First Paper Piecing

I totally forgot!  I also have my first attempt at (foundation) paper piecing.  I saw it in the Quiltville Facebook group and decided to give it a whirl with a fat quarter bundle of Halloween fabrics that have been hanging around in my stash.  I used the print out from Generations Quilt Patterns.

I can't wait to do more!  I'm thinking of doing a table runner with these fabrics.  Maybe I'll mix one of them up with more than three colors.

Oh, and just for giggles, I finally got my TV wall mounted.  It's on a articulating arm so that it can come straight out, or turn 180 in either direction (and tip down), but my favorite thing was installing an outlet behind it so I can hide the wiring.

Royal Capri by Mill Hill

A while back on the Book of Faces, I posted a new ring I had bought... or was going to buy... I can't quite remember.   But anyway, Holly of Holly's Stitching and Stuff mentioned that she had a Star Trek emblem pin she thought to send me, and she sent a little Mill Hill kit along as well!

In her very kind note, she mentioned that she thought the kit would go well with my periwinkle laundry room.

Here's my paint!  I don't have a good picture of the room, really.

I finished it this weekend!  or I thought I had.

Play the "Where is the Missing Bead!" game here.

I forgot one stinkin' bead, which I hadn't noticed until I decided to take pictures.  Oops.

So then I (eventually) got that one little bead in.   I did the entire project while watching my new tv-show crack (which is 1) unfortunately only on Netflix until Sept 30 and 2) unfortunately only covering two seasons when they have more somewhere, bah!)



I had a bit of a time with the back and stitching it together, but I'm ultimately happy (hearing that others had the same kind of issue made me feel a little better about myself, too).

I seem to be working through small projects right now.  I'm trying to get myself back geared up to work on the Fantasy Sampler piece I was so determined to finish last fall.  We'll see if I get there.

I didn't post a WIPocalypse update, because I didn't have much to update.  But hey, I'm enjoying my newly fenced back yard!

Oh, and I did do this one thing while the back  yard was fenced! I painted an old end table.  I'm attached to it (it belonged to grandparent-figures of mine, who are thankfully safe outside of Houston, my entire family seems to have made it out relatively unscathed, boat rescue not-withstanding).

The TV Liquor Cabinet (aka: the best TV channel ever)

I've been a bit MIA of late, partially because I've started going to a lot of yoga, but mostly because I've been having too much fun.   I went on a Chesapeake Bay fishing trip, I had a lot of birthday parties, and I finished up my retro TV liquor cabinet/bar.

The original TV:  A 1972 Zenith.   I found it for $20 on Craigslist ("found" = spending weeks and weeks hunting and jumped on this as soon as I saw the posting).   I thought it would be easier to get a hold of one of those giant wooden beasts more prevalent in the 80s, but it turns out people gobble them up to turn them into dog beds.   I even saw a bunch of converted dog bed/TVs when I went to the flea markets to try to get a retro set.

You have to take it apart (of course), and I didn't detail that so much.  This is all of the pieces from the gutted unit sprawled across the garage/workroom.   

The screen/CRT was the heaviest.   Fun trivia:  Sometime in the 60s as a "safety" feature, they started making the tubes implode when crack instead of exploding.  On one hand, I was sorry to miss out on the 60something TV, on the other, it was nice to know that this would literally not explode in my face (not that I didn't wear safety goggles, gloves and other equipment - If I'm going to die, it's going to take more effort than exploding a TV).

Unfortunately, the dude selling me the TV was kind enough to plug it in to make sure it worked OK, and the most dangerous part of these units isn't the exploding/imploding vacuum tubes, but the charged capacitor, which can hold enough electricity to actually kill you.  I checked out many a youtube video on how to safely discharge the unit before removing it.

In the very foreground of the photo you can see the circuit boards and some of the wiring.  I just tore it all out rather haphazardly, and, of course, disposed of it properly with the county's waste management program.

I sat/stood/bounced on the particle veneer top to see if it would support my weight.  My ultimate plans were to put a small(ish) aquarium on top of it, and with the huge weight out of the inside I wasn't so worried about structural support, but the top was a bit bowed in.  Ultimately, I just decided to replace it with something sturdier.

