Evenings in the Living Room

I love our winter routine. The husband squeezes every ounce of daylight out of his workday, so when the sun doesn’t set until 9 pm, I don’t see much of him. During the cold, dark months of winter, our evenings are spent relaxing in our respective recliners watching YouTube videos.

I keep a stack of projects next to my chair to work on—either English paper piecing, embroidery, or binding. I am almost done binding this quilt:

This is the quilt I made originally in greens and purples, only to discover that I had used two different Kona whites (Bone and Snow) for the background. I liked the effect of the two different whites, although it wasn’t random enough to look like a design element. I remade it in blues and used some Moda Grunge for the background, which gave it that mottled look I wanted.

We were watching tool repair videos last night. One of the Youtubers the husband follows bought a Miller welder at an auction and has been working on getting it up and running again. These videos are worse than soap operas. They always end with some kind of cliffhanger. Last week, the guy was waiting on replacement parts to be delivered. He installed those and discovered another problem. Now we’re waiting to find out if he can get an aftermarket circuit board to replace one that got fried, which is likely why this welder ended up in the auction in the first place.

The suspense is killing me. (That is not sarcasm. I get emotionally invested in these projects.)

We also watched a video interview with Kaffe Fassett on Bernina’s YouTube channel. The husband wanted to know who Kaffe Fassett was, so I launched into a ten-minute explanation of everything Kaffe Fassett has contributed to the world of textiles. (No muddy earth tones!) His latest project is a collaboration with Bernina to produce Kaffe-designed sewing machines:

I don’t need another sewing machine, but these are lovely. The quilt store in town has them on display.

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I am tying myself to my computer this morning to knock out as much website work as I can stand. That to-do list is hanging over my head and I would like it done and out of the way.

I’ve also got to call Kevin, at the BMW dealer in Spokane. We haven’t chatted in a while. The Diva is throwing a fault code for the EGR cooler that they replaced under a recall. I need to talk to Kevin to find out what’s going on. The husband keeps threatening to set the car on fire and mail the ashes to the EPA, because almost everything that has gone wrong on that car has to do with the EPA-mandated emissions system.

“The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, 'See, if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk.”―Harry Browne

I’m starting to feel like I’m close to getting the schedule back under control, although saying that out loud is an invitation to the universe to lob yet another wrench into the works.

If I get a chunk of website stuff out of the way this morning, I plan to reward myself by working on the red churn dash quilt this afternoon. I need to keep moving that one along so I can get the Sunbonnet Sue quilt done before things start ramping up in the spring.