Like New

Sorry to be such a horrid blogger.  So much to do, so little time to blog.  But I have news!  My walls are done!  The wallpaper is gone, the walls are textured, and now they are painted.  Most of the walls are painted with semi-gloss Great White Way (Lowe's), but each of the rooms has at least one accent wall.

The dining room has two walls of PPG's "Cloudberry."

 As you can see, we've moved right back in and made ourselves at home.  I think we ate one meal in here, before pulling out the computer and Christmas cards and everything else.

 One wall in the master bedroom is "Magical," I think it's a Sherwin-Williams color, from Lowe's.  It is a red-violet, that sings to me.  Sorry the room is so rumpled.  When it is nice and neat, my camera is nowhere to be found.

Here is a better picture, but I'd just stripped the bed after spilling windex in the middle of it.  (I had cleaned everything, in preparation for a glam shot.)  *sigh*

I chose "Rain Dance," another Lowe's (maybe Valspar?) color, for two walls of the master bathroom.

 As you can see, I still need to put the towel bar back on the wall.  I really miss that towel bar!

 The kitchen was tricky. In 2008, I painted an accent wall in the cooking area.  I used an Easy Living paint from Orchard Supply, called Cottage Garden.  Between then and now, OSH broke up with Sears, and my paint rotted.  Trying to match it was difficult.  I went first to PPG (self-proclaimed to be The Best), and then to OSH, when I saw that the PPG color was much too dark.

At this point, I have to mention that I painted the dining room and bedroom.  I hired a professional to finish the kitchen and bathroom.  I would have been happier with the results, had I painted it all myself, but I must admit it was a relief to have the last two rooms done in two days.  (Each wall required a coat of primer, two coats of paint.)  Unfortunately, the painter was horrendously sloppy, as witnessed by this corner.  You can see the 2008 paint on the left, and the new paint on the right.  I cringe, every time I see this.

 My son suggested trying the Lowe's paint match experts.  I had no hope, but I stopped by.  The woman in the paint department was FANTASTIC.  "Easy Living?  Isn't that Martha Stewart?  Cottage Green?  here you go!"  Not only was she able to match it perfectly, but she sold me a $2.48 sample, instead of an $18 quart like the other stores!!

Look at that match!!

I quickly went back for a quart, and proceeded to repaint the new green area.  Such a difference in color!!

 Did I mention that I added wainscoting?  Chairs kept hitting the wall and knocking off texture.  It is so easy!  It cost about $30, when all was said and done.  (The middle and bottom slats are to help the Liquid Nails hold.  I didn't understand the instructions, and didn't apply it liberally enough.)

 Looks like it's always been there!

So, yes, I've been busy.  busy, busy, busy.  But not with fabric.  Instead, I've given this tired 80's house a desperately needed facelift.

We didn't bring the tree in until 12/17, though we had it in the backyard for two weeks.  First, I had to finish the painting.  Having the 10' ladder in the house made decorating the tree easier than usual.

I'm calling it "done" though I still have a tub of ornaments that I've yet to dig into.

 And on that note, the important things are done.

Wishing you and yours a most Blessed Christmas, and the Happiest of New Years.  I know that I, for one, am truly anticipating 2018.  Resolution #1:  Quilt!!

Goals are good.
Merry Christmas!

Too Long

It's been so long since I've done any serious quilting/creative design, I don't think I remember how to do it.  I've been cleaning out this closet and that cupboard and dusting this and vacuuming that, and still.  I cannot find my mojo.

And so, I am string piecing, until maybe one day, a whisper of creativity will catch my attention and once again I'll be back to my passion.

And that's all I've got for you.  Well, that, and the color that I've added around the pool:

Watch out.  Here comes Summer!

New Facing, Better Corners

One thing that I've had some trouble with is turning corners when facing my quilts.  When binding them?  No problemo.  But facing?  mucho problemo. 

When Charlotte saw one of my quilts, she cringed and said, "Remind me to tell you about the video that I saw on facings!"  Then she showed me her quilt, with corners so sharp I might cut myself.  oh my.

This is one of my corners, probably the worst on this particular quilt:

 The quilt was awarded a 3rd place at BOTV, but if I hope for recognition at a major major show?  I'd better do something about it.  The first quiltie thing I did once the show was over was to take the facing off of that quilt.  That meant I also had to take off the sleeve, and the label...not an undertaking for the faint of heart.

But it was oh, so, worth it!  Here is the new facing.  Look at that corner!  It's as sharp as Charlotte's!

 It's not BEAUTIFUL on the back, but it's not terrible either.  In fact, I think it's pretty doggone good, if I do say so myself. 

