It's a Kitchen Again!

After a week of my BIL working hard, I am back to having a functional kitchen!!! I am SO happy to not be doing dishes in the bathtub anymore. As far as esthetics are concerned,  the only changes to the kitchen you see are a new sink and faucet. We reused the counter top and cabinet fronts. The base cabinet boxes are completely rebuilt, out of much stronger stuff than the originals, all the plumbing under the sink and in the walls has been completely redone, and the holes that had to made in the concrete wall have all all been shored up and made safe. Hopefully it will be a LONG time before we have any more plumbing issues in the kitchen.

Next up is the upstairs hallway bathroom, which right now is down to wall studs. All the demolition is finished in there, and now the reconstruction begins in there.

Life has been pretty chaotic around here with all the repairs and renovations going on. I haven't had the time to figure out a layout for DS the Younger's wedding quilt, so the bits of sewing time I've had, I've been working on blocks for an Aussie quilt for DS the Elder instead. Stephanie, my dear friend in Canberra, helped me acquire some Aussie fabric, because DS the Elder loved his time there a few years ago. Most of the fabrics are large print, so I needed a block with big pieces. I chose the Garden Path block, which is an easy block with large enough pieces to showcase larger prints. I have about 34 blocks done, but only a couple of those pressed.

Not too much else going on, which is a good thing! I'm not sure I could handle much else ;-)

My Sister is a Winner!

I come from a pretty creative family. My dad did a lot of woodworking, my mom is an amazing seamstress, plus she knits, crochets, and used to make wedding cakes on the side. My oldest sister does lots of crafts. She quilts, does several papercrafts, doll-making, along with many other things, but one of her passions is cake decorating. She entered the Hershey contest for 2013, and this was her entry.

Isn't that an awesome chocolate castle, all decorated for Christmas? I just found out she won the contest, and I am so proud of her! Great job, Sis!

I'm definitely now winning any prizes these days. Remember a few weeks ago I said I had water seeping up through my kitchen floor? It's time to tackle that problem now, so here is my life at present.

This wall normally has cabinets, a kitchen sink, a refrigerator...yeah, not now.

Like the mold that was growing under the cabinets? The manufacturer of our cabinets went out of business, so they need to be rebuilt, since we're not up for replacing all the cabinets in the kitchen. Our kitchen was remodeled in 2006, and I certainly wasn't planning on a big redo now.

I did manage to finish my Chimney and Cornerstone blocks this week. There is quite a pile of them, since I needed 60 of them.

I stuck a few blocks on the sewing room floor just to see how it would look, and I'm liking it. I hope DS the Younger and future DDIL do too!

I have a lot to be thankful for during my chaos. My BIL is in town and can do the repairs we need, which is awesome! I'd much rather pay him and not have to worry about whether or not it's done right. I have several meals prepared and in the freezer, which will feed my family while I have no water in the kitchen. Hopefully I can keep my mind on my blessings while I'm doing the dishes in the bathtub tonight!

Round One

This hasn't been a great week for sewing, nor did I expect it to be. In little bits of time, I did get the first round onto the Chimney and Cornerstone blocks for DS the Younger's wedding quilt. These blocks need three rounds outside the hour glass blocks. Tomorrow I should have some decent sewing time, and I'd LOVE to get round two finished. That may be a bit too ambitious for one day, considering there are 60 blocks and I'm bound to be interrupted.

 

It's been a while since I posted, so I'm not even sure I said I finished the star blocks for that quilt.

There has been lots of house stuff going one here, with major stuff starting next week. Our Christmas flood, with water coming up through the floor tiles in the kitchen has resulted in quite a bit of water damage. Fortunately for us, my BIL is coming to town, with all of his tools, so we are hiring him to do the repairs. While he's here, we're going to have him remodel at least one bathroom, maybe two if we have enough money. He remodeled two of our bathrooms simultaneously when we lived in Missouri (which is where he lives), so it would be kind of funny if we had him remodel two at once again. Our current house has three bathrooms, but one has already been remodeled since we lived here. At least here I know we'll have one functional bathroom, as long as the water is on.

