Woodswell Blog

Stem Stitch and Outline Stitch Redux

2011-06-23T18:20:00.001-07:00

OK, I tore out everything I had done and started that green flower over completely. While I still have some issues with it, it is as good as it will get for now. I think it looks pretty good, but I wish I had been able to get the shading a little better, especially on the petal on the upper right.

Then I got on a roll - I stitched the chain stitch flower. I did take out the very beginning of the first petal, but otherwise it went very nicely:

I went on to what is currently my least favorite crewel stitch - the coral knot stitch. While the effect is interesting, I am not sure it is worth the effort. But I am pleased at the shading effect I got, using bluish green, blue and yellowish green:

Back to the Stem Stitch versus Outline Stitch comparison. Although I had found Mary Corbet's blog, Needle 'N Thread, I had not really gone through it. She has some great images, videos, and comments on Stem and Outline Stitches. Start at her page on Line Stitches then go to her Video Tutorials.

Stem Stitch and Outline Stitch are NOT the same Stitch!

2011-06-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

This is the first part of the Embroiderer's Guild of America Group Correspondence Course, Shading Stitches by Judy Jeroy. The left side of the 'flower' is stitched in outline stitch, the right in stem stitch. The thread is DMC Medici, a lovely wool thread long since discontinued by DMC.

I had never believed that stem and outline stitch were really different stitches since the technique is the same, just reversed, but here is the proof. See how the outline stitch on the left makes distinctly separate 'cords'? The stem stitching on the right when stitched as a single line makes a rope looking line with each stitch showing but the overall effect is a twisted rope rather than a cord like the outline stitch appears. In my practice stitching, I had noticed the difference but did not realize how different the two effects would work when the stitches were used to fill an area.

I'm somewhat convinced that the difference in the two stitches is the direction of twist in the threads. Most threads sold in the US are "S" twist and seem to untwist slightly as you stitch stem stitch, and twist more as you stitch outline stitch. Maybe I will see if a local spinner would make me some
"Z" twist wool thread so I can test to see if that would stitch the other way with each stitch!
For more information and tips on stem and outline stitch, see Mary Corbett's Needle & Thread Blog, article "Tips on Stem Stitch & Another Embroidered Towel…."

So all of the stitching above has been removed. Not only was I not happy with the appearance of the two different stitches, I was also not happy with the limited range of shades I used for shading the petals. I found another set of greens with a wider and more subtle range of shades. I'm nearly a third of the way through stitching the 'flower' in stem stitch only and I am much happier with the result!

W-K9

2008-07-11T00:23:00.001-07:00

2008-06-25T18:46:00.001-07:00

Beer Goggles - video powered by Metacafe

Our Equinox foal!

2008-03-22T05:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday Morning Ralph woke me by saying, "We've got extra legs!" In horse terms that means a foal has arrived and it looks like the mare has an extra set of legs since the new baby is sticking so close to her. I went out and here is what I saw:

A few hour later, here is what the new baby looked like - a little more alert and already growing muscle! We're calling him "Hershey" since I think he will be a chocolate grulla.

And since I had the camera out, here is a picture of the first 2008 foal, "Bob" - he sure has grown and filled out.

First Foal of 2008!

2008-01-31T06:09:00.001-08:00

Ziggy (aka Milagro's Smoky Glitz) has had her foal for 2008! He is a red dun colt with a star and snip, socks on the back feet and left front pastern. Big and healthy, "Bob" is doing great!

The Great Thanksgiving Weekend Floor Flood

2007-12-04T17:44:00.001-08:00

So the floors were finished and totally gorgeous, the trim work was going in and we were looking at being finished in another week or two. That was where we were the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Since we could not get away for Turkey Day, we spent the weekend puttering around the house, putting face plates on the electrical outlets and switches, and generally enjoying the house and the great weather. Until Sunday, that is.

I was moving slow and posting forum messages about how great the floor looked, so Ralph went over to the house first. He came back upset, "There is a leak and the bedroom floor is RUINED!"

I told him where to turn the water off to the house and ran over. Here's what I saw:

Left: The paper that had been protecting the new floor was wet and you could see that the floor was no longer flat.

Below: Water was flowing out of the exterior door to the bedroom!

Left: Here is the source of the problem - obviously there had been a leak at this location. The wood had buckled so much it had broken the baseboard.

Below: Mike, the contractor, checking out the source of the problem.

