Keeping with the theme...

Front wall---Before
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Of old projects finally done....

We painted the front/living room of the house about 5 years ago, it is a long room and instead of a large TV my husband bought and installed a projector , so we watch movies at about full size (ok not that big but bigger than your largest TV screen ). The cost of a screen, or projector screen paint ( yes they make that stuff) was prohibitive...so we just left one of the smaller walls white, The other 3 are dark green. Yes we had a home theatre before it was the IN thing to do. At that point I had the idea of putting a fabric "curtain" up on that wall so it would not be so stark...and having it run on a rail like a hospital curtian so it could easily be pulled aside.

I found the sheer fabric I wanted at Joann's fairly quickly, but life got in the way and I didn't actually buy it for another 2 years (it was about $50-60). Then came the search for the right rail...millions of hospitals use them...but good luck finding a source for them if you're a civilian. I finally found something acceptable at IKEA. it was a strung wire with hanging clips. (got that in '07) but when Ian put it up, It mounted low and the hangers would mean the top 2-3 inches of wall exposed. I finally figured done was better than perfect...and I finished stitching up the curtain a few days ago and just strung it on the wire. I liked it laying flat but then my seams were very obvious, so I wrinkled it up and I think it looks ok for 5 years in the making:

Front wall--After
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

old dress

old dress
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

OK before you go any further on this post....no derogatory comments about my frumpiness.
This dress was once a bridesmaid dress that i wore for a friends wedding in august of 96. It is a full length pepto pink color that is more like tapestry/upholstery fabric and originally had this weird backward bolero jacket thing that buttoned up the back...that piece is long gone. This dress has been in my closet lo these last 13 years...I have always intended on dying it black and hemming it up to cocktail length or something...so i finally did:

Finiahed dress
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

The black dye turned the dress an interesting mulberry/purple color. An it was my first hem attempt (which is difficult by yourself...that's why i look a bit frazzled..I had tried the thing on like 10 times that day) I still need to change out the zipper which did not dye but with a nice black sweater (and some makeup) I think it will look pretty good.

Heaven and nature sing

Heaven and nature sing
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I told you I needed to stitch something new....Heaven and Nature sing by Stitched from the Heartland

New Desk

New Desk
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I have a few crafts I have been doing lately to tell you all about,..the first is this desk. Ian's parents brought down a disassembled toddler desk (and a chair that was already redone). So we had to strip, sand, poly, and assemble it. As you can see here A. took right to it when we put it in her room. She went to go get each book that you see and brought it back to the desk to read.

More tomorrow...

I'll be honest...

DSCN2330[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I have not been crafting AT ALL these past couple of weeks.

There has been this house project... Our house is very non-circulatory. Often it is cooler than the daytime temperature, but then in the evening our house is very warm and the outside air is cooled off and we waste AC cause we cannot get the outside air in...Well we decided we need a whole house fan. one of those in the ceiling jobbers that sucks all the air into the attic . So the project involved creating a new attic above the garage and moving the attic stairs and moving EVERYTHING in the attic across the entire house and into the new attic. This involved alot of sorting, reorganizing etc. which took up all my time...and now i am finding it difficult to get back into stitching.
Currently in progress is a series of Alphabet blocks (pictured above) that I was working on for A, but I haven't put a stitch in in 2 weeks. BUT tomorrow (my birthday by the way) I am cleaning my craft room and may find a new profect to stitch on...that always gets me going again....

Hobbies come and hobbies go..

I am one of those folks that gets obsessed with something for a week or two and then my interest quickly fizzles out or into a very slow burn. It can be books, usually a series like Twilight...(yes they are pretty shallow but damned if I wasn't at that bookstore for 4 nights in a row buying them mybrain screaming *MUST READ NOW!*). It can be a movie or a TV show, most recently Star Trek-I saw it 3 times in just a few weeks. It can be something new on the internet, like Facebook or a new game from Bigfish. And of course the hobbies. I always save the goods for when the need (flare up) to jewelry/knit/make candles/scrapbook comes around again. These last few weeks it has been quilting, so much so that i have not had a sec to blog about it till it was done:

I have dabbled a bit in this before, but not for long and something always frustrated me. For this story we must go back to about a year ago in NH......( insert ripply time effect here). I went to Keepsake Needlearts (disappointing) and next store to it is the Holy Grail of Quilt stores: Keepsake Quilting. There I had purchased a nice little pile of fat eights that were in shades of my my favorite color: purple. I also saw some fabulous Trip Around the World quilts...those looked very simple.... just squares right?.

So around the 3rd week of May this year I decide just to fiddle with these a bit, cut out the max # of little squares from each fabric and laid them out:



DSCN2319[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

It wasn't very big, but I didn't care at that point a big quilt was not going to happen for me any way. I went and bought a special 1/4 foot for my sewing machine (I cannot drop the feed dogs on the old thing and it pulls to the left) I sewed each square to the next in little strips then stitched the strips together. (of course as soon as I was done i found a way to strip piece one...next one sigh) had to run out and find a border/backgound fabric...once I did that someone crawled right over to sit on it and decided it was definitely made for her.


DSCN2320[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

One assembled I attempted to quilt it (by hand...my machine can't handle that yet) and that definitely needs work/practice. but i quilted (in the ditch) for a week straight till it was done...now though I think i am burned out on quilting...off to find my next fire.

It is about the size of a wall hanging for a wall that does not exist for it, or a doll blanket for the child that does not yet like dolls, or a table topper for a table that also does not exist. But I saw it though till the end, so it is my first, and I'll consider it practice...for the next quilting binge (in about 4 years)


DSCN2328[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

TaaaDaaaa!

Observe the first steps of our 2 year old!


This was wednesday, and it is honestly some of the first unassisted steps A has taken...Can you not tell by my reaction? Priceless.