{Post 1,485} Where in the World is Joan?

I have had many folks ask if I stopped writing a blog.  Well, obviously the last 2 months have been too busy to put anything down here.  Many family activities, short trips, life in general!

Here's a few pictures from the last couple of months, in reverse chronological order!

I still quilt as often as I can.  That just has not been much lately.  I have started teaching a friend to quilt.  Here's her first little quilt top, which she promptly quilted and bound.  It turned out beautifully.

Finished this quilt (crumb HSTs--twin bed sized) and gifted it to a friend at church who has faithfully served there before we even arrived over 15 years ago:

Quilted this beauty (also twin bed size to be used as a throw) for a wedding gift in September.  It still needs binding, washing, and labeling:

Finished this quilt for my soon-to-be-born grandson:

Started hand-quilting this beauty...it is 88" square:

Hosted one of my other grandson's first birthday party and made these cupcakes:

Worked many hours on gutting and rebuilding our downstairs bathroom.  I love the wall color.  It is called "rainwashed".  The only thing left to do is put the shower walls up.  Here is an in-progress picture:

A picture from the window of our room at our church's family camp, near the Smoky Mountains:

Had a visit from my favorite (and only) sister, my parents (dad pictured), and my niece:

So, yes, I am still here.  I am doing well.  Busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  Thanks for asking :)

I will try to update more frequently, but there's no telling!

{Post 1,093} Update Around Here

One of my sons and I have been sick for a week.  Miserable existence, but it could be so much worse.  I was feeling a little energy last night before bedtime, so I made a list of a few things to get done today.  Then, drats, I only slept about an hour and got up until after 4:30 this morning.  

The 3rd thing on my list of 21 (I stopped making the list at that point because it was becoming depressing and overwhelming) was to finish arranging the flowers in the cone in my bathroom.  Here is what the bathroom sink area looked like after we took down the big mirror and installed medicine cabinets WITH STORAGE!!  After much deliberation, I purchased a floral cone made out of a thick wire-looking stuff that had been aged to rust and looked good.  I had a dickens of a time getting something to look good IN it, however.  This is what I came up with this AM:

Then I topped it off by scrubbing our bathroom from stem to stern.  Whew!  Now on to our bedroom (which I constantly feel guilty about because it's my "dumping ground" instead of a restful retreat).  New purchase of craft supplies?  DUMP.  New-to-us clothes from Goodwill that need washed?  DUMP.  Paperwork?  DUMP.  Bobbins, thimbles, etc.?  DUMP.  Christmas decorations (finished or in process that I don't know where to put)?  DUMP.  Box for broken blender waiting to be returned?  DUMP.  I'm sure you get the picture.

I took some before pictures.  The afters are always so inspiring.  Off to tackle the first area!

~Joan

{Post 1,085} Light Fixture Painted

The brass towel rings are next!  Bwahaha...I feel like a villain with a can of spray paint.  It's empowering.  Here's a pic of the newly-painted light fixture:

When the lights are ON, it's so bright that the fixture looks lighter than it really is.  It looks better and darker in person.  The finish perfectly matches the mirrored cabinet frames.  

Here is light off:

One good thing about taking it down was seeing how it was put up.  it just has one hole in the center for wiring.  The downside is that when I went to Lowe's yesterday for ceiling paint, I looked at light fixtures.  I think the one I liked was $90...and we need two!  I also looked at ORB towel racks.  Not for $22 each, thank you very much.  I'll just spray paint our rings and see how that goes first.

The quilt isn't necessarily staying.  I just didn't want to put the lightning bolt back up there ;)

~Joan

{Post 1,084} Where, O Where Did theBrass Light Fixture Go?

Where o where did the light fixture go?  O where, o where could it be?  In the garage, drying after being spray painted oil-rubbed bronze to match the mirror frames!  I put a space  heater next to it and am rotating it, so it's nearly dry!  Yippee!

Please note the burn marks on the ceiling from the 8 light bulbs in the fixture.  They will soon be gone...maybe even today!  But most likely before the weekend.  I have been reading horror stories about painting on an old popcorn ceiling (which is what this is), but I'm going to put paintbrush in hand and hope for the best!

~Joan

{Post 1,082} Grapevine Lightning Bolt

Purely for your amusement, I am sharing the picture of my grapevine lightning bolt in our newly updated (somewhat) bathroom.  I wanted a random shape that was not round.  This usually hangs above the robe/PJ bar to the left of my sink.  Hahahahaha:

I hung it with an easily removable Command hook that was very tiny.  It's too much brown and not enough substance.  I still like it in the long, thin space above the hanging bar though.  Back it will go.  I like the things I've collected/bought, so I like to "shop my own house" when I'm looking for a decoration.

