Thursday Quote

Tuesday's Orts

Tuesday's Orts--bits and scraps of thoughts and happenings that land here semi-regularly.

• To add to the bad news May brought, my favorite soft drink has been discontinued by Pepsi--they are no longer making Pepsi One.  Curses!
• At work, as the last weeks are winding down until we close, Dr. P is having a hard time with not telling patients where he is going to be working next.  But I keep giving him the "zip your lip" motions because the truth is that he doesn't have a contract yet and no one can make an appointment to see him.  So he needs constant reminders to quit telling people!
• Meanwhile, fighting to get Palmetto GBA (Medicare) to process Dr. P's paperwork continues.  After not properly getting our application scanned into their system for over three weeks, until I called to see where in process it was, the application has been rejected for further information, which we were previously told by a customer care agent that we DIDN'T need to have.  Multiple phone calls have gone unanswered by the analyst assigned to our application who faxed that rejection.  The frustration level is pretty horrendous to us all, but especially Dr. P, who has been seeing 40% of his patient load for free for six months. 
• I came home Friday to find that our son's truck was no longer parked in front of our house.  I thought the damn thing had been stolen, given the luck we were having with thieves hitting the neighborhood.  Grant reassured me that it had instead been towed by AAA to the muffler shop to replace the stolen catalytic converter, a $200 repair job.  The muffler repair shop owner told Grant that the thieves only get about $30 for the metals inside the converter, "Just enough to buy a bag of dope".  Sickening.
• Traffic rant:  People in parking lots who block two lanes of traffic because they can't wait for someone to back out of that closest-spot-to-the-store and don't want anyone else to get it.  Oafs!
• Do you have five minutes to smile?  Go watch this:  http://m.gizmodo.com/5915338/is-this-the-most-epic-marriage-proposal-in-history-i-dont-really-know-but-i-would-say-yes

Chores on Saturday

I woke up early yesterday and got right out of bed--not my usual pattern, to be sure--ate breakfast, made tea, and set to work on the day's chores.  Fortunately the first task was most pleasant and involved sewing.

Three of the four blocks for one of the X blocks were sewn and pressed.  That bottom left one might need some resewing as it is not laying flat.  In my eagerness to proceed to sewing, I didn't check the pink swap blocks for square.   

Oops, this one will need some adjustments too, so the sewing session ended for the day. Aren't these the prettiest fabrics?  I just love them. 

Grant was up by then and after he ate breakfast we proceeded to the next chore, which was fixing the washing machine agitator.   For some unknown time, the top of the agitator was not turning, and through my online research, I learned the problem was some feed dogs wearing out, an easy fix not requiring more than a socket wrench and a half-hour's time.  Replacement parts were ordered (less than $10) and received, directions read, and the first attempt made.  Well, at first the top of the two part agitator was not "easily lifting off".  Therefore, the You Tube video was watched, some extra muscle applied to separate the parts, and within 15 minutes the new feed dogs were inserted, agitator reassembled and the washing machine repaired.  Isn't the Internet an amazing thing when help is required?

Final chore of the day was painting.  We have had sample colors on the wall for months and finally agreed on one.  Last weekend we picked up paint and supplies and started the prep.

Dining room paint samples and patching.  Cute, huh?  On the bottom left are the final two we were choosing between.  We went with the lighter soft tan, called Fioli Antique Lace.  We also picked a more expensive primer/paint combo for better coverage. 

A few hours later, the walls were dry and looking pretty good.  The medium terracotta we put on the walls more than 15 years ago will be covered over gradually.  The last time we did this job it took the two of us nearly six weeks to complete, mostly because the house's "open plan" includes two-story walls in the living/dining room, a hallway to the family room, a wide stairwell and the second floor hallway, with no good place to stop.  Today we'll continue the painting chore to get the dining room back together at least! 

Tri Recs Puzzler

Sewing machine time this week has been nearly non-existent, but some progress was made on the UFO project of the month prep.  First, a bunch of MATH to see if the 1/3 yard of background fabric from stash was going to be enough.  J-u-s-t squeaked by on that note!  Then, instead of making a template from the magazine pattern for the X's and O's, since my record with template accuracy has not been great, I bought a set of Tri-Recs rulers. 

Squares, rectangles and tri-rectangles ready to go.  Folding the fabric in half before cutting gave me the reversed triangle at the same time.  It's so nice to have these things mentioned in the directions in case I hadn't thought of it before pushing the rotary cutter through my limited fabric :).

