Nothing Much

Nothing much has been happening with me this week. How about you?

I did have another stupid car scare this week. I'm really beginning to dread the feeling of panic followed by anger that I get every time I hear or feel something off about my car. I had stopped at the stop light when all of a sudden my car starts shuddering like it wants to stall. {Instert Feeling of Panic} Then the emission light on the dash board starts to blink. It has come on before and I had to have a sensor changed, however it has never BLINKED. Now what the hell does that mean!?! {Still Panicing} Well, I'm only 2 blocks away from Automotive Plus, the place I always take my car. And since the car hasn't actually died I figure I should be OK to drive there. {Anger starting to take hold} I pulled into their parking lot, got out my manual and looked up the emission light. It basically says "Oh yeah, if this light is blinking, your engine is misfiring. Take it to a mechanic immediately, but don't accelerate fast as this might damage the cadilitic converter." {Anger Increasing} Just great! I just had it in for a tune up and spark plug/spark plug wire change. What the hell else is upstream from that that would cause misfiring; UGH! I went into the office and they were able to get my car right in. Turns out there was a piece of carbon stuck in the spark plug gap that wouldn't let it spark. The guys were so great and best of all, they didn't charge me. {Instant Relief WhooHoo!} I was only 1/2 hour late to work.

That night, I went to Quilt Bee. I finished the body of my last Temple Guardian Cat. I only have to applique 2 (yes, I said TWO) eyes and ALL the applique for that quilt is done. I would have worked on it last night, but it was Knit Night and I decided to work on my socks instead. I had a great time, even if it was a small group. With all the car trouble and my vacation time, I hadn't met up with that particular group in a couple of months.

I'd like to finish them tonight, but I really need to do LAUNDRY. You wouldn't believe the pile of laundry that needs to be done. Doing the laundry isn't so bad, but I wish it weren't in the basement. It's such a pain bringing everything upstairs. Note to self: Dream house will NOT have the laundry room in the basement!

Tomorrow, I'm going to the Taj Indian restaurant for lunch with my neighbor Althea. I've heard good things about it, but had never made it there.

This weekend is the Higland Festival and Scottish Games at the St. Joe Fair Grounds. I may go there on Saturday after work. I work until 12:30. I've always wanted to go, but I always miss it because I either didn't know it was taking place (which is most often) or I had something else already planned by the time I learned of it. If I go, I'll take pictures. If it's raining, I probably won't go though. I'm hoping the rain either clears up before I get out of work or holds off until evening.

Awesome News!!!

I have 2 good bits of news to share.

First:
Baby Dawson Jeffery G. was born last night at 8:17 pm in Indianapolis. He was 21 inches long and weighed 8 lbs. 10 ozs. Teresa (Mom) is doing great and Mark (Dad) did well through the delivery except for near the end. I'm told he almost passed out and was woozy enough that they didn't let him cut the cord. Oh well, this is his first, I think we can let him off the hook on that one.

Second:
My car is fixed. I get it back tomorrow. (could actually get it today, but I have to be to the 2nd job by 5:30 so I figured I'd just wait.) The good news is that it was not the transmission. A mouse built a nest in my engine and chewed the electrical wiring harness connected to the transmission. YEAH!!

Highs and Lows

I don't know about anyone else, but I had an awesome weekend. It was that time of year again: Spring Quilt Retreat. And the weather was the best it has been so far this year: in the low 70's! Mind blowing right.

The plan was for several of us quilters to meet up at Camp Freidenswald around 11 am and then carpool to Shipshewanna (a.k.a. quilt shop nirvana). So, I got up early Friday morning, finished gathering my supplies, cloths, bedding, packed the car and left town around 8:30 am. Camp Freidenswald is only 1/2 hour from my house near Union, MI however, I decided I would take a slight detour to Calico Point in Wakarusa, IN first. I was looking for several fabrics for 2 different projects and her prices are right up my alley; usually between $4.50-$6.99 for quality name brand fabrics like Northcott, Hoffman, Clothworks, Batiks. While I like the fabric stores in Shipshewanna (Lolly's and Yoders) and they have a lot better selection because they are bigger, I would rather spend less for my fabric. I ended up getting 6 different fabrics totalling 8 yards for $50. That's at least $20 cheaper than what I would have spent in Shipshe. Then I headed back north to meet up with everyone at the Camp.

