It is DONE!

Our remodel is complete!  I had to dig around for some good before shots.  Here is one taken before we moved in.  This is the room as decorated by the previous owner.  Hello taxidermy!

Um...no.  The floor was just a concrete slab with a carpet remnant thrown over it.  A few months after moving in, right before Christmas, we began to work on remodeling this room.  The picture below was taken in 2006.

We managed to finish the floor on Christmas Eve.  I went out and bought a table and chairs in time for Christmas dinner!  We painted the walls and left it at that until this year when we decided we had the time (and money) to complete the room the way we wanted.  The wainscot in this room is just the faux wood paneling.  Very unappealing.

Here is a picture taken last weekend (below). 



Here is the after picture!  The husband is now finishing an outlet and then the floors will be cleaned.  Furniture will be returned by the end of the day!!  Angus is supervising, of course.

Angus' special day (Stash report)

I am almost to the finish line with the ohio stars.  I have less than 10 left.  We are also nearly at the finish line with the remodel in our family room.  I look forward to posting some before and after pics!   The husband and I had big plans for memorial day weekend.  We were planning on taking out the tent and having a camp out/cookout with the boys.  It rained. all. day.  Today is a possibility too, but there is a call for rain showers again.  We shall see.

My pup, Angus, just celebrated his 3rd birthday!  About 5 years ago, we adopted a dog, Clyde.  He was a Great Pyr/Golden mix rescued from a VA Golden rescue.  In the month we had him, he tried to jump out of a window, nearly killed our bird (our fault.  the bird survived), and eventually had to be euthanized after trying to attack our trainer, my mother, the plumber, and the neighbor.  Even with private training (in addition to obedience training), we could not determine the triggers and he was just not safe.  It broke our hearts.  Our trainer was a sheltie breeder, and after researching the breed, we decided this was a good decision for us.  We waited several years until the next litter was born.

Angus was born on Memorial Day, 3 years ago.  His mother was saving for the special day, because she was a few days late!  She had four pups.  Angus' name was James at first.  He was laid back and mellow.

Wasn't he such a cute fluffball?!?

There was nothing cuter than seeing a bunch of young pups playing in the grass.



The picture below was taken about 12 weeks or so of age.  These freshly bathed pups were having a ton of fun in some sawdust!  He is playing with his smaller, but feisty sister Mila.



Some pictures of Angus as an older pup.

Below is a picture of Angus and his mother, Libby.  She has a heart warming story all on her own.  She was given as a puppy to someone who did not care for her.  She ran away and it took Angus' breeder (I call her the Angus' other mother) a month to find her.  By then she was frightened and did not trust others easily.  After countless hours developing trust and teaching her that the world is friendly, Libby is once again a lively dog!  Isn't she gorgeous!

Every year there is a puppy party.  All of these dogs are related.  From bottom to top is Libby (Angus' mother), Misty (Angus' litter mate and sister), Angus, Ethan (a cousin???), Shine (Angus' sister from another litter), and Banner (Angus' uncle).  I love to see all of them play together and chase Frisbees.  There is some fun human time together too!

These last two pictures are from his birthday.  I guess he just wanted to sleep all day!





Happy birthday, Angus.  Here is to many more years of fun and companionship!

Now for the stash report.  Nothing used, nothing gained.

Stash Report

Used this Week: 0
Used year to Date: 15.5 yards
Added this Week: 0
Added Year to Date: 14.5 yards
Net Used for 2012: 1 yards

UFOs (Charlotte's Baskets, Orca Bay, Wooden Bear July Mini)

 

Check out Judy's PatchworkTimes for more stash reporting!



More of the Same

I have been enjoying looking at the many quilts posted in the 2011 Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Some real beauties are linked!

 

This weekend, my plans for sewing were thwarted by our next home improvement project.  This is the before picture.  We are replacing that ugly brown paneling with real pine wainscot.  As I type, the wall shown is complete (minus trim), and the walls are spackled and almost ready to paint.  The power is out in the room, so any pictures I take now will be really dark.  Do you notice the silly kiddo in pajamas and road crew hat?!?  Angus is supervising...Or dusting with his tail..I don't know.

 

 

 

The final result will be totally worth the dust and paint! I will post more pictures as we move along.  It is slow going, but the room will be so nice to sit and relax in when complete.

 

As far as sewing goes, I am still working on the Ohio Stars in the Orca Bay project.  I have about 13 left to do. 

 

 

The stash report sees no change.  I am getting annoyed seeing that Wooden Bear pattern listed every week.  Perhaps that means I will finally quilt and finish it?!?

 

 

Stash Report

Used this Week: 0
Used year to Date: 15.5 yards
Added this Week: 0
Added Year to Date: 14.5 yards
Net Used for 2012: 1 yards

UFOs (Charlotte's Baskets, Orca Bay, Wooden Bear July Mini)

 

Visit Judy's Patchwork Times for more stash busting!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Spring 2012

I really enjoyed participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival last year, so naturally I can't wait to see what I see this year!  There was no question about what quilt I wanted to showcase this year.  I began my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt in July 2010.  The piecing took about 7 months or so.  I used 1.5" hexagons in a scrappy motif with a consistent pathway fabric.

