The aftermath

Please forgive me beforehand if I sound like I'm whining! I know this is totally a first world problem. And I know that I have too much stuff.

To be honest, the thought has crossed my mind to just toss all this quilting stuff and be done with it. Borrow books from the library and own nothing. Life would be so much simpler!

Don't you feel like that some days? That you just want to run away from home and never come back? That we could live in a log cabin somewhere and not deal with life? Although I suppose I'd be chopping wood for the fire so you can't really run away completely. Back to basics and simplicity.

Anyway - I survived yesterday. It was a hellish day and many times, I just stood there looking at the mess.

The plumber arrived and was able to fix the problem in a fairly short time. For some reason, there is (was)  a - oh shoot - I can't for the life of me remember what he called it. I think it was some kind of a vent from the laundry room. For whatever reason, it was installed to prevent sewer smell from coming back into the house. Sounds totally sketchy to me. Anyway, there was a small copper tube that ran from the water pipes feeding the tap in the laundry room. That small copper tube went into the storage room with the unfinished ceiling in the basement. After about 4 feet of copper tubing, the tubing was changed to plastic and somehow that plastic was then forwarded to a drain? Where the drain is - no idea!

That plastic tubing became brittle and snapped clean in half. It would appear that the taps in the laundry room (not old) had a problem with the seal and weren't holding water. So of course, it flowed back down this vent and into the storage room. Had a pretty nice little flow to it as well. My guess is that the taps went first, but we didn't notice because the water flowed down this tube. Then the tube got brittle and snapped.

Needless to say - that tubing is totally gone! The copper tubing, the plastic tubing. The plumber didn't think we needed it since we had no idea where the drain was. The cleaning lady had been here on Thursday and used that sink, so I'm guessing that whatever happened, happened while she was here. Not her fault - just for timing perspective.

The plumber looked at the rubber hoses and old fashioned valves (the kind you rotate that little wheel) that feed the washing machine. He suggested that we change those as well as they are a major cause of floods in the laundry room. That got done as well and we now have new galvanized steel hoses and new little valves.

Ah - the joys of owning a house.

Meanwhile, I was trying to make sense of the mess. I got out my drying rack to dry fabric that I didn't want to put in the dryer.

The drying rack getting good use

While the IKEA bags did save a lot of fabric from getting wet, there were a couple bags where the water just poured into them and it stayed there. Some of the fabric was as wet as if I had been washing it - NO it was completely saturated and dripping wet. I mean SOAKING WET.

In one of the IKEA bags, I found a whole bolt of fabric. Why? I don't remember what this was for. Actually, I think I know what it's for, but not certain. I think there's one stain on it. I just threw it in the dryer - it wasn't super wet. It's now dry.

An entire bolt of fabric - a wet bolt of fabric

One of the biggest messes was a cardboard box that was filled with patterns. Many of the patterns were freebies from fabric companies. Some photocopied patterns that someone had given me that I didn't really want, and a few more things. Let's just say that anything paper just soaked up the water like a sponge.

I had to laugh when I came to this pattern. It was a mystery quilt from a fabric company. Years ago! I desperately wanted this pattern and for some reason, I wasn't able to download all the bits. So I got someone else to send it to me. I paid good money to have her print that and send it to me. Now it sits in my recycling bin. It wasn't that great of a pattern. But I NEEDED to have it. Oh - if only someone had sat me down and explained this disease we call quilting and hoarding. Not sure I would have heeded them, but I sure wish I had learned then, what I know now.

Pattern that bit the dust

What did distress me in that box of patterns was FOUR of my Lunchbox embroidery patterns. They were in plastic sleeves, but not watertight. They got wet. Really wet.

Lunchbox patterns got wet

The files are on a CD so hopefully, they'll still work. I might amble down to the library today and transfer them to a USB. Notice how wet the pages are? The water had seeped more than halfway up the pages.  Funny because I was thinking of these patterns the other day and wondering where the heck they were. Now I know!

Lunchbox patterns got totally soaked

This poor magazine that was sitting on a tub and well - it's also in the recycling. It was dripping water when I picked it up. Must have been a good knitting pattern in there, but well - I'm sure I'll find another pattern.

Magazine - soaking wet

So there were basically four things that I had to deal with in the mess. That box of patterns. I did get through it all. I had pieces of paper drying all over the house. I had fabric yardage which I hung on the drying rack and then went in the dryer to make sure it was totally dry. I had projects which were in plastic bags, but not necessarily sealed. That was the worse. And the fourth thing was scraps.

Let's have a look at the projects. There were two that were in really bad shape. They were wet through and through. This is a quilt that I started years ago. I mean MANY years ago. All the pieces are cut. There was a LOT of work that went into that quilt so far and I wasn't about to throw it out.

So I started to lay out all the pieces on every surface that I could find. That wasn't going to be affected by wet which basically meant the kitchen counter. Thank goodness we keep those counters pretty clear.

A partially pieced block

Some of the colors ran in these blocks. I'm leaving them the way they are. It's a scrap quilt. Who cares if some of the colors run? I don't. And now it's got a story.

This project has gone to retreat with me on several occasions and always come back with nothing further done on it. Well - it's time to get that thing done!!!

