Showing posts with label packing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label packing. Show all posts

Monday, July 17, 2023

Packing for...?

We've been getting ready to pick up our new trailer in Eugene. I made a couple of dishcloths and a nylon scrubby. Unfortunately, the pattern I have for the scrubby is no longer available, but I found this one, which looks to be almost the same. I used a much finer nylon net this time, and I found it easier to work with.

I'm adding this dish mat, which is the second one I made two years ago. How I made it is on the project page on Ravelry. I'm keeping the red one here at home.


You can see we're going with grey and turquoise as our main colors. I like these two colors, alone and separately, and we thought they would go well with the grey cabinets and the rag rugs I made last year for the trailer. Most of our bedding needed replacing anyway, so we got new sheets (only our third set in 23 years!) a new duvet cover (replacing the first one we got 23 years ago), which came with pillow shams. The mattress cover was also original and was starting to have holes in some places. We're keeping the original quilt for now, because it's a good cover on the bed to protect from muddy paws, but we're adding a fake fur throw, which Sandy loves. We can put the bedding into black plastic trash bags and hope they don't get mixed up with actual trash. 

We have inexpensive bath and hand towels, but I used those to pack our kitchen things, which includes our dishes. It mostly fits into five small boxes. This is greatly pared down from what we had in our old fifth wheel. It doesn't include our clothes, toiletries and personal items. We will only take enough clothes for a few days, because we have to fit everything into the truck. We'll tape up the boxes, put them in the bed of the truck and hope it doesn't rain.

It also doesn't include food, other than coffee, tea and a few other shelf-stable items, along with any leftovers from our fridge that might spoil if we left them. We'll use an insulated bag with cold packs from our freezer for cold stuff, and then we'll grocery shop for what we need when we get custody of the trailer and know how much will fit into the fridge, which is 6 cu. ft., which I think is smaller than what we had in the fifth wheel.

How about that old 5th wheel, which we sold on June 28th? It's still sitting on our RV pad. The gentleman who was supposed to pick it up had his tow vehicle break down. Sound familiar? He lives in Portland or Salem. It's taking some time to get it fixed. (Looking for parts, is my guess.) The registration and insurance on the fifth wheel runs out this month. We were going to give him the tow hitch, but he will have to get here and get it installed. We will need a place to put the new trailer. We're still trying to work things out. Right now, we don't know when we'll go to pick it up.

Health issues (mine) interfered with my activities this past week. I had an infected toe, which took me (limping) to urgent care. The day after I went to urgent care, I discovered that I had a UTI, which sent me to see my regular doctor (still limping). Now I'm on two antibiotics and no longer limping, but it took a lot of time getting it all sorted out. I did manage to get the blocks for Soren's quilt organized according to the arrangement I worked out last week. I have each block labeled with a pinned sticky indicating where it goes. 

Sandy continues to grow, tipping the scales at 17 lbs. as of Friday. He is now six months old. Minis grow faster and finish maturing sooner than standards, so we still have the expectation that he will be under 25 lbs. when he stops growing. He made us look good at training class on Sunday, in spite of the fact that I was unable to practice loose-leash walking with him during the week due to the toe, which continued to hurt when wearing any kind of shoe for most of the week. Dusty keeps Sandy exercised when we can't walk (or maybe it's the other way around).

Here's Sandy and his friend Snowball having a bedtime tussle in the upstairs hallway.

Sandy brings Snowball to bed with him at night. I think Snowball will have to go camping with us when we go.

Soren has been enjoying summer school. Here he is, off on the bus.

Johan, who turned nine this week, learned how to use a power drill, when the family put together a new shed for tools and things in the backyard. Useful life skills!


Useful in a different way, is Zachary's hiphop class. (He's the one in the white shirt.) I think he's very good!


I only got a couple of rows of the Kultainen käki sweater done, with the dish cloths and scrubby taking up my knitting time and all the other things, including another new story in The Doll's Storybook this week. (More info on that below). Here's how it's looking.



