When in doubt, PAINT IT!

It doesn’t matter where you start -

Just pick up a brush and dig in!

I love – I mean deeply, absolutely, positively ADORE the old quirky door frames and the variety of mismatched doors of various sizes – none of them the same – at Quiltville Inn.

Some of them have been repaired with added bits and pieces holding them together – the door knobs also varying throughout the house.  A hodge-podge of 135 years of living under this roof.

And while “shabby chic” and “chippy” are the in-thing with farmhouse style decorating, I’m just not one to faux-shabby anything.  I like to think of what the original owners may have preferred to see in this grand old house.  Given the choice – would they want chipped up paint with sanded and roughed up corners to make it look “vintage?”  Heck, no!

And since most door frames, doors, moldings and base boards are going to take at least two coats if not three, just pick up a brush and get busy with it.  Make the rounds.  Then come back again in a day or so and do it again.

This is the hall door to bedroom number 4 – The inside and outside of the frame got its first coat of paint yesterday, and the outside of the door you see here has also had coat number 1 added.  The back side of the door has to wait for another day while this one dried.

Attic access door!

This is the little door in bedroom 4 that opens to the pass-through between the front side of the house and the back side through the attic access.  It also got a coat of new paint and looks so much better.

The more and more we work with this house, and decide just what will work best for retreats, we’ve come to realize that perhaps 16 people is just 4 too many.  For insurance reasons, parking issues and for lack of more bathrooms and to give folks more sewing space to spread out, as well as making meals an easier affair we have decided to limit occupancy to 12. 

While there is available sleeping space for 16,  And awesome dining space for 16 – the sewing space and bathroom availability is best limited to 12.

I’ve heard from many that gathering a group of 12 is much easier while 16 also creates  travel issues for some.  So 12 it is.  Which means I now have 4 twin beds too many.  My plan is to keep the beds I’ve been so lovingly given, and sell those that I have purchased myself. I am keeping the matching pairs of vintage beds together.

Bedroom 4 is the smallest, and 3 twins in here is just a bit cramped.  Another reason to drop the occupancy down to a nice even dozen.

There will be 4 bedrooms for retreaters, each with 3 beds.  This room will become the “office”  and “owner’s closet” as well as a place for me to stay should I be invited to join the party. Or, if like a couple weeks ago due to snow, ice and other weather events – there is no way for my van to make it up to the cabin for any reason.  

It sure beats the thought of an emergency air mattress on the Quiltville Post Office floor next door!

Ceiling fan in bedroom 4!

New light installed in back hall between bedroom 4 and 5.

Inside door frame and door of bedroom 5 received first coat of paint!

Upstairs front bath cabinets and door and frame – more paint!

Upstairs back bath – new commode going in!

We are replacing the old ones with “taller” ones.  Thank heavens.

New back hall light, downstairs.

These are the stairs leading up to the back 2 bedrooms 4 & 5.

The entry to the den ins on the right.

Back entry light – whoowhooo!

(the old lights were so ugly – these are LED and wonderful!)

Scene over the door painted by my mom many years ago.  So happy to have it here!

And if this looks strange -

The pendant lights over the kitchen island needed a clean up.

Years of cooking – grease, steam, dust, debris – the light globes and rims, the wire frames and extension rods you see here were just GRIMY with gunk.  All are clean and shiny now, and we are waiting to pick up better, brighter LED flood lights to assemble them all back together. 

Like I said – there is so much to do, just pick something and do it, and then move on to the next.  It doesn’t matter where you start – just begin.  There is a life lesson in that, isn’t there?

We worked all morning.  We got back to the cabin around 3pm just exhausted and downed a very late lunch as we realized we were also starving.

I spent my late afternoon and into the evening here.

My sewing machine was just beyond my left shoulder taunting me as I tuned out all else and set in to get all of the class supply lists for the new workshops from String Frenzy written, PDF copies made and uploaded and linked under the workshops & lectures tab at the top of the blog. Boy, did that feel good to get that off the to-do list before this year runs out of days.

Also completed – a blog post for “New Book Release” that will be going up on the C&T blog shortly.  I’ll let you know when it is live.

And more evening hand quilting.

Sorry, sewing machine – you’ll have to wait.

I know it feels like you are seeing the same thing over and over here – what’s the big deal?  Well look a bit closer.  I have turned the corner on to side 3 – with the second row of fans working toward the inside of the quilt. Fans are worked in rounds – first around the outside (I have worked the center of the quilt, leaving the borders for later as I haven’t decided what to do there yet.) and then the next row goes above the outside row.  The rounds get shorter and shorter until they just end in the center of the quilt.

Questions that have come in recently, and I know I’ve answered this before but it doesn’t hurt to mention it again for the newbies – I machine baste my quilts by longarm using a VERY LARGE stitch.  The basting stitches are removed as I move the hoop to each new area.

I am using a stencil to mark the fans on this quilt as I want them to be more uniform than “free hand.”  I am using a chalkoner wheel to mark my lines. Please test all fabric before you mark your quilt with any method.

And that brings us to this morning – what is going on here today?  How about a leisurely late breakfast and another wander over to the inn to see what we can do today?

It's time to get some more paint under my nails!

Quiltville Quote of the Day.

Are you ready for 2019?

Let’s all hold hands and jump into it together!

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone -