Wallpaper is not fun..

to scrape off your walls. When we bought this house 13 years ago it had hideous wallpaper in several rooms. The first room I tackled was the upstairs room with bright pink, yellow, orange, and lime green parasol ladies. We kindly refer to it still as the ugliest wallpaper known to man. It was put up with about three buckets of wallpaper paste, so I spent days and days scrubbing the paste off. Then I spent a day painting it a nice clean white and stenciling ivy around the top. It was lovely, but it totally killed my ambition of dealing with the wallpaper in the front room. Fortunately for me, my husband covered the walls of this room with his music collection and other goodies, so it was a good excuse not to have to do anything about the ugliness of it. Well, now that he has officially gained his own room to have his stuff in, this room is empty and needs to be spruced up before we refurnish it. This week has been filled with buckets of water, scrapers and deciding on paint colors. I have to fill some holes this morning, and hopefully this afternoon I will transform the first room people see when they come into my house into a thing of beauty. I hope! Before and after pictures will happen next week.

Needless to say, not a lot of quilting happened this week, but I did get borders on two of my tops, prepared the backs, and best of all made the binding! I discovered last week what a lovely thing it is to do the binding when you finish the top, instead of waiting until you finish the quilting. When I finish quilting a quilt I am always bummed out because I have to get the binding made before I can finish. If you do the binding before you do the quilting it makes it great, all you have to do is trim the edges of the top and sew it on. I highly recommend doing it this way! Plus that it makes me plan ahead. Often I don't even think about the binding until after I quilt, then I am scrambling for the right fabric. This way you have to actually pick it out and have it on hand so you are less likely to have to "make do" on the binding, which is the frame for your quilt. Not really the time to use whatever you can find.

This is the quilt I put borders on yesterday. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the pattern I used. I made it for a shop sample, so I don't have the patten anymore, and the shop isn't carrying it (which is why I got the sample back). Hopefully I can remember so I can give credit to the designer when it is quilted. The pattern didn't include the border, but I really think it needed the border to frame it. I got a nice blue green color to put on the back. I am thinking about quilting it with a pastel variegated thread I have, but I'm not too sure what I am going to quilt on it yet. Still in the thinking mode!

This is the sunrise I saw last week. It was absolutely spectacular! What followed it up was an equally spectacular rainstorm - so I guess there is truth to the saying, Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. This beauty makes me think of the Glory of God - as awesome as the beauty of this sunrise is, it is nothing compared to the beauty of our Creator! And with that thought I will exit and start working on the transformation of my now unwallpapered room.

I spent way too much money today!

At the fabric stores - buying backs for the quilt tops I want to get quilted! I will be busy this week getting quilts basted and quilting. I am excited to get started, but of course have some other things to do before I can get started on that project.

One of my ongoing projects is Jockey Silks. We have a thoroughbred race horse, and I would like to make our silks. I cannot find any kind of a pattern to make them anywhere. I have no clue as to what size they should be, or I would simply alter a regular shirt pattern. If anyone reading this has any ideas, please let me know. This is something I am really enthusiastic about doing, but really have no clue how to get started. I know my sewing skills are up to par, but I am not really good at making my own patterns so I am stumped at this point.

I also have a quilt that needs to be hand quilted that I need to baste and get going on. I should have had this done months ago, so I really need to get on it - I am not to sure why I have procrastinated so badly on this project, but I need to get over whatever is holding me back and get to work.

I suppose it's more fun to start a new project than finish an old one!

Volleyball gives you a flatter bottom.

Especially if you are a spectator! I spent the last two days at my daughter's volleyball tournament, and I am pretty sure mine is flatter - those hard benches are the worst on a person's backside. But I'm glad to be able to spend the time with her, I know that before I know it she will be grown and gone.

I spent the afternoon working on a sample that I am writing a pattern for. It is going to be called Grandma's Baskets. I think it is lovely, and it is a very versatile pattern - with just the right fabrics it can be used for any season. The first quilt I made would be lovely for spring with blue, green and yellow. The one I worked on tonight is a fall piece with browns and beiges. I just have to re-write the instructions, then finish and photograph my sample and it will be ready to go! I am really excited, and have been thinking of some other designs. I need to figure out more about how to market my patterns, but I am excited about the idea of being able to share my ideas with other quilters.

I am devoting my quiting time this week to finishing up the shop samples that are hanging around my sewing room. Plus I need to continue working on the t-shirt quilt and get that out of my hair. I am getting tired of the guilt they produce every time I see these projects, and every time I have to move them somewhere else. Time to finish them off and get them out of my hair. I almost have the t-shirts all fused to the interfacing, so the trimming and sewing should go quickly.

This is what I made this week, just for the fun of it. It was inspired by a walk this week - such a lovely day with a clear blue sky and beautiful fall colors! It is also for sale, I think I may make a few others reflecting the different weather that I experience in my walking times.