So this is it, totally torn apart, there's a board in the bottom just as a test thing.  You can see the table saw in the background.

My next problem were these supports.   Initially (for whatever reason), I thought they were a super dense plastic, but no, they're metal (of course).    They supported the vacuum tube and held it in place.  This is one of the upper supports (they were on every corner of the frame), which I left, but I needed to cut the lower supports, or they would be in the way of the bottles on the bottom and could cause accidents (bottles being shuffled might hit them and fall over), never mind the actual lost floor space.

I cut straight through them with a metal cutting blade on the Dremel.  I decided to cut the three "prongs" only and not the whole molded out base.

I used scrap wood from the Murphy/Wall bed project to make the risers.  They're not ideally spaced (they're a little over an inch taller than I wanted), but scrap wood is free.  And I didn't feel like cutting down the length of the wood.   I nailed them together and primed the heck out of them.  Ultimately, I'm happy with the height.

I realized that the spray paint I was using would blow out into the front of the unit and stain the outside facing, so I went ahead and used a glorious amount of tape to protect the plastic fronting from overspray.

I also primed and spray painted the new top that I cut to the same dimensions of the old top.   I used edging tape to finish off the edges so it would look pretty.

This is actually the underside of the top

I also sectioned off the deeper side of the unit where the channel knobs and other things were located.   I did it for two reasons - 1. I didn't want bottles to get lost off to the side 2. It gave me a little cubby where I could put the wiring and other stuff (for the lights and eventually for the aquarium power strip).  I used more scrap wood to create a platform and a ledge so it was only 8" from the top (vs being all the way at the bottom.

The cylindrical-ish thing is attached to the channel changing knob.  I kept that all together and in one functional piece in case I wanted to go back and fit it so that changing the channels changed the color of the LED lights.

 I did not a get a proper picture of it, but this is the whole unit being painted.   I finished the inside, so I also protected that with plastic (overspray).   Before I painted, I glued/clamped the top for at least a day to let the glue dry on the top.   I then used caulk around the edges to give a nice smooth/complete finish around the edges.   Most people really can't tell that the top didn't initially belong with the unit.

I spray painted this with Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze.   I have a lot of accessories sprayed with it, and it matches the "espresso" finish that most of the furniture is.   And I just had a lot of it on hand (this whole project only cost me a bit of plywood, a bit of wallpaper, and maybe one can of paint because I used what I had on hand).  I did learn an important lesson about sanding this paint, it gummed up pretty badly, but I fixed that.   And didn't sand so heavily again.

Pro (blog) tip - put furniture up on small paint cans and you can spray the feet without any trouble, too.  And that's a bit of left over tack cloth.  I cannot over emphasize how important it is to get all of the dust/bits off before painting.  It keeps everything smooth, and tack cloth just can't be substituted.

The whole set up for a few days.  I would only do a very thin layer of paint, and you can see that the garage door is cracked for the fumes (I didn't want to leave it open overnight).  It's also a better shot of the little cubby I made from behind.

Last spray down of the whole unit!

I put some wallpaper on a board cut to fit the rear and nailed that on.  I didn't paint it or finish it in any other way, since you can't see the back anyway.

I did *not* get a picture of the LED lights, but I have one of those four strip units from Ikea (can be found at this link).  I might get more, but I don't think it needs to be brighter.   I have attached (with some double sided sticky), the light switch to the top right corner, so the lights are easy to turn on and off.

And here's the final product - I'm so utterly happy with it!  And I get the bonus of kitchen space for my myriad appliances (the liquor was being kept in the kitchen cabinet before this).

I could watch this channel all day.

 And not that you can see from this picture, but this is the wallpaper I used for the back, I ordered it from Spoonflower as a sample (I didn't need much).  It's called Enchanted Universe and it's by nouveau_bohemian:

It's a nice splash of interesting turquoise that gives a fun background that you don't really notice unless you look closely.  It lightens up the dark piece by a bit, and I like it.  I was looking at other projects online and I liked it when there was a pop of color.

