the newest quilt

 I had to run out to Lowe's to arrange for the new sink (more on that in a moment) but luckily I came home for lunch first (I had to - I put gas in the car and the previous user had somehow not got the nozzle fully off, and I got gas all over my hands and had to wash them, then I decided I needed lunch first, which was a wise decision for several reasons).

As I was finishing my tea, my phone rang - the local quilt shop. I had taken the "Chandelier" quilt in there before Thanksgiving and the woman said it would probably be early January that it was done. It was done today.

So I went and picked it up on my way. That was the good part of the trip....

this is part of the front. I still have to put a binding on, but since I picked it up NOW I was able to grab out a suitable piece of fabric as I was boxing the other fabric up (and I am closing in on done, at least from the sewing room - there's still some under the guest room bed but it's already in tubs). I am setting a few simple bits aside (mostly the pre-cut packs because that's kind of contained) to have as projects for while stuff is over at the storage unit and I"m waiting on the house renovations. (And at any rate - I can drive over to the unit, it's only about a mile and a half away, and with the clear tubs it's easy to open them and take something out, like if I need a big piece of a solid color).

The backing of the quilt is a large piece I bought years ago at the old Sewing Studio (It still exists, but in a different location, I have not been there since they moved - in its original location, it used to have a huge New Year's Day sale and it was a great place to get big pieces of "unusual" fabric (that is: ones that other people didn't necessarily like) to use as backings on quilts, because there were some bolts they would sell at $3 or $4 a yard (for top quality quilting fabric, which in those days was 1/3 or less of the original price and would be even less now).)

I often gravitated towards "unusual" fabrics, especially novelty fabrics. This one is people at a theater, the largest figure is maybe 4" tall, so it's best used as a backing, because then you're not cutting up the people. 

The colors coordinate pretty well. And I like the binding fabric I picked - it's grey (some of the fabrics in the top are grey background) with small pink and orange flowers, and the green of the leaves is similar enough to the greens in the top that it will work. And I didn't have it set aside for anything else, so it's a good use of it.

I then went on to Lowe's. It was pretty much a cluster. I don't know if this is just a fact of life now (don't have stuff that breaks during a once-in-a-century respiratory pandemic/supply chain disruption/inflationary period/Great Resignation). I had measured the space where the sink would go, it's the standard double-sink for stainless steel sink sizes. So I thought it would be a matter of ordering, and then lining up the installer.

Well, first, there was no one around. There isn't a manned desk in Plumbing, so I went and stood by the desk for Kitchens and waited. Waited about 10 minutes. A couple employees  walked right by me but they were on their phones (using them like walkie talkies) so I didn't interrupt them. Then someone came, I explained what I wanted. She walked over with me and looked at the sinks and basically said "I don't know" and walked away. Then someone else came, and said "oh, you need to talk to Kenneth, I'll get him" and I waited ten more minutes. Finally I called the store (from inside the store, heh, the call was coming from INSIDE the store) to try to say "I've been waiting 20 minutes and I can't get any help" but while I was waiting a guy ambled up and asked me what I wanted, and he said "oh, no, we don't let homeowners measure for their own sinks, you need to set up a consult with the installer and he will measure and then can order what you want" and also told me the faucet set I wanted was out of stock (a similar one was in stock, though). So he walked me over to ANOTHER guy who set up the consult, but even he was unclear on the concept a little. 

I asked if I could pay for the consult at the cash register (I wanted to buy more clear tubs) and he said sure, I just had to give my phone number it was set up under. But then when I got up to the front, the registers were all unmanned, and I couldn't figure out how to pull up the consult ticket on the self-checkout. And there was no one at customer service. Finally someone did show up at one of the cash registers but SURPRISE - I had to pay for the two things as two separate transactions, I should have just paid at the consult desk.

And then when I got home? I had to fill out an online form to tell the consultant what I wanted. Welcome to a customer-service-free future. I know working retail sucks, and I know a lot of places don't pay people well or offer good benefits, but there are some things we CANNOT do on our own. I can't manage all this myself. I almost cried at one point before the guy finally ambled over because I didn't like the thought of spending the entire afternoon waiting for someone. But this is the ONLY big home-repair type place in town, and I figured going to Sherman to the Home Depot would only add another layer of complexity. 

Anyway. Here's hoping the consult guy actually DOES call me (he is supposed to by Tuesday) and that I can get my sink replaced. That's the most urgent thing, and for anything else? I am waiting until I can scare up a decent general contractor, even if I have to pay more for someone out of OKC or Dallas, because I CAN'T wrangle all the various workers myself. (Also: some residual sexism here in the American South I think; if I were 6' 4" and had a full beard and male genitalia I'd probably have had an easier time of it than I did as a 5' 6", greying, chubby woman in glasses. And that's terrible and shouldn't be, but many things in this world are terrible and should not be. And I have NO ONE I can ask to go to bat for me - so I hope I can find someone I can PAY to go to bat for me.)

Anyway. I'm tired. I'm not sure if I have the energy tomorrow to box more stuff up - I filled all the plastic tubs I have, so it's back to boxing books and magazines I want to keep (many I will not, I think I'm going to dump the run of Knitters and Vogue Knits I have; I have almost never made anything out of them, they take up a lot of room, and that bookshelf space would be better given over to some of the numerous BOOKS of knitting patterns I have. Interweave Knits, Simply Knitting (the UK magazine), and the sadly-defunct KnitScene may be the only magazines I keep, and I may keep those boxed up after the renovation anyway. It's supposed to be raining tomorrow so I don't think I want to haul stuff over to the unit though I could always be bunging stuff in boxes and take a couple loads over either on Sunday (I *think* the gate is open every day) or on Tuesday afternoon after class.

Also, while boxing up fabric after all that, I ran across the ties of my dad's that my mom gave me - which I have never made a quilt of, but have never gotten around to it yet - and it made me sad all over again, given the mood I was in.