Boy Quilt and Travels and Projects

On Sunday, Hubby (Mike)  and I traveled to Washington, DC, it was for work but we were able to enjoy a Monuments by Moonlight bus tour.  This marks my fourth trip to DC, the first when I was 18.  It was Mike's first trip to DC and the bus tour was a fantastic way for him to see the monuments.
I just got a new phone and I am amazed at the quality and clarity of these pictures.


Here is the Korean

The Lincoln

And Jefferson

Then Vogue 1407 in front of the Capitol

I have started a big house project that involves tape, sandpaper, primer and paint.

Painting the woodwork in our house.  It is a big job but one I can work on a bit most days and hopefully by spring it will be complete.

Before - this room we call the mudroom - the side to the right has cubbies, hooks for coats, places for shoes, etc.  This room and one bathroom are completely done.

We just hung the door back tonight and I had to take an after picture in the dark.  I love how this looks, like a different house.

I do think we are going to hire a painter for a couple of rooms, particularly the ones with carpet.  I have one coming to give me a bid, we will see his bid and my budget!

A bit of sewing for the post, I have had this quilt completed for a couple of months   Finally, I have made one for a baby boy gift.



It was inspired a bit from this one  but the direction of the puppy fabric and the quantity of 1 yard necessitated the change in direction.

Lastly, thanks for the comments on the Fashion Inspiration post.  I am going to continue that one a weekly or bi-weekly basis on Fridays, the title Friday Fashion Inspiration.  I am so clever!  HA!

I am finishing up a big quilting project that will be completed tonight, then back to fashion sewing.  I have such a list I want to do for fall and winter

New Built-in Shelves

Introducing new  upper shelves and a fresh coat of paint on the old golden oak bottom cabinets, once again proving the power of paint.  This project has been going on since February but well worth the wait!

Here is the built-ins before, hubby made the bookshelves and the bottom cabinets are stock cabinets.  You can see how the TV sat in the shelves on the right.  Yes, old style huge TV.
This picture is old, there has been a new wall color, new couches, new chairs and new drapes but this is the only picture I could find of the entire wall.

a close-up of the oak shelving

We took down the corner cabinets and had a cabinet maker build symmetrical shelves and some molding to make the flat screen TV appear built in.

I knew I wanted a white color to paint all cabinets and Paige (my oldest) has had really good luck with Sherwin Williams Pro Alkyd Interior paint on all her woodwork.  Next up was the color, I just did a search for Sherwin William white and came up with Thistlewood Farms' Six of the Best White Paint Colors and went with her choice, Alabaster.

It is mostly white with just a hint of cream.

I cannot express how much I love this whole look.  Eliminating the corner cabinets from our wall of built-ins, just opened up the wall so much.  Then the TV on the wall, gives me back the mantle and I can  decorate that area again - hurray!!

But above all the white color, just adds so much to the room.  My cabinets are now modern and not the dated golden oak.  The amount of brightness in the room is remarkable.

I had the electrician put the plug in for the television a bit high.  This results in the TV up a bit and the wire showing (HDMI cables for dish box, DVD player and wire for the surround sound) , I put some paint on the wires and that helps disguise it.  (oversized this last picture - click on it to see in full view)

Behind the TV is just the wall, but the cabinet maker suggested to paint that area with the Alabaster. It gives the appearance that the back wall is part of the built-ins and custom made.

My cabinet maker friend did a fabulous job and something my husband could not do and partly didn't have any desire to do.  It did take a couple of weeks for me to paint all the cabinets but worth every minute.  I love, love the new look.

In fact, several people at Mother's Day said they never knew the family room was a  light blue, with the white cabinets the blue color really pops.


linking to

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A Bit of Blue in the Kitchen

To be specific, Valspar paint and the color is "Swim".

I had been wanting to add some aqua to my kitchen cabinets and after seeing this blogpost on Favorite Paint Colors, I knew I wanted the aqua around  my refrigerator.

First, let me take a step back in time, March 2011 and when I tackled painting my golden oak cabinets to a nice crisp Antique White.  I mentioned in this post how the plan was to update the appliances to stainless. Yea, that finally happened to the 15 year-old refrigerator.

