Thank goodness for crafy friends!

Last fall, my good friend Karen decided it was time to clean out her fabric stash. She sent me some stuff she thought I could use. I saw one huge piece (original price tag still on it), and it screamed "blanket" to me.

I have no idea why I didn't get right to work on it (or why I didn't iron it for this picture). Maybe I was busy. Maybe I remembered the half done, falling apart, not even close to square baby blanket I tried to make 2 years ago.

But my craft closet was overflowing, so I decided to start on it. Seemed easy enough. It's just three pieces of fabric on the front, and 4 on the back (more on that later). It has quilt batting inside. I laid it out on the dining room floor and pinned it together with 200 quilting safety pins. Then I noticed the backing was just too darn small. I took all the pins out. I added another piece of fabric to the back. I pinned again.

Next up, drawing out the grid for the yarn ties. Left to right was easy since they are on the stripes. I'd get a line or two marked and realize I was going sort of diagonally instead of straight. I was crawling around on top if it, cursing. Tried again. I'd try to square it up to the previous lines. I'd get half way down a row at 4 inch intervals, and then the next square spot would be 3.5 inches. Ugh. I was almost ready to throw in the towel.

Then, magic. Magic in the name of Grandma Mary. She came over last week, and we were talking. She was telling me about every blanket she's ever made. There's a quilt in her guest bedroom that I love. She was telling me she was just going to lightly quilt it, but then looked down and realized she was on the wrong row. Instead of taking it out, she just did more work to hide her mistake. I think she said she was going to quilt ever other seam, but got off a row. So she ended up doing twice as much work. And then she said, "once your blanket is laying on the bed, you'll forget in a week that some of your ties are a quarter inch off. And no one else will even notice in the first place."

I got back to work. Marking it. Stitching and knotting the yarn. Making bias tape. Machine sewing the bias tape to the front, and then hand stitching it to the back. It isn't perfect, but I was happy. I washed it. Half the knots didn't hold up so well. Last night I was crawling around on the floor yet again to fix those. Then I tossed it in the dryer and went to bed (which explains the wrinkles).

It's for Ellie. Fabric from my dear friend Karen. Made by me on my Mamaw Judy's sewing machine. She was there with me in spirit. Sage advice from Grandma Mary gave me the push I needed to finish it. I hope Ellie sleeps well under it for many nights to come.

On a break

The hard drive on my computer is full. I can't download pics from my camera.

Well, it was full. We tried to delete some stuff, and now it won't even start up.

John pointed out that the middle pinwheel on my runner was backwards. Then I noticed two more were too.

The thing I am currently making has brought me to tears and kept me up way too late. And is breaking my back.

So with that, I am on a blogging break. I'll be back.

Fresh from the dryer

How long until I can put up the Christmas trees?

That's right. TREES. Woot!

The print fabric for the pinwheels is from the line "12 Days of Christmas" by Kate Spain. I used the same fabric for the circle garland I made last December. The plain fabric is Kona cotton, and is an off white color called bone. The fabric for the binding was left over from my tree skirt last year. I don't have the name of it.

Now I'm without a project. I could go back to my log cabin, or pull out more sewing. I've been thinking about sewing a lot lately. I could work on some around the house project too I guess. Or sleep? There's an idea.

The girls have finished their after school snack. Back to work.

Pinwheels and Ellie's bed

Last December, I bought these fabrics to make a Christmas table runner. I knew there was no way I'd get to it last year. I figured if I started now, I wouldn't be in the Christmas rush to get it done this year. I have the blocks done. I need to add a little strip of plain fabric between each block, then a border on the sides and ends. I'll free motion quilt it. I am not sure what kind of fabric to use for the binding. It might have to sit for a while after I get it quilted.


Ellie's bed is done and back in her room. I tried to wait for a sunny day to get a picture, but then gave up on there ever being one. Or course today is sunny, but I already have this picture. I spray painted it Krylon's Sun Yellow.

Paint job number one from last winter.

It looks better to me. Probably not worth the effort I put into it though. Gah. It would look better if the walls weren't yellow. But Ellie loves her yellow room. I'm done messing with it for now.

John's given me a list of miscellaneous jobs we need to get done around the house, then we can move onto remodeling the next room!

I never said "After"

Dining room last summer.

And I am certainly not saying it now! But, I could say something like "closer" or "another item off the list" or something else that gives me an out so I can change things up later.

This picture hides the hole that's still there from the old fixture.

This one doesn't.

Why on earth wasn't the old electrical box centered in the room? When the old chandelier was there, the person sitting on that side of the table would hit their head when sitting down or getting up. We took it out and put in a cheap flush mount fixture the summer we moved in.

Sick of this picture yet? Last June.

Old chandelier.

I really wanted to get a picture from this angle again, but the table that's in that corner is full of junk, plus it's raining AGAIN today. I took a picture but it was super dark. If the sun EVER comes out again, I'll take one.

It feels like a real dining room now!

The do-over.

Primed. Again.

The moment I moved Ellie's bed into her room (in December), I didn't like the color. But I had talked up the new bed, new room thing so much that I just had to go with it. When I looked at the paint for the bed next to the paint chip for the wall, the bed color seemed a lot brighter. It was paint I already had, so I was happy not to have to buy more paint. Once I moved the bed in there though, it was almost the same color as the walls. It was not what I had envisioned at all.

This week, John has been gone. I had the perfect opportunity to paint it. Ellie and I have been sleeping in Mary's room with her. I moved Ellie's box springs and mattress in there just on the floor. I moved the frame out into the garage on Monday. And there it sat. The only time I had to work on it was after the girls were asleep. I just didn't have the energy. So when Ellie was with John's Mom this morning, I finally got started.

Pictures of the updated color when I get it back into her room. I hope I like it!

Cat (and clean bedroom) optional.

Sometimes, I wish I could have fancy pictures for my blog. But let's face it, I don't have time or the energy. I really wanted to get some current pictures of my log cabin blanket. I managed to get the bed cleared off. It was piled with junk as John is out of town, and I sleep in Ellie's bed most of the time.

"What does a cat have to do to get some sleep around here!?!"

Maybe I would have made more of an effort to get a better picture if it hadn't been so cloudy. Most of the ones I took came out super dark. I tried to take a sweet picture of Momma Cat and she just looked like a ball of fur.

So, knitting. Yeah. I am going to finish this blanket in under a year. I started it in late August or early September. It now measures about four feet square. I was hoping that one more time around (all eight colors) would finish it, but now I see that I'll need to go around two more times. Holy cow. This last section nearly killed me. I think there's about 240-250 stitches per row. Twenty rows per section if you count the cast on and the bind off. So somewhere near4,800 stitches in just the off white section I just did.

I left it on the bed all day. I'm getting ready to take a break from it anyway. I loved walking by and seeing it.

"Thanks for the new blanket, now go away."

Fancy pictures to come on a sunny day when this bad boy is complete. Maybe we'll even have the bedroom remodeled and cleaned up by then.