Progress report 2 on maintenance

Hello, everyone. The last post showed shirt #1 ready for Fray Check and soaking. Shirt #2 has been basted and stitched now. 

This is the view from the front.

Both shirts have been dabbed with Fray Check and are now dry. Today it's time to soak off the Sulky Fabri-solvy from the underside of the stitching. After this dries, there will be testing try-on. 

User tip, you really do need to stabilize the dickens out of the damaged area with both a backing fabric and basting stitches. The basting stitches also allow you to check the thread color for compatibility with the fabric. 

On both of these tee shirts I ended using a different thread than I expected. The light playing on the merino wool wanted the shades I ended up with. (Stash has now increased by several spools of fine polyester thread.)

Another item that was extremely helpful, in addition to the embroidery hoop and the size 28 tapestry needle and ball point straight pins, was the Ryobi battery powered magnifying light. It gave me a good look at the winds of the yarns. I'm so grateful to DS for giving it to me!

Progress on maintenance

Hello, everyone. The holes in the previous post are almost done. All they need is to have the Fabri-solvy to be soaked off and a bit of Fray check to discourage the bits of yarn from making runners.

The front and back work on shirt 1. I got a really good color match on this one. The front work is close to where the backpack strap goes. There will probably be test fit later. 🤞

Commencing on shirt 2.

The damage is more structural with this one, the one hole is at the shoulder and cuts 2 seam lines. The ball point pins came out because getting the shoulder to lie flat in the embroidery hoop was going poorly. And keeping the strain on the knit fabric as even and gentle as possible matters. This cut crosses over where the backpack strap will lie, making it even more important. 

There are 3 different threads in use for basting: the remnants of the earlier work at the neck, a darker shade, and the darkest, which looks like the best match: "Tree Bark" polyester thread. I basted the shoulder seam line straight before beginning to stabilizer the rest. Then I basted down the point of the cut to nest into itself.

The cut line is not only long, it also curves. At the end I will remove all of the basting that is not covered by the repair stitches.

A great new tool

Hello, everyone. 

Yesterday I picked up my online order from JoAnn's and today I opened the box--the reason for making an order--and used it.

There is occasionally a need to pick up the nested-in glass of this coffee table. Other ways of lifting it out of its encircling ring pose too much risk to the thin wooden ring or the glass. (Think prying up with a thin butter knife here.) While fretting about it, I noticed the spiffy ruler holders some ladies online use to hold things steady. 

It worked like a charm! I  lifted the oval glass up and turned it so it rested on the rim, then carefully removed it for the (very necessary) cleaning of the wooden table top.

I'm so excited about this. I'm also looking forward to stabilizing rulers while cutting and trimming fabric.

New stuff

 Hello, everyone.

As things go, one of the plastic legs on my keyboard broke. (I loved that keyboard!)

As y'all can see, the little plastic pin that holds the leg out gave out, and tape was required just to use the keyboard. (I used some of my sewing tape as it was not too wide for the job.)

Sigh. I loved the feel of the old keyboard, and I was used to the amber backlight that told me the keys were powered up even if nothing was going on elsewise. 

After reading about keyboards in the internet and hunting about for a mechanical keyboard to replace the broken one, I settled on a Logitech one at Best Buy. I had it delivered because it's a headache to deal with curbside pickup for small things. 

The new keyboard doesn't have the row of game oriented keys that were on the left edge of the old one--which I never used--and so it's an inch or two shorter across the front. As a bonus it also has a plug where the mouse can be attached and then a unified cable bundle carries the signals down to where the cable splits and each half goes into its own USB plug. I figure that it will keep down the amount of potential back-of-desk tangling that goes on.

The picture may not make it completely obvious, but the new keyboard has a white backlight thing going on. It came set so bright that I had to turn it down a couple of levels! Who wants a keyboard light so bright that they can practically read a paperback book by it?

A program note: sewing projects and embroidery projects are going on around here and I intend to describe them over the next few posts.

Second day's walking, May 18

Hello, everyone.

