November blocks and some Home Dec

 I got done my bathroom sign for the downstairs powder room (which is still in a state of mid-paint) and it turned out pretty well.

I used this tutorial by Crafts By Amanda except instead of using paper letters I used my Silhouette and vinyl. The vinyl made it even easier because the transfer paper keeps all the letters in place for you. And there is no Mod Podgeing over the letters.

It's a great tutorial. I've been scared to use crackle paint, but it was super easy and I definitely will be doing it again in the future. But, if I were to do this one again, I would chose a lighter white paint. I picked Antique White and it is too tan/brown for me. Hopefully soon I'll have pics of the whole finished bathroom!

I also tackled some of my bee/charity blocks. For do.Good Stitches November Linda asked us for orange, blue and black blocks from this tutorial. Here are the two I came up with.

In addition, Val over at Pink Please! put out a call for charity blocks for the Heroes Foundation. She was asking for one 10" string block using this tutorial from Film in the Fridge. By the time I pulled out all my scraps large enough for strings I figured I might as well make two. And from now on, scraps large enough for strings will be stored separately! Also, I've only done string blocks without paper. I had some puckering in the center of my first block so I definitely wanted to make a second in case that was a problem.

finally did more curtains!

While I haven't been able to sew the last few months, I realized what was bugging me was not being able to quilt, but rather the fact that I haven't been able to decorate our house! We've been here now for 8 months and we have almost nothing on the walls and I haven't finished my "million curtain challenge".


The contentious spot right now is the great room fireplace. Well, really the whole room has me overwhelmed with the sheer size of it, but here's the fireplace.

 

Yeah, it's big. I marked the 8x10 photo for scale. That got randomly thrown up there and I realized I need bigger art for the walls! LOL.  So bare with me here. This fireplace is about six feet wide and I don't know how tall with the arched ceiling. I had this print on there.

It too is huge and I've had it forever. IMO, it's been waiting for a space like this. Problem - my husband hates it! He took it down while I was sleeping! So we need to find a compromise for this space. What would you do with a space this large!?

So, on to my real reason for posting. I got down work on some new curtains yay! Here are the old ones.

 **note - these photos were staged. My sink is not usually this clean.

Close up of the ginghamy loveliness. My goal - to not have to replace any curtain rods. I've learned my lesson with my bedroom windows. Long story, but I had a hard time finding the right thing.

So here's what I've made.

And with tie backs.

There is actually no windowsill on that frame so I was a little unsure how long to make the curtains. I wound up just eyeballing it and I'm pretty happy with it!  One more window down... 4 more to go!

A little decorating and a little fabric.

If you've been here a while you know I've been working on my daughter's "big girl" room. She's 2 and just got her first big girl bed. This is the quilt I made for her and the story of how I picked her "theme". One of my inspirations besides this table...

was this Pottery Barn Kids room:

So I have grand ideas of making cute little pictures like those hanging on the wall. I have all the supplies but it requires me to stop quilting for 5 mins! LOL!

But the other day we were killing time in Big Lots and I came across this adorable frame for $5 and knew immediately it was perfect. I had purchased an Eiffel Tower applique ages ago and planned to make a pillow but decided to put it on some pink fabric and frame it!

What do you think? The only thing I'm bummed about is that it has no hardware to hang it.  So I set it on Samantha's shelf and when she saw it she said, "ooohh, a castle". hmmm... someone watches too much Disney.

And I don't want to leave you without some fabric goodness. Let me gush for a moment about Tula Pink. Those of you who are new here, you must know I adore her work. I love that she hides things in her fabrics, her colors are so gorgeous. Anyway, the new line is no exception. This stack of beautiful-ness arrived on my doorstep the other day!

Right now I'm torn between the Frogs and Snails as my favorites.

You can't even tell those are snails until you really look!

And I really want to get my hands on some raindrop laminate, its so adorable! But I think my favorite thing about this line is how well it plays with all her past lines. There are nods to the lines within the designs, but almost all the colors have some tie to her previous lines. They are just "juiced up" and more saturated versions.

So if you only have a little bit of a discontinued line **cough cough Neptune** this will go so well with it! I hope you all like Prince Charming too because I just blew my fabric budget and won't be purchasing any new fabrics for a while! ;)

WIP Wednesday {24}

This week really went quickly. Maybe it was the holiday. Or the constant rain? Either way, we have sunshine today - yay! eta - it was sunny when I wrote this yesterday. not looking so good for today. :(

Finished this week:
Pretty {little} Pouch Swap -  I think I want to do a separate post for this shortly.
Fabric organization -  I got some breathable drawers at Target and finally have a place to put the fabric I folded so nicely.

In Progress:
King Size Bird Bath - working on the sample blocks to send for a decision by my mom. The Kona bone definitely goes with the Aviary2 colors better, but my mom has her heart set on white. It will be interesting to see what she decides. They both look great though.

Supernova - I am in the middle of quilting this one. I keep doing it in shifts because I get so bored quilting straight lines. I think I need to break out of my mold and do some free motion on an upcoming project.

For the Supernova I've also settled on and cut out my binding. I hope the bold binding doesn't take away from the quilt. I debated a lot on what to bind this one with.

 I've finally settled on my 3x6 Bee block and did the mock up in my colors. All the fabrics have been pulled for my partners, I just need to get piecing.

Pattern testing for a friend - in progress. No photos at this point!

And my biggest WIP - the bathroom! I'm proud to say I stripped all the wallpaper in that room in a little over 2 hrs.

