house update, all about dem floors

How can we possibly be in the tail end of September??

sigh.

All of the interior doors upstairs

have been installed,

except for one.

(of course, they still need to be primed and painted.

so much painting....)

this is the door to the girls' room, taken from inside the boys' room

We figured out how we are going to trim the doors and windows.

Would you be surprised to find out 

that in order to get the look we want,

we'll have to piece things together?

(ready-made trim boards of the correct size 

are well out of our price range)

What's a little more work, right?!?

We ran all of the boards for window casings through the table saw

so they are ready to be primed.

Then we made a few painting sawhorses

and set up a drying station.

After finishing that,

we got a text from Dad that he could come down the 9th

to help us get started on the floors

so that's been the focus for the past few weeks.

We have more prep work than most;

Tyler has been sanding the joins in our subfloor

because they swelled from all of the rain we had 

when they first went in,

despite our best efforts to keep water from standing on them,

and

 the stupid drywallers hung the drywall only 1/4 - 1/2 inch 

off the (sub)floor

instead of 3/4 - 7/8"

like they should have,

so I've been crawling around

trimming the walls with a dremmel.

(and killing my back)

that - was a crappy day. It was one of those days where everything took too long & went wrong

We managed to have the living room and hall prepped

when Dad came 2 weeks ago

and now are done with the trimming and sanding 

in the entry / hall, hall closet, living room, kitchen, dining room, and pantry,

but have the rest of the downstairs to do still.

(besides our bedroom, since it'll be carpet)

and

we've finished installing the flooring

in the living room and the entry hall.

I'm loving it!!!!

(Tyler is remaining cautiously optimistic)

(Which is kinda funny - because we've reversed roles..)

(but he's right. They still need to be finished,

so there's still a chance we can ruin them...)

We want a floor with lots of character,

that looks like it's been there awhile - instead of newly installed,

so we bought 2/3 rustic and 1/3 select.

(We were afraid that 100% rustic

might have a tad too much character ;-)

And did I mention that the wood came from trees

grown in the Ozark Mountains??

{squeal}

Every time I open a new bundle,

it's like a digging in a treasure chest.

What wonderful graining or streak or knot will I find?

all the heart eyes!!!
Yes. we might ruin it. but right now - it.is.gorgeous.
And it feels so good under your feet.

Laying out flooring is basically just laying out a giant quilt,

and my dad assures me that no professional installer

would give that part the care and attention that I have.

(Even still there are a few pieces I'd have placed differently

if I'd have stepped back and looked. ah well.)

The second 'layer' isn't in any particular order - I just open several bundles at a time to see my options.
Yesterday, I opened 3 bundles, just to find one board with the characteristics I was looking for.

I actually installed a (49x56) section in the entryway

all by myself,

including hand nailing where needed.

(I'm especially proud of that part,

because I thought I would have to ask for help;

I've had difficulty in the past using an awl to sink a nail...)

Tyler said,

"You'll do anything for a badge"

bwahahaha

We picked up the rest of our flooring on Friday.

(Oh mercy! It was Bikes, Blues, and BBQ 

so there were thousands of motorcycles on the road.

I was so glad I wasn't driving!)

Pretty sure it will be plenty acclimatized

by the time we get the rest of the first trip's installed. 

So

that's where we're at.

We still have a little electric to do

and a few lights to install.

We're getting there.

But it's slow goin'....

Sparkle, a finished quilt (and a coupon code)

Did you ever see the episode of Psych,

where Shawn 'channels' an actress,

and he's sing-talking and dancing,

"I dazzle, and I stretch...."?

That.

Is my baby sister....

She

is

a nut!

When I gave my older sister her quilt last year,

Alicia 'reminded' me 

that I still hadn't given her a quilt.

(I haven't given most of my other siblings a quilt yet either,

and only one of my parents.)

She's reminded me 

again

a couple of times since then,

and when she bought her first house this summer, 

I thought it would be the perfect occasion

to finally (as if!) make her quilt.

Alicia is gorgeous, 

and feminine, but not girly.

She's fierce, and determined,

but she is also a clown.

She's one of those people who walk into a room

and everyone notices.

Her eyes positively sparkle.
Especially when she laughs.
And she loves to laugh,
and make other people laugh, too.

She's not really a patchworky quilty person, though,

so I knew her quilt would need  to have a lot of negative space

and I was leaning towards 

a few columns of different sized 4 patches on point,

sort of reminiscent of a beaded curtain

when I saw Allison's bee quilt

and knew instantly

that prisms would be perfect for Lish.

(With the pesky little exception that it required paper piecing...)

Moda's Basic Grey Grunge fabric was the obvious choice
for all this wide open space,

and I quickly decided on cream,

then found a shop that carried both Grunge and C&S Netorious

(I was hoping to use silver netorious for my prisms)

and asked if the grays matched.

