Design Wall Monday

Please excuse my design wall, it is leaning against the wall, rather than fixed in place. When I have time I will put it up on another wall where it can be taken down later without damaging the plaster. Very little sheet rock in this old house. Meanwhile, at least I have a design wall!

Eight blocks of the Swoon project Lori and I started last summer. My blocks are smaller at 20" than the pattern which calls for 24" blocks and my quilt will finish at 68" square rather than 80".

I have one more block to make in the gold you can see (click picture to embiggen) stuck onto the middle of the pink block, hopefully this will be sashed and a done deal by the end of the week.

Behind the Swoon blocks is the very triangle intensive Double X Effect which will be next on the UFO list.

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Eye Candy

This short video from the American Quilters Society shows a fabulous collection of antique quilts from the collection of Jean and Bill Lyle of Quincy, Illinois.

In the introduction, the first 15 seconds there is a quilt visible in the background (to the right) which is very similar to my Chains of Love but the quilt shown here is made to a different scale than mine.

Enjoy!




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The Cozy Little House

This picture was taken four years ago, the summer I bought my cozy little house. It doesn't look like this now. Look at that intense blue South Dakota sky!

It is the middle of winter so everything is brown, the trees are naked and the sparkling new paint job Lori and I did is weathered and peeling.

This is almost certainly a kit home built about 100 years ago. The plans and components would have cost less than $500. The original building had two windows in the front, back and right side, one on the left side

The front door opens directly into the approximately 12' by 12' living room or parlor which is separated from the 12' x 14' kitchen by a half wall.

The 'wallpaper' in the kitchen (visible in the second picture) is some kind of panel board that came with that vinyl surface on it. Other walls in the house are plaster.

I think the half wall and the indoor bathroom are probably not original. The remaining 200 square foot of house is two bedrooms, one of which is now the size of a walk in closet, and the bathroom. An enclosed porch 8' x 20 has been added down the right side of the house and contains the stairs to the basement.

My last tenant paid his rent on time but turned the house into a dump. The beautiful pink quartz landscaping rocks you can see in the picture are buried in two year's worth of pop bottle caps, bits of broken toys, bindweed, dead leaves and weeds.

My friend Janet came and did some cleaning before I got here, thank goodness. It was a herculean task but I have a sparkling bathroom. I will be spending a lot of time in the next few months de-greasing, pulling out nails, filling holes in the plaster walls and painting the inside.

I have a pretty twin bed borrowed from Lori. Two chests of drawers and my little TV from the apartment. A table I bought at a sale for $2. I had to pay $1.25 each for the chairs.

I also brought over a Singer 99K in a cabinet so I can play. I will post on that later.

Later this week Lori and I will go to Mitchell in the truck so I can buy an 8' x 4' sheet of foam insulating board for a design wall. Two filing cabinets and a half sheet of plywood will make a desk, and some paint will keep me busy for a while. I am thinking raspberry for my desk but will most likely go with a soft sage green. Maybe blue. Hmm, what do you think?

As I look out my front window I see large snowflakes drifting down mixed with rain, very strange for someone who has lived in the tropics most of their life. Boysie is underwhelmed, he thinks this is good snoozing weather.

It is an adventure!

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Nineteen Degrees

That was the temperature this morning after the sun rose enough to see the outdoor thermometer on my front porch. Everyone keeps telling me what beautiful, warm and unseasonable weather we are having. I nod madly, trying to convey my enthusiasm and honestly I am grateful but I am even more grateful for my huge bulky jacket and LL Bean snow boots. Naturally I caught a cold on the plane. You may laugh now.

On the left is the label I put on Boysie's airline crate. It was successful, nobody got bitten, that I know of.

I brought two bags, one contained nothing but fabric, the other my 36 x 24 cutting mat, two phones, a telephone modem and a very modest assortment of clothes.

Boyzel Dog's very chic winter coat, an assortment of toys and treats, my laptop and two cameras plus various specialty rulers, none of which could I bear to be without for a moment, filled my carry on.


Lori and her dear husband braved snow, ice, rain, fog and high winds (but not all at the same time) to drive the ninety miles to pick Boysie and I up at Sioux Falls airport.

Boysie dog had to come with on this trip, nobody home to take care of him. I would have liked to stay in the upstairs apartment at 200 West Main, but there is a slight plumbing problem, no water. So, I will be staying in another little house I own that fortunately came empty at exactly the right time.

After we arrived Lori made herself comfortable in my over-furnished (NOT! it is totally empty) living room to examine the contents of the important bag. Next week we will go look for a chair and a piece of foam insulation board for a design wall, and pins and ...

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