Two Heads Are Better Than One...

or so the saying goes.  But if you were watching my mom and I sew together this weekend, you'd have reason to question it.

We got together to try and finish a quilt top we started in May of last year.  Our first task was to lay out all of the blocks we had previously made.

Unfortunately, when we laid them out we found we were short 9 blocks.  So we spent the next couple of hours making the missing blocks.  Then we took another picture of the quilt and looked at it on the computer to see if we needed to move any blocks.  Notice anything about this picture? (Hint: lower right corner)

Somehow one of the blocks was made wrong.  Rather than take all those seams apart, we decided to go ahead and make one more block.  Except when we went to pull out the fabric, we discovered a ziploc bag with another 20 blocks in it!  I couldn't help but fall to the floor laughing.  I was sure we had enough blocks to start with and don't know how we possible missed these.  So we wasted the morning sewing unnecessary blocks.  Neither of us was feeling exceptionally bright at this point and hoped the rest of the project went smoother.

With the minor exception of a couple of broken needles and this strangely bent pin that my mom sewed over, the rest went pretty well.

Because there's no sashing, every single seam had to be pinned before being sewn.  There were SO many points to match up.  I don't think I've every pinned a quilt as much as this one, but the extra work was worth it.  And with two of us working on it, it went pretty quickly.

Rather than sew each border on individually, we decided to sew them on as strip sets and miter the corners.  It made adding the borders so much faster.  In no time at all, we finished the top.  We're calling it Snoobi and it has 2,826 pieces in it.

I'm not sure if it's possible, but I'm hoping to get this quilted within the next few weeks.  Fingers crossed I can get it done.

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

James 1:2-3 (NLT)

Renovation Giveaway #4 - More Books... (Winner Announced)

As I mentioned earlier, I have a lot more books to find new homes for, so here's another set I'm giving away to anyone who's interested.  There are 7 books in this grouping:

from the cover of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine

Winding Ways Quilts by Nancy Elliot MacDonald

Quilting Curves by Vikki Pignatelli

Quiltscapes II by Rebecca Barker

Spirit of the Northwoods by Debbie Field

Landscape Quilts by Nancy Zieman and Natalie Sewell

Tessellation Quilts by Christine Porter

All 7 books will go to one person.  If you're interested in them, leave me a comment below telling me your favorite cartoon character as a child.  (This isn't mandatory, but makes for more interesting reading.)  I really liked Marvin the Martian even though he wasn't a really 'nice' character.  He was just so darned cute!  (Sorry, but this giveaway is open to US addresses only.)

8/11/13 - Congratulations Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts!  I've sent you an email.

Finally Some Sewing...

After almost a 3 month hiatus, I finally pulled my sewing machine out of storage, dusted her off and sewed something!  My quilt bee does a HST (half-square triangle) swap the first Wednesday of every month.  Before I packed up my machines, I made enough of them to swap for May, June and July figuring that surely the renovation would be done before August.  Oh well.  We can see that didn't happen.  All my fabric is also packed into boxes (that I can't get to right now), so I had to go to the quilt store to buy enough fat quarters to make these.

It felt good to sew something after such a long break.  In fact, it's actually just a warm up.  I also get to spend this weekend sewing with my mom.  So maybe I'll start sharing something besides renovations pictures again!

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 

Romans 12:12 (NLT)

Renovation Step #4 - Flooring and Bookcases...

After watching numerous home improvement shows and reading anecdotes by both men and women, I naively assumed I'd be able to install the laminate flooring myself or at least with minimal help from my husband.  I'm reasonably intelligent and in fairly good shape, so how hard could it be?  Hmm.  Famous last words.  The day before I was set to begin, I threw my back out.  Fortunately, my husband (who coincidentally was against me installing the floor myself anyway) had the day off and insisted on working on it instead.  The first step was to put down the underlayment.

When he started to lay out the flooring, he realized right away that we had a problem.  The laminate planks are about 7.5" wide and his saw wasn't large enough to make the cuts we needed.  So off he went to Lowe's to get a new Sliding Compound Miter Saw.  I insisted on trying it out, as I really want to learn how to do all of these things myself.  Although I can use it, it's definitely not one of my favorites.

He managed to get half of the floor laid the first day and almost finished it up the next.  My back was feeling much better the second day, so I helped to lay out the planks in advance for him to install.  It wasn't hard, but you had to pay attention to the patterns to make sure the boards were spread out evenly.  I also tried to install a few planks myself.  I can honestly say that even if I wasn't having back problems, this is not a job I would be able to do on my own.  My neck isn't the greatest and just from trying to pound in those few planks, it was obvious that I would never be able to do an entire room.  So I'm very grateful to have a super handy husband to step in and save the day!  I think he did a wonderful job on it and I just love the new floor...

The flooring is actually Pergo Presto Gunstock Oak from Home Depot and the underlayment is Roberts 70-190 Super Felt Premium Felt Underlayment.

The room looks so barren here, but I also ordered some bookcases that came in.  I had some help in putting them together.  David and Jack (not pictured) were fascinated by the tape on the boxes.

I bought 3 of the the Threshold Carson bookcases in different sizes all from Target.com and I have to mention that the assembly instructions were some of the best I've ever seen.  Also, one of the pieces was chipped and I called them on a Sunday afternoon and immediately reached a customer service representative who was extremely polite and sent me out a replacement.  I would definitely purchase from them again.

