I've moved! rather my blog(s) are mvoing

I've moved and put All my lives rolled in to one blog!

please follow all of my postings in one place at http://allofmylives.blogspot.com/

thank you for finding me there!
denise/deBRAT

blast! where are my thread snips?

You just got to know that your day is not slated for "nice" when you go to sit down to stitch on an antique quilt for someone and realize that you have gathered everything but something to clip the thread with, go to the top right-hand drawer in the sewing machine cabinet and all you find there are 2 pairs of 8" ginghers, one pair of 8" fiskars and one pair very sharp and cheap 8" joann's dump bin scissors!  Not a clue where to find any of my multiple pairs of thread snips or tiny scissors perfect for sharp cuts on threads for threading needles.

now that might not be a horrible happening in a younger person's day, but I am of the over 50 lot and cannot see a brick up close without my glasses and now... with adequate light.  so i'll use the cheap 8" pair of Joann's dump bin scissors today and then go project-raiding this afternoon to see which project has a pair of small scissors in it i can borrow.  and that does not even touch on the agony it was last night to find my needles and threader and thimbles to sew/quilt this antique with.  there has to be a better way and some day I'm going to figure it out.  But for now, I'll just get on to working on this quilt so i can have it finished and ready to go to Kathryn when we go to Mexico Beach Labor Day weekend.

the pic of the quilt 77" x 92 1/2" and yes that border is waaavy and yes it draws in terribly in the middle so i'm going to give it my best shot so it can be hung on the wall and enjoyed by the great grandson of the maker.  I just love these old quilts and i've never seen a hexagon quilt with this layout before.  rather lovely in icon size don't you think?
happy stitching!
denise/deBRAT

Look what I found!

Or rather what found me :)  I recently sold my beloved Sonata spinning wheel.  I promised myself that if I sold it and got what I thought was a very fair price I would buy something for the backing for the twins' quilts.  I really could not justify the absolutely perfectly stunning city girl large print in chocolate and pink at $8.95 / yd and needing to back two quilts so I waited. and what fell into my inbox but a sale for Quilt in a day!  I bought 5 yards of the green all that was available, and also all that they had of the dots, 2 yards.  i had ordered another one that got along colorwise for the backing also but it must have sold out before my order as it was not in the package, and a refund was on my debit card :(

so THIS absolutely perfect backing fabrics are what I splurged on!
I feel so in love with it I hope there is enough to make tiny pillows for the girls.

two fish done!

two fish done and setting tri's laid out next to them to get a feel for the border and is it headed where i want it to be?

the fish for the living room condo comparison arrived today!

not sure if the "exact same one" is the same size but they ARE by the same company as the one up in Mexico Beach.  I'm hoping there are three sizes so we can have an asst of them on the wall
and another picture!  the one on tohe top is advertised as 12" fish bottom one is 6" fish. one on top is the same as the one up at the condo already.  now to wait for neal to come home from business trip and see if he thinks is the same size or not.

a frame test for the hall/guest bathrrom at the condo

i bought a 1.99 frame from joann's along with 2 oz 89 cent paint and teal/washed the frame and got this.
i plan to use soemthing "sand" looking (possibly sand paper) for the insert and then glue on a shell we collected at mexico beach recently.  they get a lot of money for these types of things and i'll have done it for lots less AND have a shell we collected.  if it works out and looks nice when we go up there next i'll get a couple more frames and repeat the process.  the face cloth is one i keep here for the color choices. 

the wooden fish i got a few years back for free from someone at work and i thnk i'll paint it white and teal/wash it too to match to hang over the towel rack near the sink in the same bathroom


the pics!

a fish is done!

okay so one fish is done of  eight or sixteen total and i'm so excited because i over sized it and cut it back so it is 9 1/2" square put on point block instead of the 12 1/2" in the pattern so less overall adding to the size of the quilts.  but it is not the math or size you want you want pics!  and so do I :)

bargello centers - DONE!

three pics of the bargello centers with a couple of fabric border options  all are too busy and the WOW (white on white) baby stuff fabric is too well, white.  it needs something and the best i've come up with in my mind is those pieced braided border blocks forming diamonds on a piece of paper on the side (shown better in the close up shot) but the work that will take is more time than i think i have to do them.  don't forget (i'm trying not to forget) I still have to quilt these TWO quilts after borders go on them.

enjoy the pics
denise/deBRAT
grandma to be of TWINS!

and i think what i've decided is to  make a total of eight (8) fish from this pattern that i bought this magazine for recently to put in the corners of each one and then something totally clever to be determined on the sides between them.

link to the tropical fish pattern Quilt magazine Aug/ Sept 2010  which will add 16" or so per side! as they are set on-point  these will be HUGE baby quilts LOL  good thing the afghans are only about 40" square.

well i'm off to job hunt and to practice my typing and data entry and to begin the process of eight tropical fish and planning for the in-between portions fo the borders.
oh, and didn't the rainbow effect of the bargello centers come out lovely?  i'm soooo pleased with them!

quilty hugs
denise/deBRAT

the realtor quilt with its new owner!

