Anyway, it’s time to consider an alternative as I pay a monthly fee to use Squarespace and while I love it I have neglected it too long.  I’m not ready to abandon blogging entirely largely because  Tom and I are back into the RV trip mode even though I haven’t blogged about it.  We are planning some extended trips in 2015 so it would be a good time to move to a new platform, a free service, and use my Flickr account to store photos.   So that’s my next step, set up the new blog and figure out a transition plan.  

Besides a few RV trips last year, the biggest thing we did in 2014 was manage the construction of our new screened-in porch and then furnish it.  Tom and I consider it our exit plan from RVing.  We are not ready to hang up RVing yet, but that day will come at some point.  Our 2006 Allegro Bus was our first RV and the porch is our last one. Technically not the same, but it required the same serious discussions  to spend big money as it did when bought our Bus.  

For any readers who still pop in, I plan to open the new blog with a summary of our 2014 RV trips  and will announce that here.  I may keep this blog for a couple months pass the launch of the new blog, but then that will be it.  Nothing lasts forever.   Stay tuned for phase 2.   I hope it won’t take me months to reach it.  :-)  

Click here to see all the porch pictures.

In mid July I spent 2 weeks visiting my sister and my son in Illinois and had a really great time.  My sister recently retired so we had plenty of time to spend together and most of it was spent sprucing up things inside her home.

First we updated some accessories in her kitchen —  to unify the look.  Prior to this it was just a Hodge podge of things she had accumulated over the years.   Once we found the picture below we decided to go with a “bird theme”.. Maybe we overdid it?  :-)   Oh well, she likes it and that’s all that counts.  

I made a new checked tablecloth for her as she spilled a little bleach on the orange one. I thought it would be too dark, but it turns out it was nice to break up all that orange. 

When we found this lantern we decided to embellish the inside with an egg tree — similar to one we saw that would not fit.  So we made our version from Styrofoam, couple of bags of eggs, hot glue, and little sprigs of wheat. 

It sits on top of her fridge 

And finally we filled up the area above her kitchen cabinets.  This is just one side.. 

Outside we planted this perennial garden.  She wanted to experiment with gardening so we kept it small.  She has since edged it nicely so she can easily mow around it.  It’s such a great little back yard that would be perfect to go gardening crazy so I told — just let me know and we’ll tackle it.   

At my son’s apartment we rearranged his bedroom so he could his window A/C unit  in and out without any help.  Moving that king size bed was a chore even with 2 people.  

And we scored big time on a used sofa and easy chair thru a local online ad.  Just $100 for both of those plus the table in between.  What a deal!  Not his ideal style, but he was happy to get something comfy til he can afford to do something different.   

Last winter his dad helped him install the shelving unit I bought him for Xmas.  And then we added those white wire covers  and replaced his “Star Wars” looking antenna this trip - both sure cleaned up the area, but I didn’t get a picture of those.  He’s itching to lose the rooster picture.. I suggested he just take it down for now.  :-)    

Quilting

I’m nearly done with a quilt for my Niece.  A wedding present - pictures to follow.   And I just finished a wall hanging for the porch which is @ the LAQer.  Here’s a picture of it before I sent it off.   This is where it will hang - I plan to have it framed under glass.   It will not get any direct sunlight here, but more light exposure than if it hung inside even with UV proteced glass so I’m sure in a year or so I will know firsthand how exposure will impact it.   

Porch

The cabinet in the picture above is a new piece.  We are still waiting on a few other pieces including a  counter height table and 4 stools that will be a our small dining area.  Those will sit to the right of the black cabinet.  

Here’s a closer look of the rug in the smaller room.  I changed my mind many times before deciding to go this direction.   So many rugs were a bit too colorful and even though I love color I did not want a beachy, water in your face look.  Most outdoor rugs have such large patterns like this Killim rug, but it resembles a quilt pattern to me so I can live with that !! Probably why I like it.  :-)  

And I made another antique purchase.. this bench.  I looked at this one for over 3 weeks trying to imagine if it would fit as I worried it might be too much.  The areas are filling up and I need to be careful to not have too much going on.  I added 2 killim pillows to pick up on the rug.  So far I think it’s all working.  I have some fabric picked out to make drapes for the smaller room - hopefully I can get those done before we button up the porch for the winter. 

