Off on a Tangent

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Suzanne

Today I made cookies (from scratch) for the guys working on our house.

The last time I made cookies from scratch, was two years ago when they were working on the west side of the house. In between, we’ve been making cookies from frozen cookies dough. How pathetic is that?

Between the two of them, another helper, and maybe Wade’s girlfriend, the 2 dozen cookies I took out this morning disappeared…

I’m so very glad to see this siding go up, it’s looking just great.

The two young men working on the house aren’t bad-looking either.

Holy Zeus, it makes me feel old just to know I even thought something like that…

Today I also made further progress on the background fill on this customer quilt:

It’s getting there. A little more background fill and then 3 borders…it’s a big quilt, but I hope I can get it done tomorrow.

And tonight?

Tonight, I went off on a tangent. An elephant tangent.

This morning, when I was reading blogs, I saw the cutest stuffed elephant on one of the blogs I read (While She Naps, links to the elephant post, but the whole blog is worth perusing, she makes some incredible birds, and other creatures). Ever since, I’ve had this urge to make a stuffed elephant.

I know, I know, I know.

Don’t think I can’t hear you saying “Sweet biscuits and gravy, that Suzanne is crazy as a loon.”

So, I went searching the Internet for free elephant patterns, though I don’t know how I thought I was going to use anything, since my printers are all at the shop. I didn’t find much until I stumbled across a review of the elephant pattern in the book Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Halvorson, a book I happen to OWN!! And I was able to actually find it right away, too!

The elephant was designed by Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls, another really great blog I read on a regular basis. (I used her Pointy Kitty pattern awhile back).

My elephant is missing eyes and I think I need to redo her ears, they are a bit lopsided…

She’s made out of leftovers from a quilt I made for my niece, (which I cannot find on the blog at the moment, grrr…), so Miss Elephant will probably go live with her matching quilt…but she does need a name first, any ideas?

Daily photos plus poll results

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Suzanne

The boys were playing baseball and I was trying to take some pictures of them in action. Unfortunately, not many of them turned out very well, but one of my furry helpers just about knocked me over trying to get close enough to me. What a face. You can’t really see it at this size, but the darkest spot in her eye is actually my reflection.

It was raining today. What a mess. And the concrete steps didn’t quite come out the way we’d hoped they would. The two bottom layers were poured as one solid chunk. The top layer was separate. They ended up completely demolishing the top layer, and leaving most of the bottom two, but that’s OK, because that gives us room to build a deck over top of it.

We headed to Lowe’s to pick out some new light fixtures to go on eithr side of the door, and we looked at decking material. It’s not going to be cheap, but I think it will all be worthwhile in the end.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a Radiant Star update, but first, here’s some of the results from the poll that a bunch of you kindly voted in a few days ago:

Do you cut absolutely everything you can before you start piecing? 31% (9 votes)

Do you cut enough to make a single test block, sew that, and then cut everything? 7% (2 votes)

Do you cut as much as you can before it makes you crazy, start sewing, and then cut some more later? 48% (14 votes)

Does it depend on the quilt? 3% (1 votes)

Does it depend on the position of the planets? 10% (3 votes)

I’m glad to see a few of you voted for that last one. Some days, that’s my answer for just about everything.

TTFN-

Suzanne

House Project, Part 2

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Suzanne

The siding came off yesterday, and the Tyvek went up.

The windows came out today, and no surprise: one of them was seriously rotten. I can’t wait until they do the bay window. I’m sure that’ll be just as lovely.

The bits of wood on the ground are some of what came off that rotten corner. It just crumbled if you touched it.

The door came out today, too, and I have to warn you: the pictures are not for the fainthearted homeowner:

On the one hand, I love this house, but when I see stuff like this, I start to wonder if the damn thing is going to just crumple into a heap one of these days.

Wade and TJ put in a long day and got a lot done:

All 5 new windows are in, and this was before the door went in. Because of the rotten wood, it took longer to put in than expected.

The bay still needs to be replaced, but he needs to round up some extra helpers: that sucker is heavy, and it will require some muscle to deal with.

As it is, the helpers that come with Wade and TJ aren’t really much help:

Maggie is a well-behaved young lady of about 2 (I think?).

Zoe is a very energetic 6 month old Husky.

It’s been quite a hoot to have 4 dogs running around here this week. Katie hates it. She is totally intimidated by all of the bigger dogs. Cocoa’s not entirely sure what to think.

It’s been a long, busy day. I think I’m going to curl up with a book, another long busy day will be here before I’m ready for it.

TTFN-

Suzanne

House project, part the 1st

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Suzanne

We were hoping that today would be the beginning of the end, but it rained, so maybe TOMORROW will be the beginning of the end of the patchwork siding look our house has been sporting since forever.

Since the house was built, the green siding has been multi-colored. I’ve never been 100% sure, but I think there were two problems: I think the builder didn’t order enough, and there was a dye lot issue, and I think that some of the siding faded oddly almost right away.

When we moved in, we knew it had hail damage, and that we’d have to reside eventually. What we didn’t know was that there was water damage to the windows on the west side, so we also had to replace windows. It’s a long story, but we ended up deciding to go ahead and replace ALL of the windows, whether they truly needed it or not.

This meant that we couldn’t afford to do the whole house at one time, so…this is year 3 of this project. But the end is in sight! This is the last section of the house to be finished, and then Mark can paint!

Soon the following will happen:

1. The last of the green vinyl siding will come off

2. The doors and windows will be replaced

3. Something will be done about the front steps that have settled, exposing insulation and generally looking hideous

4. The rest of the new cement board siding will be installed

5. House will be painted (the cream color you see is just the factory primer color).

I bet you’d never guess in a million years what color I want to paint…