Progress and Project

The days have been busy adjusting to our new normal, which I pray is only a temporary new normal and that Marty finds re-employment soon.  He of course, has had to take time within his own heart, soul and mind to decompress from the loss of his job of 14+ years, and from steadily working for over 20 years prior to that without interruption.  Being unemployed and seeking work is an entirely new animal to him and he is having to trust the Lord in totally unfamiliar waters.  And me, I was doing pretty well with it until this past week where I found myself in the dumps for many reasons, but I AM better today and praying I stay that way.

I found / took some time for a little piece-work this week, but without my design wall I only have pictures of the parts.  It was the first time I'd sat at my machine since 8/12, so nearly two weeks without having sewn anything.  Again I'm working on a purely scrappy project.  This is my August NewFO so I'll post more on it in a few days.  For now:

The stacks of pieces I'm working from.

Two pieces placed together for first seam.

Sewn sets of two.

The quilt room has progressed to having all the walls and the ceiling completely painted.  Marty also lifted off all the old, original 1966 vintage square floor tiles that were under the carpet.  That adhesive stuff that held them in place sure is smelly! Even after several days it still stinks!  Now the hard part, deciding on what to put down.  Originally I was thinking a piece of linoleum would be just fine.  Who knew that in this part of the country linoleum is not plentiful in the stores, only a selection of a few styles which are pre-cut at that (the room is 9.5 x 10 so that could work).  But then I was sitting at a computer in the room directly beneath the quilt room as Marty moved the ladder around to paint, and it sounded awfully noisy and I started wondering about how a chair rolling around, or the sound of a sewing machine humming along might sound with little to deaden it between the floors.  Another product we looked at while at the big box hardware store was called "Allure Plank" which comes in wide variety of styles at a cost of around $2.00 per square foot which is certainly reasonable.  I liked the Antique Elm and the African Wood Dark styles in the wood-grains and the Ivory Travertine in a stone-look tile.  I really like the look of the African W.D. but it might be too dark for the small room. I suppose if we went with one of those, it would be easy enough to add a room rug if we found the sound to be too bothersome.

This morning we met with a financial counselor, something we should have done a very long time ago, to get ourselves and our assets aligned in the best possible way for now and for the future.  It's a process, and the Lord will take us through it in His way, and we can be thankful that His way is far better than any way we could arrange for ourselves with all our plans or schemes.  We may not understand it now, maybe never, but it will be good however it looks down the road.