After dropping off our food and several items to make room in Lu's van for everyone (Elaine, Ruth, Sarah and myself), we were on our way. It was so much fun. Our first stop was at Lolly's Fabric Store. Talk about fabric overload! I hit the basement first, where they have the discounted fabrics. I found a pink flowered fabric to go along with one of my projects. Then it was back upstairs to the regular show room to browse. I couldn't believe how busy the store was, but then I thought 'look how awesome the weather was, of course people would be out and about'. That of course was one reason, however there was also a quilt retreat going on in Shipshe, another quilt guild was meeting up there, plus several people had stopped by on their way to the Chicago International Quilt Show. Of course they were from Wisconsin, so I'm not too sure how Shipshewanna, IN was on their way to Chicago, IL? But hey it's their story and they can justify it any way they want right!?! I also spoke to several women from Toronto, who were in town for the Retreat. Actually, they were oohing and aahing over a sample quilt that was hanging up near the fabric table. I made the mistake of stopping to see what had caught their attention and fell in love!! It was a braided quilt made from one of those jelly roll things. I have been wanting to purchase one, but never quite found one that just jumped up and shouted 'BUY ME!' Well that one did. It was an oriental jelly roll in blues, greens and browns. But not just any blue, kind of a mix between teal and aqua. Oh it was lovely. Of course then I had to have coordinating fabric to go with it, because it was just such an odd fabric color that it would be hard to match at a later date. You know I'm right!?! Also, the jelly roll wasn't marked, so I wasn't sure who the manufacturer was. When I asked, I found out that Lolly's employs a women full time to make their own jelly rolls and other fabric kits. The pattern they used was the Friendship Braid. It was in a book they had for sale next to the sample. The patterns in the book were all geared towards using jelly rolls (sorry can't remember the name). Since I liked quite a few of the patterns, I decided to buy it also. Not mentioning any numbers, but lets just say I did my part to stimulate the economy this weekend.

Midway through our trek around Lolly's, Kathy showed up. She moved to Oottlewah, Tennessee last year, but came back up to visit for retreat. I've driven to Lafayette, IN for a retreat, which is 2 hours away, but she drove 10 hours to get to ours. Well she spent several days in Indy visiting her nephew Baby Jack before she came up to retreat, but still that's 3 hours away. Anyway, it was really nice to see her.

From Lolly's, we headed to the Blue Gate Restaurant to meet up with Cheryl and have lunch. I had never been there, but was warned to leave room for PIE. The Blue Gate is Amish run and has excellent food and AWESOME pies. I had a half chicken salad sandwich, potato soup and strawberry rhubarb pie. One of my favorites! Was a little on the sweet side, I like mine tart, but was still very good. Oh and lest I forget, the waitress brought out a loaf of bread and on the table was a container of home-made apple butter (Yum) and home-made peanut butter. I had never had the peanut butter, but I was urged to try it because it was supposedly very good. Personally I was looking forward to the apple butter, because I hadn't had it in so long. Little did I know that the home-made peanut butter would taste like... like... like... Jeez, I can't even think of a word to describe it, other than to say it was VERY Good. And that doesn't seem adequate. Smooth. Creamy. YUM. Oh man was it good. They had some for sale in their bakery, so I purchased a small container to bring home. And I'm not sharing! It's all MINE.

After lunch, we headed for Yoders Department Store for more fabric shopping. After the damage I did at Lolly's I feeling a little more picky. I actually didn't find a thing to buy. Who hoo the wallet was a bit exhausted anyway. From there, we decided to make our way back to Camp via Middlebury. I wanted to stop at the cheese factory from some fresh cheese curds. To my disappointment, they no longer sold the cheese curds. Boo! I loved the way the fresh curds would squeak against your teeth when you chewed them. Elaine asked Lu to stop at Gohn's Deparment store in downtown Middlebury, where they sell...you guessed it more fabric plus Amish cloths. They actually make the clothes upstairs and sometimes you can hear the machines going. A couple of bolts of fabric fell off the shelf as I walked by and I had no choice but to pick them up and take them along with me. :o) I just hate it when fabric gets a mind of its own and does that. Don't you?

