The holidays are here! The days are getting shorter and the “to do” list is getting longer.
I’ve done a few things on the quilty side but not a lot to blog about and I’m not expecting to get a lot more done before the first of the year. I’m okay with that.
I had a bit of sticker shock when the batting I’ve been purchasing on Walmart (sold and delivered by them) doubled in price. It’s been $40.99 for the nine yard bolt I like to buy for about two years now.
Imagine my surprise when I went to buy more and saw the price is now $81.47!
I did find a similar batting at Walmart for $46.06 so I ordered several bolts of it. When it came I did a side by side comparison and couldn’t tell the slightest difference between the old and the new. I have 54 yards now so I’m stocked up for about a year … just in case the price on this one goes up too. The shipping is free with my Walmart plus account so as I finish one bolt, I’ll replace it with a new one as long as the price remains the same. (If not, I’ll be researching a new source.)
I posted this before. It’s 4 bolts of the batting on a bar my husband attached to the long arm. We just split the cardboard bolt in the center and slip the bar through it. I move the frame away from the wall when I want to quilt behind it so I don’t like storing anything underneath it.
I really wasn’t sure where I’d put those extra two bolts of batting I ordered this time. I woke up the next morning and had an epiphany. I could put a Closet Maid type shelf under the long arm on the back side, behind the batting bar. I shared the idea with my husband. He made a quick trip to Home Depot and by lunch time I had a new shelf installed. Yay!
He bought the heavy duty 16″ wide shelf which has an extra support down the center of it. It also has a lip on the front edge. We flipped the shelf upside down so the lip is facing up and toward the back. That will help to keep from sliding off the back.
We couldn’t put the batting bar on the backside of the frame because of the extra center support leg (you can see it in the photo below) but, it worked great for the shelf and even added a little extra support! The bolts of batting weigh just over 5 pounds each so the shelf can easily support them. The shelf might look likes it’s bowing a little bit in the photo. It’s not. It’s just the way the light is reflecting.
And, I even have room on the other end of the shelf to stage a few more tops & backings ready to be quilted. I don’t know why I didn’t figure this out sooner.
We decorate for all the holidays but my neighbors have already begun putting up Christmas decorations so my husband added something new this year.
Last year he made a few turkey protest signs from discarded political campaign signs. The neighbors love it. Just today a couple of students walking home from school thanked him for celebrating Thanksgiving. Then laughed when they saw the “fat boy” sign and stopped to take a picture of it. 😉
I made a new little turkey banner for the inside.
to go with my other Thanksgiving things.
I also made some new seat covers with leaves to use on the couch from Halloween through Thanksgiving. They’re reversible so I can use for Christmas too.
This week, I’m working on a quilt to be donated for a quarter auction. Next, I have a few things I’d like to finish for Christmas.
Hopefully, I can get back to my patriotic string/scrap quilts after that.
In the evening I’ve been working a bit on a cross-stitch kit I bought in 2020 (and never made). Plus, I’m thinking a lot about my plans for 2026.
I have several quilts on my bucket list I’d really like to focus on. I’m committed to helping the guild get the tops finished that have been in storage way too long. My plan is to help quilt those and work on my bucket list quilts the rest of the time. Once those are finished, I’ll have time to make some more of my own quilts to be donated. I have ideas and fabric, just not the time to do it all.
Maybe I’ll number my bucket list quilts and pull a number every month or, take a calendar and plan the order I’d like work on them. I really haven’t decided yet. Luckily, I have about 6 weeks to think about it.
An observant friend from an online group noticed that she’d seen photos of my design wall but I didn’t show it in my sewing room video. She wanted to know, “where do you hide it”?
My home is small, it’s not in the best neighborhood either, but I always tell people how much I love it. Although it’s not technically a “tiny house” it IS small.
If you’ve heard me rattle on about it, you might be curious so let me share some photos. With so many of my friends considering downsizing it might be helpful to see there are those of us in small houses now that are really happy.
A few years ago I decided to let go of the country colors and accessories I’d once been attracted to. The browns, rust, gold are called “warm” colors for a reason. They made our home feel even hotter than it was. I also had coastal sentimental things put away in the closet because they didn’t “go” with the decor. So, I changed all that.