Tracy wrote back that she was out of the silver at the moment, 

so she couldn't be sure,

but she had a metallic Essex linen that looked great

with the cream Grunge,

so I had her set up a private listing.

As soon as the fabric arrived

(which was fast!) 

I started cutting.

I'd already printed off the damn papers

and figured out how I needed to cut my fabrics 

so they'd fit,

but I wouldn't have tons of waste.

(let's just leave it at - I didn't quite figure this correctly...)

I also wanted to keep everything going in the same direction

(at that point, even though I'd ordered the linen,

I was hoping to use silver Netorious,

which I already had,

and it has a obvious up and down / sideways)

so I drew arrows on each paper piecing pattern

so I'd know which way to orient my fabrics.

It turned out that Silver Netorious 

does not play nicely with cream Grunge

(the background is more taupe than gray)

so I was happy that I'd ordered the metallic linen

just in case.

The first 2 days of (paper) piecing were awful,

but since I'd already cut the fabrics for all  52 units,

I had to persevere.

Plus - it was for Lish. She'd persevere for sure....

Eventually, 

 the paper piecing didn't hurt my brain quite so much,

and I think I even managed to make about 20 

without any mistakes!

(I know - they're all of 3 pieces.

You'd think I could have made all 52 without mistakes...)

Once the units were pieced,

sewing them together was a breeze,

but

just like my previous PP escapades,

my seams did not match up as perfectly

as when I piece traditionally.

(what the heck?!)

At some point,

I realized I was going to be short on grunge,

so I sent out an SOS to Tracy,

and she got me fixed right up.

While waiting for the fabric

I added a layer of wool batting to the strip of prisms,

sewed around them all with clear thread,

and then trimmed away all batting 

that wasn't under the metallic fabric.
Then when I added (bamboo) batting to the entire quilt,
the prisms would all have two layers of batting,
making them more puffy.

I had planned on using minky  

(or some sort of cuddly fleece) for the backing

(so it'd be less quilt-like...)

but I couldn't find one where the color was *just* right,

so I changed direction and found a wide backing fabric 

that I thought went really well.

Lily helped me baste both quilts 

out in the house in mid July.

She said she has never been so hot in her life.

(I, on the other hand, have been hotter at least twice)

My sewing machine went to the shop right about then,

because there was no way I was going to attempt quilting

when it was misbehaving so badly.

(when I got it back - it was better than new!

But sadly, that only lasted for a few days

before it started acting up again - though not as badly)

While I was waiting for it,

I started piecing another quilt,

using my old beloved Janome.

Once I got the machine back,

before I started quilting,

I drew up a quilting map
(which I mostly followed(ish)
but things didn't always translate perfectly
from 8x10
to 60x80...)

and then used my hera marker to mark my hand-quilting lines

around the prisms,

and also to mark my ghost shapes in the grunge.

(I guess, though, that they aren't terribly ghosty, 

since I hand quilted them, huh?)

And then I started quilting.

and marking

and quilting.

and marking and quilting some more,

for about 6 weeks.

(

Until one day I was done.

I am really quite pleased with how it turned out

(very much like I envisioned it, actually!)

but one of my favorite parts is the verse I added

which wasn't in my original plan.

"By wisdom a house is built

and through understanding it is established.

Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures"

Psalm 24:3

How absolutely perfect is that?!

Alicia.

I love you!!

I am so proud of you, and am so happy to be your big sis.

Congratulations on your house purchase!

(and on being the owner of this fabulous quilt... ;-)

I hope you create lots of wonderful memories

in your beautiful new home.

kiss kiss. hug hug

Linking up with the Bloggers' Quilt Festival

and Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation

and AmandaJean

p.s.

I was so pleased with the service I got from Private Source Quilting.

As I've mentioned before,

shopping for fabric online is tricky business,

especially when it comes to color matching,

so having a shop owner who will go the extra mile for you

is a big blessing.

Not only did Tracy go the extra mile 

in helping with fabric selection,

she also gave me a coupon code (TRACYLOU)

 to share with you all,

good for 15% off every order over $25

and good through the end of the year!

(I'm not being compensated in any way - I just wanted to share the shop,

and asked Tracy if she'd throw in a little gift for y'all,

and she did :-)

Lily and Lex' build a barn (out of fabric, of course)

You may remember

(though - you may not, since it's been ages....)

that the girls and I are reading the Little House books 

and they are sewing up quilt blocks to go along with them.

(thank you, Amy!!)

They started out gung ho,

but lost steam after just a few weeks.

I wouldn't go any further in the books

until they got caught up on the blocks,

so we were sort of at a stand still for several months.

