October 27, 2026 - Stitching and Car Update

I've been sitting here trying to decide if it was worth waking the dogs, who are both sleeping so peacefully on my lap, to go find my phone to take a picture of the progress I wanted to share on the current project. I decided it was not worth it and started back to stitching, then realized I can take a picture with my tablet! Why didn't I think of that an hour ago??

This is a SAL and we have weekly assignments. I've worked ahead so I can put this aside on November 1 and work on the Blackbird Academy project. I'm kinda jumping around but by the end of tonight I think I will have finished the assignments through November 15 and a good start on the house, which is the week of December 5. I've been outlining on the house because I want to get to the bottom of it and outline the grassy area.

My stitching plan probably makes no sense to anyone, including myself, but it's hard for me to work on the Blackbird projects if I'm behind on this SAL and it's hard for me to work on this SAL if I know I'm going to get behind on the Blackbird projects. Yes, stitching is fun and it really doesn't bother me if I miss a "deadline" but I do want to keep up if I can.

This project is A Grateful Heart by The Scarlett House. I love the verse on this one, which says "Each dawn brings a new day for us to do whatever we may may. Choose to be happy with a grateful heart for we have been given a brand new start."

On the car issue, we left it with the mechanic yesterday so he could check it out today and drive it. He's pretty sure it isn't the driveshaft. He said there's absolutely no shaking or wobbling he can feel in the steering wheel when driving it. The back right strut has failed and that's the noise I've been hearing the last two or three times I drove it. Remember, I only drive it once a week. I told him the noise I'm hearing doesn't happen when I hit a bump but it mostly happens when I'm on a washboard type rough road. He made the tire bounce and I heard the exact noise I've been hearing and he explained to me why single bumps don't cause the noise as much as a washboard type road. Made sense when he said it because that's exactly what I was hearing. There still could be more issues once he gets it all apart but, for some reason, changing struts doesn't sound nearly so sad as changing a driveshaft. Vince said "I think you have it wrong because changing the struts is going to cost more than changing the driveshaft!" In my mind, struts sounds like a much easier fix. In fact, we had the struts changed on that car either three or four years ago. The guy who did our work back then was really good, had a very good reputation but he retired and closed his shop. He changed all four struts and today's mechanic said we probably just had a bad one. He didn't see anything wrong with the installation. Vince wants to go ahead and change all four of them. We brought it home so I can use it tomorrow to go stitch with Debbie, then it goes back in the shop next week for "a few days".