Remodeling a 1906 Kitchen ... and The Window of my Dreams

I knew what I wanted ... a window sill.  And French style panes.  And a window that opened out, all the way out.  But no one made it.  So I had to make it myself.

This is my kitchen window, and it is the window of my dreams.

It has lots of wide open time all summer.

And I love the window stay closures.  They're antique from England.

This is the window I replaced.  No sill for little vases of Lily of the Valley.
No panes. No big wide open.

And a note to anyone getting new cabinets that happens to be a ClutterBug,
just say no to the little shelves on the side of the cabinet.

They will make you crazy.

Bye Bye old window.

My personal motto is
"I don't know I can't do it until I try"
When I looked at this gaping hole, I had a moment of doubt.

But eh, I just went and got the sawz-all and made the gaping hole bigger.

This is how the window looked for a good part of that summer.
The hole was cut before I found what was going to go in it.

The original 1906 window came nearly down to the floor.  A wood cook stove
was where the gas stove is now, and a sink was on the left.  The cook stove
chimney was removed long ago, but a patch in the bead board ceiling remains where the chimney was.

Mine is the 2nd remodel of this kitchen ... the oak cabinets were
put in two owners ago as well as the window I replaced.
I was so happy to be visited by her one day.
She said the original sink was still in place when they moved in and it was set so low she had to sit on a stool to do the dishes.

The first mistress of this house was a very petite French woman, Sophie Bergeron.  Perhaps the sink was set at a custom height for her.

I finally found the window of my dreams at a salvage yard.
$25 if I remember right.

I didn't yet have anyway to keep it shut ... so a shoe lace, a wood spoon
and a screw worked just great for a few weeks.

I did take it on faith that during this big-hole-in-the-house process
that there would be no big rain storms.  Or people with bad intent. 

Of course the window of my dreams wasn't tall enough.
So I built in a transom light.

Almost done.  Transom in with the original window top casing board in place.

Getting this window done was part of getting new cabinets too.
The wall cabs are down, and the sink is temporarily back in use.

This is what started with whole remodel and the new window project ...
that GAP between the cabinets and the stove.

I wanted some counter top in that little eighteen inches next to the stove.

I call my kitchen the wide spot in the hall.  There isn't much room.

But what the kitchen lacks in space and counter tops is
made up for by a fabulous walk in pantry just off the kitchen.

My kitchen is lovely now.

That eighteen inches of counter top made all the difference in the world.

It may be a teeny tiny kitchen, but it's a well appointed teeny tiny kitchen.

There is a dishwasher to the left of the sink ... thought in such a small space it was worth the extra cost to hide it with a custom panel.

And I love the little pull out ... keeps flour and sugar handy ... and it's the only thing that would fit in that last bit of space.

The backsplash was the last detail to get done (by about a 1 year lapse).

It is two pieces of fancy trim molding from Home Depot ... an egg and dart piece sits on top of the carved piece of molding.

Both pieces were stained and then sealed with wipe-on polyurethane 

And for the quilting part of the window story, I made a little basket valance to keep the sun out of my eyes while doing dishes ... it's a south facing window.

The valance gets a little stained glass affect
when the sun comes through.
Very cheerful.

The before window ...

... with the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Rose that I planted in front of the window so I would always have roses in the window in the summer.

Queen Elizabeth will grow as tall
as you let her ... the rose is now all the way up to the soffits.

The window after ... I just love it!

... and roses in my window.

Baby Quilt ... with 30's Reproduction Fabrics

A new Etsy baby quilt.  This one is square, roughly 42" x 42" ... so a good size for a baby growing into a toddler. https://www.etsy.com/listing/120220452/handmade-large-patchwork-baby-quilt

A simple, soothing pattern ... 2 inch squares joined with bands of white.

The quilting is an overall meander with all the seams well secured so it will hold up to many washings.

The fabrics are 30's reproductions, sewn together in a random scrappy way.

There are puppy dogs, and kitty cats, and rabbits riding airplanes, jacks and balls and geese in bonnets.

The back of the quilt is larger pieces of the fabrics used on the front. I love patchwork backs on quilts ... they look so homey.

The binding is the same white fabrics as the white bands
that run through the quilt.

This quilt has a really nice 'hand'.

I haven't figured out how to convey the 'hand' of a quilt, how it feels.
A good 'hand' on a quilt makes you want to wrap yourself in it.
My favorite part of quilts is how they feel.

The only thing better than a snuggly quilt
is someone you love wrapped up in a snuggly quilt.

Folded up ... it would look cute
over the rails of a crib.

Wings to Fly ... A Happy Scrappy Baby Quilt

A new quilt listed on Etsy ... bright and cheerful with airplanes and parachutes (I voluntarily jumped out of a perfectly good airplane once, but that is a story for another day).  https://www.etsy.com/listing/119535559/traditional-toddler-baby-crib-quilt

A great quilt for any kid, but maybe especially great
for a kid who has a mom or dad serving in the Military.

I named it Wings to Fly because of the wonderful airplane fabric; but also,
the greatest gift that can be given a child is wings, so they can grow to fly.

"The moment you doubt whether you can fly,
you cease forever to be able to do it." -J.M. Barrie from Peter Pan

There are biplanes ...

... and prop planes

... and parachutes

I did the Free Motion quilting in a geometric meander,
with a few loops thrown in for good measure.

The other fabrics are a happy scrappy mix of fabrics with sailboats & sailors, daisies & bumble bees, the three little pigs, cowboy ropes and blue bandannas.

