Quilt Ladder

It all started when I saw this bad boy on Pinterest. In typical me fashion I wanted it  modified. Taller. Not sanded. More rungs.  

At the top of our stairs we have a landing and a corner that needed something. Luke agreed right away when I presented the idea to him. He did not agree the ladder should go all the way to the top so we compromised on 7 feet. 

I dropped him of at the airport in Spokane (Which involved me waking up at 3:00 am on my birthday!). BUT it meant that before going home I got Starbucks, and was one of the first customers in Lowe's that Wednesday morning. They practically did my shopping for me! Excellent customer service. They also, pre-cut the wood for my project!

I borrowed my friend Dani L.'s Kreg Jig for the project. These handy little tools are great for making invisible pockets for screws!

I did find that I had a bit of trouble getting behind the screws when I used the power drill/driver  to put the ladder together. For that I wished Luke had been in town. 

When finishing the ladder I used a pre-stain wood conditioner. In the photo below the top three rungs have been conditioned and just the top of the fourth rung. This is the moment when you start to get excited about staining wood. 

Then I used this Ebony Stain to stain the wood. Below you see it pictured with another project.

Back to the ladder at hand. Isn't it yummy! One coat of stain. That's all I went with. I really like how the grain showed up.

I applied this wipe on poly. I like that there seems to be fewer chances for oopses with the wipe on poly.

I let it dry in the garage being sure to leave it well ventilated for 72 hours. Some of the sites I researched on alluded to the idea that the that it needed movement of air to help it harden. Not just time. When we felt like it was ready, Luke moved it upstairs, because let me tell you, that thing is not light.

And here she is in all her glory! Wow, just looking at all those quilts there, the stories, the history. I like to sit and look at them. Plus, I can lay in bed in the morning and see them all in the mirror at the end of the hall. :)

WiP Wednesday-Summer Sampler Stipple

Well the decision was made to stipple the main quilt and then big stitch the border.


I'm happy with that decision and I'm loving the look. I'm just about half way done and I hope that I can get it done by Friday. It's been a surprisingly busy week!
On the garden front, I harvested two tomatoes! Luke ate one, I ate the other, and I forgot to take a picture!!! They were apricot size cherry tomatoes and they were tasty.
Linking Up With Lee at Freshly Pieced.
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Finish it Up Friday-A Big One

I have been working on this Summer Sampler Quilt Along quilt for approximately three summers. Whew! I'm so excited to announce that this quilt top is DONE!

Some people hang flags in front of their houses....I hang quilts. 

This quilt is going to MCC. I think it will end up in the West Coast MCC sale. Now my big dilemma is do I send it to the NFC quilters to big stitch or do I machine quilt it myself and try to top stitch it with some DMC embroidery floss to make it look like the argyle focus fabric (Remix Argyle Plaid, by Ann Kelle)? Also, I really want to bind it in black. Do ya'll think it'll take away from the look?

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it Up Friday.

Finish It Up Friday-Pillows, Skirts and a bit of Dallas Fun!

I just finished these pretties just in time to brig them with me to Dallas to give to my sister and Matt!
When I was here for the Dallas quilt show Val eyed the fabric I intended to use for a project for my friend Destinie. They also needed couch pillows that matched their decor. I took some of the pillows home with me to use as reference. Then I used scraps from Destinies quilt to make these cases. Look how good they look in their Living Room with her Pinterest art and Live A Colorful Life's wedding quilt.
Our dolls have been reunited as we are going to have an American Girl adventure tomorrow. They are looking a little loved and disheveled.

So I finished some skirts for them to wear.

Val is one of my favorite sandwich makers. They taste like home. She made me this one for lunch.
This evening we went on an adventure of the golf nature to Top Golf. There are two stories of driving ranges and you play games where the balls have GPS trackers in them and track if you hit certain targets and how many points you get.
Matt's friend Graham joined in too and it was great to have him with us! He's a new golfer and he's picking it up quick!
The orange sections are the ones Luke hit. Shortly after he hit his ball in the 9 target.

It's like bowling. And they have giant lawn games, snacks, meals and grown up beverages.

So much fun!!!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it Up Friday!

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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie- Crafter Edition

My situation yesterday brought to mind the children's story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The whole story is about how if you give a mouse a cookie it will lead to him asking for a lot more things and ultimately start the cycle all over again.

Well, if a crafter makes a table, she's going to need some coasters to sit on top of it. Once she makes some coaster's she's going to need an ice cold drink to test it out. 

On one side they are a wonky log cabin made of scraps from our wedding quilt. 

On the other side I paper pieced an "N" to go with my "N" wall and "N" pillow.

Once a crafter has an ice cold drink, she's going to need to sit on her couch to drink it. Once she sits on her couch to enjoy the drink, she's going to realize it would be nice to have another pillow to go on her couch....

and so it begins again. 

Finishing Touches- Mariner's Compass

Well you all remember back in February when we went to Dallas and dropped off that fabulous blue and white Mariner's Compass quilt top with Kathy Bradbury of Bear Paw Machine Quilters? Well she was busy, busy, BUSY working on that quilt! Not so busy that she didn't have time to send me updates on the quilt! It's like she knew what a special quilt it is to all of us, and she treated it with the same care! (Seriously folks, Kathy rocks.) Here are some of the machine quilting "in-progress" shots.

 The markings for the white block quilting. You can see where she included extra batting so the design would really show and it'd give more of a trapunto look.

 Seriously it was better than watching my plants grow!

After this quilt had been on her machine for !!!3 weeks!!! it was time for Valerie to go pick it up! Kathy even got pictures of that!

She was ecstatic to have it and even put it on their bed un trimmed and un bound.

The timing was seriously perfect because Valerie and Matt were coming to visit us the next weekend! It was our job to get the quilt trimmed and bound so that we could take it to Olten and finish binding it with Aunt Lois and Aunt Maggie!

Val was experiencing frustration binding the "special quilt" so she worked on another quilt I needed to bind while I got to binding theirs!

I got about half of the binding done during that weekend, but then it was off to the races with other visitors and trips so everything was more or less on pause until Valerie and I met Aunt Lois, Doc, and Aunt Maggie in Olton, TX. It was great family time, and the perfect chance for four Harper women (Uncle Doc calls our specific Harper Girl traits the "H1 gene") to finish up the last steps on this quilt.

Of course, Jolly Quilter's were in order!

As was LOTS of visiting! 

and maaaaaybe some sewing.

Especially some celebrating when it was ALL finished! 

L-R: Aunt Lois, Me, Aunt Maggie, Valerie

Stay tuned for the big reveal!

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