Back to normal - well a wee bit

It's hard to say that things are back to normal when you know the biggest task is still ahead. Dealing with the insurance company and getting the floor replaced.

But the good news is that all the fabric is dry! The patterns are dry. Other than a handful of free patterns picked up from fabric companies years ago and a few free download patterns everything was saved. Call me crazy - but hey - I still like all the stuff that was in that storage area. Except for the stuff that I tossed.

I learned something yesterday though - DH has ZERO clue what's down there.  He says "if you're working on stuff, how come it's in the storage room?" Well, if he had any sense about him, all he had to do was look at the rest of the room and what's under the long arm and go - "Oh - I see you have a lot of stuff." We just won't go there, but let's just hope that he goes first because if I go first - well, most of my stuff will end up in a dumpster.

I think out of all the stuff - there was just one bad stain on a piece of fabric. I threw the fabric in the washer and it came out pretty decent. There might be a stain if you look really close, but no one will know. My llama fabric is saved.

The llama fabric is saved!

I laid out the rest of the blocks for this quilt so they could dry. Remember those blocks with the triangles and half square triangles. Well - I really didn't feel like doing much yesterday and I seem drawn to this thing after how many years of it sitting???  And this is what I got done yesterday.

My salvaged scrap quilt

While we made it as part of a workshop with Sharyn Craig (years ago), the pattern is actually called Corn and Beans. It's been on my list of quilts to sew forever. I love it. And now it's being made. Not that I have time - well, I do - it's just a matter of shifting a couple of focuses.

However, I've no idea what I was thinking when I cut the blocks. There are a LOT of blocks. This is one stack that is waiting to be sewn.

Blocks waiting to be sewn

And I would say there's another stack about half that height by the sewing machine.


Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. I decided to get myself organized and whipped a sewing machine up to M's old room. That table is a wee bit high for the chair that I had. No worries - I'll make a better space today. But oh my - what a joy to sew in the daylight. This was heaven.

My new sunny day sewing station

Yes - that pink is pretty intense, but I just ignore it. Listening to a new audiobook. John Grisham - Gray Mountain. Kind of weird because while it follows his lawyer genre, there's no murder crime involved. Doesn't matter - I'm enjoying it anyway.

And while I was upstairs I got to peek out the window from time to time and see what was happening in the neighborhood.

I also managed to chip almost all the ice from the driveway. What a relief that is. It was totally insane. At one point, I moved the cars into the street so the sun had maximum power on all the ice and before you knew it - I was able to break it up and move it off the driveway. A job well done and I felt much better at the end of the day.

I thought I would share this photo with you because I know you'll understand. This is a laundry basket of green fabric scraps. I had pulled them for the 365 Day Challenge quilt from a couple of years ago. I have some of the blocks made, but a long ways to go.

A laundry basket of green scraps

The fabrics got wet - not soaking wet like the other basket of scraps, but wet enough that it had to be dried. I popped it into the dryer and it came out all fluffy and taking up way more space than before. It was sitting in the hallway. DH asks me "why do you have that basket of rags? What can you make with that? Why are you keeping that?" Needless to say, I didn't even bother with a response. What's the point?

Both of those quilts are dry so I'll pack them up today along with a good seam ripper and now I'll have something to do on the road trip when it's not my turn to drive. Yeah - that's a super great idea. I'm so clever! Not really - just every so often an idea comes to me. And the timing is right.

We were supposed to have a sit n sew today. I rescheduled it. There's no way, I can even think of dealing with the issue downstairs. The insurance will be in touch this coming week and then we'll see what needs to happen next.

I see that Lexi and Murphy were taking advantage of the mess and they seem to be enjoying themselves.

Thanks to Barbara who passed along this link about bleeding quilts. Check it out. I might still try and rescue a few more things - remove stains, but for the moment, I'm good.

Thanks to Pat who identified the name of that plastic tubing. The set up is called a Trap Seal Primer Tube. In case you're interested - you can read all about it here.  My suggestion to you is that if you have one, PLEASE PLEASE check the condition of the situation. I strongly believe that the tap had been failing for a while and no one knew because the water went down this tubing. The weight of the water constantly in that tubing caused it to fail. As mentioned, those taps weren't that old.

The other thing - if you have rubber hoses to your washing machine - CHANGE THEM. They are a flood waiting to happen.

On that note, I've got work lined up for today. Hopefully, the sun will be out and I'll work upstairs. It was nice and everything is cut on those blocks, so I didn't bother taking a cutting mat with me.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!