PAINTING IS FINISHED

Wow!!  what a great feeling.  My living room is completely painted in the most luscious color:  Iced Cube Gray.  It is so fresh and clean looking.

My hubby and favorite son-in-law switched the sofa for the love seat and now I love the spaciousness in the room.  I will have the carpet cleaned and then bring in a couple pieces of furniture for quilt storage.

The other thing I am doing is hanging this Modern Mystery Quilt that was designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.  When I decided to do this mystery quilt project, I planned for it to be a wall hanging in my living room.  It has been finished for quite a while and now it is time to hang it.

My Art Quilt is hanging over the fireplace and it looks so much better on the gray wall.

The wall paint takes on a blue tone at certain times of the day as the natural light changes.

All of the furniture has been moved back in and I absolutely love the "new look".  It makes me feel like I have a new house.

The Love Seat with the coffee table.  This picture makes that coffee table look out of proportion.  LOL   That is a painted silk piece on the wall behind the Love Seat painted by Chris Sandow.

The "Princess Chair".  This is the biggest chair!  When we ordered it from the book at the furniture store, I had no idea how over sized it would be.

My mom's drop-leaf table that my hubby refinished for her and she only used it for about a year before she became ill and lost her battle with cancer.  That was over 25 years ago and I have kept this table and used it in several different rooms in my house.

"Our corner" where we spend most of our time reading and relaxing.  This is where I do a lot of my hand quilting and sewing hexies.

And this is Little Bit's corner where her favorite doggy bed is.  This is where she always runs to when she gets a treat.  It is also very close to the foyer leading to the front door where she must check to see who is walking on the sidewalk.

My next big adventure for this room would be to be able to update the upholstery and maybe even remove the carpet.  But, in the meantime, new paint and some new wall hangings make it interesting.

I almost forgot to mention that we do have a little TV in this room.  Hubby thinks it needs to be replaced with a larger one, but I am very happy with the little one.  The huge one is in the basement "man cave".  I love those two little bird pillows painted by my artist friend, Chris Sandow!  They always make me smile.

Well, as you can see, this is clearly an eclectic room.  At least, that is a nice way of saying it is a "hodgepodge" of styles and moods.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you are in my area, come on over and we will have a cuppa.


                                       -sandi





 

MAKING IT UP AS I GO

I have been working on a quilt top as a gift and it is due next month.  I had so many extra parts and pieces left:

that I decided to make a pieced back so I could use up all of this "girly" pastel-like fabric.  Maybe this will be an attempt at de-stashing.

It started with

combining a few units.


Then I put some units with more units

Now I have some bigger units.

Tried combining these to see what it would look like.

Okay, by now I am seeing lots and lots of seams.  Wonder how that is going to work when I start quilting it.  I was planning to quilt this on my mid-arm.  Ummm, don't know about that.


I kept working and working and working. . .

Now I have two large "panels" and the light bulb came on!  This is going to be another top!! 

  I am thinking I need to do a traditional back and piece 2 or 3 fabrics together and call it done for the original top.  Then get it quilted and wrapped!


I started a third panel and when I have it all put together  I will then decide how I want to assemble it.  It is reaching 60" x 70". 

This could be my first attempt at Quilt As You Go.  Will just have to see.  I am not sure if these panels are too large to handle as QAYG or not.  Back to doing some more research!!  Give me any tips you might have about this.

 I have had so much fun with Improv!!!  Thanks Joe Cunningham, Gwen Marston, and Victoria Findlay Wolfe for your inspiration!


                                           -sandi



 

FLAME ENERGY

It all started at Thanksgiving breakfast back in November.  As we finished our meal, Nick brought his place mat to me and showed me a fabric in the center of the leaf and asked, "Would you make me a quilt with this fabric, Grammy?" 

That place mat was made with some leftover Maple Leaf blocks that I had made several years ago in a class with Klaudeen Hansen at A Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge, TN.  Each participant had brought a specified number of fabric pieces and then they were all distributed and we made our blocks from those fabrics.

When Nick asked about the fabric for a quilt, I knew there was a problem.  I had never had this fabric in my stash so there was no way there would be any left.  I began a search on the Internet and came up empty handed.  The fabric was just too old.

So, I did the next best thing.  I began to search the fabric stores for a replacement.  I had another conversation with Nick and asked him what it was about that fabric that made him want me to use it.  He responded,  "I really like it. I like the color and all the curves".  This helped me start to look for the new fabric.

The flame fabric was selected and he liked it!  I added the Kona black and another piece of fabric from my stash.  The palette has been established.

Now for the design.  I sketched and doodled and finally reached my decision.

I would work with color blocks for a big statement.  I also found the backing fabrics in my stash collection.  Nick had picked out these fabrics when he and I went shopping one day.  He loved the ATVs and the dots.  They would be perfect for the back of this quilt.

 

Nick stretched out on it immediately to check it for size!

Then, of course, LilBit had to get in on the pictures!!