Eventually I’d like to replace the basket with a potted plant in big crock or bucket.   

Reports on RVing and Gardening are skimpy.  Tom and I are headed to Red Bay, Alabama tomorrow for some work on the motorhome  And later this month a landscape company will be planting a lot of new trees and bushes around the porch and tweaking the big bed along the garage..which needs a lot of work.  Hopefully after they are done everything will be back in tip top shape.   

This is my rendering of how one of the new beds will look.  Though the stepping stones will not be installed right away.  There’s some disagreement on the size of stones to use so I decided we will wait to see everything else in place before making that decision.   

Til next time….

We’ve been pretty busy the last 6 months planning and managing the construction of our screened-in porch. Something we have always wanted and decided to get it done this year.  After this is complete we will add some landscape beds on each side and then I believe everything we wanted in our forever home will be complete.  Until I change something. But I haven’t had a desire to do much of that.  Yet.  GRIN

The Plan

Early on in the design process we discovered a property setback issue.  Most other homes in our community are able to build a pretty large rectangle porch - usually 15 x 14-18’ deep.  Unfortunately, our home was built so close to the setback line we had to add a 45 degree angled wall @ 8’ and then were only able to go out a few feet more.  Not even getting close to 14’.  :-(

Once we discovered this problem we decided that room alone was not big enough so we bit the bullet and created a second room along the back of the sunroom.  Initially we thought we’d just do about 7-8’ deep on the bigger room - large enough for a swing and some rocking chairs - unscreened, but covered.  Sort of like the front porch we had in NC.  But then we decided to go as deep as we could and enclose everything.  It was such a large project and we had the right builder so we didn’t want to have second thoughts wishing we had gone deeper when it was all done.  

Here are a few construction pictures and some interior pictures shortly after we moved in some furniture. Gutter installation and general cleanup outside will be done later this week. But landscaping will not occur until September. 

We decided to go with a travertine floor and installing it was a massive under taking.  Or I should say the prep to laying it was massive.  They moved 10 tons of rock to the backyard with a skid steer loader and buku trips with their wheel barrows.  

The rock was then compacted and then they added a layer of sand.  Three guys got this all done in 2 days. It was amazing.  

The painters then did their thing - inside and out.  

This is Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore.  Same color as my kitchen.  I need to get another picture of the finished ceiling.  

We moved in the furniture last weekend.   In the smaller room the furniture is facing the house - it just made more sense as there are a lot of doorways in this room so we plan to use it in the morning to watch TV.   It will sit on a piece of furniture in front of the house windows.   

I had a short wall added inside to provide separation between the rooms and a place for some furniture for each room.   I picked up the hutch in the picture below @ a local antique store for $140.  It was already painted in a chipped, distressed look.  I wish it was about 10” taller overall, but I’m not completely unhappy with it.  It’s hard to find something that’s not too deep to fit on a wall that’s only 35” wide, so I consider myself pretty lucky.  

And I have found 3 other aantique pieces.  The rocker, the step stool, and in the big room a cricket table.  My goal was to accomplish an interior look so I stayed away from metal patio furniture, however, the seating is weathered wicker with Sunbrella cushions - from Erwin and Sons.   Everything else will likely be wood of some kind.  I realize that’s a risk, but I plan to add polyurethane to some pieces and oil to others. And the reason is - a former antique dealer up the street from me suggested I oil the rocker — she says that will repel the water and better for the wood.  Hmm.  So I will give that a try.  

Eventually I will add in some pillows, quilts, rugs, accessories, and potted plants to give it more color and a homey look. And then we need to decide on a small dining table and chairs for the other side in the big room. But for now we are just enjoying it.  It will be heavenly come fall when all those trees in the ravine in front of us turn shades of red and orange.  Probably a little chilly on some days, but I have a lot of quilts to keep us warm.  

Not pictured in the collage are the fabric projects I completed for my sister’s laundry room (Just blogged about below).  One project I did finish, but never blogged about was the basket quilt which was a gift  for my other sister.  I finished it shortly after Christmas, but did not ship it to her until after New Years as I figured it would get hung up somewhere due to the UPS snafu.