I was so exhausted by all the shopping that I didn't actually do any sewing on Friday night. I just visited with friends and checked out their projects. Really, I just wasn't in the mood to work on the baby quilt project that I had planned to work on. On Saturday, I started cutting out my Oceans quilt. It was a free pattern sent out by McCalls Quilting Magazine when they were trying to get you to buy their magazine. I have a white-on-white background, 8 different Batik Type fabrics in lime, blue, fuchsia, orange, aqua, peach, purple, yellow/green and a dark lime Sea Turtle Batik that gets fussy cut and appliqued between the blocks. I purchased the Batik Type fabric from Hobby Lobby, but the funny thing is that they are 100% cotton handkerchiefs and they were on sale for 99 cents each, oh about 5 years ago. They are 20" squares, which calculates out to roughly the size of a fat quarter. At first I was going to use Thangles to make all the triangles, but after careful consideration, I thought I would just cut them out using my Easy Angle Triangular Ruler. More precise with less wastage. I wanted to make sure I had enough. I did, but just barely. Not a lot of room for error, so I'm glad I was careful cutting. The only downside to this method is that I need 728 colored 2.5" triangles, just as many white one and 104 6.5" white triangles and 13 from each of the 8 colors. That's a lot of cutting. I didn't get them all cut out, but at least half. I also got 4 blocks finished. Only 140 more to go!

OK, those were the highs for the weekend. Now comes the lows.

I had to work on Sunday, so I had to leave retreat early in order to get there on time. I did a little sewing and piecing, then packed up and headed out. I did not get too far, before I realized there was something wrong with my car. The transmission would not shift gears. Freak out time! I was a mile or so down the road. So I stopped, put the car in reverse and backup down the road back to the camp. I didn't really want to wait on the side of the road. I called my Dad, then called work to let them know I would be late. Once we figured out what to do about my car, my Mom was going to let me borrow her car so I could get to work. Dad gets to the camp (thank god they only lived 30 minutes away!) drives my car down the road and back. The @#$@ was shifting fine he said, only there was a blinking indicator light on the dash. OK that hadn't been on when I drove it. I got out the book and looked up the light. It was for 'Transaxle Error" and read "Car may be experiencing trouble shifting gears (Duh). Please see a service tech immediately." I turn off the car, so we can all go inside the camp facilities to wash our hands and use the bathroom. (Why is it that after standing in the cold you always have to pee?) Anyway, then we all get in our respective cars Me, Mom, then Dad bringing up the rear and drive back to my house. Once again, the car would not shift gears and to top it of the speedometer wasn't working either. The indicator light had gone off also. What is it about our Dad's or men in general that make the car work for them when it won't work for us??? I'm really curious, does anyone know this? I pull over, discuss the situation with Dad and decide to drive home in first gear going what 15 mph the whole way. Crap! But about 5-10 miles down the road, the Transaxle Indicator light pops on and Wow the car actually starts shifting again. Yeah I actually got to accelerate. Of course since the speedometer wasn't working I wasn't sure how fast I was going, but hey I know it was faster than 15 mph and less than 60 mph. I got to work just shy of 2 hours late and was pretty much bummed the rest of the day.

I took my car into the shop on Monday morning and they are looking it over. I got a call this morning that some critter had made a nest in my engine and chewed the hell out of one of the wiring harnesses. Bob the Tech was a little embarrassed when I told I loved him after he told me it looked like my transmission was OK. They'll know for sure one the wiring harness is repaired and they can clear the computer codes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

When it Rains, it Freaking Pours

It's that how the saying goes?

Well I sure feel like the Peanuts character that walks around under the black cloud this week.

