Front Porch Gets New Ceiling

 

Lots of ladders on the front porch -- Jon installed new ceiling.

 

 

 New tongue and groove to cover holes in old tongue and groove ceiling.

 

 

Here is our house and front porch.  Second gal from the left is Mabel Wrolstad, (1887-1969), daughter of our house buider/owner John Olsen Wrolstad.  In 1902 Mabel would have been 15 years old, so I think 1902-1907 is a possible range for date of this photo.  In 1907 John Olsen Wrolstad passed away here at home, and his wife Mathea died in 1909 in Gillette, WI. at the home of their eldest daughter Sina Wrolstad Johnson.

 

During the summer months of 2008 & 2009 while scraping, priming and painting the house I found traces of dark red (burgundy) in the ceiling molding of the Juliet balcony.  I wonder what was the body color of the house.  During my scraping/priming/painting of the exterior during the summers of 2008 and 2009--nothing but white appeared on the clapboards--and there wasn't much paint on the clapboards either. 

 

 

 

Photo taken of our house from the street the week we had the driveway regraded and rebuilt with recycled asphalt mix.  Jon promises me that next summer we can take down the ugly leaning tree.  We decided for every tree we removed we'd replace it with another tree. 

 

To the left of the house is the new garage with second story studio (my girl cave).  Since this photo was taken we painted the garage/studio barn red.  Ok, ok.  I know--you would have liked me to paint it same as the house, but I have my reasons.  To the left of the two-story garage/studio is the old two-story barn that I'll be painting barn red also.  (Scraping and painting barn is next summer's work--as we now have a 45ft. Cobra lift). 

 

Back to the story of Jon's new front porch ceiling . . . more photos.

 

 

 

There is a Juliet balcony above the porch roof.  Jon laid down new floor on the Juliet balcony above, and sealed it with a rubber membrane to stop water leak that was destroying the front porch ceiling. 

 

 

Since these last photos were taken I painted the new steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Circus Circus Quilt (Just Finished Today)

Everything but the kitchen sink went into this colorful queen size quilt.

I auditioned a number of fabrics, including scraps from other projects.

I made some flying geese with the scraps.

After sewing a number of blocks, and strip sets, I started to assemble the quilt top.

I quilted simple swirls in various sizes edge to edge

 using a variegated thread of red, green, turquoise, and blue.

I really let er' rip not worrying about lines touching sometimes.  It is important to stitch fast to get into a fluid motion.  I try not to over think the process. 

I stitch an open ended circle, swirling to the center, then back-tracking (stitching backwards) out of the circle and immediately moving to the next swirl. 

I loosened the tension on the frame to better see the stitch pattern.

Look at the backing fabric on the top take up rail.  I couldn't pass it up.

I used Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting. 

Tomorrow--I start another quilt.  Probably a chevron quilt.

(I'm supposed to mow the lawn tomorrow

but life is so much happier in the studio w/air conditioning).

The Purple Quilt

 

When the long arm machine arrived in May, the first project I quilted was sheets.

 

Not just ordinary sheets, but Goodwill sheets purchased on yellow ticket day at half price.

 

Washing up the sheets made them smell lovely. 

 

I made this practice quilt for my nephew Devan--he loves bright colors

 

 

My studio--a Grace majestic quilt frame and Babylock Crown Jewel long arm quilting machine.

 

Quilting of the purple sheet begins. 

Three layers: orange bottom sheet, batting, purple flat sheet for the top.

 

 

 

 

 

And then there was the fitted sheet . . . I deconstructed it, and made myself a blouse.

 

Not just an ordinary blouse . . . I made my own polymer buttons for the blouse.

 

 

 

 

Let me know if you'd like to see more polymer clay buttons and beads.   

I've been making lots of them.

 

I feel guilty showing my sewing/craft photos as this is a Victorian Farmhouse website, but honestly--there's more to my life than plaster, paint, and dust pans of debris.  No wait, maybe not. 

Oh, I don't know. 

Let me think about that for a while.

 

 

 

 

Sunburn on the Beach Quilt

 

Color Challenge - making a quilt using bright primary colors on a field of white.  I call it "Sunburn on the Beach" remembering the early 60s and fun summer days on the beach, cool water, blue skies, my first 2-piece yellow and orange swimming suit.

 

 

 

 

As I quilted I imagined solar heat (flames) radiating from the sun and heating up the surface of inflated blue beach balls. 

 

 

I used poly batting for a light weight summer quilt.  I like how the poly batting puffs up.

 

 

 

Problems and Solutions:

I didn't have enough white cotton for the backing, so I added yellow printed cotton squares in the corners.

Didn't have enough blue cotton to making binding so I alternated blue, green, fabric strips to make enough.

Having to substitute other prints added more life and vibrance to the quilt. I'm glad it turned out that way.

 

 

 

 

I'm working on new quilt right now--with the working title Circus Circus. 

I'm going to try my best to have it quilted and posted by the end of the week.

Ha. Ha.  That ought to give me a challenge.

 

Come See the Quilts I Made

 

I love to quilt.  This one is called "Science Friday" and it is a queen size quilt.

 

Here's how it went together. 

 

Are you ready?  Lots of Pictures . . . .

 

 First, you find inspiration fabric.  I found several yards of this scientific symbol fabric at Goodwill.  It was half price ticket day--I got the whole chunk for 99 cents. 

 

Are these architectural drawing symbols  Or, just made up stuff? 

 

Then, I went looking for more fabrics: gray, more yellow, some black, and ivory ground.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ragnhild's Room - East Bedroom

Her Teacher's briefcase background

 

 

 

 

Next Post - is a quilt called Sunburn on the Beach!