The house-selling saga is a rollercoaster. After about two weeks of keeping the place spic-and-span and vacating for showings at an hour's notice, we finally got an offer! And went through with escrow and an inspection, etc....
And today the buyer withdrew the offer.
*headdeskheaddeskheaddesk*
Back onto the rollercoaster.
I have in the meantime finished the Christmas wallhanging and given it to my mother (I need to get a picture) and have been powering through three sets of blocks this weekend: the October block of the month (Postage Stamp Baskets) for the Wednesday morning guild, the giant flying geese for the group I'm exchanging them with, and inventing the November block of the month (Beautiful Batik Butterflies) for the Tuesday night guild. Amidst which my vintage iron died. ;_; I need to find if the sewing machine repair places would be able to fix it, because I really really like that iron.
Also, Squiddle (age 5) has just invented fanfiction! Tonight as I was rocking in the darkened bedroom with him and his brother for a few minutes, he told me about Octonauts, and how Tweak invented the Gup-X and gave it to Captain Barnacles for Christmas and made him climb the seamount to test it... which is one of the episodes. Then he told me about Tweak inventing the Gup-S and how it was like a snake. There is no Gup-S in the show. Kiddo has told his first fanfic. Mummy so proud! ^_^
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Bold and Bright
Argh. When I woke up this morning (half an hour before the alarm because Jazzy couldn't find his paci in his bed and therefore decided nursies were in order), my right arm ached. Too much work yesterday!
Since I'd finished the Tumblers quilt, yesterday I decided to move on to the next project: a braided wallhanging top in Christmas fabrics that was in a bag of strips I got at Costume College. I pressed that and the backing, and made a Frankenbatt of three strips of batting from my basket of batting scraps (I hand-stitched them together). I also cut strips for the binding and hanging sleeve from the excess backing fabric. Got the quilt layered and basted, hauled the Singer 15 table over by my sewing desk, and spent a good portion of the evening doing free-motion quilting. Project quilted! Following that, I trimmed it up (more rotary cutter work), hauled the 15 table back to its place, and tidied everything away. Now I just need to put on a binding... and a label... and a hanging sleeve....
In any case, here's the tumblers quilt!
Since I'd finished the Tumblers quilt, yesterday I decided to move on to the next project: a braided wallhanging top in Christmas fabrics that was in a bag of strips I got at Costume College. I pressed that and the backing, and made a Frankenbatt of three strips of batting from my basket of batting scraps (I hand-stitched them together). I also cut strips for the binding and hanging sleeve from the excess backing fabric. Got the quilt layered and basted, hauled the Singer 15 table over by my sewing desk, and spent a good portion of the evening doing free-motion quilting. Project quilted! Following that, I trimmed it up (more rotary cutter work), hauled the 15 table back to its place, and tidied everything away. Now I just need to put on a binding... and a label... and a hanging sleeve....
In any case, here's the tumblers quilt!
Bright and scrappy, with some dark to let the eye rest. There are actually two spots where the same fabric meets up to make hourglasses. Oops! I made this one nice and wide and long so neither of us ends up quiltless. I don't tend to make my bed quilts long enough for pillow tucks, though. I like to see the pillows! And the pillowcases do actually kind of go with the quilt... well, I used a bit of the main fabric on the scrappy binding. Good enough!
And then, of course, as soon as Mummy and Daddy abandoned the bed this morning, it was seized in the invasion of the bed snatchers....
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Bright Tumblers, Done!
I just took the last stitches on the binding and finished the Bright Tumblers quilt. No pics for now - it's dark! But I made it of three-inch finished tumblers, sized to fit our bed, so I'll take pictures of it on the bed tomorrow. My wonderful Mother-in-Law asked, so I calculated: at thirty rows of forty-one tumblers in a row, there are 1230 tumblers in this quilt! And the back is (mostly) made of two lengths of fabric left over from making the boys bedsheets and pillowcases. When I started the quilt as part of Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Leader and Ender challenge, I showed some of the inspiration photos to Wonderful Husband and he liked one that was mostly brights with some darks, so that's what I did. This quilt was always intended to be for him, and I finally gave it to him a few days ago, mostly finished, as one of his birthday presents. ^_^
We're keeping the house tidy and showing it to about eight people a week (mostly on weekends). So far I have managed to not be here when someone is touring it.
And Jazzy has of late been tucking himself under the quilt on Squiddle's bed, or under the sheets on my and Wonderful Husband's bed, so tonight, for the first time, I tucked him under a quilt in his own crib. He seemed to like it!
We're keeping the house tidy and showing it to about eight people a week (mostly on weekends). So far I have managed to not be here when someone is touring it.
