Week's End

It's nearing the end of the 3rd week I have been working on this quilt.  On Tuesday, I'd had enough.  I was getting upset.  The green border was not coming out quite like I wanted.  I had a tension snag, had to unpick stitches, and silk thread is hard to remove .  Then I found a small pleat.  The vertical borders were not stitching as well as the ones across the frame.  Live and learn.  I should have quilted them AS I WENT, not after I got to the bottom.  It just seemed that the problems were happening one after another, and I was tired, and in no mood to deal with them.  When I went to bed Tuesday, I decided the quilt was coming off the following morning, and I'd deal with it in a few weeks.  When I awoke on Wednesday, I had changed my mind and dove right in on the red quilting.  I sort of look at this as mindless stitching.  The Dresden plates were SO simple - just follow the lines in the print of the fabric. Clever and effective.  The other dark cranberry shapes took a little thought, but aside from there being 24 of them, they were not very hard.  They look good, though, don't they??!

One thing I did on the red that I have never done is use a wicked thin bobbin thread.  The best matching thread I had is a Master Quilter 40wt poly by Wonderfil.  This company is from Canada, so not as many Americans probably use their products.  They are also a bit pricey, but my cheap thread standards.  I won this last year and have 15 cones of the thread, and I really like quilting with it!  That thread and the Invisifil are my favorite Wonderfil threads.  Anyhow, I have never used smaller than a 60wt in the bobbin.  In fact, I often encounter difficulty winding 60wt Bottomline, so I buy it in the prewound bobbins.  The best match I had for the thread I wanted on the top was either 50wt poly or 100wt Invisifil.  I stitched one Dresden in the 50wt and hated how thready it looked on the backside.  It got ripped out, and I learned how to wind a 100wt bobbin.  The end result is that the red is superfine on my green backing, barely showing at all.

 Here's my mostly round circles -- good enough for me.

I did get the quilt off of the frame today, and as I expected, it looks amazing.  The designs that are hard to envision on a large quilt, are most evident when it lays on the floor.  I'm not saying it is not without a few things to fix and tweak, but I'm more relieved now about the quilt than I was a few days ago.  Pictures???...not right away.  I expect I will get it finished to send it to MQX and other shows next spring/summer.

I got fantastic news today from the Quilting with Machines show in Ohio.  All three of the quilts I entered have received ribbons -- two third places and one second.  Maybe you can recognize them here...

I predict that life will calm down a bit now that the stress of quilting my own quilt is off for a while.  I have half a dozen client projects, and more on the way, but there is no stress like knowing YOU are holding up everyone else's work.  I'm going to take a day to play tomorrow with some new fabrics I have had for nearly a month now.  They arrived just before I started Monster Dresdens (it does still need a righteous name), but I couldn't justify doing anything with them with this looming quilt on the frame.  I have designed a small quilt with some Moda Crossweaves.  They are discontinued, as I understand it, but I found a vendor that still had some for about $5/yd and I got a bunch of pieces.  This quilt was (aren't they always) supposed to be simple, but I loved too many of the colors too much not to get them.  It will be under 40" finished so it can go to the small quilt category at shows (unlike the Intertwined quilt at QwM that is 40.5"!).  I wanted it simple with elegant quilting.  Hopefully I can pull off decent piecing considering how small those blocks are finished.

69 Hours and counting

Finally, after 2 weeks of quilting like a mad-man, I am on the bottom border.  It is coming along.  It took about 4-5 hours to get this much done today (it is a 5" space).  It's hard to get excited about the remaining 3 borders that need quilting when one takes this much time!

 The quilt will come off the frame at the end of the week, done or not.  I know it will still be incomplete, but I should have all 4 borders finished by then.  None of the deep pink has been stitched yet.  It's time to get going on some client work :-)

Quilting!! and a big win

The Big Green Monster (aka green modern Dresdens) has been on my machine for 5 days now.  The kids are safely off at school 7 hours a day and I am quilting more hours a day than I think I ever have to get this at least to a state that it can be safely removed.  Notice that I did not use the "done" word.  I won't even assume that I can finish it before the client quilts are piling up, but it does need to have the majority of the fill-work completed so it's adequately held together.