And just in time for the liquor cabinet debut, a friend brought me some of my favorite tequila from Texas (they don't sell this here).

So, Tada!  And now I'll get back to other projects and maybe a bit of stitching.

Zodiac Mystery weekend update - March - Pisces!

It was exactly almost a year ago today (almost = off by two days) when everything crashed and burned for me.  And so I stopped stitching, and blogging, and the issues I was dealing with took up all of my time and energy and left me in more than a little bit of a depressed state.   But, I bounced back, because that is what one does, and I'm happy to be back to stitching away and not having enough time for all of the things.

One of my bigger (meaningful) goals was to go back to working on my Zodiac Mystery from CloudsFactory!  I had stitched the inner ring/frame and  the first two months, and even though I have the entire pattern, I am going to stitch one sign every month and will hopefully have a sizeable happy dance at the end of the year.

13 Mar 20016

And I did it!

My little Pisces.   I stitched the planet (Mars, though that's not Pisces's planet) symbol, the constellation, and the characters.  I do like the idea of the square finish, so every quarter, I'll go ahead and tack that on.

I don't know why, but I have a heckuva time getting that fabric to come out well in photos.  It always seems to grey out or go denim looking (and wash out the rest of the colors, oh well).

The one thing I did find infuriating is how much I've frogged this piece.  I repeatedly had to frog and restitch the inner circles setting up the frame, and I've had to frog on each subsequent installment.   I frogged the constellation circle on this one twice, I don't know how many times I frogged the character circle, and the corner bits?  Not only did I frog each branch 2-3 times, when I discovered a major mistake in the corner bit, I just said "eff it" fudged it and moved on.  SO. MUCH. FROGGING.   I'm super glad I subbed regular DMCs for the rayon, because I would have probably chopped this into little bits if I had to stitch that much rayon.   Oh well, it's getting done.

I went ahead and stitched Aries's symbol because I had the white left over... and then I discovered that I really liked stitching the symbols and that they were fast and easy, and after all of the frogging, so be it, I went ahead and did the symbols for everyone

Chugging away on the moons

I'm enjoying the planets, too, and even though I should move on to whatever is next in the rotation, I think I'll go ahead and work on the planets/moons until I'm either just done with it, or get tired of stitching that central area.  On one hand, it should make stitching each month faster, on the other, I'm worried that if I keep up with my frogging misadventures, I won't have some nice and easy stitching to relax with.   I guess we'll just have to see.

And in other good news, I successfully gutted my TV without deadly injury.    Discharging the capacitor was easier than  I thought it would be and the only thing I did to harm myself was scrape up some knuckles as I was yanking out wiring.  I also took the top off of the cabinet.  It was made with particle board and was a bit saggy - I'll stop it off with some sturdier plywood.

Weekend Progress - stitching and home wrecking!

More craftivism, yay!

This is my block from Stitch for Syria - I did it on 14 ct aida, as "instructed,"  which turned out to be a bit difficult because I don't use aida normally.   I ended up raiding a kit I had on hand (I was planning on stitching it on some other fabric anyway).  I used Simply Shaker Grape Arbor for the piece... In retrospect (or rather, after viewing other pieces), I kind of wished I had gone with two colors on this one - well I can always stitch it again if need be.

Stitch for Syria, Finished 5 March 2016

Stitch for Syria is hosted by Concern Worldwide, and Mr. XStitch actually designed the chart that you can stitch.

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My goal this weekend was to stitch March's update for last year's Zodiac Mystery (Pisces), while I binge watched House of Cards, but I wanted to finish off the block that I was working on for BoInk... and then I was really enjoying it and did another block instead... so there's that.

Two blocks, yay!

June 17th block, finished 5 March 2016

July 29th block, Finished 6 Mar 2016

I had to learn the hard way about watermarking my photos.   Someone reposted my photo, not maliciously or anything, but without any credit or information, so not only was it reposted without me realizing it, when I did find it (it was in a Facebook group), I saw a few queries wondering what pattern it was and other info.  Even if I wasn't slightly miffed that I wasn't credited, I felt kinda bad for anyone looking for information about the pattern and not getting it.    Oh well, so now I get credit and if someone has any questions I can help.

