5/14/13

Befloor and After

The floor guys are finished!  I believe I can say for the first time ever--and, no doubt, the only time ever--that my floor is clean enough to eat off of.  Although I'm not sure why you would want to when I have a perfectly good table...and perfectly good plates.  But since folks seem to be fond of those whose homes are so clean you can eat off the floor, I thought I'd grab this opportunity to join in, if only for a few minutes.


The finish they put on it is natural, and the floor is very light now.  Just after I wrote that first paragraph, Mike came home, and he isn't completely happy with the color or the sheen.  I'm sort of neutral about it.  I kind of like the natural look.  Of course, it will darken eventually.

Here's what we were working with originally.  You can see where the new, refinished wood at the top ends and the older darker wood at the bottom begins.  Also, there were large cracks...some probably at least an eighth of an inch between the boards where all manner of things would get trapped.  Kitty litter rocks come to mind.


The cracks were all filled in and sanded and then they put three finish coats over the top.  Here's another picture below.  We put cardboard down in that cold air exchange so that you-know-who would get a mind to go exploring the bowels of the ventilation system.


So these pictures aren't very informative, but I thought you'd feel cheated if I didn't show you something.

While they worked on the floor, I continued to work on the quilting for the Divine Promises quilt.  I have it a little less than half finished now.  I have quilted the three blocks in the second row, and almost all of the long block in the third row.


I can only quilt for about an hour before I need to give my neck and shoulders a rest.  Try as I might, I cannot stop myself from hunching my shoulders up around my ears, which eventually leads to neck and shoulder fatigue.  For one thing, I think my chair needs to be a little higher, but it is as high as it will go right now.  Maybe I need a phone book or a booster chair or something.

Anyway, I'm stippling the interior of each block.


For the tiny lettering of the Bible verses, I am stippling around them as best I can.  There isn't much room in which to work.


For the larger lettering in the long block, I stitched around both sides of the embroidery.  I saw this on a quilt at a quilt show, and I like the way it makes the lettering a little more pronounced.


Then I used the motif that Leah Day calls Flower Ball in this blue section at the end of the long block.  It doesn't look exactly the way I hoped it would look.  I'm working with a small rectangle, and so it didn't fit quite the way hers did in the larger square.  


Nevertheless, I'm happy with how it turned out.  This is what I like about free motion quilting.  To my mind, it is very forgiving.  You might start out trying to do one thing, but even if it doesn't turn out, it still looks okay.  If I didn't tell you I was trying to copy Leah Day's design, you wouldn't know the difference.  

Updated to say that I'll be linking this post to the mid-month linky party at Fiber of All Sorts.

That was where I stopped for the day.  I still need to do the blue patch at the other end of the long block, and then I'll continue on with the rest of the blocks.  I'm still considering what to do in the sashing, but I'll make a decision about that once I have all the stippling done.

Just as I came into the room to write this post, I caught Smitty and Gracie sleeping side by side in the chair.  Smitty jumped down when he heard the camera come on, and now he's stretched out on the floor of my office.  This morning he was staging a sleep-in to protest the location of his treat bowls.  They are supposed to be in the kitchen, and now they are in the laundry room, which is completely unacceptable.  


Gracie for her part was staging an Occupy protest in the closet to protest the presence of Evil Mans in her house.  The utter gall of humans, allowing strange and Evil Mans into her domain.

Tomorrow I'll spend the day getting the dust out of every tiny little crevice in the kitchen and packing up the remaining fragile things on the main floor.  Mike has the responsibility of unhooking and moving all of the electronic components from our wall unit.  All of the furniture will have to be moved out of the living room and the dining room so that the new carpeting can be laid on Thursday.  Fortunately the carpet guy is bringing a crew to move the heaviest things.

With all of that going on, I'm not sure I'll have any time to sew tomorrow, but I'm hoping I will.

How are things in your world?

20 comments:

Lee said...

Our oak floors desperately need a makeover, lol, just cleaning them might even help! - yours look beautiful, so fresh and 'new'. Your FMQing looks great too. Mr. Smitty is do what I'd like to be doing!

WoolenSails said...

The floors look great and give them time, they will get darker and dinged, lol. I have never done quilting over stitchery, but I like how you did yours, really goes nicely on the quilt. Of course Gracie looks quite content and sweet in her space.

Debbie

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

Your floors look wonderful. I wanted wooden floors in our house, but Mick insisted on tile...ouch my aching feet.