I discovered right off the bat that the green thread I had planned to use was too dark for the lime green outer border.  You'd think that I could have checked that sometime in the last month or so and ordered a lighter shade, eh?  Nope.  I figured it out the day I hoped to actually quilt the border.  Today, 4 days later, the paler green thread arrived.  I was not patient enough to wait, so I have to go back and quilt the basted border when I am done with the center.  Pray for no pleats.

So far, there are areas of the quilting that I love, and areas that I might raise an eyebrow and question why I thought that would be good.  I love the silk thread.  It.is.awesome.  Super.duper.awesome.  Want more, Santa...must have!  All 20 of the Dresdens will be quilted as below.  I have not done the pink center yet; will get after the rest is done.  The thread is a heavier-weight so I don't want to be constantly adjusting tension as I go back and forth between Glide and silk.  Note that I echo quilted 1/4" around the Dresden.  Looks nice, I think.

On day 3, though, I was so freaking gung-ho to test out a filler that I failed to outline the top center Dresden!  I could have screamed.  There's no way I am pulling out as much of this silk thread that would have to be removed to outline the plate, so the outlining is reserved just for the corners. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm using some fills that I have not really used on a competition quilt before.  I'm not really sure about the 1/2" curved-crosshatch.  It's nothing overly original.  I have seen it many times before on show quilts and liked it.  So, tell me why I don't love it here?.  It just seems like a lot of it.  I really wish I'd chosen some free-flowing feathers...except that when I designed the quilting for this quilt I wanted to avoid just putting feathers everywhere.  I want a variety of textures.  Fingers crossed.

Above you can see my "modified prairie points".  I'm a bit of a rebel.  I wanted to try them because they seemed era-appropriate for a Dresden quilt, and the triangles look great, but I couldn't get over the flaps flapping all over the place so I stitched them all down.  Prairie points no more.

There are 9 ivory blocks, and eight of them are exactly like this one.  The center is a little different.  It turned out really well.  The band of pebbles will create a sub-frame within the quilting.  I designed this, and actually traced the pattern onto all 8 blocks with a pen.  I am all about free-quilting feathers, but I really wanted uniformity for these.

Here's a fun fill I drafted for this quilt.  Those cross-hatched frames go up the diagonal of the quilt to frame the patch of 16 Dresdens on pointe.   This is 22 hours into a 102" quilt...maybe at the 30% completion mark.  Maybe.

I got word that my quilt Meet Me at Giverny shown here took a first place at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo!!  It sounds like the quilts there are really spectacular - hand and machine quilted both.  If you are in the Madison area, it's well worth a trip.

Preparations

Nine days.  Can you say that?  "Nine days"...that is when I will load this and start quilting.  

I have spent quite a few hours this past weekend, and a couple of the blue wash-out pens, marking this quilt. Normally I don't waste so much time marking, but this quilt is huge.  And I just can't be trusted to remember what I did on the top half when I actually get to the bottom half!

I have several "types" of motifs that I like to use on my quilts.  For that reason, I have spent a goodly amount of time trying to dream up different things for this one.  I am creative, afterall, and I know that I don't have to quilt the same old thing every time.  It is challenging, though, getting away from things that I have seen done successfully, and that I really like.

The 6" outer green border is getting a fun wavy feather, that has a stripe that weaves in and around it.  I'll probably vary up the feather a bit, adding curls and a few leaves.  Somehow, it just looks a bit sterile in the picture.  Once I see how the silk thread looks on the green, I may also do the stripe in another color so that it shows more.

The corners of the quilt are pretty large - nearly 40" on a side.  It's enough blank space to send a quilter running for the hills.  I have subdivided this a little, preparing for a couple areas with fillers, some cross-hatching, some interesting shapes, and all that 1/2" marked area is getting cc'd.  I don't generally do this on a small scale on my quilts, so I opted to do so here.

I also designed the motifs going in the white areas.  These are feathered with cross hatching in the centers, and some other fill around them.  I created this motif a few months ago to go on a whole cloth quilt that I have yet to mark.  They seem like they'll be kind of time consuming (heck, the entire quilt is going to be time consuming), but the end effect of a cool design on light fabric will be worth it.

The center motif is different, to draw the eye inward.  I know, I know...I use rays on quilts all the time.  The fact is, they bring the eye where I want the eye to go.  They add visual interest in a way I have yet been able to replicate.  This is my original design, created by playing around with repeating feather sprays. 