Below: Mike and Damon the Floor Guy checking out the damage. In these two photos you can see the extent of the damage to the floor. The entire room had been soaked with water.

The source of the problem. The trim carpenter forgot that this was a "wet" wall and used long nails to tack up the baseboard. He managed to catch the pipe twice. The one still in the joint was not really the big problem. The one that pulled out when the floor buckled was the serious problem since it let the water leak turn major.

And here was where we were by noon on Monday. Depressing, isn't it? For comparison, here is what the floor looked like before the weekend:

Kitchen is basically finished

2007-12-04T17:31:00.001-08:00

Here's my mostly IKEA kitchen:

Lower open shelves are custom built from red oak. They match better than is shown in the pictures. They will stay open and have adjustable shelves in them.

I particularly love the backsplash. Most of it is Georgia white marble salvaged from the old Florida Capitol Building when it was restored to the 1905 version. But the part behind the cooktop is a photo montage of our farm with our favorite horses.

Cabinets: Ikea Tidaholm oak & custom built open shelves
Counters: Crossville Color Blox Two "I've Got the Blues"
Floor: Daltile French Quarter Cobblestone (18") & Bourbon Street (6")
Backsplash: salvaged Georgia (Alabama?) white marble & custom printed image on Italian tumbled marble
Sink: IKEA Domsjo sink
Faucet: Prestige Sonora in oil rubbed bronze
Fridge/Freezer: Kenmore Elite (Frigidaire Twins)
Cooktop: IKEA (Whirlpool)
Vent Hood: IKEA (Whirlpool)
Dishwasher: Frigidaire
Oven: Frigidaire side opening convection
Paint: SW Meditative

Progress on the house is slow

2007-12-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

OK, so I haven't posted here in a long time. August and September, I was busy assembling IKEA cabinets for the kitchen and the bathrooms and other places. October I had jury duty which wore out my knees and I've simply been tired from the pain.

But the house has been progressing - slowly. Trim has been going in, replacement doors had to ordered then re-ordered (first ones were wrong, second ones were wrong, one was broken, etc.)

The pine floors turned out gorgeous! We went with Waterlox with Minwax Ipswich Pine stain and with a satin finish. Here's what they looked like along the way:

Unfinished floor in the living room

First coat of Waterlox Sealer/Finisher with stain mixed in.

First coat in bedroom after the layer dried.

Floor in the bedroom with a couple of coats of Waterlox.

Stairs with two coats, last coat still wet.

Finished floor in the bedroom.

Finished floor in living room with last coat still wet.

It all looks awesome, doesn't it? More to come.....

Waterlox finish for our floors

2007-07-19T21:52:00.001-07:00

I've decided to do a Waterlox finish on our pine floors. Despite the name, Waterlox is NOT a waterbased finish. Instead, it is a modified tung oil finish that gives more of that old floor look. And to add to that old floor look, I wanted to stain the floors to deepen the color right away.

Here are my tests on some scraps of Southern yellow pine similar to what I want for my floors. This first picture shows various stains and for contrast I also put in the piece that we tested 100% pure tung oil and dark tung oil on.

From left to right:

Top, dark tung oil; bottom, 100% pure tung oil
Top, Sherwin Williams Golden Oak stain applied before any Waterlox; bottom, no stain - entire board finished with Water Lox Original Sealer/Finisher
Top, SW Golden Oak stain mixed with first coat of Waterlox; bottom no stain - entire board 2 coats Sealer/Finisher, 2 coats Satin Waterlox
Top, Minwax Golden Oak stain mixed with first coat of Waterlox; bottom, Minwax Puritan Pine stain mixes with first coat - entire board 2 coats Sealer/Finisher, 2 coats Satin Waterlox
Top, Minwax Special Walnut stain mixed with first coat of Waterlox; bottom, Minwax Early Amercian stain mixed with first coat of Waterlox - entire board 2 coats Sealer/Finisher, 2 coats Satin Waterlox

Same order for this bottom picture but it shows the sheen better. The 100% tung oil (with about 5-6 coats) actually has a pretty good sheen to it, but really is not as shiny as it seems in this picture. Though it does not look like the light is going across the satin finished boards, it is - they just do not reflec the light as much.

In case it is confusing, the first board was done completely with pure tung oil. The second board has stain on one end followed by 4 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finisher. The rest have 1 coat of Sealer/Finisher mixed with stain (where they are stained), followed by 2 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finisher, followed by 2 coats of Waterlox Satin. The tests with straight SW stain versus SW stain mixed with the first coat show that mixing the stain makes it about half as dark as applying the stain directly.

