Ready To Quilt

Finally this quilt is on the frame and ready to get quilted. I wanted to straight line quilt it but it's way too huge for that. It measures 84 X 88. The largest one I have ever done. It's also the largest size I would put on my frame. It's about maxed out in the length. 

This purple fabric was rather stretchy so all my points didn't line up the way I liked.  Then when I went to get the backing they didn't have enough so I had to piece that with some grey that I was holding back for another quilt. 

I covered up the label for privacy reasons. It's a gift for a friend of ours. He likes KState so I was lucky to find the fabric in my LQS. 

I'm just going to do an all over meander on it because I'm not that good at using this frame. So I hope it turns out good. 

It's cold here and we had ice and snow yesterday. Hurry up Spring! I am excited about Christmas and can't wait to get my tree up in a couple of weeks. Are you excited to put up your Christmas things?  

Progress!

Finally made some progress on this quilt. It's huge California King huge! I'm limited on the size I can do but it will be close. 

Photo looks blurry here maybe it's just me. Anyway I have 2 more of these columns to do. It's not perfect points but they are close. That purple fabric is a bit stretchy but not bad. 

Have to go and fix dinner now. Wow I could get a lot of sewing done if someone in the house didn't want to eat! 

Sewing Again....Finally!

After working on the house for most of the Spring and all of Summer I am finally finding time to sew. It feels so good to get back to what I love to do. 

HST's love them. They work up so fast and this is a Christmas gift for Hubby's best friend. 

Are you working on some Christmas gifts? I bet you all are way ahead of me. 

Getting Ready For Winter (yuck)!

We have been busy here getting ready for cold weather. The siding on the house is only two years old but needed a new coat of sealer. It sure didn't take long to get the job done. You can see here how badly it needed it. The sun and wind get brutal out here. Plus the stuff soaks into the Cedar.

We did the house in sections. Seems like when we first did the siding it took forever. We put a sealer on the boards before we put them up. One coat on each side. I am not sure how many gallons of the sealer we went through but it was several....maybe 5 or 6. This time it only took about 2 and a half gallons maybe a bit more. It looks better this time than it did when we first did the house.

That is my kitchen window. I think we need to do the ceiling on the porches as well but that will have to wait till Spring or maybe even next Fall. I am sure glad that we decided to do the sealer this year. I still have to get my porches back in order. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit cooler and then finally on Monday we will be in the 60's and I will be trying to stay warm. I don't do cold well. Seems as though the temperature gets below 73* and I start getting chilly. How about you? Do you like the colder weather or no?

On The Porch Today

This afternoon I am out on the porch enjoying the warm air after cold this last weekend. I don't do cold well so I will soak up all the warmth while I can.

I have been busy doing some projects that have been waiting for me for a year now.

Last Fall I bought these two chairs and they were in bad shape. Sorry I should have taken a photo of them when I got them. After we got them hubz stripped them down and took the old paint and the rust off of them and put new seats in them. I wanted to paint them but ran out of good weather. So I finally got them done.

The table is one that I worked on last year and got painted. It was an ugly gold color. Someone gave us this table made out of re bar. The top is marble but it is cracked across the top. I have them on my front porch. And yes we need to replace the floor of the porch but just have not gotten to it yet. There have been too many other things going on.

We just had to get two new garage doors.......yikes.......talk about spending money! But at least they will be better than the ones that are in there now. I am not sure who the idiot 

was that wanted to put a garage under the house but that is one big dumb idea! We got some new doors with an R-18.5 rating so we should see some difference. They won't be in till about the 20th of October and I can't wait. Just in time for winter. Both of the ones we have now are broken. Not to the point that they don't work but they are separating and letting cold air in. They are just cheap ones anyway and I am surprised that they have lasted this long.

Also we finally got the handles on the new sink cabinet in the bathroom. Still looking for a paper holder and towel holder.

I got these at Hobby Lobby. Love that store! and my new bathroom.

Also sanded down this old stool that I got someplace. Looks like it was made for some kids to use when trying to wash hands at the sink. I didn't try and get all the paint off from it but I worked on it for a couple of days. I just put some teak oil on it for a finish. I wanted to use it in the kitchen to help me reach the top shelf in the cupboards. I used it today and it is just right. 