There are pages and pages of scribbles and stipple patterns in my house.  If I see a pattern on something, I start drawing.  I'm taking 2 or 3 of these to use on the quilt in the larger open spaces.  The ones I like best just are not suited for filling tiny areas.

So, 9 more days.

Today, the kids get haircuts.  New shoes have been purchased, and the drawers are being stocked with unstained, appropriate size school clothes.  Do I sound like I am ready??!...Until then, there are a few more things to finish marking and planning, a 3 day getaway to Boston, and of course, a client has called and is dropping off a quilt this week (to be done Monday).  Why is it that right when I am about to embark on a large quilt of my own, I always have another that must be done first??!  Ah, the life of a professional quilter...no complaints.   Then my big green monster will be started.

The Fat Lady hasn't Sung Yet

As FiberObsession commented on my last post, I just wasn't going to be content until I did something to the Dresden centers.  I chose this rose/red fabric because it was THE perfect center fabric.  And until I dreamed "what if I put a center button and smaller dot" like I was doing on the corners, I thought this 102" quilt was nearly finished.  That's me...the consummate dreamer.  If it would just end at a dream, life would be easier, or at least faster :-)  It's the constant dreaming that makes me a creative quilter.  It tests limits and boundaries, and constantly pushes me to consider new and different things.  Not entirely bad.  Afterall, there's not really a deadline for this quilt.  

So, I tested a bunch of the green fabrics for the central buttons.  I have decided upon the deep check (2nd picture) for at least half of the larger buttons.  I think I have another dark green print I will use for the others.  

I have the circles just staged, and not yet stitched.  I think that the deep cranberry centers will be a little larger than what is shown.  So what are your thoughts?...Am I nuts, or is this a positive alteration to the design?  Is the green the right color? So many questions and doubts.  Guess time will tell...

Dot by Painful Dot

Despite my efforts and desires to have this quilt on the frame by now, I decided it was better to take my time and be happy with the finished product.  Part of me assumes it will go only to my bed, but the other side of me suspects that I will pull a fast one and send it to a few shows next year first.  We'll see...  

So, here's my modern green Dresden quilt.  You remember, the one that I ditched last summer/fall when I realized how many other thousand blogging quilters were making one.  I chose this design on my own, and even made my own pattern, completely independent of the Modern Dresden crew.  But still, I hate when I am making something that many, MANY others are too, even if mine is considerably different.  

So, I decided that the outer border needed a punch of the deep rose.  It needed 106 half inch dots, to be exact.  To date, I have all but about 15 of them stitched on.  The corners were a problem all along, and I have been mulling over thoughts to disguise the bulk where the prairie points and mitered joint come together.  My first thought was to applique a larger circle over the area.  It seemed so promising that I actually did it.  And until I did it, I liked the idea...whoops!  Good thing I did not cut away the fabric beneath the applique!

So, I played around a little bit to come up with something I liked better.  Hopefully this is it.  I like the scallop edge because it ties in with the Dresden centers better than the plain circle did.  Then because I totally ran out of the kelly green of the 2nd border, I chose a small check print instead for the 2" button center.  It accomplishes what I need, to cover the bulky area so I can cut it away beneath the applique.  I think it also gives the corner a little character.  Three more corners to go, and 15 small dots.  Then I think it will be ready to quilt. ...Unless I decide that the Dresdens need bright green centers too...

I had planned to show some more quilt pictures from the Maine Quilt Show, but time has gotten away from me.  I get little done with kids home (can you say 3-1/2 more weeks??!), and I've been watching what I can of the olympics via my computer.  I will leave you with a good link of a blog where she's shown a whole many show quilts from this annual Maine show.  Her's are way better than mine.  Have a look...

Last weekend, I sent 2 of my quilts to a machine quilting show in WI...Machine Quilting Today Show.  One of my quilts, a small one only 40.5" square, took a 3rd place!  I was pretty surprised.  This quilt has not gone to too many shows because it's ever-so-slightly too large for the small quilt category, and probably not effectively competitive with larger quilts.  I also sent my Meet Me at Giverny quilt, but it didn't place.  Perhaps the judges comments will shed some light on why, or perhaps it was just in a stacked category.  I don't know.

Time to go chip away on the many applique projects I have in the works while the kids veg in the cool house to Roadrunner and Bugs Bunny.