We have decided to stain with half Minwax Golden Oak and half Early American and to finish with 2 coats of Satin.

How about these arches?

2007-07-02T07:12:00.001-07:00

A while back I talked Ralph out of the Craftsman style tapered columns on brick piers, but we both wanted something to make the front of the house look less boxy.

The framers made some sample arches and we liked this shape best. Then I photoshopped it to repeat across the front of the house and added the trim color. So how about these arches?

Lots of Progress!

2007-07-01T09:11:00.001-07:00

Wow! I did not realize it had been so long since I had posted on my blog!
There has been lots of progress on the house - in fact we are on the downhill side now that the exterior is nearly finished. The roof was completed last week, the final window went in Thursday so the siding was finished, too. These pictures were taken before that happened:

The front of the house, which faces north

Here is a view from the northwest side - you can see the patch where the window was missing.

Here is a view from the northeast - oh, that is the front door waiting to be reinstalled - another messup on the door & window order.

Here the how it looks from the south side. The little bump is the top of the stairs - it had to be added to give head space for the landing.

Photos of the house build

2007-04-30T06:29:00.000-07:00

Since I am in the mode of taking lots of photos, but not in writing about them, here is a link to the house build photo pages at my web site. There are tons of photos there which will be updated at irregular intervals.

Appliances picked - almost

2007-04-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

Today we went in to check out a sale at Sears and ended up buying most of our appliances.

The winners are:

Kenmore Elite All Refrigerator and All Freezer pair. They are the same as the Frigidaire Twins, just rebranded for Sears.

Frigidaire 27 in. Electric Single Self-Clean Convection Wall Oven. This model has a side opening door which will make getting large trays out much easier.

A really cool Frigidaire stainless steel dishwasher:

I've also picked a couple of Ikea appliances. They are made by Whirlpool so they are not exotic European imports.

ELDIG cooktop:

LUFTIG telescoping hood:

The trick here is that the appliances from Sears were 20% off, then it turned out that there are additional rebates from Frigidaire! And the appliances from Ikea get me into their discount of 10% off the kitchen cabinets I was going to buy from them anyway. And every one is about what I wanted for my appliances anyway, so I am very happy getting the discounts.

Revised Kitchen plan

2007-04-08T04:58:00.000-07:00

I've revised the plan for the "Prep" wall in the kitchen. Mostly I changed the upper cabinets and the drawers in the cabinet that will hold all the flatware.

I've started a new kitchen blog over on the IkeaFans Forum since my kitchen is all Ikea cabinets and the people over there will be interested in the modifications I
will be doing. So I will be linking to images here and writing descriptions there.

Excavation and forms!

2007-04-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

First day of excavating - March 29, 2007

Second day of excavating - March 30, 2007

First day of concrete forms - April 3, 2007

Another shot of the forms on the same day.

2007-04-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the kitchen plan - some of the cabinets are a little off in their locations. This was done with the Ikea Kitchen Planner which is very buggy and not easy to use.

This is the wall to the left as you are looking at the kitchen, then the sink wall at the end, followed by the cooking wall which will be to the right of the sink wall.

Tidaholm oak is the style Ikea cabinet door I'm using. I'll be using the dark metal pulls to the left rather than little handles. The blue tile will be my countertop.

Below is the French Quarter Cobblestone tile for the floor.

Here is the Ikea Domsjo farm sink and the Premier Sonoma faucet for the kitchen.

House elevations

2007-04-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

House plans

2007-04-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

Here are the final versions of the house plans - before changes:

Changes are:

Add framed 3'0"W x 6'8"T doorway into kitchen at foot of stairs as close to exterior wall as possible (This is actually so I can put a built in cabinet to use the dead space in the corner that will face the hall and have a pass through to kitchen from the hall)
Take out framed pantry under stairs (I have plans for a pantry cabinet to put instead of a closet style pantry)
Add pocket door under stairs to close off back half of hallway
Change windows in both upstairs bedrooms from a single 6'0"W x 4'0" T slider to double hung windows the center 3'0"W x 5'0"T and windows on each side that are 2'6"W x 5'0"T
Change peaked porch roof with vaulted ceiling on side porch to flat roof with deck above
Change center window in bedroom over porch to a 3'0"W x 6'8" French door (to match style of porch doors?) for access to deck
Change pocket door in half bath to owner supplied door (DH has a neat idea that I will explain later)
Switch washer and dryer positions so washer is on left as you look at fronts
Frame under center window in master bedroom for possible future door (With an ICF house this makes sense in case we ever want a deck off the master bedroom.)

