A crafty summer so far

Not exactly earth shattering, but I have been up to lots of little crafty projects this summer. At our local St. Vincent's thrift store, I found this sweet little doll-sized quilt, about 2/3 to 3/4 hand stitched, for 50 cents. These sorts of things make me sad: what happened to whoever was working on it? If they got ill/died/forgot how to sew, why didn't someone finish it for them? How does it end up in my grubby little hands for less than a soda pop? I dunno, but I spent four evenings finishing the hand quilting (not nearly as even and steady as my predecessor, by the way) and machine bound . The next morning, I explained to V that she had a new blanket for her dolly. She squealed in excitement, carefully spread it out in the middle of the family room floor, gently lay her naked dolly upon it, and then left it and the dolly there all afternoon. Apparently she took "new blanket for dolly" literally and left dolly alone with her treasure.


Because we insist on continuing to feed the wee child, she keeps growing, and by the end of May clearly needed bigger diapers. So mostly during naps I've been putting together some larger sized ones. We do laundry almost everyday, so we really only need about a dozen to keep her dry and (mostly) happy. It took almost two months, but I made large #12 last week. Here's a picture of part of the collection, on top of Dolly's quilt. Some (those with flannel tabs) use recycled parts from diapers I made that turned out not to be waterproof. Oops.



In other do-it-myself news, we're having toilet problems. It's a long dull story, but we had a plumber here a couple of weeks ago, and at $70 an hour, he's not invited back. (I just seriously believe that plumbing is something more people should be able to do for themselves: not laying pipe for that upstairs bathroom you've always wanted or anything, but fixing almost any toilet problem or drain clog should be totally manageable for the average person who has their whole summer off to figure things out. To this end, I went to the thrift store about four years ago and bought a book for 25 cents on general plumbing. It's not like toilets get outdated every few years, I reckon, and my quarter has already saved us about $500.) So I'm putting in a new toilet, with Shaun as my devoted, cautious (in that "just remember you're mad at the toilet and not at me" way), helper monkey. But even with a helper monkey and a 1978 plumbing text, I cannot for the life of me get those #$%*ing rusted-on bolts off the base of toilet. I almost went to Wal-Mart in desperation at 10pm tonight, but then I remembered I hate Wal-Mart, and can wait until tomorrow when I can go to our neighborhood Ace Hardware where people there are nice to me and provide worthwhile advice.

Also, we are having a ginormous rummage sale in September, so I am trying to carefully sort my fabric stash with the requirement that if I don't love it or need it, it has to go away. I actually thought it would be much more difficult, but I've pulled about 1/3 of it out to the garage already. Mark your calendars, because, um, I need someone to come take this stuff out of my life before I get lost in here.

So, see? We're not just galavanting around Minnesota or lounging in the backyard. We have quilts to finish, diapers to sew, and toilets to replace. Is it any wonder I need a nap?