My "Peggy's Sistine Chapel" is finally on the wall.
It's in a place where it can be admired from afar. We joked that it really should have been hung from the ceiling, but it was hard enough to get it up where it is. Our DDIL2 sent a relative who lives here to our place with a fancy ladder to put it up for us. It makes my heart sing to see it there. It's really upside down, but I planned on the panel with the lighter background to go away from the windows in our old place when I made it, and the windows were on the right, so it hangs this way, and I think it's fine.
I managed to get the other two big quilts up. This was the one I made from about half of the Keepsake Quilting Millennium Quilt Kit given me by a friend. There were 2,000 4" squares. I made half-square triangles with them and just played until I found a design I liked. You can tell I like symmetrical, not being symmetrical myself.
I thought I was very clever, and as soon as it was done, I received a quilting magazine in the mail with the same quilt (different fabrics, of course), made in 1880. I wonder if that quilt maker was playing with my mind from the next world. This one can be seen at the top of the stairs as soon as you walk in the front door.
The orange and white quilt is a Devil's Claw block. I copied it from an antique quilt belonging to a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.
Finally, my Friendship Star quilt went up between the door to my fiber studio and the door to the guest room. The laundry room door is right across from it, so I see it every time I come out of the laundry.
Each quilt is hung the same way as my Pine Burr quilt: I made two sleeves, each slightly shorter than half the width of the quilt and 8" wide after hemming each end. I folded the strips of fabric in half lengthwise and sewed them to the top of the quilt under the binding, which required undoing the top binding, since I hadn't thought to do it as the quilts were being made. We bought 8' battens from the lumber yard and cut each one at least 6" longer than the width of the quilt it would be used to hang. I put a nail about 3" down from the ceiling where I wanted the middle of the quilt to be. I measured exactly how far down from the ceiling the nail ended up, and then put two more nails the same distance from the ceiling where the batten would stick out on each side. So that's done!
I needed pajamas for this week's story, so I had to do some sewing for the latest additions to the vinyl family. I finished the top to Jolena's pajamas first. I had one sleeve on. She has been sleeping in a camisole for a top, but it's getting chilly, and the story will include a scene about Christmas Eve.
Mariah also had pajama pants and a camisole top, but no real PJ top. I found the rest of the lime green flannel I used for the pants.
The top is based on Little Abbee's Slumber Party PJs, but with alterations for Götz Happy Kidz. The pants are from my pattern. (This is Mariah's first Christmas, and she has never seen a Christmas tree before.
For Billy, I wanted something a little more masculine. I used fabric taken from some girls' leggings in cotton and lycra. I made the pants from the same pattern, but I made the legs 1/2" shorter, so I could add a 1/2" cuff. I had to invent the top. I used some other patterns of mine, adjusted for opening in the back and having cuffs on the sleeves and a band around the neck. It was hard sewing on dark navy fabric, because I don't yet have very good lighting in my fiber studio, but once I got things under the light of my EverSewn Sparrow 15 (which I have come to adore) I was able to see well enough to sew. I needed two more sleep masks. Mariah got the same kind as the other girls, but Billy chose to eschew the lace trim and voted for fold-over elastic in dark navy to sort of go with his PJs.
The cuffs at the ankles and wrists, as well as the neck band, don't really show up very well because the fabric is so dark.
The dark thundercloud that has accompanied us on this move has not left us yet, but it proved to have a silver lining. Our new appliances were delivered on Sunday, so Saturday night, we got everything ready. When we pulled out the stove, we found mouse traps behind it. Not a good sign, but we've had mice before, so other than the "oh, ick!" response, we weren't too perturbed. What we found when we pulled out the dishwasher was much more disturbing.
What you're looking at (besides the dirt and dust) is live electrical wires chewed down to the actual wire by a mouse or mice. I'm surprised there was no mouse body or skeleton right at that spot. Maybe the power was turned off at the time. However, after the initial reaction of disgust, we realized how lucky we had been. This kind of damage could have started a fire, even if we hadn't been using the dishwasher. The wire is going to have to be replaced, which creates a lot of complications for the installation. However, we could very well have had a fire sometime in the near future, which was avoided because we chose to replace the appliances. The way I see it, the appliances just paid for themselves. At least the dishwasher did. What a close call!
Sunday morning we unloaded the freezer section of the old fridge and put all of the frozen food into the big freezer out in the garage. About lunch time, we unloaded the refrigerator section and put all of the cold food in ice chests, which we placed where they would be out of the way. Our friends from Lowe's came right at 2:00 PM. They removed the old appliances, putting the stove and fridge in the garage, because we hope to donate them, and the dishwasher in their truck. Then they brought in the new appliances.
The dishwasher and range are still not hooked up. DH had hoped to do that himself, but the part needed to hook up the gas is no longer available(!) and we need an electrician. The men from Lowe's hooked up the fridge, though. It has an ice maker but no dispenser, our choice because we wanted to maximize the space in the refrigerator section. So here it is in all its glory:
I would have preferred white, but now white appliances cost more than stainless, and the almost-new microwave is stainless, so the choice was really out of my hands.
Here's a scene from last Friday's story, just to show we're in the Christmas spirit here, in spite of the turmoil.
Santa will be seen in this week's story.
Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.
It's in a place where it can be admired from afar. We joked that it really should have been hung from the ceiling, but it was hard enough to get it up where it is. Our DDIL2 sent a relative who lives here to our place with a fancy ladder to put it up for us. It makes my heart sing to see it there. It's really upside down, but I planned on the panel with the lighter background to go away from the windows in our old place when I made it, and the windows were on the right, so it hangs this way, and I think it's fine.
