10/23/18

Finished Mosaic

Yesterday's housekeeping chore was finished early and so it was mostly a day of sewing. Of course, I started by slow-stitching on the barn.


There were still bricks to stitch toward the bottom, but I was getting tired of doing those, and so I decided to move the hoop to the right and work on some of the background landscape. I'll pick it up there next time.


After that, I got to work on the cardinal. The center mosaic is complete now. Yahoo!


Now I need to make a pieced border for it, and then it has a narrow border around the outside. I have some things to say about the outermost border, but I'll wait until I get that far to talk about it. I might need to ask your opinions.

From there, I took a break. It occurred to me that I could trim down the kitty paintings so they would fit in 8 x 10 frames, and so I've been waiting for said frames to arrive. Now I can hang them side by side on our chosen wall. The paintings are behind glass. I tried to get a picture with no reflections, but no dice. I note I still picked up a reflection of the living room window on the right side of Smitty's painting. Whatever...you get the idea.


With that done, I spent some time outside feeding the birds, and whatnot. It was a nice day yesterday. Then I cut all the pieces for the cardinal's pieced borders. These will be used to make square-in-a-square blocks. When the whole thing is finished, the quilt will contained 1,626 pieces. Yikes.


Smitty helped me count. Also, he requested some window dressing for his purrivate parts. Thank you.


As I was finishing cutting the pieces, Mike called to say he was coming home early to finish the RV dishwasher. And...voila!


The downside of this is that we had to give up three drawers to accommodate the dishwasher. It's okay...everything fits fine, but those drawers were a sacrifice. I know I'll forget all about them when we can wash the dishes without getting dishpan hands. We are both tender flowers that way.

Inside, it looks like this. Diagrams that came along with it say it'll hold six place settings. Maybe...if it's only dishes and no pots or pans. Either way, it's fairly roomy inside for a compact unit.


Also, it will use less water than filling a sink to wash, and so we'll be able to use it as long as we have electricity. I thought we'd need sewer and water, but Mike says the water usage and water drainage will actually be less than before. Cool.

The controls are on the top of the door, and it has several cycles. We ran it through a "light wash" cycle, and it worked great. No leaks.


Mike is pretty proud of himself. He had to learn some new plumbing tricks with this, and so he was very glad there were no leaks. We have an RV trip planned soon. Since our last trip, he's installed the washing machine, satellite antenna, and the dishwasher, and so it'll be a sort of "appliance shake-down" cruise.

As for me, in the middle of the day there, I got a call from our pharmacy that they had the 2nd Shingrix vaccine dose. We've both been waiting for it for over a month. Fortunately, we're well within the time limit for getting it, and I was able to get mine yesterday. Mike is still waiting. Predictably, I guess, it's made me sick again. It's my fifth vaccine since June, and I'm all caught up now. The first round was the first Shingrix vaccine and the tetanus booster. I expected the tetanus to make me sick, as it always does. Now I'm wondering if the Shingrix vaccine got its licks in too. The second round last month was the pneumona vaccine and the flu shot. I was sick with those too, but not as bad as the first time. So, I'm a little surprised this one made me sick, but I'm obviously sensitive to them. I'll live, but it's going to mean picking up our CSA share tomorrow. For now, I'll just lie on the couch and moan.

I'm hoping to get some more sewing done today, but we'll see. I took some Tylenol a little while ago, and I'm hoping I'll feel better. Time will tell.

13 comments:

Julierose said...

Oh so sorry you got a bad reaction! I did from my flu shot this year, too; but just a couple of "under the weather" days (so I laid myself down and read a whole book--yay! :}}} ) .
Neat dishwasher--I look forward to hearing about your journey...
Love that Cardinal--you get 5 big stars for hanging in there with so many pieces yikers!! Hugs, julierose

Sarah said...

Hopefully your pitiful moaning will bring along a feline caregiver or two!

QUILTING IS BLISSFUL, DI said...

Be very glad it is just a day or two of Tylenol and moaning compared to my so far--over 6 weeks of terrible pain and discomfort--the actual shingles are all healing nicely--but the nerve damage is what is causing me so much pain and discomfort--and now they tell me it will be months before that goes away--I think I need to borrow a kitty to comfort me---
love that Cardinal--
enjoy, di

Cathy said...

So sorry you've had another bad reaction to your shots, but I love the cardinal quilt! It's already looking beautiful. I also envy you your washer/dryer and dishwasher in your RV--we don't even have a dishwasher at home, other than me, of course.

Quilting Babcia said...

I really love how your barn block is progressing! Hope you're feeling better real soon.

Annette Mandel said...

Smitty's smiling sphincter!

SJSM said...

Yes, my doctor warned me about that shingles vaccine. She said some people get side effects that are quite painful and warned you must follow through with the second or you would not be covered by the vaccine at all. As stated previously, I’m glad you suffer through all this to save you from worse issues if you were to get the shingles. I feel for di. Thanks to di for letting all know that shingles is nott something to piffle with as the pain and damage isn’t a minor issue.

Loving that bird! The barn is coming along nicely. Rest well and get your mojo back soon.

piecefulwendy said...

Sorry those shots have such an effect on you. Not fun. Oh my goodness, that's a lot of pieces in that quilt! Pat yourself on the back for a good accomplishment! Smitty looks to be relaxing on the job a bit! Congrats to Mike on all the renovs to the new rig. I'm sure the smack down will go down with no problem! Rest up today!

Lynette said...

Whoop! Whoop!! Yay for the finished cardinal! He really is gorgeous. That's impressive that Mike put in a dishwasher for you guys - what a treat to have. I hope you feel better very soon.

Natureluvr57 said...

I've never had a reaction to either tetanus, flu or pneumonia vaccines except a sore arm. I got the original shingles vaccine with no reaction and I'm not sure if I want to get the new 2 part-er one after reading about how hard it is to find it, especially the 2nd part. I got the flu in March since the flu shots were duds last year and I've never had the flu that I can remember. I've been getting the shots since I was 28 and developed asthma.

I love your barn. I have the same pattern plus it's companion that has covered bridges on it. Will look forward to seeing your future stitching on it.

QuiltGranma said...

When we got our second hand 5th wheel and moved in the dishwasher didn't work... apparently turned off/unplugged due to a leak? Well there isn't a lot of space here, so it is now storage for pots and pans! a plastic eggcrate houses the plastic bags/wrap/foil under the (kitchen) table next to the wall. We have a closet as well as an armoire, which instead of clothing houses in one side some canned goods, the other side and back shelves has quilt paraphernalia gathered in various containers. Clothes are not a important now as they used to be. I'm not fancy and don't need a lot. But quilt stuff... YOU BET! And I sure appreciate my built in washer and dryer!

Kate said...

Sorry the vaccines aren't going over well. Hope you are feeling much better now. Love the cardinal! What is it about blue and red, it's just such a fabulous color combination.

quiltzyx said...

Well, since it's been some days now since your vaccinations, I trust you are feeling much better now. What an ordeal you've gone thru' with them all.

Cool little dishwasher & good job Mike! Nice to have that resident engineer on hand for those things, isn't it?

The barn looks wonderful, and the Cardinal - WOW! Great job!