FWIW, I'm also going to paint the light fixture with oil-rubbed bronze paint.  We will probably put in other light fixtures above each mirrored cabinet at some point, but to make it less BRIGHT BRASS, I am going to paint it.  The thing is, it got soooo cold yesterday that I think it's too cold to paint in the garage.  I am going to give it a try anyway, and use a space heater until it's dry.  I'd like to do that tomorrow, but we'll see.  Time will tell!  I will paint the hinges on the cabinet below the sinks at the same time.  The knobs are a combination of very little brushed brass and ORB finish, so I'm going to leave them as is.

~Joan

{Post 1,080} Master Bathroom Face Lift

My husband is just THE best.  I have been asking him if we could take down a big, flat mirror in our bathroom (behind the double sinks) and put up some mirrored cabinets (for storage, you know).  He asked me if I wanted to go look at them (again) last night.  I had resigned myself to not getting them for at least a month (we are acting our wage, incidentally).  To my great surprise, we brought two new mirrored medicine cabinets home last night.

Another great surprise was the answer to the burning question..."did I paint behind the big, flat mirror when we moved in here, or did I go the easy route and leave it green?"  Wes (being the eager beaver that he is) took down the mirror while I was taking Rachel to the flea market to peddle her biscuits and coffee.  That explains why my "before" picture does not have the ugly, flat, too-small mirror in it.  Yes!  I HAD painted behind the mirror.

ANOTHER great surprise was that we had nearly a gallon of our original wall paint in the garage.  I had it re-shaken at Walmart while I was out this AM, and we were ready to go.

Here are before and after shots of "the wall":

The smoke signal in the middle is where I burned a candle and had it set too close to the back wall.  The smoke will not scrub off.  I tried every cleaner I had plus an extra-large dose of elbow grease, and no change.

Here is the after:

My sweetums also fixed a drawer in our bathroom that up until today never closed.  See second picture, second drawer down.  That's nearly 7 years of not closing.  

Instead of just standing around and waiting for the paint to dry (ha ha), I scrubbed the white window blinds that are to the right of the counter above.  One spot of cleanliness does surely lead to others.  

Future plans include painting the countertop and backsplash (yes, I am giving it a try), recaulking the sinks, and painting the cabinets in there.  Very ambitious, but I am loving the improvements already.

If I get my new red valances lined with light-blocking fabric today (and that's the plan), I am putting up my new valance and Christmas shower curtain today.  It will be our reward for working so hard on the bathroom!

~Joan

Where Are YOUR Quilts?

I have TWO in my bathroom! This is a picture of a quilt my friend, Misty, made for me. Well, actually she pieced the top, and I hand-quilted Baptist fans on it and bound it. It was the first piece I had hand quilted in some time, and it reminded me how much I enjoy the hands-on process of hand quilting. Every time I see it (which is often), I am reminded of my dear friend.

It is a Barn Raising setting of log cabin blocks--my favorite block! The bathroom walls are painted a nutmeg brown color.





This is a shot of the curtain in there. This is a Thimbleberries fall fabric from a few years ago. I used the same print to make the large blocks in my shower curtain, below.

A funny quilter's story. One day, my DH came out of the library (where these photos were taken) and asked, "Why have you been holding out on me? Why don't we have a quilted shower curtain?" I wondered if he'd slipped and konked his head, but found out that he'd been perusing a quilt magazine while (ahem) in the library.

I took the same focus fabric as the curtain valance had been made from and came up with the shower curtain...

I just made very large 9-patches (Each block in the 9-patch finishes at 3"--good scale for a large piece). Having never made a quilt top into a shower curtain before, I was stumped as what to do with it after I had the top pieced. I checked a couple pattern books I had and saw two viable options. One had batting and one didn't. I opted to not use batting, but just line it with a coordinating fabric. It isn't truly "quilted" at all, merely lined. Then--how to hang it?? I didn't want to use fabric tabs because it would be pulled back and forth several times a day (hopefully!). I ended up binding it like a regular quilt and then putting small buttonholes (vertically) spaced across the top to slip the metal shower curtain hangers through (that were already there). Works like a charm. Even after 2-1/2 years of wear, there is no visible wear to the buttonholes like I suspected there might be.

Thus endeth the bathroom tour. Aren't you glad to be moving on to something else??

~Joan