A couple of firsts this year …

Mitering -  I had to miter the Civil War quilt or I felt I had too because I used a stripe for one of the borders.  It just seemed all wrong to not do it after spending so much time making all the blocks and I’m really pleased with the results.  I read everything I could about mitering before I started and found the best advice was to use glue to secure the seams and pattern matching before sewing.  I also cut the stripe border about 1” wider than I needed so that I had enough fabric to square it up after I finished.  

Label - It seems criminal I have never labeled any of my quilts til my sister’s basket quilt.  :-(   Oh well, maybe I can change that going forward.  Here’s how I did it. 

• Added stabilizer (Pellon) to the fabric I wanted to use
• Pressed freezer paper to the back of this and then trimmed it to 8.5 x 11  
• Created the label text in Microsoft Word using a desired font and found the curly cue heart in one of the symbol/miscellaneous fonts.  Check those out some cute little symbols to consider
• Then I followed this gal’s tutorial to attach the label 

Fancy Packaging / Washing Instructions -   After I saw this video by Kim of The Fat Quarter Shop I knew I wanted to do something unique to package this quilt.  A crate would be way too big for this quilt, but lucky me I found some wire baskets at the Home Good store.  They had several of these on the shelf — I should have grabbed a few more for future gifts, but did not.   Geez - they were only $10.   I  bought a couple of ribbons at Jo Ann’s that matched the colors of the quilt to add a pretty bow. 

I added a box of color catchers (it’s inside the quilt) and paper clipped washing instructions on the fold just above the bow (not shown in pic).  I’ve never had a quilt bleed before and chances are this quilt will not either, but it’s good to pass along the  tips.  

• Gentle wash - cold water
• Add 1/2 cup vinegar (to prevent bleeding)
• Add 1 sheet of color catchers to washer (in case it does bleed)
• Gentle dry 

 
This was quilted on a Gammill Statler Stitcher by my LAQer using the panto called Gala Vine by Anne Bright.  She also quilted my Civil War quilt and on that one I picked Celtic Vine also by Anne Bright.  You can see a bigger version of that and the other projects by clicking the links below — it will take you to my Flickr albums. 

Onto 2014 projects… the first one will be another gift quilt and I may have to use a crate for that one.  :-).  

1. Nan’s Basket Quilt Wrapped, 2. Beck’s Quilted Drapes, 3. Becks Room After Bed, 4. Beck’s Gingham Bedskirt, 5. Sewing Bath Wreath, 6. Sewing Bath, 7. Double Takes II Pillow, 8. Swoon Inspired Pillow, 9. Nan’s Basket Quilt 1, 10. Nan’s Basket Quilt 2, 11. Nan’s Basket quilt wrapped 2, 12. CW Quilting Closeup, 13. Mitered Corner

This is her son’s home so most of this is stuff he left behind when he moved out West.  He plans to rent this house out when my sis retires and moves out. He is a car hobbyist so he has tools everywhere including in the big honking garage.  Plus a boat load of stuff accumulated over the years.  Don’t we all?

This is a nice window and great area to “pretty up”.   We had already added the mini blind and the curtain that I made.   You might not notice, but there is a piece of crown molding missing above the window, so we chose to mount the rod at that point to conceal it. Chances are that will never get replace unless her son returns to complete some renovations before he rents out the house.  

We were experimenting with how to add a table area in here and also wanted to hide the ugly floor below which was missing some tiles.  A gas line running near the floor hampered how we would ever fix the tile ourselves so that’s when we decided to go for a table that we could skirt.

She had the cart in the garage, but the top was too small so we bought a butcher block wood top from Lowes to make it larger. The goal — spend $$ only on things she could keep.  

We did cleanup stuff behind the curtain, but I have no pictures of it.  Nothing fancy — just cleared out what was not needed and organized things better.   The material is from Hobby Lobby (love those coupons).  It’s duck cloth so it has a nice weight to it.  

We added baskets from Michaels on the top shelf and a band of green ginham check to reduce the amount of polka dots on this curtain otherwise we thought it might loook a little “clown like”.  :-)  

The lamp and books she had laying around the house and the wood trays and basket/flowers are from TJ Max.  

