Lizard Tails

My quilting goal this year is to finish one WIP each month. I didn't finish Lizard Toes in February, but the month was short. So March 2 counts, right??? Ha ha!

Well, except, I STILL didn't get it done yet. The plan was to finish the quilt over the weekend. I did finish piecing the backing for the fourth segment! (But forgot to take a photo, thanks to technology indigestion all week.) And I finished layering the front, batting and back. I got the final segment of Lizard Toes on the longarm, knowing if I could get the stitch tension right, I probably could polish this thing off in a couple of nights.

Sunday late afternoon we went for a tiny little bike ride because the weather was SO perfect, following a week of sub-zeroes. And I got a flat. I used to always make jokes about how long it takes me to fix a flat or change a tire. Well, the joke is even funnier now because it takes this rusty old lady a lot longer than it used to!

Quilting was postponed to Monday night after work. Then to Tuesday night after work. Then to last night...

Why do things get so crazy when I plan anything?!?

We endured yet another internet outage, and this one just happened to hit while my phone was updating. Now more than half the apps on the phone (particularly the photo apps, you know, the apps I use the most) won't work, including the VPN, which is pretty important right now with cyber threats running rampant. The phone still is not working properly yet after three hour-long troubleshooting calls with three different providers (both internet providers and the phone provider), and totally resetting the phone and losing everything and then waiting for the backup to re-install everything. It turns out I'm going to have to schedule an in-person appointment with the phone manufacturer, which likely will result in yet another reset. Luckily, there is an outlet about 15 miles from me. But I am not a happy camper.

I had to go into the office to get my work-at-home laptop replaced because the one I've been using for about 18 months apparently is out of warranty. Wow, has it really been two years of working at home?!? I informed our IT department I needed three USB ports for my mouse, my keyboard and my screen, plus a dongle to connect to our ethernet because our wifi is so unreliable and slow. (New laptops typically sport one old-style USB port and one new-style USB port.) They said my new docking station (my first ever) should take care of everything. Both the docking station and the dongle are new-style USB plugs, and the docking station has only three old-style USB ports. So I can plug in only one or the other. I'm still not entirely set up for working at home again yet, but I'm doing the best I can with what I've got.

I think this is my cue to take an evening to finish off that Christmas "Logged Off" sweatshirt I started last November!!!

The last thing I needed was for the longarm to give me heartache. Thankfully, Alycia had clued me in last time I worked on Lizard Toes (last July!!!) that batiks dull the needle faster. So I started the final segment of this project with a brand new needle. And the bobbin thread wouldn't catch. I'd put the needle in backwards. I had to search YouTube and watch a couple of tutorial videos to figure that out and how to do it right.

Once I got the upper and lower tension set, which took a bit of time but was a successful endeavor, I began quilting!!! I thought I'd be done before the sun set! But Lizard's endocrinologist called to change his appointment next week to... this Friday!!! We had to have bloodwork done right away so it would be done in time for the appointment. We immediately left for the closest vampire station, only to find it and the next two closest stations are closed until further notice. We arrived at the fourth-closest station 20 minutes before closing and successfully got the blood drawn. Whew!

So, my newest quilt is not complete yet, but it is on the longarm and waiting to be finished as soon as I get done typing this blog post.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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