You may have noticed that I didn't post last week. I've been in Portland for quilt market which is always an interesting experience. I took a lot of photos and not one of them has fabric or a quilt in it! Sigh.

Here are some of the things that caught my eye:

The lettering on this boat, and I'm exactly sure why…

I saw these cans in a shop window (H&M I think) and thought they were interesting. It wasn't until I looked at the photo that I saw that the cans spell 'can' which made me grin. On the other hand, I'm not sure that this is an effective use of window real estate for a clothing store.

I saw Joanne Figueroa in the C&T booth wearing this amazing coat. She said everyone wanted to know if she made it (no, found it at Macy's I think she said). Pretty lady in a pretty coat. I love the little circles that surround the primary design in the coat fabric. I am reminded of Cheerios floating in a cereal bowl which may not be the most romantic interpretation…

I saw enough of the Voodoo donut boxes to wish they were gluten free. I hear the donuts are both huge and tasty but I was more interested in the boxes. What great marketing! Doesn't the box make you want to try them?

I found a variety of good floors. What I like is the way simple shapes make a pattern – just the way it does in a pieced quilt. Here's the floor from the lobby of our Hilton. What makes it better than average is that the large squares are sub-divided into 4 squares. That would be a fun idea to play with.

And the bathroom at the convention center caught my eye. It was funny, I saw several quilts hanging in booths that could have been based on this pattern…

I have more to share tomorrow…

I'm on the way home from Washington and I have some photos to share. Did I take pictures of the classes or of the quilt shop? No, I'm always too busy teaching to stop for that. But before and after class I found time to pull out the camera. 

I stayed in Yvonne's quilt room/apartment in Bellingham. I had the whole place to myself as Yvonne and Dave live in the big house (the big Victorian house, not the prison :-)). They had a number of wonderful sculptures in their 5 acre yard – gotta love these guys.

You can see Mt. Baker from the front yard. Steve and I were up there a few years ago.

I can't grow peonies (this is a peony, isn't it?) so this one called to me…

Even better in a close crop…

Anara drove me to Arlington at the end of class on Thursday. We took the scenic route. I suppose it's a good thing that the sun was in the wrong place for picture taking or we would have had to stop more.

We ate dinner at a restaurant that I should remember the name of. I don't. Sigh. But I did take pictures of this wall. They have decoupaged area maps to several walls and it looked really good:

I've done this sort of thing with dyed brown paper on floors before so I can truthfully tell you that this is not hard. Crumple the paper, or don't. Dye it, or don't. Tear is for interesting edges, leave them straight, or combine both kinds of edges. 

I used watered down white glue in the past but you could also use Mod Podge. Wallpaper paste would work. I'll bet that you could also make your own 'glue' from flour and water. 

If you did this on a floor, you would want to use the white glue – it's more permanent. You also need to coat it with clear polyurethane made for floors. I can tell you that it sticks well – just go back and see how hard it was for the guys to take up before they laid our new floor.

Do any of you still have one of the first blueberry iMacs? I need a high-quality photo (a pretty one) of a blueberry iMac. I've contacted Apple, but am not likely to hear back from them.

I've searched online but so far have not found a good photo. This one is nice, but the quality is too low.

The master bath is coming along nicely. The cabinet is in place and is being painted. The cabinet door and drawers are being painted off-site. The Ceasarstone countertop is in place and the faucet works!

The new cabinet is countertop height. If you stand at your kitchen counter – it's that high. Somewhere in my travels I encountered a bathroom with this feature and I really liked it. I suppose if you are short this isn't a great idea but we like it a lot. 

Linda's bathrooms have a shelf that extends from the counter, over the top of the toilet. I like that and decided to do the same thing in both of our bathrooms. I don't plan to fill this shelf with anything but it's nice to have for overflow 'stuff'. It's especially nice for overnight company.

Our other bathroom has an existing cabinet that is fine, but we wanted it taller too. Orville built it up to countertop height and has trimmed it out so that it looks like it was meant to be that way.

The Ceasarstone looks like terrazzo. It’s lovely. I chose the smaller sink and had it moved more to the side to increase the counter space. It’s funny how you get used to something like the size of your sink. It’s going to take me a while to adjust when I’m rinsing after brushing.

Orville and Juan started installing the Bella natural hickory floor last week. It took Orville quite a while to establish this first line of boards. It's important to get this right because the floors are interconnected throughout the house.

The got a lot more laid on day 2. The blue tape is there to help hold the boards in place until the glue sets. The heavy boxes hold the floor down and provide a walkway.

I have to admit that when I first saw this I was a surprised at how much pattern there is. I knew there would be but seeing it is different from imagining it. Luckily, we both love it! It's very different but feels good in the space. The pattern is stronger when you look down the boards and quieter when you look across them. I'll take more photos later.

Here is the breakfast room, before…

And here it is, primed. The soffit will come out to be replaced by cabinets. New doors and drawers are being made but I can already tell how much lighter and brighter it will be in white.

As I type this I am at DFW waiting for a plane to take me to Washington. I'll be in Bellingham to visit the Running With Scissors quilt guild, then it's on to Aunt Mary's quilt shop outside of Seattle for a 2-day class. Now is a good time to catch you up on the remodeling.

What you see below is our new shower. I chose a beautiful, expensive tile for the accent band. It has white glass and pieces of snow white quartz. It was perfect – until it was grouted with the dirt-colored grout that I chose. In the photo below you will see the piece of the un-grouted tile taped up over the band of already-grouted tile.

We all learned a new thing: glass tiles pick up the color of the grout. To be white, this band should have white grout. I did not want white grout in the shower. The greyish color would be OK except that I wanted WHITE! 

Rick smiled and said, we'll fix it. Luis, who worked hard to make the first choice work, smiled and said it was fine, he'd fix it. My contractor, Rick Owens, and his crews are top notch!

At this point I knew I would need a porcelain tile. I went to Home Depot and found some 3×6 subway tiles that were inexpensive and that fit the space. Luis chipped out the old tile without messing up any of the other tiles and put in the new ones. And, you know what? The new ones look really nice and I think I like them at least as well as my first choice! 

Inside the shower is a built-in shelf. Luis had carefully surrounded it with the 1st tile. We left that tile in place and I like it there. It's interesting and a reminder of what went on before. If I can get a good photo of that area, I will.

You can see the shaved-off river rock on the shower floor. It has been sealed with a sealer since I took this photo that made the white rocks darker. I think I liked them better whiter and I may lightly sand off the top of the whiter stones. Or not.