Crosses and Cauliflower

I had a piece of batting that was the perfect size for the Crosses.  Almost!  I had to patch it in one corner but that was easy to do.  I did a ladder stitch holding the batting insert in there and it worked nicely.

However.

That said, I need one of two things to happen before I can continue to quilt this one.

1.  I need to get a walking foot for the Janome machine.  It is a frustrating machine.  I can see why someone donated it to the Flood Cause.  It does not like to switch out of a zig zag into straight stitch.  Which is annoying to the Nth level.  It must be worn in that area.  And it does not like to keep the thread in the needle even if I hold it when I start sewing.  I have rethreaded this machine a million times.

or

2.  I need to finish the quilt on the longarm so I can put them on the frame and use the Avante.

Either is not immediate.  I am working on it.

Today I decided to  pull out an old UFO and get it to the top stage.  I just about got it there. It is  Thimbleberry Block of the Month from like 2005.  I hand stitched  all the centers of the blocks following the little lines.  I actually got pretty good at it too.

And I groaned as I pieced all those tiny pieces!  The Modern Movement was not even a twinkle in the young girl's eyes yet.  Looking at it now, i think it would look great in Improv Style!


 The problem was that the blocks had been washed in a commercial washer with a lot of bits of fabric!  At some point I had to decide that "done was better than perfect" since the blocks were frayed and stretched out in all kinds of ways.

I was able to find two small pieces of the black and the tan material to fill in the blank spaces.  But I had to audition fabrics from my stash.  these two looked good and a chose the purple-ish one.

I am thinking that I need to give this quilt to one of my neighbors.  It has been through the flood, had new pieces added to repair it and is frayed and out of shape!  Just like we all are trying to recreate our houses.


In the construction news, Frank was able to build out the laundry room for me.  He even got it pained this morning. 

 For lunch I made some okra boiled in shrimp boil and some of the oddest looking  cauliflower.

I wonder how they do that?

The Laundry Fairies are real, don't cha know

I had a lot of errands to do yesterday, as you read in the last post so I won't rehash.  If you didn't read then just know it was a lot and had some added on to it as the day waxed. (college word, our family likes to point them out for each other.)

So I asked my Alzheimer Mom if she wanted to go with me.  Of course, YES!  So I pick her up.  I was going to pick up her laundry, and bring it back clean tomorrow.  But when I got there the basket was empty.  I asked, Where are your dirty clothes?  She said clearly, I didn't have any dirty clothes.

I tend to get frustrated, but I wasn't there just yet, I just couldn't believe that there were no dirty clothes after 4 days.  (I was incredulous, how's that for a college word?)  So I plunged back in with, What do you do with your clothes you take off every night?  She responds with, I put them in the dirty clothes hamper right there, and points to the empty hamper.

I tried a different approach in a different voice, When you get undressed, where does your dirty underwear go?  In the dirty clothes hamper, she replies, getting a bit outdone with me,  They come in and clean my laundry.  And they bring it back folded.  (which I know is not me because I don't fold her stuff.)

So I walk over and pick up the empty hamper and upend it (crossword puzzle word here), and head over to her dresser because I am pretty sure at this point she is taking them off and putting them back in the drawer, maybe?  I begin to go through her unmentionables, and smell them.  Well, how else do you see if they are clean?  They LOOKED clean, but did they SMELL clean?  That was the question.

But the system failed me because I have a very stopped up head due to the fact that I live in an alien world with pollen that is trying to kill me.  So I just began to dump her unmentionables and unsmellables into the dirty clothes basket.  Well, I needed SOMETHING to take home and wash, didn't I????

When we returned from our errands, I walked her to the lobby to wait for the oldie but goodie film that was being shown in the chapel.  I found the head housekeeper lady, who knows everything about everybody there.  And I asked if her staff was doing my mom's laundry.  I wasn't paying for this particular service but thought maybe they might have been doing it anyway...........as a goodwill gesture........

No, she says, they are not.  So the Director Delores comes over and asks my mom, what happens to your dirty laundry?  My mom says.......they come in very very early every morning and take my laundry and clean it.  Oh? says Delores, It sounds like you have the Laundry Fairies!

To which, my mom turns to me, puts her hands on her hips (looking just like a petulant 3 year old) and says to me with a really smug looking grin on her face:  See!  I told you they were doing my laundry!

The housekeeper had to pick Director Delores up off the floor and together they limped away trying to keep the laughter that wracked their bodies from being noticed by my petulant, smug mother. 

They left me standing there fighting convulsing fits of laughter!

I sure wish the Organization Fairies would come and clean up my sewing room........I promise I wouldn't laugh at them.

glen