I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: 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 any of our books, including Emil and Mariah, please leave 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: Still the Kultainen käki cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating), but also the dishcloth.

What's on my loom: Still the rag placemats, no progress.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready to put the quilt blocks together.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Nico has a problem in "The Secret," this week's story in The Doll's Storybook. Pauly thinks Veronika can help.



What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende, not much progress there, either. 

What's in my wine glass: Another Madroña El Tinto, always a favorite.

What's my tip of the week: If you need to save on space and keep food for a trip cold in an ice chest, use frozen food you expect to use up in the first few days as "ice." (Be sure it's food that is safe to cook thawed.)

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 
Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories are Little Green GreatcoatThe Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.
Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is hereThe three stories in Emil are Best BudsGetting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.
The three stories in Mariah are Being LittleBesties, 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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Monday, September 3, 2018

This Week Will Make My Autobiography Interesting

Real adventures usually get off to a rocky start. And this is the short version.


As you may remember if you have read my recent blog posts, we sold our home 18 days after we listed it for sale. That was the easy part, as it turned out. Our contract allowed our buyers to research our property up until August 10th before committing. They tried to get more money out of us by bringing in contractors who gave estimates on what it would cost to tear down our bowed back deck, which they knew about when they made the offer on our home. We agreed to pay for radon remediation and a small amount for a new water pressure valve, as showed up in the inspection, but not the amount they asked for. Fine, they said. All was well, except that we fell behind in packing our stuff. (Well, I had packed my stuff already, but DH had held onto lots of stuff he didn't have time to go through. Monday the movers came to remove everything we had packed.


They packed everything into what they called "vaults," similar to pods or U-boxes.


We all worked until 8:00 PM, when the boxes/vaults were full, they drove off to put things into storage for us until we find a house in Bend.

At the same time, we had a cleaning lady affiliated with the woman who received our piano and came back to help us get ready to move. She worked tirelessly, moving around as needed to accommodate our moving workers. She finished at 8:30. Everything was cleaned except the floor under the items left in the house: bags of food and cleaning materials not possible to include in our shipment.

We had decided to give our guest bed and the matching dresser to our buyers, if they wanted it, and they did. Here's the bed.


Here's the dresser:


(It needed refinishing. We did find the connectors for the mirror, and we left them on top. He can repair furniture, and I hope they will send us photos when he's done.) With all the other furniture removed, our plan was to sleep on the spool bed. That was when we found out that the trunks under the bed (now removed) had been holding it up. It collapsed under our weight. We moved the mattress to the floor to sleep.

We were expecting to have to be out by the end of closing day. However, a U-Haul truck showed up early on the day of closing with three U-boxes full of the buyer's stuff. Shortly after that, the buyer showed up. I had been moving everything to the garage to have the house clear, but the buyer said he had to have the garage clear for him to unload the boxes, and we had to accommodate them because his wife had taken off two days from work. We hadn't even closed yet. We wanted to do our part to help with the situation, so we offered to move everything we could to our storage unit, instead of going for our trailer and moving everything we needed to take with us into it. With almost everything in the storage unit, DH went to pick up the trailer to take it to our local RV campground. He had misplaced the piece of paper (never use paper in this day and age) that had the site number on it. The office was closed. In the process of turning around, he took the corner at a tight angle--too tight--and the corner of our 5th wheel removed the rear window of the pickup. I found out from another camper that they had a folder with the list of who had which campsite by the laundry. Whew! We settled in for the night there, and DH discovered that not only was the pickup stuck in 4X4, it wouldn't start up again. He took the Honda went back to the house, where he worked until past midnight, removing everything left in the house and putting it on the front deck. I had put everything from the refrigerator/freezer into an ice chest and four refrigerator bags, and that was now in the storage unit. Unfortunately, they close up at 10:00 PM. Of course, all the canned and packaged food was in the storage unit, too. I had one bottle of water for myself and the pups, and no way to get food or more water except by walking several miles in the dark.
When DH returned after midnight, we hadn't eaten all day. "Hey," I said. "We're homeless. There's a homeless packet in the Honda. Let's eat from it." (It's a plastic bag of food and other items we give out to the homeless we encounter while driving around.) We had chili beans and canned mixed vegetables from the homeless packet, and the bottle of water from the bag. We could have had the can of tuna, but we were full enough.
The next morning, we called the Auto Club to help with the pickup. They towed it two blocks up the street to the Chevy dealer, where it was determined that we needed a new battery. It seems that if the battery goes out, nothing works. That took two days, and then we needed to put in a new rear window. That meant we had no way to remove everything from the front deck, and the new owners were getting upset. It looked liked this...


