Quilt Auction

A recent trip to old stomping grounds was multi-purpose.  Mostly I soaked up some quality time with dear friends.  I also sang in a friend's wedding and attended the Michiana Mennonite Relief sale where a quilt I designed (about 250 quilts/afghans/comforters were sold that day) was sold to benefit MCC.

Here it is in line to be sold.  The black, pink and white one.

Here it is waiting to be the next one on the display.

Difficult to fit a King size quilt on such a small display piece, but they did what they could.

They stretched it up high enough to cover the auctioneer... (Still not showing the whole diamond in the center) clearly that wasn't going to work!!

I was disappointed to note that it sold for only $550.  I guess it's the economy, of course it's a size that most people can't use and it's feminine... but I thought it was a pretty quilt.  It sold at 9:05 am.  Shortly after that they got an auctioneer that was much higher energy and then people started to focus a little better, I sure wish he'd been the auctioneer just a bit earlier!

Here are some of the other 250 pieces auctioned off.  From small wall hangings to the large ones.  There were some really pretty ones in the mix but mostly ultra traditional stuff in very federal colors.  (Not exactly my thing.)

The front row showed some of the quilts unfolded, this was an especially pretty one.

Lots of time and detail in these two!

I was pretty amazed with how low things were going, people bidding that morning were getting bargains.  But it's all for charity and every bit helps.  I designed and cut the the fabric as we went along, my mother-in-law pieced it and I don't remember who worked with us at the ironing board.  It was hand quilted by a group of Mennonite women from her church with help from the sewing circle at another Mennonite church nearby.  I never did actually get to study the quilting, things just went by a little too quickly for that.  I wish I had a good photo of the whole thing, but it was a little big to get good photos.  I also wish I knew who bought it, but like I said... it just went by a little too quick for that.     

I'd like to do this again some year, a smaller quilt that is less gender specific and hopefully in a season when money isn't so tight for everyone and it can go for a little more money.  I would use hand dyed fabrics this time, no commercial fabrics.  I don't have any interest in hand quilting it though, which may explain why I have so many unquilted quilt tops in storage.  So maybe some day I'll find sewing and quilting buddies once more that can make projects like this possible once more.

Time will tell.   

Happy Quilting,
Carmen Rose

Finally...

Painted the toe kick on my kitchen cabinets. Why did it take me so long to do this?

I like how the room is coming together. Lots of other details to come, I'll keep sharing photos as I change things.

*AND* I painted a kitchen cabinet door without realizing that I'd left a bunch of BIG DRIPS in the paint. Imagine my shock when I came in the morning, flipped the light switch and there were THOSE DRIPS! *Horrors!* I finally got that door sanded and repainted today, and who knows... I might even get it hung up where it goes! Maybe even this evening! Now wouldn't that be something!

Here's to finishing up the details,
-Carmen Rose

Painting Kitchen Cabinets

Today was a busy one in Studio B, one project all day long.   (ONE! project - this is not how my brain works, it was uncomfortable but I survived.)  My Mom came to visit and we worked on kitchen cabinets for...ever! We worked on two (of the six) sections of the kitchen today.  I love my house, but whoever designed this kitchen was loco!

Here’s the process: First off, sand the surface of the wood cabinets. After the first three sections, I learned to do that part outside as much as possible. (Brrr!)  Secondly, wipe with TSP cleaner. Third, paint with serious oil based primer. And finally… paint topcoat. And in some cases… another top coat. My part time job is “Drip Catcher.” We worked on 12 doors and 11 drawers and the cabinets they came from. Plus the range hood has been removed. (The new one is in a box in the living room.)  I’ve got two extra tables and two saw horses with boards on them in my kitchen with cabinet doors laying out to dry. Tight squeeze! I think the drawers are ready for the hardware and they will be complete. Maybe I should wait to say that until I’ve seen them in daylight, but I *think* they look ok for now.

Here's the "Before" photo of this section... though it's not a real before photo because that's my new floor. I suppose it's more of a process photo. I love how much morning sun my kitchen gets!  And I love my new floor!

My Maternal Unit painted while lard but Canine Unit kept an eye on us.

Temporary painting headquarters!  (WET paint!)

Drawers getting their new color.

There is only one thing left to say at this point.  "Will this project EVER be complete?!?"  Ok, ok, I'll have some faith.  (It will end, right?  Someday??)  Please?

O, and my hinges have been shipped!  Yes!  They are in Florida tonight.  I'm still REALLY hoping they are here by Saturday so I can get my doors up before my guests arrive Saturday evening.  But if not it will be ok, the kitchen looks kinda cool with all the upper cabinets wide open.  I expected to hate it, but there's something about it that I really like.  Everything is so "right there!"  It's kind of handy!  Maybe I'll just put the doors back on the base cabinets and leave the tops open?  Tee he, after all the work I put into those cabinet knobs... the doors WILL go back up.  (Eventually!) 

