Oops

 

A stud can be a hard thing to find, and if you haven't got a stud then you use a plastic anchor, and sometimes those don't work very well. Case in point, the metal shelf and towel rack above the toilet.

You can't tell much in the picture above, but the rack was leaning down. It wasn't level. It wasn't very solidly attached. Oh darn. What to do?

Well, we could attach a piece of wood (painted white) to the wall, screwed to a stud, and then attach the towel rack to that.

But that would look a little weird. I had an idea. What if I covered the piece of wood with wallpaper, and matched the pattern?

So that's what I did. After all, I am the queen of fussy cuts. I can do this. Can you say "Ruler Trick?"

Considering I "winged it" I think I did pretty good. This is the piece of wood attached the wall and notice how you CAN'T see where the screw is. That's because I patched it with another piece of wallpaper. (Nyah, ah, ah!)

Then we attached the little brackets.

It worked like the proverbial CHARM!!

Adapt, Improvise, Overcome

 Yeah, I know, it's the motto of that big reality show game. But it's a good thing to remember when you are doing something creative. Sometimes when we encounter a problem we only see a fraction of what we really should be looking at. I had more than two options yesterday. In fact, I had two additional options I originally dismissed out of hand, but when I really thought about it, those other options seemed to have a lot of benefits. What were they?

3. Use the leftover pieces to make new blocks. After all, I cut more than I needed... When I looked through them that night though, some of the fabrics I needed weren't there.

That left option number 4. Cut new pieces. Now this pair on the top, I HAD to unstitch because I didn't have any more of that particular pink (I've only had it in my stash for something like 17 years), but for all the other pieces I cut new blocks.

I didn't have enough of the llamas to have them all facing in one direction, so I had to sew two pieces together (GASP! THE HORROR!) But this is where an Attitude Adjustment is needed. This is not going to be a show quilt. This is going to be a couch quilt that will live on that back of my couch a few months of the year. 

If anybody notices this, then they deserve a prize for being that observant. I had to do this a couple of times, but seriously, no big deal. Cutting all the pieces I needed for one row of blocks took less than an hour. It took me many more hours than that to take apart one row. 

So let's see, one hour and a few funny seams or... six or seven hours painstakingly ripping blocks apart? Hmm, not exactly a hard decision.

On to your comments: 

Gail, when ripping apart a seam on the bias I am more careful than careful. I am downright paranoid and do it very slowly and carefully. You are absolutely correct that this can be a recipe for disaster.

Before ripping anything apart, I think you have to take your "Risk Temperature." I have more than once stuck a seam ripper in between two pieces of fabric, cutting edge against a row of stitches and just pushed, cutting the stitching apart in long stretches. But this is NOT the technique to use with a seam on the bias. Doing it the way I describe also risks cutting a hole in your fabric, so like I said, you have to figure out your Risk Temperature before you do that and choose your ripping technique carefully. 

Here's something to think about: Don't set your stitch length so small the tip of your seam ripper can't fit into it... (Ask me how I know this.) Also, those sticky lint removers work great for pulling out the remains of cut stitches. The disadvantage is they will also make the edges ravel a lot more.

Michelle, Alas, my machines are a 1260 rebuilt Bernina and an Elna. The feet are not compatible.

And Julie, the Elna was overdue for its regular maintenance anyway. It should have gone in April of 2020, but we know what happened then...

Now I can get back to  the important stuff.

Change Partners and Dance... redux

I tried to hang the letters on the front porch on Tuesday, and one of them fell and a serif on the letter "T" broke. I had known they were old and brittle and was worried this might happen. I was worried about the letters hanging in a place where they would be subjected to the wind and other elements that might knock them over, and I guess I was right.

I talked to my Mom later, thinking I would just scrap the whole idea but she said, "Oh, no! Those letters are too special for you to give up. You have to find a way to do it."

Of course she was right, and as I looked at the pieces after taking this photo, I have another idea to hang the letters and make them secure.  It won't happen soon because I have a lot to do, but it will happen. In the meantime I'll glue the little pieces back together and give the letter "T" a touch up.




**
Dear Megan, if you think I have the patience to do hand quilting you are seriously mistaken. I don't and besides, the arthritis in my right hand won't let me do that for very long. 


Terri and Susan, I only close up the studio when the temperatures outside get below 10F. There is an electric heater in that room and I can turn it on whenever I want, so I only use it when I have to be in there working. Right now it's no harm no foul because I have other irons in the fire. You should know me well enough to know that if I've got a sewing project that I'm very excited about wild horses couldn't pull me away from the sewing machine.

Adapt, Improvise, Overcome

This was the conference room the way I left it this past Saturday. The projector has been replaced, the carpet has been installed. New security measures are in place and yes, we have an idea of the identity of the culprit.

All that's left is the new furniture, and that won't come until the new year.




As for me, I've got a new project, and it hasn't got anything to do with fabric. It has to do with paper and words, and only remotely quilt related. It's got my attention the same way my word quilts do, and for that I'm very happy.  I'll tell you all about it in due time.