That Answers That Question

I drove the Acura to church yesterday morning and left The Diva here with the husband. He replaced the starter solenoid and hooked the car up to the scan tool to read the codes that the computer was throwing. The scan tool informed him that the reason the heater is working intermittently is because of the EGR cooler, which is the subject of the most recent recall. The computer shuts off the heater periodically, presumably to help keep the engine from catching on fire. That is not likely, but there is a non-zero chance it could happen. The EGR cooler already failed once and was fixed under a recall, but the recall part is also failing. However, BMW does not yet have a fix for the problem. I guess that until they do, a whole bunch of BMW owners are driving around wondering why their heater is only working intermittently (and hoping their cars don’t catch on fire).

[I might text Kevin this morning and ask him if he knows that the heater shutting off is a thing.]

The tire pressure monitoring system is also having intermittent seizures and flashing lights at me, but that’s because I stopped in at the tire place last Wednesday and asked them to look at the right front tire with the slow leak. They determined it needed a new valve stem—and ordered one—but as of Friday, said valve stem had not yet been delivered. The valve stem is connected to the tire pressure monitor, so they had to take the TPM out. It is currently sitting in the cup holder. The computer keeps looking for that TPM, though, and when it can’t find it, it freaks out.

Sigh.

Some days, I fail to see how all this extra technology on my car is helping me. There is such a thing as a point of diminishing returns. We were watching a Car Wizard video the other night and he said that he hates working on BMWs because people buy them but don’t have the budget to do the (relentless and ridiculous) maintenance on them, so they slowly fall apart. I would not have this car if I didn’t also have my own personal BMW mechanic. And I won’t ever buy another BMW.

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My friend Ginger brought her latest project to church yesterday to show me. I didn’t think to take a picture, but she sent me one later in the day.

This is boutis, a form of French quilting. (The Art of Boutis, by Kumiko Nakayama-Geraerts, is a good resource.) The picture doesn’t do it justice. The texture of the piece is amazing.

Ginger is so creative—for many years, she has done the visuals at our church. Walking into the sanctuary every Sunday is a treat for the eyes. She also knits and sews, and now she is doing boutis.

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This is the pattern I chose to quilt in the border of the tumblers quilt:

I am using one of Amanda Murphy’s Lollipop rulers; in Ruler Club, we are using the Mini Lollipop rulers, but there is no triangle shape in that set, so I got the set of larger ones. This was a bit tricky because she doesn’t include any instructions for using the motifs horizontally. They are intended to be used vertically, in columns, and there are few markings on the ruler for horizontal positioning. I did some experimentation on a quilt sandwich, though, to determine the correct spacing.

That bottom horizontal line of traveling quilting is going to be hidden in the binding, so when the quilt is done, it won’t show. The motifs will look like they are coming up from the edge.

This is how the ruler looks when I am using it:

Amanda Murphy says she now prefers to call them “templates” rather than “rulers,” but I still think of them as rulers.

I’ve got both long borders done. (The math was easier for those sides.) I’ll do the two short borders and the corners, trim the quilt and attach the binding, and this one can be crossed off the list.

I need to practice stitching in the ditch. Mostly I do okay, but there are a few places where it shows. I love how the variegated blue thread looks in the border. The stitching is more visible than it would have been if I had used a solid blue that matched the fabric, but the contrast isn’t so great that the mistakes stand out like sore thumbs.

I might take this to Ruler Club with me tomorrow for show-and-tell, although I don’t want to be that student. That’s the teacher part of my personality coming out, I think. It’s always helpful to have visuals.

I mocked up a quilt design in EQ8 with 25 Churn Dash blocks so I could get a yardage estimate for the sashing and borders.

This sashing is similar—although not identical—to the kind of sashing I plan to use for the Sunbonnet Sue quilt. I need to set up the Accuquilt cutter to cut strips for both quilts, and then I am going to be sewing a lot of long, straight seams.