Patchwork of a new kind (again)

Know what this is? {{Well, yeah....THAT's a wine rack, but that's not what I'm referring to}}.

It's one of my goals for the summer---the basement bathroom project!

Sitting at lunch today, a push hit me to clean up the room and get working on it. It seems like it wasn't that long ago when I was tiling the sewing room in the basement. I can't believe that it's almost a year ago already!

It didn't take long to empty the room. I have at LEAST 12 boxes that need to be taken to Goodwill. {{Don't worry! That wine rack will be staying at our house, specially since Paul has two new batches brewing away!!!!!}} :0)

As I was cleaning out the room, I also took the time to tidy and organize the "tile stash" that was donated to us when we built in 2004. There's a little bit of everything in there!

But THESE tiles caught my eye - I was really liking how the pieces played so well together....and even the little square tiles were present!

About an hour later-----DRAT! I didn't have QUITE enough to reach the walls.

I played a bit with some of the other tile stash to act as a border and you can barely see it pictured here in the lower right....but....EH! Didn't like it!

However, I'm a SCRAP QUILTER. I can make this work, specially when I have these in the stash too!

So, a little of this....a little of that....moving here-n-there.....

Here's what I have on the floor currently. What'd'ya think?

Paul just got home and took a peek. He said he likes the design, but doesn't think the 12" tile color "works." He thinks we should go check out tiles and buy some blue 12" tiles. ???? Hmmm.....any thoughts?

My "scrap" mind is screaming......"Well, we HAVE these. Why not use them??" And the other part of my quilting mind is saying...."And if we put blue tiles there, they'll be next to the blue HST tiles...ummmm.......CONTRAST?"

But really now! I don't want my thoughts to bias you.......what do you think? Change the color? Keep these tiles? Try a different "light" tile?

Hmmm.....what would Bonnie do in this situation?

Hmmm....well, I'm off to run and think some more.
Happy Tuesday.

A scrap-quilting family

{Caitlyn}: Mom, is it alright if I pretend to sew in your new room?
{Me}: in the middle of a row of quilting on a Q4K...of course sweetie
{5 minutes later}
{Caitlyn}: Mom, is it okay if I use this little scissors VERY carefully....I promise to be careful...I won't cut myself
{Me}: Of course sweetie

{10 minutes later--Cassie enters and sees little sister with a bucket of mom's 1.5" strips...excitedly runs back upstairs for a pen and another scissors}



Darn! I didn't take any "final" pictures of the evening. Caitlyn made a stack of 1.5 x ~5 "bricks"....oh golly! You should see her measuring tool! That lil' girl taped a piece of white fabric to the edge of the desk; made a mark about 5" from the end, and started marking and cutting her strips using that mark. I'm sure I'll be sewing together some "bricks" today once she plays some more.....

As for my "sewing room"----not moved in and I really don't want to until DH gets walls framed up and covered. But WHO KNOWS when that'll happen.??? {however, I asked him last night AGAIN--sounding sweetly and NOT naggy-sounding--and he said..."within three weeks".} Here's hoping!

You have GOT to be kidding me!!!!!

{{Note to self}}
The NEXT time I volunteer to take a nice, large computer desk sewing center off of my parent's hands, either GET PAPERWORK or have some pictures taken to give at least a HINT of how to reassemble it!!!!!!

I HATE PUZZLES! Anyone know where to begin?????

At least the floor looks good......

9:08 AM update
Okay...I guess it wasn't THAT bad once I actually started determining what pieces were legs and what pieces were tables. This is a HUGE setup! And that shelfy-thingy is removable; not sure if I want to keep it attached or not....


Ooooooooo.......I WANT WALLS NOW so I can move in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

{{and it looks like the floor is going to need one more mopping to get all the grouting residue removed}}

Flooring update... (2:42 UPDATE!)

LUNCH TIME!
The pizza-dinger dinged with PERFECT timing! I was just finishing up the last wipes of the FIRST part of the grouting process. I would wager about 2/3 of the floor is grouted. Messy, putzing process!

When we arrived home from Cassie's dentist appointment, I made up a quick brunch of French Toast (BOY, I tell ya! If there was a way to ship eggs safely and quickly to y'all, I'd be saying SEND MY YOUR ADDYs!!! We have SOOOO many eggs!!!!). Shortly after, I gathered the supplies to continue the tiling project.