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On Friday, my car went kerblooey on the freeway (seriously, driving down the Interstate at rush hour to look down and see your car is about to redline is not awesome), and *of course* that was the same day that I was going to a neighboring down 45 minutes away for my next home improvement project.  Luckily!  A friend lived near the project piece and was coming to my neck of the woods to visit other people and he played shuttler for me (also, thankfully the TV was only $20, and it wasn't an imposition for him to "lend" me $20 for a couple of hours).   Oh, and no worries, car should be fixed Wednesday.  It just needs a new, expensive, rare radiator... because reasons.  I had to get my axle boot repaired anyway, so I'm out money I wasn't expecting, out 8 hours of vacation time I didn't want to spend, but no one was injured and I can get a ride to the bus to work in the morning and the mechanic will shuttle my butt from work to the dealership on whatever day I get my car back (hopefully Wednesday).

But here's my new toy!  It's a 1972 Zenith console TV.  I need to gut it, and that's the terrifying part.  The tube either acts as or outright has a capacitor that will hold a dangerously high charge for a really long time, so I have to discharge it before I gut it (and then take it to the appropriate waste place).  I've read up (a lot) on how to safely discharge the unit.   On a good/bad note: there was an older mid-century TV console they were also selling that was stylistically way more awesome, but someone got to it before me, the good news about this is that the '72 TV was born after they started making the tube implode (instead of explode) if it got cracked (for safety reasons, duh), so while I'll be careful and safety-geared out, at least that part is a bit safer.    After I gut it, I will paint it, hopefully clean up the trim, and outfit the inside to act as a liquor cabinet.  I'm super excited about it, and the only thing I'm having to look into is the durability of the particular paint I want to use.  Either way, good times for more home wreckin'!

New Year, New Post!

I'm just the worst at keeping up on things lately.  But I have promised myself that I've had my unorganized self pity time, and it would a wonderful Idea if I started to get my proverbial shit together and act like an actual adult.

I started stitching with a bang and then things fell apart in March when I went through HR shenanigans with my job.   Ironically?  Coincidentally?  Schadenfreudally? The higher up who put me through hell has been AWOL.   Not that there's any official word, but I can say (for certain) that this person's mugshot is out on ye olde interwebz, so that guy hasn't been around.  But that's all I'll say about that (or it will turn into a 5 page missive).  But in any event, I never really hit my stride again after letting myself get totally derailed (I should have been able to "right" myself in July, but never bothered - oops!).

On the upside, we (I'd say royal we, but it did involve the help of a lot of friends) did put in new flooring throughout the first floor, enlarge the coat closet from 31" wide to 6" wide, painted the hallways, painted/re-floored/re-did the guest bedroom ("LadyCave"), and built a queen sized Murphy bed, so I didn't exactly do nothing this past year ;)

But here are my Resolutions for this year (we'll see how well that works)

• Finish my certification (January).
  It's one exam, I should have had it done months ago ;)
• Enroll in an emergency management certification class/program
  I've been talking about it for far too long
• Read at least one book from my dead tree shelf/month.
  I want to go all mostly (I've saved my favorites) digital and put a dent in my physical Mt. TBR
• Declutter - I have a timeline/list.
  It should honestly not take that long and is more of a spring/winter cleaning thing.   This has been spurred by me having entirely too many kitchen gadgets/equipment (I got an Instant pot!  I can get rid of so much now!)
  I honestly did start decluttering some stuff (like in the garage, bedrooms, etc), but I stalled out on my piles of things to be donated/trashed/shipped.  I just need to finish up and part of my monthly/biweekly timeline is actually getting the crap out of the house that I finished with.
• Stitching - I want to get back to something regular.
  I have a planner now so I can actually get reminders to do things like check into WIPocalypse and/or any other bloggity good things.  I've even put little stickers on all of the dates I know I should blog!
  I even updated my WIPocalypse/goals for 2016!
• Quilting -
  I am working my way through the Allietare mystery at Quiltville.
  I'd like to finish that quilt and my bloomin' 9patch from the quilt class I was taking in March.
  I want to take a free-motion quilting class, although these two quilts will probably be straight quilted at home.
• Genealogy Do Over.
  Thomas MacEntee's Do-Over is really cool, and it changed how I'm doing things now that I'm starting over with my genealogy, but the 16 week program is just too fast.  For 2016 he is doing each topic Monthly instead of Weekly, which is just awesome, I think, and I have the work book as well.   My goal is to join the DAR this year, so I'm concentrating on my paternal grandfather's lines.   After I finish with what I know/have on hand, I will work on further verification and then my mother's lines, which came from Poland around the turn of the century.

