My Jack of All Trades - He Can Fix Anything!

My Hero!!

Two days ago, after sewing through my fingernail and tip of my finger, it threw my mid arm Janome 1600p-db sewing machine out of sync.

It was skipping stitches, not picking up the bobbin thread, and lots of fits and stops and starts with bird nests of snarled threads underneath the quilt on my frame.

The nearest Janome repair person is 35 miles away and he is backed up about two weeks. I didn't want to wait that long to get my machine back.

After consulting various websites, downloading an actual service manual, and having a very talented mechanical hubby ... We did it!!!

I gathered all of the right tools, and held the flashlight. We had to loosen the tiny set screw on the needle bar and move it downwards... where I am pointing with the purple pen. Bit by bit, testing it each time until we found the right spot!

Got a pile of test swatches

from trying things out a bit one way 

or a bit the other way 

until we got it adjusted just right!

Whew.... Back to quilting!

My hero easily saved me $100 repair bill, not to mention a couple weeks of downtime not being able to use the machine. I have other regular sewing machines, but this is a high-speed machine with a larger throat opening. It rides on a carriage back and forth across the frame. It is able to do quilting at a much faster speed as well as handle large king size quilts.

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Well, it's been ONE year since we came and looked at this house with our favorite realtor Amy Badendick. She let us come along on the listing appointment when she was going to take the initial photographs to list this home and put it on the market. We got to meet the sellers and walk through the house with them, as well as check things out more thoroughly than just during a regular home showing. We got in the car and decided to sleep on it overnight. The next day we put in the offer and put our own home on the market. We got a full price offer on our Chilton home in 2 days. The rest is history.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary, we did something we've been planning to do for quite some time. A elderly previous owner of the home was still residing in an assisted living center. We had made a few inquiries and they said that she is very alert and cognitive and would welcome a visit from us.

I will respect her privacy and not post all of the details. She as well as her husband both grew up in the neighborhood a block apart from each other. She regaled us with tales of growing up on North Park Avenue and all of the people in the neighborhood. It was so fun to hear her stories.

The things she told us about the house were wonderful and illuminating. After his time in the service, he came back and they got married. They bought this house right across the street from her invalid mother and where she grew up.  Her husband became a Carpenter and a Mason. He is the who one who had built that huge fireplace in the living room. She told us multiple times that her one request was to have him build her a big fireplace!

Also he had built the backyard brick outdoor BBQ kitchen that we can only now see the foundation of. It is used as a small patio base for our picnic table and chairs now.

He built the cabinets in the kitchen in the late 1940s back when they did things the right way!! He had built a booth seat in the kitchen under the windows for a comfy little breakfast nook. We can see the marks on the baseboard and the walls from where the L-shaped bench seat been. Somewhere down the line it had been removed. Now we have a taller bar height table with stools in that sunny place in the kitchen. I can just imagine her children lined up on the little bench with legs dangling, feet kicking against the bench seat, and eating their breakfast at the little table.

As their family grew, they decided to turn this home into rental property and move out to the country.  It was only a few miles away from their parents, and they built a house on a farm. Their country farm is still in their family today.

It was so nice to spend the afternoon chatting with her, and we left her some photos of how the house how it looks now that she can show her family when they come to visit her.

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I am happy to say that Steve has finished all of the electrical work. Every single light fixture, switch, outlet, and junction box are correctly wired with new up-to-date, up to code wiring. After he finished the last of the upstairs ceiling fixtures, it was time to finish the insulation in the attic.  (In my last blog post, he had pulled out all of the old stuff).

Steve had done all the prep work and told me that I was going to stay out of the attic while he spread the fiberglass insulation. I have had lung damage in the past and he didn't want to harm my lungs by helping him.  But I did help load, haul and move around the plastic wrapped bales of insulation. I told him a catapult would have worked better to get it all up on the roof!!!!   He brought it all in through the attic window across the front porch. The weather was so warm, it was in the high 50's!

He donned his zip up Oompa Loompa Willy Wonka suit and got to work. Before he spread the rolls of insulation out, he also put on gloves and a full face respirator mask with filter cartridges.

Incidentally, as a side note, we went to buy more filters for his respirator mask, only to find out they are completely out of stock. People who can't get the regular healthcare type face masks are buying industrial face masks in the stores and they can't keep them in stock. We had to order additional filters from Amazon to get them in the mail for his industrial face mask!

Our weather here has been really crazy. We've had the unusually warm weather which has been slowly melting the snow. We've also had some interesting foggy mist come in the other night that was just beautiful and I took these pictures

But then this morning, surprise surprise, we got 2 to 3 inches of new snow cover again.  AAARRRGGGHHHHHHHH

I am snuggly warm in my she shed, happily sewing on my quilt again this morning.  Waiting for the snow to melt?

My ever hopeful husband is out in the garage today. He is tuning up the lawn mower and messing around with the belts in the cutting deck, sharpening blades etc. I think he's trying to remain positive that Spring will eventually come?

Flu Shots, Catching Up and Feelin' Groovy

Trying to catch up here....

First of all, we went for the very first time and got our first ever flu shots!  My old pulmonologist was always telling me no no no to not get it. My immune system is so low as it is, and not to get the shot and bring on more to the immune system to deal with.  Okayyyyyy   That pulmonologist is now long gone and passed away, and my new one says "go for it?"

So we did. 

And yes, we both got sick within the week.  

I know all the blah blah blah about it not being a live vaccine, but we both got the shot on the same day, then we both got sick with the flu together on the same day 5 days later.  Coincidence? We rarely get sick at the same time, it's usually one of us first and we give it to the other one... sharing is caring, right?