Lighting for living room

2006-12-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

Now I'm chosing lighting. Most of the house is fairly simple - I know what I want and have picked out nice looking fixtures that are reasonably econmical. But the formal living/dining room needs some special treatment.

Here is the layout with the fixtures we're thinking about marked.
The door to the left is the front door and will have a large glass area. the door at the top goes to the library. The double doors in the right are the big solid doors from the old House Chamber and lead to the Family Room.

The blue rectangles are our Karastan rugs. The red asterisks (*) are currently speced as 3" cans with eyeball trim so they can be directed at art or other things. The large yellow asterisks (*) are five light chandeliers from Golden Lighting.

The wall at the top will be a "gallery wall - the 3" cans should light any art arranged along that wall. The wall at the bottom left marked "False fireplace and shelves" is a Craftsman style ararngement with our stained glass fireplace and glass fronted boopkshelves from the Governor's office. In front of that will be the main seating area in the living room and we want effective lighting for that area.

At the bottom of the right wall will be the sideboard probably with some other furniture on each side and art above. In that corner will be our large corner display cabinet with leaded glass. So the eyeball cans are meant to light that area.

There will be some other lighting in this room from table and floor lamps.

Here is a picture of the chandelier style we're using for both locations in the room:

Unofficial last version of house plan

2006-12-14T08:44:00.000-08:00

This is the unofficial last version of our house plan - at least for this week. ;-)
We've cut the corner of the library at an angle and added windows to improve the view (that is the part in color, done by the designer to help us think about it). I stuck in windows over the bookcases in the living room. This is not the designer's final version, but we cannot think of an additional changes we'd want to make.

I'm taking this version around for lighting and plumbing quotes. That is the next message!

2006-11-20T15:21:00.000-08:00

Here are larger versions of the draft floor plan - the first floor particularly is a VERY LARGE file!

Some of the special things that will be built into our house

2006-11-17T22:14:00.000-08:00

We've got some special items we've collected over the years that we want to build into the new house. The most problematic will be the sand blasted glass piece made by Robert Bischoff:

We've got to figure out how to mount this as a fixed window - with glass on the front and back to protect it - AND edge light it for the best effect. Front lighting as seen here is just not very effective.

These are book cases made from a set that came out of the Governor's office when the Old Florida Capitol Building was restored to the 1905 version. We want to use them to make a faux fireplace wall with a stained glass "fireplace" that was made by Bischoff Studios, possibly by George Greene.

These are some doors from the Old Capitol - the little narrow door is only 18" wide - I think it would be great as a door for a tiny coat closet in the living room. The double doors were the entrance doors to the House of Representative Chambers. Of course, they need to be completely refinished, since the guys demolishing the Capitol were not very careful, plus they've been in storage for over 25 years.

We also have some other doors that we may take apart for the mahoganey paneling and molding - they were "hidden" doors and have paneling to match the rooms they were in. And we have eight exterior lamps from the Old Capitol - those we'll have rewired and cleaned to use around the outside of the house.

First draft of floorplans and simple 3-D view

2006-11-13T19:34:00.000-08:00

MH (the contractor and designer for our ICF house) has sent me the first draft of our plans. This is the low-res version, so the measurements are not readable.

The side with the wide porch is the north end of the house and the formal entrance. Our entrance will be under the carport/porte cochere.

Panorama shots of the house site

2006-11-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of huge pictures that are panoramas of the house site. The first is taken from about where the north end of the house will be. The second is taken from about where the south end of the house will be. In both, the gate at both ends of the panorama is roughly due north.

Our barn teardown and salvage project

2006-11-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

In 1979-1980, we built our first horse barn out of freshly cut cypress lumber. Unfortunately, we let a know-it-all convince us that cypress logs would last as the posts for our two story barn. They didn't. So the old barn was becoming unstable and dangerous and we knew we had to tear down at least part of it.

Here is what the barn looked like before we started:

You can see how the upstairs front "porch" is sagging. What you cannot see is how rotten some of the posts are!

Here are the sides of the barn showing the beautifully weathered cypress siding. We salvaged almost all the cypress and will sell it for the first reasonable offer.

Here are the guys tearing down the upstairs.