I wanted cool teals, blues, and light sea glass green. I wanted to take the shells and things we’d brought home from vacations out of the closet and display as much as I could where I could see and enjoy them.
Let’s begin with the mysterious design wall that led to this post. It’s in our guest room/ home office behind the door. Since the house is small, that means it’s only a few steps away from my sewing room.
The guest bed is designed to be a trundle bed. The bottom is a drawer that rolls out for a second mattress. I decided to store seasonal quilts in that drawer instead. (Are you surprised? LOL) I can just slide that side table over (that was a roadside find) and put an air mattress in the roll out section if we ever need it.
My computer is in the roll top desk by the design wall. The desk one of the very first things Sam bought me. We walked by it in a store and I said “oh, I really like that!”. He decided to buy it and we brought it home without considering the 600 square foot house we lived in at the time. I think we had to get rid of our kitchen table to make room for it! (I’m much more careful these days to think before I speak because he lives by the mantra “happy wife, happy life”.)
I made the quilt on the bed after a vacation in Ormond Beach. I call it “frame of mind”. I remember when I put it on that bed… it didn’t really “match” the rest of the house but I immediately noticed how much I liked the feel of a cool watery colors. (My stepson found the trundle bed frame that’s in this room and asked if we wanted it. I’m not sure where he got it but, knowing like father – like son, I imagine it was on the side of the road. It was perfect for the space. I couldn’t have found a better one had I gone shopping for it and, I never would have considered looking for one with a trundle bed drawer for quilt storage!
The little shelving unit at the foot of the trundle bed is where I stage quilts that I plan to donate. Most of the ones there are waiting for just the right recipient or to gift if there’s a special need. By now, I probably don’t need to tell you that the shelving unit was a “find” too. It’s how we roll!
The old drafting table next to the desk was actually a purchase – from a Salvation Army store. I’ve always like it and now it’s where my husband’s Cricut cutter lives. He only uses it for making holiday decorations (mostly lettering) but at least it’s handy when he’s ready to use it. I’ve noticed with my own Go! Cutter for fabric, if it’s too inconvenient to take out and use, you’re less likely to use it.
You can see the chain link fence in our side yard out of one of the windows. That’s where I take most of my quilts outside to photograph.
Nothing special about this bathroom except it was the first room my husband decided we needed to remodel, that is after taking down a mirrored wall and grass cloth wallpaper off the two living room walls. That’s probably been a decade ago. Last year for Christmas I asked for the little shelf to hold my blue canning jars of shells. I know, it was a strange gift request but, he listened, ordered it, then put it up for me without me ever having to mention it again. We only have one bathroom but, that also means only one to clean! 🙂
I don’t remember when I collected those shells in the three jars but, I do know the sand in the jar on the left was scooped up from the sidewalk after we drove over to the beach to see what sort of damage a hurricane had left in 2004.
This is the end of the hallway that separates my sewing room from the guest room. You can also see why I take photos of my quilts outside!! I can never get the lighting right inside. 🙂
This is the living room. The ladder was an antique I purchased at show held at the fairgrounds many years ago. I nearly had a panic attack when my husband offered to “clean it up” to get rid of the old paint streaks on it. He laughed when I said “NO! It’s supposed to look that way!”. He appreciates things that are handmade, like the ladder, so he just smiled and said “Okay, I get it.”. He then wrapped the rungs with plastic tubing so the wood wouldn’t stain my quilts.
The hump back trunk is between the end of our couch and our front door. It’s also an antique. My mother gave me the money to buy it for my 40th birthday. At the time, it felt like a lot of money. All these years later I now realize what a bargain it was in the thrift store and why she had said “run back and get it!!!”. She passed away the following year so it’s especially sentimental. Inside are a couple of quilts she made and a couple of mine.
My husband made the barn door out of reclaimed pecky cypress and the coffee table from a cedar chest he found that was being tossed out because it was damaged.
