finish it up Friday

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

The weeks seem to fly by and sewing time is quite inconsistent around these parts. I'm trying to balance time with the kids, sewing time, gardening/yard work, lots of cleaning (it's never ending), all the while trying to settle in and make this house ours. I'm tired!

I counted up my quilt tops this week and I have SIX ready to finish. I may add more to the super scrap happy top (top left), but even if that quilt top doesn't count, I've got my work cut out for me. Yesterday my friend Brianne came to visit me (YAY!!!) and we picked out quilt backs for 5 of them from my stash. I'm so excited that I've got a plan because I. was. stumped. Now I just need to piece them all. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

So, I have no sewing finish to share, but I did paint my husband's music room this week. It's so nice to get at least ONE room painted. He's excited and rightly so!

How about you? Do you have a finish to share? If so, please link up! Thanks so much for joining me for finish it up Friday!

Happy first day of summer! :)

finish it up Friday, 11/9/12

Welcome to finish it up Friday! Today I'm blogging from beautiful Colorado. :) It's quilt retreat weekend. Hurray! :) :) :)

I have a few finishes to share. It's been quiet here on the blog but life has been anything but quiet. Oh. Mylanta. In the midst of everything I managed to finish up yet another rag rug, which was a gift to my fabulous and lovely friend Tara. (there is a tutorial here, should you want to make one yourself...and I think you should. ;) )

I also finished painting the trim in my basement this week. (a big fat hurray for that!!!) I started putting my sewing space back together. I even got to sew there for a bit before I left. And it was good.

This is what the trim looked before. (I'm l-o-v-i-n-g the white trim upgrade.) 

Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes and cheer each other on as we share our finishes! (Please remember to link to a specific post when you link up.) 

Happy Friday to you!

finish it up Friday, 10/26/12

welcome to finish it up Friday! today all i can say is, "oh, my achin' back."

i've finally finished painting a few rooms in my house and put them all back together. i hate living in a state of limbo, but i've been there for 3 weeks. that much painting back to back is NOT a good idea. BUT...let's see the progress!

my daughter's room is finished. the walls were previously painted, but all the trim, windows, baseboards, ledge, door and closet doors got at least 3 coats of shiny white paint. isn't it a cute little girl's room? (i had to quick snap some photos while it was still clean!) i think she needs a few more pillows. and a few more quilts, too. they don't quite meet in the middle. :)

all that white trim it almost makes the hunter green carpet bearable. :)

i also finished all the trim, windows, doors and stuff in the master bedroom.

oh how I love the white trim. again, it makes the blue carpet not quite so bad.

everything in the master bathroom got a fresh coat of paint, too, including the trim. the bathroom is broken up into 2 different rooms, so the main part got a new coat of blue and then the other space got a fresh coat of off white paint. i don't recall that i've actually painted any walls white since i was at home living with my dad 19 years ago. i do love some color on my walls! but i had white leftover paint in the basement and i wanted to use what i had. so white it was.

still more painting to do, but i'm so glad that some rooms are finished! it's amazing what paint can do! if you have all kinds of time. :)

now it's your turn! link up your finishes of the week. thanks so much for joining me!

happy Friday to you!

getting ready for market

No, I'm not talking about quilt market. I don't have 12 super secret projects that I can't show you. I'm talking about getting our house ready to put on the market. My husband accepted a new job last Thursday and he started today. We are headed into transition (again) and we are going to have to move. I'm sure it will be alright in the end, but getting there will be a little painful. I'm not a big fan of change. (that's an understatement.)

This means that my sewing time has been replaced by....

painting trim. Fun. Times. I know that you are supposed to change your sewing machine needle after 8 hours of sewing. I wonder how many hours you can paint with a brush before you need to change it? I bet I'm due for a new one!

It's going to be a hard transition, but at least I have a pretty box of tissues. :)

small projects week, day 2

I bought this little side table when we first moved to town...nearly 2 years ago. I only paid $2.00 for it at a garage sale. It's not the cutest thing, but when you add some primer and a little green paint, it looks much, much better. I always love seeing how paint can transform things. I added a little dresser scarf thingy that came from my grandma's house to protect the painted top. I really like it. Now I just need to finish my bento box quilt to go along with it. :)

Also, I finally got around to making some more checkbook covers. I intended to make them for Christmas presents, but April is pretty close, right? The red and the green ones are for two of my friends. When I was making these last night my husband asked me to make one for him in some masculine looking fabric. He picked out the fabric from my stash, but he wanted it without interfacing, which was just fine by me, because it came together even more quickly. He put his entire checkbook-plastic cover and all-inside the fabric one and it fit perfectly! (Yes, I was a little surprised.) I had to look back at my own tutorial on how to make these because I had forgotten how, which just cracked me up. Keeping a blog is useful! For this set of covers, I added a quarter inch to each measurement, so I cut the pieces 7.25 x 13.25 and they fit even better than the first ones I made.

This week may have to be renamed "five ways to use fabulous red polka dot fabric". It might show up a few more times yet....you've been warned. ;)

I'm in over my head

alternate titles to this post could be:

I can't do it all, but I'm trying my hardest to anyway. (and driving everyone crazy in the process.)

or

my kids have been watching a lot of PBS and movies this week.

or (my personal favorite)

too bad my stay-at-home-mom job lacks vacation time, because I sure could use one.

This week instead of my usual blogging and quilting routine, I :

started painting my kitchen red...three coats down, one to go. The brass light fixture is the next thing to go.

turned over a small garden plot (by hand!) and planted a vegetable garden (note to self: don't try to do these two things in the same week ever again.) 

spent one afternoon pushing 2 of my 3 children (60+ lbs.) in the stroller around town for a two hours while running errands (and for exercise, of course). 

spent 2 days cleaning my house....for what? it's already dirty again. 

I really am in over my head. I don't like this feeling one bit. And it scares me that I am feeling this burnt out with summer vacation looming. 

So in the interest of trying to regain some sanity, I am on a mission to try to finish up some WIP's, in quilting and otherwise.

Wish me luck.

painting is (nearly) complete

All that is left is to touch up in a few spots....

...and wash out the brushes and paint tray.

Freshly painted walls make me so happy.

(a lot of) work in progress

I've been painting...

my family room and hallway....

...my house is a wreck!
But as my husband always says, "it's gotta get worse before it gets better!"
Here's hoping it gets better soon! :)