First, I wanted to update you on Kate's Sock Madness progress. She managed to finish the qualifying pair of socks in the necessary timeframe to be named to a team/group for the rest of the challenge. As of 2:30 AM this morning, the teams had not been announced. Kate and all of her knitting friends were checking their phones until the wee hours to see their team members and perhaps even the next challenge. But she will not be just a cheerleader this year. If I can get pictures of her socks as she finishes them, I will post them so you can see what she is doing.
I have begun really digging into the craft room. As I have been uncovering stuff, I have taken several days/weeks to kind of live with the things I have to deal with in order to come up with a plan. One of the things I uncovered was my Accuquilt system. I had found most of the dies earlier but finally found the cutter unit in the great unpacking weekend.
This is a very useful tool for quilters. It uses die patterns to efficiently cut shapes quickly and accurately. I can cut, for example, 2 1/2 inch strips and create my own jelly roll materials. I can also cut 5-inch squares for charm pack materials. I also have many other strip and pattern dies to make the tedious cutting chores much easier. In ky sewing room in PA, the dies and cutter lived under my cutting table but were not easily accessible so I did not use them as often as I might have if the had been set up in their own space.
I finally decided that what I needed was a space, table or shelf-like thing where the cutter was always out and the dies could be stored where I could get to them. I looked for things I could use locally on used furniture forums on FaceBook. Nothing appeared. I then looked on good, old Amazon and found a metal baker's rack with a wooden top. It was just the right size, could hold all of the dies and I can use S-hooks to hang my most often used rulers within easy reach as the rack butts up to my cutting table. I think it works perfectly!
There is a plan forming so I can get the craft room up and running.
Last Sunday, after an evening of Dungeons and Dragons, I wandered up to the kitchen to put something together for dinner. When I turned ao the lights and looked around to find that the drawer holding all of my cooking utensils was not sitting straight in the cabinet but was now being held in only by the drawer front with the body of the drawer angled down into the cabinet below. The center drawer guide system had broken and would need to be repaired. The holder for the guide had broken (it was plastic).
In this picture, you can see the little plastic piece. The metal guide is supposed to live inside the little plastic oval. I moved it to the top.
This is how it was when I wrestled the drawer out. The plastic oval broke along the bottom.
Rob had put together a list for me to use for things just like this. There is a service here in Fairbanks called "Fairbanks Handyman Services". It is a franchise of "ACE Handyman Services". I used the internet since it was a Sunday night, and requested a repairman come to fix the drawers in the kitchen. There were two other drawers in the kitchen that would fall forward and down when you opened them. So I asked for someone to come and replace the drawer guides in all 9 drawers That way, the drawers would all be very secure, no longer squeal when opened and give the kitchen cabinets a longer life as redecorating the entire kitchen, is not in the budget.
This is the drawer that broke,
This is one of the drawers that fell forward when opened. I had put some heavy items in the back to try to balance it so it could be used for baking implements.
This was the other one but it only held towels and was one of three such drawers.
All of these drawer guides will be replaced.
These two will be fixed as well. These hold all of the silverware (left) and cutting knives and utensils (right), Both have quite a bit of weight in them. I am sure that they would have been the next to fail!
I was pleased when the Service called early in the afternoon on Monday to make arrangements for the repair. I was even more pleased when she had a gentleman who could come on Tuesday to make the repair.
Joe, a tall gentleman who had lived in Alaska, then moved away before returning arrived at 8 AM. He assessed the situation, went out and found drawer guides that could replace the old ones and provide a very secure opening and closing action at a very reasonable cost. He had to go out again to get extra equipment to make his job easier and faster and to get wooden slats that he used to make the new guides fit the old drawers. But in 6 1/2 hours, he had managed to see what he was needing to do, find the hardware and other materials to make the fix, make the adjustments under the drawers to make it work and do it nine times over. I now have drawers that open easily without making a single squeal and will hold the load that I am putting on them with all of my cooking gadgets.
Joe is coming back on the 15th. Rob and Kate had an ice maker installed in the fridge here before I arrived. I had two fridges in PA and they both had ice makers. I am used to having nice, cold drinks with the ice that they made. There was a connection in the kitchen for an ice maker that must have been installed in years before. It is copper tubing connected to a valve under the floor. Over the years, the valve became enclosed into the ceiling of the lower level where it is very difficult to access it. It has also corroded badly to the point that no one wants to be the one to try to turn it on for fear of it exploding and water gushes out. So Joe is coming to replace that valve and make sure that water gets into the new ice maker so I can have my ice when I want it.
