TGIFF August 21, 2026: Scrappy Celebrations Pieced Backing + My ETERNAL HOME RENOVATIONS!

Hello, and welcome to TGIFF "Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday."  As I begin writing this post on Thursday evening, it is already two minutes past the deadline by which I was supposed to have published the post and forwarded the link along to Laura.  Those of you who know me will not be surprised that I am down to the wire... again!  If you are unfamiliar with the TGIFF linky party, click here to learn more about it.

So let's get on with it!  I'll kick off with my underwhelming sewing related finish: After completing my Scrappy Celebrations quilt top on July 29th, I finally got around to piecing a backing for this quilt using stash yardage and leftover backing scraps from other quilts.  Here you see my final step of checking that the backing is indeed big enough for the margins I need when I load it on my long arm frame.  Measuring is all well and good, but sometimes rulers lie -- my eyes can tell me immediately if I've goofed when I lay the quilt top right on top of my backing and check how much backing sticks out all the way around the quilt top.

Yes, My Backing Is Big Enough to Load On My Long Arm Machine

Here you can see the pieced backing itself, oriented sideways as I'm planning to load this quilt sideways and quilt it with a non-directional design:

Pieced Backing Turned Sideways

The gray and pink floral is a JoAnn's print that I picked up on sale years ago when I got my first long arm machine, and I was going to use it for quilting practice before I realized that solids make for better practice fabrics as you want to be able to see your mistakes in order to improve.  I just ripped off a long enough piece of that yardage, then snipped and ripped it in half near the center bolt fold line, and inserted an 18" wide combination of Kaffe Fassett circles and a bubblegum pink Tula Pink print.  Those fabrics already had been ripped on grain and seamed together because it was leftover from another quilt backing, and it was just enough to widen the JoAnn print to fit my quilt with margins for pinning to the leaders and attaching to the side clamps.  All pressed and ready to load!  My next task will be figuring out which batting to use, cutting that to size, and actually getting this quilt loaded and quilted.  Let's be honest with each other: my original plan was to have this quilt actually quilted and not just be showing you that I made the backing today, but this is the Real Life Happens edition of TGIFF.  I've been distracted by other things finally finishing -- THANK GOODNESS! -- with my house this week.  

Stonefields Blocks 30-32: " Cara's Surprise"

Well, this wasn't my goal for last week (nope, didn't piece that backing yet), but I finished the next three applique blocks for my Stonefields sampler quilt.  This is a pattern by Susan Smith and the blocks finish at 6" square.

Stonefields Blocks 30-32: Cara's Surprise

So, after machine piecing the "plus" unit for the centers of these blocks, I cut circles out of them with a turning allowance, ran a gathering stitch around the outside edge, and preturned the seam allowances with the appropriate size Karen Kay Buckley Bigger Perfect Circles heat resistant template and a bit of Maryanne's Best Press liquid starch.  I used a little roll of painter's tape to secure the template before pulling up the gathering thread and ironing the seam allowances, to prevent the template from sliding.  I wanted that plus sign to be as centered as I could get it in those circles.

Painter's Tape Kept "Plus" Centered During Starch and Press

It turned out like this, a little wonky but in a way that charmed me for some reason, so I left it be:

"Plus" Distorted a Little During Pressing

Cara's Surprise Progress + Spilled Coffee Is Better Than Mold

Behold, I cut up little pieces of fabric and sewed them to other little bits of fabric:

Prep In Progress, Stonefields Blocks 30-32 "Cara's Surprise"

So now I have finished piecing the plus sign centers for all three of these Stonefields "Cara's Surprise" blocks.  La-dee-da.  I will be making circles from those plus blocks, to be layered on top of slightly larger circles out of the fabrics placed immediately beneath them in the photo above.  The serged squares on the bottom of each pile are the background fabric for each block, and the the print fabric right on top of each background fabric is for a big star.  