...and this.

The new owner had told us we could leave it for the MS pickup on Saturday, but his wife apparently nixed that. (I don't know for sure, but he said it was OK, and then it wasn't, so I'm guessing.) I got on the Facebook group "Park City, Utah, Online Yard Sale" and said I was ISO someone to cart everything off for $50. I got a reply right away, but he wanted $100. We met him there the next day. I noticed the tarp was off, and the stuff had been picked through. Peeking through the front window, I saw some of the things we had left to be picked up, so it was clear that the new owners went through to see what they would like. I wouldn't have minded, if they had been more tolerant about our leaving the stuff on the deck. 
They also demanded we remove some items from the side yard. DH went back and picked that up to take to recycling, and we were done. 

My takeaway: They were not legally permitted to start moving in before closing. We did everything we could to accommodate them and allow them to move in early. Doing so created a number of problems for us and eventually caused us some difficulty in removing everything from the property (although some of that was caused by our problems with the pickup, not entirely because of them). When we were not legally allowed to have things on their property after closing and could have used some understanding, there was none. Things work better when everyone is cooperative.

The pups were happy to be able to lie down in the trailer, after spending so much time sitting in the car.


Of course, Jolena would be the first one to stick her head out of the bag to investigate her surroundings.




We had planned to go down and pick up another U-box on Saturday, but that had to be postponed until (because of the long weekend) Tuesday. 

While all this was happening, a new "Chosen" doll (limited to 250) was due to be released by My Doll Best Friend. I was only mildly interested, because the past Chosen dolls had been on the market for a few months before selling out, and I had no idea what the new doll would be. Lo and behold! the new doll was a nonwhite doll called Mariah. Of course, I had to have her to add diversity to my stories. So there I was, with no real address in Bend other than my BILs. I thought I would wait until I got there to order. Here she is:


Well, as the hours went by (I had nothing else to do, right?) it was clear, that I could miss out. I decided to order her and have her sent to my BIL's house and deal with whatever complications arose. Within hours after I ordered her, they were all gone. 250 dolls gone in 36 hours!

DBIL will be out of town for a few days later in the week, and we may not be there yet, so I may have to recruit our real estate agent to pick her up, unless I can reschedule delivery. I believe it will all work out. Our current plan is to leave on Friday, if nothing else goes wrong.


Fortunately, I had scheduled the stories through the middle of September, and the latest one came out on Friday.

On a bright note, we have been wondering what happened to DD's dolls. We found this lovely treasure trove in the storage unit on Sunday:


And Pumpkin and Bye-Bye saw the light of day for the first time in decades. (Bye-Bye needs new eyes to see, but I'm sure he felt the sun on his face.) Pumpkin wears a size 1 and had our DD's baby bonnet on when we found her.


We're now scheduled to leave Salt Lake City on Friday. Stay tuned. Next week's blog should be interesting.

What's on my needles: Still the Kisu Cardigan for Jolena, and still att the BO for the neck. Also the Coastal Skies shawl for me, no progress this week.

