilts.

Misc Pictures, Just Because

A few pictures off the SD card while I'm thinking about it:

He looks more evil than he is.  No, really.  This is the second shelf of the kitchen cupboard.

He just sits there and stares.  None shall pass.

He's...not very good at hiding.  And this is my new sewing room...the kitchen table.  For now.

I made twice baked salmon potatoes for dinner (MOTU added steaks).  They were pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.  Interesting flavors but really really yummy.

Hanging out in Shelby's old spot on MOTU's workbench.  He always looks so evil in pictures.

Ok, maybe not evil all the time.

Friday Fave Five #2

1. Today started flip flop season.  It was low 40s, projected to snow, but dammit...my feet have been miserable for months.
   
   
   
   
2. Ok, I got this a while back.  My friend Emily made Gabby the office gremlin for me.  She's the reason papers go missing, my computer magically reboots, and my diet coke is suddenly empty.  Today, she's making me smile.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. New friends!  It turns out that Brenda, of Pumpkin Patch Primitives, lives within a couple miles of MOTU!  
4. My kitty.  I'll post pictures later.  He discovered that there's a second shelf to the kitchen cabinets...the one we keep the olive oil on, specifically.  He likes to hide there now, crouched in the back.  Not really sure why, but it's really funny anyways.  Also, he's doing just fine after his surgery.  I've be mastering the kitty rodeo (yes, that's right...I have to SIT on him to get him to hold still long enough to give him his medicine).  I'm getting such a kick out of it that I'm going to be genuinely sad when I don't have to give him meds anymore.  It doesn't hurt him at all, don't worry.  
5. Closet space!  It turns out that installing a new bathroom is going to *start* at $5k, which means that we get no new bathroom for now.  Instead, that whoooooollllleee space is gonna be a closet.  And that other half of the bedroom is gonna be just open space.  I'm a fan.  I like open spaces.  The best part is, since we're not doing anything at all to the bathroom part of things, it's entirely conceivable that we could get the room done by the end of this weekend!  Which means that I could start transporting my sewing stuff to Nashua in the next couple of weeks!  Huzzah!  

My Mom ROCKS!

So I don't know how many people even read this blog (my counter says quite a few, but I won't pretend I don't add to that number a bit myself) but I just wanted to give my mom some publicity.  She's started a blog recently (Tuesdays with Dori, hyuk hyuk) that's basically all the things she *would* have been telling me all along, if she'd known I was making her a quilt for Christmas. 

A quick digression here.  I know I have multiple blogs about basically the same things.  But the thing is, this blog is for virtual friends.  That blog is for IRL friends.  I don't post nearly as much stuff about charity work on there, because it feels like bragging.  Here, well, it's still bragging but it somehow feels less...icky.  I don't know.  Maybe that's silly, but it is what it is.  That's how I got the name for this blog though, from the one I made to track making the quilt (my first ever) for my mom. 

Anyways. So my mom is funny.  At Christmas, I wanted her to be a guest poster on my cooking blog (yeah that's right, I have a lot of blogs...hush) but she wasn't sure she wanted to learn a new interface (she didn't call it that, I don't remember what she called it...maybe "computer thing").  Mom's neither old nor stupid (far from it on both), but computers are complicated and she doesn't usually have the *need* to fuss with them like I do.  So when, out of the blue, she sent me a link to a blog that she's not only writing on but set up herself, I couldn't have been more proud. 

Anyways.  Tuesdays with Dori.  Go check it out.  It's only got a few entries, but as time passes it'll be filled with 30+ years of quilting knowledge. 

Nerd Alert

I just peeked at the number of people who've visited my site and noticed this:

Anyone else get the reference?  Anyone?  Bueler?  Ok, maybe it's just the uber nerd in me, but I found it mildly giggle-worthy.  I wish I had some kind of giveaway to do in honor of this nerdy milestone (which, incidentally, will only happen 4 more times in the history of this counter).  Maybe next time.

Signs of Life!!

Last weekend I planted myself a little garden in the living room...I've been cooking more and herbs are expensive, especially during the winter.  Now, I have a notoriously black thumb (brown doesn't even do it justice) so this is a HUGE deal for me!  The fact that something's even *started* to grow means that I must've done something right!!!

And a close up:

Admittedly, these are on the "flowers I planted because I like flowers" end of the box, but still!  They're growing!  I think these are the African Daisies?  Maybe?  Who knows, they're just growing!!

New Look!

I'm trying my hand at making this blog look more personal...so far, it looks like a macaroni necklace to me.  I tried to pick pictures that are sort of representative of the more important things in my life, or at least the more descriptive pieces of me...my kitty, the quilt that started it all, Helen (the van), MOTU, travel (that's me in Sao Paulo in the upper right there)...that's the gist of it.  We'll see how often I change it up.  Next step is to make my own background.  Don't hold your breath on that one...this was a couple hours of cussing at my laptop as it was.

