Demolition Weekend

We had a deluge of rain Friday night while we were out shopping.  I mean, it really came down.  Our sun room, i.e. poor man's sauna, was a mess.  We were going to redo the sun room eventually anyway, because it was not usable the way it was, but the decision of when we were going to do it made itself after this storm.  Sewing room moves down the list again, and that's ok.

Maggie, a little nervous, kept her eye on me because the last time we cleared out a room, we moved.  Fergus, not so much.

  

Before pictures. Painted paneling, plastic ceiling.

Ceiling down...

and on the floor.

Insulation supports coming down.

Insulation down.  Tony bent up the side paneling of the sky light and immediately, our giant EZ Bake oven started cooling off.  The sky light was like a magnifying glass, beaming heat and damaging light in the room.

Some of the damage.  Evidently, this has been going on a while.

Removing trim so paneling can come down.

Even the trim was bad.

More paneling coming down.

Gross.

 Bags of insulation.

 

Sweeping up.

So this week, part of my to-do list is to take the wall insulation down and bag it up. Clean up the old ceiling with the hopes of selling it and bundling the paneling into the proper size for our garbage collectors.  Another busy week! 

Hope your week is a good one!

LaDonna

One down.......

I know that I will regret saying this.....but I am so ready for cool temps!!!  I am tired of  9o degrees plus, with triple digit heat index.  I do not like being hot. I usually go out into my garden first thing when the sun is barely up but by the time I am finished, I am usually drenched. This garden has been more productive than I originally thought possible, so in that I am thankful. I just wish that it would cool off so that at least the kids could and would want to get outside. They do not like being hot either...not even in the pool!

The garden has been keeping me busy but I have actually been able to finish a quilt. (applause, yay, and finally!)  My granddaughter loves all thing pink (sometimes purple), sparkly, and princess.  When our Wal-Mart here in map-dot discontinued its fabric department and all of their fabric was on super close-out,  I bought..and....bought...and bought....with quilting in mind, of course.  Some of the fabric that I purchased, I knew that I would be using for my grandchildren. So after sorting through, I set aside some of the pinks/purples  for a quilt for my granddaughter. (Other fabrics I set aside for my grandson. His quilt is  in progress.)  After I stewed ( which I know I go overboard on that.) about a design and enlisted the input from my daughter, this is the result.

I don't know if it can be seen very well, but a castle is quilted in the center, flowers, crowns and the word princess is quilted in the borders.

I realise that the quilting is not the best but  believe it or not it IS better than the last time.  I owe that to the thread ( Aurifil) and hints from sister and blogger friends.  The whole time I was working on the quilt, my granddaughter would ask..."Is that for me? Is it my princess quilt?"  I guess she likes it.

Now on to the next one......for my grandson who likes all things with wheels!

~Diana

Work and Play

For the last week and a half, I've been working out in the yard.  Since it's hot (duh, it's summer!), I work in the mornings up to about lunchtime.  Walk the dogs first, of course, and then they cool off in  the shade and watch me work.   Our new-to-us yard needs a lot of work and we have big plans for fall:  repairing the shed, moving plants, setting up the garden spot for next year, and planting fruit trees.  Fall will be here before we know it and I wanted to get a jump on things so we don't have to do it all in a hurry.

I made a list. It's not all-inclusive.  For instance,  I didn't put on there "mow the yard".  That's a given, though I probably should have put it on the list so I could mark it off every time I did it!

 

I sweated...a lot!  I sweated through my bandana, hat, and leather gloves!  I got blisters even through my gloves.  I wore out gloves.  You know those endorphins that runners get?  I think I got those too!  It felt good clearing gravel, digging up concrete blocks, electrical lines, massive weeds, and plants!  It was great seeing the difference.  But then, of course, the downside is I was wiped out for the afternoon.  And, even worse, my arms were just too tired to do any quilting.  I tried it and my quilting was just way too wobbly!  Lesson learned there!

Our crepe myrtle finally bloomed!  It even has more flowers now. It's needs some pruning.  That will be Tony's job in the fall.

But it's not all work and no play!  I won a trip for two from our local radio station for a winery tour along the Eastern Shore!  I couldn't believe it!  We had a wonderful time and learned so much about wine making!  The main thing is it's a lot of hard work!

We traveled in style on a double-decker bus!  Very nice!

 

One of the grape fields:

Tony and I with one of the vintners:

On another evening, we also went to a big band concert at the beach!  It was really enjoyable!  I wanted to get up there and dance, even though I'm a terrible dancer, but Tony had on his motorcycle boots and was worried about my feet.  Since he also is a terrible dancer, that is a valid concern!  I think we need to take dancing lessons.  And guess what, they have them through the parks and rec department!  Hopefully, the next class offering we can sign up.  After seeing the way the people dance, we definitely need lessons!  These people can dance!  You should have seen some of their moves!