What's on my Sparrow 15: Packed away in my Honda.

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

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still waiting patiently. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen. No chance to listen this week, but when we hit the road, it will be my entertainment.

What's in my wine glass: Bota Box. (Does a box wine have a vintage?)

What's my tip of the week: Get rid of stuff when you buy new. Life is too short to spend a week going through things and tossing them out or giving them away.



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.

Monday, August 20, 2018

Waiting for the Movers....

So here's this:


I know you've seen this, but I thought I would put together a summary of how it went together, as I've been pretty much a drudge all week in preparation for the move with nothing much to show, other than another little story. But I digress....

It all began when I went to the Utah Quilt Guild's annual Quilt Fest, which took place in Ogden in 2004. Mary Sorensen was teaching a class in needleturn appliqué, and I signed up for it. She had some patterns available, and one of them was her Delectable Pathways. I bought the pattern and started looking for fabric for it. Here's the photo of the pattern, stolen with attribution from her website:


My friend Julie was closing down her quilt shop at the time, and she was having a big sale. I bought yards of cheddar in three shades for the background. Then I started collecting fabrics in colors I like and that would show enough contrast. I also had plans at the time to make the Pine Burr Made Modern quilt from McCall's Quilting, but that really called for paper piecing, a technique I found intimidating (but no longer). The Delectable Pathways pattern had paper piecing as an option, with very good directions, so I picked that method to piece the Delectable Mountain blocks. It was good practice, and I later finished the Pine Burr quilt long before I finished the appliqué for my Delectable Pathways quilt, leaving the Delectable Mountain blocks in stacks as I worked on the appliqué.


The appliqué was fun, but it did take some time. I stay-stitched the strips of background fabric, traced the pattern using a chalk pencil and started with the stems, layering the pieces as I was taught in Mary's class.


I had a lot of fun choosing the fabrics and working on the appliqué.


It did take time, and I continually moved on to other projects, coming back to this one when I felt like it.


Eventually I had the appliqué done on two of the background strips, with only one to go.


It seemed to go faster when I could see how little there was left to do. I remember the day I put the appliqué strips up on my design wall with the Delectable Mountain blocks. 


I still had to sew the triangles of background fabric to the blocks, but that went pretty fast.


Then there was the hand-quilting to do. My friend Julie basted the layers together using her long-arm. I'm sure she enjoyed seeing her cheddar fabric again.

I made use of my trusty hemostat to stitch in the ditch around the half-square triangles. (The trick is to pull straight out, not in an arc, which you can get away with if you're pulling the needle out by hand. I broke several needles before I learned, but it's a great tool if you have loaded too many stitches on the needle.)


Then I used masking tape to keep straight lines  across the background, skipping the appliqué pieces. I used a technique called "traveling" to move through the batting to the next place to start stitching.


When I wanted to finish a row of stitching, I made a knot on top of the fabric and then pulled it through, if it was convenient. (The quilting thread is white. It looks pale blue in the photos.)


As an alternative, I would run the needle through the layers to one side and then the other of adjacent stitches. 


If I needed to, I would back the eye of the needle a little bit out through the quilt top to get the angle I needed, then continued threading through the stitches. The result is a finish that will be flexible but won't come out ever, as knots can.


I sort of worked out the pattern as I went along.


Finally it was ready for the binding. It wouldn't fit on my table, so you just see two panels.


Then ta-da! (Thanks to DH for holding it up when I was done. That's his thinning hairline showing up just above the top of the quilt.)


It went up on the wall in the hall, not the wall I had planned for it, as DH would have needed the extension ladder, and we knew by then that we would be selling the house soon. It was nice and cozy in the hallway, though, and we know will have to find a nice place for it in the new house when we have one.