The Recs Tool includes a notched edge at the top of the triangle for lining up the offset pieces when placed right sides together.  I'm looking forward to that extra help at assembly time.

It was a puzzle to cut the brown striped fabric and get all the tri-recs pieces in their proper spots in matched pairs--I just couldn't let the stripes go willy-nilly. Though the background fabric is a bit light compared to the tan blocks, I like the contrast with the brown.  So, pressing onward to construction! 

Tuesday's Orts

Tuesday's Orts--bits and scraps of thoughts and happenings that land here semi-regularly.

• Did I share the bad news that thieves brazenly stole our son's Toyota truck's catalytic converter a few weeks ago by cutting it from the exhaust line with a Sawsall before dawn while it was parked right in front of our house?  While that was tragic, it turned funny when I dumbly repeated that someone told me it had value because of the plutonium inside.  Uh, that should have been platinum, my husband corrected.  No nuclear fission taking place here! 
• In other bad news, my doctor boss at Job #2 has decided to end his solo practice, so we will all be out of a job at the end of June.  My friend Pat, the receptionist, has been answering patients who ask her what she is going to do next with,  "I'm going to find a husband."  A surprising strategy, but one that gets a laugh.
• Traffic rant:  They have been digging up a busy street downtown for weeks months, replacing storm drains, closing off one of the two lanes. While driving with caution is good, I want to tell the driver at the front of the long single line of cars ahead of me, it is really not necessary to slow down to 5 mph while gawking at the heavy equipment. Pay attention!
• My sister, the dog lover, remembered my dog's age as 12 when I told her it was his birthday.  She remarked about herself that it seems silly that she can't remember all her nieces and nephews' ages, but always knows how old the dog is.
• Mini probably recently had a birthday too.  She is six.  I only know that because I ran across an old pocket calendar I'd saved and saw a notation of when I took her to the vet for her spaying. 

I'm not sure how she found this cement comfortable but stayed there an hour, where I could see her from my sewing machine.  Cats!

Design Wall Monday--June 4, 2012

On my design table today is the UFO Challenge pick of the month, #12. That correlates on my list to yet another 9 patch quilt from that wonderful swap of Julie's. This time it's the pink and brown patches that are getting their turn.

Three blocks will make a nice table runner from this pattern, which is X's and O's from the June 2011 American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.   All the blocks are made from the same template for the triangle-rectangle, just different colorways.  A tri-rec ruler would come in handy just now, wouldn't it?  I'll make two X's and one O for my project, and at least two borders.  I haven't quite worked that all out yet.

These browns were purchased at the International Quilt Festival in Cinci, but I don't know if they are going to work.  I didn't have the pattern with me and after getting home and seeing the quilt again, these may have too much of a strong print.  Quilt-ITIS will ensue (I'll Try It & See).  More design walls are on Judy's Patchwork Times, go take a look at all the great things people are making!

What's Happening

Surely not much on the quilting front, as we have been busy readying the living/dining room for painting.  I looked back in my photo files to May last year and found this pic I meant to share long ago regarding attaching a binding:  I lay my little 1 x 6" ruler with the 1/4 line horizontally on the unstitched edge, also making sure a vertical hash mark is at the raw edge of the side I'm currently sewing.  It is then easy to put in a pin at the quarter inch mark from the right edge to indicate where to stop stitching, then backstitch and remove the quilt from under the needle to do the miter fold of the binding. 

This photo struck me particularly because I cannot find this 1 x 6 ruler ANYWHERE. It usually lives in a drawer bin on the door of my sewing desk, but I last remember it out in the dining room where I was looking at a quilt template pattern in a magazine last weekend. I'm pretty sure I put it back on my desk, but am afraid it got accidentally swept off and into the trashcan when I was moving things around.  The trashcan was subsequently emptied by Grant for the weekly pickup and I didn't miss the ruler until mid week.  This ruler was my constant companion for years and will need to be replaced, as a seam gauge just doesn't work the same way as a quilting ruler!

The above binding was going on these two placemats I made for DD Erica for her little house in Arizona.  She has recently petitioned for another set in similar colors, and while combing my scrap boxes I found some suitable fabrics and even some scraps from these.  Erica also noted that my Blogger's Quilt Festival post was incorrect--her bed is a King, not Queen, and therefore the quilt I made her is even more impressive for its size :).  Thanks, Erica!

It is also Russell the dog's 12th  birthday today. 

Here he is at Christmas 2005.  He's a bit grayer now and has put on some weight, but is still going strong!