Journal: It's Hot!

 

Last Monday night Larry got our new freestanding AC/heating unit set up in the little library next to my quilting studio.  It’s like this one, only ours is a Friedrich brand.

Tuesday morning, I turned it on, along with the small window AC on the landing, put my new Dreo fan in the doorway of my studio, and it wasn’t long before it was quite comfortable in there.  ’Course, it was only 76° outside at the moment, too.  That would change quickly that afternoon, with the temperature rising fast.

I spent the day machine-embroidering a label for Nathanael’s ‘All Creatures Great & Small’ quilt, making the binding, sewing it on the quilt top, and then wrapping it around to the back and pinning it.

As I worked, I listened to the audiobook, ‘Civil War’.  Here’s a description of one of the army’s preparations for march:

“Half the beef had been salted and stored in the wagons; the other half was on the hoof – self-propelled, so to speak.”

What happened next:  “And then it rained.  No Presbyterian rain, either!  It was a genuine Baptist downpour.”

By evening, it was clear that I had been a bit over-optimistic in thinking that the new AC unit would keep all three upstairs rooms comfortable.

The three units – two of Caleb’s, plus the new one – were not at all keeping up.  My quilting room was stifling hot.  I had a fan blowing on me, and I had cold things to drink; but it was hot up there.

I always wonder how the pioneer women coped with the heat.  Did they always wear those long-sleeved, high-necked, long dresses?  Or did they don them just for pictures?

A favorite picture of Victoria went scrolling through on my screensaver, and I grabbed a screenshot of it.  This was at Marblehead Lighthouse on Lake Erie, in Ohio.

We arrived there later in the afternoon.  People were still up in the torch, so I tried opening the big green wooden door.  It seemed to be stuck.  I pushed with all my might and main, it suddenly opened, and I nearly fell in onto the feet of the lighthouse keeper, who’d been trying to lock the door.  He looked at me with a good deal of exasperation.

“Oh!  I’m sorry!” I exclaimed.  “I thought the door was stuck!”

When he realized I wasn’t purposely being obnoxious, trying to force my way in as he was trying to lock the door (touring hours were over), he laughed.

I finished both the laundry and the binding Wednesday.  I do binding entirely by machine, trying to catch only 1/32” on the back, while stitching in the ditch on the front.  I wear my 4x magnifiers for the task.  Flexies, with purple frames!  Oooo, lala.

It was hot – 87° – but the quilting studio was comfortable until late afternoon – right when I needed to stay nice and cool in the church clothes I’d just put on.

I turned up the fan speed, aimed it directly at me, and drank cold brew.

And I made my sore ribs worse.  I probably originally injured them on the edge of the washing machine, as it’s almost too deep for me to reach the bottom.  But now they were protesting vigorously along with my shins, especially the right one, which was becoming very colorful.  This, because my stupid little denim slides (they are cute!) tripped me as I was coming in from the back deck, causing me to bash my shins on the patio screen railing good and proper.  Since I was trying to save my camera from disaster, I also hurt my arm and ribs. 

I put some helichrysum essential oil on the colorful lumps on my legs, and they soon went down a bit and got a little less colorful.  Helichrysum is partly from chrysanthemum oil.  Lavender or Frankincense oils would’ve been better, but this is all I had.

It wasn’t long before neck, back, and hips were informing me of their insult, too.

Well, I’ll recover.  The camera might not have.  Thankfully, it’s still percolating away.

Here’s what I was taking pictures of:  Nathanael’s ‘All Creatures Great & Small’ quilt.  It measures 95” x 96”.  The animal prints and all of the green fabrics were from a quilt Nathanael’s other late grandmother, Bethany Wright, had started but not completed.  It was double-sided, so I took it apart and made two quilts from various parts of it – this one, and the ‘Heaven & Nature Sing’ quilt for Nathanael’s younger brother Levi.

After completing the central section, I imported a photo of it into EQ8 and then designed the rest of the quilt.  The batting is Quilters’ Dream Poly Deluxe (and no, it is not nearly as nice as Quilters’ Dream wool).  The thread on top is light tan 50-wt. So Fine!, and the bobbin thread is medium gray 60-wt. Bottom Line.  The pantograph is called ‘Bears, Moose, & Pine Trees’, and was quilted on my 18” Handi Quilter Avanté, which is hand-guided.  The label was machine embroidered on my Bernina Artista 730.

I was quite amazed to discover when I was halfway through with this quilt that I had accidentally and unknowingly bought backing from the same line of fabric as the animal prints on the front.

