Had a Health Scare and Our Pfundtner Security Team

Yesterday was a strange day....

Steveio called me from work about noon, saying he "felt weird" and "was forgetting stuff" ...  He sounded strange and it's not normal for him to even call me at all.  I knew something was up. Then his phone kept dropping signal at the park, and I could not get a straight story between his randomness and the phone cutting out. ARGGHHH!!!  He said he kept forgetting things.  A co-worker had to tell him the same thing five different times and Steve could not remember what it was.  I tried calling him back and get more details, but the phone kept cutting out.  I finally gave up and called his boss in the office to check on him.

It turns out that Steve had been cutting down trees with a crew, and he was doing the "grunt" part of hefting the cut trunk pieces into the bucket scoop thing.  The YOUNG guys were doing the non-strenuous parts!  That's my Steveio.   Geeesh.... with the heat and humidity plus he hadn't had a thing to drink since his morning coffee, no wonder he was feeling "off"!

The rangers checked him for signs of stroke.  Then they decided to take him into the Urgent Care....  where that doc then sent him to get a CT scan!  By now, I was waiting on pins and needles at home, hoping for any word by phone.  Finally they called and said he was heading in for CT and I should come now to be with him. He was 35 miles away.  I kept it under the speed limit, as I knew he was in good hands.  But of course my mind was zooming ahead a million miles a minute.

Well, Steve asked the technician if they found any squirrels up in his head.. .but she said no, not even a NUT!   LOL ... by now he was re-hydrated and feeling better.   They released him to me and said we needed to follow up with the doc in the morning.   Whew!!! I was thanking God all of the way home.

We came on home to find our workman we hired was here at the house...  workman?  workman? you say?   That can't be.... zoom zoom Pfundtners do all their own work on Our Old House!

A week ago or so our neighbor Diane was having some gutter work done, and this nice young man did a great job for her, and he came recommended. (she also knows his father!)

Well, we don't have a tall enough ladder to reach the top of our house.  But he does! There has been a missing piece of trim/edging/soffit whatever from the tallest gable on the south side of the house.  I talked to Brandon and got his card and asked him to come back when he had time to do a quick job.  I had all the parts and tools and white nails etc. ready for him to get to the job even if we were gone.

Here is where the piece of trim was missing....

Brandon set up his gear and went right to work----
plus he knocked down the old wasp nest too!

He carefully measured, double checked and measured again, and trimmed the metal to the exact size.  He was careful of the plants below, and made sure he was padded against the house siding where the ladders rested.

Having this guy going up and down on ladders

alongside of our house put the dogs in an absolute TIZZY! 

This is our Pfundtner Security Team in action:

For those of you who don't want to click on the YouTube link, here are a few still shots of the Pfundtner Security Team doing what they do best----

Intently watching him go up and down the ladder

(with tails swishing in watchful concentration) 

Finnegan on a little rest break...

in a basket of wool strips cut for weaving rugs!

Re-positioning themselves for a better vantage point of view

Brandon was done with the job in no time, and put away his ladders.  Steve asked for the final total... a mere $40!   Geesh!  I handed him $50 and told him to go have a beer.....   what a great job he did for a good price. 

We also talked to him about putting in some gutter guards on the front porch (the rest of the house already has them) and he will be coming back soon to install them for us.  Here is a blog post of Steveio cleaning out the gutters up on the front porch:  http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2015/06/thinking-about-couple-songs-tonight.html

Since Steve's recent face to face with the fact that he is aging and not able to do all the things that he did when he was 20....  it is a good thing to get the front porch gutters done so he doesn't have to go out on the roof again! 

This morning we were up early and having our coffee on the front porch in the sunshine.  It is gonna be a GREAT day!  The temps are down, the humidity is down, the sun is shining and it's a gorgeous day.  And to top it all off... .Steveio is feeling better! The sunshine streaming in early in the morning is one of the sweetest times of the day. 

By 8:30 we were in at the doc, all is good, tests look okay and the doctor said that Steve is supposed to remember that he is NOT 20 anymore!!!! He was mostly likely off on his electrolytes and de-hydrated.  He needs to take it easier on the hot, humid days and be more careful of his exertion.

And

of course... 

to drink MORE water!!