Mary posted this to her facebook site yesterday!  How lucky am I to have a pic of her with the quilt?  and it looks so much better with her holding it over the railing rather than lying on my floor at the "not Mexico Beach" house.

 

hmmm not so sure this came out as clear as it did on her facebook page.  if you're looking to invest in a vacation/retirement or NOW home see Mary in Mexico Beach at Sundance Realty!  

now to test and see if putting a link in gives you the picture better or not

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=4027191&id=49286539482

Our Mexico Beach Haven

After a long, arduous search and several offers, Neal and I were fortunate enough to close on our dream 3 bedroom/3 bath condominium at Waterside Village in Mexico Beach, Florida on May 28th.  We spent the next 7 days setting it up with the bare minimum amount of "stuff" to be able to go up and enjoy the place at every chance we might have.  The bare minimum sure can grow and needless to say we still feel a need to have some things there, but we made significant headway on our dream vacation/eventual retirement home.

Below are some pictures of what we accomplished in:
7 days
2 Sam's Club trips
2 Home Depot trips
1 Bed, Bath & Beyond trip
5 Walmart trips
1 Badcock Furniture & more trip
1 Sam's Club online order
1 Sam's Club click n pull
1 Walmart site to store orde3 Ace Hardware trips
and numerous hours of online research to choose just the right item in just the right size at just the right price.

These barstools were given to us by Neal's parents.  They are 24" bar stools and our area in the Riverview home needs 30" bar stools.  We held on to them in case Caelum got another home with a bar stool area.  During the course of our many offers on the condo we realized that the eating area portion of the kitchen counter might be just the right height to use these at.  And it was!  So I set to painting them white and then removed the plush black fabric and recovered them with two fun fish prints I had in my fabric stash!  We talked of yellow suns on the backs of the stools but after all the coats of white paint I did not want to have to mask that all off in order to have them be yellow!

This was a spur of the moment stop at Badcock & more furniture on the way to Walmart on Saturday afternoon.  We went with cheap, let's use it, furniture with a fabric that is cleaned up easily with soap and water.  The sofa is not a sleeper nor does it have recliners built in but the price met our immediate budget and sit on something needs!  They are called brick but I think they are more of a tomato color.  The drapes we got at Bed, Bath & Beyond when I found nothing at Walmart that I liked. The pattern is not necessarily what I would have chosen but the color matches the sofa set exactly!  You can't complain about that.  The lamp on the tv tray lost it's shade on the trip up when we experienced tarp problems, over and over again.  we got a 5 pc tv tray set at Walmart.  online they were $129, in the local Sun City Center Walmart they were $69 but we were out of room in the truck bed so we got them up there.  When they rang up they were only $37!  Now that was a good deal and they are well used.  One in the huge master bedroom as an end table, one in the livingroom as seen here, one in the medium bedroom for an end table and one in the medium bedroom holding up the internet modem and the wireless box.  The plan is to actually use them as tv tables once we find and can afford real end tables in the bedrooms and living room.

The tv we brought from home and the stand was a Walmart buy.  The box houses the rest of the original Nintendo set games and was eventually unpacked once Neal got the Nintendo to work. Basic cable comes with our HOA dues.
The table is a clever "harvest" table Sam's Club purchase that measures 63" long and is 31" wide when both long ends are unfolded to make it wider for dining at.  It has two drawers and the right one currently holds local restaurant to go menus for visitors to peruse before dining out.

Here is a picture of one of the two swivel rocking chairs we brought from our home in Riverview.  We rarely sit out on our lanai at the Riverview home due to hot weather and the abundance of dryer sheet smells coming from the neighbor's dryer at all times of the day of night.

The adorable tiny table was a Beall's Outlet purchase up there and is shown in a close up picture of the neat heron tile/glass top.  It is just right for one or two beverages to sit on while we enjoy our lovely view.

