{Post 1,641} Gettin’ Ready For a Party

Sadly, some good friends are moving from our area soon because of work location. They are very active in keeping our church running smoothly. Tomorrow I am hosting a going-away reception for them. It is bittersweet. So, I decided to put a few last-minute touches on my house. I like my house more right now than I ever have. It seems so nice that sometimes it surprises me that it is MY house, LOL. Today I made a little effort and finished up some projects. Here they are:

First up is a little side table that is cheap pressed wood from Walmart. It was red. Red has been banned from my new living room color scheme. The table always looked so cheap before. I got a can of espresso brown spray paint and sprayed that puppy yesterday and today. Now it looks like this (2 views!).

Next up is this little wood and metal thing I got (half off!) at Hobby Lobby today. I have seen this shape in several places and love it. I already had the wreath.  I told my husband when I look at it, I keep half expecting to hear a deep voice saying, “shall we pray”. It looks cathedral-ish to me.

Next up is a little bench my friend that is moving gave me. *sniff* Something to remember her by. It was originally finished with a reddish stain. I painted over it with a color called “terminal taupe”. Isn’t that a depressing name for a color? I moved our changing table (quilt holder) out of the living room. Yes. I actually used a former changing table because we had so many. This little bench holds 2 quilts perfectly and looks magazine-worthy, no?

Lastly, is the cross my dad made me at least 20 years ago, maybe earlier than that. It has always been white, but since our walls are Dover white, it barely shows up. Plus, I cannot put it where it’s always hung at Easter because there is a French door there now. Sacrifices! So I painted it mushroom brown today and hung it on a little wall in our kitchen. It is not a perfect place, but I love this cross.

In addition to all the painting and decorating, I made all the food I am responsible for for the party except for 50 cupcakes, which I’ll make in the AM. In a perfect world, I would sew every day. But this party is taking precedence for this day! I’ll probably have at least 50 people here off and on. It’s drop-in. Stations everyone!!

{Post 1,640} Easter Decor

Over the years, I have honed my “style” in decorating. It has not always gone well. Since we have our “new” living room after the renovations of this I past fall, I have thought (too) long and (too) hard about my decor in the kitchen and living room. I must admit that I have been heavily influenced by Joanna Gaines and Fixer Upper (we don’t get TV broadcasting, but two seasons’ worth were on the TVs at Planet Fitness). Throw in some Dana K. White decluttering books, and I’ve been a hot mess. The curse of being a perfectionist!

Still, Easter is one of my favorite times of the year. I love celebrating Christ’s resurrection in song, decor, and everything! Here are a few vignettes from around my house showing some Easter decor.

I don’t pay much for decor. Just about everything is from thrift stores, upcycled, or homemade.

{Post 1,639} Confession is Good for the Soul

Well, I debated about sharing this. And share it I must. I have been quilting for 26 years, and I just made a major faux pas. A blunder. A no no. A huge mistake. A blaring oversight. What is it, you wonder?

I made the blocks for my Moth in the Window quilt w/o checking the final block size before adding the sashing and cornerstones. I RARELY have sizing issues. What I mean is, when I sew a seam, the unit is nearly perfect.

It wasn’t until I measured for the top inner border of this that I realized my error. After a one-piece inner border, the outer border is made of 2” finished HSTs. They must fit. There is no fudging.

Now I faced a fork in the road. Do I keep going as is, or take all the sashing and cornerstones off, trim down the blocks, and keep going? I decided a little of both. I saved a section of 16 blocks (4 x 4) for a baby quilt down the road and dissembled the rest. Then I realized another problem that will probably only be apparent to me. When I added the sashing strips, the little black square on the end no longer butted seams with the pieced moth block. Each finished block was about 1/4” too big all around. So I cut off more of the little (former) 1-1/2” squares than I did the rest of the quilt. Here is a picture to show what is happening. In a perfect world, the little black square’s seam and the seam of the square in the corner of the block would nest. Now also notice how much smaller the corner square is than its brother one square diagonally away. My hope is that once it’s finished and on the bed over a very sleepy person, that those little details will go unnoticed.

Here is a shot of the few I have re-pieced last night. I am OK with this.  Not happy about it,. But OK with it. 

{Post 1,638} Random Fact

I did not sew at all today. So, to make your time on my blog worthwhile, I am sharing a random and little-known fact about myself. I do not use shampoo. I have not used shampoo for over ten years. Yet people (real-live strangers) stop me in stores to ask me what kind of shampoo I use (I threw that in so you would know I don’t go around looking like a greasy-headed-elderly-lady).

What do I do? I dissolve a teaspoon of baking soda in 8 ounces or so of warm water and stir it until the water is clear. In the meantime, I wet my hair thoroughly. I pour the baking soda-ed water over my hair, rub my scalp a tiny bit, wait a minute, then rinse until the water runs clear. The end.

I cringe when someone takes my picture. That’s why I had to go back so far to get a picture of myself. But here is the back of my head at my daughter’s wedding in August (2018). Nice, clean hair, huh??  Notice I’m with my man ;) My hair is barely past my shoulders in length, BTW.

{Post 1,637} Promised Picture

Here is the picture that would not upload yesterday. I stitched 1/8” from the whole edge so that when I quilt this, the seams will not pop open.

{Post 1,636} This ‘N That

Today has flown by. Every day does, but some just *poof* are gone.

My youngest son and I went out for breakfast. It seems I rarely see him. So I take him out to catch up. His car needed minor maintenance, so I offered to let him take my car to work and I took his in to the mechanic’s. What I thought was going to be a 45-minute deal was over two hours. Oh, well. I got to talk to my sister for a long time, which almost never happens. Then I looked at 3 thrift shops in the area. I’d like to find (or maybe morph) a coffee table for our living room. I have never used a coffee table. Shocked?

I added the last cream row to this little shirt string quilt. I decided to quilt it for my grandson due May 6. I will put Minkie on the back for softness. It measures 36” x 40”. Nice newborn size. (I have tried to upload a picture for over 20 minutes...will try again tomorrow).

I laid out the Moth in the Window blocks. Tomorrow I will make another set of sashing strips and start sewing this together.

I have a couple housekeeping things in my plans for tomorrow. Today I also replaced all the chair-sliding-pad things on the bottom of our 10 kitchen chairs. I spray painted a red little end table with a drawer a color called espresso brown. I think I will need to sew a small table mat for the top of that. I also want to make a table runner for our new living room console table. It looks bare without one.

{Post 1,635} Crumby

I am curious about how many of my readers have ever made a crumb quilt? Today I have spent most of my time alone, but have been on the phone or texting for hours at a time. A very emotional situation came up that required lots of communication with many different people. Earlier I was thinking, “It must be nearly 11 PM...” and it was 5:17. So I decided to piece the crumbs that were interfering with my pulling out strings. I simply dumped out my little blue string bucket and put the crumbs (odd misshaped pieces at least 1-1/2” square) onto a plate, which I ended up dumping onto my sewing table.

I am going to just post the pictures of how I crumb piece. After each sewing session, I press the new unit open, then make one side straight. I just try not to use the same fabric twice in a block. There are all kinds of tutorials online for this. If you do have a question, send me an email at joanparker10@gmail.com.

At the end are two crumb quilts I have done in the past. I had forgotten about both of them, but I did a search on my blog! I have not decided what to do with these new blocks, so I will set them aside in “a safe place” (which usually means I’ll lose them) until I decide on a plan. They are all made with shirt pieces.

I have made two crumb quilts in the past. Here they are...