After 13 years on this tile, his feet are starting to hurt as well. Of course, everything else is hurting also....giggle. I'm almost 1/2 way to another birthday.....:( Time is flying.

Dora, the Quilter said...

Beautiful floor!
I once lived in an old house where the floors were unstained light maple--I'd love to have that again, but I don't even know if that kind of flooring is still made.

Brown Family said...

The old floor looks like the floors I grew up with. Mom and Dad refinished them themselves. It was a lot of work and the color came with age and the type of varnish or sealant.

I like what you are doing on the quilt. FMQ is stressful and you have to learn to let those shoulders drop! I love the face that there is not a quilting police that can tell you you are doing it wrong.

Nan

Tami C said...

Your floors turned out real nice! No more cat little finding the way into cracks. The quilting on your Divine Promises is coming along just great. I'm sure you will really be happy to get the carpet in and everything back to normal. Maybe you need to take a nap too!

Lynne said...

I agree, why would anyone want to eat off the floor -- my knees won't even let me sit on the floor for long! Your floor does look good though!

My life today involved a haircut, buying warm clothes for our forth-coming vacation, reading blogs, writing a blog post, so,e knitting and TV -- but I didn't even abet started on the binding I promised myself I would do today! My head is too full of the new project I want to start!

Lyndsey said...

Your floors look great and I'd be perfectly happy to sit, roll or lie all over them whilst playing with Gracie and Smitty but when it comes to eating I prefer a table and chairs. In 6 to 12 months the colour will start to mellow which is the bit I love with real wood.

Your quilting is lovely and your cracking on a pace with it. At this rate I'll be the only one who hasn't got anywhere with my May goals.

Bruna Aguiar Melo said...

I love that quilt!!!
It's in my to-do-list but I have to translate the quotes for portuguese...
Nice work!
xoxo

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Great floors, I need mine done too. It's good that the color is lighter because dark floors show so much more.

Michele said...

The new floor looks great. I wonder who you might have been referring to when you mentioned needing to cover up the vent to keep a certain investigator out. LOL The progress on the quilt is great. And how dare you bring in more Evil Mens into Gracie's domain? She is sure going to be really unhappy with you.

Sherry said...

Floors are lovely, but table is my first choice for eating. Your Divine Promises is coming along nicely. The quilting looks great. Hmmm, perhaps I need to find a project like your floors so I can be locked in my studio for a couple of days, I might get something done.

Diane Wild said...

I think your floor looks beautiful. Clean and shiny. Have fun cleaning..LOL

Unknown said...

The floors look fantastic! But poor Gracie and Smitty having to pull through the trauma of 'Evil Mans' in their doman... my kitties aren't overly fond of Evil Mans in the house either! Best to just sleep through it and it will be over much sooner :-)

Patricia said...

If you can't make your chair higher try to find a lower table. 2 inches can make a lot of pain go away. Some people quilt standing up with the machine on a counter but that puts a lot of weight on the one leg unless you have a go/stop button.
Your work and floors look great!

sophie said...

It's definitely worth putting a cushion on your chair to see if lifting you a bit higher helps. It also helps me to remind myself to breath, relax and shakeout my arms while I'm sitting at the machine.

I have a stack of very old red work blocks for a quilt that I have never done anything with because I was afraid of being able to quilt them. You did a great job with yours.

Coincidentally, *I* moved my cats' bowls into the studio today–their water fountain and litter box are also in the big space. I plan to corral them in here when the repair people come to deal with the damage from a leak from the upstairs bath through the downstairs ceiling. I know that otherwise, Grace will be terrified and end up under the covers on my bed and Johnny will be completely underfoot.

SewCalGal said...

Your new wood flooring looks great. We also need new flooring/carpeting, but procrastinating big time. Next year we'll bite the bullet and do the furniture shuffle to get it done.

Cute quilt. Your stippling looks perfect for those blocks too!

Soon the four legged kids will be happy campers. Evil Mans will be out of their home.

SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Kate said...

Your Divine promises quilt is coming along nicely.

Why is it that kitties always look so peaceful when they are asleep?

beaquilter said...

ahh here's my answer which I thought.. getting floors re-sanded, had that done once at our old house but it was a 99.9% dust free system, worth the $$ for sure. your cat looks like my kitty

quiltzyx said...

Nice floors - maybe a bit light for me too, but I would probably like them in person.
The quilting is looking good - I remember doodling flowers similar to that in school all the time!
I can't imagaine Smitty getting any bigger, but he still looks like he could grow into his feets more. :^)