So now a couple more projects and then I can start sewing again. I hope. Hope you have all been well. I have not had time for anything other than try and get some things done. I wanted to go out and take photos of a few things and have not even had a chance to do that yet. Going to be too late by the time I get there. 

OK till next time.

Local Bug Zapper

I guess this is a harmless spider. I have seen several of them in the years we have lived here but the web this one built was something. I wish I could take a photo when there was some dew so you could see it. 

But notice the zig zag at the bottom. Awesome! I wanted to put my hand up there to show you how big it is but.......I was too chicken to do it. 

You can see the web a bit more here. 

Second Bathroom....Done!

Well almost! For the most part it is done. I have a few plans yet for a shelf but that is going to have to wait for a bit yet. But here are some photos of the finished product.

Oops this was taken before the mop board got put up. Sorry about that..

The door frame is the same as the other bathroom and we plan on doing all the door frames in the house. Wow that paint sure looks light in this photo..

We weren't going to put the bead board up in here but thought we would for one reason it adds a lot to the room and another reason is because the kitchen is on the other side of this wall. We thought it would make more confined if you know what I mean. 

I have had this mirror forever. I had painted it white at one time but thought I would strip it and leave it in here. And the shelf is one I picked up a few month ago and stripped it as well. I thought they might look nice together. I had to hang the shelf lower than I wanted to because I wanted the mirror hung this way and the self was a bit too wide to hang higher up but it is a nice height to keep things off the sink.

I forgot to show the new sink vanity. We got that and the new toilet put in then put the wood up. I had intended on posting this earlier but never got there. 

And the ceiling before we got the other boards up on the sides. Sorry about that. I didn't realize that I didn't have "all done" photos till now. I will have to re post those other two later on. It is a much quieter bathroom now with all the wood up. I still have to get my towel holder up and a paper holder but have not gotten around to that yet. I have a couple of ideas but we shall see what I can come up with.. I also want to make one of those canning jar soap containers but that will be later. I have seen them on Pinterest and just love them.

Now I am working hard to get more boards done for the other ceilings.....its going to take a while......I need to get as many of them done as I can before the weather turns cold. I can only do the polyurethane out in the barn. The smell is just too much to do in the house. I also need to think about getting some more paint to paint the master bedroom the same as the master bathroom. Good thing we only have a 2 bedroom house!

Darn Grasshopper

Normally grasshoppers won't eat a lily. Not sure why but I have noticed that they don't. Anyway one figured he was starving to death because he ate this one off at the bottom of the stem and some of the flower too. There are a few more out there that have been nibbled on as well. Why eat the Assumption Lily when there is a whole big field full of stuff to eat just beyond the fence. 

Crochet Basket

Well there is progress on the bathroom but now we have changed our minds on putting the bead board on the wall so I will have more boards to get finished. We are not going as high with this as we did in the other bathroom. I will show some photos later.

In the meantime I did manage to get a bit of crocheting in last night so I made this little basket.

It isn't very big but big enough to throw a set of keys in. I really didn't have a use in mind for it I just wanted to make one and it is the first crochet I have done in a couple of months and I don't even want to talk about how long it has been since I did any sewing. Hopefully after this bathroom gets done I will be able to get back to that. I owe my friend a purse. I got a pattern, she picked it out and the fabric but I haven't had time to make it yet so that is one of the first things I need to do. Lately I think I am the Queen of putting things off or at least it feels like it. Too many things to do and not enough time but at least progress is being made.........

Caulk Remover!

I finally got all the caulk off the tub. Wow! What a job that was. I spent two days or a little more doing that. I don't know why that clear caulk was so hard to get off but it was not like the white caulk that you get but yet they sell it. I picked up some caulk yesterday and saw the clear stuff.

I finally got some caulk remover.......

The one on the left is to soften the caulk.....well easier said than done with this stuff. But it did help..Then to get the caulk off the tub part (see my other post to see how bad it was) I used the stuff on the left. Said it starts working in 2 to 3 minutes however.......it took some of it an hour and then had to re spray some of it again. I have taken caulk off before but this stuff was really really awful......as I have said before.