There's no 'sort of' about it - we were at a standstill...
Smack in the middle of Farmer Boy.

I'd ask them periodically about the quilt

(if they didn't want to make one -

then we could proceed with the books)

and they always said they still wanted to make the quilt,

but they never felt like working on it.

Then one day,

a few weeks ago,

out of the blue,

Lexi said she wanted to sew.

I said, "You going to finish your cat block?"

(she only had 2 seams to go...)

and she said she guessed she would.

And she proceeded to finish it,

and then made another block,

then both girls chose fabrics for their barn blocks

(and their maple leaf, and sheep blocks, too

but let's not get ahead of ourselves...)

Because I am a little bit template challenged

(though it's not nearly as bad as my paper piecing challenged!)

I changed up how we did the barn block

so that it could be made with just rectangles and squares

and I removed seams where I could.

As a reminder,

I cut, and sometimes pin for them,

(they are 10 and 8)

but they sew and press.

Lexi starches;
Lily does not.

With this barn block,

the girls learned what a flying geese block is

and how to make one.

They also learned about adding corners to create diagonal seams

without using half square triangles.

Lexi wanted to frame out her door, 

so she learned one way to do that.

They are both so different in their approach to sewing.

When I was cutting Lily's silo,

I asked which way she wanted the fabric to run,

and she said, "I really don't care".

And she meant it.

Lexi not only cares,

she knows which element in the fabric she wants centered...

Lily likes making the blocks okay,

but what she really loves,

is making tiny things.

So while Lexi was taking her turn at the machine,

Lily was working on another Little House quilt.

Now that they are all caught up on their blocks, 

we can get back to reading

😀

linking up with backpack-makin' Amanda Jean

this and that (again) on a Thursday

I've had several things I've wanted to post about
 the last few months

but either no time

or no words

to post them.

This by no means

'catches us up'

but I'm getting at least a few things 

down on paper

so to speak.

I got our Intent to Homeschool form turned in

a full 3 days before the deadline,

and on Tuesday
 we started our 17th year of home schooling
with zero fanfare and no first-day photos.

(This mama is tired.)

~

Regarding the house -

all walls are painted except for the hall

that leads to the secret tunnel

to the movie room.

We still need to do touch ups in every room,

but (except for the spot in the library 12 ft off the floor)

it's something I can knock out in just a few hours.

Most of the receptacles,

light switches,
fans,

and lights

have been installed

and we now have interior doors upstairs!

And - we have air conditioning!!

Our rustic Ozark Mountain oak flooring

is acclimatizing (all over the house) as I type

and is almost ready to install.

We have to go back to the mill to get another 550 sq feet

(which reminds me - I need to call and see if it's ready....)

and we have over 1,000 feet of baseboard trim

waiting to be primed and painted.

We're still deciding how we want to trim the windows and doors

but we've already purchased the wood for the casings

and it's also waiting to be primed and painted.

I spent an entire day with pencil, paper, and calculator,

figuring out exactly what boards we needed

and planning cuts to use those boards most efficiently.

(and then I bought a few extra 16 footers - just in case I was wrong)

Tyler sees all this raw wood and gets excited.

I see it all and think

oh my word - 

how are we ever going to get all this finished??

~

My sewing time is quite limited,
so it's taken longer than I expected,
but I've finished Sparkle,

except for the label,

and made a small practice quilt before diving into Sojourner

(which I started yesterday)

because I'll be quilting lots of new-to-me 'motifs'.

~

Brandon got a job as a tutor,

so his plate is especially full this year.

He'll also be a Life Coach for the 6th grade boys at church.

Since he's worked with them for the past few years

in Children's ministry,

it'll be a very easy transition to youth group for them.

~

We got to see our Hadley Bear on Sunday!! 

That girl is the best baby (toddler, actually) I've ever seen.

what a doll baby!! 💗

When I first held her,

she pressed her little face against my cheek

and left it there for several minutes.

It was as if she was saying,

"Oh Mimi, I've missed you!"

Oh, Baby Girl, Mimi has missed you, too!

Lexi put a picture

that Hadley drew while she was here
 on the fridge

and when I saw it,

it literally stopped me in my tracks.

I have lots of grandchildren (7, to be exact)

but I don't get to see any of them often,

and this is the very first grandkid picture to grace our fridge.

~

Jeremiah and Josiah's air conditioner died,

so they have started sleeping out in the new house.

They're making the rounds of various rooms

and trying to be the first one to fall asleep,

to claim the title of

'first to sleep in  ____________'

Josiah was planning to sleep in the bathroom one night,

and I told him he'd probably get the title of

Only one to sleep in the bathroom... 

~

Speaking of sleeping,

none of the children are - so I best scoot