I'm hoping these will hold everything I need for them to.  I'm considering getting a couple of smaller ones to hold bolts of fabric, but haven't decided yet.

Don't they look so clean and fresh with nothing on them?  I'm imagining how pretty they'll look with fabric!

Next up is baseboard trim and the window seat (already done).  Also, my counter tops are supposed to come in on Monday.  We still need to re-do the stairs and my husband has the plans for my new sewing and cutting tables.  I'm not sure how long it will take him to build them though.

It's getting closer day by day!

God's voice is glorious in the thunder. We can't even imagine the greatness of His power. 

Job 37:5 (NLT)

Renovation Giveaway #3 - All About Books... (Winner Announced)

Sorry for the delay on this.  I really meant to post about it several days ago, but the renovation seems to be eating up most of my time.  By the time evening rolls around, I pretty much want to do nothing more than crawl into bed!  In any case, I have a bunch of quilting books I'd like to give away to anyone who's interested.  There are too many to list in one post, so I think I'll split it up into several different giveaways.  In this first grouping are the following 6 books:

Log Cabin Quilts by Rita Weiss & Linda Causee

More Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini

Quiltmaker's Fancy - 16 Traditional Quilts for All Skill Levels

New Cuts for New Quilts by Karla Alexander

Fabulous Fat-Quarter Quilts by Better Homes and Gardens

Wheel of Mystery Quilts by Helen Marshall

All 6 books will go to one person.  If you're interested in them, leave me a comment below letting me know one sewing/quilting thing you're either hoping to learn how to do or improve on in the future.  I've really been trying to work on improving my free motion quilting skills this year and once I finally get back to sewing, I'd like to continue working on it.  (Sorry, but this giveaway is open to US addresses only.)

I hope, unlike me, you're enjoying some fun in the sun wherever you are.  We actually got a break in the heat and humidity today which made it a great day to paint some baseboard and trim outside.  So much for the lazy days of summer!

7/31/13 - Congratulations Kevin the Quilter!  Be on the lookout for an email from me.  For everyone else, I'll be giving away more books in the next couple of days.

Renovation Step #3 - Cabinets (Yippee!)

There have been a number of steps to this renovation already, including packing everything up (which took forever!), painting and pulling up the old flooring.  All of these were necessary and it was kind of nice to see the paint go up, but they didn't really give me an idea of what the room is going to look like.

Installing the cabinets was different.  Now I'm starting to see how the room is going to look and function.  Initially I purchased these unfinished cabinets from Home Depot that I was going to paint white.  Buying them unfinished saved some money as long as I was willing to put in some time and effort.

However, I didn't plan on getting sick for almost 2 months either.  By the time I had recovered enough to work on them, the renovation was already so far behind and summer had arrived with it's heat and high humidity (plus it's been raining pretty much every day for a month!)  Conditions just weren't favorable for painting outside anymore.  So to recoup some of the lost time, I returned those cabinets and purchased finished ones.

Originally I was only going to put cabinets on the left side of the window and bookcases on the right, but after more thought, you can see I decided on yet more cabinets.

And the scope of this project keeps changing, because just yesterday I decided that a window seat would be perfect there as well.  (Actually my husband suggested it a while ago.  It just took me some time to see how right he is!)  There's a great tutorial over at the DIY Network on how to build a window seat using wall cabinets, so I guess we're going to have to purchase yet another cabinet!

I've already ordered the counter tops, but thy won't be in for another couple of weeks.  I also installed pull out drawers in some of the cabinets to make them more functional.  I have these in all my kitchen cabinets and just love them!

The rest of the cabinets just have shelves...

My mind is already busy trying to figure out how I'm going to organize everything!  And as you can glimpse above, we've already got the floor installed, but I'll share more about that next time.  I think this weekend we're going to work on replacing the steps and on the new window seat.  We also need to pick up the baseboard molding.  And I'm finalizing plans for my sewing and cutting tables.  Busy, busy busy!

Don't sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. 

Psalm 4:4-5 (NLT)

My Beautiful Lilies...

Note: If you'd like to enter to win the charm squares, go here.

Those of us in the eastern states have been getting an insane amount of rain recently.  In fact, today is the first day in about a month that it hasn't rained.  We're a bit waterlogged and the ground is pretty squishy, but my Asiatic Lily has been drinking it up and just thriving!  It's never had as many blooms or been as vivid. As soon as you walk out onto the deck, you can smell it's heavenly fragrance...

My Asiatic Lily

True story.  I bought this plant at a home improvement store about 4 years ago.  It had a couple of blooms and I just loved the smell of them.  I put it in the back seat and ran a few more errands before heading home.  After each stop, I would open the door, lean down and smell the flowers before going to my next errand.  When I got home, my husband asked me what was all over my face.  Apparently, the yellow/orange pollen from the flowers had smeared all over the lower half of my face.  It was awful!  I looked like a drunken clown.  And not one person in all the places I went to pointed it out to me.  It was also surprisingly hard to scrub off.  Funny enough, when I came out of the bathroom, I found my husband had been sniffing the flowers as well.  Know how I know?  He had pollen all over his chin too.  It was some potent stuff.

My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me 

Psalm 62:7 (NLT)