Sprucing Up

It's not all stitching and quilting around here. Over the past several weeks, we've done a fair amount of sprucing up - both big jobs and little ones. Let's have a look at some of the activity.

A couple of months ago, my sister gave me this old milk can found in her barns. As I finished off the potting of all my flowers, I knew this needed to come out so that I could place a pot on top. Bring on the spray paint!

A shiny coat of black paint brings new life to the old can. I should have hosed it down before taking this picture; already it shows signs of dirt. The pot that the petunias are in was also spray painted with the same glossy black, and makes a nice cohesive look for showing off the flowers. Here's a picture of some of the other painted pots.

Not everything has been spray painted black. I had an old bar stool that I once used in my classroom. It was still sturdy, but needed a refresh. How I didn't think to take a true before picture, I don't know, but here is one just as I was painting it.

This stool had been stained wood with a padded seat. The seat base was particle board covered with padding and faux leather which had split. It had gotten wet at some point and the particle board had expanded, too.

DH cut a new seat of plywood which I covered and attached. Voila! A new bar stool to match the big blue check already in our decor.

Now, for the really big sprucing up job, we have had cement poured for a new sidewalk, garage apron, and porch steps. This has been weeks in the making and it's still not completely finished. It is quite an involved effort, so I will pull that all together for another post.

Our day yesterday was a trip to Mansfield to visit Kingwood Center Gardens. We went last summer and enjoyed it so much that we knew we wanted to go back. I took tons of pictures, so that can be the subject of an upcoming post, as well.

I also did get to stitch a bit later in the day after we got home. I am close to having my Lady of the Lakes flimsy finished. Stay tuned!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Raccoon Skirmishes

We have a raccoon problem here and they are set on destroying my summer potted flowers. I came down the stairs this morning to look out the front door at THREE of my pretty red geraniums uprooted and potting soil everywhere.

The fact that raccoons reside in the wilderness surrounding our house is no surprise. We have seen them for several years, and I know they eat all birdseed in the feeders every night. They also have been known to raid the garage if we forget to close the door, and they destroyed a few potted flowers last summer.

I worked really hard several days last week to prepare some pretty pots. I mostly stayed with geraniums, pansies, snapdragons, and coleus. I have probably close to two dozen pots set out all around the house and garage. The arrangement above is by our front door. I worked too hard and spent too much money to have it vandalized every night by raccoons.

I have talked about trapping them, but have never followed through on the acquiring of traps and all that entails. After this morning's discovery, I began thinking guns and poison! Militant action! However, I calmed down, and now have two traps borrowed from friends who had a family of raccoons in their attic a couple summers back.

I will keep you updated on future skirmishes.

It's the last day of May! That means it's time for my May wrap up. What good stuff did I accomplish? Here are my 9 selections:

The top row shows my early Ohio Star blocks for the Dreamy Stars quilt, an item from my 2020 goals list. The bird feeder shows a woodpecker on the left (a regular visitor) and a rose-breasted grosbeak on the right (a rare visitor). Then the window picture is from my cleaning and making new curtains for our bedroom. The curtains are made from drop cloths bought on Amazon from the hardware department.

In the middle row, after such success with the bedroom windows, I decided to use leftover curtain fabric to make valances for the sewing room. The middle picture shows me (in the visor) with my card-playing friends, Mindy, Cheryl, Dorothy, and Rhonda. We are wearing our pink for one of our group who is currently in treatment for breast cancer. Since the Komen Race for the Cure was canceled this year, we did our own race at a local park. We took pictures and videos to send to Sally to cheer her as she fights this ugly disease. Then there is the finished Dreamy Stars - quilted, bound and covering our bed! Made from start to finish in about 2 weeks! Wow.

The bottom row begins with several old flower pots that I spruced up with black spray paint. I have so many mismatched pots from over the years, and rather than buy more, I painted them for continuity. I was pleased with the results. Bottom center is that front door picture from above, with 3 of the new-black pots. And the last picture is my Larkspur Stars quilt top. I finished it up today, and took it out to the yard for a picture. I will share more about it in an upcoming post.

