Saturday's sum

I've been focused on those east facing rooms.

The Sunshine room is shaping up.  The paint colour should be easy to pick now but it'll be a sunshine colour.

 I spent some time deciding on curtain length and then I ordered a sheer white leafy panel for behind the orange panels.

Since this other room will become a bathroom, shorter curtains and similar treatments facing the road will work.  The pair of duvet covers I chose for this room are more worn and have a white background with  woven stripes running vertically in pale mint, pink, yellow and blue.  I'll have options!  I did get my design wall hung and I hope I haven't wrinkled things beyond redemption nor lost too many pieces.  I can also have my big ironing board set up in here. :)

I did get all the assorted boxes edited and down to a box for each family member.  vbsigh

This room is now officially done until the bathroom renovation begins. The framed scene is my dearie's retirement gift from his work.  Perhaps I can call it the reading room.  The Rooster studies his books and files.   I read my quilt design wall to see if it needs tweaking and when the reno happens I'll be sure to include a magazine rack!  LOL

The tree canvas is as good as it is gonna get for now.  Nice thing about stretched canvas is that it can be recycled!  

No shortbread again this week but the calendar pages are all up to date.

Now to load up some of my 'desirable' stuff to take to DD's casa so she can begin to accumulate her own stuff!    First is to take that empty file cabinet from my hallway.

I am a bit miffed that my sticky fingers creative time is taking a hit but I am beyond thrilled when my head hits the pillow at night that I am actually making progress with my stuff reduction program.  Very Satisfying!
But I can't quite face what is under my bed so I think I'll do the hallway next week, especially with the filing cabinet gone.  LOL

Wow my worktable is orange colored

The wow today is more about what is NOT on my worktable any more.  I am finished the Altered Book, Leaves and I can now concentrate on some other things.

Creativity 101 with Jenn has us trying our hand at making some cards.

I also have spread out my new fabric choices and I am super excited about a package of Bali's I impulsively snatched up in my search for some FQ's of orange.  You must admit that there are a few oranges in the mix!  lol   It is called Tonga Treats and is from Timeless Treasures and has 40 10" x10" pieces.

I also shopped my stash of stuff and found a duvet cover that I got from the thrift shop and I'm considering it for curtains in the new sunshine room.

hmm, oranges are a Christmas treat.  I wonder if anyone has done an orange themed Christmas!  :)

I'm linking to The Needle & Thread Network.  I bet they are busy on seasonal stuff!

Respite

I'm back inside for a bit. I'll be doing some respite for a few days. So that meant a bit more work in the Sunshine room. I adapted some sheets and we fixed the bookcase. Not the best quality but the shape is exactly right.

I am also starting to gather the squares for the grandkid's quilts. I need to decide how busy I want them. These are supposed to be nap quilts! 8)

Another deep breath

Weekends are always rather hectic with hubby home and prioritizing job lists and wanting coffee. Then Sunday is always family day whether it be the kids or church family.

So Monday I regroup, refocus, and start again.

A rainy start Sat. morning so we whipped over to the nursery for a couple of additions to the tree list. I got 3 natives for that north bush. They had such BIG perennials. I'm so tempted to return. Hubby wanted a 'stately tree' over by the barn. We got an elm that is resistant to the Dutch Elm disease which is taking out so many trees in our province. I've promised to exactly measure between the four fixed spots so it'll be in a stately position. LOL But we are nearing the end for the trees and flower beds. I'm hoping for one more really good day for my beds and then a couple of evenings to finish up the shelter belts.

I get a lot of self seeding in my beds and I like that it keeps things from becoming too predictable. Dill is one that self seeds.

A post in my blog roll showed Lauren painting the 2 storey wall on her stairway peacock blue! I wish I was braver. I dragged out my favorite Susan Sargent's books for colour fixes. My Ukrainian hubby winces when I do. He wore a bright green t-shirt but doesn't want it on a wall. :( I scratched a few mosquito bites as I relaxed and filled my mind with colour. She says we suffer from chromophobia. Guilty! But I saw I'd underlined that she recommends individualized colour palettes. Now I grab paint chips every time I'm in a paint department.

After everyone left Sunday and we'd rescued some young trees from quack grass and I went into the playroom and rescued paint chips from overflowing baskets and tubs. What a great exercise to sort them! Solid colour from the combos and then the solids into a colour wheel layout. I set aside my favorites and I'll see if there are some obvious preferences and a way to tie them all together into a harmonious whole.

The Grand son had climbed right into the new bunk bed in the Sunshine room. In fact he took a 3 hour nap! Now this room was my first deeply coloured room. Why am I stopping? I do like it. It is zeal that makes me plunge in but then doubt says you can't keep it up and get it right. A fluke?

Now another blog is a decorating site that says the decorator is worth the cost because she saves costly mistakes. I'm afraid to make a mistake but perhaps it is time to step out on the limb so to speak and make a few mistakes, learn a few things and enjoy the whole process.

I'll have some time to think as I focus on starting the laundry, setting the house to rights and stuffing the last pots into the ground. I will have play time this week as a quilting friend is coming to visit.

