Adjustments Needed - Adjustments Made

 

What do you do when you've packed quilts that normally hang on the wall so you can bring them to a talk you're giving? Do you allow the walls to remain - gasp - Naked?

You do not. You find something to hang instead.

So Wanda's quilt now hangs in the side hallway (No fear, Wanda, the skylight above is treated to block the sun's UV rays), and the White Rules quilt hangs where the Letters From Home quilt normally hangs. I actually like these here and may leave them up for a bit so I can enjoy them.

I moved the Black version of the Rules quilt to fill the empty space in the dining room. Since it's a new month, it was time to shift the quilts on the table and the back of the couch. Since many quilts are packed I decided to put red quilts on display. This is Peppermint Swirl, that I made back in 2016-2017.

I put the Red Sticks quilt on the back of the couch, and I brought out the red pillows to match.

I put my colorwash quilt on the wall above the TV. I'm happy. I don't like empty spaces on the walls.

Family Birds

 I have been making family birds for the bird quilt my Mom wants. This is my mom's boyfriend bird. He worked as an electrical engineer, and the brown fabric reminded me of circuit boards.

This is one of my brothers - the cabinetmaker. He's pretty chill, so the color is cool.

This is the rock climbing brother. The round colored dots reminded me of rocks.

My sister has never met a multicolored fabric she doesn't like, so her bird is made from multicolored fabrics.

My Mom spend a couple of days in the hospital this past weekend, so we are all concerned about her. They changed her medications, and she tires easily. She recently celebrated her 92nd birthday. I am under no illusions. I know I don't have a lot of time left with her, but she says she isn't ready to depart this earth just yet. I try to make every minute count.

All this has been happening in between the construction going on in my kitchen and dining room. It's going well and I am very happy. I'll be happier, of course, when it is finished and I can put my house back together.

If you want to make birds, they are an awful lot of fun. You can get my tutorial here at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download and you can get started right away.

Windows

I've washed all but two windows in my house. I'll do the last two later today, when the sun has moved away from them. I not only washed the window above my kitchen sink, above, but I also took the mini blind down and washed it too. It's amazing how much brighter the view out the window is.

I did the same thing to the window in my bedroom over my bed. I can't figure out how to take some of the other mini blinds down. I know how to do some of them, but I don't want to break the others, so I will figure out a different way to do them. Every window in the house has mini blinds, and they aren't all the same.

Both these rooms face north so they were easy to do. We've had three days in a row of 89F+ temps, so I've got the AC going, and have prepared my menus for the week with recipes that require little or no cooking.

A Little House

Woo Hoo!  I like this. I love the color crayon walkway and the colored squares make me think of a flower garden.

Welcome House

 A couple of days ago, my pal Valerie suggested I add a mini "L" and "T" to my little house. As soon as I read her comment I knew I'd have to change my house. I wasn't comfortable with the amount of empty space or the size of the door in the original house.

I like this a lot better. It's not fussy-perfect, and it isn't intended to be.

The inner outline of the blue tape represents my size restriction for the finished welcome panel.

I'm not quite sure what to do to fill up the empty spaces yet, but I have lots of ideas, so I'm not worried. I have a plan for a colorful walkway, and I want a little tree or two.

What's really funny is that I've been watching "Tiny House Nation" while I've been making this panel. Coincidence?

Little House Welcome

I finished the WELCOME for the door panel, and got started on the house. I was thinking of a bright pink house, but something stopped me. My house is tan, and the door will be bright pink. If I was welcoming friends into my house, shouldn't the house on the panel resemble, at least a little bit, my own house?  So this house is light brown and the door is pink. And of course you can see Millie and I in the windows.

It's a start.

Charlotte, Your comment yesterday deserves a reply, but I don't have time right now to do it. I promise I shall address the issue in an upcoming post. Short answer: I blog to share what I am doing.

A Little Welcome - with an Update

Like the Artist Alphonse Mucha, I don't like empty space.

When I come home each day, I'm confronted with this homely space on my side door. When the weather warms up, I'll paint the door pink, like the letters in Monday's post, but the space will still be empty.

  I measured it, and thought about something quilted to put there. It would have to describe me and what I do. A little Welcome panel with a house and a tree would be just the ticket. There would be a cat in the window, of course, and maybe a lady at a sewing machine.  With one square at one inch, the letters would have to be petite, but I think it would be a lovely addition.

Update:

Megan, The door faces North, so it never gets any direct sun. The entryway is covered with an awning, so it never gets wet from rain or snow, and in New England we have an addtional "storm door" in the winter. In the summer, the window gets replaced with a screen, so the fresh air can come in, but the bugs stay out. The little quilt will be well protected and last a long time (until I get bored and decide to replace it.)

Kathy, by all means, steal away. As Picasso said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Charlotte, the door is textured metal. Painting it would require special paints and more time and effort than I am willing to expend. Besides, I like having the option to change my mind.

Sharon, am I going to piece the letters? Is the sky blue? Is the Pope Catholic? They sure aren't going to be applique'd! LOL! Thanks for the laugh.

A Funny

This is the wall at the other end of the big tub in my master bathroom. Instead of a quilt I thought it would be fun to hang my colorful purses.

