works in progress

You might recall that last summer we had a major overhaul of our kitchen and bathroom.  Turned out wonderfully, and of course, leads to other desires to update our home.  Like dominoes falling, so goes the home improvement projects!  In our second story area, there is still carpet in the bedroom (AKA sewing room #2) and loft/office that needs to go.  I'm tired of ignoring the stains, putting rugs over the worst spots, etc.  A couple years ago, Bob masterfully replaced the old carpet in my #1 sewing room (I basically have 3!) with DIY wood flooring from IKEA.  We would like to continue with that idea over the rest of the carpeted area, but there is an obstacle in our way.  When the house was built, we didn't have a good grip on what was going to happen with the log posts that support the railing, and the floor that they rest upon.  The carpet was installed and cut to fit around the posts and wrap over the exposed edge, which worked.  Now, however, when we rip out that carpeting, we have to go back to square one and modify the design.  

This is the way it looks now.

We need it to become more like this, with wood underneath the posts and covering the edge.

We have been pondering what would be the best approach to get this done and procrastinating because we either have to decide to bite the bullet and hire someone to take over, or figure out how we are going to do it for ourselves.  We are great DIY'ers, but we do have our limits!  Well, I couldn't wait any longer, and one night last week I just started prying and pulling until I could get the edge of the carpet loosened and pulled up.  This is what we found:

I remember when this carpet was laid, the workmen were not very happy about putting the carpet around the posts, and now I understand why.  They had to cut little pieces of that tackstrip stuff to fit around each post.  Then attach the carpet and bring it over the front edge to attach there.

Well, I guess we are committed now, because there is a chunk of carpet missing and bare wood that needs to be dealt with!

On to things I can handle more easily--

a little candlemat that I made from English paper piecing diamonds, along with wool and fabric.  It will be a little pattern for my Paper Pizzazz class at Bear Patch in a couple months.  It's an easy sew, and turned out well.  I especially like the fact that I found a cute little basket and candle to go with it!

And below is an arrangement of fabric stapled to canvas frames.  Like a fabric collage.  I want to hang these on the bedroom wall, they coordinate with the quilt on our bed.  Well, a couple of these are not actually stapled at the time I took the picture, because the stapler failed.  Not to worry, I figured out how to take it apart and free up the jam inside and I got the stapling done.  Now I have to get the spacing figured out and hang these up!