Some of This and That

When the backing fabric for my Great Granny Along quilt top arrived last week, I promptly washed it, pieced it and set to pin-basting. This is the first time I've pin-basted a big quilt in our new house, so I had to make some adjustments. I did it in the garage!

I sure don't regret having moved my favorite hollow core doors! They have so many uses. I was able to get the two white trestle table legs (from Ikea) adjusted to the same height as two sawhorses so the doors made one even surface. I had nice weather for pin-basting, in between waving to neighbors passing in cars and golf carts. 

For those of you following our furniture shopping progress, our living room is done. There's a new clock on the wall, and the recliner and rug are in place. Since we couldn't find a rug at any of the nine or so places we shopped, we bought carpeting from Home Depot that a local man cut and bound for us.

Add this furniture consignment store find, a Tommy Bahama-style cabinet and I'm likin' how this looks. The cabinet is ideal storage for books, travel guides and maps, bible study workbooks, wedding and photo albums, Scrabble, Mexican dominoes, and playing cards that until now have been crammed into the hallway closet.

When the fella delivered the living room rug, I arranged with him to also pick up and deliver (because they wouldn't fit in our car) two 4' X 8' sheets of 3/4-inch thick Owens-Corning insulation. This is the tongue-and-groove style of insulation.

Duct tape is my friend!

It took me only an afternoon to duct tape together two sheets, on both sides; trim 16" from the left side length, and 1" from the top; wrap the whole thing in Hobbs 80/20 batting (secured to the back with duct tape); and wrap the whole thing again with white flannel (also secured with duct tape).

I also made a cutout for the electrical outlet, albeit a bit off kilter. To determine where to cut the opening,  I measured the distance from the wall corner instead of from the baseboard corner. Oops. Still, the whole thing fits snugly between the floor and ceiling, and is held securely by several 3M velcro-type mounting strips. It's a whopping 80-inches by 95-inches of creative play space!

With my hollow core doors now set up in the sewing room around the sewing machine table, and the design wall in place, I'm eager to be productive. I've begun FMQing the quilt, without the aid of the Bernina BSR. This room will be finished if I can ever find a cabinet for fabric, not seen in this photo but sitting out on the left.

quilts in the closet

Did you see my "Ugly" quilt on the sewing room wall? I've used lots of 3M mounting strips to hang seven quilts on walls in our home, with two more quilts on beds, and three on a quilt rack. The remaining 103 quilts I brought in our move are in pillow cases stacked in the guest bedroom closet. Yes, I really do have that many quilts. They're of every size - from miniatures to table runners, pillows and wall hangings, to twin through queen-sized quilts. Twenty-plus of them are earmarked for selling or donating.

It was a happy surprise to receive an email from Angela at CuttoPieces, saying I'd won a giveaway on her blog. What a thrill to receive 22 fat quarters - yowsa! - of Heather Mulder Peterson's "Seaside Cottage" collection from SprightlyFabrics. They're beautiful! You won't be surprised to know I have something in mind for them.

However, there won't be much sewing for the next several days. Our son and his family are with us, intentionally avoiding the high security around their home near the site of the Republican National Convention. While mom and dad work remotely from our house, we're taking care of this cutie...

Austin, 2 years/3 months

... which is just fine by me. Linda