Friday, October 13, 2006

How to ruin a binding in several easy steps

Nina asked how did I ruin the binding. It is very easy to mess up binding if you are stressed out! First, you sew it on with too wide of a seam. That means there won't be enough fabric to turn over to the back. Then you try to remedy the problem by trimming the seam a little bit, which makes the binding almost disappear on the front. The you also, accidentally, cut the fabric on the corner and leave yourself a nice hole when you flip the binding over. Then you give up and rip it all off and start over! I still wasn't able to face it again today.. maybe tomorrow!

Car update - DH and I went by the dealership this morning and DH asked if they had any new info. on the backordered part. The service manager said they would be checking on it sometime this morning and would give us a call. Stacy told him about my planned trip out of town and the service manager said they would get me a rental if the car wasn't done by Wednesday!! I called them at noon and the backordered part was supposed to be shipped today and arrive on Monday. And if everything goes perfectly, I WILL have my car back on Wednesday. The good news is that they are also fixing the driver's seat belt which was causing the airbag light to stay on and they are also fixing Maddie's seat belt, which locked in position as soon as you put it on. Honda warranties their seatbelts for the life of the car. Yeah Honda!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I am off to clean up the sewing room. It is currently about waist (or waste!) deep!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

I should have stayed in bed...

This day has gone from bad to good to worse. The air conditioning on my 2002 CRV went out on Monday and we took it in to Honda on Wednesday morning at 8 am. Still no answers by last night at 5. They called this morning to say that the compressor was falling apart from the inside out and had totally contaminated the entire A/C system. The whole thing will need to be replaced. The Honda lady said that the service manager was willing to "help us" on this. BIG HINT that they know something is all their fault. He was willing to cover the parts (about $2000) and we would just pay for the labor (about $800). I told the lady "Thank you" and that it was a great offer but that hubby was going to want to talk to someone higher up the Honda ladder. He had already surfed the web and found out the '02/'03 compressor are widely known for self destructing! So I get off the phone with her and call DH and leave a message to call me a.s.a.p. About ten minutes later I get another call from Honda lady saying that the service manager had called their district manager and had been told to cover the whole thing!! Yeah!!!! They said it should be done next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Then this afternoon I decided to work on the binding for the brown and pink quilt. Let's just say that things have gone horribly wrong and I am ripping the whole thing off and starting completely over with new binding - TOMORROW!!! Do not try and put binding on when you are stressed out.

This afternoon I called Honda to tell them that I really need the truck back by Wednesday because me and the kids are going out of town on Thursday. The lady tells me that she had just heard from the parts department and they had gotten all our parts ordered but that one part was on backorder and there was no release date on it. In other words, they have no idea when it will come in. I calmly asked her what I was supposed to do without a car for an indefinite period of time. She said I could go rent one. I replied "That would be at least $40 a day out of my pocket." All she could say was "yes". I am going to try and talk DH into calling the manager and insisting that they either give us a loaner or rent us a car - especially since they can not give us a date the truck will be finished. Stacy had already said we could rent a car but I really don't think we should be the ones paying for it since the repair is something that Honda knows is a problem with their product.

Now you know why I need to go back to bed! It is DH's b-day so I am definitely going to make him take us out to dinner!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Can you see why me and Nines are friends?

I am a
Snapdragon

What Flower
Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

Saturday, October 7, 2006

A binding Saturday

Can you tell what I did today? Last night I got the brown floral fabric cut for the binding on the pink pineapple quilt and got the strips sewn together today. Then I cut and sewed the binding for this quilt. This is the quilt I am going to give to my friends as a wedding gift. And then the pink strips are for an outer border on a baby quilt. The baby shower is October 29 so I have a couple of weeks to get it done.

Did you notice that bright yellowy cutting board? I finally bought myself a new one this past week. After 7 years of cutting on the same one, the lines were worn off and it had some pretty deep valleys cut into it. This one is cool because it has the grid on both sides - so when one side gets worn out you can flip it over and keep going! The back side is a real pale pink.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

P.S. - Where are the pics of everyone else's laundry rooms?

Friday, October 6, 2006

The quilting is done!!!!

This morning I finished up the last of the quilting on Taylor's quilt!!! Yeah! In the wide brown border I did freehand loopy-loops and leaves and in the pineapple blocks I just did little petite loopy-loops. Someday I want to do beautiful quilting like Judy, and Darcie, and Bonnie, and Carolyn, and Nina, and........... But for now - loopy-loops work just fine!

After I finished the quilting, I got to spend 3.5 hours counting fundraising money at the grade school. UGH!!! It is amazing how parents can mess up such simple math! But it is done and the school will make about $10,000 for their new playground.

Nina said she wanted to see our laundry "rooms" - so here is mine. It is more like a big closet. Our cabinet maker had a couple of beautiful white cabinet that he had mis-measured and he sold them to us for a steal! The odd little nook at the far right is caused by the water heater closet out in the garage. I use it to store my vacuum. The closet has bi-fold doors that close it off from the hallway to my bedroom.


Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Yummy!

Here is a yummy fruit salad recipe.

3 chopped apples
1 can chunked pineapples with the juice (the can that is about 5 inches tall)
1 box instant white chocolate pudding - sugar free
1 small carton fat free kool whip

Mix it all together and chill!

1 cup = 1 point ( for any of you on Weight Watchers)

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Not as huge as I thought!

I was a little concerned Friday night when I finished this top - that it was somehow it was going to be entirely too huge for a queen size bed. You remember this quilt, don't you? So yesterday morning I made up my bed and then threw the quilt top over to see how it fit. Perfect!

After spending several hours at the soccer field for pictures and a game, we made it home in time for lunch. After a quick nap, I managed to get the backing pieced and loaded on the machine. I ran out of steam after piecing the batting. Now I can go at the quilting without having to face several hours of other stuff first!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!