We only had enough gingham check to band the bottom of the table skirt.  She stores some big pots and pans underneath.  And she replaced the original lamp a few days later with this one as we really wanted something a little chunkier.  

And we can’t forget Madi - a black lab that belongs to her son, but my sister takes care of her  24/7/365.  :-) She loves to play ball so we chose to give Madi some wall space for her stuff.  

It was a difficult area to work with due to the circuit breaker box, plumbing, and electrical outlets, but it is what it is.   Somehow we lucked out and found these canvas prints that had most of the colors used in the room.   

 It was a fun fix up and my sister is very happy with it.  Somehow I never got a picture of the entire wall with the washer/dryer.  Other than the Madi side, it’s pretty boring.

RVING 

Yep, Tom and I made our trip back to Illinois in October and had a lot of stuff done on the Bus.  New tires, new shocks and then we made a small little RV trip to Iowa to have our HWH lever’s checked out and to give the Bus some much needed exercise.  A trip up to Michigan was nixed due to weather — it was frozen mix stuff further North that same week.  

Anyway we stayed @ a nice little COE CG in Muscatine, IA called Shady Creek.  A more formal review of that place is pending. (I know - don’t hold your breath), but until then click the link.  This CG like many others now includes a picture of every site.  

It was very cold while we were there  in the 20’s) and this is the only time we attempted a campfire.  We were there 3 nights and took a couple of trips into Muscatine for breakfast, etc.

I also found a very nice quilt store that was in the middle of a neighborhood.   It was great — I’d definitely go back.  Looks quite deceiving from the outside - I thought it was going to be a home that simply had an online fabric shop, but it was actually quite big inside.  They had some great quilts on display - the kind you’d drool over.  Their facebook site has a lot of pictures that will give you a better idea of what they offer - here’s a link  The Little Red Hen.  You’ll have to click on their photo albums to see them.

BUS STORAGE

Good news, we found a place in TN to keep our bus.  Bad news, it went up in flames a few weeks after we leased a spot.  Yikes! 

Fortunately for us, our Bus was still in Illinois otherwise it would be toast as it would have been parked in the 2nd spot from the left in the area that is now just a bunch of rubbish.  

They lost 10 RVs that day.   The facility is rebuilding and has provided us with another spot until it’s finished.  It’s literally the best RV storage area in the area or atleast what we can find.  Another Tiffin owner from the TRVN forum is also using this place and their brand new Phaeton was there that night, but in another building.  Whew! 

SEWING STUFF

Several projects were finished the last few months.  First, the sewing bath shower treatment.  I had a vision here that went a little wrong, but I think I’m just going to live with it. 

The upholstered board is too tall by about 6-7”.   I’m mad at myself for making this error because I do know better.  The original plan was to attach 3 tailored green ruffles to the bottom panels to give the treatment some punch and then mount this board above.  Instead I added one ruffle on the board to try and minimize its size.  I don’t think that was completely successful, but knowing me in a few years I’ll probably decide to do something different and take it all down so - it is what it is.   

However, if I wanted to fix it,  a good friend who makes window treatments tells me it’s possible.  I hot glued the fabric, cording and all the trim on the backside, but she says I can get it off using a steam iron and then I could then cut down the top and reattach everything.   

Well that seems like a lot of work to me so for now I’m moving on.  :-)   But for DIY’ers who are interested on some other construction stuff — I gathered the panels using shirring tape (from JoAnns) and then attached it to the top with velcro.   Sewing one part to the curtain and hot gluing the other part of the velcro to the top of the board.  And the white trim to conceal the staples is called gimp which I also bought @ JoAnns. 

I’m going to add a standard shower curtain rod and liner behind this — just above the bottom of the board and push it out of the way so you will only see it on the inside. But I’ll only put that up when company comes to town.  :-).  

QUILTING

No time to finish an entire quilt for the new house before yearend so I made a couple of quilted pillows….

.

I used a modified version of one of the Swoon quilt blocks by Camille.  It’s a scrappier version of this block which I copied from a few other quilters who went this way too.  However, I replaced the outside pieces with a border.   The finished pillow size is 26”.   And then I added a wider binding for a chunkier looking edge.  