I gots'ta play with the tile cutter this morning. We borrowed this the other night from DH's boss-man. The last time boss-man said it was used was when I borrowed it to do the tile in the front lil' entry way. {{they don't do much tiling on their jobs}}

This was the final line of tile I needed to lay. :0( I ran out of blue tiles.....oh well! It IS WHAT IT IS! Chances are pretty high that this part of the floor will be covered by shelves and cupboards anyway.

Now----to head back down and finish 'er up, or wait until tomorrow??? I need to be ready to head out for Vball by 4:00...it's 1:30...took me about an hour to do the 2/3 of the grout........

why chance it? I'll clean up---finish it up tomorrow AM!

This way, I can get some sewing done ;0)

2:40 UPDATE
Git-r-done, right???
Yeah---well, when I headed back downstairs to "clean up stuff," that's exactly what I said...."just git 'r done Amy!!!"

One hour later....
left pan...
right pan...

I'm done.

Now...how much begging do I need to do to DH to get the walls started???

And look! It's only 2:45! I STILL have an hour of sewing time!!! :0)

LOL...and just for Angela...
if you look real close, you'll see the tile mortar AND grout in my nails that you were just scrubbing in your kitchen!

A SALE!!!!!! How will I EVER resist???

Oh crud!

When I finally came out of my slumbering stuppor from yesterday (YES! I actualy slept until 6:04 today!!!!!), I thumbed through the mail on the counter. My Hancock Fabrics flyer arrived.....

I don't have a Hancock store near me, but there is one in the town I grew up. I often make a lil' stop everytime I head "home" to the parent's house...


Well folks, guess where I'm heading Thursday afternoon to help set up for a weekend family reunion??????


Crapola! And I JUST got back into the BLACK with my stash reporting!!!!!!!! {but how can I REALLY resist all those sales???}

---

Off to the dentist shortly for a Cassie-cavity appointment. That poor girl has inherited my TERRIBLE luck with teeth. FOUR CAVITIES at the checkup last week! That was the worst I had as a child too. And it's NOT because we don't brush----I simply have BAD, THIN teeth that don't want to be healthy! **sigh** At least she doesn't seem to mind the dentist yet; must have something to do with the lil' gas they offer her. WISH I had that growing up!!!!!

Okay---and this weather!!!! It's suppppppposed to be sunny and nice today!!!! We (humans AND plants) need a break from the dreary overcast, rainy days; we've had a stretch of ELEVEN of them! Looking outside at the moment; GRAY! Not rainy, but no sun either. Tomorrow is going to bring more rain, so I really want the day to be nice today so I can be out in the garden. If not, the garden won't be touched again until returning Sunday from my parents. :0( It really needs a good tilling after our lovely watering from heaven over the past week.

And then of course, there is also grouting the tiles on my to-do list. But that may wait until tomorrow before heading out to Mom's.....

Sunday Morning - My tiling adventure

Oh....my poooooor hands! I have my moments of whining, and this is definitely one of those times! My hands haven't seen work like this in a while; I forget how rough tiles are! And how heavy and difficult they are to "jimmy-around" to get the lines just right after being mortared to the floor. The start was slow going, making sure lines were straight and square....and.....I hate to admit that the further and further I progressed, I was getting frustrated with the lines! The 12" tiles are just a bit larger than the 12x24" blue rectangles, so I had to adjust as I went. Some of the lines are pretty shabby!!! {I really don't mind, but DH is the picky one....."resale honey! resale!".....psht! If he thinks we're moving out of this house anytime soon, he has another thing COMIN'!}

Caitlyn kept me company for some of the morning, playing around with the little bits-n-pieces of tiles broken apart. She called me over to take a look at her "mosaic bird"----I guess so--if you say so Caitlyn!

So, it's just about noon, and this is all she wrote for now. I'm out of mortar with only a few more short rows left to do. NO--I'm NOT blaming DH's math skills {{I think he just grabbed a tub thinking it'd be plenty without actually calculating the square footage}}

So...a quick bite to eat and then we're off to Menards (the local "Man's Mall" up in these here parts). And now that I know it's NOT Father's Day, I don't feel so proud about taking Paul to the Man's Mall anymore..... Oh well---he'll still be in heaven!

Another overcast day...

Happy Father's Day!
Note after post: Linda just sent me an email.....and I quote.....
Father's Day is next week--The Sunday after the official "Friday Night Sew In" :-)

you think there's a little sarcastic humor in that message?????