I think I need a reminder.  Why am I doing this again?  Hmmm...

 Hmmm... that's helping.  More please?

 

 I'm beginning to remember...

 

 Ah yes, THAT'S it.

I remember now.

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

The HINGES are FINALLY here

I met the Post Lady on the sidewalk in front of the house, I'd been listening for the mail truck.  I was Soooo excited that the hinges had finally come... I danced with the box into my kitchen, grabbed a knife and opened the box to survey my new kitchen finery...  (which would make it possible to actually install all the doors that are LEANING against something in my kitchen right now!)

And I took a look at these... and quickly realized that they are the WRONG HINGES! O Bother! The are flush mount, I need inset hinges. These have a little bend, and the screw plate comes father in on the door. Blast!  Blast!  Blast!

I ordered these bad boys on December 27th, they didn't get here until today. Now... I'm wondering how long it will take to get the hinges that I wanted, and that I thought I was getting.

Now let me clarify.  This IS the product that I ordered. When I realized my mistake, I emailed the company and asked that they trade out what I had ordered for the other style. They emailed back and said that would be fine. I thought we had it all worked out. Only problem... they shipped the order instead of the update. Sad really, what a waste of time. I'd really like to get my cabinets put back together so things are usable again. I have a great kitchen, that I'd like to USE!

And I'm really really hoping that this second order doesn't take 18 DAYS to ship, that is TOO LONG unless they are actually making them from scratch. So at this point I'm not terribly impressed. Their website says they don't take returns without authorization... so it will be interesting to see if customer service can redeem themselves on this. I'll keep ya posted.

Thankfully, in the same box were some wonderful cabinet knobs, they are PERFECT for my lower cabinets and drawers and I LURVE them! Thing is, now that I've made polymer clay covered knobs for the upper cabinets, that changes the number of these cool "oil rubbed bronze" ones that I need... so I'm ordering more of those as well.  Can't wait to see it all come together!  Sometime.  Hopefully this year. 

I've picked out my range.  I have chosen well... it's a thing of beauty.  One catch.  I want to cook with gas, our range is electric.  It's going to cost me a variety of limbs to get gas to the house, and I haven't seen the contract yet so I don't even know if the price I was quoted gets the fuel to the house, or into the house to the range (and future gas log fireplace upstairs.)  Hmm... decisions, decisions.  I do SO love cooking with gas...  and I have my shiny new range all picked out...  And then the old harvest gold one can go to the basement to be used in the studio and as a backup.

Mies Van der Rohe said "God is in the details."  Perhaps.  All I know is that I love it when a plan comes together.  And having the doors installed where they go will be WONDERFUL!  I can't complain, there are so many that have it so much worse than me. 

A little unhinged, but counting my blessings,

-Carmen Rose

Harlequin Tile, coming soon to a floor near me!

There is something about a harlequin floor that I really like! It's graphic and bold without being overwhelming. It's modern and classic at the same time. Plus, I like black and white together... there is no more perfect combination than these complete opposites. Hubby is a teacher on Christmas break, only he generally works harder on break than when he's at work. Today he's worked at removing the vintage 1975 vinyl. Tomorrow I'll start installing the harlequin tile.  

I am really looking forward to seeing how the kitchen looks after a few days, a little work and a bottle of advil. Can't wait to see it!  We've got guests coming for New Years, so that's incentive to see how far we can get before then.  I wonder if I can get a coat of paint on the cabinets as well?  Hmmm...  Maybe TWO bottles of advil!  LOL!

Kitchen Ideas

Love those black chairs!
I’m giving my kitchen some consideration. I am not crazy about it at the moment, there are lots of ways I can update it here and there, the biggest being a nice fresh coat of paint on EVERYTHING! That will come, but for now here are a few photos I've collected that show ideas I like. (I realize now I should have also been collecting info about the photographers so they could get credit but it didn't occur to me since I never expected to actually post them.)

Love the floor on this one, great black and white without being harsh.

Oops, that's not a kitchen photo, how'd that get in there? Must be the floor again. Has to be the floor, the rest is frumpy.

