Our Room Addition is Finished!

I am thrilled to report that our room addition is finished and is ready for DMIL to move in. The only sad part is that our crew from Mosby Building Arts has moved on to another job, and we miss them! The whole organization is first class, and we highly recommend them to anyone in the St. Louis area who has home improvement needs.

How about a little tour? My camera doesn't really have the right kind of lens for this kind of photography, but you can get a peek at our new space. First is the hallway into the new space. This used to be my laundry room, but now it is my wonderful pantry. I love this space! I love everything about it.
The hall leads into this bright and airy living space. This next picture shows the sitting area, which will have two recliner chairs there in front of the gas stove and TV.

On the opposite end of this space is the bed area. I made a birdhouse quilt for her bed.

This is part of the bathroom.

Here's part of the walk-in shower with bench.

Finally, here is an exterior view of the addition, waiting for landscaping! Now comes the big move for DMIL, and we are hoping she loves her new space as much as we do.

More Kitchen and SuzGuz4

This week I made Block 4 from Susan Guzman's 2008 BOM series, and here it is. I've been told that it appears to be looking at you, and I now realize that it does look like it has nine eyeballs on it. Oh, well, I'm not doing it again! It will only be one of twelve blocks.

Here's the final side of the kitchen that you haven't seen yet. There are a few crumbs on the table, but you can't see that, right? I used to have small quilts hanging on that wall, but they just didn't fit with the new look. I plan to make a table runner soon. We can't have this room going "quiltless"!

The Kitchen is Finished!

As promised, here are some pictures of our finished kitchen "spruce up". I can't call it a remodel because we didn't change the cabinets or floor. However, we are very pleased with our new counters, back splash, wall color, and valances.

I am most proud of this part of the room. (It's directly opposite the sink wall.) We used to have double ovens on this wall. My dear husband did all the carpentry work to make the platter rack, microwave shelf, and storage drawer in their place, as well as installing our new oven. I think he's amazing!

That's the pantry on the right. The opening to the dining room is on the left.



Here is my new desk area, with its new counter top and tile. Now it's my job to keep from piling up any junk on the desk--very challenging!

In my next post, I'll turn the camera another way and show the table and far wall of the kitchen. (First, I have to clean all the mail off the table!)

SuzGuz Block 3 and Valances

Here's more progress on the kitchen front. I have made the valances and really like them! This is above the sink, and there is another one across the bay window. (That one is 20-feet long stretched out--I like them really full.) We are using this aqua as our accent color, since it is the complement to the orangey oak cabinets. I have purchased a few other things in this color, which I'll show you soon!

Jan mentioned that I probably would be glad to have my kitchen back. Well, unfortunately, I've had it back for awhile! It wasn't too torn up to cook for very many days. At this point, I just have to make sure that I don't cook things that'll splatter on the slate back splash because it isn't completely sealed.

I've also finished the third block in Susan Guzman's Block of the Month series. Her patterns are so much fun, and I am enjoying using my polka dot fabrics.

Jungle Animals and Tile Work

I'm still sewing! Here's the latest quilt for a children's charity. It will go to an orphanage in India, as part of a project on the Quilting Passion Forum. It's based on a pattern called "Wicked Easy", with a little tweaking of the fabric "recipe" and the addition of applique.

Here's DH, busy installing the tile back splash in our kitchen spruce-up project. It is much farther along now and looks great with the grout. He does such an excellent job on anything he tries. Before long I'll be able to show some pictures of the finished project.

Pinewood Derby Quilt

OMG, our kitchen is a mess! As previously mentioned, we are redoing the kitchen, keeping the flooring and the cabinets and changing everything else. Today the old counter tops came off, and stuff is stashed everywhere. There is no sink or stove, so we got to eat out tonight! My husband has been working SOOOOOOOO hard.

Tomorrow is a big day, because the new counters will be installed. After that, DH will set the back splash tile and grout it, and we will be almost finished. We can't come to an agreement about window treatments.

I do have one Project Linus quilt finished, Pinewood Derby--designed, of course, by Sindy Rodenmayer at www.fatcatpatterns.com

My son loved making these little cars with his dad when he was in Cub Scouts and racing them on that big Saturday in January!

I tried something different with the quilting instead of plain old quilting in the ditch. I set my machine on a decorative stitch and loaded it with bright orange thread and then quilted along all the edges of the sashing. I really like the way it looks, although it took a long time!

Kitchen Project in Progress--No Sewing to Show

Our kitchen is getting a face lift, and helping DH is "job one" for me this week. The house is 30 years old, which is not ancient by any means, but it does require a little freshening up now and then. (We have seen some houses in our neighborhood decline rapidly when no upkeep was done and don't want this to happen to us.)

We chose very good cabinets the last time we went through this, so we are keeping them. They're oak--not the latest rage but we still love them and they look good after our recent effort to clean and polish them. We're getting new counter tops and a new cook top, and DH is also going to replace the back splash with this tumbled slate mosaic tile. (Doesn't this look like something a quilter would select?)

My favorite part of the project is what DH is doing in the wall space where he removed the old double ovens. We are replacing them with a single wall oven, and then he is utilizing all of the vertical space in that area by building a platter-size plate rack at the top, a niche for the microwave under that, then the oven, and finally at the bottom will be a deep heavy-duty drawer! He is doing a superb job, and I am so looking forward to the increased storage space and new look! The walls will be a neutral called "Wicker" and the trim is just a shade creamier than white. The last touch will be new window treatments--my job. This includes a bay window, so it'll be a big splash of whatever color we choose.

Right now my job is to "get this" and "hold that" and clean up a lot--no point working on a project of my own. I'm the unskilled labor, helping out my carpenter!