In the middle of all this, Thursday evening after dinner I noticed water all over the floor near the dishwasher. (It was running at the time.) The dishwasher had been getting progressively noisier over the past year and not doing a great job at cleaning, so it wasn't entirely a surprise. I'm just thankful that I'd run the dishwasher earlier in the day than normal. I often start it before bedtime and that would have been a disaster. So thankful I noticed within a few minutes of the flood starting, especially since we have hardwood flooring in the kitchen.
Finished but not yet vacuumed:
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I have been sewing and quilting, of course. I quilted two more of Keetah's Christmas quilts with hand-guided loopy meander.
Anyway, the search was on for a dishwasher that had a third rack, was quiet, and, most importantly, that I could get quickly. Seriously, some of the dishwashers I looked at online were not available until December, February, or even next April! And many just said "unavailable." It was nerve-wracking buying one sight unseen. The new one is quite quiet and does a great job of getting things clean on the first try. As a bonus, it has an overflow/leak alarm. I'm still adjusting to the rack set up and trying to figure out what fits where. Would I have purchased this one if I'd been able to see and try things in person? Maybe, maybe not. But it is here and it works. I do like how it has a status display on the little black bar above the handle (washing, clean, etc.).
Meanwhile, we had to do all the final steps to ensure the basement was ready for carpet. Due to the unexpected dishwasher issue and me needing to work all weekend, we found ourselves doing most of the prep work late Sunday night. The installer was due to arrive Monday morning. We got it done and now we have a finished basement. I have to say that it is really weird and jarring to go down the stairs and see a finished space instead of a messy work in progress like it's been for eight years.
Progress after the first day:
\It seems quieter already. I am looking forward to seeing if it reduces the longarm noise or not.
I stitched out the Cobweb design on Robin's quilt. This one was interesting because part of the backing was corduroy! I had been quite worried about how it would work, but the worry was for nothing. The corduroy, which was a very soft, fine wale, quilted absolutely beautifully with no changes to the usual set up.
Next I worked on Ann's quilts. These are both very large quilts and we went fairly dense on the design scale on both. They took me pretty much all weekend to complete, but they looked fantastic when I was finished.
This first one is quilted with Eddy. The actual stitching time, not counting advancing the quilt or anything like that, was over seven hours. 😱 But it looked really great when done, so it was worth it.
The second one was quilted with Basic Swirl.
Now on to my own projects. First, it is link up week for blocks two and three of Denise's Flower Patch mystery SAL. I was running really short on time to finish up block three, so I did simplify the tulip design quite a bit. I also ran into a bit of a snag, as you do when you're trying to rush, and sliced up part of my block and had to start over.
Here is block two. I'm really happy with how my cardinals turned out. I like how I got the wing fabric lined up, though it doesn't show much in my photos.
All three blocks together, showcased in an utterly terrible photo.
I did finish up this month's Macaron Mystery clue too. Not that I did a great job. I'm not sure what I did to make these come out so wonky, but you'll hopefully never know once everything is assembled.
I have also finished my October OMG as of this morning. My son's bus driver is out again, so this morning restarted my twice-daily school runs. I got up extra early and finished binding my sweet little Highland Cow quilt before the morning run. It was still dark when I took the picture, so I'll try to get better pictures later this week as time allows.
As you may recall, I entered this quilt in the quilt show prior to even starting it. I saw the pattern, bought the fabric, and made it start to finish this month. I have three quilts entered. All three still need to have labels made and attached. The Frolic and the Highland Cow also need hanging sleeves attached. I have the labels made for the pillowcases that you have to use to enter each quilt, but they need to be sewn on. I'm not too worried about that because I can do that quickly by machine. I probably need to deal with the hanging sleeves next. More hand sewing. Yay. If necessary, I can just write on the hanging sleeves instead of sewing on a nice label. And, if necessary, I can safety pin on the hanging sleeves, but I'm not totally thrilled with that idea. I guess we'll see. I have until tomorrow afternoon to get these finished. And I'm volunteering with the show set up in the morning. So.
Other things going on:
- I am conducting a looky loo studio tour with Angela from Quilted Joy this afternoon! Once I know when it will be published, I'll be sure to announce it! 😁
- I have added the Amazon Affiliate program to my websites, both Stories from the Sewing Room and Quilting by Anne-Marie. From time to time I may link to products on Amazon (and will disclose this). If you purchase from clicking my link, I may earn a very small commission that will help fund my websites. None of your personal information will ever be revealed to me. I also have added a tab at the top of the page where you can shop my sewing room--products that I use in my sewing room and my home. I do not generally agree to participating in the free product in exchange for positive review scenario. If I ever did, I would be very transparent about it. Edited to add that they kicked me out of the program after several months because they said my blog doesn't exist. No option to appeal, just an abrupt cancellation.
- It's almost time for the color reveal for the next Bonnie Hunter mystery! I've finished one of three that I've started thus far. 😔
Linking with For the Love of Geese, My Quilt Infatuation, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Alycia Quilts.