I never really noticed before how many things in our home are either salvaged or upcycled. I shouldn’t be surprised though since we both really love it when we can give new life to a discarded object. I prefer to think of it as “eclectic”. 🙂
The barn door is on one side of the tv and this little shelf unit is on the other side. It was also something my husband found just days after I mentioned wanting something for that corner by our front door. He never ceases to amaze me!
The top shelf holds an antique sand pail and shovel I bought on eBay. I wanted something rustic to hold the shells we picked up in Key West on our weekend honeymoon. The new sand pails are plastic but this one brings back memories of the kind we had when we were kids. The conch shell next to it was one of several Sam found at a construction site. I’ve always wondered how they got there?!?
There’s a starfish on the bottom shelf in a seagrass tray that my husband found when when he brought the boat in from fishing. Someone else in the boat wanted it but forgot all about it when they left to go home. Of course they left without offering to help clean the boat too so, it it all worked out.
In the same tray, there are a couple more shells and a piece of coral we found on a camping trip in Daytona. We had rented electric bikes to ride down the beach and the coral was washed up on shore. It’s pretty fragile so I’m careful dusting.
All of these things are sentimental. They’re not just stuff I bought to give our home a fake beach vibe. There’s nothing wrong with buying the things you love and make you happy. The key is to make sure you don’t look around like I did one day and wonder why you display the things that match, and relegate the things you love to a closet because they don’t match.
Do you notice the sailboat on the shelf in the photo above with the photo next to it of a piece of driftwood ? We found that driftwood several years ago on a vacation in Ormond Beach. The same vacation that I came home and made the “Frame of Mind” quilt in my guest room above.
We had rented a little bungalow just steps from the ocean. I thought I’d DIY the driftwood into a sailboat but never did so it sat in a closet. One day an acquaintance (who came down to Florida every year for the winter) told me how her son in Maine used to carve them but had since retired. I begged her to ask him to do just one more. She really wanted to get a top quilted quickly and so I took a chance and bartered the quilting for driftwood carving. I don’t like quilting for other people unless it’s a donation quilt (too much stress) but I really, really wanted the carved sailboat. He said he’d do one more since it was his mother who’d asked. I was really surprised when he mailed it back to me and I saw that he’d even rigged the sails. It was way beyond my wildest expectation and I absolutely love it!
This is the view as you walk in our front door. Couch to the left, and to the right is the wall with tv and barn door and the hallway to bathroom, guestroom/office, and sewing room..
Our bedroom is that door by the dining table. The glass sliding door leads to our detached garage which is where my husband spends the majority of his day since retiring. Hopefully, our bedroom gets remodeled next spring. I’m changing a few things in there but, keeping the waterbed. LOL Yep! We still have one and we both want to keep it.
Our room was formerly a carport that was enclosed by the previous owner. Next to it is our laundry room (with an outside entrance). The walls are stucco but not CBS block like the rest of the house, and they need to be repaired. I’m not sure what all that entails but I know it’s big job that we’ll have to contract out. The good news is, It’s the last big thing we want to do.
Sam also made the smaller dining room table I had been wanting out of some of the reclaimed pecky cypress wood. I’d ordered the barn door metal frame from a specialty shop call Rustica but found the black iron table frame on Amazon. The simple brown faux leather chairs with black metal legs were from Target. They’re super comfortable! Since we usually eat at the coffee table watching T.V., even though they were inexpensive, they’ll probably last forever.
Last year we remodeled our kitchen. Choosing cabinets and countertop were agonizing decisions! Everywhere I looked were white cabinets but I wanted solid wood with a simple design stained a color that would look at home with the one thing in the house I loved the most- that barn door Sam made for me. I did get a few bells and whistles – a pull out garbage cabinet, swivel blind corner cabinet shelves, and drawers for my pots and pans. The perks of having a smaller kitchen meant being about to add some extras without breaking the bank!
I was relieved when the cabinets were installed and, though they felt more contemporary, the also looked like they belonged in this home.
