Bathroom Remodeling

We had some cracked tiles in the master bath floor. Decided to fix the tile. You know how that goes. We discovered we only had 4 spare tiles, and then discovered that the toilet had been leaking and the whole floor had to come up. So, I'd always wanted to tear out the cheap plastic tub/shower surround and build a shower. I didn't necessarily want to do this right NOW, but since we had to replace the tile, it was now or never. Too bad I forgot to take a before photo of the bathroom. Here's right after we ripped out the surround. That's part of a curious cat in the lower right corner.
Here it is in progress. In this photo the shower walls were tiled, and the other walls painted but the floor wasn't done.
While we were doing everything else, decided why not make an even bigger mess, and scrape the popcorn texture off the ceiling and make it smooth.
A word of caution... Large tiles look good on shower walls, but they are a pain to install. They are too heavy for the mastic. We would glue a couple of them, hold them for what we thought was long enough, let go and the tiles would come crashing down. We finally had to put nails beneath each tile to hold it. But that wasn't easy either, because that isn't sheetrock, it's cement board. We would pound one nail in and two would fall out, then pound those in and another would come out. Aaaagghhh!

And here it is finished!!



I made a stencil and painted little "tiles" around the back splash to match the little insets in the tile walls and floor.
And I got a roller shade, took it apart and made this shade for the window.
We're on a roll - now we're working on the upstairs bathrooms!

2009 Guild Challenge

Our Uncommon Threads Quilt Guild Challenge was "Opposites Attract" - to take a color and its opposite on the color wheel and make a quilt using only those two colors. Last night was the deadline and we had seven great quilts. Unfortunately, in order to enter American Quilter's Society's Ultimate Guild Challenge contest in Knoxville, we needed eight quilts, so we won't be going this year. Too bad because we had great quilts, and we have been accepted into the show every year but one. Oh, well, there's always next year, and anyway we first and foremost make quilts because we love to. Congratulations to everyone. And thanks to Marilyn L. for chairing the challenge and for the great little gift each participant received.

Marge N. - "Dancing in Circles"

Carolyn J.

Marilyn L.

Mine - "There's One in Every Crowd"

Linda L.

Nysha N. aka "Tall Guy"

Kathy S. - "Halloween Night"

New Years 2009

For the first time since New Years 1996, we were in the
United States for New Years Eve. We kinda hated to
break our record, but the economy limited our travel.
So we spent New Years in Westfield Wisconsin at
Mary's and Rick's cottage with them and my brother
David and his wife Christal.

Rick, Mary and Armando

David & Christal

Then we went to Chicago for a couple of days. Here
is Lake Michigan next to Navy Pier.

And then we stopped in Shipshewana, Indiana for
a couple of days, just because.