Paper Hearts

In the midst of all this deconstruction and most of my sewing stuff inaccessible I have spent time online - DANGEROUS. I found an adorable quilt with hearts by Tula Pink called Paper Hearts. It is perfect for one of my granddaughters who loves hearts and loves pink. Now time to choose fabric!

Like I really need to start a new project, but you know how that goes...

Here is a picture of the quilt.  Modern look is perfect for a teenager. Hunt is on for the perfect fabric! Isn't that the most fun of quilting???

The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Oh my, what a mess. One side of each wall is now demolished. There is rubble everywhere - broken drywall, insulation and lots of dust! We had insulation between all the inside walls to help keep noise levels down when all the kiddies were home. I somehow didn't visualize THIS much of a mess.

Remember the closet and cutting table wall and door I showed you yesterday. Well look at them now - they are nearly gone. Just down to the studs. Those will get ripped out tomorrow. I am standing in one bedroom taking the picture seeing completely into the bedroom with the closet being removed. The other bedroom is behind the closet wall on the right. All the walls are not down yet.

And this is the view from the hallway showing the door openings to all three of the kids bedrooms. The door on the right was our son's bedroom (then our guest room). The door straight ahead to the left was one daughter's room (now where my sewing machines, fabric stash and ironing board reside). And, the door straight ahead to the right was our other daughters's bedroom where my longarm and cutting table now reside.

They haven't finished removing all the drywall yet. As you can see above, only one side of the drywall is off so far. They have to reconfigure where light switches will be moved to.

My hubby brought the big tractor to the front of the house and the workers used an upstairs window to dump all the rubble into the tractor bucket. This saved them many trips up and down the stairs. They are very pleased he has a big tractor!

Memories, memories, memories.Ah bittersweet.

A special day for my hubby, too.

 Today is my hubby's 62nd birthday.We can't believe he is social security age already. Another milestone. Where did all the time go????

What a sweetheart to spend his birthday doing this for me. I am so lucky! We did go out for pizza with the kids and only one granddaughter. Their work and college schedules make family get-togethers tough now. 

Demolition Day

I got the closets emptied. OMG that was an ordeal.That closet held all my yarn and rolls of home dec fabric, serger and long arm thread and other sewing supplies.I have way too much yarn stash. I don't crochet as much as I used to because it hurts my wrists so much now. Most of the yarn I bought when there were huge sales going on. I will donate the really soft yarn to ladies who make caps for breast cancer patients. That is what I bought the yarn for but didn't use it all before my wrists went bad.

Here is a picture of one of the walls that will be torn down. That wall divides two bedrooms. See the mirrored closet doors? I will lose that closet and the cutting table next to it with my peg board where I hung all my rulers. And the door on the right of the cutting table is going away, also. I will lose a smaller closet in the guest bedroom as well, but I didn't store any sewing supplies in there. Our 19 year old granddaughter was living with us and stayed in that room, so I had already emptied that closet out for her. After she left I never filled the closet back up - thank goodness!!!

Notice the end of my longarm frame in the lower left corner? That shows you how limited my space is right now. The longarm goes all the way to the back wall and to the other side wall. The long arm is in one bedroom and my sewing machine, fabric closet and ironing board are in another bedroom. So right now I am taking up two bedrooms. The third bedroom has our antique iron bed and antique dresser/mirror and chest in it. The bed and chest will be going downstairs into the little office and the antique dresser/mirror will stay in the sewing room for storage. It won't fit in the little office. It belonged to my hubby's grandmother so it is a keeper. I love antiques anyway. 

When all the walls come down I will have the space of the three bedrooms and a wide hallway. It will be like a big loft! 

We will need to put new flooring down since there will be gaps without carpet when removing the walls. The carpet is 30 years old, so it is time to go anyway. But, actually it isn't really bad - I guess since it is upstairs and doesn't get the traffic like in the main part of the house. I would prefer laminate wood floors, but my hubby is worried about the sound from my long arm being too loud downstairs. He says even with the carpet in there now, when I am using the long arm it sounds like an airplane taking off above. So, I guess new carpet will be going in. Unless any of you can give some good suggestions for flooring that helps with sound insulation???