This is my favorite of the 2 pillows.   It’s 18” and created using a  block from a quilt I made several years ago that uses layer cakes.   The diamond center is made from a fat quarter I found buried @ a quilt store.  I had no idea what I would do with it, but I really liked it and actually tried to find more of that fabric as I thought it was “wowsa”.   But no luck.  

Boy I had a tough time trying to line up the pattern to meet in the middle (4 pieces here).   Fussing cutting is difficult especially when you really need mirror imaging.   I just tried to line it up it up as best I could and after I had made too many cutting mistakes and started running out of fabric,  I picked the best of the bad cuts and called it  “good enough”.  

XMAS DECORATING 

We had a holiday party at our house for our neighbors so the Xmas decorations went up very early. These pics were taken a few hours before the big event.  We had nearly 50 neighbors coming so I figured keeping the decorations simple would be the better way to go.   Somehow I forgot to take pics of all the food.  :-( .  

A few new purchases this year - mostly to update the colors I used previously.  It’s the same tree,  but I went with shiny, sparkly bulbs - mostly cheapo ones from target.   A new treetop bow as last year’s bow was a rust color.   That’s also a new tree skirt - deep blue turquoise with some pretty beads on it.   I didn’t even have a proper size tree skirt.. I think last year I used a quilt which was really too small.   I really like the unusual punch of color of this new one.   

A new red throw and a bird print xmas pillow with some little glitter beads - both from the pottery barn. 

The 3 Xmas trees on the chest I’ve had for a few years.  The wreaths are recycled from last year, except I had to buy new inserts (red berries) which came from Pier 1.  I needed 3 inserts and I only had 2 of the same kind from last year.  I also replaced the rusty ribbon to hang them with a red burlap ribbon. 

I hung the old inserts on the guest bathroom doors with leftover ribbon.   

Just another view of everything.

And below —  Tom is getting the drinking stations setup.   We catered the food from the local Publix grocery store and it was still sitting on the front porch at the time — our temporary fridge for all those big platters.  

Some smaller niche decorating …

Here’s my version of a  swag I found via google. Just page down in the link - you’ll see the inspiration beaded swag over a window. Click here.  Due to so many chunky beads,  I couldn’t wrap it more than I did.  I tried.  It just looked all wrong. 

This is just a basket filled with mostly paper and some cheapo bulbs on top.

Here are more of the same bulbs in the bowls.  That transferware once belonged to my mother so it’s near and dear to my heart.  Next year I think I’ll add in some greenery.. it looks a little too bare as is.

And finally our Byer Carolers are hanging out inside this hutch with some christmas cards — which are just starting to arrive.    The desert table sat directly in front of the hutch so perhaps the guests saw them.. Not really sure.  :-)  

And that’s the end of this update.  I am working on a couple of new quilt projects, but it’s too soon for pics.  

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to anyone who happens to visit my poor neglected blog.   :-)

Things on the homefront are winding down.  We have accomplished a lot this year - but I just have not blogged about it much so here is another quick update … 

Quilting

The Civil War quilt is finally quilted.  Binding is pending.  I’ll probably do that on the trip. 

Gardening

Fresh pine straw was added to all our garden beds which always makes things look a bit nicer.  I still need to tweak this bed some more, but that’s on hold til we return. 

This hydrangea on the opposite side of the house is looking better each day. I love the blue flowers.

Sewing Room

A major upgrade is complete.  Somehow we got this all installed in about 3 days.  I’m loving it.

It’s from EasyClosets.  All ordered online.  Free shipping.   Fabulous packaging.   Arrived in 14 boxes. Yikes!  

I have 3 of these type drawers with the acrylic dividers and one is completely empty.  Room to grow - a quilter’s dream.  :-)

