making things and making plans

Once I finished that butterfly quilt, well, it was Christmas. I took several days off of work and of quilting. I decided to clean my sewing room before I did anything else. After doing the basic dusting/vacuuming/scrap sorting, I went through the bins of fabric I had reserved for new quilts. I cut the fabric for two of those--and discovered all this fabric that I had forgotten! I started making some plans--not really any new year's resolutions, just a few sewing projects for the months ahead.

 This one is a bin of pinks and greens that has been in this bin for a long time.

This one will be a checkboard type black and white quilt, at least that is the plan now. I did not cut the fabric yet since I'm not totally sure about that.

This one I cut--and then started sewing. It will probably be the next finish. It will have six of the strips. I think.

I didn't cut this either, but did narrow down what I want to do with it. I've seen this variation too so I'm not sure what other fabric I'll add with it.

I did finish this one after I got the cleanup finished. It is a gift so I can't show it yet.

 I also decided to play "this old house" while it was so cold.
This is our upstairs bathroom before:

Nice right? I had waited because I wanted some little hexagon white tiles. But in my real world, for that to happen without major plumbing adjustments (the tub behind the door is a claw foot not a built-in), we would have to pull out the toilet and tub, sawcut out the wood floor underneath, then put the underlayment, etcetera etcetera. In my this old house world, anytime you take something out, especially old stuff, you run the risk of it NEVER going back together again, so that project that already sounds like a lot of work would probably mushroom. With freezing temperatures outside, we also really wanted this toilet usuable should the one downstairs (over a crawlspace) freeze. Also part of my this old house world. So I decided to go the vinyl tile route.

It took most of a day (demo included), but it was done in a day. I still need to add the base trim, but I have really reached my quota of working on a bathroom floor for a few weeks. Especially that whole "fit the tile around the toilet" part. And the "wedge the next piece in under the tub" part. Now I can put that rug down on the floor when I want (or leave it out for awhile), rather than having it there to cover the hole, and can mop without making the hole bigger. It's the little things.

I also bought a bit of fabric since they keep sending me emails about sales. I couldn't hold out anymore. This charm pack will be like the pictured quilt at some point.

We also went over to the duck pond one day in celebration of the failed ice storm. The ducks met us in the parking lot.

And yes, my kids really should wear coats.

Those geese were super loud after she fed them.

A squirrel came along after the fact. It's that little fuzzy spot on the ground in front of my son. I wandered around looking for something for him to eat while the kids stood really still to see how close it would walk to them. It was probably the stillest they had been all break.

My daughter had me help her with a few projects, including an emergency pillow project when she spied some fabric she wanted in my discard pile. Like, "sew this now while I take a bath and when I come back up here you can help me tear up all this old batting and finish it." Those stuffed animals NEEDED a flannel pillow.

I think that is all. Now I just need to stop looking at blogs like this one that make me want to jam another bunch of fabric in a bin, never to see it again for months. But since that is part of the fun, I also think maybe I just need to sew more to have some empty bins to fill back up. Especially since I just looked behind me and saw all the glitter my daughter is dumping all over her new project--and the floor. Ugh.