Door update

Just a quick post as unfortunately my mother is having kidney stone problems again and I am off to spend the night at the assisted living center again.  Just dashed home to put dogs in barn and get night clothes...
Monday was Day One--- Base coat and priming... I did also get the frame around the door....not embellished yet.

Tuesday ,,,Day Two ...Started the colors and loving it.  I want a folk artsy look (not tole) and as soon as the painting is done I will put an antique glaze one it...

Not that happy with the quality of paint..

Not sure about tomorrow.  I'm sure by the end of the day my mother will be back in the hospital again.
I was hoping to paint the butterflies tomorrow.

Remember the boring old white door?

The game is afoot. Not a word! Let the fun begin..

On Saturday I had access to the truck without raising suspicion so I was able to get to the lumber store for supplies and get them into the barn before DH got home.

For an inexpensive endeavor, I seem to be spending a lot of money... Some of this is for the frame on the entry which I had hoped to have done before he left but will be done now in conjunction with the rainbow door.  I'm thinking I might have been a little over ambitious thinking I could do the commode chair at the same time.

I started priming all the raw wood boards and trims in the barn yesterday and will do some each day.. I want all my prep work done so when DH starts down the drive Monday I can immediately move the radial arm saw into the garage and start. I have pretty much cleared the week as much as possible..

I mentioned last winter that I knew I had another angel buried under a gazebo which collapsed the year we had 9 feet of snow...  I could see part of it during the winter but really had to search for it with everything leafed out..  It is about 24" across and has bits of moss growing on it and had lots of mud on the back... I'll let it dry and gently brush the mud off as I like the patina..When I set it on the gravel to dry, Morris promptly peed on it....adding much esthetic value I'm sure.

While I was back there I wrestled this iron piece up to the house and will attach it to the garage to support one of several clematis I relocated. It weighs a ton and will not be easy to attach.... I moved three of my favorite clematis from the back of the garden so I will get to enjoy them.  It will take a few years for them to recover... They were so huge they were climbing into surrounding trees.  I had to gather all my resolve to cut them back and dig them up...

I have another similar iron piece that needs to be moved also.  Thirty years ago I used to find old iron work cheap everywhere.  Now I never see it anymore except in upscale antique stores..

I'm also delighted to report that the gaura lindheimeri which I searched the entire country for last year has survived. Last year I also searched  for eriophyllum and found nary a plant for sale and found it this spring and expect it any day now.

My Passion for Paisley (Persian Pickles)

 I have a passion for paisleys.  I love them in fabric design and I love stitching them with threads, beads, embroidery and sequins. Paisleys have been a very traditional element in crazy quilts from the very beginning.  They rank right up there with fans and spider webs as popular motifs...  

When I decided to paint the commode chair I knew I wanted to have a paisley cushion and paisley elements in the painted decoration... I have to admit that my experience with buying fabric online has been abysmal, both in quality and color.. But my choices at our two local fabric stores were nil so I was forced to go to internet sites.  First I tried major fabric sites and then I resorted to Google images... The problem with Google images is even though you are offered a huge selection to look at, not all of them are for sale...And that is what happened with my very first and most favorite paisley fabric. I was looking for a paisley that had ALL the rainbow colors I have in my door kit... But this fabric was sold on Etsy last summer and not available anywhere I searched.  If you have this fabric in your stash...let me know as I just love it and I need very little.  I will keep searching for it...it is a Waverly fabric.

So I settled for this fabric...but I found  it on several fabric sites and the colors on the screen varied widely...from very bright and colorful to kinda dull...so we'll see when it arrives..  I do like the whimsical rustic look of the paisleys.

I also ordered this and then I would only use part of my paints which I guess is okay... It is a beautiful paisley though and if I don't use it on the chair I will use it for a bag, Just because the door is rainbow doesn't mean the chair has to be...

  Paisley or Paisley pattern is a term in English for a design using the boteh, a droplet-shaped vegetable motif of Persian or Indian  origin. Such designs became very popular in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries, following imports from British India and were then imitated locally. The pattern is sometimes called "Persian pickles" by American traditionalists, especially quilt-makers, or "Welsh pears" in Welsh textiles as far back as 1888. Its western name derives from the town of Paisley, in central Scotland, a center for textiles where paisley designs were produced

  

They arrived and take a look!