Dream Quilting Room and a Trip Down Memory Lane

What does your dream sewing room look like?

or this:

Well, it is time for me to put a dream into reality. But, will designs I love work in my own space and within my budget.....

I am SEW excited and also kinda sad. Tomorrow the contractor will begin the process of knocking down bedroom walls in our upstairs to expand my quilting room. Yes, a dream sewing room! I am SEW excited to get a much larger area just for me, but sad to think how our three kids and even some grandkids used to call these three bedrooms home. Now it will be one big room to accommodate my long arm and all my sewing machines, nice big cutting table, and plenty of storage for my stash and all those other gadgets we love to have. How time changes our lives.

I cherish those days when kids were snuggled in beds in these rooms and we have so many wonderful memories from those years. All three of our "kids" have homes of their own now and our youngest grandchild is 13 years old. The fun days of seven grandkids spending the night with us is just a memory now. Five grandkids are now in college and working - so spending the night with grams and gramps are just memories to cherish. 

One day, right before Christmas, I was upstairs in my little quilting room complaining how about how small my little cutting table is. Hubby asked why I made such a small one. I laughed and said just where would you put a larger one in here? He must have really pondered over this cause the next day he suggested we tear down all the walls and make one big room! "Are you kidding? Oh my gosh, that would be a dream come true!!!!" Well, he wasn't kidding - he scheduled it to happen - REALLY! 

Now, you would think I would be over joyed, but it actually made me sad to think we really are empty nesters. How did that happen so fast? Where did all the years go? Can you relate??? Well, my excitement to have so much space and planning everything quickly perked me up! Out comes the graph paper and tape measure to plan the layout. It brought me back to over 30 years ago when we had the graph paper out were drafting the house layout and trying to squeeze four bedrooms in upstairs so each of our kids could have their own room. And now here we are deconstructing those very rooms we worked so hard to make fit. Wow, I spent a lot of time going down memory lane.

Then I realized I now have closets to empty and furniture to figure out what to do with. I will lose two closets in this process and I don't know about you, but as soon as the kids move out things just appear in those empty closets over night. 

We have a little office downstairs that we will move our antique iron bed into and an antique chest. I will keep one antique dresser/mirror in the sewing room and use it for storage. We will have to build some storage for all my sewing stuff and yarn that I have been storing in those two closets. For now, everything is going in tubs. Hubby says I will be out of commission for sewing for a couple of months. I just laughed! HaHa, he doesn't know us quilters that well. Out comes my folding table and up goes my sewing machine in the living room! A few months without sewing - NOT HAPPENING!

HST Chevron Quilt Progress

I sewed some chevron rows together using each of the prints to see how they would look. Now I need to decide on the placement of the prints. I have five different print fabrics and nine rows of print chevrons.So, one of the print fabrics will only be used once. Humm, which one should that be? What do you think?

I have to say, this is going together much easier than the jelly roll Chevron Zig Zag quilt. The jelly roll zig zag quilt required you to sew it together on the diagonal So, I had to lay the entire quilt out before I could sew it together in order to figure out the correct blocks to sew together. The HST method is a no brainer. You can sew one row at a time and also gives you the flexibility of EASILY rearranging your rows to determine the best placement. This will be my go to Chevron pattern.

HST Chevron: New project from stash fabric

Before Christmas I made a Chevron Zig Zag quilt using 2 1/2" strips, I decided I wanted to try one using the half square triangle method. Also, I am seriously trying to use fabric from my stash this year. I am so tired of looking at the same fabric wondering if I will ever use it. So far, in 2014, I made a Valentine wall hanging and the Square in a Square twin sized quilt with stash fabric. But, those barely made a dent in my stash! I am still determined to reduce my stash this year! Hard with all those new gorgeous fabrics out there.....

Here is the fabric I choose for the HST Chevron quilt. I had originally purchased the fabric it in 2009 with a particular pattern in mind, so I had odd amounts of each fabric. Now, five years later that pattern is too juvenile for any of my grandkids. I decided to make this Chevron quilt for my 13 year old granddaughter whose favorite color is orange. She is my youngest grandchild. I also found this medium gray Moda in my stash. I will use it between each row of print.