And that's all I've got for you, folks.  I've done the same thing to "The Early and Late Rains," in preparation for hopefully sending it to some show somewhere.  Most of the corners turned easily, but I had problems with the last one.  I may have to go back and see what I did wrong.   Translation:  I may have to pick it out again.  At least I haven't stitched the sleeve or the label back in place yet.

Everything seems to be a work in progress.  Even when I've declared it "finished!"

And on that, I am hopeful that I will sew...if I can get my desk under control.  I had my housekeeper dust the desk for me, once I'd taken everything off of it.  I've been trying to cull through the stuff, to organize.  It's a job that took 12 hours on Monday, 3 hours yesterday, and will swallow up probably at least another 3-6 hours.  oh well.  It will be worth it, right?  Doing it right usually is...

 Except for the laptop, all of this was on the desktop. 

Now.  Don't you feel SO much better about your own little bit of clutter?  I thought so!
Happy Spring Cleaning!  oh my.  oh. my. goodness.

This n That

A few months ago, I brought home some exciting hand-embroidered pillowcases from an estate sale.  In the sale house, they had no odor.  But once I brought them into my house?  A musty smell was pretty apparent.  I spent a lot of time online, trying to find the "cure" for mustiness.  I tried several things, and in the end, it seemed to require a combination of treatments, the most important of which was boiling water, "to kill the mold spores."  Baking soda worked better than vinegar to remove odor.  And then I set the pillowcases flapping in the windy sunshine for a couple of days, to be sure it was gone.  So far, so good.  The mustiness seems to be gone.  Good to know that there is a cure, right?   Apparently they already knew that in "the olden days."  In modern times, with modern machinery, it never occurred to me that boiling water served a vital purpose.  Kind of a "duh" moment for this history major.

 

 

With the quilt show fast approaching, I've spent a LOT of time at my computer.  I've been organizing and typing and ordering and sorting, and with Quilt Week arriving on Monday?  I've needed to add some variety to my life.

Last week, my housekeeper - yes, I have one now, for 6 hours/week - helped me deep clean the china hutch and several kitchen cabinets.  When she left, I had dishes EVERYWHERE.  It took another 45 minutes or so, to put them all away.  (I shifted things from here to there and everywhere else.  It was a huge undertaking.)  But, wow.  I think this is Spring Cleaning, at its finest.  At least for me.  Look at all those nice orderly plates, bowls and glassware.  woohoo!

 See all of the hand-thrown pottery?  The blue/white, and brown bowls and casseroles were all made by my mom.  She passed away in 2000, so they're becoming vintage.  Some are chipped, some are cracked, but unless they end up in two pieces, I always return them to the cabinet.

Yesterday, I needed a sewing break.  I put together a card for a friend whose birthday isn't for another month.  But I had the little found treble clef, and didn't want to misplace it yet again.  I think I got it in a baggie of jewelry odds and ends from yet another estate sale.  It has a little rhinestone in the tail, which I think is adorable.

And, hmm.  yep.  Nothing to see here, folks.  It's just a typing extravaganza extraordinaire. 

Best of the Valley Quilt Show opens to the public at 10am on Friday, April 7.  Please come, and bring your friends.  Guaranteed to be a highlight of your quilt show attendance for 2017, especially if you love to see exceptional quilts, up close and personal.

A New Look

While we were out of town, the painters were busy.  For the past couple of years, I've been considering this color and that, trying to find just the right color for our house.  We live in the Central Valley, where houses are beige and grey and cream and maize and the colors of the land when shrouded by fog.  In the winter, when we do have fog, the view can be dreary and depressing.  Same thing during the summer, when the heat and the haze beat down the landscape.  Everything is drab and dusted in dirt, especially now, in the midst of this drought.

Our house looked like this:

When we bought it, it was shades of grey, with a bit of white on the lapboard.  When we painted it the first time, we thought it would be light blue, with medium blue trim.  Instead, it came out "white," with Disneyland blue trim.  Oh.  My.  It's been this color for at least 10 years, and I've never been happy with it.

It needed painting, and this time I told my husband to trust me.  oh my.  I barreled through, painting patches in the shade, in the sunlight, next to the brick, making sure that I liked the chosen color.  I did.  I liked it everywhere I painted it.  So I went with Acapulco Cliffs, expecting something happy and beachy.

The camera doesn't capture the color.  In real life?  In the brutal light of the sun?  It's the color of Gumby.  I wish I were joking.

The good news is that it looks crisp and clean, and that part of the assault on the eyes comes from all the shrubberies that were pulled out to access the walls to paint them.  I think a trip to the nursery is in order, despite the lack of water.  (Notice the lawn?) 

