Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

I Like Thursday #226

 Happy Thursday to you!  It's "I Like Thursday" at Not Afraid of Color, a good day to share the positive things of our week.  

You guys!  Look who's back!  And my shop was true to their word and didn't charge for fixing the problem.  So thankful for that!

She's just purring along!

Here's something interesting, though, and I wonder if any of you have experience with this.  When I originally took it in, the shop people told me that the problem was likely caused by my sewing machine getting too cold because my sewing room is in the basement.   Our basement is finished and heated.  We've been checking the temp down there and it's generally around 65-66 degrees.  Has anyone else found temperature to affect their sewing machine?

Meanwhile I've been trying an experiment.  I wanted to make my own cold brew coffee.  I found the directions for making it at Simply Recipes


Cold brew coffee, vanilla flavoring, milk, and a cup with ice.

Hey, it worked!  You have to tweak the amount of coffee, milk, and vanilla to taste, but once I did it was good.  I will say, making the cold brew was a lot messier than the video at the link shows!  Hopefully I'll get better at it!  😉

This week I really enjoyed a book that Wendy recommended a couple weeks ago.  It's a good story about a young woman who's at loose ends after graduating from college and ends up finding out where she belongs.  And it takes place in Leadville, Colorado, so I connected with the setting as well!

Thanks for the recommendation, Wendy!

I'm so excited to see that the tulips and daffodils that I planted last fall are coming up in my garden!  Looking forward to seeing them bloom.  (After the 2 feet of snow they're predicting for us this weekend!)


Of course, the weather forecast depends on what model they're looking at.  😉  It could be 4 feet of snow, lol!  Looks like a wild Spring storm ahead.  I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out!








21 comments:

Michele McLaughlin said...

Even in Pennsylvania, our local weather forecaster was talking about the historic amount of snow you might get! I hope you don't get it! So glad you got your sewing machine back! Yeehaw! That is great news! Stay safe!

Siouxzq64@gmail.com said...

I make cold brew using my insta pot. But I like to use heavy cream in mine....not very healthy. LOL but adding the vanilla sounds yummy. I obviously do not pay attention much to the weather, but 2-4 feet sounds crazy. The book sounds good. I have never heard about the temperatures of the sewing machine. I would assume keeping it out of an area that gets too humid would be necessary.

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

my tulips are about the same size as yours! plants here are very confused after that extreme cold we had in February. I heard you all might get a snow storm again, here it will get cooler but not like that - I've had windows open since yesterday! I have not heard of sewing machines affected by cold temps I suppose anything is possible. I hope it is truly fixed now and so glad the owner of the place worked with you on it and fixed it.

grammajudyb said...

So glad your machine is home! My sewing room is in the basement too! Heated and finished basement! I think that excuse is hogwash! IMHO! I hope the snow totals are not accurate, but the weather people have gotten pretty good lately! I’m still drinking HOT coffee! I should try the Cold Brew. Summer will be here eventually! 😃

Vicki in MN said...

Yes we have been hearing about the storm brewing. I hope it stays with minimal amounts and the forecast is all wrong! Do keep us posted.

Elle said...

I call BS on the temp. I keep a machine at the cabin. When we're not here, we maintain it at 50 degrees. When we are here running the pellet stove, we go up to 66-68.

I grew up in a basement bedroom. The temp was stable and I had the heat vents closed.

Susie H said...

I sew in a semi-heated unfinished basement and my Bernie has lived there for about 10 years with no problems. I will say that when I first start quilting with him, I have better stitches when I loosen the tension. As the space heater warms things up (in winter from about 54 degrees to around 65 degrees) I can adjust the tension back to "normal". I've been enjoying watching things pop out of the dirt around here too but, thankfully, we only have much rain in the forecast -- wet not frozen! Ha!

Jocelyn is Canadian Needle Nana said...

I just love how your Round Robin colours are working together, Diann.
Meanwhile, so happy your machine is all better now. No I've not heard of that issue with cold not even when I had the sewing room in the unheated basement at the farm.
Cold brewed coffee is new to me. It sounds delicious.
Imagine you have green things growing already! I'm happy I can ditch the woolen hats! But no snow in our foreseeable future so fingers crossed. Hopefully you will be missed by this March snow.