A little after 4:00 p.m., it began thundering.  Hannah said it was raining, at her house in town.

This picture someone posted on Facebook bothers me extremely – and ladies galore are exclaiming over how cute it is!

They think it’s cute when some tyke has her legs screwed on backwards?!!!  (Or her head, one or a ’tuther.)

This is the alternative to Artificial Intelligence (AI):  Artificial Idiocy.

There are so many AI images with strange hands and feet.  The Scenic State groups, Animal Picture groups, and even illegitimate offshoots from National Geographic are full of them.

And some people! --- they’re exclaiming, “OOOOoooo, ahhhh, beeeYOOOOteeefullll!” – while the moose has 4.75 legs.

Here’s what I’m going to use for Emma’s quilt.  These blocks will be 16 ½” finished, and I have 18 of them.  I took pictures of a block, imported it into EQ8, and set out to see what I could come up with.

Amy (Emma’s mother, my daughter-in-law) found these blocks at a secondhand store somewhere.  They are in groups of two – that is, each piece of fabric (muslin) has two of these cross-stitched blocks.  They are hand-embroidered.

Doesn’t it make you wonder what the original embroiderer was planning to make, and what happened, that she didn’t finish it?  I have finally decided to just be glad that the people who didn’t really want such things, possibly after older relatives had passed away, took the items to secondhand stores where people who did care would find them and consider them treasures. At least they didn’t throw the things away!

Rain started coming down just as we exited the church that night.   By the time we’d gone 4-5 blocks, it was pouring.  I suggested we go to a fast-food joint somewhere and order supper and maybe eat it in the car, since I didn’t want to have to dash through the downpour into the house.  So we got Roast Turkey Ranch & Bacon sandwiches on honey wheat bread from Arby’s.  Those are good sandwiches!

By the time we got home, the rain had slackened enough that we were able to dodge the drops on the way into the house.

Hannah sent this picture of the storm as it went over Columbus.

Thursday, having received word that my Avanté longarm was fixed, I headed to Fremont to pick it up.  Just in time, because a friend had given me a quilt the night before to quilt for her – and the baby had already arrived, mere hours earlier!  This new granddaughter of hers, like several others, is also my great-great-niece.  Okay, now I have to figure out how many of her grandchildren are my great-great-nieces or great-great-nephews...

Well, mah woid (in a Shirley Temple accent).  12 of her 13 grandchildren are my great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews!

While at Nebraska Quilt Company, I got some fabric to go with the embroidered blocks.  This wasn’t really what I was looking for, but they didn’t have anything even close to what I was looking for, despite the fact that they have some 5,000 bolts of fabric in that store.

I got these burgundy and pink batiks, and a warm cream that looks a lot like the muslin of the embroidered squares.  It’ll be fine, I thought.  (But the more I thought about it...)

The sky was so pretty that day, with clouds in various altitudes moving along leisurely in various directions.  The majority of the sky in the background was a summery blue; but the sky in the far east behind those fluffy clouds was a peachy yellow on account of a high cloud cover with the afternoon sun shining on it.

Several crop dusters were out working near the highway, often flying so low, the pilot could clearly be seen in the cockpit.

I got back from Fremont a little before 4:30 p.m. 

When Larry came home from work, he carried the Avanté upstairs, and we got it properly in place, with the frame bars back where they belonged.  I was ready to start on my friend’s quilt.

First, though, I needed to iron the top and the backing.

I turned on my iron – and blew a breaker.

This, because the little window AC at the top of the landing was on, along with the freestanding unit, a couple of fans, all my lights, and my sewing machine.  That’s too much.  I was thus left in the dark. 

This leaves me feeling a bit blank for a second or two, because the laptop continues playing the audiobook without so much as a hiccup, as it immediately switches to battery.

I gathered my wits, turned off a few appliances, and trotted down two flights of stairs to the basement, where I found the flipped breaker and switched it back on.  Then all the way back up, where I turned the iron back on and pressed and steamed the quilt.

It was a hot, humid job, since I’d turned off one air conditioner and one big fan; so I hurried.  When that was done, I unplugged the iron and turned the ac units and the fan back on.

Even though the freestanding units take water out of the air (and deposit it in 5-gallon buckets), it’s still a whole lot muggier in the house than it is with central air.

I loaded the backing on my frame, then managed to find enough pieces of batting in the bag my friend gave me (leftovers from previous quilts) to zigzag pieces together for this one.  I situated the batting on the backing, and called it a day.  I would finish loading the quilt top and quilt it the next day.