Here's a list of what I got done this week instead of having fun (although some of it was fun):

Got the car serviced, finishing about three rows of my shawl while I was waiting.
Found some houses I would love to look at when we get to Bend, if they are still available.
Learned the alto parts for four pieces to sing Sunday. (Then I sang them mostly correctly. I should point out that I'm a soprano, which meant some additional challenges.)
Took the dogs to Run-A-Muk.
Packed my Sparrow 15 sewing machine and my spinning wheel.
Packed more dishes.
Finished another story for The Doll's Storybook. Here's the one that came out on Friday.
Took another load of things to Saver's in Salt Lake City.
Sold some tires and tools online for DH.
Did some cooking and laundry.

What's on my needles: Still the Kisu Cardigan for Jolena, and still at the BO for the neck. Also the Coastal Skies shawl for me, which I worked on a bit more this week.

What's on my Sparrow 15: Packed away for the move. Never got to the overcast foot. However, I'm looking at sewing tables that will suit after we get moved.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, nothing done this week.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is packed away for the move. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen. Just finished the first chapter.

What's in my wine glass: Lazy Bones Cabernet Franc 2016. (LOL!) I am totally into this wine after the week I've had.


What's my tip of the week: Whatever your plans are, always have a Plan B. (I learned that and many other things from Manuel, our choir director.)


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.

Monday, August 6, 2018

Keeping in Stitches and Paper and Food

We've moved on from buttonholes and buttons to decorative stitching with my new Eversewn Sparrow 15. Here's a look at the latest.



The polka dots sort of distort the appearance here and there, but the decorative stitching comes out very even. I had the stitch length dial set about in the middle of the buttonhole area (between 0 and 1) on this dial. 


I could have shortened the stitch further and made more like satin stitch, but this looked good enough for my story photos.
The stitch I used is the one in black at 5 o'clock on the dial in the next photo. The stitches indicated in other colors correspond to the S1 and S2 on the stitch length dial, so if you want the darker blue/green stitch indicated on the stitch pattern dial and the stitch length dial set on S1, you will get that stitch. I haven't tried those yet. (Stay tuned.)


I notice the price has gone up $20 because of the new tariffs on goods from China, so DH did me a favor to suggest getting it when I did. I think it's still a bargain

Now that I've tantalized you with the decorative stitching, here's the project I was working on.


The decorative stitching would have been nice around the neck, but by the time I thought of it, I already had the buttons on with snaps underneath, and they would be in the way.



That was very time-consuming (putting on the buttons and snaps). Next time, I'll make buttonholes and buttons. Even this tiny, it would have been much faster than sewing the buttons and snaps on by hand. Jolena will be wearing this dress in this week's story in The Doll's Storybook. The most recent story is here, in case you haven't found it.

Common Threads met at Lynda's. Almost everyone in our small group was knitting, except Ginny, who was working on this lovely needlepoint piece. She has started filling in the background.


It was raining, so it had cooled off. While I was at Common Threads, the appraiser was at our house, deciding its fate. Our agent says he does a lot of her appraisals, and they almost always come in about the contract price. After all, an appraisal tells you what someone is willing pay, and so does the contract. However, the appraisal also tries to justify that price to the bank. We don't expect any problems with it.

Preparations for the move continue. We have had some interesting meals. Like the Quorn Turk'y Roast we had in the freezer, which we're trying to empty. There was also a big container of bread crumbs in there for stuffing and toppings, and I found a container of mushroom gravy, which expired in May, in the pantry, so we had a feast; like Thanksgiving but with summer squash.


We also found one frozen salmon fillet, which I threw into some Thai stir-fried vegetables with rice.

I made some corn salad, a favorite of ours for summer. It keeps for several days in the refrigerator without going mushy, like my DH, but without the refrigerator. Here's my recipe:

Easy Corn Salad



Ingredients
• Dressing:• 3 T olive oil• 3 T lemon juice• 1/2 t Salt• 1/2 t dried cilantro• 1/2 t dried basil• 2 T salsa• 1 T pickled garlic
• Salad:• 1 16-Oz pkg. frozen corn• 2 chopped tomatoes• 4 green onions• 1/2 chopped red onion• 1 C chopped cucumber • 1 handful fresh spinach, chopped (optional)• 1 chopped avocado• 1 bell pepper (any color, optional)
• Topping:• Crumbled feta cheese

Directions
Mix dressing ingredients. Add to remaining ingredients in a large Tupperware bowl and toss. Top each serving with feta cheese.



