It's October and I am Back!!

 I have to say this has been a very exhausting 3 months! We started looking for a house in June and about 3-ish weeks into out search, I found one. We closed in late July, and spent 7 weeks painting almost every square inch of the inside. The house had been empty for over a year, and the sellers didn't want to put any real money into fixing it to sell, so they had the entire inside painted beige. Every.Room. 

This is the dining area of the kitchen. The bottom of the wall under the chair rail is the beige I mentioned above. I made it my mission to eradicate all the beige. I am, after all a quilter and I need color in my home.The pale blue on the top of the wall is one of two blues I used.

The top walls and upper cabinets are the light blue with a detail stripe where the cabinets indent. I put on black knobs to replace the white porcelain ones. The bottom wall and lower cabinets are a darker blue of the same basic color tone. They have a light detail stripe.

And for the dining area where there is a chair rail, we chose to install bead board and paint it the dark color. I wasn't able to get all the painting finished before move-in day, but a few weekends should get it finished up. My husband wanted to replace all of the old electrical outlets and light switches in the house. Looking at the inside of the house, you could tell it had been years since it got any love.

These are pictures of the front bathroom. My daughter picked out the wallpaper and the color for the trim and bead board we put in here. Wall paper was a whole new experience for us.Peel and stick, but still challenging. We still need a chair rail in here, but again, a weekend project.

The laundry closet is in the hallway of this small ranch style house so I decided to have some fun with it. I painted the bottom a peachy color and the top a deep blue. As I was finishing up the top, I decided to have some fun and added some clouds.

We decided to frost the glass side light for privacy at the front door. I'd done this before, so it was quick and easy and made all the difference.

Here is the door before, and you can tell how much it matters. The living room is painted a beautiful yellow, with crisp, white trim.

And I found this beautiful Magnolia print fabric (did I mention we live in the south?) and made quick curtains for the living room windows. It was an older print, but I found a shop that had enough for this project and they were happy to sell such a big length to me.

These are the windows in my new sewing room. You can kinda see the swatch where it put it to the left of the windows. I painted this room a creamy warm white. I need that for my fabrics to shine. I have finally started unpacking and setting up. It is quite a process. More pictures when it's done.

This is the curtains in my daughter's emerald green room. This room is hard to photograph, but it is stunning.

Our bedroom ant bathroom are the same color. It is called seersucker. It is a blue, but sometimes it looks grey. Very soothing and we love it. We left the trim white here again.

Jon Snow is adjusting to his new digs. He enjoys sitting in the open windows now that the weather is cooling off. We also put up a couple of bird feeders to attract the local birds for him to watch. Since he is an indoor only kitty he needs some entertainment.

Well, that about catches us up. Hopefully when the dust settles a bit more I can get back to sewing. That's the goal. See you later friends.

Long Time No See

 Man, this moving thing isn't for the feint of heart. It seems to just go on and on. To be fair, we did actually move twice; once to my daughter's house and once to our apartment. We are still getting settled in, and will finally be getting the last of our stuff from California next week. 

The sewing room is set up now. I have actually done some sewing. Let's take  look, shall we?

First, there is this beautiful antique quilt rack that my daughters bought me as an early mother's day gift. I truly need a place to display some of my quilts and this fits the bill perfectly.

I have my ironing station set up here. I hung my favorite spools quilt above it. I had it hanging in my old quilting room in our house, but haven't really seen it in awhile. Now that I have the space, I happily hung it on the wall.

My second Penny Sample quilt found a place on a wall in the sewing room too. It's her first time bein hung up.

I set up my wooden crate shelves along  wall and added some smaller quilts above it. The shelves are still messy, but getting more organized every day.

Here is the sewing desk. I absolutely love being able to display my Kingfisher Quilt above it.

And just this week I removed the bridge table I was using for the computer and replaced it with this little cutie from Wayfair. It's a perfect size for just the computer. I do have my design wall up, but forgot to take a picture. It's sew nice to have this all set up again.

It has been 5 years since we have had a space all our own. I am enjoying this more than I anticipated.

 

I got out the rest of the magnetic butterflies that I bought while at my daughter's house and did a little "decorating".

This is the air return for the HVAC system. A metal cover in our living room. This is a perfect way to make it pretty.

And a few leftovers went on the fridge door. These are so pretty, I can hardly get enough of them.

And lastly, a North Carolina sunrise from a few weeks ago when we went to visit our other daughter near Charlotte NC. A cold winter sunrise, but so beautiful.

See you soon with my current projects.

Happy Winter Solstice

 It has been almost a month since I have checked in here. Lots has happened in that month. I finished all my packing of my worldly goods in Southern California, loaded them into a POD and got on a plane for North Carolina. Now, those of you who have followed me for more than 5 years might remember when I left NC for Southern California 5 years ago. I retired from my job of over 20 years, after a well fought battle with cancer. I am doing great in the health department now. But Covid changed everything.

We could not travel and see our family. We missed them, and the grandchildren so much. They also needed us, as much as we needed them. They were working from home, home schooling and all the stuff that many many families were doing and they needed help. We could have helped if we had been here. So we made the decision that we did not want to be so far away in these uncertain times.

It had been two years since I had been there and 3 years since my husband had been able to be there. It was a very tough decision, but the right one for us. They have all grown so much, and change so much over the last two years. Our 14 year old grandson is now 6'3"!! And the youngest turns 6 next month.

For now, we are staying with our daughter and her family. It is a very full house, but full of love and hugs being given daily to all. All of our belongings are in storage. We will have a great holiday with all the kids and then, once school resumes in January, we will begin the search for a place to live. Our two NC daughters live about 2 hours apart, and we plan to look for something between the two places.

