2012 April 18 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards

April 18, 2012 · by JudyL

How much more fabric can be lurking in those unpacked boxes? Don’t answer that!

The real story is that I haven’t unpacked any of my clothes except jeans and t-shirts. I bought a few pairs of shorts but in the next couple of weeks, there are several events for which I have to put on decent clothes. I had them at the rental so there’s no telling what box they got stuck in and whether or not it’s even labeled. I’ve searched and searched and I’m done . . I’m going shopping and you know how badly I hate doing that, but I must find something to wear.

This morning while looking through boxes, I found some that all said “Sewing Room”, along with “Marbles”, “Browns”, “Greens”. I thought to myself that we must’ve re-used those boxes but went ahead and opened them and yep, more fabric.

Our of curiosity, I measured the short stack on the right side (with the tan on top) and the lime green in the middle. There’s over 20 yards in that stack so that means there’s at least 120 yards of fabric sitting on top of that table. My fabric shelves are full. As of mid-April, my net used is less than half that amount. I hope to use at least 120 more yards this year but at this rate, I’m not making much progress with using up my stash.

The stacks of fabric on the floor are for the three projects I’m currently working on. Three quilts at once .. I’m feeling a bit pressured.

· Filed Under: Quilting · 17 Comments

Unhappy With UPS . . Again

April 18, 2012 · by JudyL

Maybe it’s because we had the perfect UPS guy in MO. But here, what is wrong with UPS? The last time I “complained” about UPS on here was when folks were sending quilts for the Texas fire victims and I asked that you not use UPS. That got the attention of a sweet blog reader whose son works for UPS and he assisted with getting the driver to figure out where I lived . . which was in the rental in a subdivision and shouldn’t have been hard to figure out. But, the driver came by my house, introduced himself and apologized for having left my packages with everyone but me and I didn’t have any other problems with him.

Then we moved out here, behind a gate. We have lots of UPS drivers. I see a different one all the time. Vince went and talked to the manager to see what they would do with our packages. She assured him that they would come through our gate and deliver our packages. Our gate code is in their computer. Not long after their meeting, we found a box stuck over the gate and left overnight . . where anyone could reach in and get it. I called UPS, talked to the local manager and after a couple of conversations, she assured me that she had taken care of the issue and it would NOT happen again.

This morning when Vince was leaving for work, hanging over the fence was a plastic bag with a box in it. A box that contained a quilt being returned to me by Quiltmaker.

It’s like I told Chad growing up . . if I can’t trust you 100% of the time, then I can never trust you. Thank goodness he was about 99.999% trustworthy!

I called UPS again today and the manager told me she would talk to the driver who did it. She told me “he doesn’t take criticism very well.” You know . . how a driver takes criticism is not MY concern. My concern is that when you tell me it will NOT happen again, and then it happens again, do I avoid using UPS at all costs or do I hope you’re right and it won’t happen again?

We get a lot of packages and most of them are things that can be replaced . . Mason jars from kmart.com, shorts from samsclub.com. But sometimes it’s quilts and those things, I don’t want to have to replace. Am I wrong for expecting them to do what they say they will do?? They say they will come through the gate and deliver my packages. USPS says they will not come through my gate. The driver calls me and I meet her at the gate or she puts a note in my box and takes my package back to the post office for me to pick up.

I appreciate my blog reader’s son helping me with my first UPS issue but I am very surprised and very disappointed, that after the manager’s assurances that my packages will be delivered, that a quilt in a box was left hanging on the gate overnight last night!

· Filed Under: Worthless Chatter · 46 Comments

Those Crazy Chickens

April 18, 2012 · by JudyL

Yesterday Vince decided to build a small run for the big chickens and let them out while we could watch them and see what they would do.

When it got time to let them out, we opened the little side door. Some of them looked out, some of them ran to the other side of the coop but not one of them would venture out into the world.

Finally a couple of them stepped out.

We dropped some wheat down the ramp and they would go down just a little ways and run back into the coop.

Once they went back into the coop, it was hard to get them to come back out. I dropped some lettuce down the ramp and finally got a couple of them all the way down to the ground.

Once they went back into the coop, they stayed . . no more coming out for this day. They are so scared of anything new but they’ll get used to being outside and then they won’t want to go back inside.

I’m pretty sure these chickens are the exact same kind I had in MO. We called them Red Stars or Sex Links. Some call them Golden Comets but I believe they’re all the same or close to the same. There are 6 of them and probably 1 Buff Orpington. The others, all 7 of them are probably Rhode Island Reds. They are some crazy chickens!!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 11 Comments

A Guest in the Bag

April 18, 2012 · by JudyL

Vince has some supplies for building the new chicken coop . . some lumber, some screws.

Yesterday he grabbed the bag of screws for something he was going to work on and .. guess what was inside the bag!

I had to move the bag, very carefully, to get a picture. I put it back on the stack of lumber and the mama bird came back. I sure hope that’s a good place to have a next but I have my doubts.