I got my Island Hopping Mystery Five-0 quilt sandwiched yesterday - never my favorite part of quilting, but James is always there to help me out, holding the fabric down for me, removing the tape for me (though it would be more helpful if she'd wait until I was done with it before she removed the tape...) and just generally being a nuisance, aka helper kitty.
Done! The Aloha Spirit (AKA Aloha Mystery Five-O) is done. I didn't get much else done yesterday, but that's okay by me. I did a dump run of green waste on Saturday and filled up my green waste container with another load (all the leaves in the garden area out out!) so my home chores were done, time to sew!
I was checking something on the blog, and noticed that this is my 2,999 post! I'm not sure how I got to this point from something I started as a way for my mom to see my photos easier (she was just starting out on her computer journey and emailing photos didn't work well for her.) It's been almost 20 years (my first post was March 12, 2006) and I'm still posting. Wow!
On that note, I finished the Casa Grande quilt. Most of the stains did wash out. If you look closely, you can see them, but you have to look for them, so I'm okay with it. Still not happy, but, it will do.
I picked up another UFO (Unfinished Object) to work on. It's been hanging out for about a year, and it's time to move forward with it. I had the top row finished last year, and I got the bottom row started this month. The quail are just ironed on, I need to sew them down now, but the hardest part of this project is getting to this point. Deciding which colors, ironing on the interfacing (which I messed up this time around, adding more time to the project) cutting out all the pieces, and ironing them down. (This step is crucial around here - I don't know how many beaks I've lost from James "helping" me while I was busy somewhere else.) The actual sewing is the easy part.
I took advantage of the long weekend and nice weather to clean up the yard. It's been a mild (temperature-wise) winter, and some of my flowers have blooms on the still.
The Casa Grande quilt hit a roadblock. I had it draped over the ironing board and "the cat that shall not be named" (aka James) tried to jump up on my lap, missed, and hit my wine glass, splashing red wine on the quilt (yes, I was eating dinner in my sewing room, no judging!) I rinsed the wine out, and am hoping the small stains left will come out in the wash.
When I rinsed the quilt, the red fabric bled into the background. This is common for red fabric, and I'm also hoping it comes out in the wash. I had been planning to do some "fancy quilting" on this one, since the blocks are large, but I just can't see putting a lot of time in on it, just in case everything doesn't wash out.
Woohoo! The new dryer is up and running, finally! In the meantime, I was drying laundry in front of the fire. I put a load up yesterday morning, and when I walked by later, I noticed a piece had fallen off. When I reached down to grab it, it was warm and fuzzy, and NOT a piece of laundry. Jessie didn't appreciate being grabbed like a dropped sweater is all I can say.
Once again, I was overly optimistic about replacing the dryer. Since I have solar panels, I decided to replace my gas dryer with an electric dryer, with the assumption that I would generate as least some of the needed power myself. Turns out that electrical outlet for my dryer is non-operational. Who knew? I think we replaced the electric dryer in 2000, not long after moving into the house, and it looks like "someone" cut the power line in the attic above the laundry area. Bless my "on-call handyman". Mike came out yesterday (yes, on a Sunday!) crawled around in the attic and found the issue. He's planning on picking up more wire (the original connection was cut too short to wire back up) and drop by between other jobs to fix it for me. Hopefully I'll have a working dryer tonight. In the meantime, I have jeans drying on a rack in front of the fire.
I started another quilt project - I know, a surprise, right? I got one quilt completed - the Cockadoodle quilt - but since I have no dryer, it hasn't been washed yet. I have the Candy Cane Lane quilt on the quilting frame, ready to quilt, but I need a different color thread before I can start it. I have two "block a month" quilts starting this week, though one is a block a week, along with the local quilt shop's "block a month" starting on Saturday. That should be enough, right??? Still, I started a quick quilt called Casa Grande, and it is just that, large houses. I got all of the house blocks completed on Sunday, so now it's just adding the boarded to it.
I missed posting the last week - Happy New Year! No big reason for not posting except my routine was off. Alli came down with a GI bug, so was home from her Day Program most of last week, which shifted my routine. Luckily she's doing much better, but it wasn't a fun week. Adding to the fun of that, my dryer died - on New Year's Day no less. The new dryer is being delivered and installed today between 10:00 and 1:00, so laundry is on my afternoon to-do list today.
On a side note, I bought myself a bulb from Trader Joe's during the holiday (I got one for Pixie for Christmas, and just happened to pick up two...don't judge!) and it's blooming!