He is also going to scope out the possibility of replacing the kitchen countertops, dishwasher, trash compactor, and sink. He will measure, come up with ideas and then give us a quote. Now that the drawers are fixed, the cabinets, while not the best, still have some life in them. So we can update some without gutting the thing. At least we will know what kind of cost we are looking at.
Last Wednesday I went to the only, true quilt shop in Fairbanks. It is Northern Threads and is a beautiful store. I follow them on Facebook and saw a class for a Runabout Bag. I thought it would be fun to attend the class and maybe meet some local sewists. The class ran from 6 PM to 9 PM. The pattern is from Lazy Girl and in the case, a fabric panel has been created with the pieces to do 2 bags. The store sold the panel in two colorways. I took the one with purple in it!
There was another older lady whose name was Alice. Then there was a mother with a young girl and the girl's friend. Her daughter had sewn some, the friend had never touched a machine. There were also three other women who were at various stages of learning to sew. Karen Prino was the instructor. She is an employee of Northern Threads and does a lot of the long arm quilting in the store. She gave Alice and me instructions then turned her attention to the less experienced sewists. I had taken my wool mat and small iron so I did not have to use the community iron. These days you really have to think about the things you come in contact with when with people you do not know. I learned a new way to install a zipper. It works really well when you do it right. I only had to rip out once.
Here is my completed bag.
This is the front of my bag. The zipper went in easily. I loved the color. I was able to use Zippy for my zippers. Zippy was one of the early things unpacked.
This is the back. The fabric with purple flowers is used to create outside pockets. I set it up for two pockets, one for my phone and one for my pens/pencils or reading glasses. It makes a great bag for traveling. It will hold IDs, money, credit cards, tec. and you can hang it around your neck so you can use your hands for other things.
Calling it a night. I will type more tomorrow.
Not everything is going as planned. But then what major move ever does?? In my lifetime I have moved several times. After my ex graduated from University we moved to Wilmington, DE. From there we moved to Fayetteville, NC then to Martinsville, VA before moving to Coatesville, PA so he could work as a Systems Analyst for Lukens Steel. We divorced. I moved to the little house along Route 10 and lived there from the early '80s until last September when I was packed up and moved just about as far as anyone can and still be in the United States... save for moving to Hawaii! In all of those moves, somethings were lost, somethings were broken and somethings just no longer worked in the new digs.
This move has been fairly uneventful. The only major breakage was the marble insert in the round table that my parents had in their home. Something fell on top of the table during the move and there is a crack going in several directions across the marble. I am still using the table. The crack has not called broken all of the way through. There is a place here in Fairbanks that can replace the marble, so maybe during the spring/summertime, I will look to get that done.
The upper level is pretty well finished. There may still be some miscellaneous stuff that was packed in empty spaces in boxes from other rooms, but the bulk of the living room and dining room stuff has been located and the kitchen is quite workable. There have been two small boxes living upstairs. The contents go into a wall-mounted china cabinet that was unearthed early in the process. It shows off my collection of hummingbird stuff and locks with a small key. The little cabinet is stuffed with packing newsprint and was locked for the journey. I have not located where the packers put the key. So until I find the key, we cannot hang the cabinet and we cannot put the hummingbird stuff away.
I had the bright idea that perhaps the packers had put the key in the box with the collection, so Saturday I unpacked the two little boxes. One little ceramic hummingbird was broken. The hummingbird was a hanging ornament and the little bird was sucking on a flower. The little flower broke off at the tip of the beak, so it is completely fixable. Other than that, everything survived.
This is the little china cabinet. It has been living here in the hallway to the bedrooms for quite awhile.
These are the things that need to go into the cabinet. There were a couple of bigger pieces that need to go into the bigger cabinet... except it has been filled, so I will need to do some creative displaying.
I am hoping I can figure out where the key has gone!!
Yesterday, I decided to try a new bread recipe. I had found it online and it seemed like it should be very easy. It is a No-knead Peasant Bread. So I got to dirty up my kitchen and create some really good bread that was so very simple. I ordered two round, glass, oven-proof 1 1/2 quart bowls to make them from Amazon and I think it turned out well.
