What I needed.

Today was kind of wonderful. Not in a grand, “best day of my life” kind of way. But rather in a small, quiet, “whew I needed that” kind of way.

Today was the first day in a long time that I had the house totally to myself. Steve is out of town on business, girls are back to school, and no contractors. I was able to structure it the way I wanted to from about 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.

I watched a little stupid TV while eating my breakfast (American Pickers and a bagel). Then I did a little laundry and housework (clean cat boxes! Yeah!) And most importantly I worked on a project.

I purchased THIS sweet machine embroidery design yesterday. I found some grey linen-weave fabric (I think it is probably polyester.) in the stash and stitched this out today. I am thrilled with the way it turned out. My trusty Bernina 180 really delivered. I’m so glad that I took the chance and bought the embroidery module at Christmas time. (Found it on ebay and used my magical ebay ninja powers to make it mine!)

I combined it with some Amy Butler scraps I had in the stash. I intend it to be a pillow for the new basement room. We painted the walls a pale grey and the carpet is a medium grey twist. I’m hoping to eventually swing a red sectional from Ikea. I may also order the grey slipcover so I have options. I love the look of grey and yellow but am worried it will be too bland and cold for me in the long run. The bright red would really make the room cozy. I would also like some white bookcases on either side of the tv for storage. I have always painted all my walls a variety of colors. Sometimes deep saturated tones and other times vivid brights. I rarely go for the neutral “safe” colors. But I’m looking for a change. I think I’m going to like the simple, clean, neutral backdrop that gives me a place to play with colorful accents and fabrics.

While my Bernina was stitching that out I pulled my Viking out and set it up so I could work on this Tumbler quilt. This is mainly clearance fabric from work in the “Flutter” line from Benartex. I love the greens and deep purple and they match my living room perfectly. I threw some Moda remnants in for variety. I got all the strips sewn together back in the late fall. I laid them all out on the guest bed but then we had company and they had to be put away. I decided to just try to get it done today. I made pretty good progress until it was time to go pick up Emma from school. When I came home you can see that Ozzie had made himself comfortable and I didn’t want to disturb him.

That is today’s progress. The sewing room is still a mess and I spent much more time looking for things in here today than should be necessary but I stayed focused on my projects and managed to get something accomplished. I feel pretty good.