Dollhouse Project Update

Twas the day before Christmas and....

I was putting the finishing touches on the dollhouse.

Don't get me wrong, there is still room for improvement, but

all of the major renovations have been completed!

 The roof was painted, the chimney was updated (it's still drying in this picture)

The exterior received a fresh coat of paint.

New carpeting for the bedrooms upstairs. 

One bedroom is painted the same

color as Max's, the other the same color as Maria's bedroom.

New flooring for the upstairs bathroom and downstairs as well!

 The completed house with all of the

 original furniture.  (That may need to be updated at some point too.)

Time to play!

Dollhouse Project

When I was about 4 years old my Grandparents gave my sister and me a dollhouse for Christmas.
We were SO excited!  We played with this house for hours and hours!
My Grandfather made it from a kit, and personalized the interior with the paint and carpeting
that we had in our house.

The Front view of the house.

Back view of house.
(Do you like my shag rug in the room 
  to the left?)

Details!  Love the Mailbox and address!

And Mom and Dad's wedding picture!








I decided to "Spiffy-up" the dollhouse to give to my kids for Christmas...and to customize it a bit too!
Who knew that the roof and top floors were so easy to remove.
Thankfully!  Now I have a better chance at getting my big, grown-up hands
into the house.

The roof and top floor have been removed.
As well as the carpeting.
The carpeting was just like any other
carpeting.  It had stains underneath. 
I wonder if I ever rested my
drink inside of the house when I was little.
Hmmmm...

 The carpeting on the stairs was a little
difficult to  remove, but I got it!

I started to paint the 'downstairs'
the same color that is in our house.

I painted the roof a 'brownish' color, 
with texture.  I'm not very good with 
spray paint, so this will need another 
coat to even things out.








That's as far as I could get with my 1/2 day off from work. I'll try to keep you posted on my progress!

Pam's 2012 Advent Calendar Project

Pam has finished her 6 Advent Calendars for 2012! 

If you are interested in seeing her Old Lady Mega Craft she has a link here with pictures:

http://2012xmasadventcalendars.shutterfly.com/18#18



Way to go Pam!  :-)

One Quilt Top Completed!

One of the Quilt Tops is complete!  Here's a picture of  it!  Yea for me!

Updated Picture (kinda....)

Here's a picture of what I was able to accomplish the other day.
Since then, I've made even more progress.  Come back again soon
to see how far I've come!  :-)

A Little Time

It's amazing what you can accomplish in just a little amount of  time.  Yesterday I had a 1/2 hour.
I was able to move ahead with the quilt!  Just that little amount of time gave me such a boost
of encouragement.  I am hoping to have a little more time today.  I am so close to having the
quilt top completed, without the borders.  Time is ticking though.  Do you think I can have two
of these completed by Christmas?  I should be able to post some newer pictures this weekend.
Happy Friday!

Distraction and Motivation

It is hard to stay focused on a quilt that's been a work in progress for just about a year.  Several reasons exist, yet one stands out the most:  the gorgeous colors of fall are beckoning me and I've got those colors in my fabric stash!  I have managed to talk myself into continuing by just focusing on the fact that the end is in sight and the colors work for another holiday, Christmas.  Enjoy the latest!

Tick Tock..

No excuses, just haven't had enough time to Quilt.  :-(
I did put things away for the kids birthday party, so
I have to make sure that I work on it again soon...
right after healing an ill child, writing thank you notes,
planting the mums for Fall - before the freeze kills them off,
prepping outgrown kid's stuff for a resale...oh!  and then
there is work and living and breathing.   Yikes!
How is YOUR crafting coming along?  

Slow Moving but...

there has been some progress!  It really is shaping up to look like a quilt.  I may be about half way
done with this one...and just think!...I'll have another one to work on as well!  Yeah for me!  :-)

The four letter "WORK" gets in the way

OUCH!!!!!!hope your finger is on the mend.
I haven't done any scrappin for a few weeks. That four letter word called "work" is getting in the way. Plus had to wait for a new blade which arrived from the other side of the world....you guessed it....China, were else..... Hope to get scrappin soon.

