You never know what may come in handy
I'm still making masks- almost out of my stash of packs of single fold bias (which I probably mostly inherited from my mom, or even HER mom, because it's not useful for quilt binding or any of the other sewing I used to do). SO,
was good to use that up, and then found a whole big REEL (like, industrial sewing size) of 1 inch wide bias--pink with small, widely scattered pin-dots- that I'd stuffed at the back of the drawer of bias & seam bindings because I thought I'd never use it. I'd bought it at the thrift store years ago-probably because it was in a mixed bag of stuff that I wanted mostly because I enjoy sorting through surprises.
SO, last week on the Make Masks website I found an offer from one of the volunteers to give anyone who asked (as long as his funds/materials held out) bias tape jigs (feed the bias strips through and they emerge folded, ready to be pressed). He makes them on a 3-D printer- I HAVE the commercial bias tape jigs, but I only bought the size I was using- very large to make quilt binding.
So I asked, and he sent them to me, and I've now got it set up like an assembly line- reel of bias to the left of my little table top ironing board, bias feeding through 2 jigs- first one folds it in a U, second one folds the end over, then through a guide I've made by pinning a long pin through the sacrificial ironing board (old nightgown, let it scorch I don't care), then under the iron which I LEAVE down, and then under another pin guide, over to the sewing machine table (was my grandmas for an ancient big sewing machine- my father added a plywood form to fill in the space so I could put my sewing machine on it, and later I made a form out of styrofoam shapes wrapped around with Priority Mailing tape (at that time, if you requested it the PO would GIVE you that tape for free- I'm sorry now that I wasn't greedy so I only asked for 2 reels) well, anyway, the styrofoam makes a platform around the machine (it wasn't designed for this table and custom made plastic would have cost $100's of dollars, so NO)... anyway, the folded over tape goes to the sewing machine, and when I get bored with ironing, I sew the folded bits and when I get bored with sewing I check the computer in the next room for updated fic/email.
This has been most of my day. Fortunately, this room is at the front of the house and the sewing machine/Ironing board are directly in front of the window. SO, I stopped once to go try to take a photo of a Great White Florida butterfly (poor thing was missing one antennae knob but otherwise happy), and a few cats (one cat has made a nest inside my vastly overgrown fern bed -started many years ago when a bouquet had fern with 'seed' and I was curious to see if they would grow).
ALSO, yesterday when I went to check on the mail, I was IRKED to see that my next door neighbor- the one I went to some trouble to phone to contact for the express purpose of GIVING him several face masks for him and his wife-- well, he was unloading a LOT of groceries. And I thought, you know... YOU KNOW, when I spoke to you, I told you I hadn't been out of the house since March 17. And I told you my normal grocery run was by taxi, but the driver was old, and self isolating too... so YOU KNEW, YOU KNEW I had no fresh food for a month, and could have asked if you could pick me up something. You KNOW I'm not a greedy person, and I would have gladly paid you the cost plus if only you'd got me a gallon of milk... SO, I said yesterday, ok, SOD THAT, I'm not depending on the kindness of people I've been kind to.
GOOGLE is my BOYFRIEND. So, I googled and found a place called 'Stock Up Mart'.
ANGELS REJOICE. I only saw one thing that had whole milk- a box of mixed fruit, vegetables, and dairy (milk/butter/cheese). All things I like and would eat, and in quantities I could consume before they went bad. VERY NICE SITE. You give your address, it tells you if you're in their delivery zone, it lets you choose one of two delivery times the next day.
This morning I put $ in an envelope and taped it to the porch for the delivery person's tip. And covered up the 'Beware of the Dog' sign with a paper saying "STOCK UP MART PERSON, I AM HOME' And I watched the front while I was ironing/sewing.
Heard my phone from the next room. Checked- they'd texted me telling me the delivery person expected within 22 minutes, and gave me a URL for a LIVE map tracking his progress. YES. I could see the dot moving towards me. YAYAYAY. FOOOOOOOD.
They had face masks, and were very polite, smiling at me and waving (I was at the window, self-isolating like a CHAMPION).
The food all looked JUST like the photo, all very nice and fresh. I put the cartons and plastic bags in the unused guest room to let any invisible germs die for a few days before I put in the recycling/ use for cleaning litter box, took all the food out, Fantasticed the plastic wrapped stuff, washed everything else in dishwashing liquid in the kitchen sink, dried everything on towels, put onions & garlic in Tupperware, put apples and oranges in an old wicker basket, put carrots and broccoli etc. in Amazon gift bags (the drawstring bags, too pretty to throw out), and YES, I HAVE FOOOOOD.
I cooked one broccoli stalk and made cheese sauce. NOM NOM NOM...
Ok, I guess I should return to ironing and sewing...