First a dear friend passed away and I attended the viewing and funeral. I hate to say it, but I'm glad it is all over with. It was just so emotionally and physically draining.

Then yesterday I dropped the car off at the shop, because the front end was bouncing and squeaking when I drove over bumps. I figured I just needed new shocks. Well my car has struts, so there are no shocks. So the tech tells me, but if it is the struts they should be covered under warranty, because I just got them replaced not too long ago. Got the call at 4pm that they haven't figured out what exactly is wrong yet,but they were pretty sure it wasn't the struts maybe an axle. They need to keep it overnight and do more investigating on Friday. I just knew something would go wrong as soon as I paid that damn thing off.

Wait, wait, it gets better!

When I got home last night, I noticed the house was a little cool. So I go check the digital thermostat, because it's not programmed to warm up until 5:15 and I wasn't sure what time it was. Well, it was 5:30 and I could hear the furnace cycling, but no blower coming on. I went down to the basement, took off the front panel of the furnace and look at the blinking LED light. The damn things not supposed to blink. You have to count the blinks to see what the error code is, then look up the code. Some airflow thingy was either not opening or not closing, can't remember now. I checked the filter and the air intake opening on the outside of the house. It was blocked by leaves, so I moved that all away and went back into to turn the furnace off and back on. At first it acted like it was going to work, then that stupid blinking started up again. So I called the service people and they will be out on Friday sometime after 5pm.

If it's true that things happen in 3's, then I am DONE. Nothing else can happen.

Getting closer!

My Dad, brother and I installed the vinyl flooring in the basement on Saturday.

I thought we would just take measurements, transfer those to the back of the vinyl and then cut it out. No, that is not how my dad does it. First we had to use rolls of paper to make a "template" of the room, including the closet walls and doorway. Then we took that outside and laid it out upside down of course on the back of the vinyl that was laying in the yard. Then we taped it down and used magic markers to trace around it. Then we cut it. It was an interesting experience, however the backs of my thighs hurt so much from bending over and crouching down. Thankfully my Dad had a pair of those rubber knee protectors, otherwise those would have ached too.

Now I just have to let it "relax" for a couple of days (less if it were warmer) but with the chill weather that we have been having the last couple of days, I have to wait longer. Then I can put up the baseboard and trim. Planning on starting that this Friday night/Saturday morning.

On Saturday, I am going to a Ravelry meet up at my LYS "The Red Purl." Wasn't sure that I was going to be able to go, because my mom announced that we are having a family reunion/picnic at her house that day. But I found out that it doesn't start until 3pm. That gives me plenty of time to visit at The Red Purl.

BTW, I got my car back. I looks so nice and, I don't know if I'm imagining it or not, but it feels like it drives better too. They even vacuumed it! Which it really really needed, because the last time I mowed lawn, I didn't realize I left the windows down on the car and ended up blowing grass clippings in to it.

Quilts

So here are a couple of pictures of the quilts that I picked up from Barb on Monday. They have both been finished for several years, but I just didn't have the money to get them quilted. Barb had a great Quilt 1 and get the second quilted for 1/2 off sale going.

I don't remember the name of this first quilt, it was in a Christmas quilt book/magazine, but I of course found some great green/purple batik to use instead. I do remember that all the other fabrics came from the same line and were on the clearance rack at JoAnns.

And here is a close up of the back side. It really shows off the quilting that Barb did. She has a computerized long-arm quilting machine, and I like how she was able to manipulate 1 design to fill so many different areas.


And this is my Stack-n-Whack. Although it is the only one that I have done, I had a great time doing it and I have bought other fabrics to use on another S-n-W.


And here is a close-up of the back side showing the different quilting motifs used.

I have the binding sewed onto the Purple Star Quilt. I actually finished that at about 6:55am this morning. Woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I still have to do the hand work part, but I can work on that on Sunday when I'm at work.

PS - Car Update - I talked to the owner of John's Body Shop last night and was informed that I may be getting my car back either today or Friday. He was painting it last night and then had to finish putting the light assembly back in. Can't believe I will be getting it back so soon. He just started on it on Tuesday. Wow!