I've been trying to clean up the garden, collecting the leaves and otherwise putting the garden to bed. I have been spending inside time reading. I'll be back to sewing soon!

On the Home Front

My house is on a hill, so from my living room and studio I can see the roofs of my neighbors on the hill below me. It means I have an unobstructed view and I get great light.

It's magic when it looks like this.

I'm almost finished setting up the house. The master bedroom and master bathroom are finished, as is the guest bath. The kitchen is all organized as is the dining room and the china cabinet. All my dishes and serving dishes are put away and organized. I've got a lot of my artwork and quilts hung up on display.

I still need to hang the flannel on the design wall, and hang things on my "Inspiration" walls - the photos and notecards from friends, the things that make me smile, and the things that inspire me.

The office floor is finally clear of junk, and a lot of paperwork has been sorted and shredded. I need to sort and file a big stack or receipts, but that's a job I'll do this weekend, when I can sit in that room when it is full of daylight, and I have no time restraints.

Coverup

The master bath in the new house is my least favorite room.  It's got a big jacuzzi tub in the middle, surrounded by fake marble and carpet, and is open to the bedroom itself. If that's not bad enough, there is no traditional medicine cabinet and storage in the so-called vanity is meager at best. Instead there is a wall with built-in shelves, and they are equally homely.

I hate having all that stuff on display, and wondered what I could do about it. I need the shelves, so I couldn't get rid of them.

The solution came to me as soon as I asked myself the right question.

"Can I cover it up?"

Hell yeah!!! The quilt is hanging on a curtain rod that's well secured. I can lift the quilt to access the shelves and stuff behind it, yet not have to worry about the quilt falling down or into the tub in case I ever decide to use the thing.

Heh!

Clean House

I saw this quote over at Nancy Near Philadelphia, and I am thinking it might just be my next fun little word quilt. Along with the pigs.

No one would ever accuse me of a life mis-spent.

Side Trip

I made this house panel for Michele.

Orange House

I made another house last night. In this one, I was really trying to use fabrics that really pushed the envelope a bit.  None of these fabrics is exactly a shrinking violet, and it can always be tricky to work with several big prints. 

Here I've got three big batiks - the sky, the ground and the house itself along with big prints in the door, the windows and the roof.  The roof print is very traditional, but here it's used rather un-traditionally, as roof tiles. I'll use this house in my class next week, to encourage my students to use fabrics in different ways.

The big sky print (it's the same fabric I used as the outer border of the Four Seasons quilt) makes me think of a very humid, rainy, breezy day. Maybe this house is in Seattle.  Or maybe it's someplace in the Mediterranean.

My House

 My house is kinda boring. I have lived in the bottom floor apartment of this house for over 25 years. I thought its boring-ness was a negative, but when it comes to free piecing your own house, it turns out to be an asset.

 I wanted to include a house in my alphabet sampler quilt, but I hadn't done many houses back then, and I didn't want the house to take over the quilt.  So I took a picture of my house, and then drew it out to scale. 

 

As you can see, it took a couple of tries. I had to eliminate the elements that would make the house look three dimensional, and I had to work out the scale. The windows would be one inch by two inches. I thought it would end up smaller, but the finished house panel is about 14" x 18".

I actually added the cat in the window after I finished the house, but I think it totally makes the quilt. You can read more about my thought process here.

A House is a House, Part Two

Back in October, when I finished piecing the letters for my alphabet quilt, I started thinking about the house I would add. Eventually I decided to make a slightly wonky pieced version of the house I live in.

Over the Christmas Holiday, I started thinking about the house again. I decided that since it's white, the background would have to be darker, so I decided to use the letters with the black background. While looking at my sketches, I also decided not to make the house strictly black and white. So I picked a soft green for the windows, and lavender for the doors. The roof is a couple of very dark greens, the steps two browns and the foundation is a grey. I don't think I was really thinking when I added the blue backgrounds. The one on the sides of the house really doesn't do much. I might rip it out and replace it with the blue sky fabric. My house does have a chimney, but I couldn't see it in any of my pictures, so I left it out. Of course, the house also has a side porch which I left out too, as well as the bushes in the front.

My upstairs neighbors really do have an oversized potted plant on their porch railing, and my cat really does sit in that window. The windows are 1" wide by 2" tall. The house block is 14" x 18". You can click the photo to enlarge, if you like.Here is the block with a picture of my house and one of my preliminary sketches. I didn't make a pattern for the house, and I didn't use paper piecing. It's all free-pieced.

Happy New Year! Thanks to all of you who read this blog and give me such encouragement. Have a very healthy and prosperous New Year.

A House is a House

Although this is a perfect house to display in a traditional type sampler, it isn't my house.My house is much plainer.
But I've lived in it for 22 years, so it's the house that's going to go in my alphabet sampler quilt. I am working up a drawing so I can figure out how big everything should be. It looks like the house will be about 9" x 12".

I also sewed up 5, 6, and 7.And had a great phone conversation with my pal Tracey, who makes the most divine sock kitties.This is her interpretation of Millie and Monty Q.

You can see mine here.