Did you know there was a National Ice Cream Day in the USA??? It was started by President Ronald Reagan!!
And here is a patriotic view from my foyer … all hand quilted with buttons making a star shape in the blue… I enjoy having made this quilt and caught this shot this morning to share with you!
This week has flown by for me! I have stayed very focused on Starlight.. Starbright!!!!
First I will share my happiest moment yesterday when I took this shot…
Which makes me 2/3 complete on all the quilting!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!
Slow stitching is the ONLY way I could produce such a cool stipple… and I love using such bold colors to quilt with on this quilt!!!
When I started quilting this project the last day of February I thought I would be done by the time my daughter returned from her summer vacation… she is gone to Tennesse for 5 1/2 weeks… to be home first part of August to prepare for her Senior year of high school starting soon after. But this quilt still has more time needed devoted to it and a bit more time. I don’t want to rush and leave poor stitches or incomplete areas.. I want all the quilt to be contiguous when I finally see it in full complete!!! lol And for when I gift it too!
I am hoping to find a special short verse of some sort.. to add to the label I will put on the back once the quilting is complete…
Any ideas y’all???!!!!
So I have now started on Block #7 on this quilt for my daughter… here is a shot I took this morning…
I am hoping to have this block done by end of the month or when Brandi gets home 😀
Each block finishes at 28″… it takes for frame moves to finish a block.. this one may take 5 as I will have the outer border to get also as this is an outer corner block.. 🙂
Linking this portion of my blog post to Kathy’s Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching HERE… the remaining post is an update to those that follow me whilst I am writing a post for linking! lol
Anyone is welcome to read and enjoy but Kathy prefers we link only hand quilting items and below are home reno pictures and stories… Have a happy slow stitching Sunday Y’all… that is my focus for the day also! lol (Kathy talks about focus in her post too.. hope you go take a look today!)
My machine quilted finish got used this week…
My honey uses it to cover the table and blend in with the backdrop.. it makes the black cases and Featherweight Sewing Machines just pop with black against the white background.
Here is a close up of just the quilt and backdrop….
So I will call this successful! lol It has a few puckers at intersections but those mainly disappeared with it’s first washing and drying… so as it get’s used and washed more it will continue (hopefully) to hide these areas as machine quilting is just not my joy! lol
Also this week my honey has been working on the bar in our kitchen and I went on a walk down memory lane to the house we first moved into… before we started giving it some personality! lol
Here is a pic from the real estate ad….
Notice the kitchen on the left… see how there was a doorway and a pass through window??? What were they thinking!!!
So we improved it fairly soon after we moved in to this …
Although the bar wasn’t super sturdy or even very functional… Rick improved it by opening the doorway up and the wall between the doorway and the pass through was checked and NOT load bearing.. 🙂 Lucky my honey is very smart with home reno!!!
Well now he is putting the finishing touches on the bar … but look at this long shot I took this morning… how the opening to the kitchen looks now!!!!
If you scroll back to our original kitchen from 1980… it was dark and not a part of the house… now our home is very cool and interactive … I love the open concept we have been able to capture here 😀
So let’s look more closely at the process of turning the flimsy half wall into a functional sturdy bar that really integrates all the spaces in the main of our home…
Adding a perpendicular shorter length wall was integral to getting the wall to be sturdy…
That wall is screwed into the tile then down into the concrete.. there is NO JIGGLING of the bar at all now!!!
Then he added 2 pieces of plywood to make the shape of the top and covered it with the beautiful formica we got online (lucky there as it was more perfect and completely different in person than it was when we chose it online)!!!
This is a good shot of the variegated greys in the formica and how well it matches those 1980’s existing formica covered dove grey cabinets in the kitchen! lol
Once the bar was made he surrounded it with wood edging and stained it to coordinate with the living room ceiling fan and other woods in our home … lots of secret stuff happened during this step!
My honey has had many professions in his life and home reno guru is one of them… he had many high end clients and saw and made many high end dreams come true so when we plan a project like this… he does the very best to make OUR dreams now come true.. on a tight budget! hahaha!
Check out the cart we found speaking of budgets!
This rolling island cart (we havent’ decided what we should call this piece… any ideas???) was found on our local swap on facebook and cost us a whopping $30 cash and gas to go get it (10 minutes from our home to theirs!).. YIPPEE!!!! We were planning a cart very similar to this one… with heavy duty lockable casters and we had planned to use the remaining formica for the top of it but this one has nice butcher block wood top!!!
It is a bit worn but not terrible… so my honey will strip it by sanding it down to fresh wood and restain to match our bar edging… then the house will have this wood color throughout mixed with white wainscotting and light/med grey walls… neutral but classy!!!
Here is another shot I took this morning…
My honey let the stain cure then is adding layer upon layer upon layer (very light layers) of varnish to give this bar it’s final step for a long life… then the blue painters tape can come off and we are free to enjoy it!!!!
And ideas on decorating this space?? It needs something next to the wall… and maybe a table topper in a circle or hexi on the hexi part of the bar… what do YOU think???
Also this week we had to replace our post light in the front yard. Another thing for my honey to do.. using his electrical skills! lol
You see when the yard folks came around to mow they were on a loaner mower as their was being fixed… not acclimated to the subpar loaner mower they hit our post and the light fell off! lol
No harm done though as we found one inexpensively that I really liked… so before long after the little incident… we had this shot to share with our mowing friend…
And this morning I caught it at sunrise while the light was still on for you to see!!!
So Casa Del Loro has had a good tune up… We may take a break now.. not sure. There are many things we still want to accomplish before Brandi returns from her summer break.
So now until my next post … be safe! And do a good deed today.. just because you can!!! 🙂
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