I took one day and two coats of paint for the new look of aqua.  I can't tell you how much I like the aqua, it really brightens up the room

Oops, didn't get a cabinet door closed.

The power of paint is simply amazing and when I get tired of the blue, I can paint them back antique white or another color of my choice.

Linking up to

Frames–Brightened with Spray Paint

I have this mudroom area and it needed a bit of updating. 
I don’t have a great before picture but you can see a bit of the room over Meredith’s shoulder (right side) in this picture


First, I tackled the wall color – using Valspar Sheer Light (a blue) same as family room)
On the wall are many cross-stitch samplers, most made by my mom, some by me and one by Paige when she was 12.  These are very special to me, representing many hours of hard work, a labor of love.
Problem, the frames are dated, mismatched and some scraped up.  Take a look




I decided a bit of spray paint would do the trick
I think the wall looks great, what do you think?


One is suppose to be orange but it looks a bit too red, so I am going to look for another can of orange and redo those few frames.  I am so pleased with the update.

Guest Room Redo

Well, as many of you know my oldest got married last summer.  Now I have an official guest room.  It is so nice to have a guest room.

I didn't change the wall color, I like blue and the walls are a pretty shade of blue.  I did buy a cream dust ruffle, two pillow shams and two yards of fabric for the redo.  The rest is things moved from different parts of my house.


so here is the before.  I like this quilt, made it last fall but right now I just feel it is too busy.  Check out the lamp, it changes later too.

Here it is after, the new shams, a white-on-white quilt my mom made years ago and she wasn't using.  Then the quilt on the end of the bed is one I made her for her birthday in 1989 and she wasn't using it right now either.   I made the three decorative pillows, more on those later.

Here is a different view of after, the room is small, so hard to shoot around a queen size bed.

Now to the dresser before, okay but not quite what I wanted.

After, items from other rooms in my house:

Here is a close-up of my dad and his siblings (the black and white photo on the dresser).  My dad is on the left, aren't they cute:

Next to the lamp.  The lamp shade had a gold ribbon around the top and bottom.

I took painted the gold trim to blue and made a burlap flower from this tutorial Used one of the lamps from the dresser.  The frame I had spray painted it heirloom white, hot glued cream burlap to the frame, painted a small wooden piece the same blue from the lampshade.

The room had a chest of drawers, but now I don't need the storage in the room, so I moved it out.  I had this chair:

Needed to be recovered, so I took the fabric, taped off a couple of straight lines and used the same blue paint from the lampshade:

Here is the chair after:

Lastly, the new decorative pillows.  My local quilt shop had the great egg fabric, so Pottery Barn and perfect colors for this room.  The middle pillow, is muslin with ribbon tied around it like a package and another burlap flower.

I am so pleased with the redo of this room.  I didn't spend alot of money and the room just has a more peaceful look.

I am sharing this on


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Happy Easter all,

Some Sewing

I have been sewing and painting walls, what a wonderful combination.  I do prefer one greatly over the other, bet you can guess which one!

I took pictures of my sewing but they were in the basement with no natural light and were terrible so I will be posting just a couple.  Hopefully tomorrow better pictures.

First I made Onion 5038, which I really, really like.  I have made it once before in September 2007 and I don't know why I have waited so long to make it again.  Fabric is a red jersey knit from Fabric.com

Here are the snaps which look like buttons.  I just hammered them through all the layers.  I will probably wear this to work tomorrow, so a better picture, hopefully.

I also made Jalie 2682 in a gray french terry, more of a lounge-at-home top with my black yoga pants.  Talk about comfy.

Speaking of yoga pants, I bought a couple of fabrics recently for tops but the colors are not so good for tops on me.  One gray jersey, perfect for yoga pants, Kwik Sew 3115.  The other fabric, a not so great yellow for me, I used the same Kwik Sew pattern but these are pajama pants only, the fabric is pretty wild.

See this wall, yes the one where the desk sits?  Well, it isn't there anymore and it looks so wonderful.  Everything should be completed this week, so pictures soon.  I painted yesterday and a bit more on Wednesday and we should be close.