Led Astray But Still Fun--Mostly

Well, this first photo is just to show I've made a bit more progress on the Hinterland Pullover. Just a little less than two inches to go before the bottom ribbing.

On Monday, we drove out to the coast to visit my BIL, Jim, in his new digs in Florence. I thought I might get a lot done on this project during the trip, but it was not to be. (I did get a few more rows done while we Zoomed with our daughter on Sunday, though.)

I worked on another project (a sweater for Pippa) for part of the drive, but I had to help navigate, and then Rocky became stressed, so I had to comfort him. We ended up going way out of our way to the north on the way there. It took an extra two hours, including stops for us and the dogs.

We followed Jim's directions to his new home. It's a manufactured home in a gated community. The house was a real mess when he bought it. It was covered with some kind of black moss, as were the statue, wishing well and bench out in front. He pressure-washed the outside of the house and the other things. Then he had the house repainted, a new back deck put on and the house reroofed. The landscaping was also a mess, of course. He spent a lot of time on that, as well. Inside, he needed to do a lot of repairs and pull up old carpeting in the great room. I think it looks nice on the outside now, and he will get the inside in shape with a bit of time.

Monday's supper was a simple but tasty meal, with a bottle of bubbly to go along with it.

Here's a look at mine. Some salmon, a wild rice dish and three-bean salad, all prepared by our host.

Tuesday, we went to the beach, but it was "blowing up something fierce," as they used to say in the old movies. Not exactly gale-force, but too strong for the beach to be pleasant, so we put the stroller back in the car and drove in to Old Town Florence. We took the stroller out again and strolled up and down the main street. We saw the RV campground where we plan to stay in August, if we can ever figure out how to get there more directly than by going almost to Portland. (More about that later.)

On Wednesday, we took the dogs to an open area near Jim's home so they could run. The houses are built on dunes that have become compacted over the years. The trees and bushes seem to have really deep roots. Dusty loves chasing a ball. 

This is Rocky's idea of "going for a run." He seemed enjoy it. New smells and feeling the sun on his back were undoubtedly pleasant.

On Thursday, the wind had died down enough that it was pleasant on the beach, at least during the morning. The guys (two-legged and four-legged ones) enjoyed a walk on the beach, and Dusty got to chase the ball a bit more.

I was surprised that Dusty didn't chase the birds, but he was happy just going after the ball.

My main objective in going to the beach was to get some photos of Pippa and Pauly on the beach. Even though the wind had let up a lot, there were still gusts that gave me problems. Pauly seemed to know how to keep his hat on, but Pippa's hat went flying several times, and I had to chase it down the beach. I also had to chase the bag I used to bring the dolls in, along with the two plastic newspaper bags I had them in to protect them. The angle of the sun was still fairly low, so I had to deal with my shadow when taking photos with the sun behind me and the bright sand causing the dolls to be backlit when I took photos from the other direction.  The photos are pretty much OK with some editing, however.

We came across this empty crab carapace when we were walking back up the beach to where we were parked. I think it's a Pacific Rock Crab, but you really need the legs and underbelly to identify it for sure. (It found its way into the story.)

Friday we drove home. We tried to go a different way, but somehow missed a turn without realizing it and got off the road we planned to use. I asked Siri for help, and she directed us from there. Again Rocky was unhappy, so it wasn't a pleasant trip. It was better, though, than it was for someone. We passed this wreck. I've been trying to find out what happened to anyone who was in this car. No snow or ice at fault, so I can only guess it was either the driver's negligence or another vehicle (now gone) was involved.

This is where we were when we encountered the flipped-over car, on Hwy 58. This road brought us back to the main road through Bend, but we got on it quite a ways south of town. We think we have our mistake figured out for our trip next month with the trailer. (Fingers crossed.)

I'm planning on asking the vet about Rocky's distress. Maybe he was car sick because he can't see where we're going, but he never threw up. If his ears hurt from the elevation changes, they stopped when he got out of the car, so maybe not that. It's puzzling. He has always been a good traveler.