Love this kitchen nook idea! I don't need to do that in my room, I have plenty of room for a kitchen table but this is a great idea for a kitchen short on space. A hint of color on the wall, and a greenish photo display area.
I just love the drama of the black and white in this one but it could have a bit more finesse and not be so overpowering. It's just too dark and not enough color and neutrals to soften it. Children make cute accessories! =)
These miss-matched stools make me happy and I love the details in here, the teapot and clock.
A kitchen with mostly black cabinets, but the upper to the right of the sink is white. That's interesting... why not mix and match? And is that really a turquoise floor? Why not!
Yeah, that's in there for the floor. I do like European style cabinets but don't like the color of those, it is an old photos, and is it just me or is that kitchen TINY?!
Ooooo... LOVE that SHOT of HAPPY color!
Nope, not happening in my house. My ceilings will never be that high and the room feels overly crowded to me... but otherwise that's a smashing dining room. Love all the fabric on the windows and the color on the table. Needs a Melody Johnson quilt on the wall though, spot just perfect for one right there waiting.
Black kitchen with lots of great white contrast. Interesting. Then the other colors in the room seem to sing like the red chairs and the robin's egg blue sofas. This is too traditional for my taste.
Yes, tis good, tis good. Like how clean white can look! I designed a kitchen with my brother (he's a stellar kitchen designer!) that had the white cabinets and I liked them for the most part. They weren't easy to keep clean but that's because two dogs came and went as they pleased tracking in whatever they got into. We don't have the "doggy door" in this house and the dogs stay much cleaner at this house.
My favorite kitchen I ever designed was maple cabinets with black counters and it was beautiful. Very European with lots of great artistic details. We sold that house a year ago and I'm starting over on a new kitchen. I'm not going to rip out all my cabinets and start over though, that's not an option. But a can of paint is certainly an option. So I'm just giving it some thought. Don't know if I am really ready for it, I just keep considering my options. One of these days I'll be off shopping for paint and sandpaper and then who knows what will happen!

Independence Day Soap

My Independence Day collection of soap.
"Old Glory" is pure and simple apple pie. Yes indeed, it just doesn't get any better than that!
Some fresh sweet apple, a hint of floral and sweet almond in a combination of goat's milk and olive oil soap.
"July 4th" soap featuring fireworks of red apple, blue spice in sweet vanilla goat's milk soap.
Lapis clove spice with a sweet French vanilla center that makes for a sweet and spicy “Shenandoah Moon.”

Quilt for MCC

My mother in law and I created a pieced king size quilt top this summer while we were visiting them. I was just going through photographs and came across these photos of the process. We visited family in Northern Indiana in July and whenever I’m there my Mother-in-law and I like to embark on some interesting sewing project. We’ve talked for some time about doing a quilt for the annual Mennonite Relief Sale in Northern Indiana. This is an annual event where lots of quilts are auctioned off to raise money to support the relief work of Mennonite Central Committee around the world. My MIL and I had talked about this a time or two and I told her I’d help if she ever decided to do one. So a long time ago she mentioned that quilts with lots of contrast go higher in the bidding. So when we went fabric shopping we came home with bright pink, pastel pink and black and white. The fabric stayed at her house for a long time. So while we were there in July 08 we brought out the fabric and got started, not knowing whether or not we'd be able to finish in the time we had.

Our tradition is that I cut and design while she sews. And if we have a third person to iron and keep the pieces coming back to me then we can really put together a complicated quilt pretty quickly in our little assembly line. I don’t think we had anyone ironing so she and I took turns. So these photos are from her home.

The kitchen table becomes grand central station for cutting and designing. (And hoping there is enough fabric!)
So we started by making some pinwheels. I laid them out to decide which ones we wanted in the middle of the quilt. I was going for a traditional Amish quilt design with the diagonal block in the middle. Here is my Mother in law ironing.
So I chose the black and white ones for the stronger statement in the middle.

Then we added a border around the middle block that made it fit to the needed size for the square line of pinwheels. We then added in the triangles.

And then the squared off border of pinwheels.

Then we put another border around it with pinwheels in the corners.

It really was a nice touch. By this time the quilt is king size (more by accident than design) so it was pretty hard to get good photos of a quilt that size in the living room.



The ladies of East Goshen Mennonite congregation will quilt this quilt top and hopefully have it ready in time for the sale this year in September. I really am looking forward to hearing what it sells for at auction. Every penny of the proceeds will benefit the Mennonite Central Committee which is an excellent international relief agency. Check out their site for some of the opportunities to give now, the need in Gaza is especially great at this time. My father-in-law worked with MCC a while back to clean and rebuild after Katrina for a number of months. And the money raised from the sale of this quilt will go to exactly this kind of service work. We also loved this idea at MCC, Relief kits for families in war torn Iraq and my family enjoyed this as a service project this year at Christmas. I do hope to get a photo of it completed with all the quilting. I really hope to get a good photograph of it, quilted or not. It's a big one but it went quickly and will quilt up beautifully.