I don't think these goals are crazy, I feel like they're totally do-able and leaving plenty of space for live and non-stressing (most of them could probably be knocked out in a couple of months if I rushed it).  I'm super excited about my new planner, because I think that having something with me to remind me what I'm up to is going to be key to success.  I find myself too easily distracted, and I know that once I start something I generally stick to it.   It's just a matter of reminding myself that tonight is the night I quilt or stitch or genealogy or something and I shouldn't pick up a videogame to get myself lost it (no worries, I'm leaving plenty of time for gaming!  I got a PS4 for Christmas (username Suzemo if anyone wants a friend - I don't know anyone on the Playstation Network) and I've been playing the heck out of Diablo III, but I also got some PS3 games for Xmas to play as well ;)

I have two positions with my professional organizations that I will endeavor to be good at.  One of them should be a cake walk, the other should be a bigger deal (one is a three year and the other is a two year appt).  So hopefully I'll grow professionally as well as personally.  At least that's the plan.

And just for fun - this is what I bought myself for Christmas (from Pretty Pretty on Etsy)

And this is my Instant Pot's first meal - Beef Ribs, and they were freakin' delicious (I've also cooked a crockpot/slow cooker chicken meal and steamed artichokes, just to play with the other functions)

And then there was that one time that I stitched again!

It has been for*ever* since I've updated, but to be fair, I haven't done a lot of crafting.

I finally did finish Wendy's "Lady" for her RR.   Her theme was... well, Ladies, and I thought I would get creative with mine.  I posted the start, and I had gotten a bit done on the skin when I realized that the skin was way too dark to represent my pale, pasty self, so it took me a bit to get it fixed.

But I really do like the way she turned out.


But what have I really been up to?  I finally finished the LadyCave!   I have a nice little desk area (my laptop fits great on it, though I've been thinking I should go back to a desktop - it would have more power for what I wanted to do, although it would be paired best with a tablet so I can keep on interneting downstairs).   I finally got my wireless printer up an running, I've organized all of my books and stuff, and I even have a litte drop table with barstools that I'm using to keep my TV on.  I just got an AmazonFireStick as well, which is awesome, because while I'm doing genealogy (or whatevs), I can watch TV and when guests stay over, they can also hang with the Netflix of AmazonPrimeTV if they want.

Here it is with the bed down - plenty of space to walk around the bed!:

And with the bed up (the image quality is annoying, either way too much light is coming into that window *or* the overhead light bugs out my camera phone).
That's Mona's pillow on the ground in front of the bed (my first quilt hanging on it), and my yoga mat down (of course) with blocks on it.   I've finished all of the touch ups and now I just need to get a better/brighter light kit for the fan/light combo.

Oh, and re-do the chair.  I'm going to get rid of the caster wheels and reupholster with this print from Spoonflower.

I will probably update the blog next with the games I played at the last gaming con I went to (the weekend after Labor Day, around the last time I updated the blog)

I've also gone on a trip to Phoenix to our National Meeting, where I became a committee member for one of the National committees (woot woot!)

My other big "thing" is that I've started the Genealogy Do Over, led by Thomas MacEntee, and I'm excited that the Do Over (currently in it's 4th cycle) will have a year long "Do Over" cycle next year.  I feel like a lot of the topics don't get the time I want to give them, so YAY! for that.   I will probably start a genealogy blog next year to document some of the things I'm doing, and in the meantime I'm excited that the research and documentation I have is going to be so much better than it was before.