We tore down the entire loft and eight of the fourteen stalls, leaving me a six
stall barn - plenty for our remaining four hourses!

We still have some cleanup left to do, but the smaller barn should be easier to maintain. And if I need more space there is always the newer twenty stall barn down the hill.

2006-11-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

Here is an older aerial view of the upper 30 acres of the farm. The curving line on the left side is the county road along our frontage. The two large buildings at the top are our barns. The planned house site is about a third of the way from the bottom straight south of the larger barn.

Here is a large view of the house site with a "cut out" of the current plan placed on it. I've angled the house slightly off straight north south the take better advantage of the views and the slope of the site. The red lines are the topo lines - heavy are every twn feet, light ones visible if you zoom in are every two feet.

The drive to the house site will come through a gap in the trees just north of the porte chochere. We'll have a turn around on that side of the house which will provide guest parking. Although the front porch is on the north, the approach will be from the west side.

2006-11-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

Here is the current version of my house plan. We've cut off the two downstairs extra bedrooms, flipped the house (to the left is north) for better views and reduced the size of the formal living-dining room. This layout lets us put the formal entrance and front porch on the narrow end of the house and well away from our mud entrance and our parking area - and I can have the porte cochere I always wanted!

I've got a similar layout with the half bath moved to the library so the library could be used as a guest room, but this one seems more efficient since it clusters all the plumbing together. I'm just not sure which would be better for getting plumbing upstairs for the bath and bedrooms upstairs.

IKEA Atlanta Store Plan

2006-09-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

Here is the floor plan for the Atlanta IKEA store:

Other good info thanks to Jennoconn from the IKEA Fans Forum:

Parking: I always park in the lower level of the deck in either C or D aisles. This is close to the escalator/elevators and the moving ramp when you bring your stuff to your car. They do have family parking but I can never figure out how to get there.

First floor: When you come up the escalator or elevator you stop in the "greetor lobby" they used to always have someone standing there to help but I haven't seen anyone lately. There's a bathroom there and an ATM. To the right is the "ladybug playground" as my daughter calls it. To the left is the cinnamon roll eatery, the checkout lanes and past them the returns and pick-up.

Up the escalator: If you head to the right you'll get the usual path of display rooms --) sofa section --) futons & coffee tables --) chairs --) media & bookcases --) the kitchen displays start and dining tables & chairs --) Kitchens! --) bedrooms --) closet & dressers --) office --) bathrooms --) kids stuff --) then ends at the restaurant with the bathrooms down the hall and the stairs and elevator down to the Marketplace.

Of course I rarely go that way - I go backwards and through the shortcuts.

at the top of the escalator I turn left --) go into the kids area and the 1 st shortcut (between the toys and the kids tables and chairs) which takes you to media then you can follow the path to dining and kitchens. Kithens have been my main focus so usually I'm wiped out and head to the restaurant or down to the marketplace following the same shortcuts.

Downstairs: I don't know the Marketplace as well but I'll give it a try. Kitchen & dining --) rugs & office supplies --) window treatments & textiles --) bedding and bath textiles --) laundry & storage --) lighting & more lighting --) pictures and mirrors --) nick nacks and animal stuff --) baskets & vases --) outdoor & plants & bathrooms. From there you pick up a flatbed cart if you need to get anything in the warehouse. After going through the warehouse you find the seasonal stuff and the beloved As Is room. Check out is next and there are self-serve lanes as well as, standard.

So that's the store but I'd like to add info about the area.

Ikea is part of a new multi-use development called Atlantic Station and is off of the 75/85 connector at 17th street downtown. It has condo/loft/apartments buildings, a "strolling mall" with all the stores having sidewalk entrances. There's a Dillard's and all the standard Bath & Body Works etc. There's a multiplex movie theatre and a number of upscale/trendy restaurants and bars. see http://www.atlanticstation.com/ if you'd like more info.

Smaller House Plan

2006-09-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

OK, reality has set in - the house has to be smaller! Here is a smaller version of my house plan - basically, I've squared up the basic house and chopped off the downstairs bedrooms and extra bath. But I could not make this work since there was no place for our study (what we now have as a computer room/office and library). Before, one of the downstairs bedrooms was going to be the study.

So I added a study and I've moved the screened porch to the southeast corner, behind the study. This lets me simplify the roofline and if we wanted to someday enclose that porch, it will be easier. With that in mind, we'll probably not brick inside the screened porch, just use Hardie lap siding. Right away, we would not have a porch on the east side of the house, but I'll probably have them pour a concrete pad on the east side of the house. Then down the road, we could roof over that side for an open porch - or put on awnings to direct rain away from the doors on that side.

