Let's go to the HOP!

I am getting a slow start on this week's project.  But I am hoping to be hopping pretty quick. 

I am cleaning the bathroom this week and I real like my Ikea shower curtain. Usually I have a serged patchwork shower curtain in a simple design that I change out a couple of times as the seasons change. But this one really appealed and I am transitioning from traditional to more modern. But perhaps I can make a little runner on the tank!

I have realized that to get the look of whatever I am  hoping to copy,  I need to keep in mind the proportion of colours.  I did one third white and then grouped clusters.  What if I added a couple of white with some black???  hmm. 

Vicki's studio hop! 

I am also getting ready for the studio tour that begins this Friday.  It is going to be a HOP!

PS the bathroom

 Hmm, PS may not have been a good choice for the title.  LOL

But to do a quick sum up:

This is the inspiration for a custom shower curtain.  This family is all about flowers and growing things.

While the sewing is going on, I've past on an old favorite from many years ago.  Actually, I'm thinking that my daughter, Cari, is behind me about 15- 20 years in her decorating so a lot of my older stuff works great for her.  Isn't it neat how our style evolves and becomes age appropriate.

It is very hard to nail teeny tiny nails in a tiny recessed spot.  They could use adjusting.  I had two dancing geese but I managed to knock their heads off in one fell swoop!  I tried, and tried, AND tried to glue the heads back on, even with stabilizing  green tape but I realized I was wasting time on a minor while the majors were standing at ease.  So there will be no cute dancing geese even if the gal's periwinkle bonnet matched the paint perfectly.  The other pair has ordinary blue.  vbsigh

WOW Delegating a WHIMM

The line up for the bathroom at my DD's  was so long I neglected to take a picture of the wonderful world of periwinkle and white.  Gone are the fishes and hello to flowers.  I shall add an edit for the new bathroom when I return from my last long day.

I had given my daughter a piece of fabric with embroidered flowers on it.  She fussy cut each one with the intention of making a quilt.  She and I both have collected periwinkle fabrics.  So the bathroom colour sparked all kinds of happy thoughts.  It was my intention to take these squares and surround them with the various periwinkle fabrics for a shower curtain.  Patchwork shower curtains are so much fun to make in simple block patterns with the serger.  I add a folded strip of fabric across the top and space button holes for the shower hooks.  They can be hemmed or even finished with a binding for a quilt look.  A clear liner keeps it dry.

With all the cleaning and redecorating completed my daughter will have time for sewing.  :^)   I have decided to take this particular WHIMM (work hidden in my mind) and transfer it to my DD's worktable.  I shall take the embroidered squares, the fabrics, and my serger to her newly organized laundry/sewing area and she can oversee the kiddies playing on the other side of it while she plants her flowers in the periwinkle bathroom's shower curtain.

And me, I'll spend the morning hemming the kiddies' curtains, making the 2 valences for the master bedroom and one cushion for the piano bench.  Then it will be off for the final tweaking.

Little e and I joke about our new business.  When my Rooster commented on how the periwinkle bathroom added the bit of sparkle to the house colour scheme we were so impressed we invited him  into our newly formed company. ( another whimm)   No.  Did he want to think about it? He had and NO!  LOL

Yesterday we were joined by a young gal and her mother.  We had lots of fun.  Mum was stuck cleaning the bathroom while her daughter organized the kids' toys and decorated their bulletin board.  Little e touched up the painting and I tried to get the oops off the floor.  We were invited to come over in the new year to their house.  High Five!  Our first job!  ROFLOL  But first I'll have to put my own nest back together as I've done a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul!

And while you await the peek into the bathroom, please find a seat. I'll be putting my feet up and serving tea tomorrow!

I had this shower curtain from years ago and it'll be the stand in until the real flowers arrive. LOL

April Shower (curtains)

My only bathroom has to look good, at least that is what I try to drum into my farmer's head. I have given up on light towels but this is the look that I want. This shower curtain is really old but I've found a great creative solution for seasonal stash busting that helped me let this old curtain retire.


But I have discovered the wonderful fun of making serged shower curtains using simple blocks.

The first one I made I used a zig zag stitch to stop ravelling but a serger on simple blocks is the way to go.

This spring shower curtain uses many fabrics in a stack, slash, switch and serge method. I luv the surprises and the opportunity to arrange all the blocks every which way. I add a folded strip at the top on the inside and I made button holes. Then I bind with a double fold binding simply because I like the look and the bit of extra weight helps the curtain hang nicely. A hem all the way around would work well also.

Now the rooster and his ol' biddy are ready for April Showers!

Rooster Work

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? This is a moot point point if you don't add a rooster to the equation!

I'm rather flabbergasted by the gals on the DIY blogs. I'm very capable of hammering nails into the plaster walls much to the chagrin of my hubby, but I've never wanted to learn how to wield the bigger boy toys. I liked to think that in many of my projects I'm the brain and he is the brawn. Not true, but he does make me look good! lol Over the years I've come to appreciate our combined strengths and weaknesses. We have separate hobbies but we also have many common goals and projects. We compliment each other as we are definitely not alike. I would be remiss to not include my dearie in some of my projects.

Interior decorating is a very old luv. I have gotten very creative in finding budget solutions to my decorating dilemmas. One goal is to go through the house room by room and update each one. I'll be adding finished rooms as we progress to the side bar. I'd like to take at least one day a week to share about creative decorating.

The bathroom is first up. Originally this was a pantry. The wall had been moved to accommodate a bathtub. We added wall board and covered the floor with some square tiles 20 years ago. A couple of years ago we replaced the tub. We painted the wall board but now we need better flooring, baseboards and trim, and new lights and a fan.

Before:

So far:

The floor was not level because of 2 layers of old stuff and water damaged fir flooring. A thin underlay, almost reminded me of a thin bubblewrap, was used. It was also the pattern for cutting the flooring remnant. It went in pretty smoothly although it was a long day before we finally got the toilet back in place.

I must admit that my rooster is not easily distracted by my squawking that the sky could be falling and stays pretty focused so this coop should see pretty steady improvements. Time is always an issue but we'd like this finished up soon as spring is starting to happen. This week lambing began and the 'real' chicken coop needed some *editing* as we make plans for the coming year.

Creativity is developed through use and finding solutions to stetch budgets is a great learning experience. What if we put our heads together to find creative answers?

Have a look

This is the colour palette for the 3CS Colour Palette for the month.

When I saw the colours I knew I wanted to make my spring placemats with these fabrics. I have 8 of the 12 place mats sewn together. Four more to go and then the MQing. The shape is a bit odd but I needed them to be more square so I could get 12 people at the table.

Very busy day here. My bathroom flooring is finally going in.


Good thing my handy dandy hubby has a helper. It gives me a minute to post my own progress report! And I hope to have a very exciting report on Monday.