Carry Water, Chop Wood

Ugh.  Yesterday was an under-the-weather day.  Nonetheless, I persisted.  Got seven and a half loads of laundry done (the remaining load and a half are in the washer and dryer right now), did a spot-repair to a pair of Wonderful Husband's pyjama bottoms, washed dishes, Feed'N'Waxed the coffee table, dug through the pile of miscellaneous stuff on the kitchen counter and got it almost all dealt with, made meatloaf and garlic bread for dinner, changed all the bedsheets, gave both boys baths, hauled the bins in from the curb, swept a bit, and turned two overripe bananas into banana bread.

And yet the house shows almost no sign of being nudged toward cleanliness.  It's amazing.

What I did NOT do was anything with the garden, or anything with sewing or deboning the rest of that stack of shirts.  I need to do this today, to feed my soul.  We'll see if the two little boys let me.

The Week In Review

The house project that was supposed to be getting done was getting the planter boxes out front fixed, the missing blocks in the east back yard wall replaced, and the inner, half-torn-down fence on the west side of the back yard removed.  That got kind of derailed by the whole water heater emergency.  But Thursday night I called the guy, and Friday morning he was here.  The first three items?  Done in one day.  The fence removal is scheduled for Monday.  And I am very impressed by his work and his price thus far and am very happily going to leave him good reviews.  Of course, this is probably a relatively minor project compared to the next one, which is taking out the cracked, breaking tile floor that is atop the hardwood in three-quarters of the house.... :/

Quilting-wise, I've been treating myself with mental cookies - for each step I work on the commission quilt, I get to work on another UFO.  So I've got the backing and binding all ready to go on Nancy's Quilt and just need child-free time enough to get it laid out and basted.  My "reward" project has been the Christmas wallhanging based on Bonnie Hunter's Jamestown Landing pattern, from the workshop I took with Bonnie last year.  It too is now in the ready-to-baste stage.

Both guild meetings this week went well.  My guildmates liked both the Snuggly Ugly, and especially the flimsy for Nancy's Quilt.  I picked up about ten magazines from the freebies table (six are going back next month), got rid of a bagful of books and fabrics I would never use, and bought a Georgia Bonesteel book I've been searching for, for $1.  The April Block of the Month only had 35 turned in this month, but applique blocks are never as popular as pieced.  And next month's block (not up yet on the website) had all the handouts taken, so that's a good sign.  Also, I signed up for this year's workshop for me, which will be next month - a class with Deanne Eisenman.  I just hope the supply list goes up on the website sometime soon!

Fabric District + Water Heater

I spent the bulk of the day in the Los Angeles fabric district with a friend from out of town.  In 95 degree heat!  But at least I remembered to bring sun hats for us.  Days like today, any plan where you lose your hat is a bad plan.  And I was good - the only things I bought were a latch fob for my keychain (like my mother's; I've been looking for one for years!) and two crystals to make into suncatchers for the kitchen window.  $3.25 total!

And while that was going on, my parents were graciously babysitting my boys, and Wonderful Husband was supervising our old water heater getting removed and replaced with a tankless.  (This sudden unexpected expense may have been part of why I was good and didn't get $140 worth of malachite beads.)  The west wall... is now ugly.  The old heater hut came down with the heater, and let's just say behind it had never been painted to match the rest of the house.  And we need to get some non-black foam insulation for the now exposed copper water pipes (see: little boys with inquisitive fingers).  But it's done and dusted and now there's one less black widow haven on the property.

The instruction sheet for the block of the month is now done, and so I hie away to bed....

Triumph

I have taken the erroneous pattern (jelly roll album blocks) and made it my own.  The wrong directions block has been fixed, a new proof-of-concept block sewn, and a third one cut and laid out on my cutting mat for sewing tomorrow.  (The Block of the Month board neatly fits three blocks plus a color copy of the instruction sheet.)  The text has been written for the instruction sheet; all I need to do is take another photo or two, pick the right one(s), and edit them.

Also, I may have turned my mother-in-law into a quilter.  I am unrepentant as I watch her stash grow!

On a less fortunate note, we are about to begin getting Stuff Done to the house again.  First was supposed to be some fence and garden bed demolition and repair.  We have a quote and a contractor we like, even!  Then this afternoon the water heater decided to spring a leak.  Grr!  At least it's the cold water leaking (see: two inquisitive little boys).  And we have the money to deal with it.  And getting it replaced with a tankless heater was actually on our list... just, a few items further down. :/

*headdesk*headdesk*headdesk*

I've just spent the evening figuring out why, exactly, a block pattern turned out slightly diamond-shaped rather than square.  It took some math and a few mental bad words (hey, I've got little kiddies) but eventually I figured out that there were nine pieces with an extra quarter-inch added on.  So I took the block apart (it being a block with 29 pieces, that was not exactly fun), recut the bits down to size, and resewed it.  And this time it worked.

Now, this is for Block of the Month.  Given that I've already reworked and remathed sixteen of the other pieces for this block, I'm just going to call it all my own work at this point.  The only four pieces that I didn't have to rejigger are 2 1/2" squares!  This is why I test the blocks before I make up the patterns.

So tomorrow I get to cut and sew another sample block so that I can take pictures of the steps and figure out how best to do the directions.  And I have to do this tomorrow because Monday is taking a friend to the fabric district, Tuesday is family stuff, and the guild meeting is Tuesday night!

But at least the hard part is now done.

Chugging Away

Got the guild minutes typed up and mailed out to my fellow officers.  The board meeting is on Tuesday - eek!  I usually get them done much sooner than this.

I also got the center of Nancy's Quilt together and have the first border on and pressed.  Then I second-guessed my choice for the second border, binding, and backing and did a quick rummage through my stash.  Luckily I've gone through it recently so it's all in neat color order!  The mottled dark green fabric I chose initially I would have enough for border and binding, or backing and binding, but not all three.  I had another green (light sea-green batik) that would be enough, or a vintage (36" wide) blue/green directional print that might work for the border....

I consulted Wonderful Husband and he confirmed my decision to change the second border to the vintage fabric, and use the dark green for binding and backing.  Since it's a commission quilt I want a uniform backing.  And the green and blue in the vintage fabric will tie the green binding to the blue string blocks.  So it all works out. *knocks on wood*

Meantime, Squiddle picked out fabrics for another bag and I've got them cut and prepped.  So he and I just need to arrive at "can I sew now" and "yes I can help you sew now" at the same time.  (For instance, while I am making dinner?  Not the right time to ask....)