Now the plan will be to go ahead and finish out the bath upstairs and maybe one of the upstairs bedrooms. I have not drawn up the upstairs plan since my idiotic program has decided to stop showing me where the cutoff for 8' walls is. Before we had gables out the front and back, but I've decided that to save money we'll do one wide gable with a hipped roof only to the east (back). This means no Jack & Jill bath up stairs because the plumbing would be complex, but that is OK.

This is not a finished plan by any means, but here's the changed design:

This cuts the downstairs from 2270 sq. ft. to 1978 sq. ft. Frankly, I have no clue how big the upstairs will be - my sketchy plan right now is about 700sq. ft. but I do not know if that is realistic considering the roofline. I consider the minimum for a bedroom to be about 12x12' and a bath about 5x8' so that would be a minimum of about 350 sq. ft.

Tung Oil vs. Polyurethane on Pine

2006-08-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

OK, found the digital!
First shot is tung oil on Southern Yellow Pine, but with dark & pure tung oil combinations. On the right, I wiped pure tung oil on, let it sit, wiped off the excess, then wiped on dark tung oil. On the left, I mixed pure & dark tung oil cut with citrus solvent, then wiped the wood with that combination. To me, they look pretty much the same.

This is our ten year old SYP in a place where it gets little sun.

This is pretty much the most distressed section of floor in our house - right at the kitchen door where all the traffic goes, water gets spilled, cats run around scratching it, etc.

This shot shows the difference between wood protected from and exposed to the sun. For years we had a cabinet sitting on this section. At the top was covered, bottom got sun. Please excuse the dirt - and expect scratches on pine!

We saved some of the prettiest pieces of pine for our cabinets - this is the section of one of the upper shelves we made out of left over flooring. It gets a lot of sun since it is right at the kitchen window. Nice heart pine, considering what we thought we were buying was low quality grade D lumber!

2006-08-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

These are my tests of tung oil on Southern Yellow Pine. The tung oil is from the Real Milk Paint Company. I used two kinds - Pure Tung Oil and Dark Tung Oil. For both, I cut them 50-50 with Citrus Solvent, also from the Real Milk Paint Company. Since I also wanted to test Real Milk Paint as a stain/wash, I also ordered some Sky Blue Milk Paint.

The wood is left over pieces from when we did the floors in our current house about 10 years ago. This is not ideal since the surfaces have been exposed to the air. We could not sand them as much as we'd like since our sander that had not been used for years fell apart when we tried to sand the wood. So the wood is not well sanded and has a little bit of a hardened and polished surface. Here are the pieces before any finish is applied:

I ended up not using all the pieces, so from here out there are only four pieces of wood. Here they are after the first coat:

Here are the pieces of wood with several coats of tung oil. I applied tung oil over the milk paint as that is one way recommneded to make milk paint more water resistant for kitchen use. I also wanted to test the "antiquing" effect of the dark tung oil over the paint:

As you can see, the dark tung oil is VERY dark. I delayed posting the pictures since I meant to do a test with mixing dark and pure tung oil to lighten the overall effect, but have not had a chance to do so. The Real Milk Paint Company recommends mixing the Pure and the Dark Tung Oil to adjust the color.

I also need to take pictures of the same Southern Yellow Pine that we have on our floors to show what color they are after ten years with and without exposure to sunlight.

2006-08-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest version of my house plan with a close up of the kitchen area. The door at the end of the stairs is under the high end and is to the pantry. Under the rest of the stairs will be probably a broom closet and storage. The alcove across from the washer & dryer is where we will have our bench for putting on boots and shoes.

House plans

2006-07-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

It looks as though my new house may really happen! I have been talking to contractors and think I have settled on an ICF builder to build my house. Not only is the technology superior to regular stick built houses, it will be better insulated, tighter and MUCH stronger. AND the pricing is less per square foot - as much as 25-30% less.

So now I have to decide on house plans - I have two current designs that I like a lot. The first is right at 2250 sq.ft. but I do not like where the stairs are. The stairs do not go to a living area, they go to what we will use as conditioned attic storage. So I do not like that this plan has the stairs in what should be our best view of the farm:
The second plan is a little larger than we need, and needs some tweaking, but I like it better. Ignore the furniture layouts - that is just to test how our furniture fits.