For some cuteness––or maybe some silliness––here's Johan, ready to go to PE camp. Not silly, you say? Just give him a few minutes.

This week's plan is for a partial bathroom remodel in our master bath. This shower stall is going to be removed and made into an additional closet. The workers will just rip this one out, and we will hire someone else to finish it as a closet. My plan is for cedar lining.

Where will we shower, you ask? We're having the big soaking tub removed and replaced with a classy new shower stall. Here's the "before" photo:

The piece of tile broken off is from the asbestos test, required by state law. The person who removed it also drilled a couple of holes in the wall to test other places around the existing tub. Apparently they found no asbestos, because they are ready to go (we think). It's costing us extra to use this space instead of the existing shower, but we think it will be a much nicer shower, especially with the window. Stay tuned for updates!

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: The Hinterland Pullover, Pippa's Seattle Sweater and again no progress on the emPower People Kerchief this week.

What's on my loom: Still the Trailer Rugs, no progress this week.

What's on my sewing machine: Maybe a bathing suit for Pauly is needed..

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In The Balancing Trick, Veronika shows Billy and Jolena how The Writer fills out a check and keeps track of the checks she writes.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: We finished listening to The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin. We started it when we drove up to Beaverton in February. We didn't have too much trouble figuring out where we were. It was a great book! Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app. I'm a little closer to the end of it. It's good, too.   

What's in my wine glass: Arriccio Merlot 2019. Pretty good!

What's my tip of the week: We often use olive oil in place of butter on our bread, sometimes mixed with a little granulated garlic and some herb mixture like Penzeys "Justice" seasoning, a little salt and maybe some pepper. It's great for dipping, but it can be messy if you pour it on. I like to mix it up first in a small jar, then put it into the fridge until it solidifies. Then you can spread it nicely. You have to leave it refrigerated until you need it, then put it back in the fridge, though, because if you leave it out, it will "melt" (or return to its liquid state).

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

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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Progress!

The first of the big wall quilts is up!

The clock in the corner and a couple of pictures still need to be mounted on the walls, but the living room is almost done.

The mantle quilt is up, too, although the rest of the family room isn't ready for prime time yet. That will take a while, especially because the rail that keeps people from falling over into the family room still needs to be reinstalled. (They took it out to put down hardwood flooring, which is now showing a lot of wear, and never put it back. Not to code!) We have the rail propped up with boxes on one side, and a table on the other.

You may remember we had some trouble with the Arrow Mod Sewing Cabinet. Someone from the company talked us through making the corrections, and we were able to find a YouTube video that described how to make the airlift go up and down. (It turns out, they were serious about using WD-40 on all the moving parts.)  The link they had on the website for adjusting the airlift to the right height for my machine went to the same video for the other kind of cabinet, but I found the correct video on YouTube and sent them an email with the corrected link.

We also had trouble getting the doors to slide into the slot provided for them. That was partly due to the thick carpeting, but also the door hinges needed some adjustment.

I used my lovely Eversewn Sparrow15 sewing machine to sew a couple of sleeves (split in the middle) under the binding of the Pine Burr quilt and will do the same for the others.