In that picture, the "mess" in the corner (the several boxes and bins) is ALL papers, photos, etc from my family genealogy that I got when my grandmother died.  It all needs to be scanned and analyzed, but because it's been a while since I did my genealogy, I wanted to see if there was a way to make sure what I had was good, which is what brought me to the Genealogy Do Over, which is amazing.  I love the hard core documentation and story telling I've gotten into on that front.

But mostly I'm happy to get back to some stitching.   I have so much stuff on my plate, I always feel overwhelmed and like I'm neglecting my favorite hobbies.  I do get a little dismayed over any renos I do in the house because I know we won't be there for a long time, but the committee I joined is place dependent (I'm representing our District) and for 3 years, so I can reasonably expect to enjoy all of my work for at least that long ;)

My revised (and much more realistic) goal for the year is to get caught up with the Zodiac Mystery.

And (because I have so much free time), I"m threatening to join in Quiltville's Mystery Quilt next year :D

Labor Day weekend's Labors

First, I'm going to kvetch for a bit.    I've been cranky, really cranky, because I feel like the deadline to get the bed finished (in reality, yes, a friend can sleep on a mattress on the floor, but I want them to have a proper bed) is getting way too close (less than 2 weeks!).

As I was reading/watching the instructions re: the bed, I realize that I needed a 5/8" hole saw/forstner bit.  For some reason I had forgotten that little part.  I had the 1", I had some holes pre-drilled, but I had 4 5/8" holes that had to be done.  

Now, for those who don't know (I didn't!), 5/8" is an odd size and not something your local big-box store is going to carry.  In fact, when I was looking for something, there was a woodworker who happened to be in the same section as me and he let me know that he had to go to a specialty store in Raleigh for it.

So I did what any modern-woman would do.  I ordered it from Amazon.  I paid extra for the overnight shipping so that I would get it on Monday and could finish building the piece, which gave me 3 weeks for sanding and staining, which I believed would give me plenty of time.

And then Monday came around, and I waited for the part.  And waited for the part.  So I just decided "eff it, I'll just skip my Tuesday  night game night to work on the bed", and it still didn't show.  Wednesday, I checked my tracking info, no updates.   No updates for days.  And I called the specialty store, and lo' they did not have that part in stock (it was on the website), but they could order it for me, but it would take a week to get.  And Amazon just issues me a refund, because they're like "um, this is totes lost, we don't know where it is, and oh yeah, there are no more of them in stock."

Great.

I did find one online and ordered it in time for the Labor Day weekend.  The Other Half was out of town for the weekend, so, honestly, I just vegged out on Saturday being a lazy introvert, and stitched and binge watched the last season of Once Upon a Time.  And the 2nd forstner bit appeared.

But as of Sunday, all of the components of the bed are built!  Now just staining and assembly are left.

I'll have my bed done, I'll get my garage back to park in, AND I'll be able to finish the lady cave! (I'm waiting to see where exactly the cabinet fits, since it has to be anchored, before putting up the wall shelves).  Now I'm back to happy :)

And I stitched some this weekend, too.

I worked on Wendy's RR.   Her theme is "Ladies"  So of course, this is how I interpret it ;)
I did stall out after doing a bit more than this.  I had converted and played with a pic I found online, and I'm not happy with the skintones.  They're entirely too dark, IMO (especially if it's supposed to resemble my pale Eastern European self).

When hobbies collide...

And since I was binge watching TV, a bit lazy, and wanting to work on something mindless that would give me a palate cleanser before I go back to fighting with my Lady, I started this piece.  One color down, 4 to go:

This one is a mystery until I get it done.
But it will go in my office, because I find it inspiring in a hilarious way.

And just for the sake of completeness, here's the update on the bed!
I labeled a bit (you'd have to click and get the bigger size to read it, I'm sure).  The cabinet should take the rest of the week, and hopefully I can get the bed over the weekend?

The worst part (haha) is that I want something plain, so I was not going to decorate or trim out the murphy bed, but I did see some simple trim ideas that I did like.  I think I can go ahead, and finish the bed, and then just stain the trim and attach it after it's in place (so it won't kill my deadline to get the bed moved in and functional).  Why do I have to have ideas?!?!?!

