It is Spring... Somewhere

I have been on the couch, bored. Himself got a cold, his first in over 2 decades. I, stupidly, did not do as my does when the kids get sick- clean all surfaces with bleach to keep the cootie factor down. 5 days into his, I got that "feeling" in my sinuses and throat. Groaned, and got as many potions made up as I could before I got too woozy. At least the potions cut the mucus to half and the cough out for the most part.

Whine...Whine... Whine...

Before I was whacked with a cold, I finally started on my Australian locker hooked rugs. Most other people use yarn or small strips of fabric. Australian-style uses raw wool pulled into roving. All types are great stash busters. I happen to have a ton of wool. I have so much, it is hanging from my craft room ceiling in bags that are "swagged" into a horizontal position so we do not whack our heads on them. Hanging down, they look like body bags or evil pod people. The cell photos are of one side finished and you can see the pattern I marked on the canvas.. The colors are not true, really. I had finished getting the blue dragon done when I got sick. I am now to the filling in and finishing stages, at least, once I feel better. Photos when I am done, yes?

I cannot concentrate enough to do that, knit, crochet... nothing works quite right. I had used Pinterest before. I used it to the hilt, reading and viewing tons of humor. I sometimes had a coughing-fit brought on by laughing so hard, but it is worth it. There is still people with senses of humor. Yea!

Pinterest thought I was trying to add them to my "business" blog. No, I am (now) computer code retarded and was trying to add their links to the blog. I also redid the whole thing. Why? Bored. I still cannot figure out how to dump the link thing at the bottom of posts with Twatter, Fartbook and the rest of the (social) retard links, and only have an email link and a Pinterest link. I will need to search for some help. For those offended by my social media remarks, get over it. Go play outside sometime. The fresh air will do you some good.

Which reminds me- A few months ago I came across a Mike Adams speech. Mike Adams is a professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. His semester-opening statement to his students has gone viral. It was spectacular. What I really loved was his warning/disclaimer at the beginning of his speech-

"Trigger warning: The following is extraordinarily insensitive and its candor may cause some students to be highly offended. Symptoms of being confronted with viewpoints other than one’s own may cause one to get “the vapors” and students have even been known to collapse in a fainting spell upon reading offensive literature. Reader discretion is advised."

Bwhahahahaha... I wonder if he will let me use it? He is a nice man...

Back to whining and blathering endlessly...

The worst part of being sick, is looking out the window and seeing the sun shine. It may be 30°F or 40°F, I do not care. I want to dig into the garden. I want to plant seeds. I need to get my hands filthy. We have a ton of work to do to ready the garden.

Oh, if I do not mess it up too badly, I will be importing the old gardening blog over here. I have not posted there for years. What more can one say? This blog was set up for friends and family. I live far away from them and it makes "sharing" much easier. Why anyone else reads it, I have no clue. I am not exactly interesting.

EDIT: The Black Thumb of Death Gardening Blog has been fully imported over to this blog. It went smoothly, thankfully. If you click on the "Gardening" tab, all gardening posts will be there. The previous blog's posts all have (Black Thumb of Death Gardening) added to their titles if you want to read only those posts. I had not posted to that blog in over 3 years. I am busy and do not post much, here, either. This Blahhhg will have to do for my gardening adventures. The garden evolved last year, and will again this year. It is 4 times larger than when I started. That is one reason I do not post much. laughing...

I had made some quilts for my grandsons last Christmas. The youngest got SB (click on the image to know what that is), cotton and cotton flannel squares. I used cotton batting. I used my Singer 328K on that one. I HAD a walking foot. It started spitting oil. Himself tried to clean and fix it. It was toast.

The binding is okay. It was my first. It is cobbled. The youngest grandson does not care. He likes it. It was an excellent learning experience for me. Quilting is not as easy as making clothing. I think it not as easy. The first snap is of the quilt top. The second is of the "quilt sandwich", before quilting and finishing.
The second quilt was for my oldest grandson. I did not finish it until Christmas. I did not send it until after Christmas, so it would not get lost in the shuffle. That one is all flannel, even the backing. I used cotton batting for this one, too. Wool is too warm for where they live. I used my Singer 99K hand-crank machine for sewing the squares together into a row. Surprisingly, that went very quickly. Hand-cranks do not cause the material to shift. I had little to no fiddling, the squares stayed "true" when connected instead of one "stretching" longer than the other. Oh... Set your foot pressure way less than normal. I found it causes more shifting when set to a more normal pressure than light pressure.