Both plans need a coat closet for the "formal" entrance - the entrance from the wider porch at the bottom middle. The entrance to the left at the bottom will be our "mud entrance" where we will come in & out the most. There will be ramps at all entrances, including the one at the top leading from the screened porch down.

And since these are preliminary, siz and placement of exterior doors and windows is pretty arbitrary.

Oh - materials - outside: brick siding (Cherokee Brick Co. Mosstown) and metal roof (Union Corrugating Royal Blue).

Inside the floors will be tile and Southern Yellow pine. The tile will be Daltile French Quarter, Cobblestone in the mud entrance, family room and kitchen and Bourbon Street in the Master Bath suite and laundry room. I have some white slate texture tile I will probably mix with a neutral blue gray tile for the other bathroom.
French Quarter Cobblestone:

French Quarter Bourbon Street:

The pine floors will be in the bedrooms and formal living and dining rooms. I am not sure if I will have the floors done in polyurethane clear coat, poly with stain, or tung oil, either dark or regular. I need to get some stains to test and some tung oil to try out. Here you can look at the pine floors in this house. They were finished with clear poly but I think that would be too light for the effect I want in the new house.

The ICF contractor does his own CAD work and will work with me to refine the plans. So now to get other people's opinions! What do you think?

I've got a Piano!

2006-06-18T23:31:00.000-07:00

I got home with my "new" piano Thursday!

This is actually a piano that has been in my family for over 100 years. It was made sometime around or before 1905 and was in my great-grandmother's house in Escanaba, Michigan as far back as my father can remember. It came to my family in Florida when that house was closed in the 1950s or early 60s.

I learned to play what little I know on this piano and always enjoyed messing around on it.

I picked it up in Tampa last week and brought it to my home in Tallahassee.

Here are pictures of the piano towards the end of the move:

Works In Progress (WIPs) - Top Five

2006-05-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

OK, now for my future projects - here is the complete list with rankings:
(I may put off the Colour through Gold and the Kay Stanis Silk & Metal for a bit.)
UFOs Working - On Frames:
1. Gay Ann Rogers’ Mystery Sampler - frame - DONE!
2. Colour Through Gold - frame
3. Kay Stanis - Silk and Metal Embroidery - frame
4. Blackwork Celtic Knot Building Blocks - frame
5. Blackwork Green Man (for Ralph R.) - frame

UFOs Working - In Hand
5. Iris - in hand - Nearly DONE
6. Dinosaur stocking ornament - in hand - travel
7. David Christmas Stocking - in hand

UFOs Waiting:
8. Tut Falcon Pectoral - frame
9. Japanese Embroidery III - JE frame
10. Japanese Embroidery V - JE frame

I left off the projects that I want to do that are not on this list because they are not started... Most of those already are basically kitted up ready to start, so they won't cost me to work - framing and finishing are a different matter!

TOP FIVE LIST

Right now for top five priority, I think it will be:
1. Christmas Stocking (for David L.) - in hand
2. Dinosaur stocking ornament (for BJ) - in hand - travel
3. Arab Tent (for Lisa B.) - in hand - travel
4. Tut Falcon Pectoral - frame
5. Blackwork Celtic Knot Building Blocks - PREPARATION/Companion for Blackwork Green Man (for Ralph R.) - frame

Ambitious Lists! But since I started back stitching, less than two months ago, I have completed or nearly completed three projects. If I can finish my top five by the end of the year, I will be HAPPY!

Almost finished with the Iris

2006-05-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

I am almost completely done with the Iris picture. It needs some back stitching and a signature & date, but I wanted to block it first. I chose entirely the WRONG background stitch to do in hand and the piece is totally warped.

It's on the blocking board for my second attempt and is nearly straight. I may try one more time to re-block it after it dries. Then I'll put it on stretcher bars to do the backstitching and leave it on them until I frame it. Otherwise, I'm afraid it will just pull out of shape again.

Finished Mystery Sampler!

2006-05-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

I finished the Mystery Sampler today! There is a mistake - dare anybody to find it, LOL!

I changed a few things in Gay Ann Rogers' instructions - she wanted just green & red for colors, but I did not have enough green, plus I wanted blue in there.

I changed the saying. I found a haiku I liked, then changed it significantly. And I changed the lower band where I put the date and signature - GAR had more whitework stiching.

This is the first real sampler I have done - I'm pleased with it!

Next project - Mystery Sampler!

