Week 18: Project 365, the 2015 Edition

Thursday, April 30

Last week I shared the photo of a house in our neighborhood that got a new paint job, color matched to yellow-orange flowers in their yard. On our walk today we saw the same kind of bush just loaded with flowers so we stopped and took a close-up:

Saturday, May 2

A storm blew through yesterday and cooled things off considerably. On our walk today it was overcast and windy, and we had to wear sweat jackets.

Days like today remind me of growing up in Michigan (I lived there from age 4 to 14). Of course I also lived there for twenty years as an adult, so is it any wonder that I associate cold, rainy, gray days with fall in Michigan?

Sunday, May 3

This evening I cut out cardboard pattern pieces for the bottom half of the quilt -- the part that makes me kind of nervous, because I'm not great at matching points. So I'm taking as many precautions as possible to ensure accuracy. I was very careful to be precise, using the rotary cutter and my clear ruler to cut out each of the various triangles and parallelograms.

For those pieces that will have a long side cut on the bias, I plan to stay-stitch just outside the seam line before cutting the pieces out. Hopefully this will prevent them from stretching out of shape during the sewing process. I also plan to sew this section by hand, so I can (hopefully) match points accurately. Vamos a ver! 

Monday, May 4

After several rainy days last week, Ivan was back to painting today during siesta:

While he paints, he listens to messages using his bluetooth headset. He got more than half the front cut in before it was time to head out for a visit.  

Tuesday, May 5

Today Ivan finished cutting in and then rolled the rest. Cutting in takes so much more time than rolling.

He still has to paint the cement frames around the windows and the edge that juts out above the air conditioner (they'll be white); otherwise the front is completely done, along with one side. Still remaining: the back, other side, and base of the water tank. The goal is to have the exterior done before really cold weather sets in.

We chose a soft gray by Sherwin Williams called 'Gray Screen'.

It's a silvery gray, and in the late afternoon sun it appeared light blue. It will be interesting to see what it looks like in the full morning light tomorrow.

Loving the pale yellow door and light gray walls.