I then used my new-to-me Singer 66 treadle machine to put the rows together. I have to say, using "manual" machines was much easier than using an electric. Flannel sticks to itself, but when sewing, it can creep. With the manual machines, you have less of that going on, if at all. I have not ordered a new walking foot for them yet. All my machines use the same bobbins and feet. Yea!

 For the last quilt, I hand quilted it, using pearl cotton thread and larger stitches. I made marks on a piece of binding tape and pinned it where I was quilting to keep the stitches somewhat even. It is not perfect, but it still came out well. It took a couple of weeks of quilting while watching "wire fu" movies. (laughing... I love Chinese movies). I put the binding on with my treadle machine. That went much easier and nicer than the first quilt's binding.

I will post photos of the treadle machine later on. I was looking for replacement parts (to keep on hand) and the walking foot replacement online. Strangely, one of the links took me to Craig's List. I do not peruse that normally. There she was. Best of all, she was being offered by a woman down in Sandpoint. I could go and pick her up. She was filthy inside for the most part. A few days of elbow grease and she works perfectly. I still need to clean the treadling part. It is still grimy. There is also a little side wiggle that should not be there. The sewing machine place down in Ponderay shut down. I do not think he opened anywhere else. The man I use has a lot of old heads refurbished, all without the treadle on the bottom. Transporting the bottom part sucks. I am sure Himself, when he has time, can get it adjusted if I cannot do it.

I splurged while we were visiting the kids for our Merry Hallow-Thanks-Mas holiday with them. I have a hard time buying myself things. It is the Mommy-Mode, something that makes me "cheap" when an item for myself that has no purpose except to make me smile. I saw this ring the previous year. It was still there, or it is one that was very similar. It fit perfectly. It is a cab, my favorite style. Best of all it is silver. I am not a fan of gold. Opal is my birthstone. This one is unusual to me. It is an Ethiopian translucent opal. There is nothing stuck to the bottom. When it gets wet, it gets more translucent. When you are warm, it "glows" more. Strange. I love it.  Another blurry cell photo. What can I say?

I also had to send my new laptop off for repair after Christmas. The webcam never worked. It took one month for them to fix. It is so new, they did not have the parts! I am supposed to get an extension on the warranty. I need to make sure the case worker got that implemented, somehow. My machine was just being paid off when I sent it in. sigh... Still, this is the nicest laptop I have owned. I should stay with cheap off-the-rack, really, but this one is so cool. It is 13". I preferred 11", not available with the version I wanted. I do not like larger laptops. I am not a large person. The larger ones are unwieldy for me.

I also just finished paying off our fridge. Now to save for a new washer, along with other household needs. The new one I am getting is all steel and not one computer chip or computerized piece of garbage inside like the current one. I will need to do the same for the dryer. (Our dryer is possessed. It turns on and off during the night.) The new washers are supposed to be dropping the extra rinse cycle next year, due to arbitrary and bloody wrong ideals by the fascist EPA. I want to replace the machine before they ruin washers altogether. When you live in an area with hard water, the extra rinse is a must. You use less water and energy if it is a cycle option on the machine, instead of running your clothes through another rinse and spin separately. I also drill out the (not) water-saving shower heads. I use more water with the latter. It is impossible to rinse thick hair in the equivalent of 10 people widdling on you. I use less with a normal head. I also use way less water hand-washing my dishes, no matter what the so-called "experts" say. They are the manufacturer's of the machines. You think they would say otherwise? Truth in advertising is a lie.

I do go on, don't I? Back to reading humor...

Deb

I am a bit ecclectic. This blog is whimsical musings about my various interests and sharing things I am learning. If anything, it will be a good sleeping pill, no?

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