Throwba... Oh wait, I have a "finish!"

I've been neglecting this blog again, but then again, I've been neglecting a lot.  I blame it on the nice weather.  There are so many things that can get done outside right now.

But I finally(!) finished the next installment of the RR I'm working on.   I've said before that I'm one of the stalled spots, but it looks like I will un-jam, soon!

I already have charted out my next bit for the next RR (I was actually halfway done with it when I realized how much I hated the colors - oops!).

In the meantime, I finished Lynne's RR - she included books with blackwork and Assissi designs to choose from if we were "stuck", and I found something PERFECT, but the shop owner/designer was "on vacation" (on Etsy), and as long as I procrastinated, they still haven't come back, so I went back to the googling-board and found and adorable Blackwork Wine Bottle piece by Cotton Season on Etsy.

The cobalt blue is ThreadGatherer's SNC Texas BlueBonnet... because Texas, and it's the color of the local meadery's bottles (I tend to mead it up much more in the winter, when I warm up their Spiced Apple and chase away the chills from me bones).

The green is Bejeweled from Crescent Colours, and has a lot of variation to it.  It reminds me of the prettier green bottles that some of the red wines (my usual go to) come in.

The red is Vikki Clayton Dragon's Blood, so that it actually looks like the red wine that lives in that green bottle.

And the aqua is DMC (3766? Gah, it's written somewhere) because I didn't have an overdye/silk/whatever that was the right color to represent Vinho Verde, which is the bulk of the white wines I drink.

Because the pattern was a little tall, I chopped off the stem of the glass and everything at that level.  I actually was super happy with that idea, because I use stemless wineglasses at home, so it continues to be more "me."  I added another row just to keep the relative dimensions right.    I shortened the necks of the bottles (except the Vinho's) to also help keep the proportions straight.

Blackwork Design by CottonSeason Finished 08-26-2015

I have a hard time with blackwork, for some reason, and I spent a lot of time frogging.  Once I could figure out a good pattern (like working the green in vertical rows, or working the circles in rows in the blue bottle), I did a lot better, but it did take me a bit to get rolling.  I'm very happy with the outcome, though :)

And of course, when I went looking for this pattern in Etsy, I run across an adorable Blackwork pattern of wine glasses I think I need.  Hah!

And just for fun, I'm throwing some pictures in of what I'm really working on right now - the Murphy bed I want to put in my lady cave.   Essentially, I will be building the bed & the cabinet as separate pieces, taking them back apart (well, some of it anyway) and staining it, putting the components back together, and then assembling the two pieces together in place.   So far I'm *almost* done with the bed.  I have to put the panels on the bottom of the bedframe (the panels will face you when the bed is closed) and then start staining that.   While those are staining/drying/whatevering, I'll assemble the cabinet (The part that the bedframe folds into) so I can stain that.   With the limited space of a one car garage, I'm trying to do this in serial so that I'm not bumping into myself constantly.

This is my set up before I really get started.
I cheated and had the lumber place cut my wood for me ;)

My requisite "I work better when lubricated with alcohol"
Though, really, I was too hot and busy to actually drink anything.

The frame all done.  It just needs the plywood/veneer face panels put on.

And Mona being ladylike... just because.

LadyCave!

So I did no stitching this weekend.  I drove to Ikea, which is about a 2 hour drive (each way), and I figured that if I left at around 9, I'd be back by 2... only I didn't get back til 5, because there were a couple of pitstops (one of which was dress shopping for an upcoming wedding!)

So without a TUSAL, IHSW, or WIPocalypse update this month, let me present to you the (mostly finished) LadyCave.

I'm too lazy to gif, so here are a series of updates, I thought about making an animated thing, but lazed out.

Of COURSE I didn't clean before taking a picture, I wanted the afters to look as awesome as possible! Here it is as the spare room/craft room/guest bedroom/"OMG, look at all of that crap" Room!

First I painted with the "Thunder" paint that I've fallen in love with. It's a Greige that is very color changy, depending on the light.  Sometimes it's a blue toned grey, other times it's beigey, and sometimes it gets so light you cannot distinguish it from the white trim or ceiling!