I did ask the doc to write up a note saying Steve had to retire now, just to bug his boss.  Heh heh.  But the doc said he would write up one for himself before he'd write one for Steve!  Steve is in better shape than he is.  LOL


And we are looking for special blessings and thoughts for our dear little granddaughter Allegra who is undergoing oral surgery this morning in Green Bay....  Be well, little stinker.  We love you!

The Newlywed Quilt and Quilt-As-You-Go Technique

I could not write about this project until it was finished, boxed up and mailed out and received....  because it was a special gift to my nephew Darren and his new bride Chelsea!

Last fall, we attended a wonderful outdoor wedding in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan joining my nephew and his lovely bride in matrimony.   What a darling couple!

Part of their homespun rustic themed wedding decorations were these pendant flags cut out from various patterns of calico and country cotton fabrics.  The bride-to-be cut out hundreds of these from fabric she bought at the quilting shop.  What a great idea!   You can see the pendants strung on jute twine, lining the aisle, adorned with logs as posts, and painted mason jars with flowers. The archway was built by the father of the groom (my brother) and later became a gift to the parents of the bride for their garden.

In the background of the reception hall, you can see the fabric pendants strung along the walls and tables... It was the most adorable wonderful family wedding to be a part of.  What a great time we had!

As we were helping to take down the decorations and clean up on Sunday morning, I asked the new bride what was she going to do with the fabric pendants?  She really didn't know, so I offered to take some of them and make something special.

 I alternated the triangles with pieces of natural colored muslin,

making strips of random triangles, no pattern intended.

Next, this is the where the technique 

"Quilt-As-You-Go" 

comes into play. 

Essentially, it is working one panel at a time by doing fancy stitching of a quilting pattern through all three layers----  top, batting, and backing ----  working each strip complete, then attaching on the next strip to work.  It's a method that allows a regular home sewing machine to make a quilt without having to send it out to a big flat-bed long arm quilting service. (or hand stitching it all as it was done in the old days!) 

Here are four diagrams I made up myself that kinda explains the technique for my fibery readers....  if this doesn't interest you, just scroll down to see the finished quilt!

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Okay... now that you understand the concept, 

let's go back to the photos of the actual quilt being created! 

So far, I have done a few kinds of free motion stitching for decorative appeal on some of my quilts.  I have done the "puzzle piece" style called meandering.  I have done diagonal lines criss-crossing called hatching.  I have learned fancy swirls and feathers and vines etc.   

For this quilt I chose something new...  I am calling them "Loopy Swirls"    The random loops and reversing directions is kinda tough at first, but once you get into the swing of it, the panels just roll along as I do the stitching.  Instead of going from the top to the bottom like most sewing, I found it easier to start at the bottom and work backwards so I could see what I already created and knew the stuff coming up behind the needle was clear and open.  I could be sure I covered all the open spaces with loops and swirls.

FRONT                                                BACK 

The hardest part was matching up the seams on the isosceles triangles.

It was joining up six seams into each intersection!

I have a Sew Steady table extension to my sewing machine, which I keep on an old fashioned typing table.  (thanks Linda Guelig!)     That gives me more room to sew and supports wider pieces of projects.   

In the middle of all this intensive quilting, I realized the light on my sewing machine didn't work so well during the nighttime hours.  I just happened to see a GREAT sale on the new style of Ottlite at Joann's... it's called The Cambridge Lamp and looks old fashioned, but gives clear white light to see true colors and it's wonderful for sewing or crafting! It was the perfect style for my 100 year old home!  The regular Ottlites look space-age and modular.  I never cared for the look of them, but always wanted the good clear, clean light to work on my projects.

I saw that the lamp was on sale from $139 down to $69 and after my 20% coupon it was only $55! Score!     I can also use on my old treadle machine which, of course, doesn't have ANY light at all! 

Back to the quilt....

Finally the quilt grew to a full queen size.  I had to add borders all around. I had enough scraps to make little right angle triangles to go around all four sides. (By this time I was SICK of doing isosceles triangles!)   

I had to move the whole project now into the diningroom. I have found that if I just set my sewing machine on the diningroom table, my arms are up too high for all the intensive free motion stitching.  It takes a lot of concentration and tenseness builds up in the shoulders if I hold my arms up too high for too long periods of time. 

Soooooo  I butted my sewing machine on the little typing table right up to the diningroom table to carry the excess bulk and weight of the quilt.  They are now on the same level. That can leave the section I am working on free of any tension so I can move the section that I am working on and glide it freely around to do the loopy free motion stitching. 