Here's how I did it: I removed the hand stitching on the back of the binding of the side I wanted to go on top. I cut two rectangles out of some inexpensive muslin, 8" X half the width of the quilt, left the selvedge edge but hemmed the raw-edge ends under. Then I folded each strip in half lengthwise to form a 4" deep sleeve, and pressed. I pinned them to the back of the quilt with the raw edges even with the seam allowance of the binding, putting the pins in on the right side. Then I sewed over the same seam as for the binding with the right side up, as exactly as possible over the original stitching. Finally, I sewed the binding back in place by hand and sewed the bottom of the sleeve to the backing, also by hand. I'm using wooden battens for most of the quilts, although curtain rods will work just as well; they just stick out from the wall more. The wooden battens are 1/4" thick and 1 1/4" wide. The 8' length was fine for the 88" X 88" Pine Burr quilt for the living room. The battens will bend some, but when you place them flat against the wall, they will hold the quilt. I put a nail where I wanted the middle of the quilt to be, about where the bottom of the batten would be with the quit in place. I measured the same distance down from the ceiling and put another nail the same distance from the ceiling, but half the width of the quilt away from the first nail. Then I repeated for the other side, so I had three nails, one 44" from the one on the left end and the other 88" from that nail. I put the space between the two sleeves, where the batten is exposed, on the middle nail, then flattened the batten against the wall and wrestled it onto the side nails, one at a time. I had to get up on a ladder to do this. Finally, I adjusted how much batten was sticking out on each side by pushing on the longer side while pulling the quilt and its sleeve toward myself.

The other battens will have to be trimmed for the smaller quilts. I had to move my sewing table away from the wall a bit, to allow the quilt to hang over as I was sewing. I usually set up a folding tray table to the left of where I'm sitting, to hold the weight of the quilt. The folding tray tables are still buried in the garage, so I coped. I have plans to get a nice desk chair with no arms, so I can raise my seat a bit to accommodate my diminutive height. I will also need a plastic chair mat.

I thought I had lost my bobbins for the Sparrow. We found them when I emptied the sewing table so DH would work on it.

I finally settled on a prefinished, three-drawer kitchen base cabinet from Lowe's as a base for my cutting surface. The top (brought with me from Utah) is 3/4" thick frosted plexiglas, so it doubles as a light table, with two under-cabinet lights upside down in the top drawer for light. The other two drawers will be good storage. It's 24" wide and just under 24" deep. It will be just under 36" high with the plexiglas top. I have a cutting mat that is 24" X 36", just the size of the top. The top will hang over on both sides, one side more than the other. I may have to put some kind of support under the end that hangs over more. There is a heater vent on that side of the room that limits where I can put it. Here's a photo from the website.

I don't know how I'm going to deal with the toe kick. It was very expensive to buy a new toe kick, because it comes much longer than the size of the cabinet, and you have to buy the whole thing. I might be able to find someone with a small piece left over. If not, I may just leave it, unless I can think of a way to cover it up. The space at the bottom for the toe kick will come in handy, though. I have big feet.

Thursday morning, I was in the mood to make oat bran cinnamon rolls, which pleased DH. We had a coupon for 10% off our entire purchase at Lowe's that would expire at midnight on Thursday, so late Thursday morning DH and I set out for the store to order, as they only had the 18" cabinets in stock. We wanted to buy the battens for the quilts, and DH wanted to get a large tarp to cover the trailer. We had to go through the appliance department, where his eye was caught by a dishwasher, and my eyes drifted longingly to the gas ranges. We had planned on replacing our kitchen appliances eventually. The dishwasher, which is very old and white, works well, but the way the racks are laid out, it won't hold many dishes. (I should say here that my preferred color for appliances is white, but these days white often means plastic handles and white appliances with a lot of useful features are hard to find. DH prefers stainless steel, which is a logical choice anyway, because the microwave over the stove is stainless.) The refrigerator we have is stainless steel, as is the free-standing range. The refrigerator has a broken foot and is missing a freezer shelf. The side-by-side layout makes digging around inside difficult, like looking through a brightly lit cave. Don't get me started on the stove! Well, since you ask, the oven works, but the temperature is unreliable. The burners work, but they have been cleaned so often the stove looks as if it had been given to Methuselah at his mother's baby shower. What I really dislike more than anything is the arrow-up or arrow-down way of setting the oven temperature. I like to keep food warm at 170º, and you have to stand there a long time before that temperature shows up on the display. I'd rather punch in the numbers.

