Shame on Me!

A few weeks ago I won a fabulous fat quarter bundle from a sweet blogger friend Sue.  But shame on me, I didn't email her to thank her or even let her know it arrived!  Nor did I blog about it as I intended to when I took a picture to show ya'll (I say ya'll 'cause Sue is from Texas).  That picture has stayed on my phone all forlorn.

Sweet Sue, will you please forgive my lack of graciousness?  I am truly sorry and in the future I plan to be more communicative!

Without further ado, here's the picture of the fabric....I especially adore the butterfly fabric.

Now to decide what to make!

Hanging my head, Leslie

"New" Fireplace

Over the 3-day weekend I was able to get the fireplace painted.  Now, I have some very dear friends who were appalled when I told them I was planning to paint my fireplace.  And some very dear relatives too.

I've been throwing it around for 5 years and every time I got ready to do it, Dr. Love talked me out of it.  Well, after finding some great before & after pics online he agreed and even helped!

After vacuuming it well to remove dust & cobwebs, we put on three coats of primer.  Primer at $16/gallon is much less expensive than my Benjamin Moore paint at $45/gallon!  After the 3 coats, I needed only 1 coat of paint!

I must say, it looks terrific.  You would say so too if I posted a picture of it.  But I'm not going to post any "in progress" pictures of the room so you'll have to wait a while for the reveal.  I am also going to stain my mantel...it's an old piece of lumber from who-knows-where and is bolted onto the brick tightly.  It's dark but worn looking so I'm adding some matte dark stain so that it will complement the floor (when Dr. Love gets it done) better.  And, I'm looking for new light fixtures too :)

What have you been up to?

Hugs, Leslie

In the Beginning (and a sneak peek)

After 5+ years, I am able to redecorate my family room!  No more dingy, dirty, ugly light beige carpeting.  No more ugly dingy waIls!  No more other stuff in there that I don't like :).

According to my timetable, I won't be finished until sometime in April.  We've purchased the flooring but my wonderful Dr. Love isn't going to install it until the last weekend in March.  So I have some time to get my ducks in a row and get painting!

Here are my "official" before pictures:

And here's a sneak peek at my slipcovers which arrived today!

Tomorrow's Friday!  Have a great weekend!

Hugs, Leslie

New Year Sew Along finish

Several blog posts (Do you like how I use "several?"  It's more than three so it's not a few!) ago I posted about joining a New Year's Sew Along and I even showed you the fabrics.

January has come & gone and I didn't get my blocks or project finished.  But the last few days I've had fingers itchy to sew so I finished up the blocks, sewed them together, and sewed the blocks into a project.

To be honest, I am not thrilled with how the blocks turned out.  Sewing them together was easy-peesy but I had trouble with the cutting part.  I am glad that I changed my mind on the layout though:  at first I intended to make 7 blocks of single colors but then I changed to put each color in every block.  I'm also glad that I sashed between the blocks.  I had that fabric leftover from a previous quilt sashing and I think it's the perfect width.

I had one leftover block that I will probably incorporate into the backing....I like to do that.  And all of the extra pieces that got cut off I sewed together to make scrappy blocks.  I will put them in my stash for now.

So without further ado:

Do you have any sewing projects going? What're you planning to do next?

My next big thing is a redecoration of my family room.  I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!  So excited, that I just screamed it!  I've been wanting to do this room since the day we moved in but other rooms came first.  Now it's time!  We've already bought some gorgeous wood laminate flooring to replace the nasty carpeting, I have slipcovers ordered and my paint colors picked out.  I'm even going to paint the fireplace!!  I'm having fun in the planning stage--I'm not doing the actual work until the end of March.  But that will be here before I know it!

Dinner's calling....have a great night!
Hugs, Leslie

Christmas in January

I know that Christmas is over but look what I received in today's mail!  Back in December, Cathe of "Just Something I Made" posted a giveaway of one of two fabulous books from Country Living/Hearst Books.  When she contacted me to let me know that I was one of the winners I was thrilled and immediately started wondering which book I'd receive.

Imagine my surprise to open the envelope and find BOTH books!  Christmas in January, right?!  Thank you Cathe and thank you Country Living and Hearst Books for sponsoring Cathe's blog!

Now, go on over to Cathe's blog & check out all of her wonderfulness :)

Hugs, Leslie

World Travelers

My world travelers are still in Guatemala.  Here are a few of the pictures they've emailed me or I've stolen off of Miss B's facebook page.  They are having a grand time doing God's work!  Without further ado:

They'll be home Saturday night!

Sew-A-Long!

I see Sew-A-Longs on the "cool" girls' blogs quite often and sometimes wish I had the time/inclination to join in.  But as a lifetime "uncool" girl I always hesitate.  What if they don't like me?  What if no-one talks to me?  What if I sign up but don't make/take the time that participation requires?

So, when one of my very first favorite blog authors, Sue at CollectInTexasGal, posted about committing to a sew-a-long, I decided to check it out.  It's an easy project.  You can shop for fabric or use up your scraps or choose something from your stash. To learn more about about the sew-a-long, head to Sew Can She.

 I decided to use some of my scraps.  In the fall I got a bee in my bonnet and decided to cut all of my scraps into 2.5" or 5" strips, depending on their current widths.  I prefer to quilt with precuts anyway and the size is versatile enough for most projects I would attempt.  Then I sorted them by color & put them away.

The week one assignment is to decide on your fabric.  That's it.  Just choose fabric.  Which anyone with any fabric sense knows will take a week in itself anyway!  So I got out my strips and decided to make several blocks by colorway.  Here's a picture of what I have so far:

These are just what I pulled from the 2.5" strips.  During naptime this afternoon I shall get out the big guns (the 5" strips) and see what I can do with those.

What will my finished project be?  I dunno.  I won't decide until I'm further along in the project.  It depends on how the finished blocks look, how many I have, etc...

On another note, Dr. Love & Miss B were able to Skype call Charlie & I yesterday and it was great to see their smiling faces back-lit by sunshine and 80 degree weather!  They are having a fabulous time.  Today their work begins.

Please let me know if you join the sew-a-long too so we can encourage each other!

Hugs, Leslie