I wish I would have taken that caulk off right away when my daughter put it on but I didn't. Probably would not have made any difference. Well anyway, the sheetrock got torn up in some spots so now after I let that air good I will have to patch it all the way around. 

This is about the same spot as in the photo in my last post. You can see how bad the caulk was put on. Believe me some spots are worse than this. At any rate I have a ton of work to do in there yet before I can paint.

In the meantime I had the windows open for a while this morning because of a cool front. Very odd for this time of year here but it was nice while it lasted and I got windows washed. Yay! I can see through them again. 

Alrighie then back to work...........

Other Bathroom

The other bathroom remodel has begun. The sink came out this afternoon. That was on Wednesday.

I started the necessary patching. We had gotten a new sink awhile ago and made it work because we knew we would be doing this. 

You can see the "ugly" green stick down tile. I have hated it since we bought it but the bathroom was mainly used by my daughter and it is what she wanted. Ugh! 

So far I have gotten the patching done around where the sink was and I have torn up some of the tiles. Not a hard job at all they are coming up easier than we hoped.

Right now I am trying to remove the caulk around the tub. Again, my daughter did it one day. She used a clear caulk that turned yellow and had no idea of what she was doing. It's all over the place and very difficult to remove.

As you can see by this bad photo. I have spent about 2 hours just trying to remove about 12 inches of the caulking. It is going to take me forever to remove it all. Both sides of the tub plus across the top of it. I got some of that caulk remover but the caulk has even challenged that stuff. Although it does work better with the remover than it does without it but not too much.

I can't wait to get rid of that stuff.............so I guess I better get back at it. 

A Pretty Sky

We had a beautiful sky tonight for a while. There was a storm coming in from the south east, which is unusual. We didn't get any rain but the sky was fantastic.

With this came some cooler and dryer air. We have had some high temperatures with a lot of humidity and that is normal for this time of year so this was a welcome break from all of that.

I got a lot of things done today! Finally after getting the bathroom done I had a chance to get some cleaning and organizing done. Wow, things sure get out of control when your doing something like that. I need to do a lot more but we are about ready to start the other bathroom and I have the color of paint picked out now so I can get that anytime. I am going to Sherwin Williams this time for the paint. It is called Rainwashed. 

I can't wait to start painting but we have to take the sink and potty out of there first. I sort of dread that. My hubby works nights and I use that bathroom a lot. Hopefully it won't take too long.

I hope to get more cleaning done tomorrow. Till next time........................

All Done

Well here it is............the new bathroom. Finally done. I have a few minor things to work on in there but nothing too much and now we can use it and get things back to normal again and start the other bathroom.

I even found a couple of grey towels for the new bathroom and hubby found grey light switches. I didn't know they made grey ones..

This is the small wall that would be behind the door when it's open. And there is a little bit of a linen closet there as well..

This is the door frame that hubby made. 

And here is my cabinet that I painted and changed out the hardware on it. Hubby had to put wood o the side of it because it was just like pressed board with like wallpaper on it and didn't want to hold the toilet paper holder too well so he just continued the wood there.

I got this mirror in an antique store for just $10. It's oak and quiet heavy but it looks so much better than that huge mirror that was in there. I already showed the window, ceiling and the floor in another post. 

Now to start the other bathroom. I am not sure if I am doing the bead board yet or not. It is sort of a small bathroom so I am thinking not. Hubby already changed my mind on the sink cupboard that I wanted so we will see what happens with all of that. 

Since this bathroom is connected to the master bathroom I need to get more of this paint to paint the bedroom with. Also in this last photo the grey is very light in color. It is darker in real life. More like the photo of behind the door.

Now to get it all cleaned up and get some organizing done. I have to put all my things back into the linen closet and do something about reducing the clutter on the sink and under the sink. 

Thanks for looking at all our hard work.

Along Came A Bunny

Tonight as hubby was leaving for work there was a bunny, well two, in the space that is supposed to be our garden. We have been so busy this year that there is NO garden. It is always such a fight here with the bugs and the heat and watering that I just didn't think I had the energy for it this year.

Anyway, maybe it is a good thing because we are over run with bunnies. You know how bunnies are............

