Calm and Beauty

There were some terrible storms that ripped through the Midwest yesterday afternoon and last night.  It was unseasonably warm yesterday, just rainy.  Around 5pm yesterday we got a notification of a high wind warning.  They weren't kidding.  Watching the neighbor's flag pole flex to the point where it looked like it could not bend one more bit, then suddenly the wind would change directions for a second and the poor flag would end up flying straight up into the air until the weight on the rope would someone pull it back down. This old house groaned,and whined, and moaned some more.  I am thankful for the calm and beauty that is provided after the storm.  Most of the leaves have blown away to someone else's property to be stuck in hedges, fences, and ditches.  The sun is out and everything is scrubbed clean.  I am also thankful that no harm came to us, and pray for those that lost loved ones and their homes.

I sewed for a few hours today.

The unit on the right are all trimmed.  The unit on the left are all sewn and need to be ironed and trimmed, then I can finish making the blocks and set this aside. More on this later in this post. 

I then decided that I probably should work on finishing up the wallpaper removal.

 At the end of yesterday that upper right hand corner was all that was left.  We are leaving the one wall until we get the other two finished first.

I finally finished.  That one corner which was about 2 x 3 foot took me 2 straight hours of wetting and peeling, wetting and peeling.

DH removed the vent in the wall when he got home from work.   The hole will get closed up because we will be removing the wood burning stove in the front living room.

It can no longer be used because it was misused in the past and all the pieces inside are warped and therefore dangerous.  We have decided to remove it, the chimney, and it will give us a much larger front living room.  Maybe we will put in a gas fireplace they do not seem to take up much real estate.

So some sewing was done, and some home improvement too. 

I signed up for a Christmas exchange with my batik swap group.  There are times I wonder what was I thinking.  My person likes snowmen, and icey blue colors.  I am stumped I have no ideas.  Oh the item has to be bigger than a mug rug, and the fabrics must be batik.  I went wandering to her page to see her quilts and nothing!  Nada!  Not one picture so not too sure what to make. 

I pulled this out of my pile of scraps.

I kind of think of this as an icey blue. 

Well maybe divine inspiration will hit soon. 

DH is saying it is time to get ready for bed.  Hope your Monday was wonderful.