Demolition continues

Progress is being made on the demolition portion of my new kitchen.

Today

 (after an 8 mile hike and a wash and wax of the car)

I did this:

It was actually really fun knocking out that soffit.

I really hated that soffit.

And now I will have room for my really tall cabinets!!

 I also spent some time pulling floor staples.

About a billion of them.

Actually, I've been pulling them in sets of about 75-100 at a time.

I have the blisters to prove it.

And I still have about a million of them to pull out.

*sigh*

I also pulled tile off the wall today.

I still have another wall to remove tile from.

It doesn't look too pretty and I will need to patch the drywall in a few places.

And give the whole thing a scratch coat of mud.

*SIGH*

So here's a picture of all of today's progress.



I still have to get the saws-all and take out those 2x4's that held up the soffit.

I like power tools!

And *SIGH* there is more floor to come up.

Which means more staples.

*SIGH*

And so it begins

This is what my kitchen looked like yesterday.

Check out this hidden gem that was under the first layer of floor.

My work crew, taking a break from the floor and pulling the cabinets.

I have about a gazillion staples to pull out of the floor, and that soffit

has my name all over it. And the tile backsplash has got to go.

One step at a time.

To Boston With Love

Took a break from my major projects of

getting my seniors graduated

and

designing my new kitchen

and

 beginning to destroy my old kitchen

to participate in the
To Boston With Love show of support.

I made these two flags to include with my

St Louis Modern Quilt Guild's gift to Boston.

We will be sharing our creations tomorrow and then shipping them off to Boston

where they will fly in a show of love at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for about a month.

Then they will fly again in one year. Maybe I might make it out to

Boston next year to see it.

In the mean time, you can check out the Boston with Love flickr group to see pics of

other flags made for the project.

This summer I will be staying close to home,

enjoying my new kitchen.

I will post photos of the progress, once I have progress to show.



Farming the Wind

I took advantage of those snow days

and got an old top quilted.

When I travel I often sketch ideas for quilts from what I see.

Wyoming, one of my favorite places to visit, is

home to quite a few wind farms.

You can see these huge windmills for miles.

Makes me think of Don Quixote.

Made me sketch an idea for a quilt.

Now, almost three years later...

My "Farming the Wind" quilt:

On a windy day, no less.

On a "farm".

Ironically, this quilt was made with the leftovers from my

"Heated Air Conditioning"

quilt that I made during a June 95 degree heat wave

when my air conditioner conveniently gave up the ghost

and had to be replaced.

Its nice to get one of these old tops quilted and moved into the

done pile.

Hmm, maybe I'll get some more WIP's quilted,

or maybe pull out some more travel sketches.



Snow Day!

FINALLY!

We have our first (and likely only) snow day.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Yep, thats us on the Weather Channel.

Welcome, Winter Storm Q.

I did manage to get out this morning before we became white

and ran to Wally World, picked up my wine shipment from a friend,

got an oil change, hit the grocery, and got an update on the status of my refinancing

(going to save over $32,000, wahoooo!) at the bank.

Can't waste a perfectly good snow day sleeping in!

So what else is a gal to do once leaving the house is not advised

(and the governor declares a state of emergency)?

Fire up the sewing machine, heat up the iron.

My friend Mary Claire had this great wallet that I coveted.

So I bought the pattern and made my own.

But first I decided to really challenge myself and make my own fabric.

Huh?

Well, I've been collecting/saving selvedges for a while now.

Got a gallon sized bag full.

Time to do something with them.

So after sewing them down on muslin backing, I got to work making my wallet.

But I forgot to grab my camera and take photos.

So... you will just have to make due with the finished product.

Ever so happy with the "made" fabric.

Here's the inside.  

So professional looking,

and can hold everything! Two big pockets for my moolah,

six card slots, and the zipper change pouch.

The pattern has a really easy method of inserting that zipper.

Love it!

Now its time to settle down with a good book, glass of wine, and a nice fire.


Happy snow day to you!

Randomness #97.2

I keep my furniture covered with quilts for two reasons,
which are actually the same reason.
Meet the reason:

Floyd.

I think he is in constant shed mode.

And he is on a chair I had cleaned off not more than 20 minutes ago.

*Sigh*

So I tossed the couch quilts in the wash and put my new

Madrona Road challenge quilt on the couch.

And I realized the pillows I had did not

complement the picture. 

 So I real quick sewed up this pair of pillows
with some left over fabric from the challenge.

I kinda like the way the sixteen patch pillows play nice with the circles on the quilt.

(Ignore the messy mess. I had only managed to vaccum before I was distracted.)

In other news...
Headed to the store today.

Here's what I bought:

Soap.

Firestarters for the fireplace.

 (there's a rumor of maybe some snow in our future)

(don't believe it)

(the groundhog said spring was coming early)

(*sigh*)

Flashlights.

(I did not own a decent flashlight. How did that happen?)

Bakers Chocolate for these bacon bourbon brownies.

Cucumber and peppers for salad.

Lemons. Gotta have lemons.

('cuz they're pretty and smell good)

And a can of Pringles.