The blue heron painting hides our fuse panel. We had the house entirely rewired two years ago but opted to leave the fuse panel where it was rather than pay and additional ten grand to have it moved. I was concerned that having a painting in the kitchen might look weird but I really liked it. Still do. It was from Wayfair and easy enough to buy a replacement if the kitchen heat or fumes damage it.
About the granite… My friend for 30 years who worked with me side by side, through thick and thin at the post office came to my rescue when it was time to choose the countertop. She understood the look I was going for, and knew by name exactly what to ask for it when the granite yards didn’t seem to have it in stock. (And yes, she had them move slabs around until we found just the right ones.) She put me in touch with a fabricator who turned the slabs into the counters I wanted and installed them. In a million years I could have never managed it without her and I’m forever grateful! I’ve discovered it’s so much easier to keep a kitchen clean when you love it. ♥
While the “beachy look” might be overkill for some people only the granite is permanent. Everything else are simply accessories and almost every one of them have a sentimental attachment.
We chose to remodel for us, not for future resale. We’re enjoying the changes but, we’d have loved this home even if we wouldn’t have been able to do them.
Here are some before photos. The mirrored wall and door were the first thing to go over a dozen years ago. Reclaimed wood doors were out of our price range so it had just a plain wood door for a long, long time. Several years later, the bathroom got an update and then the kitchen. 🙂
We’ve loved this home since the day we bought it, 24 years ago. Replacing “stuff” with the things that have meaning, whether they were collected on vacations or the result of something upcycled, has made it a place we’ll probably never want to leave (unless too much of our family moves out of the area). Remodeling some rooms along was just the cherry on top.
If you’re one of my friends considering downsizing or, just moving to an area with more affordable housing.. don’t let the idea of a small home worry you. You may end up wondering why you didn’t consider downsizing sooner!
Love grows best in little houses with fewer walls to separate. Where you eat and sleep so close together, you can’t help but communicate.
I don’t have much to show on the quilting front this week. I did piece the contest blocks into a quilt top that will be exhibited at the South Florida Fair (in January). It’s ready to hand off to the member that will be quilting it at our October guild meeting. I’ll try to get a photo of it then.
I did some organizing of my linen closet, laundry room, and panty closet so I could shuffle things around to make room for holiday decorating, starting with Halloween.
The kits (both quilt shop produced and ones I’ve collected fabrics to make) had to be moved out of my laundry room cabinet to make space for household things.
They’re back in my sewing room so now I have to work around them. Maybe that inconvenience will be good motivation to get them made. Time to move them up the priority list. I re-evaluated each of them and they’re still things I want to make. I have a quilt to make for a family member’s fund raiser and the patriotic strings I’ve already started, but I’ll begin to mix in some of the small holiday kits since none of them will take long to make.
I really like these plastic mesh zipper project bags from Amazon. Temu has less expensive ones but I didn’t want to order more than I needed (trying to be more intentional about not acquiring more things I’ll have to store). I liked getting them the next day too so I could put everything away and move on to something else.
THIS is the “something else”. I came across this six block panel and remembered buying it when the local quilt shop had a sale on all their panels around this time last year. Time got away from me and I never got to making something with it. I don’t want or need another Halloween quilt so I plan to quilt it as it is, cut it in half, then bind each of the two pieces to make two table runners. One for the top of my coffee table and one for the shelf under it.
I had the perfect orange from that big JoAnn’s liquidation purchase I made a few months ago. I like it so well that I’ll use it for both the backing and the binding.
Last night I put together 96 candy bags for later this month when the little goblins come around threatening to trick me unless they get some candy.
My husband thinks we have enough. Halloween is on a Friday night this year so I’m worried we might need more. (I like to give some to the parents too if they’re walking with their children. 🙂
I’ll share photos of all the decorating when it’s finished.
I didn’t want this post to get too long so, you’ll probably see two posts from me today…
The holiday season is beginning just as busy as usual. Thankfully, no hurricane threats to deal with this year and I’m hopeful that trend continues.
Today a couple of guild members met at our county fairgrounds to judge the contest blocks for this year’s quilt. Each year the guild makes a quilt to display with the fair’s theme. It then becomes part of the collection dating back 40 years. Quilts from previous years are displayed during the South Florida Fair hanging from the rafters in the exhibition hall. This year it’s “Party with the Pirates”.