New Year's Eve

While many people like to do a recap of all the quilts they made in the year, I will refrain. These posts are often entertaining, but in my case, I think an adequate number of pictures of all my own quilts have already been shown. And in cases where I have only showed snippets, you will have to wait until the quilt makes its debut at a show this spring.

Among my list of notable accomplishments, getting through this holiday season with a minimal amount of angst. It's always more hype than gratification, but Christmas morning was pleasant. The kids had argued significantly over who would get which stocking - they have no names on them, and all 5 are different colors (red, green, amber, marroon and purple). Inevitably, two people always want the same ones. Rather than listen to ANY more bickering, Santa brought their goods stuffed into huge stockings instead. Nobody, for once, objected!
For the past 2 days, my husband and I have had peace and quiet. Free time, and dine-out time. We even went to the mall, alone, yesterday. My mom has had the kids since Thursday morning. After dropping them off, we drove 3 hours to pick up this bundle of fluff. Kittens are SO hard to come by and I am sick and tired of shelters asking every single question as though we are applying for a home loan. We are paying them for the animal, for goodness sake. She was free to a good home. The only hitch was that she was not near to us. We were able to get the animal, and visit with a friend of my husband's for a couple hours, without listening to "are we there yet?"

The kitten is very sweet, and so obviously adorable. And SO not a girl cat! Did they not notice those fuzzy little things between his legs??! Our other cat is adjusting, and the kids are about to be picked up (and are very eager to meet him).

As for sewing...You'd think with 2 days free I'd have a ton to show for it. I wish!...I have gotten the large green border on this quilt, along with the pseudo prairie points. It's sort of a "what was I thinking?" moment because I do have to go blind stitch the entire edge around the points. I'll probably do it on machine with clear monofilament.

It is a lively addition to the Dresden quilt, a lot of trouble to construct, but I think it carries the design through to the border. This quilt will probably sit for a bit now, as I have 2 others that are getting bound very soon, and I have at least 4 client drop offs in the next week or 10 days. Back to work...

I have one show quilt almost ready to come off the blocking board. One more day to ensure it is really 100% dry. The 2nd quilt is ready to go back on the longarm to have some SID redone, and then it is off to blocking (then my bedroom can be rearranged back to where the furniture really belongs!). The bed gets moved right next to the door so I have a place for the 8'x8' insulation boards. This morning, I made up the corded piping and binding for both quilts though, so putting it on ought to be a snap!

Time to go get my kids, and get home before all the crazy New year's eve-goers are out. Have a fun one and see you in 2012!

Breaking all My Rules

I have been back on this quilt the last couple of days. I am moving kind of slow on account of a cold, but I figure it is better to futz up my own work in that state than someone else's. I have most of the Dresdens hand appliqued. There are 4 left which go in the corners of the tan. It's easily as bright and bold as I envisioned. The 4 borders are taking forever to get on. So far, 3 of the 4 sides have 3 borders. The miters will be done once the last border is attatched. But after getting 3 done, I just felt like it was more grounded, almost to the point of being boring. And I don't do boring.
So, I contemplated how I might infuse some of the bright fuscia into the outer borders. Maybe a piping... Maybe a bias-bar design of some sort. And then I realized that I had left a couple of the extra Dresden plates beside the not-yet-attached green border, so that the points stuck out like prairie points. Hmmm...Interesting! Now I really do despise prairie points and I think that they just look too prairie-like and hum-drum. OK, the word I am searching for is really "Ugly!". I hate them, so I have been pondering for a few hours between nose blows how to incorporate the idea of pointy bright fabrics in my design, without actually using those overly-folded things that make quilting the quilt challenging. You can see that I tried a number of thoughts (in different fabrics)...

Initially I wanted to micro-pipe the edges of the points in the fuscia fabric. That was way too hard to make look good. Then I thought maybe I would paper piece them and just stitch the narrow fuscia border. But I loathe paper piecing when not truly necessary. I tested different sizes. Then I tested just stitching a machine embroidered design on the edge of them in a fuscia thread. That actually worked, and didn't surpass my required levels of frustration. It is simple, yet it brings the punch of color that I am after. I may also test embroidering every other one and alternating them with darker points. These will probably also be blind stitched down so that they cannot flap. But basically, I am happy with the look, and I will save the fuscia fabric to micro-pipe by the binding.

