Our house was built in the early ’50′s, so all of our electrical outlets downstairs were of the old ungrounded two-prong variety.  We wanted to upgrade the wiring so we could stop using those annoying little adapters to plug in stuff like computers and TVs.  Not to mention the safety issues, of course.

So the electrician was here all day yesterday and most of today.

We learned that whoever originally wired the house was very creative as far as circuits went.  One circuit in particular had the refrigerator, the coffeemaker, the microwave, AND the washing machine on it.  The electrician was amazed that I had never tripped the breaker, even though I regularly used three out of four of these appliances at the same time.  Another circuit runs all over the house, and took some detective work to figure it out.  All I can say is that this guy earned his money.  For a while I thought he might be a permanent guest, but he did manage to finish the job today.

So in between the electrician turning the power on and off and working all over the house, I did manage to work on the quilt-as-you-go strip quilt I started the other day.  I finished the blocks yesterday, and joined them today.

So what do I think of quilt-as-you-go?  Well, it’s definitely not a time-saver.  I had to resort to pinning to keep the quilt batting and backing from shifting when sewing down my strips.  Kinda fiddly.  But the blocks did look good when they were done.

What about joining them?  Easy, but mindless and time-consuming.  It takes five seams to join each block.  See this qayg tutorial for the details.  I thought I would NEVER get done sewing the 30 blocks into six rows of five each.  It does go faster when you’re sewing the rows together, though.

That said, though, I can see where this joining technique would be very handy when making larger quilts.  I think my next project will be made in panels, instead of individual blocks.  If I made four 10-inch wide panels that were 45 inches long, it would be a lot faster to join them instead of the individual blocks.  Perhaps like a Chinese coin pattern.   I could also piece blocks as I normally do, join them into segments, machine quilt the segments, and then join them, like the mile-a-minute quilts.

The upside:  I’m using up strips and making quilts to donate, too!  Stashbusting is a good way to use up old fabric that’s been hanging around far too long.

I have to say that the back of the quilt looks really cute, with the sashing outlining the individual blocks.  Pictures will follow in a day or two.

This is the green from mixing a little black into the yellow dye. It's really a much nicer-looking green, not this washed-out gray!

Here are the results of my dyeing escapade the other day. Putting the heating pad under the fabric did seem to help set the dye, as very little dye ran off when I washed and rinsed the fabric. I’m somewhat annoyed with my camera, as its not showing the colors correctly. Probably operator error!

These aren't as blotchy as they look in the picture; but the colors are pretty close to reality.

For some reason, my camera decided this was pink, but it's really red-brown instead!

This was my attempt at color mixing. These are pretty close to how they really look.

What my backyard looks like. Only there's more snow now! And the sun is definitely NOT out today.

Well, we didn’t have much snow for a while, but it looks like the Upper Peninsula is going to live up to it’s wintry reputation this week.  It’s been snowing since Sunday.  I went out and cleared the driveway yesterday, but it’s pretty much filled back in already.  Plus the city plow left a BIG pile at the end of the drive.  Oh well.  Nobody here has to go anywhere today, which is probably a good thing.

Poor Andrew had oral surgery yesterday.  He wasn’t a very happy camper last night, but he’s feeling somewhat better today.  Having had oral surgery myself some years back,  I’d rather shovel the driveway with a teaspoon than to go through that!  But at least it’s over now, and he can focus on recovering.  I’m taking good care of him, and feeding him lots of soft food.

Enough with the non-quilting stuff.  Finally finished the diagonal strip quilt yesterday.  All I had to do was to bind it, but one corner just wouldn’t cooperate, so it took a bit longer than I thought it would.  But the quilt and I finally came to an agreement, and it’s now sporting a cheerful yellow binding.  A picture will follow after it’s washed.  Then I WILL mail those three quilts off to the ALS Quilt Challenge this week!

Today I want to make another block for the BASICS Home Gather that V is doing right now.  Plus I started a small free-pieced quilt the other day.  Just sat down and playing around with sewing scraps and strips together.  I want to finish that today, and get it quilted and add it to the pile for the AAQI.  Once I get three done, I’ll register them and send them off.

