No progress to report but I am thinking about it a lot....

It has been a funny old week, kind of blah and indifferent.  We had a hospital trip which was neither good nor bad, good thing is my husband's immune system might be coming back up, the bad thing if it does then the antibodies start attacking his central nervous system again.  Another upcoming this week which might shed some light on what is happening with his heart issues. Time will tell.

It has turned really nice here, not too hot and we are getting some much needed rain.

Love the colour of these iris and thought they looked lovely with the raindrops on.

Been thinking about the quilt, it will definitely be a go, just have to make a start.  Once I do I know I will keep at it.

I had a dream a couple of night's ago.......

Back in January 2015 I posted about some quilt squares my MIL had made and the night before last I dreamed that I made a quilt using them.

I hadn't been thinking about making a quilt so why that popped into my dreams I have no idea but hey ho, maybe now is the time eh?

I could make it using my treadle machine, that would certainly give it a good trial. I dreamed about how to join them all together and put strips in between so as to make it bigger so now I have to go dig in my stash to see what I can find to make strips.  I have some ideas to make them using different fabrics joined together as I know I don't have any long lengths of fabric and I don't want to buy any more.  Time to utilise the stash!  I do also have some fabric on rolls about 4" wide so they will be perfect but the colour is a bland off white so I think I need to break it up a bit, plus, I have no idea how many yards are in the rolls.

Here is a link to that post and a picture of some of the squares.

http://ilikeknittingandsewing.blogspot.in/2015/01/look-at-treasures-i-found.html

This morning I was out with the dogs and realised that Spring trees are somewhat similar to Autumn trees in colour.

Reds and different shades of green in the new leaves

The iris are budding

 

as are the peonies

Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah!

The treadle sewing machine is up and running.  I am so excited, it sews like a charm. Getting the belt right was a bit of a challenge but now I know how it should be, next time I won't be cutting it off a half inch at a time to get it right.  I know how taut it should be now.

It stitches just fine, the stitch length adjustment works just fine.  It has been a gazillion years since I used a treadle machine so I was a bit iffy at first. I can go very fast but going slow I am not so good at.  All in good time.

For now, I am just so happy it all works after all the work I did to bring it back into working order.

I did make a video but some buxom grey haired old biddy highjacked it, have no idea who she is! She sounds just like me though......weird eh?

The white stitching was done on the treadle machine

I bought the original manual on ebay but it is very frail so I copied it to use. Check out the lady, shows how old the machine is

In it's spot

This same old biddy is behind my mirrors too!

The manual is so helpful

The best laid plans 'o mice and men.....and all that

Yesterday, I made it up to the sewing room to start on getting the treadle sewing machine set up.  I was taking stuff off of the table top that I had spanning two short filing cabinets to make a desk.  The plan being to remove the top and put the treadle machine in between the two said cabinets.

Honk, honk, I hear and look out the window to see the Fed ex truck outside.

I went to get the parcel which I expected was the protein powder and vitamins I had ordered from Sam's Club.  It was indeed a parcel from Sam's Club.

You have to remember that we are pretty housebound right now with my husband's compromised immune system and current heart problems so it seemed like the easiest thing would be to order the powder.  We usually pick it up when we go to the VA hospital but I forgot last week.

So Sunday night I ordered it online.  Chocolate protein powder.  We always buy chocolate because that's the flavour we like.  We do not like vanilla.  Protein powder isn't the nicest tasting thing anyway but my husband believes the protein helps with his nerve and muscle disease and at least the chocolate flavour is drinkable.

What showed up? Why, vanilla of course! I checked the order again and it was for chocolate so genuine mistake by them I think, they will put it right I think.  Well yes, I can return it, by Fed Ex at their expense but I have to deliver it to a Fed ex depot. Hrrmm!  The nearest one is 45 miles away!

So I tried calling them and got left on hold for 34 mins, and I have the photo to prove it! They never picked up and I eventually just hung up.  I emailed them twice and have not had a reply.

So now there is steam coming out of my ears and battle will commence!

UPDATE:

When I checked my blog I saw that I hadn't actually posted this so I can report that indeed battle ensued and Sam's Club have arranged for pickup of the parcel tomorrow.

Not sure whether they are replacing with correct item or refunding, have sent email #4 to ascertain that.  Will report back in due course.

And needless to say, nothing done on the sewing machine again today!

Compared to my blogging friends I am just a pretender

I haven't been posting much at all lately but I read all the blogs I follow every day faithfully.  I feel like such a pretender because I hardly make anything these days.  A lot of it is circumstance but have to admit that some of it is lack of mojo.

I did manage to sequester our neighbour's son and two of his friends to bring my treadle machine cabinet over from the workshop and upstairs into my sewing room on Monday. It got wet from the rain in the process so I have left it until today so it thoroughly dries out.

Today, hopefully, is the day I get it all set up.  First I have to give the rest of it a good polish and oil the machine again.  I am hoping all the repairs I did to the cabinet hold up and it will be a go.

I am excited to do this and this has been the first time lately I have felt motivated.  I love making things so much that I feel guilty for feeling happy when everything around us is not going so well.

I think this is why I haven't been making things and I have to work to get over this silliness.

I was somewhat inspired also by a video I saw this morning of Josh Turner's 90 something year old grandma playing her piano at the Grand Ole Oprey.  I am sure she has faced a lot in her life but she was up there playing like a champ.  God bless her.

If she can pursue her love of the piano then I am sure I can pursue my love of making things.