Then I spent an hour cutting 2-1/4" x 4-1/2" pieces of all my various greens for the points...

Dresden Plates (the pattern & the plans)

The Dresden plate pattern has been around for ages. It is a classic & traditional design that has been found in quilts for nearly 200 years. There are many variations of this pattern...ones with petals, ones with pointy "blades", ones with small center circles, ones with larger ones, and they can be found with any number of petals or blades too, giving them a much varied look. I am making a simple Dresden plate quilt, intended to showcase large-scale modern-ish prints so I do not want my pieces to be too small. I understand that Accuquilt has a die for cutting a Dresden plate which results in either 20 or 22 petals/blades. I don't have Accuquilt however, so I went to EQ7, where I can design whatever my heart desires. Sadly after I did this, my printer would absolutely not print without buying over $50 in ink cartridges, so I went to the old-fashioned route. This is, afterall, an old-fashioned block, so why not?!

I got a piece or wrapping paper. It's the largest paper I own, and my blocks are 15", which is larger than standard paper. I traced a 12" diameter quilting circle template, and cut it out. I will make my blade template from this. You could make it any size you want. I left a good bit around the Dresden to allow for quilting designs. If you don't have such template, a compass or large dinner plate will work too.
With your circle, fold it in half and then in half again, to mark 4 90-degree quadrants. If you are anal like me, take a protractor and confirm that they are in fact 90 degrees. I hae chosen a bladed Dresden with only 12 blades. Take one of the quadrants and your protractor, and mark 3 30-degree sections. I then square off the rounded end of the section and also shorten the piece where it approaches the center of the circle. We are almost finished. The last thing you need to do is add the 1/4" seam allowance to the sides (and end if you want). Cut this out and trace onto a more substantial piece of cardstock or plastic. Viola, here is your blade pattern.

Sorry, blurry, but you get the idea. Now it is a little tedious from here, but trust me, the sewing part is much faster. Trace and cut out how ever many pieces you need. I do this with 4-5 layers of fabric stacked, using a rotary cutter.

On your sewing machine, fold the piece in half lengthwise, and stitch with 1/4" seam across the end. I do backstitch at the folded end.

Now trim the seam to a scant 1/8". You don't want the bulk within the point.

Turn the piece right side out and press gently with scissors to get it pointy. Press.

Next, choose the arrangement of your 12 blades, and stitch together. I backstitch ~0.5" at the top of the seam so I don't have to worry with loose threads or a seam pulling loose. I then press the seams to one direction (because I will be ditch quilting each blade and this can not be accomplished if pressed open). Then I starch the top. There are many bias edges. The starch helps the plate to hold its shape until it is added to a background fabric.

Missing something?? Yup, the center. This is typically a circle, but since I found this perfect 12-petaled Michael Miller fabric, I couldn't resist. Applique away! I have used a 5-6" center.

I have 5 of my needed 20 plates ready for their background fabric. Please note that after I sew the plates to the background, I highly suggest going back and trimming that "triangle" of excess fabric from each blade point. It has a seam in it and will be very prone to showing through to the top of the Dresden plate when it is quilted. I hate this look :-((

This is my "Walk on the Wild-Side" Dresdens. They are bold and bright, and look so fantastic with the flower centers. Thanks to all for your comments on my quilt layouts. I kind of figured I'd go with this layout all along, but I just needed confirmation that it would be great (rather than going the more traditional route).
Coincidently, this morning I came across another person's blog post about Dresdens. You may find it informational. It is here...

And dont forget about the Quilting Sale...

Have a good Wednesday~

Up to me chin in Dresdens

Two days ago I dared to venture out with 3 kids to look at green fabrics. One of my favorite fabric haunts will cut as small as 1/8", and carries name-brand materials for as low as $3.99 to $4.50 per yard for most everything. I am working on my modern Dresden quilt and thought it needed a little more variety. Maybe I was just feeling restless or even a tad insane. I went to Mardens anyhow. The boys were actually good, first time all week I can say that I was not cringing and appologizing for their rudeness in public. I sent them off to fetch me a couple more greens. At fifty cents, I could hardly go wrong if they brought me ugly #1 and ugly #2. Then I sent them to count the greens, and the yellows and even the holiday prints (about 900 bolts in all). All done without bickering and fighting while the gal cut a dozen bolts for me. Shocking!
So, I now have 20 whole Dresdens, 8 half Dresdens and 4 quarters. Turns out I think I mis- counted and really didn't need quite so many. It's no big deal, they sew up SO fast. I make 5-6 in an hour each morning before the chaos starts each day.

