At long last, bathroom renovation pictures

Our new bathroom! Woo-hoo! We are so happy with the change that the renovation has made. These are the new mirrors and lights along with the vanity and quartz top. It is a big change from the wall covered with a frame-less mirror , white painted cabinet, and gray Formica counter-top.



The shower wall on the right was moved so that the shower is now about a foot wider than it used to be. We can't get over how much that small off a change is such a big difference. The shower walls are tiled to the ceiling with a great border. The soap dishes are high, recommended by the tile guy, so that things are out of the water. I guess some might not like them so high, but we do. The shower floor is two inch matching tile, small so it is not slippery, the walls are six inch tile, and the room floor is done in the same tile at twelve inches. So much better than painted-over wallpaper and peach (broken) floor tile. The shower sprayer is such a huge improvement with a valve in it that prevents bursts of hot or cold water when someone runs the water in other parts of the house.



Instead of the old gray jacuzzi, we now have this claw foot tub with a wand sprayer in the faucet. Love it, love it.



While our bathroom isn't big, and we didn't change the footprint of the room except for the shower wall, it is like a whole new room. Next up, ugh, foundation repair. But then we will contact Stanford Home Renovation again and get the other bathrooms updated and move on to a few other ideas we have simmering on the back burner.

Gift from Africa!

What a wonderful weekend. Warm temps, fun day trip, time for relaxing at home, and a great gift in the mail!

The gift is from a blog friend, Beth, who lives in Pretoria, South Africa.  Back in December, I passed on a gift membership to The Quilt Show to her because she is a fabulous quilter, and I thought she might enjoy it. In turn, she decided to send me a generous (and totally unnecessary!!) gift from her new home.

She sent four yard cuts of Shweshwe, which is a whole different fabric from Africa. Beth writes that I need to wash in hot water and use a vinegar and salt  soak to stabilize the dye. The fabric has a distinctive odor which she says never really goes away. I am thinking a wall hanging - maybe something like a stacked coin pattern?? I don't know. It will be hard to cut into it, but I really want to actually sew with this. The gift also included an embroidered elephant picture which tells a Venda folk tale. This tale is called the Dancing Elephant  and was made by a woman married to a coal miner. They have five children, and her embroidery work helps to support them. And there was a small silver trunk up elephant trinket or bead. Thank you, Beth, for your extreme generosity. I read Beth's blogs and learn something new with each post.

Our Saturday drive took us to Franklin, Tennessee again to buy some fabric, and have lunch at our favorite, The Chophouse. The big reason to go was to get backing for the baby quilt I am working on for Shannon. I found that, and I will show it when I finish that. She's due April 25, so I have a little time. However, they went to their childbirth classes this weekend, and April is just around the corner. I have all of the components of the thirty patches together. I will finish assembling the patches in the next few afternoons after school. Next weekend, Shannon and I are headed to Atlanta to visit her her sister-in-law and family, and we will have to hit the quilt store in Marietta -- and Ikea. I've never been to an Ikea, but I am pretty sure it will be great fun.

Today, it was seventy degrees and sunny here. I just have a feeling that winter is not totally gone, but what a great day. After Chinese lunch out, Allen watched the race with Oz while I sewed.

Quilt Along Midnight Stars

I finished my little "Midnight Stars" quilt this week. The pattern comes from a quilt-along project on Humble Quilts, a blog I enjoy following. This is her third quilt-along where she posts directions for making a little reproduction quilt. I think her directions are just great, easy to understand and quite complete. This little quilt with it's fairly detailed blocks went together really easily.

Her quilt used blue for the background, but I just didn't have any dark blues I thought would work. so mine is black, with cheddar and red. The backing is a brown piece with little gold hearts, which is perfect for a February finish. I did her Cheddar Cheese and Crackers quilt, but I haven't started the Strawberry one yet. I think I want to tackle that before spring is gone.

I also finished the block for last week's Civil War block of the week, Richmond. I like the gray and pink and brown fabrics I used. Besides these, I am working on a wall hanging for Georgia's nursery in wool applique and her yellow an gray quilt for her  room. I am about two thirds of the way finished cutting it out. I have read that cutting as you go is the way many "artists" work because they can adjust colors and such as they see they need to. I find that a much slower process, and once I get all the pieces cut, I can just sew and sew. I like that. However, I am not afraid to throw out a block and cut new fabric to fix something wrong with colors. I've been reading about design walls. Just don't know where that would work in my house. It would have to be temporary, for sure. I use the double bed in the guest room to lay out whole quilts before I sew, but I guess that is not the same.

Catching up

February. Guess I haven't kept up with blogging lately. It isn't because I don't want to. I just run out of time or steam or both. It has been a cold, snowy, dreary first month of 2011. Allen and I and the Oz have been working long hours. Oz loves the cold because it gives him a good excuse to snuggle on someone's lap or hang out on the couch.

The bright spots would be a trip to Mobile last weekend with Shannon  to see Meghan, Justin, and the boys, getting the bathroom finished, and spending lots of time quilting. I've finished a couple of good sized lap quilts. One is out of Kaffe fabrics, and it was machine quilted in straight diagonal lines.

Another finished project tested my free-motion skills - I am way better than I was but not proficient by far.I did finish it finally last week. Right now, I see every little thing I wish were different, but I also see some things I really am happy with. I like the color wash, and there are some spots where the quilting is just what I wanted.

One really fun project I've started is a Civil War Block of the Week from Barbara Brackman. She posts a mini history lesson and a quilt block each week. I will end up with fifty-two different blocks. I have five finished, and the instructions for the sixth week are printed and waiting with the fabrics I've picked. This is Week One - North Star.



Week two - Seven Sisters. This one took three tries because of the tiny star points. I finally ended up machine appliqueing it.



Week Three - Catch Me if You Can



Week 4- Texas Tears



Week Five - Kansas Troubles

I am having fun pulling reproduction fabrics from my stash and putting these together. Each one has been a different challenge. There is even a Flickr group going where people can post their pictures and monitor their progress through the year. Just fun!

I'm also about finished with a quilt-along blog quilt. Pictures later in a few days. Next quilting project will be the baby quilt for Georgia Mae which I think will be under way this week.

This is long enough for a Sunday evening. I am still stuffed from the stuffed mushrooms I fixed for dinner. Italian sausage stuffed portobello mushrooms.  Tasty, very rich.

I promise, bathroom pictures next. We are really happy with the work our remodeling folks did from Stanford Remodeling. We will surely have them do our next project (after the foundation fixing - ugh!).