Zatera Ul

My September is pretty well over-scheduled, between work deadlines, baby classes, social activities, and all the other things I’m trying to get done before the baby comes next month. I’m hopelessly behind on weeding the flower beds, partly because MFH has devoted all his (limited) gardening time to the vegetables this summer. I have a work deadline to meet on Thursday, then I’ll probably take a day off just to get business of my own done.

My current project is to extend our bed frame for the new mattress we are getting. The bed frame started out as a loft, when I was single and needed to make room in my bedroom for my desk (and sleep further away from the downstairs neighbor who let their TV blare every morning). MFH made some design suggestions, and helped me get the lumber, but I did all the sawing and drilling and building myself, and by hand. Then when we got married, I flipped the loft to make a bed frame with very tall posts and lots of storage space underneath. Now I am widening it, which means making longer 2×6 end boards and 2×4 joists. As before, I’m using all hand tools. We have a circular saw, but I can’t cut very accurately with it, and I don’t think I should be using it when my pregnant tummy sticks out about a foot in front of me.

The problem with “Measure twice, cut once” is that it only works if you use the right number to begin with. I managed to cut all the 2×6’s three inches too long, repeating a mistake I made in the original loft. At least this time I caught it before I started drilling holes for the bolts, instead of when I was putting everything together.

Even better, while I was recutting a board, MFH came down to the basement and asked, “Why aren’t you using that saw?” pointing to his Stanley FatMax saw hanging on the pegboard. The virtue of the FatMax is that it cuts both on the push stroke and the pull stroke, so the sawing goes very fast. I said, “I thought I was,” and looked down and saw that I was using my backsaw, and had been all along. Proof that my brain is just as pregnant as the rest of me.

For another project, Sunday evening I sewed a baby sling, new green corduroy on the outside, flannel from a garage-sale flannel sheet on the inside. It turned out well, although I suspect that I should have prewashed the corduroy, to preshrink it and keep it from bleeding green all over the lining. It’s going through the wash today.

Yet another project is sewing quilt squares, something I’ve been doing lately as a break from work/cleaning/getting ready for the baby. I have a big backlog of fabric that I’ve cut up for quilts. I’ve just been sewing two-color nine-patch squares, a couple at a time. I have a long ways to go before I’ll have enough to make a quilt top.