Staging the House to Sell

{Updated Family Room}

Things have been crazy over here because we have been preparing to move.  In addition to all the craziness of putting offers on a new house (we plan on building), we have been preparing our house to sell.  We have been getting rid of clutter and simplifying the decorations.  Our agent has told us that technically anything that is mounted on the walls stays with the house unless it is "excluded."  I want to keep all of the quilt racks that my husband has made for me, so those have been coming down and holes patched.  We have also taken down drapes which I will want to keep.

My home feels so much larger, brighter and more open without some of the quilts, but the biggest thing I have noticed is the noise.  My three active boys are loud and quilts absorb some of the noise.  With less quilts, the house echoes a lot more.

I thought it might be fun to share some of the before and after pictures of staging the house.  We'll start in the entryway.    We took down the quilt rack behind the door and patched the holes.

Entryway Before

Entryway After

In the living room we took down the drapes and simplified the pictures.

Living Room Before

Living Room After

In the kitchen, we cleared off the cabinets and counters.  We also took the display down that was on the pantry.

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

We took down the quilt rack in the dining room.

Dining Room Before

Dining Room After

In the upstairs hallway, we took the quilt down that was hanging above the stairs.

Hallway Before

Hallway After

In the master bedroom we took out the TV, the drapes, some pictures, and the quilt above the headboard.  We also put in a more neutral colored quilt which matched the wall color better.  (We never did get around to painting the walls after I made the Modern Farmer's Wife Quilt.)

Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

Bedroom After

In the family room, we took out the quilt ladder and the quilt cabinet.  But left in the quilt rack between the windows and little rack under the picture.

Family Room Before

Family Room After

Family Room Before

Family Room After

My craft room is very different.  We took down the cabinets, the quilt rack, and my design wall.  We also took out the cutting table and put the doors back on the closet.

Craft Room Before

Craft Room After

Craft Room Before

Craft Room After

The boys' bedrooms and the playroom didn't change very much.  We mostly cleaned off dressers and took down the drapes.  There is a lot more light in their rooms without the blackout curtains.  Here are the after pictures.

Panda's room

Monkey's Room

The good news is that our efforts have paid off.  We have received two offers on the house, and will be moving in with my parents before Christmas until our new house is finished (March or April).  Things will be different and blogging may become sporadic for awhile, but I am looking forward to new adventures.  (I'm especially looking forward to a new craft room over the garage and out of the basement!)

XX,
Jasmine

Quilt Bliss Retreat

I had an absolutely fabulous time at the Quilt Bliss Retreat last weekend.  I went up for just Saturday and was privileged to spend the whole day with Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl and Renee of Quilts of a Feather.

Quilt bliss was held in the beautiful Timber Moose Lodge in Heber City, Utah.  (Not too far from my home.)

Photo courtesy of Yvonne

I was very lucky that Yvonne was able to save me a seat right next to her sewing station.  :)

Photo courtesy of Yvonne

That is her Bernina between Renee and I.  Don't you just love the color of Renee's machine?

I had fun preparing for the retreat by making a pincushion for a swap and selecting a couple bags for gifts.  I used scraps of wool batting for the pincushion because I heard that the lanolin is good for your pins.  I added some butterfly pins and rainbow of ribbon scraps for cuteness.  

I also cut out a quilt for my dad which is very similar to one I made for my husband earlier this year.

I took two classes while I was there.  The first was a house (turned castle) pillow from Heather of Quilt Story.

It was so much fun making a project like this in a class with friends because my project evolved.  The chimney became a turret, the windows were rounded with little ledges, and the door was rounded and added to the back.  Here is a picture of the class projects.

The second class was a curves class taught by Anna and Kristen of the Utah County Modern Quilt Group.  They taught four methods for appliqueing circles.  I am looking forward to quilting this mini.

While I was there I was able to sew half of the blocks for my dad's quilt.  It was fun sewing moose, deer, and bear blocks in the rustic lodge setting.

