The Replacement

 

Not one but TWO trucks arrived at my house on Monday morning. They arrived about 10 AM and spent the next forty minutes disconnecting and removing the old furnace. (It's the beige box in the photo above.)

It was a noisy and messy process. I had already moved my quilts and artwork out of the way. They installed the new furnace, tested it and turned it on. Then they cleaned the mess and left.

WOW! It is SO nice not to have to worry about that now.

While the guys were banging away, I was in the studio assembling the last of the panels I needed for the third Nightingale Quilt. This is N3, and I will start sewing it up later today.

What I have learned from making these is you have to have faith, and lean into your fabrics. Even if the patterns are large (especially if the patterns are large), do not fret if they take up the whole piece and you don't see much of their black background. As Earthmotherwithin wrote: "With the fabric doing all the work, of course it only needs to be simple in construction."

I have said it before, while this quilt LOOKS complicated, it will be one of the easiest things you ever sew together. If you want the tutorial, you can get it here, at my Etsy shop.

How I'm Doing

 I have been fortunate enough to have access to a couple of space heaters, which have certainly helped over the last few days. The weather has helped too. It has been sunny and in the 60's over the last few days.

Still though, I decided to make use of the things I already had in my house. Like my oven. After the technician left on Friday, I reviewed my menu for the week and made some changes.

I decided to make the most use of my oven whenever I could. I would prepare each meal in the oven instead of on the stovetop. One morning I made myself a soufflé. Another I made muffins. One lunch I made a flatbread pizza. One dinner was a sheet pan dinner of sausage, Brussels sprouts and gnocchi. On the coldest day, Sunday, I put a pork stew in the oven to cook. These things helped bump up the temperature inside my house and meant I didn't need the space heaters.

It's very strange how this no-heat thing has affected my daily life. I can't wait for it to get back to "normal."

The new furnace will be installed sometime on Monday. I don't know precisely when.

Of course I have been sewing. The studio has its own separate heating system, so I've been very cozy there. This is a panel for the third Nightingale quilt. I cut a lot of black strips, so now I am using them up.

This is fifteen panels that when rearranged, will form the third Nightingale quilt.

Remember, this is not a quilt about patchwork first. This is about seeing a mass of color and pattern. 

EEEK!! (corrected)

 I had not had the yearly maintenance done on my heating unit since the pandemic. Generally I remember to schedule this because there is a note in the monthly bill. But I must have missed it. Anyway I scheduled an appointment last month and a technician came Thursday morning and found a leak. Since it was leaking CO (carbon monoxide), he disconnected the unit.

EEEK! No heat!  EEK.. Carbon Monoxide!  

But he said he thought the leak was so small my Carbon Monoxide monitor would probably not have picked it up.

And the heating unit is covered with a warranty so replacing it will be no charge to me. The problem is it won't get done until Monday. That's four days and four nights with no heat. Sigh.

My studio has electric heat, so I'm good there, and I've been lent some space heaters, so I should be OK, but wrapping my head around all of it was nerve-wracking, to say the least. 

The temperatures for the next three days will be 52-61F during the day, it's supposed to be sunny all weekend and it won't drop below freezing until Sunday night. It won't be so cold that I have to worry about pipes freezing. All good things. My Mom said I could sleep at her house, but that will be a last resort. I'd rather sleep in my own bed anyway. Clearly I have enough quilts to keep me warm.

So dinner will be anything I can cook in the oven (a way to generate heat) and I may do a bit of baking (again, oven). The electric heat in the studio warms the room almost immediately and doesn't need much to keep the room warm. I've got a recliner and a TV in there, so I will not have any trouble staying comfy. And did I mention it was the studio?

It could, of course, be worse.