I need this to be twin bed size so I drafted the pattern on graph paper to determine what size squares to cut and how many. I am starting with 6" squares which will finish at 5". The quilt will be 14 rows across and 18 rows down and finish at 70" x 90. I even have enough fabric to make a pillow case. I forgot to take a picture of the binding fabric. It is a stripe with all the colors from these fabrics. I will cut the striped binding fabric on the bias so it has that nice spiral effect.

Square in a Square Quilt and tutorial link

I finished sewing together all the rows on the square in a square quilt. i still need to sew on the outside borders. I may use 4" borders on the sides to widen the quilt a bit and just use 2" borders on top and bottom. without borders it measures 57 1/2" x 80". Wider side borders will make it fit a twin bed. I am not real crazy about this quilt right now. I am hoping quilting it will bring it to life. Also, I am considering unsewing one of those dark blue blocks that are so close together. See them? That was sure an oops placing them so close. Or should I leave it and that will be my "humble" block? But, the placement bothers me. Why didn't I see it when they were laid out at the quilt retreat? Too many distractions with all my quilting sisters around? No one else picked up on it either. Darn. Here is the link to the Square in a Square tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company: Tutorial

So, would you move one of those dark blue quilt blocks to another spot?

UFO Progress using Morning Tides by Free Spirit

I completed one UFO while at the quilt retreat last weekend. The Valentine wall hanging. However, I still need to quilt it.

After completing that project I decided to work on a bright fun quilt using a charm pack and a jelly roll and 1 1/2" strips. I saw a tutorial on Missouri Star Quilt Company. The tutorial is called "Square in a Square". It is a very easy pattern and I was able to complete all the blocks and sewed the rows together before it was time to leave on Sunday.

The fabric is Morning Tides by Free Spirit and I used Moda White for the sashing. Not my usual palette, but thought a teenage girl would love it. I have six teenage granddaughters and two teenage great nieces. So I have plenty of options for a home for the wild quilt. Here are the swatches of the fabric.

So, that still leaves the other two projects on my UFO list. Darn. Hoped that list would shrink more.

Happy New Year 2014 - Friendship Group Quilt Retreat

Do you ponder over the past year as the new year rolls in? Well, I sure do. What did I learn from my life experiences this year? How can I improve? What goals do I have for the new year? I spend a lot of time reflecting back on the many different areas in my life.

In my "quilting life" I am blessed to be involved with a wonderful friendship group called TGIF. We meet twice a month on Friday evenings to work on projects, eat, and visit. These great ladies have become very special friends to me. I can't imagine my life without them. Often, some of us get together to have sew days as well, or even shopping trips for quilty things or we go on quilt hops together and quilt retreats. A few times a year we have get togethers so our hubbies can join in. How many of you have a friendship group? Kindled hearts - what a blessing. 

On January 3 I will be joining my friendship group on a quilt retreat for three days.It is being held at a local nunnery in wine country in Temecula, CA. It is a beautiful setting and so peaceful. Wonderful rose gardens and other flowers and beautiful views of the mountains. They feed us well and provide humble accommodations for us. No TV in the rooms and simple furnishings, but all we need - we are there to sew and enjoy our time together, not spend time in our rooms. We have a nice big gathering room open to us 24 hours. It is so fun to sew in our jammies and slippers if we want! I am so excited! So far I have pulled out a few UFO's to take to work on:  a red/white/blue star patriotic table topper, a Valentine wall hanging or table topper and a pumpkin/fall table topper. I am gathering fabric for some cute little coin purse's to make. I think I have plenty to keep me busy! It will feel so good to get some of those UFO's done at the beginning of the New Year!

Here are a few pics of what I will be working on.  I am trying to figure out why the pictures are sideways or upside down. They weren't that way when I took the pictures.

I chose Civil War fabric - Patriotic red/white/blue table topper.

Using red scraps for this Valentine wall hanging or table topper.

Homespun fabric for the pumpkins.