Two things need to happen next with these blocks, not sure which will come first.  I need to prep the plain and plus-pieced circles (I will be using my Karen Kay Buckley Bigger Perfect Circles templates, starch and press prep method).  And I need to trace off a template for the big star, cut out these stars from fabric, and appliqué them to the background fabric.  That gold floral fabric on the right is a Tilda print, I think, and it has plenty of body so I will likely just needle turn that one.  The pink paisley print in the center pile is very lightweight, translucent and filmy, as is the blue and white floral Liberty print I've selected for my star in the pile on the left, so I'll probably use the leave-in washaway stabilizer prep method for those to beef up my stars and prevent their seam allowances from showing through and looking ugly on the right side of the finished blocks.  But I cannot possibly muster a smidgeon of motivation or energy for any of that right now, because MOLD, y'all -- apparently it's not enough to douse my pretty white studio carpet with coffee and spend the better part of two days trying to get the stain out.  Now MOLD has crashed my house party, and I am not pleased about it!  😱

Bernie happened to look up and notice some staining on the ceiling yesterday in a basement storage area, just below the new tub and shower in the primary bathroom.  He wasn't sure if these were old stains or new, but he climbed up on a ladder and cut out a piece of sheet rock to see.  Sure enough, a brand new pipe put in during our renovation wasn't crimped/sealed properly and has been dripping water inside the ceiling above a room that isn't even air conditioned, all throughout June and July while we have been having temperatures soaring into the high nineties day after day...  

Drip, Drip, Drip, For Weeks and Weeks and Weeks...

If we were deliberately trying to grow mold in our home, these would be the ideal conditions to ensure our success!  Our builder sent a plumber out yesterday to resolve the leak, but we saw mold on the dry wall and who knows where else it is in there.  We've danced the mold dance before with previous homes so I am dreading what all may need to be ripped out in order to get a clean and clear mold test and move forward.  I am trying to make a deal with God where they can rip out the whole basement ceiling if they want to, but please don't let them rip out all the tile from my pretty new bathroom that I have not been able to use even once...  I know, I know -- God has more important prayers to answer, but I am getting to the point where I don't feel like I can handle one more setback in this project.  I just want these builders OUT OF HERE so I can move my furniture in and put food in my refrigerator, cook on my stove, and sleep in my own bedroom.

This will be addressed tomorrow morning with the builder and I'm sure it will all be fine, but I can't imagine it's not going to cause more delay, and that's discouraging.  I'll come back to my fiddly Stonefields blocks later in the week when I'm in a better mood.  If not, well, I've got my work table all cleaned off now so I could piece that Scrappy Celebrations quilt backing and get it loaded.  Maybe the sound of my long arm machine purring away will cheer me up.  But for now, I'm going to go read a book and wrap my brain up around someone else's troubles for the rest of the afternoon!

I'm linking up with some of these favorite linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SATURDAY

Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

One More Hexie Rosette, Fabric Picks for Next Stonefields Blocks, + Coffee Catastrophe in the Studio

 UGH!!!  Let’s start with the worst first!  This morning I sat down at my desk and set down a full, steaming cup of coffee, apparently partly on the desk and partly hanging over the edge to defy the laws of gravity.  And then gravity won.  BLAM, SPLATTER, SCREAMS…  Because, you know, white carpeting in my studio that is brand new from just a year ago.  After blotting and water rinsing and blotting some more as best as I could, I spent the rest of the morning tidying up my studio in preparation for Stanley Steemer’s arrival with the giant carpet cleaning contraption.  If I’m being honest, the clutter was the culprit to begin with — too many stacks of papers and fabric swatches and sewing tools and notebooks on too small of a desk did not leave much room for cups of coffee or anything else.

By the time the carpet cleaners arrived at 2 pm, I had most of the room cleaned up with the chairs and rolling carts moved out of the room and was just working on folding and putting away mountains of fabric on my worktable.  I did stop to finalize my fabric picks for those next three Stonefields sampler quilt blocks.  The pile on the left is the one I’ve already started stitching, with the dotted background fabric and the orange plus sign pieced into the Tilda print:

Fabrics Selected for Next 3 Stonefields Blocks

These three blocks are the same design, but the other two get plain background fabrics.  I also finished another EPP hexagon rosette for the Stonefields outer border last night.