Remodeling the bathrooms was not really on my radar, though they are past due needing to be done. DH and I have been doing some preliminary shopping, with me trying to decide what I want. I have been horribly indecisive, until today when I finally chose paint colors, decided on vanities, and have a good idea of what I want. I'm waiting to choose faucets until my BIL is here, though I have chosen which finish I want where. He knows which brands are best, and I trust his judgement, so I'll just tell him which finish I want, and have him show me my best options.

I'm not sure how much of the kitchen is going to be disrupted yet. I know I'll have some time with no kitchen sink, and possibly time with no laundry. I hate my kitchen sink, it is an almond color and it stains horribly and is impossible to keep clean. I'm switching to stainless steel and replacing the faucet while the damaged cabinets are being torn out and rebuilt. Since the sink has to be moved anyway, it's the perfect time to replace it.

DH and I were supposed to be going away next week, but with the house repairs that isn't going to happen. We are funneling as much money as we can into the house repairs. The house repairs are making us cut back in other areas too. I had planned to send DS the Younger's wedding quilt out for quilting, but with all the repair bills that's no longer an option. With the house being torn up and redone, and DD#3 starting back to college in a week, so even more time watching the twins, I'll have to be creative about finding enough time to finish that wedding quilt in time! Where there's a will, there's a way, right?

DD#3 is off both school and work next week, but DH is off too, all because we were supposed to be leaving town. There is a possibility I may have quite a bit of sewing time next week, but not necessarily. I'll just see how things go.

The twins turn 3 on Sunday, the 12th, but I'm cheating and ordering pizza for their party. I'll make some cupcakes, and do a little decorating, but overall I'm taking the easy way out. Too much on my plate right now to put a huge effort into a party they aren't likely to remember anyway.

Year End Reckoning

I usually write this post on the first day of the year, but my numbers aren't going to change between now and then, and I have time now, so here it is.

This was not a great quilting year for me production-wise. I didn't expect it to be, and honestly, I am expecting next year to be worse. My hours of watching the twins are increasing, so from a practical standpoint I just won't have a lot of time to sew. That's OK, it is what it is, and I love the twins dearly. I did, however, get some quilting done this year, and I have plans for quilting next year too. Quilting is my sanity time, and I need to have some time for it.

Here are my empty spools from 2013. I am currently working on a project, but won't empty the spool in the next couple of days. These spools represent 8,238 yards of thread, or approximately 4.7 miles. I had used 8.3 miles of thread the year before, so a huge drop.

I finished 10 quilts this year, down from 28 the previous year.  Most of this years quilts were large bed sized quilts; I only made one baby quilt this year! I don't think I hit my goal of 100 yards of fabric used, but I was likely 80-90 yards. I had multiple quilts over 100" square, so that accounts for the large yardage usage, in spite of fewer quilts.

I didn't make a lot of goals for 2013, because I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time. I'll likely have less time next year, but I do have a clear set of goals for next year. 

These are some of the first blocks finished for DS the Younger's wedding quilt. That is my current project, and the wedding is March 14th, so I need to push on this one. I have 20 of the brown star blocks done, and only this one of the green. I'd love to finish the star blocks this week, so I can start on the alternate blocks next week. DD#3 is off work until Thursday, so I have a lot more sewing time this week than normal.

Besides finishing DS the Younger's wedding quilt, I'd like to finish a new quilt for DS the Elder, which I just finished cutting out this week. I have two other wedding quilts to make in 2014, one of which is already cut out, and lends itself to be made as leaders/enders. I also haven't started the quilt I designed for DD#2's wedding quilt, but with such a short engagement I was happy I finished a quilt for her I had already started. I told her I'm hoping to get her "real" wedding quilt to her by her second anniversary ;-) That means I don't have to finish it next year, but I sure hope to start it at least.

