Eight to go

Hmm... where to start this post?

I did watch the news this morning. The main branch of our library took an awful blow from the flooding. Tens of thousands of books are destroyed. A major part of the books were brand new and destined for a new branch library to be opened in a troubled neighborhood. Many of the books were from inter library loans and were there being sorted to be returned to their home branch. Also all the computer equipment for all the branches were controlled from the main branch. It's all destroyed. They also lost two bookmobiles. When I heard this news I shed a few tears for all the lost books. I do love the library.

There is still lots of water in places, although it's going down. We had a bit of rain overnight. Most of it went south of our area.

Many people's cars are now unusable. Some cars simply parked on the street or in parking lots ended up getting flooded. The insurance companies are going to be very busy processing claims. I wonder how many of the flooded cars will show up as cheap used cars?

Gas prices went up 50 cents a gallon in most places overnight. The price rose almost as fast as the water. My neighbor bought a gallon of milk for her kids at the corner store yesterday. It cost her 6.99. Another thing that the price skyrockets during a disaster.

My block didn't flood like other places but the intersections at both ends of the block were flooded. There were two city buses stuck in high water near one of the intersections. My block only had to deal with the power outage and the gas leak. That leak turned out to be an underground leak in the line going to the house. With all the water in the ground it was pushing the gas up and out instead of it staying under ground. Several of my neighbors have water in their basements. It came up through their floor drains because the sewer lines were so over loaded. I tried to open the floor access to see if I had water in my basement. The wood is swollen from the dampness and I couldn't get it opened.

I think Louisville has had it's share of disasters for awhile. The wind storm, the ice storm, and now the flooding. I'm thankful that all that rain wasn't snow. Can you imagine how much snow it would have been? I believe I'm going to go over my disaster preparedness plans again. I found out that rechargeable batteries don't hold their charge for long if sitting in a drawer. I couldn't use my radio during the power outage. I didn't have precooked foods as I had during the ice storm. With the ice storm I had advanced warning. No warning on the flooding.

Earlier this year I had thought about getting a stairway built to my basement. I had thought I could use it for storage as most people do. I guess I'm glad I didn't do this. I think of all the stuff I would have had in it. If it is flooded, all that would have been lost. Most of what I had planned on storing in the basement would have been quilting stuff and foods. Again, I'm glad I didn't follow through with my plans earlier this year.

Ok, on to other things. The disaster has passed and we must continue with our regular routines if we can.

Miriam... yes, dryer sheets are fine as stabilizers when creating string quilts of any kind. I use them often myself. I've used them for several years. As long as you press everything very well during the construction they should work fine. Sometimes I wash the dryer sheets to remove any last residue of fabric softener before I use them. I put several inside a washing bag and put that into the washer. Dryer sheets are also used by some machine embroidery people. They make good stabilizers for under embroidery. A little spray baste holds things.

*** Now before I get flamed, let me say that some people are allergic to dryer sheets. Be careful who you give the quilt to when it's finished. ***

Dyer sheets can ruin a teflon iron if you aren't careful. If there is some fabric softener residue still in the sheets, it can cause the teflon to come off the iron. Not from one or two sheets but after ironing several of them. Usually the teflon around the edge of the iron and mostly at the point is where it comes off. I have a dollar store non-teflon iron that I use when I'm working with the dryer sheets.

Now about my blog.... I was going to type talk about the lack of photo space available and possible changes. I think I'll save that for another post. I need to make up for lost time yesterday. I'm still taking photos of the quilts as I finish them. I need to figure out how to show the photos. I have many possibilities to think about.

I hope all my Louisville quilting friends are ok!