A Dishwasher + Counter Space = A Happy Sewbot

I think I mentioned before that our house did not come with a dishwasher.  The kitchen also had very limited usable counter space.  Well, Jason and I developed a plan to remedy these problems and we've finished up the project (minus a couple of knobs and one custom door) and are ready to share. 

A little project background:
Our kitchen plan started out as an "L" shape.  A previous owner had moved the range to the other side of the kitchen, leaving an awkward void under the upper cabinets.  Back in 1956, this kitchen would have been an eat-in, but somebody who lived in this house before us kind of killed that by putting in an opening and counter between the kitchen and dining room.  We always eat in the dining room and weren't planning on turning this kitchen back into an eat-in space, so we concerned ourselves with making a better functioning place to work. 

The photograph below is our solution.  The cabinets coming from the left are the original 1956 cabinets.  We turned the existing "L" shaped floor plan into a "U" shape by adding the cabinetry that you see coming into the space in the photo. 


We hired an electrician to run a new circuit for the dishwasher.  Jason and our friend Andy changed a bit of the plumbing under the sink to hook in the dishwasher.  We purchased a pre-made cabinet and painted it to match the existing cabinets.  On the back side, we are adding a door to the void just past the dishwasher where we keep the cat stuff and bird seed.  We laminated the countertop ourselves (phew!!!!) and were able to find a laminate that was close (but not exact) to the original countertop. 
We learned a lot from this project and are really pleased with it.  We've at least doubled the usuable counterspace in this kitchen, installed a dishwasher, and have given ourselves a great place for a trash can.  It was fun to do this project together and make something that we'll use every day. 

Happy late 1/2 birthday to me!

What's my favorite thing lately? A present from my mom.

Last week I went up to Omaha to rent some long arm time at Jackie's shop and my mom had a fun "1/2 birthday" present for me. She made me this cute little bag and had intended to give it to me for Christmas. It didn't make the Christmas deadline, so I got it for my 1/2 birthday instead. :)


I have an awesome bag with loads of pockets that I usually carry when I take a quilting class. Unfortunately, it's not quite big enough to fit a small cutting mat; which is almost always a class requirement. She made this bag just the right size to fit in a cutting mat and rulers. How awesome is that?



And just how cute is my mom? She made this fun little label for on the backside of the bag. :)

Thanks mom!

Look what ended up in my mailbox!

These little ladies turned up in my mailbox yesterday. They will join the other blocks in my Christmas quilt from the KC Scrappy Bee.



I'm pretty excited to see how this quilt turns out.  I'm loving all the blocks I've received so far. :)

3 Quilts in 10 Days

I mentioned briefly the other day that I was finishing up several different projects.  In the last 10 days I have started and finished 3 different quilts.  I have now turned them in and am ready to share.  :)Below is a photograph of one of two identical quilts I did.  These quilts (Sliced Circuit #1 & Sliced Circuit #2) are made from my Sliced Circuit pattern which you can download for free here.



Fabri-Quilt has been using an image of my design in their ads for the "Savannah" fabric line.  So far I know you can see it in Fabric Trends, Easy Quilts, and Quilt magazines.  I spotted the Easy Quilts ad this weekend and learned that Fons & Porter is offering my design as a kit.  If you're interested, it's available here.



The quilt below I have titled Celebrate!  It's about 60"x90" and lots of fun. It's made from Fabri-Quilt's new "It's a party!" fabric line mixed with a couple of their solids.



How fun did this back turn out? I like it a lot!



I was able to schedule some time on Jackie's long arm to quilt these. I free-handed feathers around all the circle parts in each of the Sliced Circuit quilts. I did a wavy ray sort of pattern in each of the circles. For Celebrate! I did a curly panto pattern. I had a lot of fun quilting these up. Renting time on the long arm is really making me want to buy one though. Maybe someday...

Oh, and don't you love the snow photos? I had Jason come outside in our 7" of fresh snow and stand on a ladder to hold the quilts for me. I am getting kind of tired of all my quilt photos on the clothesline, so I'm trying out some new things. Hope you like them. :)

I have some loot!

Last month I mentioned in this post how it was my month to hand out the project for the KC Scrappy Bee.  Well, I'm happy to report that I collected a whole bunch of really fun blocks at last week's KC Modern Quilt Guild meeting.  I thought I'd share with you what I collected.



I'm in love with the colors I ended up with.  I think this will turn out to be a really fun Christmas quilt. 

On another note, I know I've been a little bit sparse in my postings lately.  I've been working on a lot of projects and am not sure I can share all of them with you.  I sent out a quilt about a week and a half ago and have done 3 more since.  I've been up to Omaha twice in the last few weeks to quilt 6 different projects.  The last three I did are due on January 20th.  I just have the binding left to hand-stitch down.  Hopefully once I get through this bunch of projects, things will slow down enough for me to jump back into the blogosphere. 

Oh gosh. Did you see it?

Project Modern: Challenge 2 just came out today.

Entries are due March 31st so don't wait too long to get started!

Guess what I'm doing today.

I'm in Omaha today so I can rent some time on the long arm to work on a few quilts.  I'll be quilting two Christmas panels for Fabri-Quilt and one quilt that will appear in a Fons & Porter magazine this spring.  I'm excited to head back up and quilt on this fancy machine again.  I really enjoyed the certification class I took a while back and am hoping my quilting comes out as nicely as it did during the practice quilt. 
Wish me luck! 

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Happy New Year!

If you haven't noticed, I've been a little absent lately... I kind of decided to take the rest of the year off without telling you readers. Hope you don't mind terribly.
My big resolution for the year... to plan things out and stick to the plan. I'm hoping this will lead to more regular posts for you readers and less last minute freak outs for me.  What's your resolution?
So, happy new year!  Let's make it a good one!