Construction

I love shows about fixing up houses, and one of my favorite home improvement shows is Holmes on Holmes. He's a guy who comes in, when a contractor has messed up the job, and fixes everything that was wrong with that contractor's work. As the show progresses, he tells you why it was wrong and how to fix it. This show is less about the "ta-da" moment than it is about the work in progress. I love it. The only problem is, while I'm watching I keep worrying about the things my contractors did when they fixed up my house. To be honest, I only worry about the one who finished my basement because the other guys who put an addition onto our house were angels. So, I watch these shows and constantly worry if there is mold growing in my walls, and if there is, what can I do about it? I'm thankful we had an electrician come in and fix the job our contractor did since he put everything in the basement on one 15 amp breaker, and in the next breath worry that the plumbing is insufficient and someday all the pipes under the cement will just explode. I worry because I don't have an egress window downstairs and how will we get out in a fire? Then the show ends and I kind of wrap up my worries in my old kit bag and smile, smile, smile...till the next time the show airs.

Last night, as I watched them tear a house completely apart and build it from scratch, I could relate it to quilting. We take a whole piece of fabric and tear it apart and then put it all back together to make something beautiful. I listened to my Alan Alda book yesterday while making a rail fence baby quilt (Alda narrates the book himself). He's got a great sense of irony and I really enjoyed listening to him. The book was a lot of the speeches given over the years and what he's discovered about himself by going back and reading them again. I definitely sewed longer than I might have without the CD - it was nice to have something to concentrate on while I sewed. The only trouble I had was trying to read directions and listen at the same time. I couldn't tune him out like I do to TV or I would miss something.

Along the same construction lines, I was watching a cake show - Wedding Cake Masters. It takes so many hours to make a beautiful cake, I know, I used to make them when my boys were young. Of course, I gave it up when they were old enough to not be so excited by it. It lost some of its' charm for me then. Mind you, none of my cakes looked like these, but I started thinking about the value of my time in making quilts and how I tend be squeamish about charging a lot because people always want a bargain. People just don't realize the number of hours that go into making a quilt. So I made a decision that I am going to value my time. Whether that will work for me or not, who knows?

Oh, and our raffle quilt got it's picture in the paper today. They published all the info about who made it and who the raffle is for, etc., etc., and my photo looks great. My boys wanted to know if their fingers made the paper too, since they were the ones holding up the quilt...(no boys, sorry, I'm better at the photography than to let your hands show....)

I'm excited about the website - I 'm almost finished. Maybe within a week or so, I'll be able to post it.

p.s. Technically, I started this post Sunday afternoon. I don't know why the posting time is wrong on these posts.
12:05 am Sept. 1, 2008

Happy Labor Day!

mjs