Hand Quilting

Jer's Kaleidoscope quilt is really heavy and long. I am going to rant here a bit because of the cold in my house. I couldn't re-light the pilot, called the gas company by saying I could smell gas though I could not. The furnace control panel was leaking gas, therefore they shut off the furnace on 12/17. Its been a series of unkept or broken appointments, holiday office shut-downs and ...well. Its cold in the house. Then when the evaluator came or assessment was made, they also replaced some of my lighting with energy-efficient bulbs which are dimmer than I am used to.

So ok, when I laid the quilt across my bed to move the quilting hoop, I discovered that one of the parts I had worked on pulled fabric and bunched it up. Those little puckers are not going to smooth out, and now I need to rip out my stitches so it can hang and lay the way it is supposed to look. As it hangs over my ironing board, other similar places are showing up not smooth and before I do much more, I need to warm up this room, turn as many lights on as I can and fix this. It might mean taking out more of my hand work to get it right. It might even mean not having it ready for his birthday which is less than a month away!

I have another quilting frame that came from my friend Lee's estate. I haven't used it yet, however, it really looks like it might work to keep the quilt smooth.

With luck, when the tech comes this morning at 8, he will fix the furnace and things inside the house will be back to normal. Bless the people in the world who live with uncomfortable situations.

Yesterday, when we went to the Japanese celebration for the New Year, we drove through the fabric district, through the flower district, and through the homeless district. People had tents or tarps set up on the sidewalks with shopping carts filled with their possessions in trashbags. Yes, it was in the high 70's, but come on. They were living on hard cement sidewalks. Several blocks, both sides of the street, close to each other. I could barely look at them, and did bless them as I drove through, slowly, quietly, trying to breathe.

I shake my head at myself this morning, and even though my hands are freezing, my shoulders starting to feel the cold and hunching up, I have this home, this beautiful home where I am able to sleep in a bed, shower with clean towels, and quilt with these amazing fabrics. And yet I whine that I have no heat.