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!

Y'all come back!

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 ...

Y'all come back!

Hancocks Quilt Kit Giveaway

My favorite online fabric store, Hancocks of Paducah is running a fabulous drawing. The prize is the complete kit to make the quilt shown at left. I have seen this priced at close to $300 retail. Click to enlarge the picture.

Civil War Journals fabrics are designed by Judie Rothermel for Marcus. The quilt was designed by Homestead Hearth as a block of the month program and very cleverly lets quilters choose to create one large quilt or four smaller quilts during the year from the same set of blocks

The kit includes all the fabric for the 84" x 102" quilt top and binding plus the twelve block patterns.

Before you shudder and say"No way" you don't have to make the quilt! Just take the fabric and say "Thank you so very much!"

There are rules:

• Must be 18 or over
• One entry per customer
• You don't actually have to be a customer to enter
• You do need to enter your date of birth for age verification

Here is the link to enter

If you win you have to share with me. (JUST KIDDING!)

Y'all come back!

The Weird Maple Leaf Quilt

Some time ago, maybe as long as five or six years ago, my friend Lori shared a picture of some leaf blocks she was making.

They are called Ozark Maple Leaves and came out of a book published in 2002 called Nickel Quilts: Great Designs from 5 Inch Scraps

It caught my attention, you know how that goes with butterfly brain, "Oooh pretty!" quickly followed by "I want!" I had the book so a quick rummage in my scrap box allowed me to get started on yet another new project.

These are not your standard Maple Leaf block, they tessellate, or interlock. Two little triangle wedges of the background in every leaf and two triangles of the focus fabric in the setting squares. Not as complicated as it sounds because you make them in pairs, or four patches.

I made quite a few blocks from the scrap bag, put them away and forgot about them. I rediscovered 20 of them last year, I could have sworn there were more and they may show up one day yet as these things do when you live in one place too long.

After throwing two away as beyond ugly (and warped) this was the best setting I could come up with so as not to have to make more. I didn't buy any fabric, setting triangles and borders came from stash.

I think my quilt (above) looks weird because the blocks are set on point. The strong and dark outer side setting triangle fabric overwhelms the blocks while making the light setting squares pop, but not attractively. The sample quilt in the book, shown at right, is approximately 74" x 98" and much prettier. Her blocks are the same size as mine, they just look much less clunky in a straight setting. I have seen a beautiful table runner made from a similar block too.

Lori quilted it and bound it for me, she likes it. I think she has to say that because she is my friend and doesn't want to hurt my feelers. I will let you know what I think about it when I get to South Dakota next month! I do know the quilting will be flawless and the binding will have invisible hand finished stitching because that is what Lori does.

Y'all come back!

Arrowhead Block Revolutionized

Lori sent me a link to a pattern today, it is Anita's Arrowhead from Rotary Cutting Revolution by Anita Grossman Solomon. Lori said

"you will like this pattern--its a "you" pattern. "

as always she is right, (I have to say that or she will beat me up.) Seriously I do like the pattern and it is a revolutionary technique, not paper pieced. I can't abide picking out all the bits of paper! All I can say is the designer, Anita, has a very different thinking process to the rest of us. but it works.

Click to enlarge image
I found a series of blog posts about the block on the Quiltmaker blog, and here is the link to a free download of the pattern too. This color combination caught my eye. If you are wondering about the spinning mat the blogger is pining for we have them at the Blue Sheep very reasonably priced.

I bought some parrot green batik a few years ago to make my daughter a quilt, I don't know what I was thinking (probably that the fabric was very expensive) but I didn't buy much and the color is impossible to match. Obviously the solution is not to match but to contrast. I will dig it out and scan it, soon. The pictured quilt above is from the book, mine would have to be a bit bigger. The kid has a huge bed, acres to cover.

Y'all come back!

Mission Accomplished

Everything removed, washed, replaced and counted. Now all I need to do is sell the stuff! Wanna see the clock?

I haven't figured out how to get the dirt dust out from behind the muntins without breaking or scratching the glass, (it is not designed to be removable) but I am thinking about trying one of those keyboard blast of air thingies.

Y'all come back!

Dust

Like many other parts of the country we are having a drought. When we moved into this house in January of 1983 everything was green and pretty just about all year. Oh, in August things would get a little browned and tired looking, but not for long. Now it looks like we are living somewhere in Africa.

The yard behind the house is mostly dirt, it is a fine dust which works its way through closed windows and doors, new windows and doors not the old leaky drafty ones.
I have a cute repro kitchen cabinet with glass doors on top and wooden ones below. I keep my vast stock of surplus china in it, mostly the stuff which is for sale. The theory is that the closed doors in the cabinet in a room which is kept closed up will be dust free.

It is that time of year when I check inventory, getting ready for the busy season and this is what I found when I went to count the china. Thank goodness I have a dishwasher!

This is today's project, remove dust, replace washed china and shut the doors quick! I will be a happy camper if I can figure out how to get rid of the dust that has seeped behind the grilles without taking the doors apart, because that is so not going to happen.

Now you know why my fabric stash lives in sealed plastic tubs, not prettily on shelves!

Y'all come back!