So the deep breath says, the house gets a lick and a promise, the yard gets finished, pertinent possibles for painting are gathered in one spot, and I'll be ready to blow the doubts away!

Is it a win/win?

Whoa, the humidity is excruciating. We've gone from shiver shiver and wet to pant pant and wet. A lot of the water is on our persons! 8^) So I realized that paint wouldn't be drying and stuck with the slight breeze outside. This weather is getting complicated. Now we get humidex warnings. But I drink water and try to pick the shadier beds.

It's beginning to look good and during the hottest part I redesigned the little garden at the front step that the dog demolished in his quest for relief from the mosquitoes. I think he is now liking the wet mud in the potting shed. We had another huge but brief storm this morning so the beds will need to dry again. I think that fake stacked stone would be excellent around those old timbers. I can hardly wait to explain it all to my dearie!

My bunk beds arrived. hmmm! Before you glance at the picture, here was what I asked for. Special size bunk beds. I want the bottom like a box with wheels so I can pull the bed out and vacuum. I want 3 drawers with wooden handles, (sketch showing the half moon style) I want ledge to keep mattress in place. Simple open style similar to Shaker. Dark stain. No foot or head board for top and ladder on end. He did question the head and foot board and I asked if structurally it had to be there as we'd discussed ladder being part of end. He said well, no. I said I didn't want them then. Now win/win is something my hubby says is important in dealing with anyone. Both need to benefit equally.

I appreciated his promptness. I am very happy with the size. A regular bunk like my kids just got is WAY too big. I like the colour. I would have liked the ends more open but they are okay. I HATE the 3 little drawers on wheels. I didn't want slats I wanted posts. (Shaker!) I will try not to think too unkindly every time I drag out the bed and endlessly line up the 3 little drawers. If we put a layer of Styrofoam under the mattress it should be more comfortable to sit on the bed. My hubby works lots with contractors and has been at my side for the whole proposal. He says 80% The materials are not up to value and the workmanship is only medium. There are always communication issues so I'll take some of that. But probably the biggest thing is creativity. He thinks assembly line, big box stores. I wanted innovative and it was not what he is used to. I feel I overpaid for what I got. He is entitled to a wage but the material should be half. So not exactly win/win. No bad mouthing, I just won't use him when we do my kitchen. Actually, I wish my dear old hubby who was a carpenter's helper on many construction projects could learn how to use some of these new tools. He only sighs and waits for my final revision when he does things for me. And the truth be known, I work with his abilities. He is not a finisher but a rough carpenter. He is also picky, VERY, so I get some classy rough work which suits my simple style design sensibilities! And that would be WIN/WIN

Pick yourself up...

dust yourself off and start all over again. Well, maybe wring yourself out! 8^)

We are back in water, in the house and out! Goodness, it doesn't matter anymore, it just runs off as the ground is SO saturated.

Saturday my farmer and I spent the day in our big barn. Wonderfully satisfying. I am more the sort, shove it over and shovel it out kind of gal. Fine tuning is not my strong suit so I really like making huge big changes in messy situations rather than puttering with something that hardly shows any effort! We didn't get done but my dearie is so impressed he thinks we should keep going and tackle the other barn/shop. He asked what I think we should do with all his auction find sales of exercise equipment we'd planned for a home gym. Well, we were right pooped! It took us a good part of Sunday to recover. So the 'gym' will be not be happening. We are too busy doing the real thing to designate special times for rotating on a stationary bike! LOL

The back half of the barn is for livestock. The front half is for the summer kitchen and the miscellaneous stuff like feed. The top no longer stores hay but is one big storage area.


We had gotten the baseboards to finish off the sunshine room when we got the parts for the well. Josh's Dad cut them for us. We used 2 different kinds to get what we needed. They are ready for painting and nailing into place. I'm glad I never took out anymore baseboards. They were old 8 inch fir on plaster walls. They splinter and are kinda expensive to replace. Live and learn!

Now Josh and I need to have a meeting of the minds to see what we want to do while the Grand Farmer is off at work. It is back in the barn for us tonight. I wonder if he'd like to put pink patches together?

Still Stripping

When I first hit on the idea of seasonal decor I began at spring. And I kept beginning again every spring. It is a besetting sin! That is why I am a bit fixated on committing to a plan (i.e. blogging) so I can get moving along. This was one of the spring quilts. I had some peach. I was thinking peach or cherry blossoms and that spoke a slightly oriental/modern theme. My peaches were rather sparse, old, and dated. The amounts weren't huge and I decided that all together they could work. So I began to cut strips and I just sewed them end to end. Then I cut them into the quilt width I wanted. I did some preplanning as I adjusted them and added spare strips to move the more noticeable ones about the surface. I had a very large chunk of the border which is pinky/peach. I don't like those wide fabric borders so I inserted some leftover strips to break that up. That peachy/pink is also the backing. Quilting in the ditch is not real exciting. So I used my 3 step zig zag and did a wavy line down every second seam. Then I reversed direction and came from the opposite direction for the seams I'd missed. This kept the quilt from skewing or twisting off square. It does take a bit of patience as time is added by the zigging and zagging. But I was very pleased with the results. It is a handy quilt and sometimes shows up for a summer accessory.