And Jazzy has of late been tucking himself under the quilt on Squiddle's bed, or under the sheets on my and Wonderful Husband's bed, so tonight, for the first time, I tucked him under a quilt in his own crib. He seemed to like it!
Friday, September 14, 2018
Busy busy busy busy / there's so much to do!
So, the house got cleaned within an inch of its life. (Except, please don't look in the garage.)
And photographed on Tuesday. Tuesday night was quilt guild. I had 69 blocks turned in for Block of the Month! And 29 out of 30 instruction sheets taken for next month's.
Wednesday I took a workshop with my guildmates: My Basket Collection by Sandy Corbin. It was so much fun!! I wish I'd taken a workshop with this guild before. I got a quarter of the project done. But I was so fried from stress that I skipped writing class that night.
Thursday morning Jazzy had one of his classes. That afternoon I hauled the Singer 15 over by the sewing desk and started quilting the bright tumblers quilt. Screw the meandering loops I was pondering - I just went for two straight lines across every row. Get it done. I got 35 of the 60 lines done.
Jazzy had another class this morning. And the house's MLS listing went up today. If you want to see where I live, the house we've lovingly restored from a wreck over the last ten years, it's here. Anyone want to buy a nice mid-century house three miles from Disneyland? (You can see the fireworks from our front door.) And I sat back down and finished quilting those last 25 rows. And hauled the Singer 15 back by the front door to resume being the entryway table.
Now to trim the batting and backing and invent some binding. But first, I should invent dinner....
And photographed on Tuesday. Tuesday night was quilt guild. I had 69 blocks turned in for Block of the Month! And 29 out of 30 instruction sheets taken for next month's.
Wednesday I took a workshop with my guildmates: My Basket Collection by Sandy Corbin. It was so much fun!! I wish I'd taken a workshop with this guild before. I got a quarter of the project done. But I was so fried from stress that I skipped writing class that night.
Thursday morning Jazzy had one of his classes. That afternoon I hauled the Singer 15 over by the sewing desk and started quilting the bright tumblers quilt. Screw the meandering loops I was pondering - I just went for two straight lines across every row. Get it done. I got 35 of the 60 lines done.
Jazzy had another class this morning. And the house's MLS listing went up today. If you want to see where I live, the house we've lovingly restored from a wreck over the last ten years, it's here. Anyone want to buy a nice mid-century house three miles from Disneyland? (You can see the fireworks from our front door.) And I sat back down and finished quilting those last 25 rows. And hauled the Singer 15 back by the front door to resume being the entryway table.
Now to trim the batting and backing and invent some binding. But first, I should invent dinner....
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Back Up And Running
I'm finally recovering from post-yard-sale lurgy, the stress over listing the house and getting Jazzy speech therapy, yet another birthday (I am now the answer to life, the universe... everything!), and that time of month.
Over the weekend, I actually finished a quilt top (Bright Tumblers, started in 2015), pieced together the fabric I had designated for its backing, pieced together batting from my bin of batting scraps, and got it basted. But before I rearrange furniture and drag the 15 over in front of the 401 to do the quilting, I have a couple other things I want to finish.
Last night I did one, which was making the Giant Geese for this month's block exchange. My parents gave me an alpaca wool pressing mat for my birthday present, and I used it on the geese, and oh my! The seams pressed so smooth and flat! *happy quilter dance* The other thing I need to do before switching into quilting mode is to sew up sample blocks for the October block of the month. Maybe today? But probably tomorrow. Tonight is the board meeting for quilt guild. *prints up copies of the minutes*
Over the weekend, I actually finished a quilt top (Bright Tumblers, started in 2015), pieced together the fabric I had designated for its backing, pieced together batting from my bin of batting scraps, and got it basted. But before I rearrange furniture and drag the 15 over in front of the 401 to do the quilting, I have a couple other things I want to finish.
Last night I did one, which was making the Giant Geese for this month's block exchange. My parents gave me an alpaca wool pressing mat for my birthday present, and I used it on the geese, and oh my! The seams pressed so smooth and flat! *happy quilter dance* The other thing I need to do before switching into quilting mode is to sew up sample blocks for the October block of the month. Maybe today? But probably tomorrow. Tonight is the board meeting for quilt guild. *prints up copies of the minutes*
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Yard Sard. Yale Sale. Yald Sald.
Two days of yard sale-ing netted us about $400 and we still have a garage full of stuff to categorize, enter into the donation app, and haul over to Goodwill. I think Wonderful Husband has concluded this was not worth the hassle; despite doing pretty good signage and posting about it on Craigslist, we didn't get anything like the traffic he was expecting.
We were originally scheduled to have our house photographed for listing tomorrow. Last night I put my foot down and said no. There was no way in hell we were going to have the house ready. We cancelled the appointment, to be rescheduled when we are closer to ready. But emotionally I am burnt out, drained to the point where I almost want to put this off for six months and list come spring or something.