Accordingly, I quilted most of the day Friday.  It was a small quilt, but the pantograph, called ‘Cottontails’, had small details.  And small tails, too, for that matter!

For supper that evening, we had pork chops, potatoes, carrots, and onions, all cooked in the Instant Pot.  Mmmm, that method makes the chops sooo tender and good.

After supper, we decided to cool ourselves off by indulging in a couple of Royal New York Cheesecake Blizzards from Dairy Queen. 

Problem:  the air conditioner in the Mercedes would only blow hot air.

What in the world?  It had worked the day before, when I went to Fremont!  Talk about adding insult to injury!

We rolled the windows down, ate our Blizzards – and sweltered.

When we got home, the house felt so hot, I was just going to go upstairs and turn off my machine and the lights; but when I got up there, I saw that there really wasn’t very much left to quilt.  I finished it.

When it was done, I was disappointed to discover that the backing, which had different colored borders all the way around, was not centered from top to bottom, despite my careful measurements.

Centering a pieced backing or a backing with borders is nearly impossible on a longarm frame.  First, you’re working blind.  You roll the backing on... then cover it with batting... and then roll the top on the frame.  I can get it centered all right from side to side; but from top to bottom?  Not so much, because, second, it’s hard to predict how much the quilting will ‘take up’ the backing as compared to the top.  One is bound to stretch more than the other – similar to when you sew together two long strips of fabric.

Well, I got the quilt top centered all right from side to side; but not at all from top to bottom.  

So... the next day, I pulled a very thin strip of batting from my bin of batting scraps, then, using a band of the blue fabric I had trimmed off of the quilt, I pinned batting and blue fabric to the leaders on my quilting frame, and quilted it, leaving a seam allowance at the top with no batting.

Then I folded that edge under, pinned the strip to the back of the quilt, and hand-sewed it on.  I trimmed batting from the bottom edge, too, ran a basting stitch around the edges, and there it was, with matching bands top and bottom.  The thin layer of batting was not noticeable at all.

Now, don’t make me have to do that, ever again, please!  😐

A friend, seeing this picture of the girl running from the turkey, remarked, “This reminded me of me running from the mean goose, Isaac, my grandmother had!  LOL”

I, too, got chased by some mean geese at the farm of some friends we were visiting when I was little.  Nasty ol’ things!  I backed up... backed up... backed up... ----- and wound up sitting in a roll of barbed wire.  That got me over my fright in one quick hurry, replaced with my temper!  I leaped up yelling, grabbed a stick, and went to swishing it and advancing on those stupid geese.  They scattered, honking and making quite a cacophony as they went.

Saturday afternoon, as I was working at my quilting table, there was a sudden loud THWUMP!!! at the window directly behind me.

I turned around in time to see a Eurasian collared dove bounce off a good 20 feet to the east quite as if he’d hit a trampoline.  He flapped, out of control for a few moments, then regrouped and flew off due southwest, seemingly none the worse for wear.  (Photo from Birds of the World.)

After my friend’s quilt was done, I trimmed the embroidered blocks for Emma’s quilt to 17”.

I found the company name on the muslin between the blocks:  “Jack Dempsey Needle Arts”.  I looked up the website, and found oodles and caboodles of beautiful embroidery projects.  The company is owned by Jane Dempsey.  It was established in 1949.

Try as I might, I cannot find out anything at all about either Jack or Jane Dempsey.  Was this the famous boxer Jack Dempsey?  Is Jane his wife?  Daughter?  Granddaughter?  Neither the website nor the Facebook page gives any information.  I need to know this stuff!!!

I looked at the clock... and decided it was time to head to my recliner.

That evening, after sending me an entire folder of pictures of the children, Victoria and I were discussing how some babies walk very early (Arnold did), and some later.

My babies didn’t walk until they were at least one year old.  I never worried about it – but some of my friends thought I should. 

I said, “By the time they’re ten years old, no one will be able to tell – or remember – who walked first!”

At 6:30 Sunday morning, I saw that the water buckets were prrrrretty full.  Certainly too full for me to carry.  Would Larry get up in time to empty them before they ran over?

He would.

Barely.

For some obscure reason, Larry thought he needed hot coffee that morning.  When my attitude (“What?! Are you nuts?!!!”) (I’m such a polite li’l wifey) didn’t change his tune, I made coffee.  He changed his tune ‘all by his own self’, as Hester used to say, when we drove home from church in 97° weather with no AC in the vehicle – and he had only his mug of hot coffee, and I’d forgotten my mug of cold brew.  We couldn’t even turn on the fan, whether drawing from outside or recirculating, because it pumps out hot air no matter what.  Recalcitrant thing.  Furthermore, we couldn’t roll the windows down a whole lot, or we’d muss up our lovely coiffures.

