1/30/15

Another M-Q finish

This time, it's a mini-quilt that will end up in my Etsy shop.

Mercantile Fish
~9"x12"  hand-stitched

It's based on my photograph of the mosaic fish on the front of the Mercantile Continental Building in downtown Dallas. The entire art-piece on the front of the building includes mosaics and sculptures and was designed by Millard Sheets in 1959.

For some reason, I didn't take a photo of the entire building front, just the fish, an eagle, and two of the sculptures...guess I'll have to go back downtown and try again.

1/25/15

BEFOREs and AFTERs!

Norm was able to complete the bathroom remodel in 45 days...I know because I took pictures on 40 of them.  He coped very well with holidays, our vacation, and family emergencies.  And the result is stunningly beautiful! (walls are white, but may look darker due to incandescent lights)

Befores on the left - Afters on the right:
door to bathroom from hallway - closed

open - we put in a pocket door on the hall side

view of room from bedroom doorway



looking back toward bedroom door


shower - same width, but increased depth by 20"








and Norm put in these wonderful niches to hold our stuff!




replaced 5' standard yellow tub with 6' jetted tub

no more roses wallpaper!!

replaced yellow linen closet and moved it around the corner from the sinks...we had to remove that shared-with-the-closet wall anyway because of the new tub, so we just stole that linen closet space while we were at it!

replaced incredibly icky lights with globes that look different whether they are on or off


After Norm got through reconfiguring the footprint of the closet (I was unable to get pictures before he started taking out shelve and poles), Dave finished it out by moving the left pole/shelf down, adding another shelf/pole across the back, and adding wire shelves on the right.

It's about 2' shorter than it was but it should be fine and now we are in the process of finding all of our stuff and putting it back.

So thanks to Norm we finally have a wonderful bathroom and thanks to Dave we have a much better organized closet.

Now to figure out how to afford to replace the carpet in the rest of the house!

1/23/15

#18


1/20/15

M-Q Finish

Another Mini-Quilt finish -
Winter Bird
~11" square
bird/limb designed by Piece o'Cake
all handwork - needle-turn applique and hand-stitched around all the background leaves (I know...again, what was I thinking?)
Begun in a guild workshop

Will donate this one to the Dallas Guild for their charity auction this March.

1/9/15

What possessed me?

Over a decade ago, David decided to produce a heraldic cross-stitch chart each month on the Studios website (link on left of this site; look under "free stuff")...and, of course, at some point, I thought "Oh cool!  Those will be easy to whip out!"

Yeah.  Not so much.  Especially since I'm easily distracted by other fiber objects and projects...AND I was working a full-time job.  Needless to say, I'm laughingly behind...but it's okay.  Each one only sits beside the couch and I really only work on them when 1) I'm avoiding working on something else and 2) when he is watching a horrible movie that he is compelled to review and I really don't want to see much of it (but I do want to be next to him on the couch).

It occurred to me this morning that I hadn't even documented the ones I had done...so here I give you charts 1-17 (#18 is in the worktray)...and yes, that does mean I'm about 100 behind (since the first year wasn't a total of 12)...oh well.  It is what it is...
I'll try and post them as I finish them from here on out...

1/6/15

Raider

Meet Raider, the newest member of the Appleton clan...
He's a lot more active, and certainly more vocal, than we are used to, but we are all coming to terms with each other.

It took a few days but he isn't barking at Dave any more, and he has learned to relax a little bit...He sleeps well in his bed (all night) and has chosen a few other places to chill out...
on the back of the chair...
in my lap...
between us on the couch...
beside me, half under the quilt...
and on the quilt, on the hassock.
He is ever-vigilant if the curtains are open...
but he isn't barking at the dread enemy (the squirrels) as long and often as he was when he first got here.  He also behaves well on the leash.

He is a bit of an escape artist (which is how he ended up in rescue to begin with) so he has been kind enough to point out all of the weak spots in our fencing so they could be repaired. 

But all in all, he's doing very very well by the end of his first week here and we are glad he's joined our family.

1/1/15

Happy New Year!


Here's hoping 2015 exceeds the prior year in Happiness and Joy!
 
(picture from internet)