The point of no return :)

Day 1: Ready for the floors

The end of the first day; I was so tired from running up and down the stairs I basically just sat in the closet and stayed there for probably an hour.  I had boxes of flooring upstairs and down, with the saws downstairs in the garage.  I would measure, run downstairs, cut the planks and then bring them upstairs, and continue with the full length boxes that were upstairs.  It got rather tiring after a while.

 Finished the second day.   I did not get a picture of the shoe molding I also put in (white like the trim, I very much dislike the wood colored shoe, because it looks like the floors are creeping up the walls to me!).

So next was the furniture.  I had a desk that I really liked from Ikea, because I love their expedit line, but the desk was too large, so the desktop portion is now a table that sits above Mona's crate, and the expedit unit is used in the closet for clothing storage.  I decided to go with 2 Kallaxes (the new expedit) and I would use the Kallax as one desk end support and adjustable legs on the the other.

I had extra Capita legs, so I mounted the 2x2 using that to have extra space underneath:

The curtains are mounted really high and move easily (I wanted to have plenty of curtains to darken the room for guests, and I have the desk forward enough and the cords oriented that they won't get in the way of free movement) and they're bright mulberry colored (Ikea called them "lilac"), which pops nicely with the room colors (I'll have to get a better shot).

The table/desk in the middle of the room needs to go, I just hate to let that glass go.   And of course, I'm not quite done with the room yet.  Hopefully everything will have a home (or as an anti-clutter keynote speaker I heard earlier this year says "everything will have an address").

The mattress is my placeholder for my murphy bed.   The table/TV in the corner are just living there until I figure out where they'll be permanently, all of my art and stuff is not hung yet, and all of my genealogy stuff is in bins next to the desk (on the other side of the steelcase chair that I need to refinish/reupholster).  You can see my laptop on the desk in front of the window - I can see the bird feeders from there!

Shelves will eventually go on the wall where the TV is sitting.  I don't want to install them until I figure out exactly where the Murphy bed is going.  Since it needs to be attached to wall studs, I don't want to kill myself getting the shelves up only to have to take them down again.  The shelves will hold my work binders (from classes, development training, regulations, etc.) and probably some of my genealogy books and binders, freeing up the Kallax slotsWhen the room is done, I'll start the Genealogy Do-Over and spend time on that.  But I'm so excited! A nice LadyCave and multipurpose room!  I have a friend staying over the weekend after next, so I'll have to make up the bed on the floor, but I should be getting the wood to start building the bed next week. Huzzah!

Here's a shot of the closet (so far).  Not everything is in there yet, but most of it is.  I have an old Expedit that I use in there that holds a lot of crafting stuff - magazines, fabrics, WIPs.   Next to it is my filing cabinet with most of my patterns, on top of that is a stack of organizers (usually used for nuts/bolts/etc) that I have labelled all of my DMC in.  My new specialty fibre box is on top of it, and I have one of those hanging clothes organizers for my pre-cut fabrics.  On top of the shelf is where my kits/fabric/etc are.  I'll probably re-arrange that, but for now it's keeping everyone out of the way.

I had bought the shoe organizers back when I was renting a room (when I first got to NC) because there was no closet storage, and now I use them to hold fabric or other crafting stuff (empty storage bags, knitting needles, etc - the one on the right is actually holding gloves, ear muffs, etc).   They're so useful I've never gotten rid of them.

And here's a shot of my thread organizer.   I need to get another one - once I added in more stuff, I'm out of space.  I'm thinking of separating out my silks and Rainbow Gallery cards into another bin.

I didn't do them alphabetically, but in the order of my frequency of use.

And, because I didn't do like the Twisted Stitcher did - giving each file card a letter, I left a lot of empty spaces between cards so I wouldn't have to re-do them if I buy a new thread or three now and again.

Organization and progress!  By the time Summer is done I'll have the room complete, and I'll be ready to get to work on my studies (I'm planning on going back to grad-school in the spring) and genealogy and other good stuff.

Having a room where I can quietly practice yoga is my favorite part, but having a room where I can do anything I want in peace is super nice, too.