Whew... finished!  I bound off the edges with more muslin, 

and I added a handmade tag commemorating their wedding date. 

It's a bit rugged and rustic, but I think it fits their wedding theme.

 And... here it is!  

The quilt is not perfect, there are some lumps and bumps along the way. Just like marriage.  But I hope they find comfort in each other's arms as they cuddle under this quilt over the years.  I want them to USE it and love it; not just store it away somewhere to keep "for good".   They are moving to a new house at the end of the month, so it arrived just in time as a house-warming gift too!

P.S. I was reminded from a fellow blog reader that I should add a part about their reaction!   Well, I shipped it out and texted them to watch for a box.  It came while Darren was home, but he was warned by his wife Chelsea to NOT open it until she got home from work!   LOL   They were delighted and excited and thrilled with the quilt.  I am soooo glad they like it.  It puts a smile on my face to think of the happiness from their wedding day, that I had a chance to be a small part of it. 

Working at the Calumet County Museum

(I really have two blogs to write today, one about the motorhome and one about the museum, so I thought I would split them up) 

Steve and I both have committed to helping at the local county museum.  We volunteer on Sunday afternoons to help out, talk to visitors, and do some repairs around the buildings.

http://www.calumetcountyhistoricalsociety.org/

https://www.facebook.com/CalumetHistoricalSociety

The museum is run by the Calumet County Historical Society. This group relies solely on donations to keep running, and volunteers to keep it open.  They have done so much with so little.  We really enjoy being there, just to look, explore, read, learn and enjoy the wonderful information about the small farming community and tiny town of Chilton. 

There are two main buildings, a log cabin, and the only three legged windmill around, donated to the museum by my knitting friend, Kay. Steve has helped with some of the lighting repairs and I have offered to help whip the fiber display into shape and get things labelled correctly.

Although it was a hot, humid, miserable day, we went anyhow to help open up and man the museum for the afternoon.  Luckily there was a nice breeze coming across from the cornfields that helped.  After we got the museum ready and opened up, I took the best of the four spinning wheels and got to work. Sitting outside in the breeze helped.  Hmmmmm a little oil, a new drive band, some tweaking and twisting... and soon I got it spinning!!!  YAY!!!!!

Visitors came and went throughout the afternoon.  A couple brought in some delightful kids, by the names of Alex and Abby. They were so curious and intelligent.  Full of questions and asking "What did this cost back then?"  "How old is this?"  etc.  It was fun to listen and watch them explore each display area.  Then I wrangled them into helping me wind some handspun wool yarn onto some of the wooden display pieces.  Alex took the photo of Abby helping me.  They both were so curious and it was quite enjoyable to help them see things through the eyes of someone 100 years ago.

(printed with their parents permission)

Here are some of the fibers they helped me to process and display. 

Now things look a bit better with fibers around the tools.

We seem to have a plethora of "yarn winders" which are used to wind on the newly spun and plied yarns, to be able to make them into the long loop type old fashioned skeins.  Now they can be dipped into sudsy water to wash the natural lanolin off the wool, or dipped into dye vats for color.

I still have more to do... clean up, oil the wood, string up the drive bands and arrange them in a nice order.  I get two great wheels to tackle (used for spinning cotton) and clean up more hand carders, hackles and shearing tools for the sheep.   Soon it will a display to be proud of.  For me, anyhow!  LOL 

Steve enjoys the other building to the east... donated by Mike Bolz.  It's full of the "Guy Stuff"  ... and there sure is plenty to look at!   When we help out at the museum, this is the building he mans, and loves to talk about machinery with the farmers and the other old guys who hang out here.

The main building to the west has more of the housewares, education, medical and historical archives.  A lot of books, photos, maps and display cases depict the history of this area.

Here are just a few Highlight Photos.....

 There are some lovely pieces from local buildings that have been torn down,

including these stained glass windows from a rural church.

The displays are arranged by small vignette rooms...

this one being store, grocery, and merchantile items

Here is a bit of household items, mainly showing a bedroom from the past

I am not going to bore you with a ton of photos of museum stuff, 

you just have to come and see for yourself! 

But THIS Is one of the most interesting items to kids.....

it's called a "transport basket"  

made by the Undertakers Supply Co. of Chicago.  

Soooo come on down to the museum next time you are in the area! 

We would love to have you visit, open on Sundays from 1-4 or by appointment.