I am loving this kitchen. I have so much counter space to work with. And cabinet space to hold all of my equipment is wonderful. I no longer have things living on the porch!!
This is the space on the other side of the galley kitchen design. Note the two bowls that will be full of bread shortly.
Literally, no-kneading involved. Just mix and let it rise, then punch it down, divide into two blobs and put it into the greased bowls. Rise again, then bake. Smells so good and tastes even better.
There are all kinds of variations for this bread, so this may only be the beginning. I am going to need a good supply of flour to test them all out!!
Finally, I took a couple of pictures of my bedroom. It is also pretty much finished. My youngest son, Brian, told me that I should have left the bedroom set behind. It was not solid wood, so he felt it was not worth paying to move. But I really liked it when I got it many years ago. There were a couple of corners on the bottom edges that got chipped (particleboard that is frozen solid chips easily), but it is not noticeable to anyone but me and I can ignore that. It is the one room that feels the most comfortable for me. I have been adding pictures a few at a time. Some of them were in the bedroom on PA, some were in the office in PA and some had lived in Maryland for a bit and then covered and wrapped for the move back to PA and left that way until this move.
This room was actually used as a family room. The room I am using as a craft room was the room the family had used as the Master Bedroom. I had thought of using it for that and crafts, but thought better of that and separated my bedroom and craft room. That way my bedroom will not be cluttered with projects. It will be my calm and peaceful place. The three small stools/steps are for Miles to get up on the bed. I have all three there, but they will be going down to just one, soon!! The blanket on the floor is where Winston likes to bury his toys. And the basket is one of two in this room that contains the dog's toys. It is a daily process of gathering them into the basket for me and the dogs taking them out to play!!
This is my bureau with a mirror. I had planned to have it on the same wall as the bed, but after the movers got the bed in place I knew that it would crowd that wall. This wall has the sauna behind it. If you go back to the original pictures of the house, you will see that there is an octagonal window looking into the sauna. I decided that I would use the mirror to block that window. It worked out perfectly!!
This is the wall at the end of the room, across from the bed. This is the wall where the stairs are located. The tall dresser was where Rudy had his clothes. I have now filled it with my stuff. The bookcase was in the dining room in PA. The DVD stand was one of two. I have one in my bedroom and the other is upstairs at the top of the steps. The small chair was added after I got here. It is a place to sit and put on shoes or remove the taller snow boots. The small TV is the TV that traveled with me on our trip across the country. It was also my only entertainment until the van arrived in October. It will be moving upstairs and into the guest room as a backup TV or as a Travel TV for trips around Alaska or into Canada in the future.
The sun has popped out this morning. The snow has stopped. I have not looked outside yet to see how much came down, but I am guessing that either this afternoon or tomorrow I will be blowing snow off the driveway.
Hope you all have a great week. I am planning to have one terrific week, regardless of what I manage to get done!!
This past week was back to normal. Kate came back home on Monday. I had to take Gaddy into the garage. She was showing signs of not wanting to start under really, really cold weather... and we do have that really, really cold weather. Rob followed me to the garage where she was going to be really checked out to make sure it was just the battery being weak. After dropping Gaddy off and leaving the key, Rob dropped me at home. He had to pick up Kate around 3:00 PM, so they came over here to pick up all of Rob's stuff, along with the food he needed to take back to their house (including leftovers from our meals while Rob was here so they would not have to cook a meal when they got home). Then they took me to the garage to pick up Gaddy with her brand new Interstate battery and we all headed to our homes.
Tuesday and Wednesday I just puttered and organized some of the stuff that we have uncovered in the garage purge. I am beginning to see things falling into place. Each day it feels more like this is the most wonderful home I have ever lived in. I am so blessed.
Thursday and Friday were sewing days. I was finally able to have the correct lighting and the rulers I needed and the supplies I needed. It was wonderful. I was able to complete the heart quilt top.
This my finished heart quilt. I have had the charm packs for many years. It is a recent tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company. This is the charm pack size. But you could cut them into 2 1/2 inch squares to make a small wall hanging.
I just think the colors are happy and make me think that spring might be coming soon. Debating on whether I should add a small border or just bind it after it is quilted. Any suggestions?