This entry was originally posted at https://feng-shui-house.dreamwidth.org/1571042.html. Please comment there using OpenID. I'm disabling comments on LJ as I can no longer read comments there.
was good to use that up, and then found a whole big REEL (like, industrial sewing size) of 1 inch wide bias--pink with small, widely scattered pin-dots- that I'd stuffed at the back of the drawer of bias & seam bindings because I thought I'd never use it. I'd bought it at the thrift store years ago-probably because it was in a mixed bag of stuff that I wanted mostly because I enjoy sorting through surprises.
SO, last week on the Make Masks website I found an offer from one of the volunteers to give anyone who asked (as long as his funds/materials held out) bias tape jigs (feed the bias strips through and they emerge folded, ready to be pressed). He makes them on a 3-D printer- I HAVE the commercial bias tape jigs, but I only bought the size I was using- very large to make quilt binding.
So I asked, and he sent them to me, and I've now got it set up like an assembly line- reel of bias to the left of my little table top ironing board, bias feeding through 2 jigs- first one folds it in a U, second one folds the end over, then through a guide I've made by pinning a long pin through the sacrificial ironing board (old nightgown, let it scorch I don't care), then under the iron which I LEAVE down, and then under another pin guide, over to the sewing machine table (was my grandmas for an ancient big sewing machine- my father added a plywood form to fill in the space so I could put my sewing machine on it, and later I made a form out of styrofoam shapes wrapped around with Priority Mailing tape (at that time, if you requested it the PO would GIVE you that tape for free- I'm sorry now that I wasn't greedy so I only asked for 2 reels) well, anyway, the styrofoam makes a platform around the machine (it wasn't designed for this table and custom made plastic would have cost $100's of dollars, so NO)... anyway, the folded over tape goes to the sewing machine, and when I get bored with ironing, I sew the folded bits and when I get bored with sewing I check the computer in the next room for updated fic/email.
This has been most of my day. Fortunately, this room is at the front of the house and the sewing machine/Ironing board are directly in front of the window. SO, I stopped once to go try to take a photo of a Great White Florida butterfly (poor thing was missing one antennae knob but otherwise happy), and a few cats (one cat has made a nest inside my vastly overgrown fern bed -started many years ago when a bouquet had fern with 'seed' and I was curious to see if they would grow).
ALSO, yesterday when I went to check on the mail, I was IRKED to see that my next door neighbor- the one I went to some trouble to phone to contact for the express purpose of GIVING him several face masks for him and his wife-- well, he was unloading a LOT of groceries. And I thought, you know... YOU KNOW, when I spoke to you, I told you I hadn't been out of the house since March 17. And I told you my normal grocery run was by taxi, but the driver was old, and self isolating too... so YOU KNEW, YOU KNEW I had no fresh food for a month, and could have asked if you could pick me up something. You KNOW I'm not a greedy person, and I would have gladly paid you the cost plus if only you'd got me a gallon of milk... SO, I said yesterday, ok, SOD THAT, I'm not depending on the kindness of people I've been kind to.
GOOGLE is my BOYFRIEND. So, I googled and found a place called 'Stock Up Mart'.
ANGELS REJOICE. I only saw one thing that had whole milk- a box of mixed fruit, vegetables, and dairy (milk/butter/cheese). All things I like and would eat, and in quantities I could consume before they went bad. VERY NICE SITE. You give your address, it tells you if you're in their delivery zone, it lets you choose one of two delivery times the next day.
This morning I put $ in an envelope and taped it to the porch for the delivery person's tip. And covered up the 'Beware of the Dog' sign with a paper saying "STOCK UP MART PERSON, I AM HOME' And I watched the front while I was ironing/sewing.
Heard my phone from the next room. Checked- they'd texted me telling me the delivery person expected within 22 minutes, and gave me a URL for a LIVE map tracking his progress. YES. I could see the dot moving towards me. YAYAYAY. FOOOOOOOD.
They had face masks, and were very polite, smiling at me and waving (I was at the window, self-isolating like a CHAMPION).
The food all looked JUST like the photo, all very nice and fresh. I put the cartons and plastic bags in the unused guest room to let any invisible germs die for a few days before I put in the recycling/ use for cleaning litter box, took all the food out, Fantasticed the plastic wrapped stuff, washed everything else in dishwashing liquid in the kitchen sink, dried everything on towels, put onions & garlic in Tupperware, put apples and oranges in an old wicker basket, put carrots and broccoli etc. in Amazon gift bags (the drawstring bags, too pretty to throw out), and YES, I HAVE FOOOOOD.
I cooked one broccoli stalk and made cheese sauce. NOM NOM NOM...
Ok, I guess I should return to ironing and sewing...
This entry was originally posted at https://feng-shui-house.dreamwidth.org/1571042.html. Please comment there using OpenID. I'm disabling comments on LJ as I can no longer read comments there.