Friday, August 28, 2015

Baby Quilt x 2

My daughter is just about ready to deliver, and I’m just now picking out fabrics for the Twins’ quilts.  She likes scrappy 30’s reproductions and would like the quilts to somewhat match, I’m bordering the quilts with the same fabric, but in different colors.  Then using the same color for the inner border (the green)- so they will coordinate, but not matchy match.   Since she already has one little girl, she’s requested I don’t use pink. 



The past month has been an emotional roller coaster.  While preparing for twin baby grandies, my father passed away.  Totally unexpected.  For several months my family has worried over my mother – who suffered an intense stroke which left her partially blind and in rehab for 3 weeks.  My dad was experiencing chest pains, was told it wasn’t anything serious and would spend a couple of days in the hospital for observation.  Less than 18 hours later, we were told he wouldn’t make it through the night.  He’d contracted pneumonia and his organs were failing fast.  Just really hard to wrap our head’s around.  I won’t talk too much about it, but each moment is gift and you should spend your time with those you care about.  When it’s all said and done, it’s what counts the most. 



Strangely, people handle stress in many different ways.  Me?  Maybe I should have consulted a religious figure or friends, etc.  But I chose to delve into finishing my family/sewing room renovation.  Due to old grotty (a favorite word of my 10 yr old grand) wiring, my son and I (mostly son) had to rewire the sewing room - Which entailed removing 65 yr old knotty pine from the walls and the ½ inch thin grotty insulation behind it.  I was told when I purchase the home a year ago, the family/sewing room did not have hardwood, just the main part of the house.  By accident, my son pulled a corner of the carpeting to get at a few nails at the base of the wall.....and, low-and-behold, he found the glorious hardwoods.  Maybe I was looking for an additional project to keep myself focused, but I couldn’t wait to rip the carpeting up to see what was hidden under it. 




So, it wasn’t as glorious as I’d hoped.  But I could see potential.  Would it be so difficult to remove a little mastic?  I’ve got two strapping boys to assist, right?  Ah well..... not exactly.  My oldest is a jack-of-all-trades, knows electrical, can work on my car, assisted with finishing the basement – but took one look at the mastic and said "you're on your own".  He felt I had enough “balls in the air” and considered me a complete nut-job if I took on another project.  

Err.  Ok, I still have one more son that will help his momma!  Maybe the youngest son couldn’t tell a Phillips from a Flat head screwdriver – but he’s a smart kid.  Builds computers and is book smart – this could work.  In the 8 days it took to scrape all the mastic off the floor, he may have spent a total of 30 minutes on the project.  He's such an over-thinker, his little mind could not stop thinking there had to be better way of getting the mastic off the hardwood instead of scraping.  I’ll admit, he came up with some great ideas, but none worked like getting down and your hands and knees and working the scraper back and forth. 




Now it’s time for the orbital sander – and if those boys think they can take over now so they can run that big ol’power tool – they can forget it!