Another overcast day here in Northern Wisconsin, but I'm not complaining! All the precipitation we get is very much needed after such a dry spring!

I'm not sure what was going through Cassie's mind, but I grabbed the camera to catch a 'forever-image' of this outfit.
and YES, she is wearing shorts under that jacket :0)


Goal today: LAY THE TILE FLOOR! I have decided on layout #4; the streak of lightening of like-creams. DH hasn't objected, so....

Enjoy your Sunday!

A new design...

Using a different form of material though...

...after lunch, I was motivated to start tackling my sewing room project in the basement. I'd LOVE to set a goal that by the end of June, the floors and walls will be installed and then by the end of July to have my room rip-roaring to to!

nothing like a blank canvas....

...with LOTS of materials at my control. All those boxes stacked on the right are ceremic tiles of different sizes and colors. When we built our house in 2004, my FIL came across a company that was emptying out their stock of old tile and they LITERALLY just dumped all this tile on top of the dumpster out back. So---my frugral FIL hauled it all home and donated the whole lot to us. We used a BIT of the tile in the entry way and bathroom, but other than that, not much of it was touched. BUT---perfect for the sewing room and for the basement bathroom once I get that far...

Ooooo........I'm loving this blue!!! But, I've reached my first snag. Just like quilting with scraps, designs need to evolve. I have run out of the blue, but I have LOADS of other tile yet to scrap together to use together with this blue.

DH arrived home at the right time to help me remove the last bookshelf and to give me a tip of leaving 4" on each styrofoam wall so he can frame up two studded walls. He's off again to another client, but left me his trusty chalk-line so I can snap some lines and continue along my design way :0)


Back tracking for a moment;
mid-morning, I headed outside to check out the garden.
These chickens are spoiled and very TRAINED! They come running the moment anyone heads up the garden, because it is right next to their chicken coop, with is directly where they feed bin is!

Okay----the VERDICT IS IN regarding the mini-green house (aka: cut-off milk jugs).

Here is a tomato plant that HAS BEEN covered

and here is one that HAS NOT been covered (I put the milk jug next to it just to get a comparison of size)

The proof is really in the pictures!!!!

Happy Saturday afternoon! Golly--only 2:00. LOTS of time to come up with a design....

4:05 update
A little more playing around, and we have layout #1...
...I wasn't really "feeling" the border here with the bone and gray tiles..... I love the blue, but there just isn't enough to use as the border....
and when I called DH downstairs, he concurred----"the gray's gotta go!!!"

...layout #2: how about all plain "bone" tile for the border?

ehh......both of us agreed again-----bleh!

So, then he left while I stood back and stared at the floor. GOLLY! This reminds me of many-a-times when I've stared at a quilt layout on the floor, wondering how to put blocks and borders together...

so...I grabbed another slighty-similar "tan/creamsicle" tile set we had and started playing....
Layout #3 is awaiting feedback from DH. What do you think?

I REALLLLLLY like the look of layout #2, but we just DO NOT have enough blue to have a single 12" cream block on the diagonal :0( I considered altering the two different cream tile sets with a diagonal of blue, but that would turn it into a checkerboard pattern, which DOES NOT sound appealing to me.


Hmmmpf...I guess I'll need to do what I often do when quilting........."walk away and come back to it with a new mindset."

Photo staring ephiphany
After posting, I admired the different photos of the layouts.....
I have another idea......rather than having both cream sets in each "streak of lightening" I think I'll try putting all the same set as one complete lightening streak, and then alter the next "streak of lightening" with the other cream set. I don't know if you can follow my thoughts, but at least I can----I'll try it out and get a picture out soon.

4:32 update
So here is layout #4---with all the streaks the same tile set, altering each set with each streak...
Yeah....I'll leave this for a bit and come back to it to see if I still like it later on...


Oh yeah, and as I was walking back upstairs this last time, I figured I'd snap a pic of the Dizzy - Step 2 progress I made sometime today---ummm.....before lunch, I think???


Okay....now what??????

Is it really time to start thinking of dinner???

{{how much extra energy did the DOC say I should expect on Predisone??? Holy cow---I'm wired right now with only going on 4 hours of sleep!!! I'm STILL bracing myself for the big C-R-A-S-H yet though!!!!!}}