Month: June 2021

“Girlie”

Turkey Tracks: June 4, 2021

“Girlie”

She’s the future.

She’s an Amazon Queen—a muscle woman with heart and great technology.

She has PLENTY of power and hugs the road and curves in the most satisfying way. She has awd, too, which I need in winter for my hill and driveway.

I’ve had her a month now and have only used 1/4th of a tank of gas. I could have used even less, but was experimenting. She plugs into a 110 volt outlet in my garage. There is no need for a higher voltage connection. When in gas mode, she recharges the battery up to 80% of its power. So I also do not need to be tethered to the plug-in if I want to travel with her.

You may remember I had an “unintended acceleration” incident with the 2010 Subaru in early December 2020—and sold that car the next day—with the buyer promise that it would be used for “parts.” I was so, so lucky not to have been seriously hurt when that car went backwards, over a road, and into a deep ditch in about 3 seconds. Potential walkers on the road were lucky too. No one can stop an incident like this one by braking. And who can react to get the car into neutral when things happen so fast. Going into that ditch filled with water and ice was the best thing that could have happened. The car just sat there in the ditch, the engine roaring like a mad thing.

The subaru was John’s car, but I drove it most of the time as my 2012 Toyota Sienna minivan was purchased so I could pick up my sons’ families at the airport. I needed to be able to manage 6 passengers. When they visited, they used the minivan, and I used the Subaru.

I loved this car! It was fun to drive and great on the highway. But it felt way too big for me for everyday use.

To make a long story short, after the Subaru went away, I started researching and settled on the 2021 RAV4 plug-in hybrid—spurred on by son Bryan having bought the Kia Niro about 18 months ago, which is also a plug-in hybrid. He and Corinne love that car, but it does not have awd. The RAV4 2021 plug-in hybrid is new off the assembly line this year, so I had to wait some months for one to come into my local dealers showroom. I would have taken any color, but I’m so happy the color turned out to be “Bluprint.”

I got the best offer for the minivan via Edmunds online, to be honored by the South Portland, Maine, CarMax dealer once they inspected the car. They gave me the full price offered as the car was as I described it. And it was $4000+ more than the local dealer would give me, so worth the trip south with a friend following me.

With what I had from both cars, I cut the price of the RAV by half.

And now I have a new car that I won’t have to trade for many, many years. God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise, as my dad used to say.

I write this story because the automobile industry is headed in this direction—which is a good thing. And I think people will be really happy with these electric/hybrid cars. I know the earth will be.

Old Quilt: New Spot

Turkey Tracks: June 8, 2021

Old Quilt: New Spot

I move quilts around a lot in my house.

I made this big traditional log cabin in 2015.

And it is a workhorse of a quilt and gets washed quite often.

Here I’ve just removed it from the much-used couch, washed and dried it, and put it on the green chair—a spot it has never occupied actually.

In this place, I “see” it in a whole different way.

And that is the point I suppose.

I need to rewrite the label as it has faded. I’ll do that sometime today.

It has been SO HOT here for the past few days. Too hot to do anything but the basics. I did run errands and water some outside yesterday—I suppose that is part of the basics. But then I ate lunch and took a mid-day nap on the couch downstairs. The lower level holds cool air so well. The heat just wipes me out.

Design Wall June 2021

Turkey Tracks: June 3, 2021

Design Wall June 2021

I’m having fun with quilt projects these days.

The design wall is full of fun.

Here’s the “funky” wedding ring block found in FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston—and also made recently by Debbie Jeske of A Quilter’s Table blog. I’ve wanted to make this block since I saw Debbie’s modern version. Two blocks are together, but I’ll leave the other parts loose until all are made. I see some already I’ll be wanting to move. And, of course, I’m using up both solid and print scraps in this project.

Here’s Debbie Jeske’s version, which I love. Note that she begins to incorporate some printed fabrics in her half-square triangles at the bottom right. I really like that touch. She has such a great design eye.

Moran and Marston pioneered modern funky blocks, which they often made and put in what they called their “parts department” bins so they would have blocks ready to use. It is always fun to go back and revisit their work.

Guest designer for the seventh and last project from The Color Collective, season 3, is Latifah Saafir. “Tenderoni” is already taking many forms as members of the collective work with the block. Here’s what I have now. I’m thinking 5 by 7 rows, but who knows if this design of mine will hold. I could expand it with insertions of plain blocks of fabric. But I’m kind of liking the “windmill” that is taking shape—and of course all the fractured “parts” of a circle.

This next block designed by Abbey Lane Quilts for Issue 22 of SIMPLY MODERN magazine is called “Monkey Business.” I thought it might work to whittle down my Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics. The block is way fun to make, and I’m having such fun combining fabrics in each block and then making some sense out of where to put each block.

Abby Lane Quilts did a lap size of 4 by 5 blocks, so with a 13 inch block, that’s a nice lap size of 52 by 65.

I’m in no rush on any of these projects. It is just nice to have “play” time on the design wall.

I’ll likely get to the light grey/dark grey big log cabin later in the summer. And I’m looking forward to making it.

I heard this morning that my new longarm is coming in late July! The log cabin will be the first quilt to be quilted on it I think.

Why Do Smoke Detector Batteries Run Out In The Middle Of The Night?

Turkey Tracks: June 2, 2021

Why Do Smoke Detector Batteries Run Out In the Middle Of The Night?

There should be a law!

I had been asleep, but came half awake when I realized AC was twitching and thrashing.

With my hearing aids out and being half awake, it seemed like he was shaking his head so that the tags on his collar were making a noise like they were hitting against each other.

When I reached for him, he was shaking all over.

Was there a flying critter in the room?

I keep a light right next to the bed, so I turned it on.

No flying critter.

And then I realized it must be the smoke detector batteries, which I could now faintly hear.

Ugh!

AC bailed from the bedroom by following me as I turned on lights and went down two flights of stairs to get the 3-step ladder.

I wasn’t sure which kind of battery to get, and it seemed two smoke detectors were involved, so that was two more trips down the two flights of stairs for the right kinds of batteries.

I finally got all the batteries replaced and everything stopped chirping. Putting in the 9-volt battery is always tricky and frustrating. The double AAs are easier. When done, I still had to retrieve a traumatized AC from the lower floor.

I left the ladder and the 9-volt batteries upstairs as I planned to replace the other 9-volt hardwired smoke detector battery on that floor the next morning. I didn’t want anymore night drama on that floor at least another year.

Probably I should replace all the smoke detector batteries in the house while I’m at it.

That’s a plan.

I’ve now done that and put a reminder on the 2022 calendar to replace all the batteries again.

A Log Cabin Bubble Block for Karen

Turkey Tracks: June 1, 2021

A Log Cabin Bubble Block for Karen

It’s June 1!

And now we will settle into early summer here in Mid-Coast Maine. We don’t get real summer weather until July 4th, which is just fine with me. I love the cool nights and days this time of the year.

We got some great rain over the weekend, so the ground is soft and wet again. Today is laundry and cleaning day—CLEAN SHEETS— so I’ll be back in the garden later this afternoon.

May’s Bee Sewcial Challenge, in the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild, recipient was Karen Martin. Her prompt was “Bubbles,” and she specified black and white neutrals, blacks, and a “pop” of color of our choice.

I made her this “bubble” log cabin block, which will finish at 14 inches.

German quilter Aylin Nilya designed this block. You make the block in quadrants and rotate them to form the circle. Nilya is on Instagram and keeps a blog. To purchase the block pattern, which comes in many different sizes and with different thicknesses of the individual strips, go to wwwpayhip.com/aylinnilya.

It is a fun block to make. I kept the inclusion of the color red simple.