The color is growing on me, but it's definitely deeper than I expected.  I thought it would be more like the 6-foot section of a swimming pool, not 12-feet deep!

The other good news is that the neighbors are still speaking to me.  I've only seen one do a head-fake and scurry back into his house.  wow.  Paint is tricky.  Too back I couldn't have covered the house in fabric!!!

This n That

After last week's intense experience with the well, this week seems pretty uneventful.  Last week was exhausting, and stressful, and I didn't even do any of the work!  This week, I am apparently content to sit in front of the TV for hours on end, watching the Spanish-language station (I don't speak Spanish).

Why would I do such a thing?  We don't have cable, so I don't have ESPN.  But Univision is free, so I'm watching the World Cup.  In Spanish.  Goooooooooooooooooooooooal!

It has been quite entertaining, but I find that I have to look up a lot more when I don't understand the commentators' chatter.

I finally had the new ceiling fan installed in my bedroom.  The old one broke in October? September?  The old one broke months ago, I ordered the new one in January.  It's been sitting in a box on the floor for MONTHS.  It was finally installed on Monday.  yay!

It's a lot more comfortable in there now.

We're going to have the house painted in July.  I've been washing outside walls and trying out paint.  My camera sees color differently than I do.  I'm going with the medium color. 

It was my first choice, but husband thought it was too dark.  "Go lighter!"  So I put on the lighter color, and it resembled the local trash trucks.  ew.  He said, "Go darker!"  And the dark was just a bit too much.  Then he told me to "Paint an entire wall!  I can't visualize it."

I almost told him to go jump in the pool.

Instead, I painted part of a wall.  This is all the same color, but the camera sees it differently than I do.

It's hard to believe, but I am confident that once the house is painted, it will recede into the background of the neighborhood.  When we bought it, it was a dreary grey.  We painted it what we thought would be pale blue.  Instead it was almost a glaring white.  Our house literally jumped onto the street.  It had been invisible, suddenly it was THERE.  I am hoping to fall back to something less noticeable, and "Acapulco Cliffs" (Pittsburgh Paints) seems to be just the ticket.

My Nana had brightly colored houses.  She said she didn't care what the neighbors thought, she just wanted something that made her "happy" when she looked at it.  This one makes me happy.  :)

Quilting also makes me happy.

I'm in the process of starting some of the applique from the David Taylor class last month.  I haven't finished picking all of my fabric for the entire image, but this part gives me some handwork to so, while I sit in front of the TV.

I definitely have a lot of work cut out for me.  It's all good.  Happy Quilting!!

Catching Up

No pictures today, I have nothing to show.  It's been a week of catch-up and sit down.

I am happy to report that I made 4 cards, and delivered 2 of them.  The other 2 are set aside, to put into shipping boxes, once the rest of the contents have been assembled.

I made no progress on the quilt-for-hire.  In fact, I basically made no quilting progress at all, unless you count washing a few yards of fabric, buying 16 yards of fabric (40% off sale - who could resist?), and cutting out 6 surfboards for applique.

Last week was devoted primarily to nuts.  We got the first numbers, and the crop is down more than 25% from last year.  We're told that everyone's numbers are down.  Perhaps next year there will be more?  The good news for us is that the price is up.  Good for us, not so good for you, eh?

On Saturday, Wanda Dunavan, one of the key members of our Best of the Valley Steering Committee passed away unexpectedly.  Her funeral is today.  I'm still in shock, as I saw her on Monday, and on Thursday, first at Sew Eclectic, then at Valley Oak Quilt Guild.  She was an active quilter, in both CA and CO.  Her absence will be deeply felt.

Finally, on the dog front, I had Homeless neutered yesterday.  Both dogs (Happy and Homeless) have been at our house since Monday.  So far, so good.  Monday night I locked them in the dog run, on the side of the house.  There was very little barking.  Last night, Happy was loose in the backyard, Homeless was locked in the bathroom.  There was no barking at all.

I let Homeless out into the backyard about an hour ago.  bounce!  bounce!  bounce!  Those two dogs could not stop bouncing.  Perhaps I should call them Happy and Hoppy?

There's a lead on a home for Homeless.  If that doesn't pan out, it looks like they're here to stay. 

But you all knew that long before I did, didn't you?

Goal for the week:  applique the surfboards in the evenings, quilt on that quilt-for-hire during the day.

And that's a wrap.

Home Improvement

I get distracted from quilting, as I try to pull this house together.  I want to be happy in it, no matter which room I'm in.  That's not just a goal, that's a Grand Goal.  Gotta have 'em, right?  Like "earn a ribbon in Houston."  :)  Shoot for the stars and maybe you'll land on the moon during your descent.  ;)

So anyhoo, I ordered some new lace curtains two weeks ago.  They arrived yesterday. ooh aah.  I like them, very much.