That said, we used the slower stretches of time to clean out the garage quite a bit. We have two of these sets of shelves in the garage, and managed to tidy/trash the contents to the point where we effectively got one of them completely cleared. So, progress.
Cute things of the day to leave you with: as I was getting up at 6am, I heard Squiddle (in bed and sound asleep) clearly say "Okay, Google. Pause." I wonder what he was dreaming about? ^_^ (And I wonder if the dream paused. ^_^) And while Wonderful Husband was cleaning up the tool shelves, the power drill ended up on the floor. Jazzy picked it up and went "Vrr. Vrrr!" several times. He clearly knows how it's supposed to work. ^_^
We were originally scheduled to have our house photographed for listing tomorrow. Last night I put my foot down and said no. There was no way in hell we were going to have the house ready. We cancelled the appointment, to be rescheduled when we are closer to ready. But emotionally I am burnt out, drained to the point where I almost want to put this off for six months and list come spring or something.
That said, we used the slower stretches of time to clean out the garage quite a bit. We have two of these sets of shelves in the garage, and managed to tidy/trash the contents to the point where we effectively got one of them completely cleared. So, progress.
Cute things of the day to leave you with: as I was getting up at 6am, I heard Squiddle (in bed and sound asleep) clearly say "Okay, Google. Pause." I wonder what he was dreaming about? ^_^ (And I wonder if the dream paused. ^_^) And while Wonderful Husband was cleaning up the tool shelves, the power drill ended up on the floor. Jazzy picked it up and went "Vrr. Vrrr!" several times. He clearly knows how it's supposed to work. ^_^
Monday, August 20, 2018
Discrete Goals
You would think cleaning up a house with the goal of photographing/showing it, and cleaning up a house with the goal of holding a yard sale would overlap a great deal.
Spoiler alert: they don't.
Today, I finished planting the bed in front of the garage and watered it in twice. Yay, all neat and tidy and curb appeal-y with white cora vinca, purple salvia, and red-gold lantana. I also planted three habenero plants in the side yard, replacing the ones that the 113 degree heatwave fried a month or so back. They are... charmingly mismatched with the habenero plants that were already there. I also transplanted the six surviving strawberries from the stackable planter, which is going in the yard sale pile.
Following that burst of morning energy, I worked on my side of the closet (warm clothing packed away, some things I don't wear much to the yard sale pile, and most of the hangers matching now). Then I took the boys to a thrift store and Costco, getting most of the grocery shopping out of the way. After lunch, I started in on the deep-dig project of cleaning the laundry room. It's... half-done? The shelves have been cleaned and the stuff we actually use placed back on them. All my gardening hand tools have been put in the bag they're supposed to go in. Work gloves have been mated, and the 2'x2' tool dungeon has been cleared out and swept and we've taken a look at what was in it. And this evening, Wonderful Husband mulched the rosebushes out front, which I need to prune back, but the yard waste bin is full, so that gets punted to tomorrow. Plus we made stir-fry for dinner and I cut up a quarter of a watermelon for dessert.
Tomorrow I have more cora vinca, salvia, and lantanas to plant along the front of the house proper. I need to prune the roses. I need to finish the laundry room. And I need to start pricing stuff for the yard sale!
Spoiler alert: they don't.
Today, I finished planting the bed in front of the garage and watered it in twice. Yay, all neat and tidy and curb appeal-y with white cora vinca, purple salvia, and red-gold lantana. I also planted three habenero plants in the side yard, replacing the ones that the 113 degree heatwave fried a month or so back. They are... charmingly mismatched with the habenero plants that were already there. I also transplanted the six surviving strawberries from the stackable planter, which is going in the yard sale pile.
Following that burst of morning energy, I worked on my side of the closet (warm clothing packed away, some things I don't wear much to the yard sale pile, and most of the hangers matching now). Then I took the boys to a thrift store and Costco, getting most of the grocery shopping out of the way. After lunch, I started in on the deep-dig project of cleaning the laundry room. It's... half-done? The shelves have been cleaned and the stuff we actually use placed back on them. All my gardening hand tools have been put in the bag they're supposed to go in. Work gloves have been mated, and the 2'x2' tool dungeon has been cleared out and swept and we've taken a look at what was in it. And this evening, Wonderful Husband mulched the rosebushes out front, which I need to prune back, but the yard waste bin is full, so that gets punted to tomorrow. Plus we made stir-fry for dinner and I cut up a quarter of a watermelon for dessert.
Tomorrow I have more cora vinca, salvia, and lantanas to plant along the front of the house proper. I need to prune the roses. I need to finish the laundry room. And I need to start pricing stuff for the yard sale!
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