Spring happenings at Farmhouse Quilts

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I am rather optimistically using the word SPRING in my title! Although we have had a few really nice days, and our snow is almost gone, the temperatures this coming week are not exactly warm...

BUT, there is definitely more birdsong in the air, and in it is starting to smell like Spring, so I know it will be here soon!

I have a few little ( and not so little) projects in the works currently, but it is a house reno project that has been taking most of my time these last few weeks! 

Most of you already know that we bought a 40+ year old house a few years back and we did a LOT of renovations on it before we even moved our family in ( think removing wallpaper, removing carpet, removing 40 year old linoleum, painting every surface in the house, installing new flooring, overhauling bathrooms with new everything....get the picture?) The one item we didn't really tackle was the kitchen counters and cabinets. They were serviceable enough and kitchen redos  are expensive!

Here is what our kitchen looked like before we moved in: 

And here is what it looked like after we painted the cabinets:

  

Certainly much brighter and a huge improvement, especially when we laid a new, white floor, and covered over the wallpaper ( we had 4!! different wallpaper patterns in the kitchen). But a few weeks back I really got the itch to redo our kitchen with new cabinets and a new countertop ( Spring fever maybe?). I hoped/figured/thought that if we did all the work ourselves that it couldn't possibly be that expensive. Well, we met and worked with the nicest kitchen designer at a local home improvement store, but even with us doing everything except countertops, the cost was still more than we are comfortable spending at this time. I was a bit bummed, but then my mom and I came up with the good idea that we could at least remove the overhead cabinets over the peninsula. Not only did they block the view, their bottom edges had already caused quite a few bumps and bruises on our heads! 

Here you have a good view of them:

Now you must know that once I get an idea in my head I would like to have it done yesterday ( my poor husband is a very, very patient man!), so we got to work and removed those cabinets. The removal wasn't too hard at all, but the subsequent moving of existing electrical, installation of  new electrical, and all subsequent drywalling, spackling, sanding, and painting took the majority of our time. At first my hubby thought that removing these cabinets really wouldn't make a huge difference, but he now admits he was wrong! ( Do I take pleasure from that? Yes, yes I do). Here is a picture of the AFTER: 

 After the addition of some new pendant lights over the peninsula, it now looks like this: 

( I should have done dishes and removed paint cans before taking pics, but hey, I was excited!)

This little make-over has made such a difference already that I can totally live with the old cabinets and countertops for a lot longer! And hubby obviously enjoyed the transformation because he started work on removing the old, ugly, bug-filled ceiling light above the sink and that  space will have a new beautiful pendant light soon too! Little, simple things can make such an impact, but I know that I am lucky that my hubby can do electrical ;).

Now onto more quilty things...

A few weeks back I bought some wonderful red and white orphan blocks at my favorite store...I adore red and white and these blocks needed a new home! 

I sewed them together as they were so the quilt top is wonky, to say the least, but I think it adds to the charm! I chose some embroidery designs and ironed those in the center of the blocks and have been busy embroidering these: 

I think this is just going to be a fun quilt to use on our sun porch come summer, wonky and all ;).

Other than the red and white wonky quilt, I have also finished my Winterberries quilt, which I will quilt using a big stitch: 

And then of course I have my happy little tulip blocks to work on: 

And finally, this latest little project, which came out of the same book ( click)  as the tulips. I just couldn't stand the cuteness of it and HAD to start it....

So, as you can see, plenty of projects to keep me out of trouble ;).

I do hope that Spring is starting to show in your neck of the woods and that you are finding some lovely little projects to keep you busy until we can spend more time outside!

Until next time~happy creating!

Monique