Open the door!

A few weeks ago I did a post about our entry doors needing a face lift.  The doors came down, I brought them back to their original surface, primed, base coat, under glazed, then artisan (had to throw that in!) hand painted wood grain, finished with two protective top coats.  Easy peasy……mostly.  Once you get a rhythm painting grain, you have to keep moving!  Its art which I suspect is why I didn’t fear it. 

I need to remind you that our house is all wood…. floors, cabinets, interior 6 panel doors, ceilings, all of it.  You have to like wood to live here, which I do…..all western red cedar, oak, and hard maple of it.  Yes, occasionally I’d like to throw paint on all those walls, but then I drink a cup of chamomile tea to calm my frenzy.  Please understand, with western red cedar, oak and maple over time the wood ages so the target we matched is somewhere in the middle of every shade on the spectrophotometer reading.  Sort of like throwing a dart at a bunch of similar wood color chips.  But I must give big kudos to my new BFF’s at REPCO LITE for doing a fabulous job of custom matching the processes for me.  So without much further ado....I must mention the colors match much better than my phone photos reflect......

 

Inside entry door before and after....

 

 

Front entry door before and after.....

 

 

Happy door painting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bragging rights......

Actually, it’s more about celebrating great news from my friend Elizabeth Brandt. Back in May 2013 SAQA (Studio Arts Quilt Associates) posted a fabric design competition honoring SAQA’s 25^th anniversary.  After thinking about it, Elizabeth created her design and submitted it.  Months went by, nothing was heard, and then all of a sudden she learned her design (and 5 others) won out of 209 entries, curated by Luana Rubin.  YES!  Elizabeth can now add fabric designer to her resume.

The six pattern collection called URBAN TEXTURES is from Andover (with three colorways of each pattern) and will be available soon.  How cool is that!?  I got to see them up close and personal yesterday, and they are all incredible.  As their name implies, they are interesting textures, very useful whether you fancy traditional, modern or art quilting styles.  I can see them in my stash now, and better yet, a quilt.  

Elizabeth’s design is called URBAN GESTURE, a lyrical and flowing organic design on white ground with black figure, interspersed with just enough vibrant happy colors.  Can’t wait to use them!  Andover is posting free pattern downloads to kick off this collection. For more information on Elizabeth, SAQA or to see the entire collection check out:

http://www.elizabethbrandt.com/

http://www.saqa.com/hotnews.php?ID=359

http://andoverfabrics.com/Grid.php?GroupName=Urban%20Textures

 

 

 

Congrats Elizabeth!

Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!

Retreat, retreat, retreat has become a phrase, or better yet the cheer or rally cry we use to excite the group a few weeks leading up to our retreat each October.  Not that we need it because we really start getting geeked on the ride home, seriously. It doesn't take much!  

 

As promised, here is a snippet (some, but certainly not all) of the MANY wonderful projects that were worked on during our time at the Gate. Sorry for the blur, it's hard to get us to stand still when we're talking and moving during show-n-tell.

Nancy (very cool sashing technique used)

Denice (buddy blocks in process)

Marilyn (buddy blocks and storm at sea projects)

 

Sally (a local quilt shop year-long project)

Janice (t-shirt quilt for a nephew)

Lisa (buddy blocks and jelly roll quilt projects)

Janet (buddy blocks and a UFO from a previous retreat)

Valerie (beginning a new quilt for the RV)

And me (finished Amish buggy wheel, a small art quilt and Peppered Cottons)

 

 

With all the time spent quilting we still found time to eat.

 

 

Still ‘basking in the glow’ as Denice puts it………..

Gate Crashers Retreat

I’m just back from fall retreat at INN AT THE RUSTIC GATE.  I start looking forward to next retreat on the trip home.  I might as well maintain the euphoric feeling as long as I can.  I mean come on, great food, great friendships, great wine (this year’s new find was Leelanau Wines/Blueberry…..OMG!), and round the clock undisturbed quilting time, if you’re so inclined.  This was our sixth year.  We time it each year to enjoy the beautiful fall colors at peak.

This year they decked the inn out with pumpkins and lots of orange lights.  Such fun!

We start our journey north first thing in the morning, stopping along with way at quilt shops.  You know, helping our local economy. Nancy and I drove together, and included a stop at the Muskegon Museum of Art to see the NANCY CROW quilt exhibit. This meant more to me since I had taken her week long workshop in December 2012.  I will post on this sometime since I wasn't blogging at the time.  A stop at Country Dairy for lunch and ice cream and off to the 'gate'.

It’s such a joy to return and catch up with Innkeepers Marcia, Pat, and Chef Sharon, not to mention the pampering we enjoy for those bliss-filled days on the edge of the Manistee National Forest.  It’s like seeing family without the drama.

Returning this year………

Nancy, who shared a new, amazingly simple technique to attach sashing,

Denice, who always settles into a chair nearest the best window light to do hand work,

Marilyn, who has such determination to figure out why a pattern doesn’t work, and fix it,

Sally, the last quilter to turn the lights out at night,

Janice, our most finished projects winner,

Lisa, our newest quilter who’s learning mad skills from the many seasoned quilters in the room,

Janet, who organizes this little soiree and hates to have her picture take,

Valerie, who breaks out the quilting tools once a year just to be with us (ha-ha, so we think!)

