The Trials Continue

Monday was busy. If you read last week's blog post, you'll remember we had a phone call from the driver of the van that held all of our household goods except for the 700 lbs. that had been left behind because they didn't fit on the van. He said he had been caught as being overweight in Brigham City (the van, not the driver) at the weigh station and had to wait for another truck to come and offload 2500 lbs of our stuff. He said he still expected to be here about 9:00 AM.

Well, he rang our doorbell at 9:15 Monday morning. He and his partner unloaded all of the things that belonged to us. The front of the van contained household goods belonging to another family moving here from Park City. The reason they couldn't fit all our stuff on the van was because that family went over their estimate by 4,000 lbs.

I was happy to see my 1982 Maytag washer and dryer come off the van.

I do not want to have to replace those two. We still have to hook them up. We need someone to extend the gas line from the back deck up to the laundry room, which is upstairs.

It wasn't too long before another van showed up with the 700 lbs. of our stuff that had been left in Salt Lake City.

I'm afraid we had the road rather constructed for several hours. They moved very quickly to put everything where we wanted.

There was a little damage. One of the posts on our bed had been broken off. DH thinks he can fix it himself. We had been looking forward to putting the top onto our bed for the first time in 18 years, but it will have to wait.

The box spring emerged before too long, and the mattress we had bought to replace the old one was soon in place. Mr. Bear turned up in one of the boxes the next day.

The trunk with all the quilts was in this part of the shipment, and it was a relief to see them. We're still missing a lot of things, like the blender container and lid. I managed to tidy one corner of the kitchen. The rest of the house was a total mess.

We played "match up the Tupperware" on Friday. 

The reason we have so much is, most of this was in the freezer as we began to try to use up all the food so we could move it. We may need it again. Excess will be stored in the garage.

Tuesday my new sewing table arrived. We still don't have it put together, because it was rather crowded in my fiber studio, and after I got it organized enough to bring the pieces upstairs, we still were busy with more crucial issues, such as getting the wine fridge into the broom closet (under-the-stairs storage, aka "Harry Potter's Room").

Part of what needed to be done was putting my yarn stash away in the Billy bookcases. I got that done, and here's the proof:

Besides putting the sewing table away, I also need to get some shelves for the part of the closet that doesn't already have shelves. Then there's the new cutting/light-table unit I plan to get, a kitchen cabinet drawer unit for my plexiglass top and cutting mat will go.

Our ballots had come in the mail the week before. We knew how we were going to vote in most cases, but we spent some time Wednesday evening figuring out the other issues and candidates.

DH made a mistake on his ballot, so we went to the Deschutes County Courthouse to get him a new ballot. They told him just to cross out what he had marked and mark his actual choice, and then we put our ballots into the ballot box. (In Oregon, you can mail in your ballot or place it in any of the ballot boxes conveniently located around your area.)

The shelf pins we ordered came, and we were able to install the shelves that had been just sitting around the house.

I managed to get some knitting done, both sleeves and part of the body of the cardigan for Billy, who still hasn't shipped. I knew there would be a delay because he/she was on backorder. Lotte consented to be my model for size.

She was very patient while I knitted and watched my Red Sox win the World Series. I don't think she likes baseball as much as Vroni and Mandy.

We're still waiting for news on the offloaded 2,500 lbs.

What's on my needles: Making progress on the Comfy Cardigan Set for Billy. Kisu Cardigan and the Coastal Skies Shawl are in a holding pattern.

What's on my Sparrow 15: Still sitting in my future sewing room, although it has moved about in the room, as has my Featherweight, as I worked on putting stuff away and organizing.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, also in a holding pattern.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Scary Things," for Halloween. I'm scheduled through November 2nd. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: The Ladies of Ivy Cottage by Julie Klassen. I'm a little bit into  the story now, as I was able to listen while knitting on Saturday and Sunday.

What's in my wine glass: Trader Joe's Charles Shaw (Two Buck Chuck) Red Blend 2016. Very nice. Being able to walk into Trader Joe's and buy it is also very nice. You can't buy wine and regular beer in Utah grocery stores.

What's my tip of the week: Packing tape can leave a lot of gum on furniture, bags and other things. Goo Gone and similar products work for removal with some effort, but sometimes it works better to wrap some of the tape, sticky side out, around your fingers and dab at the sticky residue pulling to the side. A hairdryer can be useful for removing the tape. I've found that the tape comes off of raw wood pretty easily, but oiled or waxed surfaces seem to absorb the glue. Next time (ha-ha) I'll wrap items to be taped shut in paper first.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Quilting Fun

Veronika is my quilter.

She went with me this week to Davidene's to each a class in hand quilting. I sat her in her little chair and asked the students to tell me what she needed. We got: pillow, footstool, water bottle, quilt, hoop, needle, thread, thimble (that fits—not easy for her tiny fingers), scissors and some entertainment, like music or a good audiobook. I used her quilt to show how to handle quilting over and along seams, but otherwise, my life-size demo was done with the whole cloth quilt I'm working on, because it was easier for students to see on a solid, light-colored background.

We thought the class went well, and the students said they were very excited about doing some hand-quilting now. My handout is here.

Davidene had this quilt to show.

The fabric manufacturer had a pattern to use with these fabrics, but Davidene and her staff designed their own, using some ideas they liked from the pattern.

Another student showed us this appliqué project. It's all wool, except for some of the leaves and the embroidery.

There's an ant to the right of the vase, but it doesn't show up very well in the photo. Very cute!

It was past Veronika's bedtime when we got home. She slept late, but she needed a very big mug of coffee when she got up.

Thursday morning I went to Common Threads at Karan's. She had placed her appliqué quilt on the wall over the fireplace.

Karan has been working on come cutwork and had this to show.

She had finished working on this wool flannel appliqué...

...and these snack bags.

Kathleen was knitting, but she had brought this beaded hummingbird to restring. It's supposed to hang from fishing line from the ceiling at a window, and the line had broken.

In the meantime, I had finished the Russian dress I was trying to reverse-engineer a pattern for (make up a pattern by looking at the finished project).

The resulting pattern is here. 

I wanted it a little snugger at the waist, so I'm working on improvements while knitting another one.

In the meantime, I left Lotte sitting on the windowsill by the back door too long, and she discovered how to make the garage door go up and down. 

We gave our piano to a family with several children who are learning to play. They picked it up on Saturday.

The new rail went in on Friday. It's a big drop down the stairs from that spot. All that kept the grandkids from diving off before was the piano. 

What's on my needles: Still the Coastal Skies, a little more progress made, and the second Russian Dress.

What's on my Featherweight: More miscellaneous things to sort through.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, but a lot of progress made this week.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is in hibernation. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Now listening to A Higher Loyalty by James Comey. Interesting so far.

What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw (Two-buck Chuck) Merlot. Good value.

What's my tip of the week: When you knit a cardigan with built-in button/buttonhole bands, make the buttonholes at both ends. This is easy enough to do, and the ones you don’t need to use can be used for button placement. The added advantage is, if anyone ever wants to change the buttons to the other side (to hand the cardigan down to a younger sibling of the opposite sex, for instance), the buttonholes are there. Or if you’re making a baby cardigan and you don’t know the baby’s gender yet. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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