May 18 was chilly just like May 17 had been. In fact, the weather during the entire time we walked along the coast can be summarized as cool, with intermittent rain, and not that much sunshine. Local people said it was abnormally cool this spring.

We left Getaria around 6:30 or 7 in the morning and were grateful to have done our "get out of town" climb the night before.

At breakfast time we arrived in Zumaia--well breakfast time if you like to eat around 9:30 that is--and had a bite with cafe con leche at a bar. Then we wandered around town finding the scenic route out of town.

This scenic route is a part of the GR9 hikers' route. It is closer to the water for much of its way and the hiker who takes it gets to see some scenery that isn't visible at all from the other route.  On the other hand, we discovered, it is more strenuous.  We took this part of the GR9 and when it split off again later in the day we stayed with the main Camino trail. Others, who had skipped this part, took the GR9 later and said it was quite demanding for them. As this part turned out to be for us!

 Looking back from the start of the GR9 segment, we saw some of the famous flysh rock layers. We also noticed that the church is on a cliff that is being undercut by the waves. Presumably it will be quite a while before the top falls down.

The trail here follows the cliff top on some goat trails. It was very up-and-down, but very pretty. By the time it connected back up to the main Camino trail, we were, as it used to be said, "tuckered out."

Farther along, we noticed that the local farmers have helpers to attend to a little bit of trail maintenance. Billy, here, appears to have been assigned to weed removal. We said soothing things and walked past him, and he was a very amiable old goat so our close up visit went smoothly.

We got to the outskirts of Deba and discovered that they have paved over some of the steep rocks approaching the town. They have added a red non-slip stripe on one side to help people negotiate the descent in wet weather. At the end of the red stripe, we saw a billboard celebrating their carefully conserved piece of Roman road and a steep asphalt road going into town a different way. We followed that way and found the famous elevator! Actually, there are two elevators, installed by the town for the people to get from their homes on a very steep slope down to the main part of the town. We enjoyed the elevator ride very much!

Updating on the spin mop

Hello, everyone.

A year or two back, I mentioned that we'd acquired a spin mop. (The Salad Spinner of floor cleaning!)

Well, it got its feelings hurt that I went out of town for a week and when I got home, DH told me that the fool gadget was failing to spin properly. It's hard to mop floors--or shower walls for that matter--if the mop head doesn't drain properly.

I had recently had no luck at all with a similar mop at a relative's house, so several of the ideas that would have been tried were already eliminated. I decided to fall back on one of the more tried-and-true fixes for sticky devices.

Liquid Wrench, next to the mop head. (Strands removed for the moment.)

 Below, photos of parts that were sticking and needed lubrication.

During the holiday rush, daily life and maintenance incidents continue

Hello, everyone.

It's been an incredibly busy week at ye Olde Homestead. There were family duties to attend, there was a Christmas party for (dozens of) school children to work at, and in the midst of it all, the modem died.

It was a couple of days before I could find time to figure out why the internet wasn't working.

I had two very productive phone conversations with ATT tech support (my ISP) and at the end of it, and a quick run over to Best Buy, we have a new modem in place and working.

There was a cabinet in the way of the phone plug/line filter combination. It's a tall cabinet and it was stuffed with fabric. After moving it, I concluded that this whole incident was a message from above: organize the sewing/craft room first, before other desired projects.

Where the big fabric cabinet was. 

Maybe there is a better way to organize all the stuff. Sewing up some more quilts would help, of course! And using up beads.

But definitely, the new arrangement will not have a large, laminated particle-board cabinet blocking the computer bits!

This week's Project is done

Hello, everyone.

A small update on what has kept us so busy this week: varnish drying times.

It was time for the occasional re-varnishing of the door. As some of y'all already know, this involves sanding, wiping with the tack rag, and then applying varnish. In this case, it involved three go-rounds on this procedure. And on Monday the day was cloudy and humid all day long. It was after dark before we could close the door and keep the bugs out!

It is usual for the door to need treatment every two or three years. I just get up and get going with the sandpaper, then on a later coat it will be steel wool, and get the door to look pretty again. It's kind of like dusting, but it lasts longer.