All that aside, I may have some big news in the next week or two.  But I can't say anything more than that yet.  Nothing to do directly with MOTU though, if you're assuming.  :-)

Grisgris goes in for surgery tomorrow morning, so I'm up at MOTU's tonight, sans sewing machine.  He's working hard, so I'm debating going for a drive to indulge myself.  Except that I've got a 4-figure bill to pay tomorrow for el gato.  Guess I'll save my pennies.  :-(

how freaking cute is this???

this came in the mail today! I'm using it for my wrapped in hope quilt...thinking maybe cutting out the squares and putting extra borders around them so they're 6 inches finished. theyr 3 inches right now

magical binding

I could bind this sucker 3 or 4 times over with what I prepared. oops. it looks like a magician's scarf trick :)

Panoramic Room Shots

Here are a couple of panoramic shots of the room, sans carpeting.

Isn't that hardwood GORGEOUS??  I LOVE the dark stain and the wide boards!!!  I'm all giddy just looking at it!

 

From the other side.  You can see where we're thinking of putting the bed (masking tape).  The far left is the space we're using for the bathroom.  The plumbing for the whole house comes in at that corner, so it shouldn't be too hard to extend...famous last words.  MOTU is calling a plumber today to see about it.  That's going to be the toilet and shower space.  In the above picture, the space to the left of the window is where the vanity/sinks will go.   I'm so excited to get going on this!  I'm thinking darker denimish blue for the trim and a lighter denimish blue for the walls.  Kind of gray blue I guess.  For the bed quilt I'm thinking something white/blue and traditional...I'm not sure I'm excited about a log cabin design, but something of that vintage I guess.  For the headboard I'm still at a loss.  MOTU really wants something quilted for there too, but I'm afraid two quilts right next to each other like that will get busy and ugly pretty quickly.  Anyone out there done a quilt for a headboard before?  I'd love some help on this!

I leave my computer for a few hours...

And look what happens!!  Thanks, CJ, for cluing me in!  I might not have checked back in until tomorrow! 

Can't wait until next month's sew-in...third Friday of every month now.  I'm glad it's a Friday night...this time I was up (don't judge) until...4:30...am...I couldn't stop!  But I didn't need to function yesterday, so it worked out. 

This is what MOTU and I accomplished this weekend: 

There used to be a few more walls in here. 

 

This one it's maybe more obvious that there used to be walls here.  The right part is going to be where we put the bed, once all's said and done.  In the other picture, the leftmost wall is going to be one long closet, sticking out about 4 inches further than the wall sticks out now.  The space created in the back right where the wall juts out is going to be a vanity with a big mirror and two sinks (fancy!).  Behind the wall on the right there is going to be the shower/toilet with a door.  It's hard to describe with just these pictures, but it's going to be fun to make it "our" space.  

Also, I just realized these were from before we got the carpet up.  Under that nasty carpet is (ready for this?) GORGEOUS hardwood floor!!!  WHO COVERS THAT UP???  It's a disaster though, with paint all over it and a big black stain, and half the floor isn't even stained.  We're going to have to put in some work to make it pretty again, but my heart just leaped out of my chest when I saw it!  MOTU wanted to put down some kind of laminate and I just about cried at the thought of covering it up again.  I convinced him to let us keep it.  :-D 

SO!  That leads me to a general poll.  I need ideas.  This is going to be the first space that will really be "ours".  This house is in his name, we're not married, and I don't actually live here (yet).  It's hard to feel like I'm more than a roommate...or at least it was until today.  It's got a definite rustic vibe to it, and I want to make us a quilt to fit the space.  We're going to repaint the room, but haven't decided on exact colors (I like blue, but I like blue for everything).  I also need to make something for a headboard since what he's got right now (seriously) is...a sleeping bag nailed to the wall.  I wish I were kidding.  At least it's soft and plaid.  So...what do you suggest?  If you had a room to decorate in a rustic-ish fashion, starting from scratch, what would you do?  

Also, I'm not opposed to learning how to make a rug to go with everything too, so if you have opinions/suggestions on that, I'm all ears.  

Thanks again, Heidi and CJ!! 

fnsi #1

the beginning state of me sewing room last night. these pix are gonna come one at a time, sorry

fnsi #2

he steals my spot every time I get up. don't let the comfy pose fool you, he barely got up there because I barely left.

fnsi#3

my attempt at creating a kitty corner

fnsi#4

he left and sulked on my bed for a while then wandered back in a while later

fnsi#5

I took a quick break to make myself a pin cushion. nothing fancy.

fnsi#6

I think I'm calling this one "treasure everywhere". it's quilts for kids #3 and the first top finish for the night.

fnsi#7

laying out abby's road. this was like a modified sudoku quilt lol. trying to make sure none of the same fabric was adjacent or in the same row

fnsi#8

another kitty reality check

fnsi#9

hard to see I guess, but this is abby's road on my design wall.  The Princess of Quite A Lot panel is for Wrapped in Hope

fnsi#10

abby's road, top complete.  The dark patches are actually a deep purple fabric that I LOVE. 

fnsi#11

playing around with the darning foot on my machine. not too shabby, but not exactly scaleable

fnsi#12

playing the "stuff on my kitty" game