I managed to get the other two big quilts up. This was the one I made from about half of the Keepsake Quilting Millennium Quilt Kit given me by a friend. There were 2,000 4" squares. I made half-square triangles with them and just played until I found a design I liked. You can tell I like symmetrical, not being symmetrical myself.
I thought I was very clever, and as soon as it was done, I received a quilting magazine in the mail with the same quilt (different fabrics, of course), made in 1880. I wonder if that quilt maker was playing with my mind from the next world. This one can be seen at the top of the stairs as soon as you walk in the front door.
The orange and white quilt is a Devil's Claw block. I copied it from an antique quilt belonging to a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.
Finally, my Friendship Star quilt went up between the door to my fiber studio and the door to the guest room. The laundry room door is right across from it, so I see it every time I come out of the laundry.
Each quilt is hung the same way as my Pine Burr quilt: I made two sleeves, each slightly shorter than half the width of the quilt and 8" wide after hemming each end. I folded the strips of fabric in half lengthwise and sewed them to the top of the quilt under the binding, which required undoing the top binding, since I hadn't thought to do it as the quilts were being made. We bought 8' battens from the lumber yard and cut each one at least 6" longer than the width of the quilt it would be used to hang. I put a nail about 3" down from the ceiling where I wanted the middle of the quilt to be. I measured exactly how far down from the ceiling the nail ended up, and then put two more nails the same distance from the ceiling where the batten would stick out on each side. So that's done!
I needed pajamas for this week's story, so I had to do some sewing for the latest additions to the vinyl family. I finished the top to Jolena's pajamas first. I had one sleeve on. She has been sleeping in a camisole for a top, but it's getting chilly, and the story will include a scene about Christmas Eve.
Mariah also had pajama pants and a camisole top, but no real PJ top. I found the rest of the lime green flannel I used for the pants.
The top is based on Little Abbee's Slumber Party PJs, but with alterations for Götz Happy Kidz. The pants are from my pattern. (This is Mariah's first Christmas, and she has never seen a Christmas tree before.
For Billy, I wanted something a little more masculine. I used fabric taken from some girls' leggings in cotton and lycra. I made the pants from the same pattern, but I made the legs 1/2" shorter, so I could add a 1/2" cuff. I had to invent the top. I used some other patterns of mine, adjusted for opening in the back and having cuffs on the sleeves and a band around the neck. It was hard sewing on dark navy fabric, because I don't yet have very good lighting in my fiber studio, but once I got things under the light of my EverSewn Sparrow 15 (which I have come to adore) I was able to see well enough to sew. I needed two more sleep masks. Mariah got the same kind as the other girls, but Billy chose to eschew the lace trim and voted for fold-over elastic in dark navy to sort of go with his PJs.
The cuffs at the ankles and wrists, as well as the neck band, don't really show up very well because the fabric is so dark.
The dark thundercloud that has accompanied us on this move has not left us yet, but it proved to have a silver lining. Our new appliances were delivered on Sunday, so Saturday night, we got everything ready. When we pulled out the stove, we found mouse traps behind it. Not a good sign, but we've had mice before, so other than the "oh, ick!" response, we weren't too perturbed. What we found when we pulled out the dishwasher was much more disturbing.
What you're looking at (besides the dirt and dust) is live electrical wires chewed down to the actual wire by a mouse or mice. I'm surprised there was no mouse body or skeleton right at that spot. Maybe the power was turned off at the time. However, after the initial reaction of disgust, we realized how lucky we had been. This kind of damage could have started a fire, even if we hadn't been using the dishwasher. The wire is going to have to be replaced, which creates a lot of complications for the installation. However, we could very well have had a fire sometime in the near future, which was avoided because we chose to replace the appliances. The way I see it, the appliances just paid for themselves. At least the dishwasher did. What a close call!
Sunday morning we unloaded the freezer section of the old fridge and put all of the frozen food into the big freezer out in the garage. About lunch time, we unloaded the refrigerator section and put all of the cold food in ice chests, which we placed where they would be out of the way. Our friends from Lowe's came right at 2:00 PM. They removed the old appliances, putting the stove and fridge in the garage, because we hope to donate them, and the dishwasher in their truck. Then they brought in the new appliances.
The dishwasher and range are still not hooked up. DH had hoped to do that himself, but the part needed to hook up the gas is no longer available(!) and we need an electrician. The men from Lowe's hooked up the fridge, though. It has an ice maker but no dispenser, our choice because we wanted to maximize the space in the refrigerator section. So here it is in all its glory:
I would have preferred white, but now white appliances cost more than stainless, and the almost-new microwave is stainless, so the choice was really out of my hands.
Here's a scene from last Friday's story, just to show we're in the Christmas spirit here, in spite of the turmoil.
Santa will be seen in this week's story.
What's on my needles: Still the Kisu Takki Cardigan for Jolena, the same as the Stavanger, but with a different chart. A few more rows finished on the sleeves.
What's on my Sparrow 15: The quilt sleeves for hanging quilts are done, so now on to costumes for my characters. Now that they all have their sleepwear (PJs and sleep masks), I have some other clothes cut out and ready to sew.
What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress again this week.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: Caroling and Dreaming. This week's story will be about Santa and why he gives children gifts. The dolls have a theory.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: Caroling and Dreaming. This week's story will be about Santa and why he gives children gifts. The dolls have a theory.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Ladies of Ivy Cottage by Julie Klassen, but only one more chapter, and Christmas/holiday music.
What's in my wine glass: Terrain Vineyards California Red Blend 2015 again. Very nice, and great value.
What's my tip of the week: If you have a new item that was packed with styrofoam and some of the little bits cling to something you don't want to throw away (floor, windows, shelves, pets, children, etc.) you can get them up quickly with one of those pet-hair rollers. The little bits seem more attracted to the roller than to whatever they've been clinging to.
No comments:
Post a Comment