Change

Sometimes, when my head is banging, and I can't weave, I cook.
I have no explanation.
It just makes me feel better.


 Love these little half pint cherry pies.

I also made a pasta dish, but the "gluten free pasta" was not a hit.
My youngest daughter asked me to exclude that from future cooking sprees.

 

I am refashioning my days.

Two days a week find me taking care of this peach.

 

Then I find myself back at the studio, getting prepped for baby blankets.

Threading my AVL.

I have to take frequent breaks.

Here is the new "opened space" .....the new countertop is going right where those paint cans are.

And we'll be doing some relocating of looms.
Now there's a surprise.

I've turned down a couple of requests to weave yardage for customers, who planned on making things and reselling them.
I don't want to weave anything that doesn't totally move me.

I know what's important.  What matters.

Like facetime with the peach, when I am not with her.

It shouldn't take head trauma to figure this one out.

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Big Blocks

I love big blocks {little blocks, too!}. 12" has always seemed the standard for a traditional block. But go bigger and that traditional block takes on a modern look. And with the bigger pieces, our contemporary graphic fabrics get a chance to shine.

My "quilting" machine is still in rehab, so I've been spending my sewing time piecing some big blocks...
They've kind of filled up my design wall!

I'm sure you're familiar with Swoon. It's a 24" block and a favorite. I'll be teaching a Swoon class this Summer at Janie Lou. Details to come!

Next up is a new pattern from Thimbleblossoms, Red Letter Day. This has always been one of my favorite traditional blocks and I love it in a big block size!

And this 18" block is from a pattern called Gathering Flowers Quilt by Anna Maria Horner. The curves are pieced, but pretty easy, since they're gentle curves. I'm having fun pulling lots of scraps for this one!

Do you like making big blocks too?

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Just sad

   
I wish I wasn't writing this post.   It makes me so sad, and sick at heart.
Life is so unfair sometimes.

L called me this morning, with lots of bad news.
She lost her Mom last night, and then found Nexxie dead in the road.

I like to think that her Mom, who lived just a ways from the studio, took Nexxie with her.

But nothing is going to make me feel much better today.

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Decisions, decisions.

When I started this renovation project, I thought I knew what I wanted.

I wanted the half bath off the kitchen torn out, and put in the "old pantry" that I use for fabric storage, on the other side of the house.

Enter bff, who says, why are you doing it that way?

Well, I stumble, uh, I'm not sure.

So I listen to her suggestions, and her ideas, mull them over, and decide........aha.  That is a better idea.  What the hell was I thinking?

It saved me a much bigger mess, MONEY, and it meant I didn't have to lose my lovely, and oh so appreciated, shelves.

 Here's the view from the door.

Here's the view from the end of the pantry.

And here's the view from the toidy.

It works, so much better than I thought.

You see, with an old house, there is a lot to think about.
It isn't a 50 year old house, or even a 100 year old house.  It was built in 1790, because the old house that was here was burned when Burgoyne made his march from Quebec, to Fort Ticonderoga, and on to the Battle of Saratoga in the Revolutionary War in 1777.

The family that built is is buried just across the road and down a bit.

I am only the fourth owner of this place, and I feel some responsibility to do the right thing.

With the bathroom, and the kitchen too, I could do  a remodel that would rival any you see in the kitchen magazines.  I could gut, and tear, and do it from the ground up.  I could.  And it would look like every other modern, state of the art, kitchen that you have ever seen.

And that would mean tearing out these lovely old cupboards in the pantry.  It would mean tearing out the old windows with the wavy glass in the kitchen, even the one with "Jonathan Bellamy", the name of the original owner, etched into it. 
A lot of history.  A lot of irretrievable past.

I have been gifted, really, to own this old post and beam house.
See the "posts" in the corners of the room?
Imagine the feet that have trod these pitch pine floors?
The eyes that have looked out these old windows?

I can't put a sterile new kitchen into this house.
Or a marble bathroom.

It just isn't possible.

So......

The doors and the bathroom......on the right in this picture.......are gone.  And that is where the new peninsula will go, but the old one is staying.  Because that's the only way to protect the uniqueness of this house.

There have been many changes to this old house over the years.  A little change here, a little there.
But nothing that has taken away from it's total personality, and it has one.
Believe me.