I only have one of the centers actually appliqued on though. This is where the slow work starts. The center took aboiut an hour to do because of all the scallops.

I got some background fabric in the mail (above). It's another case of something not looking exactly the same on the internet as it does in person. The one on the bottom right was mixed into the many tans (this is Michael Miller's Krystal line), and is actually much too peach in person for my taste. I've been playing with layouts to try to minimize the peachy-ness, but all of them appear to need more of the tan. Drat. As an aside...this fabric comes in loads of colors, and looks kind of like a batik, except that it is not a tight weave. I suspect it will ravel, and I would have liked a nicer sheen on the fabric, but that's just my take on it. With lots of quilting, it will probably be just fine.
That one above is one of the original concepts, but I don't really love the thought of doing all the borders and sashings and attempting to keep them straight and square. The next one is better, but is it boring??
Number 3 is where my current designs are migrating towards. I like the use of the criss-crossing and the bunches of 4 hearts that it makes. Not sure if I want the peach in there (or else I need more tan...).
Or, here's another concept, but it too needs more tan fabric. It certainly leaves plenty of dauntingly plain background fabric to fill with quilting.
So what are your thoughts?...Please give feedback on how you'd set the Dresdens.

Modern Dresdens

Although the grout is calling (aka, the infinished kitchen backsplashes), I thought I'd share the start of my modern dresden plate quilt. My red/rose fabric that I chose for the center of the plates arrived yesterday. So far I have 6 of 20 plates completed. They stitch up reasonably quickly, then it will be a ton of hand applique.
The conservative side of me hears fingernails on a chalk board, but the wild and whimsical side is singing in the rain at the sight of this. It's completely wild and bold. I really love green, can you tell??

Pondering, Thinking, Dreaming, Designing

and a little sewing.

It's a fact: I have gotten little to nothing done quilt-wise since my boys got out of school 3-1/2 weeks ago. They are trouble times two together, and I find I am all too often breaking up arguments or plans of mischief. One of them has no judgement whatsoever and is just not to be trusted if not watched. I am slow to get my momentum quilting full-force again after doing very little for 2 months because of the mirage of contractors in and out of my workspaces. My house addition is 98% done, and I so need the distraction of work to keep me sane. First: Inspiration and Momentum, then quilting.

I have been hand appliqueing most evenings when not holding a paint brush or glass of wine. I have gotten 2 of the 4 corners of leaves & flowers stitched down. Hard to believe there are still 14 flowers and 48 leaves remaining. It will probably done at the end of the summer at the soonest. I love the addition of the border. It is all very busy, but that is kind of my style.
Though there are weeks of hand stitching still to go, the quilting is imminent. It is never too soon to plan for how it might be quilted. I think I may have most of the threads I want to use, but I'm sort of a thread junkie like some girls are shoe junkies. What's a few hundred cones amongst friends? Here is my initial plan, very much incomplete still, but nevertheless, started. I want the quilting to be outside the box. It will not necessarily follow the piecing, for that would be boring since the quilt is mostly 30-90 diamonds. I will (hold your breath) use a contrasting color in some places...I get so fearful of thread showing that I usually choose very much matching top threads. There's just no way I will change thread colors 25 times throughout the star. No way.

And if that is not enough...I am pondering about another quilt I want to make. OK, it's a shade beyond wanting, since I made one of the plates today. Remember this post?... Good thing I really had my heart set on doing something else because for some reason, EQ7 had to be rebooted and now claims that the file cannot be opened. Well, it can be opened, but all of those quilt designs are poof! Sigh... I am making this probably for my bed eventually. It's a twist on the untraditionally traditional design in that I have a ton of modern-ish green prints to use. The plates are stitched on machine and then will be likely hand appliqued to the background.

OK, now time to decompress and look towards the impending bedtime of my kids. It's been A Day. My usually reasonable 9-year old was a monster today, draining me of all reasonable energy. And there is an apple pie in the oven -- my new oven, in my new kitchen. Yes, the kitchen is DONE. It has countertops and running water now too. Thank goodness. Or should I say finally. Finally! Renovations are not for the weak at heart :-))