Result:  one happy grandson with his new quilt and one happier grandmother who had made the "perfect" quilt for him.

                                                         -sandi
 

DAY 2 SUMMER PAINTING

Two days of painting:  one whole roll of blue painter's tape and a gallon of paint later I have two walls completed.  Yep, two coats of paint on both walls.  Love the color!! 

The first two walls were the hardest.  I wanted to get the tough stuff out of the way first.  The next two will allow me to use the 6" roller more.  They should go a little faster.

Then to have the carpet cleaned and move the furniture back and get the large sofa exchanged for the love seat that was supposed to be in here all along.  That love seat got sent to the downstairs den a while back for a temporary stay.  The time has come.  I want it back upstairs where it belongs.

The new color makes this piece look so much better.  Here is the before:

Oh, yes, a lot better!

I am liking this more and more!!
 

STARTED THE SUMMER PAINTING JOB

I painted this room about 5 years ago and I was madly in love with this mint green.  It was so fresh and soothing.  Now, not so fun anymore.  I want a fresh, new look.

So, here goes, I am going to paint my Living Room during the next two weeks.  No, this room is not huge, I am just slow at painting.  I know it will require two coats because I am using a grey color, called Ice Cube.  I will give updates as I go along.

Here are the two samples I painted on the existing wall.  I am using the top one.

Okay, now the ladder is out and the drop cloth is ready.  Now I will just start painting.  I am starting on the wall with the bookcases and fireplace because I think that is the most difficult wall to paint.

Lil Bit is in position on the sofa to do the supervising!  Of course, she dozes a lot while I am working.

I am working on a new quilty project to hang in this room when the painting is finished.


                                                    -sandi
 

TUESDAY HAPPENINGS

There is nothing more fun than getting together with friends and visiting and doing quilting and/or crafting projects.  Two friends, Sharon and Linda, and I get together monthly and do just that.  Usually we work on our own selected projects, but a couple months ago Sharon suggested we all do the same project and see the different results.  Linda suggested we make floor quilts.  I had seen these at various quilt shows and had bought a book while I was at the AQS Show in Paducah with the intention of making a rug for my kitchen floor.  Linda had another book that she thought was a good source so we went with that book as our guide.

Linda was our fearless leader and led us through the steps to create our "rugs" called Floorquilts.
We had our Show and Tell in Linda's Studio.

On the left is my version of a fairly traditional Rail Fence with a little improv addition of some circles of flowers and strips;  Sharon is in the center with her lasagna strips where she added some rectangles for interest; and on the right is Linda with her beautiful Layered Circles of Kaffe Fasset fabric on a black background.  This was a fun project that we spread out over two months.

We are experiencing a bittersweet time right now, the three of us.  When we arrived at Linda's studio yesterday the For Sale sign was up on her lawn.  She and hubby are moving back to Florida.  We will really miss her!!  She has so much talent and expertise to share and I don't think I have had enough time to learn all I want to learn from her.  Besides, she is such a sweet friend!!

We will continue to get together until she must leave and continue to count each gathering a special blessing.

                         -sandi
 

FLOORQUILTS

In my small group one of my friends, Linda, suggested we do Floorquilts as a project together.  It was a technique that I had not done but was definitely on my bucket list.  Linda found this book for us and we all purchased our copy and we got started.

I decided to make mine almost square to use in my kitchen.  I chose greens to do my rail fence design.

I chose to use a toile drapery fabric for my backing.  It was necessary to prep this piece with Gesso.

LilBit is looking for her home in the design!  LOL

After the Gesso step we moved on to attaching our designs to the base.

These strips have been treated with a diluted solution of water and ModPodge.

After I made the rail fence blocks I decided I wanted a little contrast so I did some circles at the intersections.

Then I added the "binding".  This is so fun because it is cut and paste.

Now comes the sealing and finishing.   Using more Mod Podge and sanding between coats is the first step.  Then it is sealed with an Acrylic Poly sealer and some skid resistant product on the back.  The rug is ready to use.

                             -sandi

BOM PROGRESS

Okay, I now have my third block finished on my Modern Block of the Month and I am loving it more and more. 

This month was a modern version of a Drunkard's Path block sewing half circles.  There was a little challenge with the template.  Once I had that figured out and that my printer was a little bit off it went together as easily as the two previous ones.

One of the things I like to have when I must copy a template from the computer is one of those 1" squares to check the measurement by.  Then I know if my printer is playing tricks on me or not.

I did not have that on this pattern, so it took a little sewing with  a practice block to see what I needed to do to get the proper sizing.

There are six blocks in this project and I am thinking that I want to do two runners with three blocks each and use them as window treatments in my family room.  I shall decide when I see the other blocks.

But, this looks interesting to me with the first three.

If you would like to join me doing this project, take a look here:


 Pile 'o Fabric blog written by Alyssa Lichner http://pileofabric.com/blog



                                     -sandi