The first went up in the pool bathroom.  I took down a lace valance with a green satin ribbon running through it.  This is the new improved valance.  Beachy, right?  :)

Since I was ordering, I thought it was high-time I updated the dining room.  This was the old look:

This picture was taken back in August.  See the vinyl in the window?  To prevent peeping Toms?  And the draped lace sides?  There were some loopy lace valances across the top as well.  Can you say, "So 80's"? 

Welcome to the 21st Century, Kistler House:

oh!  Look at that!  I hung one of them upside down!  I didn't notice it until I downloaded the image.  haha!  It is now right side up.

My thanks to Country Curtains, for their nice selection of window coverings.  I'd definitely call this an improvement.  yay!

No Weekly Quilt Goals

Well, with carpet looming tomorrow, there's just no way I can think about quilting.  Instead, I'm imagining dismantling my Studio again, and getting stomach cramps.  Quilting?  Not gonna happen.  I have a couple of pieced quiltlets (5 x 7" cards) that I can embroider in the evenings, but that's about it.  No goals this week, other than carpet.  Anything else is unrealistic.  (Even carpet in a week is unrealistic. ;)

However, I did finish painting the bathroom.  I have a few odds and ends remaining to go on the wall, but other that, it's done, for now. 

I still have to strip the cabinet, stain and seal it; we still want to replace the sink and faucet.  Goals are good.  We'll see when those get done.  Here's where we are to date:

So far the reception of the stripes has been good.  As my oldest boy says, "It totally changes the mood.  I like it!"  yay!  I like it too!

The quilt is currently off the wall and outside blocking.  I made it in 1992 (does that make it vintage?) long before I'd heard of blocking quilts.  Unfortunately the color in the backing fabric migrated to the front while it was drying.  grrr.    Some of the pink has come out, but there's still some remaining in the sky and a bit of the water.  oh well.

Okay.  No more stalling.  Time to prepare for emptying the rooms for carpet.  aaaaaaaaa!!!!!

Still Lacking Self Control

On my drive home on Friday, I had the chance to stop at Piecemakers in Costa Mesa.  I'd checked their website, and saw that they had Threadgatherer silk ribbon, a brand that I've really enjoyed using.  They are only a few minutes off the 405, so it was really, right on my way.  I'd only been there once before, probably in the last century.

oh. my. goodness.

They have more than silk ribbon.  They have perle cotton, in every color and in weights I've been looking for.  I was a very bad girl, but I'm still happy about it.  Now I can embroider to my heart's content, in any color I may wish.

I had a wonderful, wonderful week in Oceanside.  I think I know why I don't take weeks at the beach.  It is so very hard to return.  Visalia is the best the valley has to offer, but it's 100+ degrees and roasty toasty.  I look around me and ask, "Why do people live here?"  :)  No offense, but really.  Why do we live here? 

I guess someone has to do it.  :)

I got back Friday night, and by Saturday morning I was back to work.  My weekend goal was to finally paint my pool bathroom.  So far, so good.  I've put on two coats of white, and today I will add a couple of blue streaks.  Hopefully it will look artistic, not stupid.

Remember all the drama from last September?  When I got new carpet after 20 years?  Well, the carpet was deemed defective by the factory, and needs to be replaced, at their expense.  It is in town, and we are scheduled to begin replacement on Thursday.  I looked at all of the samples over and over and over again, and could not find anything that I liked as much as what I originally chose.  They promise me that this is a new batch, made with enough glue, and that it has been tested twice for glue strength.  I hope I am not a fool to believe them, as I love the way the carpet looks.  If it's as durable as it is supposed to be, it should last 20 years.  I am not holding my breath.  The last one started pulling the week it was installed...

So anyway, last week's blogging was a desperate attempt to play catch-up.  Hopefully things will calm down and I will blog at a more moderate pace.  I've blocked a couple of quilts, and once I've taken their glam shots, I'll post them on the side wall.  Goals are good.  :)

And on that, I have a bathroom to finish painting.  Tomorrow is Tuesday, so I'll try to come up with this week's goals in the next 24 hours.  In general, I hope and pray that the carpet will be replaced during the week, but it's the quilting goals I'm more concerned about.  How will I get anything done, if I'm ripping apart the house?  ;) 

Hopefully I hatch a plan.  Catch you again tomorrow!

Degrees

B.S.

B.S., D.V.M., M.P.V.M.

At home...

 "What are you looking at me for?"

There's never a dull moment...

Honey?

Can you please replace the leaking faucet?

I don't think I'll ask that question again!