Plus I’m thinking about my next donation quilt.  I’ve joined the Heartstrings Yahoo Group, which is a group that makes string quilts to donate.  You can send them completed blocks, tops, quilts, or fabric, or you can make quilts and donate them locally.  I’m going to take the second route, since I obviously have a problem with mailing things off.  (Actually it’s hard to get to the post office.  Parking is impossible.  It’s easier to walk than to drive, but it’s too cold to walk down there right now, especially with a large box.)

My plans include making crib and child-sized quilts for the local women’s center, and maybe some 60″ by 80″ quilts for the Salvation Army, too.  So I’m thinking about doing the 20″ wide strips mentioned in Mile-A-Minute-Quilts by Sharon Hultgren.  Or I may just do individual strip blocks and quilt-as-you-go.

Why you don't go out on the breakwater during a storm...

This is a picture from last fall.  There’s a sign warning people to stay off the breakwater during storms because people have been swept away in the past.  Andrew was standing right at the beginning of it, but I was so nervous about him being there that he didn’t stay there very long, thank goodness.

Enough of this.  I’m off to sew!

Yay, Andrew made it home safely last night, around 12:30.  He was tired, but wound up, so it took a little while for both of us to calm down enough to go to sleep!

So of course nobody was up early this morning.  I slept til eight, which is late for me.  I let Andrew sleep til 9:30 before I woke him up.  I hated to do it, but I know he would have trouble sleeping tonight if I let him go too much longer.

I did manage to get some laundry done, but other than that, the day was a wash.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, either.  It was nice to sit on the couch with my honey and look at the pictures he took in TN and just talk.

Mary from Making Scrap Quilts From Stash was nice enough to send me a link for Mile-A-Minute Quilts.  This sounds exactly like what I’m looking for.  The idea is that you piece a long strip about 20″ wide, and then machine quilt the strip.  Then you join the strips. The strips are much smaller and easier to handle than a full-size quilt.  Love it!

I was tempted to order it, since I can get it for less than $5, but shipping always adds up.  So I ordered it inter-library loan!

Speaking of which, the first three books I ordered last week came in yesterday.  Of course, I had to walk right down to the library to pick them up.  Liberated Quiltmaking, Liberated String Quilts, and Fusing Fun! Fast Fearless Art Quilts are MINE for the next three weeks!  And I also have Thinking Outside The Block by Sandi Cummings and Karen Flamme on order, along with Mile-A-Minute Quilts.

Liberated String Quilts is great!  I’ve already gleaned lots of ideas from this book.  I need to make a few notes so I can remember them later on. I can’t wait to get started on my next project now!

Just started looking at Liberated Quiltmaking this afternoon, but didn’t get too far before I  nodded off.  I’ll look at it some more tomorrow, but it looks it’s full of great ideas, too.

I was going to take some quilt pictures today, but just didn’t do it.  Oh well, tomorrow is another day, as Scarlett O’Hara says.  I need to walk up to the little quilt store in the Village tomorrow since they’re having a sale, so while I’m outside, I’ll pin the quilts to the line and snap away. I know, going into a fabric store when they’re having a sale is dangerous, but I’ve already decided the only thing I will buy is some Wonder Under and maybe a couple of yards of white material to dye.

Molly perched on the arm of the couch

I’ll close with this picture of Molly.  She was so funny last night.  While Andrew was gone,  I usually went to bed around 11:20, after watching the local news and weather.  Last night, of course, I was going to wait up for Andrew, so I didn’t go to bed like I usually do.  Poor Molly was just having a fit!  She started jumping up on the back of my recliner around 11:25 pm, and was obviously agitated over something.

I got up to see what her problem was, and she led me straight to the bedroom!  I told her we were going to stay up and wait for Daddy, but she wasn’t convinced.  She finally did settle into my lap for a bit before Andrew got home.  Poor kitty.