What Do You Wanna Do Now?

I bet you wonder if I still sew?  I had a guild show, I do a lot of charity quilting, I have been cleaning up the yard for winter, and doing some home renovations.

Since I got home I knew some things really needed to get done.  One thing was to remove the ugly white, brown, and tan shag carpet from the sick room for multiple reasons.

1.   It was ugly
2.  It smelled--Jeff's ex MIL was in that room for a couple of years, she had cancer.  Also the great uncle lived in there before he passed. 
3.  Bobbin decided that was the most awesome stinky place in the world to go and pee.

What is funny is I had to go back through 6 years worth of pictures to find even a glimpse of that carpet.

Yep I hated it that much. Now, I think I told you it was supposed to be white.  No matter what it looked gray, and dingy.  Why in 2000 would you buy ugly carpet like that and pay to have someone install it is beyond me.

Anyway I had the kids removed the ugly carpet.

The hardwoods underneath were not too terrible.  But removing the carpet meant that I would have to install baseboard.

And because the floor was not laid evenly I had to put quarter round down also to help fill in some of the gaps.

Other gaps will have to just be filled in with caulk.  I am not that talented, but I am pretty handy with a miter saw and brad nailer. 

Someday I will pay for someone to come in and refinish the hardwoods throughout the downstairs.  They do have a gorgeous patina.  It is a shame that people did not appreciate them.

But hardwoods are cold so I purchased an area rug to go into that room.

The industrial sewing machine was moved to the barn, and I bought 2 six foot folding banquet tables and 2 four foot folding banquet tables.  I am working on a set up to work in here for the guild charity quilts.  Ironing board, a place to cut, extra batting

One day I sorted quilts and afghans which had been turned in to me.  Quilts needing labels, need to be turned into the VFW, children's quilts, feminine quilts, all bagged and labeled for next month. 

The quilt show had scraps in a huge wagon for $5.00 a gallon bag (you filled your own bag).  Everything that was not sold came to my house.  Fifteen plastic grocery bags full, and a small plastic bin.  I purchased a 32 gallon tote and started dumping.  Only 8 bags fit, and it was full and running over.

Everyday for an hour or two I sort through, what is big enough it can be put through the cutter, what I can cut into useable pieces or create strings.  Anything that doesn't work gets put into a bin for dog bed filling.

No I did not paint the baseboards, I figure the next time I paint that room I will paint the baseboards and quarter round too.

I need to catch up on my friendship blocks for guild.

August block

September Block

The September Bee blocks

 I have also been working on the quilt I started at my moms.  Doing a lot of trimming of HST. 

I am on the last step so I have about 500 more HST to make and trim and I will be ready to sew the blocks together.  I just need to keep focused.

Martingale had a sale the other day, some books were only $6 so I bought a few to glean some ideas.

I also bought a book recently on color theory.  Not that I have a lot of problems with choosing colors, but it is nice to have a reference.

Of course while I was cleaning out the 6,000 e-mails in my inbox I found some sales and picked up a few quilty things.

From Hawthorne threads some Dalmation from the Blueberry Park line in Mustard, Cross Hatch from the Architextures line, Herringbone in Lake, and some cool black on white, and white on black fabric.

I decided I needed to just bit the bullet and buy some background fabrics to have on hand so I bought 20 yards of Grunge Basics White Paper, 10 yards of Grunge Basics Snow, and a grunge in green, and another in yellow. 

Finally I stalk the sale pages at some stores for fabric for guild which is manly.  Craft Town fabrics had a nice sale going on.

I bought about 15 yards of fabric which is more manly.    Sailboats, canoes, Route 66, tools, deer, desert animals, and some panels with wildlife. 

I also found a couple for myself.

I am still trying to close the pool, but the weather is just not cooperating.  Hopefully tomorrow we can get that done. I also have my bee blocks for October.   I think I have plenty to keep me busy around here.