We were both so sick with the flu, we missed out on a special fundraising benefit up in the UP of Michigan.  My sister and her husband got in a motorcycle accident.  They hit a deer!  They will both be off work for a while, with contusions, some broken bones, brain swelling and lots of road rash.  We are SO thankful to God that they are both ALIVE!  That is all that matters!

But, their budget will be strained by not being able to work for a while.  Friends and family put together a big benefit with a spaghetti dinner and raffle prizes to raise funds to help out with medical costs, travelling and things insurance doesn't cover.  I donated a bunch of of my handmade items, including this quilt that I sewed on morning noon and night to finish in time to send up with my brother two weeks before the event.  Good thing I did, because we were both way too sick to attend.

Before we knew we would be getting sick, the day after the shot we went up to visit Steve's dad, in Door County.  We had "projects" to work on for Pops!    He has these three barstools that one needed to be covered. Steve found him some brown vinyl at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and I set to work covering the stools (without any sewing machine at hand).

I cut out 3 big circles, 

needle basted around the perimeter with thick carpet warp,

and gathered it around the existing stool seat.

I pulled the vinyl around underneath the stool, and stapled it down to the base with my handy dandy staple gun. A few tap tap taps with a hammer and it was done!

I finished up the other two stools in no time, 

once I figured out what I was doing. 

Now they all match. 

While I was doing that, Steve and his brother Pete were working under the direction of the Lead Boss Supervisor.  He had a bunch of projects and things to get done.  He had the sons assemble a wonderful wood box, and they did it without even reading the directions!  (of course)

Their dad did have to run to town for the proper hardware, as the original bolts and nuts were missing.  The guys got the whole layout figured and assembled.  This will make a nice interior wood box setting next to the woodstove this winter.

Of course, both of the sons had to haul some firewood now to fill the box, and fill the rack on the outside of the patio door. The easy way to haul from the woodpile is using the tractor.  How cool is that?

While the guys were busy with the wood hauling,

our dogs were visiting with their pal, Millie. 

By Tuesday or Wednesday we were both starting to slow down and feeling punkish. By Thursday we were both struggling and by Friday it was the full blown flu.  ARGGHHH!!!!!

It is now a full week later, and we are finally starting to feel back to normal and even went for a mile or two walk tonight and cleaned the house a bit as well.

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Now for the next part of my blog....  it's "quilting-ish".

Steve was looking on the Facebook Marketplace and found an amazing upgrade to my quilting room projects. He found me a Hinterberg quilting frame and also a mid-arm Janome high speed industrial sewing machine (with double the throat space of my domestic Janome)

It takes up the whole wall in my sewing room... but I don't mind!  I sold off my old Handi Quilter frame to another gal... and we even delivered it for her.   I am just tickled about having this bigger frame and sturdy sewing machine to keep up with the high speed quilting I do. I was worried about burning out the motor on my domestic Janome 8077 with the long runs of free motion stitching.  This new-to-me Janome can handle it at 1,600 stitches per minute.

I have worked three quilts on it already,

and will post those in a future blog....

because there is a long story that goes with those quilts. 

When we got this Hinterberg quilting frame, it has something called "Groovy Boards" that run along the back side of the frame.  A stylus device is attached to the sewing machine, and the tip of it runs along the grooves in the boards. It then replicates the pattern from the grooves on the boards onto the stitching on the quilt.  Neat!  I have the choice of right scallops, left scallops, tulips or greek motifs. 

 But -----The boards that came with the frame were warped from standing up on end in a basement for a couple years.  Oh my!  The previous owner never used them, nor had any interest in learning to use them.  But I did!  We knew that when we bought the frame. The crazy thing is that these groovy boards are NINETY NINE DOLLARS  a set!   ACK!

 Look how warped they are,

standing face to face. 

Here is where my Groovy Husband comes into play.  He knew he could straighten up my Groovy Boards by using some angle iron.  Being thrifty and resourceful, he went into the magical stash of attic stuff and took down two old iron bed frame rails!  (left by the previous owners).   He measured and they were long enough to do the job. 

He used his grinder and took off all of the rust and flaking paint.  Then he gave them three coats of Rustoleum paint to keep them from rusting again.  He used his drill and made holes after carefully measuring the Groovy Boards' patterns.  Using a Fostner bit, he drilled down to make recessed holes into the wood.  Then he attached the rails to the boards with flat headed bolts and locking nuts that wouldn't come loose from vibration.  Smart guy!  

Look at that! 

No more warp!

 I am such a lucky wife to have such a darling husband. 

He tries so hard to fix things to help me along in my fiber pursuits. 

Here are the Groovy Boards in place, 

on the frame behind the machine carriage. 

The little stylus device isn't on yet in this pic. 

One quick project I had to whip up this week was a set of southwestern potholders.  This is some fabric I picked up the last time we were down in the desert.   These are a "camper-warming" present for someone special.

Steve's old boss,
Linda,
 is RETIRING 

from High Cliff State Park! 

Here she is on her last day.... working and working and working

right up till the end.  

She was the best boss Steve ever had

before he retired last year.

Linda bought her very first RV camping trailer, already set up on a lot in Arizona and waiting for her.  She worked on Thursday right up to the end of the day.  But she had her car loaded up to the max. She is heading out to spend the winter in Arizona!  She didn't have a lot of room, so that is why we gave her a very small sized trailer warming present, and a couple pairs of my handknit wool socks for a retirement gift. 

ARIZONA OR BUST! 

(as of her most recent post tonight, 

she made it as far as New Mexico)