2006-04-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I will only actively work on a few projects at a time: one on stretcher bars or a frame, on "in hand" project and one to work on when going places like waiting for appointments or when DH is driving on trips.

Right now, the Irises piece is my "in hand" item. I've got a cute little Christmas stocking ornament of a triceratops for traveling. And my next framed piece will be - Tada! Gay Ann Rogers' Mystery Sampler I. Here is how far I made it before I quit stitching:

Found a Forgotten Stitch Piece!

2006-04-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

When I went to get out my next project, I found a piece I finished ten years ago and had totally forgotten! I don't even remember what it was called, and only vaguely remember stitching it. Pretty nice, if I do say so myself, and I have no where to use it. Maybe if we build a house, it can go in the formal dining room.

Finished Windermere! Sad Story attached...

2006-04-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

I finished Windermere this afternoon! The first needlework project I have completed in years - I had forgotten how great that feels!

WARNING - SAD STORY!

I would have finished it last night but while stitching on it, I kept hearing all sorts of noise outside. The crows were mobbing the red shouldered hawk who kept complaining about their harrassment. In the middle of this ruckus, there was another cry. I figured it was another kind of bird, especially since when I went out on the deck, it sounded as if it was up in the trees, traveling away.

Then the strange cry came from the other side of the house. When I went to look, Edmund, DH's cat was carrying some animal in his mouth. Then I realized he had a baby wild bunny that was kicking and screaming. I ran out and rescued the poor little guy. Called the Wildlife Rescue guys and they sent me to the animal hospital that does their work. Bunny was still alive when I dropped him off, but I am not sure he will make it. So sad.

This morning when I went out to feed the horses, there were blowflies outside - that usually means something's dead. So I wonder if there was more than one bunny and the hawk got the one I thought was in the trees. I don't want to look for any...

Needlework Progress

2006-04-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

I'm back to stitching! Right now I am mainly working on two projects - Irises from a chart by Carolyn Meacham. I'm stitching it with DMC cotton floss on 24 count canvas. Mostly I have background and a little backstitching to finish.

And the Windermere class project by Susan Reed. This is stitched on 18 count canvas with linen thread, Caron Waterlilies, Balger ribbon, beads and DMC floss. It has pulled thread bands alternating with stitched bands using some of Susan Reeds wonderful techniques. I have to stitch beads on Band 6 and some stitching and beading on Band 8 - then I will be finished!

Casanova is here!

2006-03-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

New Ouarter Horse colt born March 12, 2006, by Jimmy Caan Leo and out of Lover Bar Heels.

The other babies can be seen at Woodswell Farm 2006 Foals.

Smooshed Walls

2005-10-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

The walls were originally a dark faux walnut paneling. We washed the walls, primed and painted them with Behr paint in a light blue. We then did a technique I call "smooshed" - the easiest paint technique I have seen and I really like the effect.

To smoosh a wall, use flat or eggshell paint for the first layer. Then mix a glaze - we used one gallon of Behr glaze to one pint of color. Our glaze color was a blue a few shades darker than the light blue base color.

Paint the wall with the glaze - be sure to get all the edges at the top and bottom, but do not do wider than you need at once. Take a large sheet of thin plastic - we used disposable plastic table cloths that come on large rolls. They are 8x4 feet, so perfect for our 7'4" tall walls.

Get a tall person to hold the top two corners of the plastic and a short person to hold the bottom corners behind the tall person. The tall person slaps the plastic against the wall, and both smoosh the plastic into teh glaze. Then peel the plastic off, wad it up with the wet sides together and throw it away.

It took us about 3 hours to smoosh a large room about 28x16 feet, irregular shaped with extra alcoves. When we washed the walls in the smaller dining room, it took us 8 hours and we were worn out.

With a tone on tone, smooshing is very subtle. Ours looks sort of marbled effect. I experimented with different colors and the combination - light on dark, dark on light, contrasting colors - make a huge difference in the final effect.

Pine Floors

2005-10-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here are photos of the Southern yellow pine floors we put into our current house. I believe that the first photo is before the finish was put onto the floors. All of these pictures are of the the first - and largest - room we did. The quality of our installation improved as we did the other rooms. But apparently I was too tired to take pictures of the later rooms.

I can put pictures on this blog!

2005-09-24T01:23:00.000-07:00

This is Goldy, one of our foals from this year. I like her so much, she may stay. Just what I need, another horse!
Anne

Woodswell Blog created!

2005-07-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

I just set up this blog to try out blogging.
Anne