Geese Around the Block

I’ve been playing with EQ 6 quite a bit trying to come up with ideas for my DQS 12. One of the requirements of the swap for this round is to use at least one block from a given list and to incorporate it into our quilt. For some reason I really want to use Flying Geese units in this quilt.

For those of you who aren’t quilter’s, this is a flying geese unit:

I really liked them in the New York Beauty block I made up. Which got me to thinking about designing a block with just flying geese units. I have too many ideas rolling around in my head that I could never make them up in fabric. Thank goodness for EQ6 where I can quickly do a digital mock up of my idea to see what works and what doesn’t!

Here is one of the first mini quilts I designed. As far as I know this is an original layout by me.

I like it a lot, but I may be biased! I would use prints instead of solids for all the “geese.” I would use Kona Cotton in charcoal for the gray solid. What do you think?

I think I’m going to play with it some more and see what it looks like as a block in a bed size quilt.

~ Norma

DQS 12

It’s that time of the year again! Another round of the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap is underway. I decided to skip the last round since the send out dates were in early August and my baby was due around the same time. This time there is no impending baby to get in my way of quilting! Actually he still impedes my sewing time but that’s ok. I love those baby giggles.

After seeing a bunch of “New York Beauty” blocks floating around Flickr I decided to give it a try. I’m still pretty new to the whole paper piecing thing but I’m loving how accurate the blocks turn out. Especially all those sharp little points. I only messed up once when I accidentally cut off too much seam allowance.

It does take me a super long time to finish a block but I kind of like the whole process. This 1 block took me several evenings to finish. I only get to work on it in short few minute sessions so it’s hard to say how long it actually took to finish the block.

I decided to have a little fun with the block in Photoshop. In a matter of minutes I had this lovely layout. If only quilting was as quick as Photoshop!

I really like this layout and can just imagine the quilting possibilities for that empty spot in the middle.

~ Norma

Catch-up

I’ve come to the conclusion (again) that I’m not the greatest at blogging. Blogging seems to be a seasonal thing for me. I don’t know what it is (call it life) but sometimes I just have too much going on. I’ve decided that I am no longer going to apologize for my lack of blogging (you’re probably tired of those posts anyway.) I have plenty to share just not enough time or energy to do so.

So what’s been going on in the Petit Design household? Well my little chubster is going to be 7 months old tomorrow. 7 months! *w*o*w* …umm yeah, I’ve been slacking on the picture taking too.

I’m living in 2 states. What? Yeah, it’s a long story. I’m living in TN and AL while we figure out what to do with our house in TN. ( Anyone want to buy a house in Middle TN?) It’s sooo much fun to travel back and forth every couple of weeks with 3 kids and 2 dogs. *insert sarcastic tone* BUT I am so grateful that since we are debt free it is not a huge burden as long as it doesn’t go on forever.

I’m now homeschooling my 2nd grader and Kindergartner. Traveling back and forth between 2 states is not conducive to regular schooling. Technically my kids are participating in Online Public School. It’s like home schooling but it’s free! The state sends you all the materials and the lessons are all laid out for you so you don’t even have to think about it!

I haven’t done too much quilting lately. Rather I’ve done a bit of remodeling/updating to the TN house. I finally got around to doing something that I have wanted to do since the very first day we looked at the house.

Both of the bathrooms were sporting these lovely lavender pink sinks. These are actually nice molded sinks if not for the color. They might even be cultured marble. The color just wasn’t cutting it for me though.
So I painted the sinks with a one part epoxy paint called “Tub and Tile.” It’s very smelly, took 3 coats of paint and several days of painting and drying. The box touts this product as “tough as tile.” One bathroom sink is doing great. The other… well let’s just say you shouldn’t take a screw driver to the sink.

While we took out the faucet so that I could paint, hubby didn’t remove the drain cover thingy. It wasn’t a big deal because I carefully taped around the drain and it turned out great. Fast forward to installing the new faucet. It came with a matching (satin nickel) drain guard thingy. Hubby decided to change them out (after I had painted the sinks.) Well one was easy as pie to change out, the other one was so tough that hubby was using all his strength and a screw driver to try and get it out. Well he lost the battle and only ended up scratching the epoxy paint off. There went all of my hard work! I have yet to fix it.

Here is a picture of the painted sink during the process. I think this was after the first coat of paint. This is also the sink I have to re-do.

I’ll post an updated picture once I get the new hardware. We also painted the cabinets on off white. The bathrooms look so much brighter and nicer with the purple sinks gone. Oh and it was a $36 dollars for the epoxy paint.

We also updated some of the paint colors in the kitchen. First I re-painted the counter tops with rustoleum counter top paint, not to be confused with their new expensive counter top kit. For about $20 I got a taupe-y gray color. I followed all the directions and let them cure for over a week. I’m pleased with the color but I can’t say much for the wear. There are already a few nicks on the counter tops and I’ve been super gentle with them. They wore so much better when I painted them with regular oil based paint years ago.

We also changed the wall color from yellow to a really pretty blue teal. I love it against the black cabinets and white trim. Add a few splashes of the color of the year (tangerine) and I'll have a very “in” kitchen.

Here’s a picture of what the kitchen looked like the last time I got the remodeling bug.

In case you're wondering what the kitchen looked like when we first bought the house 5 years ago:

~ Norma