Felted soap, bathroom Reno, and birches

This is a very busy week here. I’m tired and it’s only the second Reno day,  lol. We are putting a walk in shower in our bathroom to replace the tub. I couldn’t bathe anymore and I’m having an increasingly hard time to climb over the side of the tub to shower due to my hip. So now, no more tub in the house, but it’s going to be so much better for me.

This is a bit of what it looked like before the tear apart.

This is being done more about necessity than a restyle. It’s definitely outdated and the tile around the tub had cracks. It was soon to be done but we moved it forward.

We purchased a shower base and surround. One wall with tile was torn out as my husband needed to get in to do wiring anyway for a heater hed bought for me last year. 

This was yesterday.

And today. The window is slightly smaller and centered to accommodate the surround.

We will do the right hand wall at another time although I think we’ll do the counter top and I’ll change the cabinet hardware.

If you’d like a closer look I put a short video on tube that shows the whole small bathroom. Just click on You Tube on the top right of this post.

I’ve been able to keep busy in my studio despite the noise right next to it. I’ve been hand stitching, sewing down the binding on a quilt. 

Also, I got a dupioni silk border on the birches and added all the textures in the foreground. It’s ready for the final free motion stitching.

A pattern that I’ve been interested in for a while is the drunkards path. There are a lot of modern variations out there; I’m thinking about it for a small art piece. Also, I want to do a baby quilt. I’ve settled on the 3” size in hand dyes and a 6” size for the baby quilt (on the bottom). I find it helpful to do a few test blocks to see how it might work and think about it.
I’ll soon get started on the baby quilt, cutting pieces when I need a change.

Last Saturday, I took a very small workshop at our local yarn shop, called Fresh Fibers Studio learning to make felted soap.

The handmade soap is wrapped in wool roving and put into a stocking.

There is a lot of squeezing and scrubbing involved - a good hand and finger workout.

These are the two that I did which are now drying. It becomes felted and very tight around the soap, perfect for scrubbing in the bath.

The class pieces.

I really enjoyed getting out for a couple hours to learn something new, especially as all pre auctions were observed and it’s still quite safe here. Presently, no cases in our area. It is in our province though and I thought to do it while I can before the winter settles in.

I finally got around to putting button eyes on Peter and giving him a slightly happier mouth. I plan to order the pattern for his knitted jacket. 

I’ve been knitting away on small socks for the boys and I’m currently sewing ends in on the Christmas stockings which I’ll show next time.

This is the Oaks cowl, a free pattern on Tin Can Knits. I’m going to make one child sized like the gold one for 4 yr old Ollie.

Wherever you are friends, I wish you good health. I hope you can take some time to relax in some way and have an outlet for the anxiety we are all feeling right now. 

Take care.