Lots for a little one to look at! 

The quilt back has bands of a bright geometric fabric alternating with a bubbly yellow dots fabric.

A side note ... the quilt is hanging in the paper bark maple tree (acer griseum) which is native to central China.  It is a nice garden tree that doesn't get too big and the continuous peeling of the bark is interesting.  And the squirrels like the the seed pods all summer long.

The binding is a zippy red and blue stripe which is finished by hand.  

Another view of the full quilt.

It's quite a happy quilt.

The Pea Green Quilt

This quilt has nothing to do with peas. Or really green either.  But it is about me being pea green with ENVY for the new home my cousin just settled into.

House Warming Quilt for a Montana Cabin

He divested himself of city life and is now settled on a nicely appointed piece of property in Montana, back to his roots.  The side of the family we have in common are all Montana folk.

There are lots of acres to the property.  With a river running thru.  And deer.  It's an awesome place for a guy that is perfectly happy hunting and fishing when he's not thinking about hunting and fishing.

The quilt unfurled (sorta)

There are bears on the property too (yikes).  They like the apple trees in the yard.  I could do without bears, but I guess they come as part of the package deal.

So, the quilt . . . .

There are three bears paw
blocks in homage to the bears so maybe they will just be happy with the apples in yard and not wonder about the food in the house.

And a few flying geese blocks, just because I like their zippy factor.

And the rest is filled in willy-nilly with variations of 3, 6 and 12 inch blocks and some sew-the-scrappy-bits-together blocks.

There is of course fish fabric.  It wouldn't be a Montana guy quilt without fish fabric. And fish hook fabric.  And cord wood fabric.  And leafy fabrics with teal greens, just in case a girl should wander by.

The FMQ is a geometric meander.  I've finally gotten over you-can't-cross-over the quilting lines.

I'm growing very fond of liberating myself from rules
and embracing 'my quilt, my rules'.

Which is expanding out into 'my life, my rules'.

Which makes me think of Jenny Joseph's endearing poem "Warning"

Video Courtesy of Neil Astley http://www.youtube.com/user/hemu1en/videos?view=0

As laid out in EQ.  I didn't follow the EQ design layout
but did use it for reference for cutting.

Tsunami Quilt: Descent Into Chaos

This is the quilt I was working on over the Christmas holidays 2004.

It started out as a study in half square triangles which I decided I needed to master, well, at least try to tame.

It started out with the name Bali Star.

Once I had the top sewn together, I took a look back at it and thought gee, the center looks a bit muddled, the center detail just didn't show as crisply as it did in the EQ design.  It looked chaotic.

Tsunami Quilt: Descent Into Chaos

And then the terrifying images began to air of the destruction that was unfolding in Indonesia and the all the countries of the Indian Ocean.  It was heartbreaking.  The quilt got it's name that Boxing Day in 2004.

This quilt reminds me how fragile life is and to make the most of every moment, however humble it may be.  You never know what the next moment might bring.

The back . . . very large Bento Box squares

I tried to add a wave aspect to the quilting.  I had a few areas of broken threads and skipped stitches (grrrrr) and had to redo those areas.

Wherever I had to fix, I added an 'eratic' circle like the one on the left side of the purple fabric.

That seemed fitting too for a Tsunami Quilt.

Detail of the Friendship Stars.

I like these little stars, I should use them more often in projects.

The Tsunami Quilt as designed in EQ6

A New York Beauty Christmas Quilt

My favorite quilt and my best work to date,
the New York Beauty Christmas quilt.

The full quilt.  I used wool batting (wonderful!) so there is good
definition on all the quilting lines.

All of the quilting was done on the Bernina.  The echo quilting was done
with the walking foot and it's very helpful guide.  And the outline quilting on the beauty points was done free hand with the FMQ foot.

The quilting, up close

The back.  I love the back fabric.  I'm very fond of big boisterous
fabrics on the back of quilts.  And the quilting really shows up nice.

. . . . and then there were all the many many many many! little bits of fabric trimmed away during paper piecing.  There was so much!  I had to use them somehow . . . I call it eXtreme scrapping.

eXtreme scrapping . . . A table topper. A little tree for my sewing table.
And two little stars for the tops of the table top little Christmas trees.

Think about all the cute little things that get thrown into the waste basket.

And yes, I have been known to waste basket dive at quilt retreats.

The sewing room tree.  It has a little pagoda thing going on.

These scrappy pieces were made by sewing the scraps directly onto a piece of batting, with a backing . . . it is quilt as you go.  I'm sorry I don't have pics of the process, this was done well before I thought about creating a blog.

The scrappy bits were simply butted up to each other and then a decorative stitch anchors them to each other and to the batting and backing at the same time.

Very few pieces were cut to fit and I didn't worry if there was overlapping.  I just wanted to use as many of the scraps as possible and  I just kept sewing until all the scrappy bits were all used up and then cut out the final shape I wanted

These pieces are reversible . . . leave an opening so they can be mounted.

And remember about mirror image, I had to do one of the stars twice, because I didn't remember about mirror image for the reverse side.

For the tree and star pieces I made templates from freezer paper.  And then cut the shapes once I had a big enough scrappy piece done.

On top of one of the trees . . . with one of my little knit hat ornaments

The dark fabrics were used around the edges.  This topper
it is just the size of the top piece of an old treadle sewing machine cabinet.

By the glow of Christmas lights