Greetings and Salutations, Friends!!

Anybody driving by my house this afternoon might have been wondering just what the heck I was doing. The garage door was open and I was sitting in the hubster’s chair near the door with the orange curling air compressor tube tucked under my arm.

Well that’s easy enough to explain. If I hadn’t had the coiling tube under my arm, it would have pulled back to hit the snow blower. And, even though we have had no snow to speak of this winter, I nonetheless want to remain on good terms with said snow blower by not chipping away at its paint.

So what was I using the air compressor for on this mild March day?

I was dusting fabric.

Or rather, blowing off the dust that was on some fabric scraps and yardages. I couldn’t wash these because the fraying would be awful. It would all knot together and then I’d have to cut the strips apart and then press them—way too much work.

But the question is: just how did that much dust arrive on the fabric? And that, my friends is the story.

It all started with the phone call I received when I was at my massage therapist’s, chatting and catching up. It was the security company. “We have been alerted to a smoke alarm going off in your upstairs area. We will be sending a fire engine there shortly.”

WHAT????

WAIT. “Wait, you send a fire engine when a smoke alarm goes off???”

“Yes, that is one of our services.”

Sigh.“Please don’t. I’m sure it has something to do with the remodel job that my husband has undertaken in the upstairs bathroom.”

“So you do not want me to send the fire engine?”

“Correct.”

Conversation with security company over; conversation with hubster about to begin.

Except that he doesn’t answer his phone.

I am not panicking yet. He often doesn’t answer his phone, especially when deep in a project.

So I call our kind and patient neighbors across the street.

“Hi, it’s Janet. Could you look out your living room window and tell me if you can see any smoke coming out of our upstairs windows?”

“No problem.” Walks to window. “Nope. No smoke coming our of your windows.”

“Okay, is the hubster’s car in the driveway?”

“Yep.”

“Hunh.” And I explained the call from the security company.

“Would you like us to go over and check things out?”

“Yes, please. Thank you.”

Now it’s to their credit that they did not panic or in fact think that this was at all strange. They know us. They know the hubster’s projects. They realize that this is just another day in his project life.

(I have often thought about writing a book called “Home with the Hubster, or Would You Come Out and Hold the Fire Extinguisher Just in Case a Fire Starts While I’m Working on This?”)

Anyway, they ring the doorbell and he arrives completely covered in white dust. He had been taking off the popcorn ceiling in the upstairs bathroom and had not taped the room.

“I didn’t realize it was bad. I couldn’t see.”

By the time I got home, there was still a haze upstairs even though he had been through the house with the leaf blower.

Yes, I said leaf blower. See above note about “Home with the Hubster” book.

In all fairness, there are a million things to keep in mind during this remodel: skills to learn, dimensions to measure, concrete to mix, decisions on wall tile, floor tile, toilet, countertop. I could never do it. It was just one thing that he forgot/ didn’t think would be a problem.

So, now in addition to the general upset of a room remodel, we had dust.

Everywhere.

I mean, I had to wipe off a chair in the living room, just to sit down. And not just dust it off. I used a damp rag. And rinsed it twice. Where a placemat was on the dining room table was now a very distinct darker spot. Everywhere I looked was a thick cover of dust.

And then I went upstairs and looked in at my sewing room.

Across from the bathroom.

Sigh.

You know how when you need to reorganize a room, everything gets pulled out and the whole thing is an open mess until you get it done? Yep. I was in the midst of a giant reorganization of the sewing room. Everything out on the open. And now it was all covered in dust.

Well, on the bright side I wasn’t going to need to use my usual PostIt notes to remind me of anything; I could just write it in the dust.

And that, friends, is why I was using the air compressor to blow off fabric pieces this afternoon. I will probably be there tomorrow for another load of fabrics. I try to do a little bit every day.

The good news is that the sewing room reorganization is going gangbusters. I am very willing to part with anything I don’t need anymore!

And while I can’t do any quilting or big projects until the dusting is done, I have been embroidering and doing sashiko, the latter of which is what the white carbon paper is for. I believe that this paper is solely for the purpose of making patterns for the “little stabs” stitching —that’s what sashiko means in Japanese. The reason I think this is that the company label is written in Japanese. Reminds me of the instructions that came with a pre-printed panel I recently purchased; they were entirely in Japanese. Good thing I have a book written in English that explains such things!

But, I get a kick out of the term “white carbon paper.”

It came from our neighbors to the north in British Columbia. Now there’s one place I want to visit. And not just for the sashiko!!

So, that’s what’s going on here. I hope you have a thrilling Thursday tomorrow with a fun filled fun weekend to follow. Do something that feeds your creative side; enjoy a cup of coffee in the sunshine. Tell a favorite person how special they are. Hug yourself, too, because you are special.

Love,

Janet