Rainbows

A fairly busy week + some really nice weather that made me want to spend more free time outside = not a lot of time spent sewing. I did manage to finish 4 more string blocks though - this time in the red family.

 

I think I have enough scraps for 3 or 4 more colors and I might do some neutrals to make it the size I want. It was fun to have them arranged in big blocks of one color but I really like them all mixed up.

 

Isn't it more fun and chaotic? I can't wait to start on the next color! I think next up will be blue. Or maybe yellow. Time to hit the scrap piles.
 

WIPs

Another week, another few string blocks. And yes, I'm still loving making them.

 

 

I'm up to 4 oranges, 4 greens and 4 aquas. Right now I have them in big blocks of 4 of the same color together, but I think I'm going to mix them all up once I finish some more colors. I'm not usually one to like a cacophony of color, but it seems to be calling to me this time because I like where the 3 different colors intersect more than the big blocks of the same color. I'm getting ready to start on the reds and once I finish those, I'll start playing around with the arrangement more. I'm hoping to have 7-8 colors once I get through my stash and I think I might also make some neutrals. I'd like to have a lap-sized quilt when it's all said and done.

 

I also had another finish this week!

 

 

I finally finished the long running knitting project (although not my longest running one) that is my knit shawl. I'm so happy to finish one of my yarn projects although now that spring finally seems to be here to stay, it's not likely that I'll be in need of it any time soon. To be honest, I'm not even sure how often I'll wear it be because now that it's done, I feel like it's too wide to be a scarf but too narrow to be a shawl. Whatever, at least it's FINISHED!

 

It's been awhile so here's an update on my list of projects:  

• Plus quilt - finished!
• Knit shawl - finished!
• Solid stripes - quilting, quilting, quilting
• String piecing - still working on blocks
• Paper piecing project - stalled - can't decide what I want to do with it
• Modern medallion project - stalled - can't decide what I want to do with this one either
• Lace scarf - set it aside to finish up my knit shawl - good lightweight project for warm weather - hopefully I'll finish it before fall! ;)
• Crochet blanket - coming along - about halfway done

I *think* that's all, but it's entirely possible I'm forgetting something. Hopefully soon I'll be moving more of those projects to the finished list!

 

do. Good April

I finished my troublemaker April do. Good blocks over the weekend and even though they were troublemakers, I do like how they turned out. One of the things I like about being part of a quilting bee is that it forces me to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. And even more importantly, it forces me to finish something new! If it had been up to me, the blocks probably would have languished, at least temporarily, in a pile of UFOs after my frustrations last week, but that wasn't an option since I have to send them off to the quilter.

 

 

I still wasn't loving them individually after I finished them (and I do like the one on the left better) but the design starts to emerge once you add them together. We followed Film in the Fridge's converging corners tutorial and you can see how a whole quilt would look on her blog. It's pretty cool once you multiply them over a whole quilt. I'm excited to see how the finished do. Good quilt turns out, but then I'm always excited to see how they turn out.

Room in Progress

Here's another old project that I never got around to posting about that I'm blaming on my camera too. The basement. It's still a work in progress, but I like it a lot better than I did before.

Dark paneling, random stuff on the shelves and scattered around the room, tablecloth on the poker table to keep it from being covered with a lovely layer of cat fur.

This is the other half of the room before we moved in. If I remember correctly, my camera went kaput after taking the first picture. Paneling, paneling and more paneling. And could the previous owners have had any more wood in the room?? Good grief!

 

 

We haven't done much other than painting galore, but it made a big difference. And it was a LOT of painting. Seriously sick of painting after finishing it up, but it was worth it because the room is much brighter and just feels cleaner to me. We (mostly I) painted the trim, doors, shelves and cabinets white and I went with a light neutral for the walls.