I do have both sunshine room tops sewn. This second one is not trimmed as I wanted to show how the edges shift. I should have paid more attention to my alternate sewing directions but it is easy to get turned around. I also have one fabric that is definitely not as wide as the others. I'm deciding if I need to rip a few and re square. The fabrics on the left are the backing fabric options. I split the orange with the busy dots that I used as thin accents for the top so I'd have equal amounts for each backing. It is an April Cornel Polka Dot by Moda. It works very well in the sunshine room. I want to use the trim that is in the valence, that darker stripe, as well as any leftover cut strips. I have a Michael Miller Serengetti Patchwork fabric with animals on it that I think would add some fun. I'm really tempted to leave the dots as one piece, use the stripe as the dividing line and then use leftover strips of the orange as spacers for the animals. Binding I'll worry about later. Hmm, perhaps I should think about pillow cases as well. But I am so liking to actually stay with this project and not assign it a hanger like so many others. I will carry on with the choices for my summer fabrics as I'll have my ornaments and stuff out so I can see how my fabric choices would work, but I doubt I'll start any actual projects. I do have some things that need finishing as well as these 2 spring quilts. I also have a lot of quilts that work for summer and want their day in the sun! 8^)

Processing the WIP

The sunshine room (gold) needs two kid's quilts. The criteria is modern, spring, circular and fairly quick. Inspiration came from Sue*Sewn.

The first palette options. I'm using the area rug in the hall as a colour link to the upstairs rooms.

The Amy Butler Midwest Modern was the starting fabric. I find things change when I get the cut fabric up on my design wall. The bottom right doesn't work. The darker stripe doesn't even get more than one cut. The gold is sewn in but I'll be ripping. There is an orange with small dots I like but it isn't adding to the modern look so I cut the strips in half, they'll finish at 3/4" and add some colour but won't take as much from the look. I have a red/orange that is in need of taming down and a dark orange/brown that gets 1 strips for an accent. I'm deciding whether to piece some of the yw/or/br mottled fabric and try it. The backside works better than the front which has silver dots on it. After cutting, I divide the fabric into 2 piles for the two tops to get even proportions of each fabric.

I have to see things up on the flannel. So I flap up some of the strips. That's where I see those mini dots. :( Amy will need to be spread around, the light orange ??? Whoa on that brown. I need to preplace the lights, brights and the darks.

Then I start to make some units. I pin the more noticeable fabrics all over to remind me to keep an eye on where they are going. I can join the sections with the cut strips in the medium range of colour. I need to tone down the red/orange so I won't put any high contrast light fabric beside them. The top on the left is coming along, ready to sew the loose strips to the sections. The top on the right has one section up and the high impact fabrics loosely in position.

When I get the base done I'll be looking at my options for the circles. I'm considering the colourful stripe on the top of the stack of fabrics for 2-3 inch circles. The next design consideration will be how to attach the circles but until then, I'm stripping! lol

Stepping forward into the sunshine

It was few steps back yesterday. He 'who knows' says I put the blue rapid rods in backwards. So if I take everything apart, pull those blue thingies, repair with glue the particle board mess I'll make, clamp and let dry, then he 'who knows' will see what he can do! :(

YES! I read the instructions! Whose to know that I needed better glasses to see the ends were different. awk! The good news is the damage is gonna be hidden. PHEW!!! ;)

Now the valence was redeemable. It was too long and I needed to lose the ruffle at the top. It was easy to do but would take a paragraph to tell. I just put the rod into the pocket from the back with the pocket and offending ruffle hidden and let the valence just hang from the flipped rod. It pleases me because there are no stitched lines showing and it looks very classy! Easy peasey!

I now realize that the focal point from the doorway is that bookcase. So I need it to be smashing. I'll have to give some thought to not jumbling the kid's books that it'll hold. I do have a decent lamp and shade. So far so good. I need to put the closet door back up but I'm reviewing that Cloud White trim colour which came highly recommended by two paint consultants. My gut says I need a creamier white. I'm not brave enough to have a variety of trim colours throughout the house so I need to decide right here at the start. But there is always a what if...

Then I've been slicing all my ironed fabric. I have the fabrics up on my new flannel design wall. I need to whoa those reddish tones and drag back those lights and maybe pitch that dark. I need to keep the flavor modern so no cutesy prints even if they are the right colour. I really hope to NOT go for more fabrics. I mean, how many oranges is this gonna take? Who'da thought I'd be doing orange! But I'm luving working with it. The fabric I seem to be dragging thru the spring palette is Amy Butler, Midwest Modern. Yellow/blue/green in the kitchen and possibly in the guest room, yellow/gold/pink in our room, and then a brown/orange/cream for this sunshine room as it struck me as more masculine.

This will be a good project to work on between landscape projects. I should take my mind off those yellow damdelions, the only yellow I don't like.