I was honored to be asked to piece the top this year. I wasn’t one of the judges so was able to submit my own block. Since the judging is complete I can show you the block my granddaughter made (left) and the one I entered (right). I’m so proud of how patient and careful she was stitching her block.
Last week our guild had a Santa workshop. It was lots of fun! When I got home the only thing left to do was sew on the button eyes and nose.
I brought two items for show and tell. One was a bargello quilt I made earlier this year. I initially planned to donate it for a family member’s quarter auction fundraiser (for a child’s kidney transplant operation). A guild member asked if I’d sell it to her. I usually donate quilts, so this was new for me but I’m happy it went to someone who loves it and for probably more than it would have taken in at the auction. I have another quilt planned for the fundraiser, and I’ll show you that one when it’s finished.
My other show & tell was this little table topper “Not Kitten Around”. It’s part of a Riley Blake calendar series. I’m not making them all but I was able to purchase this individual month from our local quilt shop, Quilt a Bit. I bought the turkey today to make for Thanksgiving. They’re small at only 12″ x 14″ but that’s just the size I need fit the stand I already owned.
Don’t mind the open garage door in the background. My husband has started his annual Halloween decorating. With a 20′ x 30′ garage and two sheds (11′ x 20′ and 8′ x 10′), he still barely has enough room for all the Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Halloween decorations in addition to patriotic, Easter, and Valentine’s Day. The kids in the neighborhood absolutely love it when they see he’s beginning to decorate. 😉
When people ask what he thinks about how involved I am with my quilting and fabric, I just roll my eyes and think, “if you only knew!” I believe he’s secretly thrilled that I have my own “thing,” so he can enjoy his hobby without interference from me. LOL
I finished one of my patriotic string quilts in the last two weeks also. I’m happy with what I did get finished but, not so much with all the things I’ve started and put aside. Oops! As soon as I finish assembling the fair quilt I’ll get busy with all the WIPS (works in progress) so I can enjoy making a few things for Christmas. It’ll be here before we know it!
One of our guild members shared an idea this month for a leaders/enders unit. (No one explains what this is better than Bonnie Hunter. You can read more about the process here.) The drawing above is the one our guild member has invited us to join her in making for the next six months.
Today I started cutting some scraps that I plan to use with a black background. I think I already know how I want to finish the quilt so I’ll be excited to see it progress over the next several months. It it goes quickly, I have a plan for a second quilt using different fabrics and setting. I think this will be fun!
I don’t have anything finished to show this week even though I have been busy. I like to bind my string quilts by hand, a little bit each night, so it takes several days to finish. That might be a good thing because I’ve been procrastinated about adding older post so expect to see a few more of those.
Originally posted October 22, 2023
This week I finished a quilt from scraps using the Atkinson Designs pattern called Step Right Up.
The strips were leftovers from another Atkinson pattern I finished last year that had previously been a UFO.
Two more tops were made with the left over strips but they still need to be quilted.
A lot of my scrap quilts have a lot of added background fabric. It’s not the most efficient way to use the leftovers but, it’s more important to me to enjoy making the quilt.
The next two finishes are string quilts. The first was made using Bonnie Hunter’s String X free pattern with paper telephone Yellow Book pages. I prefer paper foundations to keep the quilts lighter than using muslin or other lightweight fabrics.
The tiniest strings were stitched to adding machine paper to make the fun quilt below. I’d had the Crosswalk quilt pattern on my list to make for a while now. It was fun to take the original idea and substitute strings for the centers of the blocks.
A few partial solid strips left after making the blocks were used for the scrappy binding.
A switch on my long arm broke, so I’ve been organizing while waiting for the part. The room doesn’t really need it, but we expect our hurricane windows to be installed in 4 to 6 weeks. When we get the notice from the installer, I’ll have to quickly move everything to one corner. I’m using these couple of days to consolidate as much as I can. All the furniture is on casters, including the long arm frame, so moving things shouldn’t be too difficult.
Time to Quilt 