Plans and dreams....

I have an appointment right before lunch tomorrow...and then I have plans....I have decided this is the quilt top I am going to quilt. It has been waiting for quite a while...but not near as long as some I have. I made it about three years ago, and had plans to machine quilt it. Then life got in the way, things happened and I hardly touched my sewing machines, or sewing of any kind for the past two or three years. Except to make baby quilts.
Tonight I rearranged Lorelei's room till I could spread everything out and get it pin basted. This is a big quilt, approximately 90 inches square so it takes a big area. First I spread the backing out, right side down. I use t-pins and stretch it out on the carpet. This is time consuming...do one on one side, then go straight across to the opposite side and do another. Next, do one on the other two sides. From there, I place one about every 12-18 inches.

Then I spread the batting on top of that and smooth it out. I use a few T-pins but not near as many as I use on the backing. Before I use the batting I will throw it in the dryer on the Air setting for a few minutes to get it to relax.
Next I spread the top out and smooth it...and then go about using the T-pins to keep the top stretched out. Then comes the real time consuming part...I use the bent safety pins and pin the three layers together about every six inches. (You can't do this if you have looped carpet...I have enough trouble doing it on regular carpet..)

(This is only a small fraction of the pins I use.)

That is my plans...now if I can just follow through. The past few days, I have been trying to decide which quilt top to quilt...I had planned to do the top I just finished but thought I should do this one if I am going to work on one. It will take a while to quilt, even if I am machine quilting it. And I will have to make the binding...so don't expect me to show you the finished product any time soon.

Beware! She's contagious!

The cat was playing with a milk ring....you know that little ring that you have to pull off to open a gallon of milk. Lorelei thought he was so funny...her laughter is just simple contagious! Have your sound turned on!

Is that a bud I see....

First, you just notice this dead bloom on the lilac bush, but then look again and you will see a bud swelling up. (Betsy, maybe that is a new 'up' to add to your list.) Anyway, that bud a promise that spring does follow winter...and today with the sunshine its been believable. I took this yesterday along with some others, but I liked seeing both in one photo.

We did head south today...I didn't know where we were headed when I left the house but we decided to go south. I was hoping that if we went south we might get into some snow, but no, it was sunny all the way. We went at least an hour south of Terre Haute...so I am assuming no one in Indiana got any. I have not taken time to check out Mary's blog...I will do that later. If I had known we were going to head south, I would have gotten on line and checked out the weather.

I shouldn't have left. I will tell you about a little mystery I have had.

One day last week, I went down in the basement early in the morn...I don't remember why. Now our basement is not finished...it isn't as bad as some I have seen. It could be better though. Anyway, I get down there and there is this small puddle of water in the floor...and I could not tell where it came from. I had been down the night before after midnight, I had not run the dishwasher, the washer or the dryer, nor anything.

Nothing happened for a few days, then I was back down there yesterday and there was a bigger puddle of water. I looked and looked and could not see anything wet. This time Roger went down and looked. We have a humidifier that we added to the furnace...water runs through a filter each time the furnace runs. The part of the water that isn't used drains into a bucket in which we have a pump, and the pump pumps it over into the sink. So Roger thought something on the pump had gotten stuck, so he worked on it a bit. We thought that did it.

I went down this morn, and there was another big puddle. Roger came and looked and the furnace happened to kick on, and something about the humidifier was leaking. He turned off the water to it, and then that valve wanted to leak. To make a long story short, he thought he had it fixed again...but changed the bucket he had the water draining in.

We left shortly after that, and was gone a till about 4:00, came in and I fooled around a bit. Checking email, and snail mail, fixing a bite to eat, etc. Then, I thought I better go check the basement and guess what? Another puddle! I realized then that I had not really felt satisfied with it when we left. We cleaned it up again, and Roger worked on the valve again.

I didn't think it was the valve because I stood down there and watched and watched before I even told him about it. So, came up and waited a while again....down the stairs I go. Still a puddle! This time he thought and filled the bucket with water that the pump is in...when he kicked it on, it had this tiny leak that showed up.

I went back down there a few minutes ago and it is actually dry. He will have to work on the humidifier because I am getting shocked every time I touch anything, or any time I got to pet the cats. For now I feel like the puzzle is solved...with all the time spent down there it better be. If I am spending time down there, I had rather spend it sewing.

I will leave you with a little video of Lorelei...I first thought I wouldn't because it is so dark on one of our computers...but thought again and thought I might as well. If you can see it, it will get a chuckle. I have watched it numerous times and get so tickled at her.