You probably can see where this is leading. Lowe's was having a big sale, and we learned that the 10% off coupon would apply to our entire order, even items on sale. We had to go home and measure the space allotted to each appliance. The refrigerator is the worst, because it's a skinny space, and there's no way to make it bigger without knocking out cabinets, granite countertop, etc. DH got to choose the fridge, because he had more requirements he considered essential. I chose the dishwasher and stove, because I suggested that he let me do that. This is what started our day and what we are ending up with.

We learned from another customer in the store that getting service on appliances not made in the US requires bringing in someone from the other side of the mountains and is expensive. Local appliance-repair people can work on the US companies' products. The GE had a skinny fridge (with ice maker down in the freezer section, where we don't need as much space) and a range and dishwasher with features I liked.

Boom! Lowe's got a lot of money from us for one day, but we saved a bunch. The cabinet will be delivered to the store, probably sometime this week. I should be able to fit it in the back of the car. The appliances are supposed to arrive on December 20th. They will install the fridge (plug it in and hook up the water) for free, but were going to charge for hooking up the dishwasher and gas stove. DH will get his brother to help.

I think I'll make those rolls again soon.

Other things are getting done. In our home in Summit Park the ceiling in our bedroom was too low for the mosquito-netting frame, with the added complication of a much-needed ceiling fan. (We didn't have much of a mosquito problem in Utah and don't expect to have much of one here, but we do have the mosquito netting, which we brought back from Indonesia with the bed.) DH repaired the post that had been broken off by the movers, and after the glue had set, we wrestled the mosquito-netting frame onto the posts. 

We still have a lot to do in our bedroom and bathroom, but downstairs and our respective work areas are a priority. 

Saturday, someone came by and paid us $15 for Miss Havisham's (she of the Dickens novel) dust-catching chandelier. That brought the net cost of the replacement down to $35 with the Black Friday sale price. The young woman who came and bought it said it was for her sister who had her dining room decorated in French Provincial, and this would be perfect. She had sent her my photo of it. Not my taste, but I'm glad someone can use it. Miss Havisham's spider, evicted from the dusty relic, has found the new chandelier. If I can catch the little guy/gal, he/she will have to go live outside.

I had finished the body of the Kisu Takki Cardigan for Jolena, so I finally CO Saturday for the sleeves. I'm doing them together, in the round, with steeks between them. That will require a seam, but I can match the stripes without a jog that way, and the cuff will be neater. Here's the body. There are cats at the top and fish swim around it at the bottom.

The Doll's Storybook had a new episode on Friday, "You Are Special," where Billy explores the need for new purpose, now that he has rid himself of his girly clothes and hair. I started right away on the special Hanukkah story, where Charlotte shares her special holiday with her non-Jewish friends.

I wanted to get our wonderful son-in-law to look it over for any errors or omissions I might have made. The story is intended to explain Hanukkah to children. Our daughter and her family celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. They will be here for Christmas.

In related news, this is the view from our bedroom window. Our neighbors really like to decorate. The black silhouette to the right is our huge fir tree, undecorated, as it will probably have to remain. We would need a cherry picker to reach the top.

What's on my needles: Back to the Kisu Takki Cardigan for Jolena, the same as the Stavanger, but with a different chart.  

What's on my Sparrow 15: Sleeves for hanging quilts.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress again this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: You Are Special. This week's story will be about Hanukkah. Charlotte explains her rituals to the other dolls. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Ladies of Ivy Cottage by Julie Klassen, but I've taken a break from it to listen to Rachel Maddow's Bag Man podcast, relating the history of how Spiro Agnew fell into disgrace and had to resign as vice president. I was around when this happened, but new details are only just now becoming available.

What's in my wine glass: Black Box Premium Wines California Red Blend. It says on the box, "Stays fresh for six weeks after opening." We wouldn't know. It runs out long before that.

What's my tip of the week: When you're making a quilt, if there is any chance you will ever hang it on the wall, a simple sleeve is easier to add as you put the binding on. You can use the same fabric as the backing, so it won't be obvious if you use it on the bed or as a lap quilt.

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.