 

 

There's still a lot we want to do to the room - new flooring, clean up the fireplace, replace/refinish the countertop, change out at least some of the furniture - but it's an improvement. Chris still isn't sure why he went with blue felt for the poker table but I guess it adds some color to the room :) I also got him a cover for it for Christmas so no more yellow tablecloth. Not sure when we'll get around to finishing it, but I'm in any rush.

The good and the bad

I'm still loving string blocks but I've only made two in the past week. I haven't decided yet if I want to go with blocks of 4 of each color or mix them up. I'll see once I finish some more colors and play around with the layout.

 

I tore myself away to finish up my plus quilt and to start working on my April do. Good blocks since, you know, April's almost over.

 

 

I'd like to say that my do. Good blocks have gone well, but they've been problem children. I thought this block was going well until I started adding the second orange strip (which looks red in this pic) and realized that it was shorter than the green. And that's when I realized that both the honeycombs in the upper right were shorter than the blue/green ones. WTH. I don't know what I did or what I was thinking but I completely missed it at first. I had to redo both of those strips so that they were longer than the inner strips. Ugg. I still have two more strips to go to finish off the lower left corner and then trim it up to the final size.

This one is going better, but it hasn't been without its issues. I sewed the first polka dot strip on and then realized the dots should be in the opposite corner because I should have two blocks with opposite corners. So, that strip came off and was resewn. I probably have 4 or 6 more strips to go to make it the finished size. There's no specific pattern and I just keep adding until getting to the finished size. Hopefully the last few rows go better!
 

Quilting + Binding = Finished

My plus quilt is finished! I tore myself away from string blocks over the weekend and made the final push to get it done. It didn't take very long and I'm very happy to move it to the finished list.

 

I went with straight line quilting on the diagonal through the colored squares. I guess at some point I should branch out into something else, but for the most part I like straight line quilt, especially on geometric quilts like these plusses. The finished size is about 36"x36" and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

 

 

I kept things simple on the back. For a while I thought I would make a big plus that takes up the whole back, but I couldn't decide on any fabric that I liked. In hindsight, I could have gone with some neutrals, but I'm happy with the solid backing. Obviously I did decide to go ahead with a scrappy binding and I think it helps add some interest to the back of the quilt. It also used up almost all of my binding scraps. Woohoo!

 

Now time to finish up my solids quilt! That one won't be nearly as speedy a finish, but hopefully it'll move over to the finished pile soon.

Before & After: Stairway

Here's a little home improvement project that I'm wayyyy behind on sharing. I blame it on the fact that my camera lens went kaput right around the time we finished it up. Not that I didn't have other camera options, but let's ignore that fact.

I decided back in the fall that I couldn't stand our stairway to the basement anymore. I'm sure it's hard to understand. I mean, what's not to love about discolored, faux brick (which is really an insult to faux brick)? Not to mention the weird little ledge on the right where we assume a door used to go into the kitchen, the ugly remains of plastic molding on the left and, you can't tell from the photo, but the paint job was pretty splotchy.

 

Oh yeah, and the yellow paint that was under the old light fixutre we replaced and the horribly cut hole providing access to our attic crawl space.

Thankfully for not much time or money, we were able to fix the area up into a non-cringeworthy space.

We got some new (faux) tile that was surprisingly easy to install. I wish all projects were that easy! We cut back the weird little ledge although I can't say it was the highest quality finish we've ever achieved. We wrapped the cable cord that is very oddly placed but it was the only way we could figure out to get cable in our living room. And don't get me started about not having a cable line in te living room. The house was built in the '50s, but still... We added some new trim, gave the walls a fresh coat of paint and painted the woodwork/door at the bottom of the stairs white, which really helped brighten things up.

We also fashioned a cover for the crawl space and I no longer have to look at yellow paint every time I walk up the stairs!

Unfortunately, I do still have to look at a top hat and gloves every talk I walk down the stairs. Yep, our basement floor needs some attention too. We have lovely old linoleum that is inset with this top hat, something related to card playing, a dolphin and a nautical symbol. Because, you know, dolphins and top hats go hand in hand...