The Latest Hexie Rosette

I’ve decided that I can’t just pile up more and more fabric on the worktable for Stonefields because, duh, that prevents me from working on anything else in between these fiddly little blocks!  Now that I’ve picked the fabrics for the next three blocks, which should keep me busy for at least a couple weeks, a clean worktable will allow me to piece that Scrappy Celebrations backing, right?  At least that’s the plan.

I apologize for the enormous file size of today’s photos, by the way.  I can’t resize them on my iPad the same way I normally do on my desktop computer, and I don’t like how the Blogger app is annoyingly different on my iPad, too.  Sadly, I have to stay out of my studio tonight and can’t even put my desk chair back until morning because the carpet is still wet.  The guy from Stanley Steemer said he didn’t get the stain out completely, which is annoying, but it has to be better than it was, right?  My husband will say something snarky about how he told me white carpet was a bad idea, but it’s not like I was going to choose chocolate brown carpet instead just to disguise spills.  Anyone have a favorite miracle carpet stain remover that works even better than the commercial carpet cleaners’ stuff?  Let me know in the comments, please!

I'm linking up with some of these favorite linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SATURDAY

Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Hello, August! The One Where Bernie Accomplishes Much, and I Accomplish Little

Hello, Happy Monday, and Happy August, Everyone!  

After finishing my Scrappy Celebrations quilt top last week, I stalled out on the backing.  Having recently moved several times, I am acutely aware of how much fabric I own, and therefore I am not even considering purchasing yardage to back this quilt, but most of my fabric stash is half yard pieces or smaller, or leftover strips of backing trimmed from larger quilts after long arm quilting them.  I will have to get creative, and I will need my work table cleared off in order to piece the backing, and right now my work table is a mess.  Nevertheless, I do plan to get that backing pieced this week!

Meanwhile, I accomplished one more little 3/4" hexagon rosette for my Stonefields quilt border.  I fussy-cut the print but either I imperfectly centered the motif when I fussy-cut the hexagons or else the templates shifted slightly as I was hand stitching them together, probably a little of both.  Best viewed from a distance, then!

One Little Stonefields Hexie Rosette to Show For Myself

Progress On the Home Renovation Project

With so little progress to show for myself, I might as well share someone else's progress with you!  Eight and a half months after beginning and three months behind schedule, our builder is still not finished with the renovation.  Nearly 14 months since we purchased this decrepit haunted house and we have never slept in our bedroom, showered in our own bathroom, or cooked in our kitchen.  That is because the steam shower in the primary bathroom was leaking and full of mold, there was mold behind the leaking refrigerator in the kitchen, the oven did not heat to temperature, and some of the burners did not light on the stove top.  I am not complaining -- we knew what we were getting ourselves into and the price we paid for the house absolutely reflected the amount of work it needed.  We are just tired from the stress of living in a construction zone for so long and looking forward to the day, hopefully 2-3 weeks from now, when we can kiss that port-o-potty and dumpster goodbye (not literally!) and move up out of the basement and into the main floor of our home.

Meanwhile, not everything needing to be done was included in our builder's scope for the renovation.  The door hardware was in bad shape: some doors were not closing properly and needed adjustment, most of the door knobs had peeling or scratched up finishes from the previous owners' German Shepherd, and the door knob on the powder bath was broken and did not lock.  Since I selected mostly unlacquered brass light fixtures throughout the main floor, I decided to replace the handle sets and door hinges with brass as well.  They are the same manufacturer and style as the original hardware, just a different finish, to be cohesive with the original door hardware in other parts of the home.  We ordered the new hardware ourselves and Bernie installed it, saving us the builder's markup on materials as well as additional labor costs.  

Bernie Installing New Door Hardware

The outside of the house was looking pretty awful, too.  We don't think it had ever been painted since it was built in 2000, except that at some point previous owners had painted over the cedar garage doors and mahogany front doors instead of keeping up with the maintenance of the original stained finish (the insides of the garage doors still showed the original stain).  I get it; in direct sunlight in the South, stained doors need to be lightly sanded and a new coat of stain applied every 2-3 years and paint lasts so much longer, but Bernie strongly prefers the look of stained and he is willing to do the work.  Instead of including the exterior painting and staining in the scope of our builder's remodeling contract, we got a referral from a neighbor and hired a painter ourselves.  They finished up a week ago and it looks so much better now!