The rest of the day, I had iced coffee in order to use up the coffee in the coffee pot, because Larry wasn’t about to touch it, haha.

Fact:  cold brew is better than iced coffee.  I made a fresh gallon of it – half Strawberry Crumble and half Apple Cinnamon French Toast.  I generally let it steep in the refrigerator at least 12 hours.  24 is even better.  One gallon lasts a good long while, since it’s so concentrated.

After we got home from the morning service, Larry fixed his scrumptious French toast for our lunch, using that yummy Nature’s Own, thick-sliced, multi-grain bread.

Then he went out to see if he could figure out why the AC on the Benz, which he just fixed a little over a week ago (bad cord/plug under the passenger’s seat, probably that way from the factory, and it was all melted and black, having nearly caught fire), was blowing nothing but nice, warm air on such a nice, warm 🥵♨️🔥day.  The house wasn’t much better; the freestanding AC units just can’t cut the mustard.  Or the humidity.  The temperature was 94°, with a heat index of 105°.  An excessive heat warning was in effect.

Do not remind me of this in the middle of January 2026, or I will tie your ears behind your respective heads.

After an hour of checking this, that, and the other thing, Larry and O’Reilly Auto Parts together (via phone) came to the conclusion that the problem was the temp/humidity sensor.  A new one is on the way and should arrive Tuesday.

Our Sunday evening services are at 6:30 p.m.  Now we not only enjoy the sermon and the music and the friends and family; we also enjoy the cool air!  😂

I gave my friend her quilt after the service, and she handed me an envelope with a check in it.  I didn’t look at it until we got home, and then I texted her, “Hey, you gave me too much money!!”

She responded promptly:  “No, I didn’t.”  😄

We had a big grocery order to pick up at Walmart.  We might be hot, but we shall eat!  No longer concerned about church hairdos, we rolled down all the windows, opened the sunroof, and let the hair fly.  (That is not the same as ‘letting the fur fly’.)

Our order included three boxes of ice cream, all of which were soft by the time we got home ten minutes later.   Everything – even the bananas – were sweating. 

Whoever gathered our groceries made things troublesome by not putting items such as bottles of juice, cartons of muffins, boxes of crackers, and suchlike in bags.  Why?!!  I even had ‘Put my things in bags’ checked on my order.  Whoever did that has never carried groceries from car to house in his livelong life.

The main course for our late supper was Kale Pecan Cranberry Chopped Salad.  I think.  Unless that’s the one still in the refrigerator, in which case we had Sunflower Bacon Crunch Chopped Salad.

Since there were no sunflower seeds in my salad, and I’m fairly certain I remember running into dried cranberries, I’m pretty sure my first guess was correct.  I could just go look in the refrigerator, but it’s way over there (gesturing in a southerly direction), and I’m way over here.

For dessert, we had sliced bananas with Moose Tracks ice cream.

At least it is fairly comfortable in the bedroom.  But upstairs in my sewing room, it was practically unbearable, as the (somewhat) cool air in the library refused to round the corner, march down the landing a few feet, and waltz into the sewing room, much as we tried to coax and direct it with fans.

Larry put the new freestanding AC unit in the library, because we thought it might be unpleasant to have the noisy thing in the sewing room itself blowing right on me – but I have since decided that I’d like a hurricane of air blowing on me, if it is at least cool.

The AC in the 5^th-wheel camper is working fine; maybe we’ll have to move out there!  Larry turned it on, in case he feels the need to nap in the cool.  😆

I wish we and that camper were high in the Rocky Mountains, where the summer temperatures are lovely and fine!

By the time Larry remembered to empty the buckets last night, the one in the bedroom was mere millimeters from the top.  I really must pay attention to this; he will forget.

As for the fabric for Emma’s quilt, I kept thinking about it... and then all of a sudden late last night, I pulled up the Marshall Dry Goods webpage, looked one more time at the various florals in Robert Kaufman’s ‘Softly’ line that I really wanted – and ordered them. 

I’ll start designing Emma’s brother Ethan’s quilt while I wait for the fabric to arrive; I already have some of the fabrics I will use for it.  As for the pretty burgundy and pink batiks, I will certainly find a use for them... ‘somewheres else’, as Caleb used to say when he was a wee little guy.  (“Caleb!  Where did you put the fill in the blank?”  Caleb:  “Ummm... Somewheres else.”)