I’m super happy I folded all this fabric before we moved. It made moving all this stuff in here a piece of cake.

~~~~~

I hope to provide some blog updates on our trip.  Provided my new 4G hotspot works.  Stay tuned.  

My original plan was to just add the quilty artwork on the back wall and call it done.  

It’s just a piece of upholstery I’ve had for over 10 years that I stapled to a canvas frame and hung in our last 3 homes (NC, FL, IL).  However,  to fill this wall it needed to be larger so I had it matted and framed @ JoAnns.  Love those coupons.

But then I went shopping which is very dangerous.  Always.  :-)   And I stumbled onto these cute ceramic pieces @ Home Goods.   I had no idea how I was going to display them until I saw these metal photo stands so into the cart they went.   I spray painted the stands black and attached to the wall with dry wall screws. 

During the same Home Goods trip I saw this shelf.  Hmmm.  Briefly I thought perhaps I should just hang this in here vs. the quilty artwork.  I couldn’t resist it’s quirky look as some of the shelves are a bit wonky. 

I figured if I changed my mind it would work in another room, but it doesn’t so now it’s hanging in this room - behind the door.   Getting very crowded in here…giggle. 

The only other redo to this room so far -  new lights.  Which were originally a bronze — too bronze so I spray painted them black.   

Once I got all this stuff in here I thought something has to go.  But it all is still there and somehow I think it works.   If I delete anything it would probably be the ceramic houses….but for now - my rationale is this….  

The artwork is a nice pop of color and view outside the room.

The shelf has a library look.  :-)   Which you only see once in the room.  

The baskets add some texture and the black all around the room grounds things.  

The ceramic pieces work because, well I like them.  Okay — probably because they are white.  

I think this room is done.  Though I’ll probably change the towel ring and toilet paper hanger to black.  So almost done.  

The wall color is Benjamin Moore - Woodlawn Blue. I had to do some serious touch up after hanging those black stands to the wall.  The spacing and getting those things level was no easy task for me.  I hate stuff like that.  Thus one reason I’m not in a hurry to remove them…  it.was.so.much.work. 

I like the quilt on display here and it made for a nice photo op, but it would be too much work moving it in and out each day.  I’d have to avoid the sunny mornings and I’m sure not leaving it out all night long so I went on the hunt for an alternative.  

The witch and the pumpkin is from The Home Goods store.  The basket holding the mums, the chair and throw, stool and gold crock are things from inside the house.  The wreath for the door is a new purchase this year.  I bought it thru this gal - Florals From Home.  She does a fabulous job.  I’m just thrilled with it and very happy it’s the right size.  

But I gotta say - the doormat needs to go.  It just looks too industrial and just doesn’t fit with all these pretty things.  So it’s on the list of things to replace.   Don’t tell Tom. 

Before

This is her son’s home which she is living in until she retires — he’s moved out West.  She was eager to get rid of the bachelor look so we went on the hunt for inspiration thinking we’d find a fun fabric for some drapes. 

After

However, we drooled when we found these.  These are 2 king size quilts from Sears.  We cut them in half and hand sewed a hem along the raw edge. On sale for $70 each - what a deal - eh?  We then picked up a couple of rods and rings from Jo Ann Fabrics, but the rods were brown and the rings were black (that’s all they had) so we spray painted the rods black.  Easy Peasy. 

The paint color is Bamboo by Olympic from Lowes.  We painted the walls and trim all the same color to give the room a larger feel and make it easier to get done.  :-)  But we did use semi gloss paint on the trim.  

Then we went shopping @ TJMaxx and found a lot of little knick knacks, a lamp, and the cute chevron pillow for the bed.   All the small wood furniture pieces are antiques from her ex-in laws home.   These pieces were all in the garage moved their by her son.  As we sorted thru the garage stuff, I told her I felt like I was on the show “American Pickers”.    You should see the things we put in the other bedroom — another post for another day.  We call that room the Downton Abbey room.  :-) 

Here’s another antique piece.  We did nothing to it.   The bed skirt is 6 yards of cotton duck gingham that we found @ Hobby Lobby.  We just left it folded to give it more weight and stuck the selvedge side under the mattress.  

In the corner is an antique sewing machine cabinet.  The picture above it was a gift to her from my brother - we had that framed @ Hobby Lobby.

This chest was purchased a few days after we finished the room.  

I found it at an antique store and told Sis — you really should consider this.  It has dovetail drawers, keyholes, a bowed front on the top drawer, and a milk paint finish that was very nicely done.  And she agreed.  If she hadn’t, I was seriously considering buying it at getting it down to TN somehow.  But I’m glad it’s in her home, as this is where it belongs.    That pic is her kids when they were young.    They are now in their 30’s and the little boy is the owner of the home.  My how time flies.   

Stay tuned for more redo pics….