I'm not very patient....

I may have said that before. My one sister has soooo much patience.  I think she got mine. Well, since I'm older I figure they forgot to give me my dose and so she got a double.  She's the one who refinishes furniture and makes is sound easy....

before

I'm hear to tell you it's not necessarily hard to do this, but dang it's hard to wait around for paint to dry, and then sand again, and paint again and then wait again and then sand again and polyurethene and wait for it to dry and sand again and a 2nd coat of poly......AGGGGGGHHHHH. 

Oh and now that the 2nd coat is on I have to wait another 24 hours before I can  "use gently". 

How do you use a dresser gently???

I'm not patient and I'm not real gentle either. 

 I move fast and bang stuff around. 

Paul said the 2nd coat of poly was necessary to help make a stronger finish and resist chips. (yes I called him to see if I REALLY HAD to follow the directions and put on the 2nd coat).  Besides after the first coat the finish looked fantastic; I was afraid to mess it up.

Sigh.

The 2nd coat isn't as good as the first, I'm hoping it's cuz it wasn't completely dry yet. 

So tomorrow I have to put 2 coats of poly on the mirror frame and the little drawer and its handle from the nightstand, that is already done but I've still haven't taken a picture of because I'm a goober. :)

drying....

In between drying times I've been working away at the 9-Patch project.

It's all together (woot-woot). I do believe I have enough 2.5" squares sewn together in strips for the border. I'm putting a single row around all sides and calling it done. It will measure 73ish x 89ish--I think... 

Design Wall Monday (week 35)

9-Patch Project

Well it almost looks the same as last week's picture.  But now there are another row of 9-patch X's along the bottom. See how they lay on the floor- I need to get them up soon.  Annie thinks I leave them there for her to make a little bed in. 
The 2.5" strips on the left are for the borders. I've continued to  piecing them leader/ender style while working on making 20 more 9-patch blocks.  

I thought I was going to get this all together over the weekend as Paul was going to be gone.  But with the cool weather we had  seemed to spark this need to change things in my house.  So I started sanding and priming and painting some old, old furniture. A small night stand first; I don't have a picture forgot to take a before one. And the drawer is not done so it's too soon for an after. 
I started on the dresser this evening.  Here is a picture of 2 of the drawers (almost forgot to take one again)!

This furniture was my mom's when she was a girl.  It's red maple and in great condition but the finish it ka-put.  

My wall this morning, with several of the 9-Patch rows together (yea!) and on the left side my strips of 2.5" strips for a border (I was thinking just putting them on top and bottom to make this square quilt rectangular) and then a final outer border all around.

Yesterday Libby came over to sew for the day.  (yea!)  She's doing the 9-Patch project too. 
Well at some point I opened my cupboard where I have my stash and found a 6.5" wide piece of the setting fabric for this quilt-where did that come from? I had earlier told Libby I didn't have any left (scary!).   I was happy I found it although it wasn't enough for even a tiny border. I set it to the side for "just in case I need it later" and forgot about it and we had a great rest of the afternoon sewing and catching up.

So,  I went back to my sewing room in the evening and thought. (dangerous, I know!) I wonder if there is enough leftover setting fabric to make another row? I would need 10 (6.5" blocks & 2 setting triangles for the ends) so I could make a complete set of 9-patch "X's".
Well, amazingly I did have just enough.  I had to piece leftover chunks together to get a piece big enough for a 9 3/4" square to cut the side setting triangles-but it worked!  

So now, this morning I spent it unsewing all the bottom setting triangles from the rows that are on the wall and have cut out and matched up more 2.5" squares to make 20 more 9-patch blocks.

I'm going to like this quilt much better this way.  And I will probably be able to just sew a border of 2.5" squares around the entire quilt-not just top and bottom.

*******

The Knifty Knitter project is coming along.

I'm getting faster and having fun!!! and this yarn is so so soft.

*******
And I got my block-a-days done through 8/30. I have 8/31's cut out and will probably get that done today in between sewing 9-patches together. 

I also pieced together leftover binding for the 2nd Quilts for Kids quilt and if I get that done today and can wash the 2 of them and get them in the mail. (yea!)

I also want to finish painting the shed (project interupted because of rain). 

Paul is gone for the weekend....up to 'Camp diamond in the rough' for heavy labor with my brother, nephew and my dad. 
So I'll have plenty of sewing time with no dinner making time. 
woo-hoo.

Progress

Ta-da!   There is about 3" coming out of the bottom of the loom.  I did 3-4 rounds while watching a 10 yr old (looked and sounded like it anyway) do a demo on YouTube!  After everyone went to bed, I did all of this. 

Judy D told me in an email that her grandaughter made one in a few hours!!

I'm in awe since I did this much in about an hour.

 

I am having Fun, fun, fun!

Design Wall Monday (week 34)

9-Patch project

The first 3 rows are sewn together! 
I cut out a big stack of 2.5" squares (again) and am sewing them as my new L/E for a border. I want to at least add a bigger(extra?) border to the top and bottom.  This is a square quilt now and I like 'em more rectangular :)

Here is my other design wall.

The 6 blocks on the right are my block-a-days.  The 3 on the left are examples of my fabrics and block sizes for the block-a-days that I'm working on currently;  (if I put them all away I tend to get confused and have used the wrong fabric before), so I leave one sample of each up. 
I also have a little scrap of paper pinned to the sample block with a tally of how many I've made of each. 

My 9-Patch Challenge

I've been participating in Karen's 9-Patch Challenge.   We were to make a 9-patch block every day for 80 days starting on June 1 to August 20.  I cut out 2.5" batik squares and made mine as a L/E project.  

So yesterday I first sewed my donation quilt top together to get it off the wall.

Then I put up all the 9-patch blocks.

This is a stash quilt. 

 I didn't think I had enough of any one batik for the setting squares etc so I was going to go buy some.  I checked my stash before I left for the quilt shop and dang I mean "eureka" I had enough of this blue batik, JUST enough.  

 I went to the shop anyway!

I had to pick up my new sewing chair I ordered and I also bought a brown fabic (from the sale shelf) that I thought might work too.

I liked them both but just kept thinking the brown was a little too dark. Although I think the blue could be a little lighter too, so after waffling for about 1/2 hour I decided.

I played around with the block arrangements for a long time trying to get a nice balance. I think it measures 68" square right now.  I have no more of that background and I remember getting it years ago so I won't be getting more.  I would like to maybe add an extra top and bottom border of the 2.5" squares-I certainly have enough left- to make it a bit longer than wider. And then a larger border around that...will think about that when the top is together.

A Sassy Baseball Bag!

(Paul took this picture with his cell phone, I wish I would have brought my camera the view was amazing from where we were.)

 We were invited to the Pirates v Marlins baseball game last night. 

I have on my "2010 to do list" to make a Sassy Bag and I had leftover baseball fabric from a Town Purse I made a few years ago.  So I made one to use at the game!

Front

Back

It was a 'hit'...one of the few of the evening since the Pirates lost big time. 

 It was a fun night out.