I’ve done eight quilts in a row for boys.  Finally, I’ll be doing one for a girl again.  😊

When I went out to get the bird feeders late last night, a pack of coyotes was setting up quite the howling clamor and commotion nearby.  The adults had evidently brought their pups out for a marauding raid, for I could hear the high-pitched yips and quavers of the young ones.  (Photo from Weston, Massachusetts .gov.)

This morning, I refilled the bird feeders, rehung them,  and, after a somewhat cool shower, started washing a load of bedding.  I’m glad there’s a door between the kitchen and the back hallway leading into the laundry room, because it’s HOT back there.  I made sure to empty the water buckets under the drain hoses when they were no more than half full, as Larry wouldn’t get home until evening.  At half full, they’re already a little over 20 pounds, counting the weight of the bucket itself.  Anyway, at least it’s a good way to water thirsty flowers.

By 11:00 a.m., it was 81°, feeling like 88° and on its way up to 96° with a heat index of about 110°.  The excessive heat warning was in place until sunset tonight.  By 10:30 p.m., the temperature had gone down to 79°.  The heat warning will be lessened to a heat advisory from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. tomorrow, and from Wednesday through Saturday it will only be in the high 70s.

“I don’t like this kind of weather, but we have to deal with it,” remarked one of Larry’s cousins, who practically never goes out in the weather.

“I deal with it by complaining loudly and drinking cold brew coffee 🤣😆😂,” I retorted.

Really, I shouldn’t complain so much, since, after all, “This is the day that the Lord hath made!” – but now and then, I certainly look forward to heaven.

Teddy was commiserating with me today, and he sent a link to a website where he purchased his Bosch central air unit – at a considerably better price than we were recently quoted – last year after theirs went kaput.  He offered the use of his two freestanding units, but I declined, as I can’t imagine where we’d put them.

“Those portable units are a pain,” said Teddy, adding, “They also use a lot of electricity.”

“I figure anything that makes that much noise just has to be using a lot of electricity!” I agreed.

Feeling sleepy this afternoon, but needing to get things done, I got a handful of baby carrots out of the refrigerator and chowed down.

Carrots don’t have enough caffeine in them, though.  😏

In my freezer are some apple turnovers that are supposed to be baked in the oven.  I’ll wait until it’s not so hot to do that.  Again this evening I was thankful for my Instant Pot, so I don’t have to use the stove or oven to cook or bake anything.  I put thin-sliced round-eye steaks, Idaho potatoes, and yams in the pot, and it only took half an hour to cook.  

I don’t usually have regular potatoes and sweet potatoes at the same meal, but I needed to use them up.  I put oodles of butter on the potatoes, and a dab of brown sugar on the yams.  It wasn’t too different from having carrots with the potatoes and beef.

Awww, there’s a cute little half-grown bunny lolloping around in the front yard.  He doesn’t know how fortunate he is that we no longer have cats!

The kids are all telling me I can come to their houses and cool off any time I’d like.  Trouble is, I can’t tuck my sewing machine, quilting machine, 12’ quilting frame, laptop, and grand piano under my arm and stroll off with them to someone else’s house!

I’m planning to sew a bunch of pearls on Emma’s quilt.  Maybe I’ll take the kids up on the offer then, if we still have no central air.  It would be nice to be in a cool place to sew pearls on a quilt – and fun to have the friendly faces of the grandchildren around me.  But I won’t be ready to sew on pearls for a while yet.

We got a bill from the AC man who came for a few minutes and looked at our central air unit and informed us it could not be fixed, and gave us a price for a new one:  $150.  Larry has to work three hours of overtime to pay for that man’s 15-20 minutes.  Good grief.

After supper, Larry went upstairs and uninstalled the portable ac unit from the library and installed it instead in my quilting studio.  I just went up there and checked, and it’s lovely and nice in my room.  Hotter’n all get-out in the library; but perfectly fine in the sewing room.

Okay, that’s enough blithering.  I went on and on (and on), when I could’ve just repeated, “It’s hot!” on every page.  🤣

Time to empty the water buckets and head for the feathers – and the feathers consist of nice clean sheets and blanket tonight!  Not that we’ve been using the blanket much.  But just in case...

 

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,

 

P.S.:  If any of you ever told me you had no AC in either home or vehicle in the hot summer months and I was not properly sympathetic, believe me, I’m sympathetic now!

Photos: Drive to Fremont

This afternoon I went to Fremont to pick up my Avanté longarm at Nebraska Quilt Company, where it was being serviced.  The sky was so pretty and interesting, with different layers of various types of clouds.  Crop dusters were out working away.