The next 15 minutes

I have talked a few times about "How much is fifteen minutes?", and how by using ALL of your fifteen minute time periods you can get a lot done!  Read the original post here.

I haven't quite finished the other fifteen minute project, but am still working on it.  I have it all cut out now via my fifteen minute sections and a family quilt retreat as well.

In between those events, I had a number of projects that were scrappy in nature (you will see some of them shortly) and so I began another fifteen minute project to go with them.  Scrappy Bow ties!

This pattern can be made with as little as an 8" square of fabric!  It takes just two squares of 3&1/2" and two squares of 2&1/2"  of colored fabric and two 3&1/2" squares of light/white fabric.  Sew one of the smaller colors to the corner of the light (square it to the edge of the corner and sew across the diagonal), trim off the excess and press open.  Square that to 3&1/2" and then sew it to one of the larger color squares.  Then sew the two sections together to form the finished block.  Make sure you set them down together so you get the centers lined up in the right direction.  I have had to "unsew" a number of these for trying to stack and hurry!  It doesn't pay!

So as I went through the scrappy projects, I also cut the squares for the bow tie blocks.  This particular pattern makes a 6" square.  

I have them stored next to the sewing machine in a box that I got from the school - the student ID's came in it.  Colors in the back and lights in the front.  Mostly because I will run short of the lights long before I run short of the colors, so then I know when I need to dig up some more lights for the project.  You can see to the left of the box the finished 6" bow tie blocks stack.  

These ones are all blue but I have tons of different colors, and it gives you an idea of how they can be put together to make alternate patterns above and below.

It goes together really fast - just about 15 minutes for four of the blocks - after cut out has been done ahead of time. 

Here is another colorway that I am working on to have a "backup quilt" at the ready when I need one - or someone else needs one!

 Sew simple and a great, easy use of  those scraps and that fifteen minutes that you might have thought was useless!

That Wicked Alaska Earthquake!

Oh we have had a crazy week here in Alaska!  We had a Wicked big earthquake - 7.0 on the Richter scale and lasting about a minute.  Thank goodness it was only a minute because it completely took out one of our schools - Houston Middle School which is just across the campus from Houston High School where I work as the Secretary!  School was in session then and it was a heck of a ride, glass shattering all over the place in the pitch black (our auxiliary power didn't come on until after the shaking stopped), and people crying and some freaking out! Here is one of our roadways:

(above Photo by Ivan Fonova)

Here is an aerial view of that same road.  This road is right next to my aunts house on my Grandfathers old homestead.  It used to be a lake!  (and by the way the road is fixed now already - one week later!)  It s temporary fix until the summer construction season but  - road open and usable! 

 Hubby called me right after the quake happened to check on me, and Reedo stopped in when his work sent them home to check on their people!  Great employers - Arctic Insulation. Here is what my office looked like at the High School:

The High School was closed for a week and our Middle School will not reopen at all!  We ended up with all of the Middle Schoolers at the High School and we got 700+ kids home safe and sound by 1:30 in the afternoon.  Our staff was awesome!

But my school office didn't even come close to the home office (or the rest of the High School building for that matter)!

Not sure it is fixable - I don't think so but my dad will take a look at it and be the professional judge of repair ability!  

This big wooden 4-drawer filing cabinet weighs about 200 pounds and fell over forward somehow!  Underneath it were 4 bottles of wine, a bottle of balsamic vinegar, 3 jars of jelly, a jar of applesauce, and a keepsake glass bottle of glacier water!  

You know those tax files you are supposed to keep for 7 years?  Yeah, we have some that are no longer keepers!  We found a new glue formula though - wine, balsamic, applesauce jelly will stick just about anything together!  No matter how many times you mop or wipe - there is not enough soap and water to unstick that stuff!

And of course we lost the main TV -luckily we had a few more throughout the house - namely Reeds gaming TV so we are back in TV business!  The hockey puck in the middle of the TV is one of the memorial pucks from Rye's memorial service.  His urn fell as well but luckily was unharmed!  I checked and Hubby said "Yes - it fell - Yes - It's fine!  We did lose a few Rye memorial items that can't be fixed but we didn't lose any memories!

And here is the sewing/laundry room, where one of my book cases collapsed in a heap and was not fixable!  The iron also took a hit - It appeared fine at first but when I went to use it, turned my back for just a second, and the smoke/fire alarm went off - the iron was on fire - the whole guts of it!  

(you'll learn about that rooster right there in a later blog - stay tuned)

I ran it outside and had to fill the gap (you can see the gap below - which is NOT supposed to be there) - had to fill the gap with snow to get it to go out!  The whole house smelled like burnt electrical for a few hours - seems to be gone now!

Luckily I have an old heavy duty backup iron - it's not auto shut off but it works really well - I just have to remember to shut it off and unplug it!

We were really lucky though - our house had no structural damage and all of our people are safe and sound!  My cousins house - about a mile away - was trashed!  Her direct next door neighbors house has been condemned!  Super sad!

Our Big Lake Lions Rec Center (our ice arena) didn't fare so well!  Although the ice sheet itself needed just a little fixing up and debris removal, we sustained about $75,000.00 of damage to the arena building.  We had to cancel our High School annual hockey tournament, The Big Lake Lions Classic, which we have held without fail since the building was built!  The building was built with no government funds!  Donations, fundraises, grants, and in kind!  Truly a Community Center!

Damaged, leaking sprinkler tank - 17,500 gallon capacity tank shifted by the quake and leaking, with damaged pipes!

A little shot to give you perspective on the size of this tank.

My friend Tyra vacuuming up some of the debris - she really isn't directly under that hanging ceiling tile even though it looks it!  Almost the whole of the lattice framework for the ceiling tiles was twisted or destroyed.

Our hot water and pressure tanks, leaking and with plumbing damage.

We have a GoFundMe site set up to help with the repairs costs and you can also see more pictures and get more information at this site.   Give us a little gift for repairs if you can!

In all of this, there were no lives lost!  Very few injuries, and those mostly were not serious!  Our power was out for less than 10 hours!  We have had the coming together of our communities and neighborhoods.  Each neighbor asking the other how they were and if they needed help - helping each other to get through this, and to weather the weather (we have had rain, snow and high - I mean high- wind) in addition to the aftershocks (we are at 3000+ aftershocks now!  This morning it was a 5.0 that jolted me and the dogs out of our relaxed pre cookie making haze!  Cooking still relaxes and soothes me and I made three kinds of cookie today!  Christmas on!

I hope that if your earth shakes and quakes, that you can rely on your neighbors, family and friends, and that if the wind should blow let it be a soft warm one!  Blessed be!