I know it will last several days. It might last longer, but we always manage to eat it up quickly.

I made bread this week and discovered that the bread-machine pan is starting to leak. I tried to find a place to buy a new pan, but the pan for this machine seems to be discontinued. However, I found out you can replace the washer using a silicone washer you make yourself. I don't actually bake in my bread machine; I just use it for mixing the dough, so I think his first suggestion would work fine for me.


I have a nice stand mixer. Why don't I use it to make bread? The bread machine doesn't require that the liquid ingredients be heated to the right temperature first, so you basically just throw everything in the pan, start the machine and walk away.

Friday I took down most of the quilts on the walls. I should have popped them into the wash right off, instead of carefully folding each one and filling the big steamer trunk in our living room with them. I realized my mistake on Saturday, when I came down with a full-blown allergy attack, unusual for this time of year. I'm sure the quilts had accumulated dust from months, or in some cases years, of hanging around, watching my activities. It didn't show, but I'm pretty sure that was the case. I'll have to wash them at the other end. The steamer trunk is wood covered with painted canvas. I didn't want my quilts to be in contact with the wood for what could be several months, so I lined it with a sheet first. The sheet was one our granddaughter (DGD1) used when she lived with us. Amazingly, it still smelled like her perfume.

I packed a box of glasses on Saturday and had to stop because the box was full, and I still had this much. I got back to it late Sunday afternoon. I finished at 9:00 PM. I have 12 glasses that were too tall for the glasses pack, but I managed to get most of my china teacups in on top of the shorter glasses, with a piece of cardboard between, which I cut out at 4.5" using my paper cutter (I knew there was a reason I kept it out) and the only rotary-cutting ruler I have left with me.


Besides keeping busy with sewing, packing and cooking, I've had to lend a hand now and then when DH has needed help with mending the fence or reinforcing the posts for the rail for our stairs from one of the many decks outdoors.

Vroni is wearing her new checkered shirt. I think this was the best one of the four. I really understand buttonholes and buttons with my new machine now. It still isn't perfect, but I'm getting there. I made her the same kind of skirt Mandy has and the same Capri-length, stretch lace leggings. She wants to know when we're going to get back to quilting. She's ready!




What's on my needles: Still the Kisu Cardigan for Jolena, and still at the BO for the neck. Also the Coastal Skies shawl for me, which I worked on at Common Threads, so several more rows done.

What's on my Sparrow 15: Decorative stitching. Check. Now on to using the overcast foot.

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

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still waiting patiently. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finally finished listening to The Secret Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams. Very little time to listen for a bit this week. It was an interesting book, but it didn't really grab me, although I enjoyed the fact that the characters had issues (i.e. they were human) and still were likeable. I haven't started anything new yet. It may be that I have been too busy to pay attention to a book.

What's in my wine glass: Durant Vinyards 2015 Pinot Gris from Dundee, Oregon. It brings back memories of our trip last summer, when we picked this up, and a reminder that our younger DDIL, Alexa (not the Siri wannabe) has a birthday this week. Here's the photo we took then of her with our DS2.



What's my tip of the week: If a quilt has been on the wall a long time, it's a good idea to wash it, or vacuum it (if it isn't suitable for washing) after you take it down. How do you vacuum a quilt? Place a clean window screen over the quilt and vacuum with the hose attachment, one area at a time. If it's a new and sturdy quilt but you can't wash it, throw it over a clothesline (if anyone still has one) or a porch rail and beat with a rug beater.


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.