I was fortunate to borrow a friend's Hinterburg quilting hoop and began the quilting in February 2011.  I enjoyed quilting during my TV times, especially in the colder months.  Here, I could drape the quilt a bit over my legs while I worked.

Quilting took a bit more than a year.  It was finished and ready for binding in March 2012.





It was bittersweet to finish!  I love this quilt and really enjoyed handpiecing and quilting.  I would like to improve my quilting skills (smaller stitch-length and improving my ability to hife stitches in the hexagon pieces) and have another quilt planned in my head for this year or next!

Here is the final picture!

Thank you for stopping in!  Please check out Amy's Creative Side for more Blogger's Quilt Festival photos!

Oh my Ohio Stars!

My design wall-- er--cutting mat!

After a final pitch to finish the hourglass blocks last night, I can finally start to see things come together!  This morning, I piled up my pile of hourglass blocks, as well as the neutral and dark squares to begin the ohio star blocks.

I have not yet begun the gray string blocks, but I wanted to start to see SOMETHING come together as motivation to keep trucking along!

The other day, my Uncle's chickens hatched from their incubated eggs.  I think there were 14 all together.  My kids were so excited.  Here they are having a visit with a baby chick!

Mother's Day Stash Report

Mother's day is not good for the stash report!  Well, this was not a mother's day gift, but I bought it this week from a nice sale at Pink Chalk Fabric.  They are having an anniversary sale at their site, including free shipping with orders over 40.00!  This includes a little goodie bag.  I have been looking for the perfect neutral fabric for the next project, Acappella, by L'Fair Quilts (my post on this quilt can be found here), and found it at Pink Chalk!

The blue fabrics will also be used in Acappella as well.  The picture of the neutral is rather poor, so I wanted to include a stock photo so you can see the print better.

Pink Chalk also included a fun little goodie bag, which included a measuring tape (which will come in handy) as well as a pack of 2.5" charms.  Perfect for a scrappy quilter!

So what am I doing today?  Sewing!

I just finished sewing the hourglass block sections and now have to assemble them.  It feels so good to be finished with them!

Here is your weekly stash report!  I added 6 yards this week which will eventually end up in Acappella.  Perhaps the addition will push me to baste the Charlotte's Basket quilt so I can count some more yardage!  Check out Patchwork Times for more stash reporting!







Stash Report

Used this Week: 0

Used year to Date: 15.5 yards
Added this Week: 6

Added Year to Date: 14.5 yards
Net Used for 2012: 1 yards

UFOs (Charlotte's Baskets, Orca Bay, Wooden Bear July Mini)

Friends are awesome!

I met an awesome friend, "Manders," from a quilt forum I follow.  When I was pregnant in the hospital with my youngest son (for 3 weeks), Manders came and visited me.  She drove a long way to see me and brought me a magazine to read to help pass the time.  We have been good friends ever since.  She also feeds my addiction!

She recently sent me a 13gal. bag of scraps to play with!

I often receive the kindness from quilting friends who do not have the time to (or do not wish to) use their strings and scraps.  I am so grateful because it gives me a change to use a wide variety of fabrics!!  I sorted these out into crumbs, strings, and pieces to cut down into blocks or strips.  I even picked out some lovely Orca Bay pieces to use.

My sons received their first ant farm yesterday evening.  The little buggers were quite antsy (hahah) and once I put them into the medium, they began to dig shortly after.  This picture is from day 2, today.  They already are working on side tunnels.  They are harvester ants (all female apparently) and have rather large mandibles.  I would not like to be stung by one of them.  Did you know that all worker ants are female?  Apparently the males are used for reproduction and die shortly thereafter.  I didn't know that!  The medium is a gel that provides nourishment and allows you to see what they are doing easily.  They will hopefully live about 1 -2 months.  Cool, huh?!?  The company I purchased the farm from is called "Antworks," purchased from amazon.com.

I am also grateful to you, readers of my blog.  I enjoy seeing the work you do and the inspiration you provide.  You are a great bunch!

I have a nasty throat infection going on, so there is much for me to do other than drink broth and sit and do nothing.  I can't remember being this sick in more than 15 years!  I also can't believe I had a 106 degree fever yesterday.  Thankfully it just spiked and went back down but it was scary nonetheless.  I thought stuff like that made you delirious!  After steroids and antibiotics (I knew what it was and went RIGHT to the doctor when I woke up with a 103 fever), I feel a bit better today.  At least I dont have a fever today thus far.  Yuck to being sick!!



View from my ironing board

Progress is slow, but I am inching along with my hourglass blocks.  Orca Bay is a beautiful, scrappy quilt, but you have work for it!!!

I am not quite halfway done yet.  I managed to put together 100 pairs yesterday in short time and hope to have more done by the end of the week.  I look forward to some of the block assembly!

In other news, my poor iron has had enough.  It was a cheapo and had begun to leak some time ago, but it still worked well for a $10.00 iron!  Today, however, it saw its last hourglass piece!