Laying out the block pieces

Did I mention that each block set had four large triangles, eight half square triangles and 12 little triangles? Oh yes - that was a joy to lay out all those pieces and I think there's still a wee bit more to do this morning.

Laying out the block pieces to dry

Then I had to deal with this bag of scraps. They were sitting in a cloth bag and it was totally soaked. I mean, I wrang water out of the bag once I had emptied it.

A soaked bag of scraps

I know - most of you would have thrown that mess away. It was saturated. But I didn't. I threw a third of it in the dryer to see what would happen. I expected a huge tangled mess, but it really wasn't bad at all. So I put the rest in and now I have a nice big laundry basket full of scraps ready to be made into a string pieced quilt. I'm thinking that everyone who comes to a Sit n Sew day should make ONE string pieced block. That would help to clear up this mess.

Scraps - totally saturated

This was a casuality. My nice llama fabric that I bought for the backing of a quilt and there's this purple stain through the quilt. I'm washing that fabric as we speak to see if it'll come out. I doubt it.

A huge purple stain throughout the entire five yards

There were two things that caused the majority of staining. There was a purple POLYESTER T-shirt that I was going to use to make a T-shirt quilt. That dye ran like crazy. That shirt is still in the kitchen sink. There was also some purple/blue batiks and they were also saturated and let's just say that it was like a waterfall in that room. One thing filled and then it bounced down to the next level and so on!!

I decided to get my butt in gear and at least make two of those blocks from that quilt above. The blocks are pretty and like I said - too much work invested to throw it out. The blocks are fine now that the pieces are dry.

Two blocks made 

I have to say that I didn't use the twirled seams method on the original block (which is saturated in this picture). I like it much better with twirled seams.

Twirled seams make a big difference

Oh - I still have a sink full of small stuff that I threw in with some fabric wash - hoping that some of the stains will come out. Let's see - that's a job for this morning.


This is what the studio looks like this morning. There's stuff everywhere. I just want it to all go away. I had been meaning to go through the Christmas decorations and get rid of most of it. I feel this is a good opportunity, but at the same time, I think it's a wee bit too early to be donating Christmas stuff.

Studio is a bit untidy at the moment

 My biggest fear in all this is that that floor is going to have to be replaced. You can see where the water has started to turn up the edges along the boards. It's only going to get worse. And the water travelled the full width of the floor as it made its way to the drain in the furnace room. Thankfully it was clean woater.

The floor is going to need replacing at some point - sooner rather than later

Here's another shot of the drying process in the kitchen!

Every surface including the stove was called into service

What was funny was how some dyes transferred. I mean - these pieces were totally saturated and stuck to each other. See how the blue in the left block transferred to the orange block?

Dye transferred to the orange block

 And look at this one - totally weird.

More dye transfer

 I'm OK with that - I'm going to leave it for the moment. I just want to get everything dry.

In all of that, there were two quilts. Thank god - I did all those bindings last year because they were in this same laundry basket. This one which is my second quilt ever made. It has been in a laundry basket in that room because I want to take it apart. The blue fabric is polyester. Some of those flower blocks painted with Artex liquid paints are very deterorated and I want to make a new quilt with the still good blocks. Once I stabilize those flower squares. It's been waiting for me to take it apart.

Quilt to be taken apart

And this quilt was also in the laundry basket. It was on the bottom and the water was just pouring into this basket. That quilt is totally saturated. Someone gave it to me. Someone had started to hand quilt it but didn't finish. It's very tightly quilted. My goal is to take it apart and requilt it by machine. Perhaps I can do that in the car on the way to Nashville next week???  Oh yes - I think I could totally do that. As long as it dries before we leave.

Quilt to be taken apart

Currently, both of those quilts are laid out on the kitchen floor.

The saga will continue today. My hands are so dry from touching all the web fabric. They feel awful.

I have stuff that I need to be making. What upsets me the most is the time that I spent to clean that mes up. But I've only myself to blame for having so much. I learned a valuable lesson. If you're going to store stuff - put it in SEALED PLASTIC totes. They really do protect from water damage.

We went out for dinner last night and I'm usually pretty good. I confess - we shared this crazy dessert - my share - almost 500 calories. I didn't care! I needed something.

To top the day off. I got home and received a text to call my brother. That never means good things. Turns out my 85 year old Dad fell when getting out of his truck. Can you tell me why an 85 year old man is wearing cowboy boots in the snow???  He needs his head examined. Needless to say, he's now in the hospital with multiple hairline fractures to his pelvis. Oh, joy!

So far, 2019  (and the end of 2018) have been wonderful. NOT!!!!  It's OK - we can just stop all this silliness now and get down to living a normal, quiet life.

Part of me so wants to take a year off or god forbid - totally retire  - from teaching, from being a part of guilds, from designing and just do my own thing. Just get this mess cleaned up once and for all. Except we all know that won't happen, but I'm being very serious when I say that I'm taking a very hard look at how my time is being spent. I'm feeling very mortal today.

And if all that isn't enough, I could throw my computer to the curb. It's not any better. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and take it to the shop. This is ridiculous and such a waste of time.

On that note, I'd better get back to the drying process and cleaning process.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!