Now it is time for a FISHING report!  One of the big draws for us was that this condo complex is on a canal with a boardwalk and day docks.  On Sunday we purchased fishing poles to leave up there and I used some artificial lures brought from home gear.  I am not an artificial lure person and have only caught one lady fish on a saltwater minnow lure while trolling a long time ago, and many freshwater large mouth bass caught in my inlaw's backyard pond where they live.  So it was no surprise when I could not scare up any interest at all using several of them on Sunday and Monday.

On my first trip to the small local Ace hardware  noticed they had frozen squid and shrimp.  I invested in whatever size package you got for $3 and the fishing improved immensely!  On Tuesday I caught this redfish.  It was maybe 12" long and rather full for it's size.

On Wednesday I caught this tiny crab and I do mean tiny.









And this super skinny red fish shown next to my foot for sizing purposes.

I did not fish on Thursday.

on Friday I fished for a couple of hours and did catch a tiny greenback which the pool man took of the hook for me before I could get a picture of it. And I did take two pictures of the small bait fish I caught but alas, they were not in the camera when I looked for them later.

Now I return you to further pictures of the actual condo....

The hallway/guest room bathroom has an inexpensive shower curtain with shells on it and some lovely Tide Pool colored towels and rugs from Walmart.

And the Guest room which is all bed!  We will need to be very clever to fit a bedside table, dresser with drawers and possibly a small desk in the this room!

And the Papa bear bathroom has dolphins in it!

Papa bear likes blue so there are gobs and gobs of blue in this bedroom and adjacent bathroom as you can see.

A well stocked pantry.  I think this is meant to be a linen closet as it is in the hallway outside of the guest bathroom, but as we are big Sam's Club purchasers which means huge quantities of the same item it makes a better pantry for us.

And the inside of the fridge and top are well stocked too!  Got to have your priorities straight.

The utility room has turned out to be the catch-all in the condo. Originally we planned to have the fishing gear in here and maybe even a bike or two, but as we put in shelves for the pots and pans and laundry detergent etc we moved the beach and fishing gear to the hall closet as you walk in the condo.  Which makes more sense in the end as people do not need to track all that sandy, fishy stuff through most of the house to put it away.  I forgot to take pictures of the "beach" closet.  But here are pictures of the shelves and the broom/mop holder and water heater (huge) and A/C handler.

The kitchen has less cupboard space then our Riverview home and has a different use of counter top space.  The bar stools are just on the right hand side of that deep double sink in the right of this picture.

Mama bear's bedroom is the largest in the condo as any crafting type supplies she brings up there need to be stored and used in that room.  So I wanted the room done brightly and at Walmart, where there was a very limited amount of drape choices and very expensive in my opinion for walmart quality, but oy these pink drapes turn the whole place PINK pink PINK when the sun shines on them!  Gratefully, we got a double rod for this 95" wide sliding glass door set and I hope to make some pieced quilt type panels to hang over these pink drapes and see if that tones down the pink any.  I love pink and orange and lime green but gosh almighty those drapes are too much even for me!

This set of drapes is just to cover up that small window that looks out on the second floor area near the elevator.  There are a TON of lights out there and this has two layers of the room darkening paper the tenant left before the drapes and light still comes through!  This window will eventually be covered in something that matches the above mentioned sliding glass door quilt panels.

These are the drapes we got at BB&B that so perfectly match the tomato red sofa and recliners.  I thought there was a picture of the sofa, recliner and drapes all in one but I can't find it so here you get to see them separately.


And because you have waited so patiently here are just a few pictures of the only sunset we got to see while we were there.  We were busy.  Always making a trip for some thing or another or waiting:

Friday was closing
Saturday was trip to Sam's for our truck bed filling trip and trip to Walmart equally truck filling and ordered sofa and recliners
Sunday we went to Home Depot and Sam's Club and got the table we had seen the day before
Monday the sofa and recliners were delivered more store trips
Tuesday the internet was installed more store trips
Wednesday was to be "open" but we found out we had to order the mailbox keys to be made so Wed it was!
Thursday were the much awaited california king mattresses.  The first ordered and the last item to arrive :(
Friday we were going to leave but I noticed a posting of the quarterly HOA board of directors meeting was being held at 9 AM in panama city beach at Burg Management.  So we stayed an extra day and attended that meeting.
Saturday we left for our Riverview home dreaming of returning for the long July 4th weekend.

Hope you enjoy the sunset pics taken from the newly extended Mexico Beach fishing pier that is but a two block west and one block south walk to get to.

realtor quilt finished!