Tonight is our monthly community meeting.  It's always a good time!  We don't normally have a meal there, but tonight is the indoor picnic night.  Indoors because it's hot outside!  I'm taking a cucumber salad.  Light and refreshing!

The recipe is from a Taste of Home magazine, years ago.  Super fast and easy!

Kansas Cucumber Salad

1 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing

1/4 cup sugar

4 teaspoons vinegar

1/2 teaspoon dill weed

1/2 teaspoon salt, optional

4 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

3 green onions, chopped (I thinly sliced mine)

In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, dill, and salt.  Mix well.  Add cucumbers and onions; toss.  Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.

Now that I'm done with what I can do outside for now, I'm hoping to get back to my quilting.  Too bad there's also an inside the house list! 

LaDonna

  

A Martian Quilt?

Doesn't this picture of lava flow on Mars look like a quilt?!  That was my first thought!

LaDonna

So Now What?

I hope that everyone had a good Fourth of July.   We stayed at home trying to stay as cool as possible.  My husband was off from work so he grilled out and then we relaxed...well the adults tried but the grand kids just kept going and going and going! We did not set off our usual fireworks due to the fact that we have wheat straw with beans trying to grow all around our house and it is way too dry.  However we do live close enough to town that we can see from our backyard the fireworks display on the river, plus some of the other neighbors were braver that us.

This past weekend, I had made plans to do some serious quilting on Monday.  Well...duh.....didn't happen.  I went out to my garden bright and early on that morning and was doing my usual checking and watering. Something made me look at the corn a bit more closely.  Well, I was surprised! It was ready! I ending up picking over 30 ears from my three little rows of corn. So needless to say, quilting was put off until yesterday morning. But the corn is in the freezer and the fridge. And it is delicious!

Now on to my dilemma.  Several years ago a friend found out I was trying to get back into quilting.  She asked if I would like to have her mother's suitcase that was packed with quilting "stuff" since she did not do "that sort of thing".  Did I jump at the chance?......you bet!  LaDonna was visiting with me at the time and you should have seen the fun we had going through everything!  Shelia's mom had magazines, quilt blocks(completed, partially completed and several were just cut out and  labeled in zip lock bags) plus several stamped embroidery blocks. I gave LaDonna some of the treasure cove because I knew that there was no way I would EVER get it all done. I ended up with one set of embroidery blocks that were stamped with roses.  I have been working on them off and on for....let's just say a long time.  There are 5 large blocks (18inches!) and they are finally completed but now what?  How do I make them into a quilt? How do I arrange the blocks? What do I do with the spaces between the blocks? What block pattern or patterns do I use? I am at a stand still with this future quilt.

I have this  fabric that I had thought to use.  It is hard to tell, but the colors actually do coordinate with the colors in the rose blocks. I had planned to use the black with roses for the backing and maybe accents within the block pattern or patterns on the front. I honestly do not know. So......help!  Anybody got any thoughts and/or suggestions?  I would certainly appreciate any ideas from my friends out in the blog world! 

~Diana

Ceiling Fan, Yard Work, and One Bunny

We had a storm a couple of weeks ago that knocked out my sewing room ceiling fan.  Thankfully, my sewing machine is fine.  My sewing room, even with the air conditioning, is the warmest room in the house.  Without the ceiling fan, I sew and sweat, which is not a good combination.  So not much sewing went on.

On June 23 and 24, we flew to St. Louis and back for my niece's wedding.  A wonderful celebration and it was great to see family that we hadn't seen in a while.  But the combination of two flights in two days with motion sickness medicine that evidently I have become both resistant and sensitive to left me in a fog for a solid week.  So not much sewing went on.

Our new-to-us house and yard need a lot of work.  We have big plans and unfortunately, two older bodies than the last time we did this.  So it's slow going.  A big first step in turning part of our backyard jungle into a garden for next year was getting rid of a fountain and gravel area.  We sold the fountain at our neighborhood yard sale and, now that I'm over the effects of the medicine, yesterday and today I de-graveled.  So not much sewing going on.

However, I finally decided on a quilting design for one of my quilts and drew it out.  I finished one bunny.  I ordered and received the pounce chalk.  And my husband replaced the ceiling fan so I did a little quilting. 

I wore out my work gloves, but I got the job done.

Finished the blanket stitch around my first bunny.

My quilting design, radiating circles or overlapping bullseye, I haven't decided what to call it yet.

I made my own stencil and I'm using the pounce chalk.  First time I've used this product and I like it.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, America's day to celebrate our independence!  Tony's smoking some ribs and then we plan to go watch a big fireworks display! 

Talk to y'all later!

LaDonna