And yes me, first up in the morning (5:00 AM) but I couldn’t take a picture of myself.

More pictures later on what everyone worked on……….

Artisan Hand Crafted Faux Painting

Spoiler alert – this post has nothing to do with quilting.  But it does have everything to do with my continued quest for hand crafting wherever possible, which is the sole purpose of this blog.

It started back in 1987 when we purchased our home.  The interior is all wood.  I mean ALL wood, tongue and groove Western Red Cedar walls and ceiling, custom oak cabinets and door trim, six panel hard maple interior doors, stair rails, and…….. painted steel exterior doors, all stained to match.  Let’s just say you have to love wood to live here, which we do.  The down side is you live with the same wood tone forever; the up sides are no maintenance and no repainting every couple of years. 

 

All that celebrating aside, we’ve had a problem with the faux grain painted doors from the beginning.  They were too light and as the wood darkened with age the shade difference became more obvious.  Add normal wear near the lock and well, we’re overdue for a bit of new door makeup. 

 

 

So I  avoided it….for a long time.  You see, the front door has a raised panel side light that needs to be done in place rather than placed horizontally on saw horses. Oy!  Overcoming my fear of phyllo dough recently I decided to face my next fear – faux grain painting.  After lots of DIY research and tutorials I was off to my nearby Benjamin Moore store (Repco Lite) with a small door to be matched.  A day later I returned to pick up my custom blended primer, base coat, gel stain and a finishing coat, and enough tools and confidence to convince myself I could do this.

I realize YouTube videos always show the ‘cliff notes’ version of doing everything, meaning shortened, and making things look so simple I could do this with my right arm tied behind my back, but I wasn’t afraid.  I felt bold.  We decided to experiment with the garage door first.  Hubby lightly sanded the door preparing it for primer (his contribution).  We’re off!  Then I applied a tinted primer……so far so good.

 

 

Next, I applied the custom color base coat.  Yes, they look remarkably alike, but they aren’t, and not so yellow.  Sigh of relief…….all is good.  Time to dry.

 

 

A fist full of graining tools, brushes, rags, and gel stain, and the pit in my stomach began to knot.  I had prepped a test panel purposely to validate the process before it hit the door.  Thank God I did!  It did not go well, and I adjusted pretty much every step.  The graining tool was benched.  My artist brushes, some paints and blending rags were now in the starting lineup.  I gingerly covered the entire surface with a gentle coat gel stain and recreated a soft background grain. 

After a little dry time, I put my artist cap and smock on, and began painting in the grain of a hundred foot tall oak, with my sample door as my guide.  If it matches this, it will match the door trim, my target.  I feathered and smoothed working a long narrow section at a time.  Know when to stop…….a little sooner than you think you need to.  Shut off the light, walk away…..let it dry.  Voila!

 

I’ll apply two coats of polyurethane, flip and repeat the other side, and rehang.  Then I will do the front door, inside only…..and lastly face the door light.  Overcoming my fear is in process.  Artisan hand crafted all the way!

PEPPERED COTTONS progress.......

So far I’m very happy with my quilt using the new Peppered Cottons (shot cottons).  So much in fact that I had to share the progress.  The top is done, and now……drum roll please…..I’m busy doing the machine quilting. 

These closeups show the different warp and weft yarns quite nicely.  Stay tuned for the finished project……sometime mid October likely as I'll finish binding at retreat.

Happy Quilting!

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE, MY ONLY SUNSHINE.........You make me happy when skies are gray

Back in July I posted about the death of family members Sue and Bob in a motorcycle accident.  Since then we helped their boys with estate matters, including getting their home ready to sell.  We spent hours helping clean and whatever they needed, including work the estate sale which was a very difficult thing to do.

I had to keep reminding myself this was no longer their home, it was just a house now, their lives were no longer present.  Going thru their things was very sad and difficult and…..well, simply uncomfortable.  But it had to be done.

I came across a huge bowl filled with happy yellow sunflowers.  Sue was very proud of this, and had paid a good deal of money for it.  Our stitch-n-bitch group loved this centerpiece…..we all had sunflower envy and had many fun conversations about it.  So much in fact our friend Sandy went out and bought one exactly like it.

At our last stitch I was so happy to learn that another sister in law bought this arrangement at the end of estate sale.  I should have, but didn't.  We reminisced about how Sue loved it, how sunny and happy it was, and how they made us think of her.  I went home feeling relieved a stranger didn’t have it; it had stayed with our family.

 

But I also felt sort of sad, that I had missed out on the sunflowers to remind me of her.  Later that day I saw Michaels was having a 50% off sale on all fall stems the following week.  A few days later I stopped in and snapped up enough stems and floral supplies to make my own, using a very large Rowe Salt Glazed Pottery bowl as the base.  It’s not the original, but all the same I’m very pleased how it came out, and most importantly I think of Susie every time I walk by and see those happy leaves of sunshine…. I’m sure she would be proud. 

Here’s to you Sue!