I have a couple of my hand projects with me, and as time permits, I work on them. I do have my Bernina here at the house, but I don't know if she'll see much use right now. I am downloading all of Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt, to sew it up once I am settled somewhere and reunited with all my stash. I also plan to sign up with Rachel Hauser for her 2022 BOM program which begins in January. I may start a few months late, but I am okay with that. I have really been missing sewing, so I think once I get settled, I will be sewing a lot to make up for lost time.

For now, I am just enjoying the family and the holidays. I miss my on line community, but I just got my computer here and set up, so I have to catch up with everyone I follow. I will check in from time to time and let you know how things are going, and if any sewing happens, of course I will share.

Have a peaceful solstice my friends, and a very Merry Christmas. I wish you joy!

Charlotte

Greetings From the Left Coast

Well, needless to say, a lot has happened since I was last in this space. I was all packed up, got on a plane and flew all the way across the country. My new home is in San Diego. This is a beautiful place, but couldn't be more different from North Carolina if it tried. I haven't sewn anything yet. I was here for almost 2 weeks before I finally saw my stuff and it has been quite busy unpacking and setting things to rights. I hope to be able to start sewing this week. My new space is almost ready and I will take pictures of it soon. For now, let me show you around.

 Welcome to the Garden House. My sister has referred to the house by this name for a very long time.

This is the front of the house. There are many beautiful rose bushes in the front that my sister is so talented in growing.

 There are many other plants and flowers growing all around the house. She truly has a green thumb.

                                              More roses on the patio.

 This one and the one below are bougainvillea that are growing over the back fence. They are all over the place here and right now every one of them is in bloom and make the neighborhood look so pretty.

 The rest of these are pictures I took on a walk around the neighborhood. I don't know what many of them are, but there are so many different plants, flowers and succulents in the yards around here.

          Some yards have no grass and are all plants and river stones.

                This is a type of Jasmine and it smells wonderful.

                  I'm pretty sure these are Ginkgo leaves on this tree.

These are birds of paradise.

And to finish this up for now, a picture of a California sunset from my front porch. Ahhhhhh...
Talk to you soon.

Almost April

So a few things from here, as I prepare for the big move. This is my 493rd blog post. So close to 500! I think, even though it has been a long time since I have done a giveaway, I think I might need to have one for that 500th post. So as I finish moving, I will be thinking on what the prize should be.

Grey here this morning, but at least the weather has moderated into spring temps. That roller coaster the last few weeks was rough! No rain today, but plenty tomorrow. Which will be great to wash all that yucky yellow pollen out of the air. The only bad thing about spring in NC is the pine tree pollen.

Packing is almost all done. Address changes have almost all been filed. Just a few details remain and in less than one week, all my worldly goods will be headed west. Wow!

So, since this is a quilty blog, I feel the need for some quilty pictures. Back into the archives we go:

Some old, some newer, all loved and used. I sometimes feel amazed at the quilts I have made. Well, I will sign off for now. I am not sure if this is the last post from here. I still have my computer until Tuesday morning. It will be one of the last things packed. Have a great weekend.

Two Weeks Left

I have two weeks left, living in my home of 23+ years. I alternate between excitement at this new adventure in my life, and sadness at leaving what I have come to know and love in this place. The sewing room is all packed up now, even the machines.

Amanda Jean has been working on reducing the number of WIPs in her studio, so I thought I would see what I have that needs a finish. I plan to work on these things as soon as I am set up on the left coast. And just so we're clear, I will also start a few new projects too. The ideas are coming on fast and strong. Change of venue might be the best thing my creativity has had in years.

 First of course, my Penny Sampler. I will be in transit without my supplies for the first half of April, but am excited to see what the month's assignment will be.

 A small quilt to play with circles. This one just needs quilting. I am thinking of some very dense quilting for this, just to play and practice.

 This sweet plus quilt is so cute. It also is a finished top that needs quilting. I will need to figure out how to quilt it once I pull it out again.

 This small quilt is for my middle daughter. She had requested some small wall hanging quilts for her home. I have a whole box of fabrics that she picked out to make them with and a Pinterest board full of ideas. I need to decide how to quilt this one.

 This is my clambake quilt. I started this when I was home fighting cancer. I had cut out all the clams in one week, and began sewing. As fatigue set in, I lost the energy and the desire to work on it. I have since added many rows, but still more to go. My youngest daughter has asked for this one when it is done. It is a quilt as you go project, done with Rachel of Stitched In Color. Clearly some of my clam shells are not as smoothly rounded as others, but...practice, practice, practice.

 This is one I made to use up a jelly roll I had won a few years back. I love how it turned out. It is also for my youngest. It just needs quilting and binding. I think maybe a curved quilting design.

 This big thing is one I started about 15 years ago. I picked out all the hand quilting and need to add the last rows and machine quilt it. My skills have improved since I started this, so finishing it may be a challenge since the seams are not all flat on the stars. I really want to finish this, my oldest WIP.

 This is the small wall quilt made from Amy Gibson's Quilt Block Cookbook. It also just needs quilting. I haven't quite figured out the quilting yet. Maybe some stitch in the ditch and a bit of fancy work in the white space.

 And here is the very last quilt block sewn in my North Carolina sewing room home. The last of the ittty bitty blocks. This one was pretty tough. You can tell I put the top together wrong and had to rip it and re-sew it. These tiny blocks are truly skill builders. Patience and precision.

And here they are, all together. Some I love, and might make a few more of those. Some, not so much. Thanks for being here and hanging out. The sewing room will open up on the left coast as soon as all my stuff gets there. I hope to see you there.