PROGRESS...CHANGE...AND A LOT OF FIRSTS !! (picture heavy)

Lots and Lots of things are going on around here these days! 

First and foremost...I've made progress on mom's quilt.  I may just be HOOKED on dresdens!  They are so easy and so incredibly quick to make!!!  I have pulled the "nonpareils" dresden off of the design curtain for now.  I think it was too overall "white" to play well with the other plates.  I will probably use it to make a pillow for mom to rest on when she naps on the couch. To bring a bit of "matchiness" to my dad's quilt (they will be in the same room) I'm backing each of the dresdens with a beige fabric similar to my dad's quilt.  His beige is a faux suede while mom's is a plain cotton, a GORGEOUS Moda Marbles, but they are pretty close in color.  The beige also picks up some of the lighter browns in the candy, ice creams and assorted sweets.  

It also tones down a bit of the bright pink in the Valentine's candy, lol.  Since my mom will NEVER live down the entire box of Valentine's candy she killed in one night, I just HAD to include this fabric, lol!  However, since I didn't want the quilt to end up with a "garish" hot pink look (she isn't a "teeny-bopper", lol), this fabric is only slated to appear once on the front of the quilt.

I am thinking at this point that the assorted candies block to the left of the embroidery will be repeated on the right of the embroidery...

 ...and the kisses on top of the embroidery will be repeated below...

 ...and the miscellaneous sweets in the upper right will be repeated in the lower left.  It also includes just a wee bit of pink and actually brings in a bit of green to pull from my dad's quilt.  It wasn't easy finding fabric that held a special significance for my mom and also fit into a very limited colorway.  Brown, beige, white, pink and a tiny bit of green...all on a sea of black to hold it together (and also match Dad's quilt, lol)

The ice cream dresden pulls just a tiny bit of pink coloring to the bottom right corner.  So all four corners contain a bit of pink, while the four remaining dresdens are plain chocolates.  

 

When my shaking got too bad for actual sewing, I set up my machine to embroider the center block of the quilt.  I intend to use quarter dresdens (one in each corner) on this block in the beige material and the white.  The original design included a blue dress...which I changed to pink (with a hot pink scarf) to match the Valentine block and carry the touch of color throughout.  While I would really like to do more sewing of dresdens today, I'm a bit shaky so I think i will stick to machine embroidery.  Plus, I might as well get as much done as I can while the machine is set up to embroider.  These are the times I wish I had another sewing machine!

I did mention "firsts", right?  This is the first quilt I have made using dresdens and the first quilt in which I have also used machine embroidered designs.  My quick and dirty sketch of the quilt also has embroidered sweets appearing in the four corners of the wide border and POSSIBLY an embroidered cupcake border between them.  Again, I don't want to OVERDO, so that decision will be made toward the end.  Too much is gaudy!  The next first?  I'm actually going to try to quilt this one block at a time and then connect them all at the end with a skinny white sash.  I saw a wonderful tutorial on YouTube by Leah Day and need to look it up to review the process before I get much further.  I'm going for a "window in a candy store" look.  I THINK all of my quilting will be in the dark brown of the wording above.  I'm planning on something "apropos" for the label...maybe a "menu" for my "Breakfast At Tootsie's" quilt.  I think half the fun of making a quilt is tying all of the little theme threads throughout! 

And the changes I mentioned above?  This!  After 23 years in this house I am sick and tired of this border.  It has been on the walls of my guest bath, along with light silver paint, for all this time.  The painter should be here any minute to begin removing the border.  

They will be repainting the bathroom in the same gray as my Expanded Sewing Room (above).  The next change?   My ESR is ALSO going to be the guest bedroom!  When we moved J's old bed back into the room temporarily we realized how well his black bed, black nighttable, etc. went with the gray walls and the furniture of his that I am using for storage of my crafting supplies.  And since it is only a guest room that will be used by guests once in a blue moon...if I empty out one or two drawers in the chest, there should be plenty of room for their clothing!  The rest of the room can still be MINE for sewing supplies!  

  

I have already purchased a new shower curtain for the bathroom...gray, navy blue and black.  I will paint the white dixie cup holder and the toothbrush holder with black Krylon paint to match the current trashcan.  I will purchase navy blue towels to hang on the towel bar.  I plan to make a gray, navy and black striped valance for over the existing miniblind.  

Now that the GUEST bath is also going to be painted the same color as the GUEST room...I'm going to make matching valances for over the bedroom blinds and will make a modern type quilt in black, gray and navy.  I'm thinking tumbling blocks!  Like I said before...I'm nothing if not adventurous!

And the original yellow guest room?  (sorry the picture is blurry, I'm shaky) It is being repainted in a similar light yellow (the border is staying...my painter says it should be no problem cutting around the scallop of the border).  Since the fold up tables my husband purchased are not going to be sufficient for my quilting needs (I don't have the ability to set them up and take them down on my own), my Dear Hubby has suggested we purchase two Expedit cabinets from Ikea, put a top on them and center them in the yellow room to be my "third" sewing room!  YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT!!!  My dear, wonderful, loving husband has suggested that I use THREE of the four bedrooms for sewing and crafting or sewing/crafting storage!  Oh, and the quilt that I started when the yellow room was going to be the guest room?...it will still be used!  Dear Hubby is going to make me a large design wall (goodbye design curtain and good riddance!) and he will hang the quilt from a rod above the design wall.  That way I can have the design wall covered up to look all pretty when company is coming and I can just slide it to the end of the rod to access the design wall when I am working on a quilt!

 

That same sweet man has just phoned me to tell me of an upcoming Quilt Extravaganza at our local convention center and has suggested I call my mom and aunt and see if they want to go with me.  Dear Hubby could never walk that much, but he has offered to drop us off at the door and pick us up at the door whenever we are ready!  HE IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!!  God, how did I ever deserve such a wonderful man?

Well, the painter has just arrived, I need to look up the details of the Quilt Extravaganza and call my mom and aunt, and my coffee has gotten cold and needs a quick zap.  I'm off to get started on the rest of my day.  Hope yours is a good one!