We have some lattice around our front porch and this is where they live. We have a lot of coyotes around here too and maybe this is why they like it under there. The lattice is just the plastic lattice but they chewed it so they could get under there. It drives me nuts when I think about it but not sure how to stop it. Putting up new lattice isn't going to help because they will just chew that too.

There are other spots where they have chewed too. We put the wood there to maybe discourage them but it didn't work. They just moved it so they could get in. Maybe when we re do the floor on the porch we will be able to figure out something to keep them out of there. I mean it's not like we don't have other places around here for them to live in. 

Any ideas how to get them to pack their bags and move?

Almost Done!

We have been working for weeks and we are almost done! YAY!

The boards I have been working on are in place except for the last few and a bit of trim.....

Out in the barn...most of the time in the heat. 3 coats on the front side and one on the back and ends to seal everything up. Here you see some of the small pieces I had to do. I am working on the last of them now and tomorrow I will put the third coat on them. So it won't be long. Then we are going to get the other bathroom fixed up. 

It needs a new coat of paint, a new toilet and a new sink cupboard. It will have the same floor and ceiling as the other bathroom. I can hardly wait to get going on that. Never thought I would say that after taking so long to get this one done but it is so much nicer now. 

I will be back I hope the end of the week with some photos of the finished project. What home remodel projects are you working on?  

See ya soon. 

A Fun App To ......

Help you enjoy the Fireworks.

Wishing you all a safe an Happy Fourth of July....

Here is a link to an app to watch Fireworks on your mobile gadget. I got it from the Kim Komando site so you know it is safe..

https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id435664934 for your Apple .....

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgames.fireworksarcade  for anyone that doesn't own an Apple mobile gadget..

First you get some fireworks then if you got to Spark Samurai that is sort of fun to play. The Some One Said game is where you have to tap the spots in the order they appear so these would be fantastic for the kiddos...........and fun when you see the fireworks go off..

Crochet Rag Rugs

For a few years now I have wanted to crochet some Rag Rugs. Lately I have seen a lot of them on the Internet and I like them. So I tried a few. 

This is the first one I made. I had looked at many tutorials and went from there. A lot of different ways to prepare the materials and different widths as well as a variety of what you make them out of. 

I chose thrifted sheets. I started cutting mine about an inch wide. Although now I want to try some strips wider than an inch. 

This is another one I made. I have a few more but I will save them for a later post along with some of the things I learned. Hopefully it will make it easier for someone else. Have you crocheted a rug? If so how did it turn out and what did you use for making it? Sheets or something else? 

Stormy Skies

Trying out the app for Blogger. Not sure I like it. No way to control the placement of photos that I can find. 

This was our sky tonight after the storm.

Progress......

No photos of the bathroom progress but we are making head way on it. I will have some photos hopefully by the end of the week.

This is Skippy. He is just staying here. What a sweet horse he is. He loves attention and is spoiled rotten.

 You may notice that his ears are a bit short. They were frozen off when he was little. He is about 12 years old now. And funny. He does "skip" and "jump" around a lot. Now I know why he is called Skippy.

New Floor!!

YES! Finally we got a new floor in the bathroom. I can hardly believe it!

Hubby laid the floor this afternoon. This is not a great photo and it looks a bit darker when your standing there but it sure is pretty. After all those years of wanting and waiting to get rid of that ugly carpet in there it seems so good to have it done. Well worth the wait!!

I made some progress on the cupboard doors. I think I mentioned in the last post that I was putting the primer on as thin as I could get it. Well I did the same with the paint.

Here is a photo of the backs of the doors. I thought I would do those first and then let them sit for a few days before I did the fronts. I ended up putting 5 coats on them. I can't remember if in this photo there are 4 or 5 coats. But they turned out rather well and I am happy with the job so far.

The lighting was poor because I was in the garage painting them. Now I need to finish these doors and drawers and then on to the bead board..............

There is a small linen closet in there or rather a small space behind the door where the tub is. Well there was no way to get to the plumbing so hubby has to fix that up because he is putting a door there so we can get to the tub plumbing. Then I can get the linens out of the living room and back into the closet and that will help some of the clutter. We are not going to run the bead board all the way in the closet. We need to go and look at some sprayers to paint the bead board. 

Ahh the joys of fixing it all up..