Wonder what June will bring? I need to get a plan in place. Perhaps that will comprise an upcoming post, as well.

Here's to June!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Proof

In yesterday's post I mentioned that I spent all morning clearing out my clothes closet. In the interest of providing proof of my hard work, take a look at this! Two huge garbage bags full of clothes that will be taken to the local Christian Center. I am motivated to more purging, so I hope April can be a big-time purging month. That will be so awesome.

I have to whine a bit. I have used a program called PicMonkey for about three years to edit my pictures for this blog. It is time-consuming, but I read that it's necessary, so I do it. Well, PicMonkey has recently made some changes and updates to their website, meaning I have to learn new stuff.

WAAA!! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!

Okay, I feel better. I should have cropped the photo above, and I did not attach my watermark, so rather than learn the changes made to PicMonkey, I just used the plain old picture. Maybe this weekend I will take some time to figure out the updates.

And here's some more proof - of the coming of Spring! Feast your eyes on these bright spots of spring color to brighten your day.

Short and sweet here folks. I will try to be back tomorrow with more quilt-related material.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Happy Mother's Day!

First Sweet Bay Magnolia Bloom

Annuals planted in rotting stump.

Petunias and alyssum in rotting log.

Deep pink azalea.

Every mom like flowers, so I am sending all moms out there some virtual bouquets from our yard and gardens. My husband does a great job tending our little slice of heaven here in southern Ohio, but I will take credit for the annuals planted in the rotting logs. I first saw the idea on Pinterest, though, so it didn't originate with me.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day, especially all you moms!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Prom Dress Mess and Recovery

Prom dress mistakes - yes, that's plural. It has been a roller coaster ride of a project, that's for sure!

I did what I thought was a smart thing and made not one, but two, practice bodices. The first was too big, the second was the correct size and included several steps that I didn't do on the first: boning, lining, and interlining. Well, I still think it was smart to do those mock-ups, but part of the purpose was to make the actual dress construction easier with fewer mistakes. Hmmph.

Problem number 1: The bodice front has two parts that are mirror images of one another. I made both the mock-ups correctly, but made the real thing incorrectly. Both parts were identical, not mirror image. This meant that we had 2 bodices for the right breast, and no bodice for the left. Yes, this is a problem.

Look at all the fraying. I know, I should have used pinking shears. You know what they say about hindsight, right? These are the parts that comprise one half of the bodice lining; the interlining is sewn to it.

Problem number 2: Attaching the midriff to the bodice was easy when I used cotton. But sewing this shantung and organza has proven quite a bit more challenging. The organza has tremendous amounts of gathering, both top and bottom, to provide a ruched effect. The seam which attaches the midriff and bodice had 7 layers of cloth: one midriff, one midriff lining, one midriff interlining, one bodice, one ruching, one bodice lining, and one bodice interlining. Where the left and right bodice pieces crossed in the center front, there were 11 layers of fabric. (Think of the thicknesses where seams met!)  It was this center front with all these layers to manage that I had my second problem. It required unsewing, not once, but twice! It was a bugger!

Here, Emma is holding the bodice and midriff around herself. This is straight off the sewing machine - it hasn't been pressed or even straightened out! Looks pretty rough, but she was happy with it, thankfully. Now to attach the skirt with its overskirt of organza. One of her girlfriends said it will look like a goddess' dress. I certainly hope so! My plan is to finish in time to take it to our local dry cleaners and have them give it a professional pressing. I'm absolutely scared to death to put my iron near this fabric!

Here are some interesting things that are happening out in our yard. Oh, glorious spring! I love these flowering times!

Our first magnolia. We've owned this place for over 18 years, and our previous place for 11 years, and we've never had a magnolia. I can't explain it.

Grape Hyacinth. I remember planting a patch of these as a child. I think my mother bought a bag of seeds/bulbs at the county fair. She prepared a spot near the kitchen window of our house. She made a big production of having us (my siblings and I) watch as she opened the bag and poured the seeds out. There were pennies in the seeds! It was so cool. We thought it was absolute magic.
Happy Quilting, Friends!