Casualties with Rewards

This blog has spurred me on to good craft works!  But before the rewards came, you know casualties had to occur.  Here's the first one - my dining room table lost to fabric cut into wrong-sized pieces, fabric rip outs, and oodles of thread waste:

The second casualty could not be photographed.  Just think 'New Rotary Cutter Godzilla Meets Whayle's Pinkie Finger.'  Fortunately, I've recovered and have a beautiful inch-long battle scar that I'll only think of fondly when I can finally gaze upon my finished product!  Good thing I was working on red fabric at the time ...

Now for the rewards!  The block I first learned to make in my quilt class was pretty adventurous:  triangles!  I was proud to accomplish something other than squares and rectangles!  Then came show and tell at the next class ... ouch ... my block was the plainest out of 20.  I just have to be brave with color!

Back to the drawing board and WALLA!

I decided to go even more crazy and make a second block.  Isn't it amazing to see the transformation using the same pattern after mixing up the placement of the same fabrics and the same colors?  Rewards!

Time Escapes Me

I'm not sure when it was (perhaps last Thursday), but I was able to re-sew the pieces that were
in error and finally move on to the next step!  There are two parts to the next step and I was 
only able to complete one of them.  At this point, any little bit I can accomplish is 
an 'Atta-Boy' for me!
It really is difficult juggling the kids, work, and housework and finding time for extras,
like Quilting.  School is back in session this week too, so let's just add another hurdle to 
my schedule!  I'm taking Friday off of work and hope to find a bigger window of time to 
make some headway, but, as always, I have to be a little cautious with my plans.

I hope to post some more pictures soon!

How are YOUR crafts coming along?  

Lisa's Scrapbooking Pile

this is a test!!!! I think I might have learned how to do this....scary. Let me know if I did okay. As you can see I have lots to do.....there is more underneath that pile too.

No pictures to share today, but I was able to rip out all of my mistakes last night.  Yippie!
I'm back to where I was before I began on Monday!

I should post a picture of me sewing these days.  I have my 'cheaters' on and lots of
light!  I can still thread a needle though, so I figure that things aren't so bad.  :-)

Happy Friday!

One Step Forward....Two Steps Back

So, I encountered my first weekend with my new quilting adventure and, as I thought, I wasn't able to accomplish anything.  There's just too much to do to catch up with the week.  Monday came and I was tired.  I got home and made myself quilt.  I just kept thinking about how good I'd feel if I had something accomplished.

This "leg" of the quilt I have to sew 4 part A's, to 4 part B's.  I sat at the machine

and started sewing.  Aw, not so bad after all.  I finished all 4 sets and took this beautiful picture:

Nice, huh?

Then I started reading what I would have to do next....on another day, of course.

I actually ended up re-reading what I did today only to discover that I sewed

part A to part B wrong!!  UGH!  I had about 10 minutes of  'free time' left.

I decided to embrace my mistake right then and there. I was able to rip out one

of the 4 strips and decided to sew that one set...

Only to find out that I sewed that one wrong as well!  Double UGH!

So, above you see two sets that are both sewn wrong...but still pretty looking?!

Now I still have 4 strips to rip apart and resew.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow..

Baby Steps....

 

It's back to quilting for me!  I'm so excited.  I hope I can find the time to continue working on this.  Ideally September 11th would be a great completion time, but I'm afraid that just isn't very realistic to have 2 lap quilts completed!  Here is a picture

of the pattern I'm working on.

I rushed home from work on Tuesday and started to lay out all of my materials. At the end of 45 minutes I completed 4 out of 5 of the strips I needed cut out!   As you can see, this is Max's quilt.  It has the Disney Cars pattern.  He loves the characters:  Mater and Lightening McQueen.

On Wednesday I feel I made real progress.  I completed cutting out the 5 strips and even sewed the first batch together!  Below are the 8 strips I have that are cut and sewn.  I laid them next to each other so I could get an idea of what it will look like. Moving along!  YEA!