A long day

Yesterday I was in the yearly company meeting. Glory it was a long day. I had to do something to keep my hands busy so first I mended the holes in a bunch of socks. I hadn't gotten around to fixing these and the pile kept getting bigger.

After that I knitted. This will be a baby blanket using up some yarn that was just sitting around. I knitted 48 rows. I have 112 rows to go, but I am not in any hurry. This is a good project to take along when I have waiting to do.

The company did feed us breakfast and lunch.

I had left at 6:40 in the morning and didn't get home until 5:15. The place we have the conference has the worst chairs. My back and hip were hurting from sitting all day. Maybe I will bring my own chair next year! LOL!!

Productive weekend

I did pretty good this weekend getting stuff done. I got all the t-shirts for the commission quilt cut, interfaced, and arranged on the design wall. The basketball jersey and the polyester scarf might present some challenges when I go to quilt this.

I did get that blue and white checkboard scrap quilt top pieced so I could use the design wall for the t-shirt quilt.

Saturday I had clean the snow off my satellite disk because it was blocking the signal. Since I was out there I went ahead and attacked the snow. We got 4" and it was as very wet snow. It was like shoveling concrete. While I was shoveling it was pouring rain. If the rain would stop and with dropping temps, I was afraid the driveway could end up a real mess.

I went to do a bit of grocery shopping and bought a whole loin of beef. It was on sale and I had a gift card. The butcher cut it up for me and handed me a small package of the trimmings that they had ground. It was enough ground beef to make two good sized burgers. I cooked them in the air fryer and they were delicious! I put them on the top rack and turned them once. They were juicy too. I had cut this one to see if it was done enough. I think I cooked them about 15 minutes since they were thick burgers.

All packed

I have two Pfaff 1475CD machines. Machine #2 is acting up and Machine #1 the spring broke that is attached to the integral walking foot. The foot just dangles now so I can't use the machine. I packed it up last night so I can ship it to my repair guy. I don't feel like driving three hours one way to get it fixed so I am shipping it. I have a heavy, sturdy box that I saved from tools that were delivered to the chemical plant where I worked years ago. The box is the perfect sized and is now layered with tape from its many trips back and forth to my repair guy over the last 20 years.

Machine #2 is working, but is doing some strange things like continuing to sew after I take my foot off the foot pedal, the control panel doesn't light up correctly sometimes, and the presser foot doesn't quite sit on the feet dogs like it should. I am hoping that it will work until I get Machine #1 back. I got a quote for Machine #2 and replacing the mother and control boards, plus a cleaning (which I know it could use!) would be over $500. Throw in shipping and the possibility of something else that needs repair and I don't think it is worth putting that much money into this machine. I got this one off of ebay for a negotiated reduced amount and had to have it repaired because the seller did not pack it well at all and it arrived damaged. I had to file a claim and the ebay buyer protection people really came thru for me. I may sell it for parts. I love my machine and don't want to even look at a new machine.

This weekend I am staying home except for maybe a trip to the grocery store. After the last couple weekends filled with activities, I just want a couple days to myself. I am going to hunker down, catch up on Project Runway, and sew! Have a great weekend.

Better than nothing!

I had a late day at work and I was tired so I didn't get much sewing done, but at least getting the first row sewn together on this baby quilt is better than nothing! LOL!! I want to get this top sewn together to free up the design wall for the first of two t-shirt quilts.

Wednesdays I head over to the hospital for the Owner's meeting so I looked in to see how the operating rooms were coming along. The terrazzo floors are done and covered with material to protect them. The walls were primed, painted, and the plastic wall covering was installed. They didn't take off all of the blue protective film; that will come off when the rooms are done and we do our final construction cleaning. That opening is for stainless steel cabinets.

The ceilings are still open.

I think we are to have these ready for turnover to the owner at the end of March. There is still a lot of work that needs done in all the adjoining support rooms.

2003 Christmas quilt

Years ago our Mom started a raffle at Christmas. All the sibling's names would be put in a tin and every 15 minutes when a timer would go off a name was drawn. The name pulled was a loser and had to pick from a pile of loser gifts. The loser gifts were pretty good! Mom loved to shop at Sam's Club at Christmas and pick out gift sets, gift baskets, or special packaged items for gift giving for the loser prizes. The last name in the tin was the winner.

As I was helping my brother pack up his house for his big move, out of the closet came the quilts. One of those quilts was the 2003 Christmas quilt. Mom had passed away I think in 2001 (yes, it is terrible that I'm not sure of the year) so I took over making the Christmas quilt trying to use either her leftover tops, orphan blocks or stash for the Christmas quilt. For the 2003 quilt I made some crazy quilt blocks from Mom's stash.

I had forgotten this quilt so it was nice to see it again.

Time to regroup

Sunday I got to stay home for awhile and get some laundry and cleaning done. I hadn't been home much the last three days with working at my brother's house so I was a bit behind. I hadn't even had time to open the mail!

I had to put away all the tools I had taken to his house to fix things and dumped out what I had brought home. I tried not to come home with anything, but I did. Everyone was collecting loose change and I ended up with it to roll. I found a few pins that I will add to my rock quilt wall hangings along with a few picks and some laminated passes. There was also some foreign coins.

As I was cleaning up I found another bag with more change that I had picked up when cleaning out his basement for the mold guys.

I got these two groups of coins wrapped.

Next was labeling two quilts for him to take back with him for a fellow he is working for. One was that lap sized quilt.

Then it was off to another brother's house to have lunch with my SIL, their son, and the brother that is selling the house. Once I got home I finished cleaning off my big table by putting away all the scraps I had been working on. I am switching tasks to t-shirts quilts. I have to have two done by May. That seems so far away, but it takes me up to two months to make one so I have to get started on these. I am going to work on the top for the commission first.
Here is the pile of t-shirts and the interfacing ready to go!

I will have to sew together that top on the design wall

so I can use it for the t-shirts.

Three days of packing

I have spent the last three days at my brother's helping him pack his house up. He has a buyer which is great that he didn't have to go thru a realtor. I am beyond exhausted. Yesterday we tackled the garage. Thank goodness he hired a couple college kids to help plus another brother and his family came over for a few hours to help out.

It was 67 degrees and it only sprinkled on us once. Since it was so warm my brother decided the college kids could help him with some yardwork. Pretty soon I had to run back to my house to get the pressure washer so we could clean up the driveway and sidewalks. By that time everyone else was gone and it was just the two of us. I finally got home at 4:45 and I was beat. We never even stopped to eat.

Meanwhile I now have to find the energy to get stuff done at my place. I have a few dishes, laundry, mail to deal with, and I have to cook something for lunches next week. Pretty much I was only home long enough the last three days to sleep. Yes, I am glad I will no longer have to take care of his house, but I can't even be joyful about that because of having to work so hard to help make it happen and I am so darn tired. It is going to be a long work week.