The Joyful Quilter said...

Congrats on the return of your machine, Diann! SEW worrisome when we think it might be a door stop! Best of luck weathering the impending Spring snow storm.

piecefulwendy said...

So good to see your machine back home and running! I have a very chilly sewing room during the winter months, and it's cool during summer as well. I've not yet had any issues with my machine. Glad you enjoyed the book; I enjoyed the twists at the end. Since then, I've read a couple that haven't done a thing for me, but I'm reading one now that might have potential. Hope you get less snow than more!

Sherrie said...

Hi,
Glad to hear you got your sewing machine back. Mine is hopelessly broken. I ordered a new one Tuesday and it will be delivered on Friday. I also have flowers popping up, we are getting rain today, hoping we don't get more snow. Have a great day!

Carol R. said...

We had rain last night here in mid-Michigan - just high winds and 60 degrees now. I checked the weather report for the next 10 days just in case you decide to 'share' some of that nasty weather with the mitten state. Nope, ain't supposed to happen. Highs in the 50s for the most part, a couple days dipping down to the 40's in the daytime. I sent message to daughter in Wy to see if she had heard about the storm - she said they're already getting it and know not to make any plans for the weekend other than staying home. I don't drink coffee - hot or cold - but it looks like it was a fun experiment for you. I wrote down the book title and will check into it. I'm with most of the others about machine/ cold temps. I think I mistakenly left my machine in the trunk of my car overnight; I probably just let it warm back up to room temp. before using it. Glad that you got it back and it's working for you - that's all that really matters :) .

MissPat said...

Glad your sewing machine is back home and presumably working fine. I saw the forecast for 2 feet of snow for Denver. Hope they are wrong. We;ve had two days in the 60's (hit 70 this afternoon). That really brings on the spring fever. We'll be back to normal by the weekend. We usually get at least one good snow in late March and in 1992 it was indeed 2 feet.
Pat

Home Sewn By Us said...

Hi Diann! Yippee for getting your machine back so quickly and without a charge. That is super nice. I've never heard of a machine being too cold. Especially in the temperature range you mention! It's not like the basement is below freezing! Did you Google it??!! That cold brew coffee looks YUMMY! I haven't tried cold brew yet but I am certain I would love it. Yippee to the first signs of Spring. ~smile~ Roseanne

chrisknits said...

Eek! Hubster just told me what you guys are in for. Stay warm and dry!

PaintedThread said...

Tulips! I recognized the green even before I read your blurb. I'm not a coffee drinker, but that looks good! Yay for a purring sewing machine!

I've never had a sewing machine balk at the temperature. I do, however, have one that sticks in higher humidity - so no zig-zagging in the summer. The belt is old and will jump teeth if it sticks too much (then the feed dogs are out of sync).

dq said...

Seeing new life poking up from the ground always feels like a miracle to me. I sincerely love that photo you posted.

My daughter did have some trouble with her machine after the cold once, but it was much colder than 65 degrees.

Carole @ From My Carolina Home said...

My sewing room is in my heated basement, temps maintain about the same as yours. I have six working machines all used regularly, and never had an issue. I believe that cold only affects a machine at really cold temps, like near freezing, as it could potentially harden the grease. But at your temps, this isn't an issue at all. Glad you got them to fix their mistakes, and I wouldn't really trust much advice from them.

Frédérique - Quilting Patchwork Appliqué said...

It's good to have the sewing machine home!

Robby said...

I have had my Bernina not start due to cold weather. I keep it near a sliding glass door and after we had some very cold weather I had the problem. It wasn't especially cold at the time, but they suggested I leave the machine plugged in and turned on for a while (up to an hour) and the power trickling in did seem to warm it up because it eventually started. Of course, I was panic sewing before Christmas and said some unkind things to the machine and its' electronics. Possible that helped too. Ha, ha. Glad you're ready to go now.

Robby said...

Oops, forgot to mention I like the NYT/Smitten Kitchen cold brew recipe and make a good sized batch of it to last a few days. You can get special equipment to strain the grounds out, I just use a basket coffee filter to line a smallish strainer with a long handle and put it in my 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup. I balance the long handle on my food processor so it rests securely level before I pour the liquid in slowly. Maybe there's something helpful there for you?