So I will have a "new" old kitchen, if that makes any sense to anyone but me.  New sink, new microwave, new countertops, another work area with new cupboards underneath.  And otherwise, all the old stuff that is there now.  A mix of old and new, because I don't want to wipe out what has been there, I just want to bring the past and the present together.

I finally finished the warp on my AVL, there are a bunch of new towels on the web site.
They are thick and I still love the pattern, even after weaving so many of them.

But my favorites from this warp, are the ones done with organic cotton in off white for the weft.

They are soft, and absorbent, and just right.

Understated.

Sometimes that is just the way to go.

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WIP Wednesday

After a fun week of hanging out with the grandkids, I was back in the sewing room on Monday taking inventory of what's up!

Here's what I'm working on...

Geezzz... my list of unquilted tops has grown to six! I've been really good at keeping up with them in the past year, but definitely fell off the wagon so far this year. My Bernina is being serviced, and I'm getting a couple of tops basted so I'm ready to go when it returns. Starting with this one...

This has been such a fun, but slow project. I'm down to finishing up the appliqué on a few more background pieces, then just have to fill in the edges. It's getting close and I still love this Gypsy Kisses so much!

I only needed to add some borders to this one this week...

Those are done and it's ready for quilting!

And I'm thinking about doing a little "Swooning" again....

What are you up to? Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced today!

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Progress.

I am just beginning to realize how hard I have been on myself at times.

I guess it takes stepping back from it a bit, to really understand.

Rocking a little girl to sleep on a sunny afternoon allows one to ponder these things.

I love having her little hands on my face, while she looks intently into my eyes, or her own reflection in my glasses.  She is amazing.
I am hers two days a week.  It's an experience that I wouldn't miss.
But the pre-brain surgery me would never have done it.
It would have taken me away from the self imposed work schedule that I had.  Oh, the horror.


Tonight I came home and threaded my Schacht loom for whimsy's sake.  Not for production.  Not for retail.  Not for an order.
Just for me.
What a concept. 

 Susan over at Avalanche Looms was kind enough to satisfy my curiosity about some of her work.
She told me to try it, see if it got me buzzed.
Well, it did.
I didn't have time today to stay with it, and I can't wait until I do.  Thank you, Susan.  I am smitten.

The kitchen is a mess, but I can see the potential.

The half bath is now officially in its new place.

There's an awful mess to clean up, but it's done.  I bought a new toilet, but the midget sink is the same......it was hard to find in the first place.

I could have gutted this old pantry, and put in a bathroom right out of Country Living,
but somehow we all know that's not really me.
Instead, while you are sitting on the toilet, you get to admire some of my stash.

C'mon, you know you love it.

It rained today, it seriously rained.

I am not going to talk about the SNOW on the ground as we speak, nope.
I'm going to show you the lovely spring downpour we had today instead.

My granddaughter Gabby was helping me in the studio, and she took about 30 pictures with my camera.  And like me,  out of a slew of photos, I take one that is just right.
This is hers.

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Oh, my.

I tell my carpenter that when I have crazy ideas, he makes them come true.

He also makes the MESS come true.

Sometimes I do ask myself:  "What the HELL were you thinking??"

(That toilet HAS to go)

Ack, it will be alright.   I think it will be really nice when it is finished.  But of course, one thing leads to another.  Now it all needs to be painted.
And cleaned.
And then there will be a peninsula in this area, with stools on one side.

I want this big old house to be a home as well as a working studio.
That involves a little rehab, and some downsizing.

In the meantime, I am still trying to get the towel warp off the AVL.   My yellow post it note that said 10 on it, just showed up taped to the sectional beam.  So that means I have approximately 10 yards left.

I have woven lots of different colors on this towel warp, so I decided to do the last 10 in a natural cotton flake.

Every once in a while, one shaft sticks, can you see the error???

For the most part, I have become very comfortable and pleased with my AVL folding dobby loom.
However, I never did set up the flyshuttle.   I sent a picture of the parts I have to AVL, and sure enough, there are some missing.
So that's my next project, getting the parts, and getting the flyshuttle on the loom and getting it to work.
It's intimidating, but I know once I figure it out, it won't be.
In the meantime, looks like some cleaning is in order.

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