And other stuff too....

Of course I've been sewing too, can't help it!  We've actually been so busy in so many ways, and I haven't taken the time to blog.  But I decided that if I waited till I had time, I'd never get it done!  So hopefully there's more to come shortly, but till then here's a few recent photos I love. 

Doesn't he look like a pro?  This was at the Walker's house, guess we'll have to find him one!

I'd better get to bed, I need to get up in 6 hours!

But I did finish Beth's striped challenge quilt, all in a day!  I thought and thought about it for days, was intending to use sleeves cut from Tyler's shirts, then decided to just do a small one to get it done with and try something bigger later.  I've been working very hard at doing things I say I will, and this was supposed to be done by September, I believe. 

The rule was that you had to use lots of striped fabric. 

I learned that stripes are great for binding, but for quilt tops I prefer them to be mixed with lots of solids, other prints, etc.  More as an accent.     (the back)

Finished measurements are 24 x 24 inches.

The back is a "candy" flannel, and front is pieced from part of a  Moda Jelly Roll (Quilt Diva) that Marlene gave me.  I was determined to not buy anything for this project, and it worked!  Breanna is very pleased with the results, perfect for dollies.  =)

The rest will have to come later, what have you been working on?

"Going Green" and a "Face Lift"

You probably never guessed you'd see those two expressions together, but they fit our house right now!  It's been 1 1/2 yrs since we bought the place, and it's been since then that I had a vision of what it could be; so this is very exciting!

In the beginning (actually not completely, there was an ugly brown metal door before- but I couldn't find an old photo).

And the back; we tore off most of the porch, but are temporarily leaving the overhang for a dry place to paint window trim.  It's been a very rainy July!

And the T1-11 we had to replace after a minor "incident" one Saturday evening when my sweet husband accidentally backed the Jeep into the gas meter and shoved it into the house..... Just a warning, service calls on a weekend are highly valuable to the natural gas company!  =)

After adding a gable to the left end of the house, a small covered porch, removing the cedar lap-siding, and replacing the windows and trim; we started adding hardy-board siding.

He also squared off the part underneath the window seat, and the new siding is making dramatic improvements!

Caulking the siding/trim with his big helper.

Siding and caulking are finished!

Time to mask and prepare to spray.  I was really hoping the flowers wouldn't be completely smashed, and they did great!

I had rolled a coat on the back and sides as far up as I could reach with a small ladder, to get a good base coat.  This made some of the spraying go faster.

Someone from the garage sale came back to get the rest of the cement pavers we took out, the kids were quite excited to carry them out of the way.

They really are fun, and enjoy helping out with whatever we're working on.  Aunty Lindsey came out for the evening and gave the kids quite a treat!  She took them to the school to ride bikes, then to McDonalds for ice-cream and french fries while we painted!

And now:

Any better than this?

It hardly looks like the same place, we're getting closer to finished! 

Still need to paint the trim white, the fascia brown, install the interior window trim and paint it, replace the downstairs door, finish re-shingling the roof, and LOTS of dirt-work; but we are getting so much closer.

While we have been out working lately, so many have driven by and stopped to compliment us on the improvements, honk the horn, or give us a "thumbs up", we're hoping this means we'll have a very easy time selling it.  It's been a lot of work but so worthwhile!

Progress!

We got the new windows put in the front of the house last week!  It's amazing how much better the white vinyl looks than the old painted greyish-blue wood, and they look so pretty and new.

And the others.....

Today my friend Kelly is watching the kids while we put up siding, hopefully photos soon.  Daddy has the day off work, and then we're also getting ready for a yard sale tomorrow- can't wait to clear things out!

This carseat is reversible so we needed it for Andy since he's now just shy of 23 lbs. but still not one year.  It was very dirty and wouldn't wash clean.....

So I used the cover as a pattern, and used some nylon-ish fabric that I quilted to make a new one!  Not perfect, but it looks incredibly better.  He seems to think he's quite a big boy not in the infant seat anymore; and although he's heavy enough to not want to carry it, I miss taking it into the store when he was asleep!

A cosmetic bag for my friend Kari who's going back to Washington.

This was fun to make!

And what I have so far on the strawberry quilt.  I'm working on borders next, but for now it's time to do siding and get ready for a garage sale!

Life

We heard recently that life is what's happening while you're planning something else.  Here's a piece of our lives lately.  I seem to want the house and yard finished perfectly, and our lives to be completely organized; but have found that focusing too much on that is overwhelming.  I'm working on enjoying things as they come, and it's actually fun and less stressful!  We're working on it as we can.

I've made quite a few of these fun little totes for friends and such, and last week Garnett asked if she could have one in blues.  Since she used to live in Hawaii; after rumaging thru my stash and scraps, I decided to use the hawaiian print as the focus fabric and mix in some coordinating prints.

It's strangely put together; but it's reversible, and I keep getting requests for more or replacements to ones that get worn out!

The bottom is square, and the batting lining also gives it some shape.

And a smaller version for Kendra (her daughter).  The larger has 5inch squares, and this one has 4inch squares.

We've been having quite a spell of rainy weather, so inside is where we've been spending lots of time.  Since coming home from convention there seems to be lots of extra laundry to catch up on, and we left with the house a mess; so I've not been doing too much fun sewing.  But I sure have been enjoying some fun little people that won't be little forever!

And a big sister that will be gone to Kindergarten next year.

Andy loves this new toy from Grandma Jill!  It's a frog seat that has three cushy pieces that come apart, but he likes to sit back and swing his legs on the base.  And of course he loves to do it over and over when we laugh!  =)

Along with spring and summer, comes lots more work for Daddy.  We've very glad he has a good job, but he's sure been puting in a lot of overtime lately.  I sure am glad to have such a good father for my children, and friend for myself!  Last week Breanna told me "I'm sure glad you picked Daddy, he's a good one!"  =)

One benefit to so much rain, is that the ground got soft enough to remove the fence-posts in the back yard!  We took the rest of the fence down a couple weeks ago, but the posts were cemented in and didn't want to budge.

Since coming home from convention I've noticed the same thing- good watering of the soul makes it easier to pull out the weeds.  As for the yard, when the rain stops I'll have lots of weeding to do!  =)

Little cutie copying.

It was raining while they were working, but when they came in they were not only drenched- but very happy.

Nothing's quite as fun as helping Daddy outside!

We're going to have a lot of excavation work done, so the fence had to come down.  The yard feels so much bigger!  The fence was for the previous owners' dogs, but we wanted to whole back yard to be one area.  I took this photo out the kitchen window awhile back.  The change in seasons help quite a bit too.  =)

My little helper inside.  The poor kid has been teething since birth it seems, and his clothes are always soaked.  He's smiley and laughs a lot, though, so I guess they're not bothering him too much!  =)

Tonight when everybody else went to bed, I stayed up to cut out a new project.  After so many clothes and curtains and not-so-fun projects that had to be done, I was itching to quilt!  It may not get worked on for a while, but it was fun to dig into my stash for something fresh and new.

No clue yet who this will be for or exactly what it will look like, but I have some ideas.  Originally the strawberry fabric was for a table-runner, but then I made it into a skirt for Breanna- so the leftovers will be used in a quilt of some sort.  It's good to be adaptable, right?