I have two "big kid" quilts to make for grandkids moving to beds from cribs next year. That's likely all I'll have time to make (the four big quilts and two twins), but I have it in my head to make new drag around quilts for the twins. They've been using their baby quilts to drag around the house and watch TV and such, but they are getting pretty big for those to cover them adequately. I have a throw sized quilt they prefer, but I'd like to make them their own throw sized quilts, so I can use mine without having to deal with sticky spots :-P

I think that's pretty ambitious for a busy year. Other than these quilts, I have some projects already started I can work on, if I need something different. I have one quilt I am in the middle of quilting, and another pin-basted ready to quilt. I have about six quilt tops finished, a couple of which need borders. I think I have two quilts in blocks waiting to be assembled. I have plenty to keep me busy, several of which have deadlines, so if I decide to start something new, it will have to be a leader/ender project, fitting in among the deadline stuff.

I'm trying to be realistic, but my head still swims with ideas. It is a busy time in my life, and I'll do what I can, when I can. What I won't do is beat myself up over not doing all I'd like to get done. Goals are just that, goals. If I don't meet them, the world will not stop spinning.

I've been maximizing my fun during my sewing sessions by rotating through my vintage babies. It's time for my 1956 Singer 201 to come out and play. Love, love, love, this machine! It's fast, powerful, and quiet, all at once! I don't have the manual for this one, so I had to google how to thread it, specifically thread the needle left to right or right to left. (It's right to left in case you were wondering). It uses a class 66 bobbin which holds a LOT of thread, and it sews like a dream. Biggest downside? It weighs a ton, and I hurt my shoulder recently, so I may be using this machine for a while, just so I don't have to move it again until my shoulder is healed.

An Early Christmas

We had an early Christmas this year, even earlier than usual. We normally celebrate on Christmas Eve, because DH works every Christmas. This year we moved our celebration to Sunday, so the newlyweds could be here with us. 

We had 14 people here for our Christmas celebration, not counting the plumber :-0 Just to make things interesting, we had water seeping up through our kitchen tiles. Actually, that's still the case, because when the plumber said he may have to tear out half my kitchen, or the exterior wall of the house to do the repairs, we opted to wait until today to get the repairs done. The thing is, the plumber got waylaid at another house today, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Nothing like having towels all over your kitchen floor. We would have called a different company, but this company did work here a few weeks ago, and if our problem is a result of something they did last time, I am hoping they'll make it right. I'm dreading the news. Our house is on a cement foundation, and I think a pipe inside the walls is leaking, and now that the foundation is saturated, water is seeping in through the floor. This could be an expensive fix!

 As for happier things, DH got me some fat quarters to go with the Singer 403 he got me. 

DD#3, who is a welder, made me this sculpture for Christmas. It is made out of misc. pieces from other objects, but I knew right away it's a quilter.

The "sewing machine" is made from some bicycle parts. I think I am going to make a miniature quilt to put on the sewing table for the quilter to work on.

DS the Younger and his fiance got crafty and made me a sewing themed mug.

I knew right away the my future DDIL wrote my name because the writing is so nice. I love the button to dot the "i". They made DH a scooter themed mug.

I love seeing my kids crafting at Christmas. DD#1 was crafting away in South Africa too, and she sent me photos so I could see what she was making.

The newlyweds got me a cooling pad for my laptop since it's been overheating. They also ordered me a quilt themed cover for my iphone, but it's not here yet.

The potholders I made for Christmas gifts were well received. I love being able to make something at Christmas, even if it's just something quick.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I have no serious plans. I saved one gift back for the twins for tomorrow, it has lots of pieces, and I thought giving it to them when it was quieter was best. I have no idea how much the house will have to be torn up to fix the leak in the pipes. I have a slow cooker meal all ready to start in the morning. I have already done all the prep, and the slow cooker liner is filled and in the fridge ready to drop in the slow cooker. There are leftovers from yesterday or tonight for lunch and dinner is already worked out, so hopefully we'll do OK even if the kitchen is torn up. Christmas Day should be a great sewing day for me, because everyone else has plans. I could use a quiet day.

Merry Christmas to everyone!