There were 4 different wallpapers in that room and some came off a lot easier than others. There is one little section that hubby will have to do because I couldn't get a ladder close enough to reach it. But phase one is done! The walls look good enough to paint. Now for the patching of holes. Interesting side note - I think the wallpaper was original to the house (1969) because when I peeled it off the walls are just primed and there is writing on one about where the pieces should go.
Here's the view from the outside room (laundry) through the door. I'm deciding on my paint colors. The purple is out due to the laundry room being red! All the rest of my color swatches are gray. There are a LOT of grays to pick from in the store.

Pending my attention: (same as last week)
PMQG Charm Pack Challenge - I think I know what I'm doing for this, I just need to do it!
Boy burp cloths
Amy Butler Bag
curtains

Total WIP's this week:10

Stop by Lee's at Freshly Pieced to see what everyone else is doing!

Another sewing hiatus?

The verdict is in. I took the machine to the repair place and they've kept it to make adjustments. I'm seriously annoyed. I have a Bernina and it wasn't cheap. Meanwhile I've had it in I think 4 times in the last year and 2 months that I've owned it. That's way too much right?  I'm thinking they shouldn't be charging me for this latest repair. Especially since it was just in for repair in January after having been tuned in November. Am I right or am I just angry?

The other thing I'm aggravated about is the service. They tell me the sewing machine man will be in on Friday. But oh wait, since it's a holiday, he may be in a different day. But - they don't know. And all the rentals are gone, so call to see if they come back and if the repair man has come in.
Really? Do they not know I'm going through withdrawal without my machine? I think my future career should be sewing machine repair. First so I can take care of my junk machine and second because it seems like a pretty flexible job no?

sigh.

I've let them know I'm not happy with it. I think when I go back I'm going to ask about any buy back or trade in programs they may have. The problem is all they sell is Bernina and Brother and I don't think I want either of those.


At any rate. My type A tendencies are going a little crazy during naptime without a sewing machine. I always have to have a project. I've been cleaning my closet and pulling out my spring and summer clothing. I also did some more fabric organizing.

And I think this project is next on my list. Warning - bad photos ahead!

 This is my main floor powder room, you know, the one guests get to see? It's where country floral went to die. There is not only a border on the top of the room...

There's one on the bottom too! And that pinky red color? That's a striped wallpaper too.

My favorite? The balloon valance and lacey cafe curtain. It's hard to see, but it's fabulous. And really, this is a first floor bathroom - how about some privacy?

Thankfully the previous owners did update the sink and toilet so they are nice. All this really needs is wallpaper stripped and painted and replace the window treatments. I'm nervous about peeling the wallpaper though because the walls are plaster. Hubby has scared me by saying it might not come off smooth and then we'll have to wallpaper over it! Have you removed paper from plaster? Any tips??

Also I haven't decided on what color to paint this room. For reference, the room that leads to this is our laundry room and it's that burgundy/red that was pretty popular a few years ago. And the tile on the floor is kind of a mottled pink. The rest of the downstairs is either white or a neutral peachy/orange. The bathroom is really tiny so I'm afraid to go dark. What do you think? I was kind of thinking light gray since I've been on a gray kick. Have you done a gray that you love? I'd love ideas.

The house adventures begin

The other day I mentioned carpet shampooing and I know you all are just holding your breath waiting to hear how it turned out.  So it thought I'd share some pictures as I go through my house adventures. You can let me know if I'm boring you to tears.

The only room in the house that has carpet is the great room. It had a giant area rug in the center and when we pulled it up this is what we found.

We had no idea how much discoloration had occurred around the rug.

It's hard to capture in pictures. Especially in such a large room.
At first I wasn't worried, I thought I would just get a new rug the same size to cover it up. But I come to find out they don't make rugs this big. The looms(?) don't come wide enough. I have no idea where these guys got this rug from!  To have one specially made would cost so much we might as well just re-carpet the place. So now I'm feeling pressure to make my steam cleaning work.
I know someone in the carpet business and they recommended Capture cleaner instead of the stuff they give you with the rental. After this, I would totally recommend it too! Here are my results.

There is still a bit of a line on this side, but no where near as bad as it was. I think the dog lived on that side of the room because it was worse for the wear over there. But we can use a new rug to cover it there.

But this side the line is almost non-existent! Wohoo!  And wine stains came up like nothing. So excited.


Now I know ya'll are looking at those windows and you want a closer look at that fabric right?

Oh yeah! There are 5 windows in this room with this fabulous fabric!  /end scarcasm/

I apologize if this is your taste, but it is SO not mine.  What's funny is that when I was looking at curtains in the department store, I think I saw this exact window treatment still for sale!  I'm sure it was put in this house circa 1990.
So time for an update and I'd love your help. I picked up a couple of patterns that I'm considering.

From McCall's 6299 I'm considering the red one:

The bird one (without the birds, just with patterned fabric)

Or from McCalls 5872 I'm considering the reddish swaggy one.

Or should I just do a simple gathered straight curtain?   What do you think?

I need to cover the shades that are under those curtains, and I don't want long drapes. All fabrics are still TBD.  I'm considering some of the new Ty Pennington line, Vicki Payne, and maybe even Anna Marie Horner. But I feel like I should narrow the style down first.

I'm going to attempt to put a poll on here, feel free to leave comments if it doesn't work (or even if it does!). And if you have any great curtains you'd like to share, link me to your photos. I'd love to see them!