Oh Say Can You See?

 

I can't imagine this round fixture was ever popular or stylish, but it must have been cheap, because my house had four of them!! No longer.

The new fixture is a low profile LED bright white.

I got the same one for the front hallway.

When I bought the house eight years ago there were two round fluorescent light fixtures in the kitchen, and the one in the middle of the room didn't even work.

 This "shabby chic" fixture hung in the dining room which barely put out any light.

Less than a month after moving in I replaced both fixtures.

 

The one over the sink was so bright, I never bothered replacing the one in the middle of the room, but after replacing the range hood this year, I noticed it did not illuminate the room as well as the old one did,

So I replaced it (same electrician, btw), and now the room is nice and bright.

This is the light fixture that now hangs in my main bathroom shower room and big closet. Both rooms had that icky round fixture I showed at the beginning of this post.
 

 Yup, a BIG improvement, and I can see just fine, and the fixtures are easy on the eyes too.

Let There Be.. Light!

This may not look much different to you, but to ME, it is.

Here's the view from the other end of the studio.

So, what's it all about? A couple of weeks ago the light bulb in the floor lamp next to my sewing machine died. Now I don't just want a replacement bulb, I want a bulb that puts out a lot of light, and I want it to be DAYLIGHT. Not soft light, not "easy reading" light, I want bright, white light. The guy at the big box hardware store helped me find this.

Well, I liked it so much that I went back yesterday and bought bulbs to replace every single floor lamp in the studio. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

The other thing I did was save a picture of the box (above) in my camera so when I want another one, I'll know exactly what to buy.

Oh Say, Can You See?

The other day after I showed off my new glasses, my friend Mary told me I should write a post about how a quilter knows when she needs new glasses. It's a fair point.

Before I developed arthritis in my dominant hand, I used to do finely detailed pencil drawings, specifically portraits. To do that, I needed to SEE and to SEE I needed good glasses, so I had plenty of motivation to ask my optometrist if I could get a custom pair of bifocals so I could see what I was drawing without tilting my head up and down. Ordinary bifocals didn't allow me to do that.

"Of course" he said, "Just measure how far away something is you want to see and we'll go from there."

Now anybody with bifocals knows how expensive they are, but let's face it, if you need to SEE to work, then why would you avoid the expense? It's like any other tool you need to do your job. The best tools are worth the cost.

My new glasses (above) are "average" bifocals. Good for driving and not so close work. They're fine when I am working on my laptop when it is on the table, but not so good when the laptop is in my lap. For that I use my "quilting glasses," below.

these are my "quilting" glasses.

My quilting glasses are designed for middle distance, and close distance. They are good to see anything out to the ends of my arms. They are great for sewing and for teaching. I can't see long distance with them, so I can't drive with them, and they are actually better for reading than my "normal" bifocals. They are great for hand sewing.  And yes, when I got them I figured out just how far I sat from my sewing machine, just how far away my cutting and ironing tables were when I worked, and brought those measurements to my optometrist, and we talked about what I needed. (Essentially that was where the "line" dividing one distance from the other would be on the lenses.) I guess they're more like the bottom two areas of trifocals. Thing is, they are worth every penny I paid for them.

So if you are struggling to SEE with your glasses, it's worth your while to find something that works. A lot of people ask why I don't buy the inexpensive "cheaters" you find at grocery stores. Fact is, they don't work for me. I need more than one prescription, I need two. And besides, I think "cheaters" are (for the most part) ugly as sin.

I'm always amazed at what folks will put up with. Most of us ladies are familiar with how uncomfortable an ill-fitting bra can be, but how many of us just buy them off the shelf instead of going someplace to get properly fitted? (Not me, I found a great bra place and I am a believer.) I'm always surprised that women put up with making quilts on dining room tables in rooms with poor lighting, and cheap sewing machines, and wobbly ironing boards designed for ironing clothes, not quilts, yet their husbands have table saws, snowblowers and riding lawnmowers.

And about lighting...

A couple of years ago I bought a small Ott Lite to use when I hand sew the binding on my quilts. Glasses are one thing, but good lighting is another thing that will make your life a LOT easier. One of the things I adore about Quilted Threads, my all time favorite quilt shop, is that the lighting is bright daylight, not ordinary fluorescent. When I moved into the house I live in now, the first thing I did was bring myself to the hardware store to buy daylight bulbs to replace every single bulb and lamp. What a difference. (Although I do have to install spots in my studio for my design wall. I hope that's a project I can do before the end of this year.)

So, all my quilting pals... Can you see?