We have Walls!

 The men got to work early this morning and for the most part, I just stayed out of their way in my sewing room!  I want to make some crazy patch Christmas stockings and so to to work.  (I had embroidered the centers on Saturday with the other embroidery work.)

 I just add strips in the sew, flip, press order until I have covered the interfacing pattern then press all the strips down.

 Turn over my work and trim.

 Next comes the embroidery steps-I used a variegated thread so I didn't change that the whole time-

 but I did use all those stitches that usually get ignored by quilters!

 PuffDaddy helped me through all the steps as usual-he did not like the noise the men coming in and out generated, either!

 The dining room has all of its sheet rock up, the sliding glass door is patched and so is the ceiling!

 The back bedroom has the walls patched and the place where the window used to be is also history!

Here is the biggest change-the hall coming into the dining room from the breezeway/garage.  This has always been an open area as far as insulation/lumber and it is nice to see it enclosed!  (The doorway on the right in the hall is where my sewing room is!)  The sheet rock mud has to dry for 24 hours so the men will not be back until Wednesday to spray the walls and ceiling with texture mud!  I will work on the stockings again tomorrow to turn all those crazy patches into their useable shapes!

Rain Check and Work

 Saturday evening Caleb and Cassandra came for Caleb's delayed birthday visit!
 We had a great time, thanks to both of you for sharing your time!

 Yesterday, just before they left, they helped us empty the back bedroom

 and the dining room.

 This will be the last shot of the rooms before their overhaul!  The men are here working as I blog this!

All the furniture is in the breezeway for now!  The cats are handling the chaos pretty well.

Saturday Accomplishments

 We put the dining room back in order for a few days to see how the new layout would work.

 So nice to have traffic flow in the room now.

 Bill had to fill the cement blocks with cement so the flooring can go down next week.

 Nice to have all the jobs ticked off his list!

 I spent a lot of time in the kitchen and the sewing room today.  I haven't done any embroidery in a long time but after a few false starts, put everything in motion again.

 I plied some more cotton yarn while waiting to change thread colors of the machine embroidery-this cotton was picked from the bolls, separated from the seeds and  then combed by me-it is a bit lumpier than the processed roving but it turned out nicely.  Boiling will have to wait until next week!

 I sewed two pillowcases for some young friends' birthdays tomorrow.

 And I loaded up the last of the men's suit sample quilts.  This one is backed with polar fleece, too.

 The embroidery off the machine-this is for a friend who saw this tote for sale but the word  Grandma needed to be replaced with Nana for it to be appropriate for her family!  Nice to be able to do the embroidery again!
I don't know why some skills get pushed to the back burner for a while!

 I knitted up the cotton sample for the FiberBinderClub-I am pleased to say that the notebook is all complete for 2011 and I am ready for next year!

 I made one dishcloth this evening while I wait for Caleb and Cassandra to arrive for a visit!

The Christmas cactus add a festive touch to the front door.

The poinsettias are doing their thing just in the nick of time!  So pretty!

I helped Bill put up our ice cycle lights!  Marsel gave these to us last year but they never made it up-I like this kind of ice cycle very much and am grateful  there is only a 1% chance of real ones for my Christmas this year!

Preparation

 I learned how to use my Takli spindle!  For my fiber this month from FiberBinderClub it was FoxFibre brown cotton so I knew I had to stretch my spinning skills and try the little spindle again!  Well, when I threw out the 'it isn't wool....' mentality, the right skills kicked into gear and I thoroughly enjoyed a good spin!

 I wound the singles from the spindle onto one of my weaving bobbins so I could spin the second half of the cotton roving.

 Then plied them onto my larger Kundert spindle so all the fiber would fit..........how do you like my bobbin holders?!  Knitting needles and an old shoe box worked great!

 I have a 33yard skein of cotton yarn!

 Next, it is recommended to boil the yarn to enhance the color and to set the yarn.  The smell was very much like tea-the color in the pan was like tea, too.  I wonder if it is tannic ?  (This cotton is not dyed, it is grown in this brown color so the water is not tinted with dye but with the very color of the cotton itself which is why I think it might be tannic like black walnuts.)

 As long as I was boiling cotton, I got out my previous projects and yarn-boiled it and hung it out to dry.

 The yarn is very soft and the color is just a bit deeper.

  We are going to finish this little hall to the breezeway after all-Bill just has to frame this and he is finished with his part!  We are very close to the finish line!!!!

 Bill had to prep the sliding glass door for sheet rock finishing.......

 He had to frame and then secure all the new wires for outlets, thermostat, etc.  We are ready to roll!

The cats have been playing with a box.......when they are not doing this---->

Naughty, Nyki!

Speaking of Time Crashing By...

I read this yesterday, Job 7:6a

"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle...."

Job had obviously watched a weaver to know this and apply it so aptly.

Here is a video that shows a weaver's dance........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg2ZqO1X-Qs

she starts out slowly and then gets it going, just like our days.

(Video by Laura Fry on YouTube)

Another Week Rushes By...

This is a potted plant on our porch, it is 6 feet tall and we were alerted to its bloom by the incredibly sweet aroma.

Iit bloomed all week and smelled just wonderful!  It blooms at night and the moths were very attentive.

 How could we know it is December without a calendar?  The robins !  Such a flurry of activity as they eat the many berries and enjoy picking through the green grass for bugs.

 Another harbinger of December, the camellia bushes are in bloom!

 The Christmas cactus is also in bloom!

 On the renovation front, Bill has made a lot of progress this week.

He removed the fan/light and put in a new box just 12 inches over but now in the center of the room.

 This is all the attic space he has to maneuver in  but he did it!

This is the temporary light so he can see to work on the walls....

New studs are up and the new electrical boxes are going in -tomorrow sheet rock will cover up all this week's work!

 In between clean up and gopher work, I have finished quilting Mom's quilt.

 It is just so pretty-I have folded it up so she can finish putting the binding on it when she comes down for the winter!

 I loaded another quilt, this one is an old quilt top that needed to be given life as a quilt!  It is moving right along!

I have a lot of Christmas knitting going on...........I have tweaked the color so I won't give the particulars away!

And today, I put out all the Christmas decorations!  (Still waiting for the fireplace mantel but it is coming!)