There are ten 8oz containers of paints for Behr... Not only were they a GREAT bargain, there was FREE SHIPPING.... They came with color swatches for the paints I ordered but also swatches for coordinated colors in case I wanted a darker, lighter or brighter version...  (see the 3 blues on the right)

There are 10 colors and after looking at them all I'm happy with my choices but think I need to add one more.. a darker purple to balance the deep  poppy red...

11 colors and fancy trims....what fun!!!

Now I have the actual colors the next step will be doing the door to scale and playing with color placement with my chosen colors...  I know I also want some stenciling on the door and some birds...  I will do several versions and let you give some input...

I know I have lots of bits and pieces of fancy trims stash in the barn  left from other projects... some only  12" but hope to find places for everything I have.   After I inventory what I have a trip to Windsor Hardware and Trim will be my last stop...The hardest part will be waiting until June when it is warm enough to remove the door and DH is out of town..  Some of the trim around the door I can do in the barn ahead of that time.......

 Yesterday I found the empty granola bin sitting right in front of my coffee pot... I suppose this to be one of my DH's subtle hints.  I didn't get it done but I did bake him a berry pie... Today starts the second of my Level One classes at the thread store...

Colors for my happy "Rainbow Door"

I have been gathering color palettes various ways... Some like upper left... I use the "color picker" feature in photoshop on things I think are happy like this piece of crazy quilt... Others palettes I've collected on fashion and home interior sites.

I want colors that make me happy and I can live with and colors  that won't shock my husband into a divorce or heart attack when he comes home and sees it... He didn't talk to me for 3 days after the porch project last spring.  Now he loves it. The nine colors upper right are Martha Stewart's spring rainbow palette and I really like it the best so far...

I did a little research and the brand of paint most often recommended for metal doors was Behr Ultra and I have been playing in their virtual color center where you can save colors and tweek them... I'm at the tweeking stage now.

Besides DH, my other concern was the cost as most paint centers won't custom mix anything less than a quart  and one quart would do the entire door... I want at least 8-9 colors... So the VERY BEST thing about the Behr site is they will send you 8 oz. samples of the colors you pick for only $3.98 and free shipping for over 4 colors... Now that is a real deal for this project and I may get 12-15 colors.. If there is paint left over I may paint birds and a rainbow on the garage doors..and on the barn too...    So when I'm too tired to stitch and it's too early to go to bed, I'm playing with paint colors..

Update: My  mother is out of the hospital, out of the nursing home and moved from a independent living unit to an assisted living unit.  I unpacked the last of the boxes yesterday.

Want to take a walk to the barn?

DH was looking for his favorite paring knife this morning and accused me of throwing it away..  If it wouldn't have been so difficult to get up again, I'd fallen to the floor laughing.... I NEVER throw anything away.  Now that I've decided to do the front door I am going to need some impressive lumber to do a frame around it and of course if I'm doing the door I will need to do a frame around the entry porch... So I decided to poke around the garden and barn this morning to see what is salvageable. What I do know is:

• I will need several days for this project
• DH must be out of town
• It must be warm enough to take the door off its hinges.
• I have VERY limited funds most of which need to go for paint.

In the big sewing room in the barn (formally the tea room) there are about 40-50 feet of shelf around two walls. They  are wonderful 2x10s.  I would need a strong body to help me get them down as they are about 10ft  above the floor and I have promised DH and my doctor to stay off ladders. I was much younger when I put the shelves up and used a pulley and a 12' ladder.

I was thinking of some birds I carved for a bench and thought they might be suitable for over the entry to the porch...I knew the bench had since collapsed and found the birds were in pretty bad shape..  But I do have this faux thing over a window in the barn shop which I will repaint and use.   How many people do you know who have lace curtains on their barn window...?

And speaking of doors... Remember when I had an emotional meltdown over a door...  Well the replacement door (not nearly as nice) and is still sitting there on sawhorses.  Wouldn't it be nice if I could find the perfect use for this door this summer...?