I haven't had Pringles for at least 14 years.

Mmmmmmmmm.

Maybe shopping without a list is not the best idea for some.

I think lists just restrict the fun.

Happy shopping.



Randomness #83

Took a stroll through the "local" farm store for enterainment.
Local is a bit of a misnomer, as I had to drive out of town about 20 miles.
Sometimes you just have to go with your curiosity.
Even with gas jumping 30 cents in three days.
But, I digress.

Just gotta love places like this. You can find everything your heart could desire,

from plumbing fixtures to halters to ammo to kitchen spices to socks.

But best of all, these:

Oh My Goodness! Don't you just want to take home a handful of

that downey sweetness?!

Might be time to invest in a new magazine subscription.

Spring is on its way.



Duffle Bag

As you may have guessed, I like to take road trips.

But sometimes I just don't want to haul around a big 'ol suitcase.

What's a girl to do?

Hop on Craftsy is what!

Found this great travel duffle pattern on Craftsy.

I prequited some fabric from my stash

(really trying to use up some stash, I just have too much)

Here's a really out of focus photo of me sewing on the straps.

I of course altered the pattern and switched out the jute straps for

duck cloth. I just can't get past the smell of jute.

On go the ends. Probably the hardest part, and it wasn't hard at all.

Except that I broke three needles doing it.

Darn zippers, seems I hit them every time.

One end on, one to go.

My finished bag.

Its big!

It could easily hold enough for a week long trip.

Vera Bradley, eat my sewing machine dust!

Loaded up and ready to go!

Madrona Road

So I promised to take some better photos of my

Madrona Road challenge quilt(s)

So here they are:

Side Roads

Gravel Road

Notice what a lovely spring day it is... except that its February.

The FIRST week of February.

Sigh.

BUT! the wonderful part about living in St Louis is that if you don't

like the weather, just wait 15 minutes, it will change.

A lovely 4 inches of snow fell last weekend.

I acutally had enough to shovel the drive and walkway.

Unfortunately, it was all melted within 24 hours.

And then it was in the 50's.

sigh.



hello again

I have not fallen off a cliff hiking.

I did not sustain a grievous wound whilst sewing.

I did not run away with a strikingly handsome millionaire.

(too bad).

I have been reading.

Yup.

Reading.

Winter break afforded me the glorious opportunity to read non-work stuff.

You know, fiction that was always meant to be fiction.

Because we all know some stuff we read at work

really isn't real.

So, you ask, what has so raptly held my attention?

Has she been reading the classics?

Reading the top 100 books of all time?

Nope.

I have been sucked in by modern western murder thrillers.

I KNOW!

In December I blew through all 8 of Craig Johnson's Longmire books.

SOOOOOOOO good.

They even made a TV series from the books, on A&E in the summer.

Now that its January I'm quickly burning through the pages of

C.J. Box's novels. Also in the modern western murder thriller genre.

Both authors set their stories in northern Wyoming, one with a Sheriff and one with a Game Warden as the chief antagonists.

So really not my usual fare, I like novels about strong women and quilting.

I enjoy writers like Sandra Dallas (Prayers for Sale and Whiter Than Snow), Lisa See (Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan), Lorna Landvik (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons), and Jennifer Chiaverini (The Quilter's Apprentice, and the other Elm Creek novels), and many, many others.

But these modern western thrillers have me HOOKED!

But.
I have not abandoned sewing.
I made a few baskets over the past month.
You know, the kind where you wrap clothesline with strips of fabric and then coil them as you sew?
This...

 Gets sewn like this....

 To make this, my new egg basket. So much prettier to see in the fridge than a styrofoam carton.

Hmmm, I think I need to run to the farm to get more eggs.

 Here's another basket that works great for holding one of my favorite fruits (or is it vegetables?)
How can you not love avocados?

I also took some winter hikes.
This is along the Missouri River just before the confluence with the mighty Mississippi.

The water was a bit low.

And here is a lovely trail in Greensfelder Park.

Check out the brilliant green moss on this boulder. I took this photo in LATE December.

I did get involved in another challenge with my St Louis Modern Quilt Guild and

with the The Modern Quilt Guild using Madrona Road fabrics.

About 20 of us jumped at the chance to turn seven fat eights of fabric from the

Madrona Road line into something quilted, using the vast majority of the fabric given to us.

We (the quilt guild) were gifted the blue colorway to work with.

Needless to say, the orangey-pink colorway is more my speed.

Sooooo.

I compromised and made a two sided quilt.

Huh?

Well, I can't decide which side is the top and which is the back.

I like them both.

So here is the warm side which I'm calling "Side Roads"

 And here is the cool side with the fabrics we were given.
I'm calling this side "Gravel Road".

I quilted them with my version of my friend's Wyoming Winds freehand pattern.
If the sun comes out, I'll take more photos with better lighting.
I can't help that the lighting in my classroom is not the best.
I'll let the president of the school board know.
Really.
He's an old friend of mine.
Somehow I don't think it will do any good.
Sigh.

I'll try not to disappear so much again.
But I do have several books to read.
There's nothing like the printed word.
Nothing.