Saturday Rob and Kate had an entire day of activities on the calendar. I had told him that I was going to try to install a couple of extra towel racks in my bathroom but I needed Rob to help me trim up Winston's butt side. Winston has not been groomed since August, so he occasionally has had a messy butt that I have to clean up in the shower. The hair had grown long again and I had come home on Thursday with Winston in need of a butt washing. Winston does not like folks fiddling around back there, so Rob has to hold Winston's front tightly enough for me to trim the fur on his butt.
Rob texted that they were coming over after the Saturday morning Tai Chi demonstration that they were giving. They were going to have lunch and relax. I thought it was just going to be an hour or so, but they had decided to forego the afternoon activity and stay with me.
Kate does a knitting challenge every year. It is called "sock madness" and it was to have begun on Sunday. Well, they released the qualifying sock pattern a day early, so she was madly getting the first sock underway. Now, everyone has the pattern and they have two weeks to make a pair of socks using that pattern. All who make the pair of socks using the pattern will be put into teams and given patterns throughout the challenge time. If you are only able to create one sock from the pattern in the two-week timeframe, you will still get all of the new patterns as they are released, but you are only a cheerleader and can do the socks under a less pressurized timeframe. Last year Kate could only manage to be a cheerleader. I think she is ready to become a team member. So I think she was just as happy to curl up on the couch in the living room with her little buddy, Miles, and work on the sock!!
Speaking of the living room. I am not sure I actually posted pictures of the living room in it's completed state. So I grabbed some pictures so you can see it.
It is a lovely blue, Kate's favorite color. It is a two-piece sectional. It fits perfectly in the space. I found a blue throw to lay on the cushions for Miles to lie on... trying to keep down the loose fur. The pillows came with the sectional.
The chair is a swivel rocker. I put a small throw rug underneath to keep the metal rung under the rocker from sinking into the thick carpet. The footstool I made at the last OBX trip. It was unearthed in the garage purge a couple of weekends ago. The other little stool was in my living room for Miles to get up on the couch and is still being used that way.
The coffee table is mine from PA. The end table between the sectional and the chair belongs to Rob and Kate as is the lamp. They had brought it from their house after they bought this house and had it on a timer so the house looked lived in until I could move in. The picture panels in the back were originally in the Maryland house and then lived in my sewing room in Parkesburg. We moved them up here just before the purge so they would not be damaged. We are not using the wood stove, so we are just hiding it. I love the look.
Back to Saturday...
We watched the NASCAR Xfinity race and then Rob and I headed to my level. I had three new towel racks to add to my bathroom. There were only three in there and I felt it needed a few more. The ones that are in my bathroom were from Lowes and I had seen them in the store here when I had first arrived. By the time I decided what I wanted to do, they were no longer there, but I found them online and had them shipped. I wanted 2 18-inch racks to hold a couple of extra hand towels and a regular bath towel. I also wanted to add one more 24-inch rack for the bath sheets that I like to use. It makes the bathroom more functional for a couple to live in the lower level.
The first one went fine, but the rod is loose on the ends. The second one we did much better and it is nice and tight. The third one we tried a little too hard, plus we ran into a stud, so it is actually almost too tight. But they all match and they hold extra hand towels in easy reach, a towel to grab for a dog with a goopy butt and having an extra bath sheet is nice for me. Plus it muffles some of the sounds of the empty bathroom.
This wall was empty. Now there are two extra hand towels and a dog towel ready to go.
The lower rack was the one already there. Rob and I added the top one. I love it!
Here is a look at the entire towel rack setup now. The only two you do not see is a hand towel ring to the left of the sink next to the light switches and the useless towel rack next to the door to the sauna.
One more thing to go up is a wooden holder for my blow dryer, curling iron, and curling brushes. I rarely use them, so having them across the room is fine. I can get to them when and if I need to use them, in the meantime they are out of the way.
I will put the holder up above the light switch. Notice the useless little towel rack!!!
This is the holder that was made for me by Jim Rees, a dear friend from Indian Acres. Jim died a couple of years before Rudy of colon cancer. He was such a talented man with wood. I have several items that he made for us before he passed.
Today, Sunday, we were in a winter weather advisory. From 6:00 AM this morning to 3:00 PM tomorrow we are likely to get 4 to 6 inches of snow. I took a video of the snow, but it had such fine flakes that it does not show up. But it is a quiet and cute video looking out of my front window. Enjoy!
