Brunch, the plumber, and quilting sandwiches

Yesterday was crazy. I had time to stop at the grocery store before I headed to the home office for the WIC brunch. The ladies had done a lovely job putting the gift bags together and decorating the tables.

The food was too fussy. There were fancy tea sandwiches with lettuce and cucumber (yuck!) and there were onions on the chicken and waffles! There were mini quiches that weren't too bad and a egg and potato focaccia. Also, plenty of different beverages and pastries.

Our gift bag contained a very nice monogramed rain jacket and a clear purse fill with goodies.

After that was over, I headed home to do some more straightening up before the plumber showed up. I had boxes to cut up and put in the recycling (where did they all come from?),  vacuuming,  hauled the groceries upstairs to put away, I laid out the parts for the new laundry tub, did another load of laundry and folded the two loads I had done the day before, and the list goes on and on. The plumber was running a bit late and that was ok by me. He replaced the shut off valves for the toilet and one under the sink that had been leaking. I still have to try and get more of that rust stain removed

he added a different shut off valve for the line for the water for the whole house. That wasn't on my list, but he looked at what was there and said he just could live with himself if he had left it the way it was.

He then had enough time to pull the old laundry tub

and install the new one

After he left I decided to change the cover on my pressing mat. I had spilled some oil on it and I didn't want that to get on anything.

I finished out the day by quilting more sandwiches for those curved top pouches. I got 10 done.

I just can't keep up!

I have a plumber coming today to fix a couple leaks. The shut off valve for the toilet has been leaking awhile.

I finally got around to calling my HVAC company to ask if they would recommend a plumber. I have been dragging my feet on this. There is also a once in a while drip under one of the sinks so they are going to look at that too. I decided at the last minute I would like to get my laundry sink replaced. The faucet drips sometimes and it was a cheap unit. The legs are not adjustable, so the water doesn't drain off the ledge where the faucet is. I stopped last night and bought a new one. I called the plumbing company, and they don't if the fellow will have enough time to install it. It all depends on how the fellow's other calls go. I will get as much ready as I can to help save time.

I will be trying out this steam cleaner to see if I can get the rust stains off the bathroom tile. I have to read the direction first.

Vicki asked about what was in the elixir I am taking so here is a picture of the ingredients.

Life is just coming way too fast! I have these erasable calendars that I hang on a door and I erased two of them and filled out April and May! Geeze I have a lot to do and it is coming fast!

Road trip and quilt sandwiches

This is a long post, but I will try to make is short as I can. This is Women In Construction (WIC) Week. Yesterday 25 of the women in the company I work for, took a road trip to visit three of our job sites. Many of the office ladies don't get to go out to job sites and it was an opportunity for all of us to see different ones. First, we went to a renovation project for a courthouse. This is the original courthouse and an addition that was built. I don't know the dates, but in this picture the original looks turn of the century.

The renovation is going on mostly in the addition. They had to install an elevator by first digging the elevator pit in the basement and cutting holes thru three floors. There was a lot of steel that had to be added to carry the loads.

This is where the public can come to pay tickets and do other business. There will be three bulletproof windows and those things sticking out will be for ledges so you could set your stuff on like paperwork. The room on the other side will be for the clerks.

Here is a kitchenette outside the judge's office

The judge's restroom

What the finishes will look like in the judge's office

This is the judge's courtroom. There is another courtroom that is bigger.

Next we headed to Cleveland and ate lunch. I had a bowl of black bean chicken chili which was very good. I forgot to take a picture before I started destroying it! LOL!

a cheeseburger which was one of the best I have ever had! I could only eat 2/3rds of it, so I wrapped the rest up and had it for dinner. Look at the beautiful toast on that bun!

For dessert, which I had to save for later, they had cookies. We had been sent the menu a couple days before so I needed to know what a five dollar cookie tasted like. I got the peanut brittle cookie, and it was very good. They also had oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip. Look at the size of it!

After lunch we headed to the next job which was renovating a building for Cleveland State University. It is a 1920s building and is a dorm. It is 21 stories with the dorm rooms from floor 4 thru 19. There is a lot of repair work that needs to be done on the exterior which was well underway. Then all the dorm rooms are being renovated including adding new bathrooms.  

Here is a view of downtown Cleveland from the 19th floor.

There were still many 1920 details in the lower 4 floors in what I would call general public type areas and elevator lobbies. The plaster work in what will be the game room for the students is stunning!  All the furniture is from the building and will be reused.

I was taken aback by the crazy floor in the lobby restroom. I am assuming it is vintage.

The ladies running the WIC road trip had put together goodie bags for each of us. I took most of it to work today for the guys.

By the time I got home I was pretty tired from being bounced around in that bus all day. I heated up my leftover burger for dinner and ate 3/4th of the cookie. I managed to muster up enough energy to quilt three pieces for curved top pouches.

I was asked which thread bed I kept. I kept one of the flaming scissors since I already had made myself a project bag out of that fabric. Making the two thread beds used up almost all of that fabric. I just have a few scraps left. I should have bought more! LOL!!

Thread beds done, quilt labeled

Here are the last 9 done!

I have a nice stack of them to hand over to a lady I work with that has a cross stitch retreat. I am keeping one for myself.

I got the label on the green zig zag baby quilt. I will be seeing the mom-to-be today.

I went thru the pile of tote bags I need to make for the merch booth and found one that my friend from PA precut that would be good for the baby quilt. I whipped that together last evening; I didn't want to present the quilt in a plastic bag.

Installing snap on the thread beds

I worked on installing the snaps on the thread beds last evening. It didn't go as smooth as I thought it would, but I figured out some little techniques that made it go better. The fabric was still a bit too thick so it was hammer time! I had a scrap piece of fabric I positioned where I needed to hammer using the template I had made.

I removed the template and then pounded the fabric to flatten it.

I repositioned the template and used the punch for the hole.  The punch and maul worked great!

I stuck the cap thru the hole and used a piece of tape to hole it in place.

Next was adding the female part of the snap

Then I slide the snap into the plier tool and press it with all my might! I took off the tape and press it again.

The side with the flannel was thick so I had to hammer it hard. Here is this one done.

I got half of the thread beds finished. I wasn't feeling that great so it was hard to do these. I did go at lunch to get more of that elixir and I am feeling a whole lot better this morning!

I may need to invest in a better tool to install the snaps. I will be making more of these thread beds and it is just so hard to use the pliers.

These thread beds are bigger than the ones I first started making. Here is a comparison