BOM from the Past

The next partial quilt project that I dug out were the blocks from a Block of the Month in 2000.  (I’m not even sure that is the right year.  It could be 1997 or ’98 for that matter.)   The patterns were posted on the World Wide Web… quite a big deal back then.  The World Wide Quilting Page.  Were you on it?  We were on dial-up, the forum was all of black & white and one color.  It was archaic!  So very slow.   But I had contact with other quilters and we had all kinds of chat about quilts, patterns, and Featherweights.

I had bought some extra fabric (all the store had) near the end of the year so that I’d have enough for borders and binding.  All of the blocks and the fabrics were in a storage box together.   I think the patterns have long been thrown away.  I thought I needed to make another block yet to have my 12 but there were 12 finished blocks in the pile.  Yeah!  There are 2 patterns repeated and I assume that I didn’t like my first fabric choices so made them again.  However, at this point, I was fine with having 12 blocks done so I used them all.

The blocks are 18″ finished.  I made a sizing template on scrap fabric and stretched or shrunk them to make the all the right size.  Tons of spray starch!  LOL!!  Where there’s a will there’s a way.  (Love doing this actually as then there is no fudging or puckers or tight spots when adding in sashing and borders.  Sharon SchamberNet has youtube videos on it.)

Here are a few blocks draped on my long arm frame —

Blocks —

Center —

 

With all borders and ready for quilting —

 

 

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Spruced-up Dresser

While redecorating one of the bedrooms this winter, I sorted and cleaned out the dresser drawers.  Then before the dresser returned to the room, I used that wonderful Wagner 915 steam cleaner and took care of any remaining bird seed, stuff, and grunge.  🙂  Love that machine!!

I used Reynolds refinisher with 0000 and 00 steel wool on the dresser and then their furniture polish afterwards.  P fixed a few drawers that were coming apart.  The construction is poor and the materials are poor quality but he put it all back to better usable condition.

Before —

The dresser was P’s grandmother’s and we claimed it when she was moved to a nursing home around 1990.  I hoped there would one day be another wee one in this bedroom and wanted an old dresser for dresser & changing table as I had done for Miss K.  The dresser isn’t fine craftmanship and neither is P or JP attached to it.  I could have gotten rid of it.  But there is still something in me that wants to keep the family piece of furniture.

After —

Not new or perfect but smooth & shiny and clean!  It took me about 2 hours of strong elbow grease but I’m pleased with the improvement!!

 

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Mother’s Day ’14

One dear daughter made a quick run home for a 21-hour visit —

Flowers and gifts for my studio (to be decorated & posted later)!

One dear son called and chatted with me and sent the first of many yet-to-come final grades —

He has finals this week so I’ll see him soon.  The weekend was for studying!

My brother & SIL brought my mom out for the weekend.  I think this is the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve seen her on Mother’s Day in the last 30 years.   My brother mowed for us, SIL planted 12 tomato plants in the garden, they maybe got a bit of R&R, and were spun in the chaos of our spring lifestyle but endured!  (Since P had eager helpers, he quickly smoothed the garden for the tomatoes with the 4-wheeler and the best red-neck garden leveler ever! But at speeds that made my photo taking difficult to catch 3 in one frame!)

 

 

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Bedroom Redo

We spent 6 weeks this winter working our spare hours off in JP’s bedroom.  I thought it would be my job but I had 2 requests of P.  I had the goal to have the ceiling repainted and the new fan/light installed by the end of January.  Those were his jobs.

However, he joined me in the job and did the bulk of the work!  Yeah!!

The embarrassing “before” photo though even before this, JP had moved back to the dorm and P had already moved a lot of stuff out.

 

The poor walls sporting their best 1990’s sponge painting!  I had taken down the little boy wallpaper border years ago so at least we still weren’t looking quite as toddler-ish.  But ugh!!  My new Wagner 915 steamer was fantastic for cleaning the walls and trim!!

 

Paint samples on the walls.  P scraped up all the carpet himself!  Glued down, rubber-backed carpeting, ala 1970’s.  Awful.  He cut it in sections about 3′ wide and then would layer the previous section’s foam crumbs on the carpet piece and roll the carpet with the foam tucked inside.  He was able to haul each roll out himself.  And had it all done and gone by the end of the month dumpster pick-up!

P scraped the sprayed-on ceiling to just a bit of texture with a 5″ hand scraper/spackle knife type thing.  Then repainted it all with Sherwin-Williams Elegance (?) ceiling paint.  He said it was great paint — this is the first S-W paint we’ve used on a ceiling though I have been using only their paint for walls & doors for years.

P also installed a new ceiling light with fan.  We don’t call him Sparky for anything but this job went pretty well.  Poorly made & big-box store fixture so don’t be hanging from it!

I also wanted new baseboards and P cut them all to (near) size before I painted.  I’m not sure we’ll do it that way next time.  I ended up with too many pieces to paint!!  But OTOH, it was winter and they had to fit in the room so I could paint them.  I wasn’t painting outside!!

Partway through the project, P asked if I really wanted carpet instead of the laminate we had been discussing. YES!!  I know there are those that are anti-carpet but I much prefer that, especially in bedrooms.  We got great help & service at the Floor-to-Ceiling store and the carpet was laid the second of March!  Yeah!!

I did all the painting but the ceiling.  All the paint is from Sherwin-Williams.  The walls are S-W Sea Salt and the trim is S-W Eider White.  I love it!  The walls change depending on the sun or not.  Light gray with a drop of sea green to more green.  The carpet isn’t a perfect choice but doable.  It is gray with a green cast as well.  Choosing from my 3′ wide sections of paint and a 6″ square of carpet doesn’t always play out right in a whole room.  However, neither was I getting new carpet and then painting either!!

The closet has a new coat of “closet white” paint… I didn’t know if the differences in walls – trim – against the closet white would show in this photo.

And then we let the room sit, basking in our break for 10 days until it was time for JP’s spring break in mid-March so we put the furniture back just in time.

We still need the closet put back together and we need to buy and paint closet doors but that will happen once I can paint outside.  We are quite happy with the results of all our work and have threatened to sleep in there.  Mostly the door is closed while no one is using the room so it all hides.

 

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