Getting Started

Happy December, my friends! Is it just me, or was November excruciatingly long? Maybe it was because we'd only just arrived home from a trip at the beginning of the month. Or maybe it was hassling with contractors that made the month seem so long. By the way, remember when I told you they would be here to finish the baseboards about two weeks ago? Would it surprise you to know the baseboard are still not finished? The story was that they hadn't come in at Lowe's. They even had someone at Lowe's call us to tell us it wasn't the fault of the contractor. Well...it scarcely matters whose fault it is. The baseboards still are not finished. Just before I sat down here, they called to say they would be here tomorrow. And if you believe that, then I have some beachfront property in Idaho I'll sell you at a steal of a price...emphasis on the "steal" part of the price.

In excellent customer service news, we arrived home from the grocery store yesterday to find this brand spanking new Le Creuset Dutch oven sitting at our front door.

So here's the story behind this: If you know anything about Le Creuset Dutch ovens, then you might know they carry a lifetime warranty. Mine had developed a small chip in the enamel at the bottom. I knew the chip was there, and I knew it was probably covered under the warranty. Also, I felt pretty sure and certain that trying to collect on the warranty would be a major hassle, and so I just kept using it. 

Well, the last time I used it, the chip became larger...nickel-sized, I'd estimate, and then it was clear I couldn't continue to use it without worrying about enamel bits in our food. Here's the picture I sent them: 

Please ignore all that discoloration. I've been using it for 16 years, and the interior has permanently darkened after so many years of soups and stews. We used to try keeping the interior white by soaking it in bleach and other methods. We finally gave up and let it follow its own dreams. 

Anyway...it's a pretty bad chip. So I looked into making good on the lifetime warranty, expecting it to be a painus in the anus. As it turns out, it was refreshingly simple. You can read an article about someone else's experience right here, but it was even easier for me. In that writer's experience, she was required to send the old one back to the manufacturer for their inspection and approval. I only needed to provide three pictures along with my online claim form. Although they told me to allow a week for a response, I received a response the same day, and the promise of a new one to be shipped soon. When we arrived home yesterday...there it was! Wow! Amazing! And after dealing with unreliable and dishonest contractors for the past year, I was pretty darned happy to receive such excellent customer service.

In fact, I was so happy, I decided to bake some more biscotti to celebrate. (FYI, it was not baked in the new Dutch oven. Silly you.) This is Pistachio-Cranberry Biscotti. 

It was late in the day before I thought about doing any sewing. I'll admit I'm dragging my feet at getting started on my challenge piece. It's another collage applique piece. They are completely engrossing once I get started. It's the "getting started" part where I get hung up. Today I told myself I'd set a timer for one hour. When time is up, I'll probably want to continue. If not, I'll get going on quilting the Trashy Triangles quilt. 

Knowing I'd made this bargain with my procrastinator self, I decided to get the machine set up, adjusted, and ready for quilting. As a reminder, here is what the Trashy Triangles quilt looks like. It was made from bonus triangles collected over many years of quilt-making. It is one of just four quilts in my "trashy series" so far.

With so many colors on both the front and back, I wanted to use a variegated thread. Shopping through my many spools, I came out with these two that were gifts from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Thank you, Ila.

It's a 40-weight thread, and I'll use it on both top and bottom.

So I cleaned and oiled the machine, switched to a new needle, and then went to work adjusting the tension. Smitty helped with that.

When we had everything set up to his satisfaction, he gave me the go-ahead.

You may purrceed.

While it was tempting to do straight line zig-zag quilting, I decided to quilt it with my go-to flying geese motif. I saw this on Pinterest some time ago, and now it's a frequent choice for quilting this shape.

I'm sorry I can't give credit to the person who created this diagram originally. I've done an image search for it, and the only things I can find do not identify the creator. Nevertheless, this quilter thanks you.

So I counted the rows of half-square triangles by twos and found where the middle of the quilt would be if I'm quilting two vertical rows of half-square triangles at a time. (I hope that makes sense.) And then, I gave it a go, just barely getting started on the quilting.

It looked good both front and back, and so I left it there, needle down, awaiting my return...hopefully, sometime today.

And this being December 1st, it's time to choose a goal for

Quilting and binding Trashy Triangles will be my goal for December's OMG. When I sign off here, I'll head over to the linky party that starts today.

Snow is falling outside. We're expecting a couple of inches. It's a good day to stay inside and sew, and that is exactly what I'm going to do.