Bathroom Remodeling & a little bit of Quilting

I know my posts have been few & far between. Life working full time, 10 hour days , mostly at a computer doesn't make for much time or energy left to blog at home.  Usually the last thing I feel like doing is getting on the computer now at home.  I do think about all of those lovely people who I like to read & chat on line with though, & I miss you all. I look forward to growing up (older) & retirement, so I can make it a regular habit again! 4 1/2 years & counting!

The big project at home right now is our upstairs bathroom. This is how it looked before-

The window was looking into a dead space, that we boarded off last year, with plans on expanding the bathroom to get a bathtub back into it!  With our big lifting of the house & building a basement under it, we had the plumbing all redone, & we lost 2 inches of space, that made the bathroom too small for a standard tub.

So now we are taking out the window wall,

& making the bathroom big enough to accommodate a real bath tub! 

Wiring is getting done next, then we can work on walls, floor & get the tub installed, which won't happen until after the holidays. Never enough time on the weekends to get it all done!

On Lily, right now is my friend Carol's last quilt. This was the project she was working on when she died, & I had made a promise to her that we would get it finished for her. She had all but 3 borders finished, & those she had all marked & started. 3 of our Calendar Girls group worked on finishing the applique, then I pieced the top & have just got started on the quilting. I got the first border quilted 2 weekends ago, & then realized I couldn't really go any further until I found something big enough to do a good circle around the blocks. I'd been looking for months now for a template to get a 16 inch circle, & could not find one any where.

I finally called a local glass place & special ordered a 15 3/4" circle in 1/4" acrylic. It wasn't cheap, but I got it today, & it's just right! Maybe now I can get going on it next day off!

Last Sunday I spent the day on a simple project, with minimal (for me) quilting. I've had these blocks since at least 1996, or maybe a little earlier! I won them in a drawing at PALS guild when I was in Muskegon.

I pieced them together, used some of the old Christmas fabric & sort of ugly green trim from my stash, & now all I need do is get it bound on the edges.

I also thought I would share my little gossip piece. It was a project with Calendar Girls, where we played the telephone-gossip game. Mary G went first , making a piece from a photo inspiration. She showed me her piece for a few minutes, & I made this , showed it to Jackie, she made one, showed it to Jan, etc.

Mine I even made my basket hold ephemera.

You can see the others here. It was pretty funny, the direction this took. We had a good laugh over it at  the reveal. We are doing it again this year with a smaller simpler piece. It was too much fun to stop.

Port Townsend Vacation

Before our vacation, I tried to get caught up on making birthday Quards. I made several, but only remembered to take photos of a couple. This 1st one is for grand-daughter Maeve who turned 1 in Sept.

The next one was for her Daddy Brandon who had a birthday Oct.7th.

 When we got on our flight to Seattle, who was setting directly across from us, but my dear friend & fellow Calendar Girl Mary G.!

In Seattle we met up with Warren's sister Jan, & her husband Joe. They spent the whole week with us. I took these silly pictures of them at the Pacific Center Mall, in downtown Seattle the first evening.

We spent our first night at the Camlin, then got on the ferry the next morning & went to Port Townsend.

We stayed at our favorite place on Discovery Bay. Our condo was right on the waterfront. Trees were just starting to turn when we got there.

My DD Michelle came over with the one & only grandson Sean. We had a good time with them all.

We did the Wild Animal Park in Sequim, Sean was thrilled, as well as Joe & Jan & the rest of us.

He giggled

& covered his face & said "Oh my GAWD!" Wonder where he got that!

This was the outside of the window after the park. It's a cool place to spend a day. You buy loaves of bread at the gate when you go in, & can feed most of the animals. They come right up to you for the bread.

Sean & I played on the swings at the condo every day too.

I had a lot of fun with him.

Every morning when we got up there were loons & other birds out on the water. 3 times I also saw a seal & on the final full day- morning I actually got a couple of pictures of him.

The best part of the whole trip though was spending time with family. Michelle made some killer cupcakes for Warren's birthday, & we got to go see their new home in Seattle.

It was a lovely vacation.

Summer Vacation Alaska

My daughter Michelle & her family have been visiting this past week. It's been soooo MUCH FUN!

This little guy Sean JR is a delight!

We did a road trip to Homer & stayed over night. What was intended to be camping became hotelling instead because the winds were so high the tents would've blown us all into the ocean!

Sylvia & S-JR found an old truck (no motor) for kids in front of the Sourdough Express where we ate a good breakfast. It was perfect for them to play while we ate on the picnic table outside. It was sunny & warm there.

Sean SR found an old Mercury motor & sported for me, in a Freddy Mercury pose. He sings in a Queen cover band, & does the Freddy Mercury parts. He also has a salon in Seattle named Mercury.

We played a little on the windy beach, & Sear JR manged to get a little wet of course.

The waves aren't usually this big in summer.

Signs of autumn were all over.

Crows were fluffing up against the winds.

Michelle & Sean dropped in to the Salty Dawg Saloon, to just check it out, while the rest of us hung out outside.

 

Later we stopped at a nice restaurant, where the boy ate PB&J.

We took a side trip to Seward, but it was cold & windy there too, so we pressed on & came home late. The next day we set up a tent in the backyard for Sylvia to get to have her camp out with her dad, & we took a day-trip to the local zoo. 

Another day, we went up the hill from our house to a park to play.

More to come, but we've got dinner to get & kids need to catch their flight soon. I will miss the joyful chaos of this past week.