All in all it was a great time at the retreat.  I loved spending the day with Yvonne and Renee.

Life has been kind of crazy (more on that next week), but I look forward to finishing up these projects when I can sneak in the time.

XX,
Jasmine

Eagle Scout Project Progress

Cheetah has made some excellent progress on his Eagle Scout Project (making 20 crib quilts for Project Linus).  The quilts are almost ready to be tied at his big service day.  I think he has learned that even when doing big projects involving lots of people, that there is still a lot of prep work that has to be done for there to be something they can all do.

First Cheetah gathered all of the supplies for the quilt which were donated by friends and family.   Then his project took over the kitchen and living room for a couple days.  We cut the donated batting up into twenty crib quilt size pieces.  He even used the rotary cutter.  All 20 battings were piled up on our railing.

Panda and Monkey helped set up and clean the tables for the trimming.

Cheetah did all of the starching and ironing in the kitchen.  I did trimming and pining using the methods in my Pre-Bound Baby Blanket Tutorial.  (Cheetah took this picture.)

Pretty soon the living room and hallway looked like this.

Another day Cheetah asked several people to come help do the sewing.  He promised them some light refreshments: water, grapes, homemade bread, and homemade strawberry jam.

His project took over the basement family room for the sewing day.  Eight people worked on it that day.

Cheetah sewed around three of the quilts with the right sides together, then took over the job of turning quilts right side out.

At the end of the four and a half hour marathon, all twenty quilts had been turned right side out and five had been topstitched.

Cheetah decided to ask seven different people to help out with topstitching the rest at their own homes at their convenience.  He already has the church building scheduled for the big tying quilts service day and is now working on promoting attendance.  I really am such a proud mama.

XX,
Jasmine

My First Sew Together Bag

I recently finished my first Sew Together Bag, and I absolutely love it!  I have already put it to use holding my hand sewing tools.  I purchased the pattern back in May at the HMQS with my birthday money, so this is like a belated birthday present for myself. ;)

I purposely made it to match my Beatle Bag which pattern I also purchased at the HMQS.  I love that one holds my sewing machine tools and the other holds my hand sewing tools.

When I mentioned to Jennie of Porch Swing Quilts that I was going to make a Sew Together Bag, she said to be sure to check out the Sewalong at The Quilt Barn.  I am so grateful for her advice, because while the pattern was awesome and clever, I couldn't have done it without the extra pictures and tips shared in the Sewalong.

For the outside of the bag, I used some Soft and Stable as the interfacing.  While it added thickness (and I cut my binding a little wider), I absolutely love how well it stands up on its own and how the quilting looks around the large Riley Blake Quatrafoil.

The print almost matches up at the top of the bag, which I think is pretty cool.

You may have noticed in the picture above that I accidentally bought an invisible zipper for the outside of the bag.  I do not recommend that at all.  It would have been so much easier if I had just made another trip to the store and purchased a different zipper.

On the inside of the bag I used some Riley Blake Swiss Dots and a light Kona gray solid.

I used a slightly stiffer interfacing for the pockets and love how they stand up.  Another thing I did was purchase zippers for the pockets a little bit extra long.  The extra length made it so that I didn't have to keep moving the zipper itself as I sewed it in.  I will definitely do that again.

As soon as I finished the bag, I had to fill it up.

It is pretty awesome, and I will definitely be making more of these bags.  I know my mom wants one...

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what others have been making.

Dancing Daisies Progress

I have made some progress on my WISP:  Work in Slow Progress.  I am using the Dancing Daisies tutorial on the Moda Bake Shop, but I am sewing it by hand instead of machine.  I have enough fabric for 20 blocks, but I have decided I want to do just 12.  I think I will like a smaller quilt.  I want to do some fancy quilting and hang it on the wall and the smaller size will work better.  :)  Not to mention that it will be faster.  

I really enjoy the hand piecing, but me being me, I really like faster finishes.  So this is a win-win situation for me. Then end is getting closer.  

XX,

Jasmine