Mother Nature Brings Sewing to a Halt

If you've never spent a spring living in "Tornado Alley", you may not have witnessed the havoc of a violent prairie thunderstorm.

Trees bend to the ground under the wind and the weight of the rain, gutters overflow creating waterfalls in front of windows, hail decimates flower beds, and all eyes are glued to the weather channel radar. While tornado sirens pierce the air rainwater creeps silently from the ground onto basement floors.

The nearest tornado touched down 4 miles from our house, but when Monday evening's storm ended we'd had 6 1/2"  inches of rain in just a few hours. The water in my sewing room and in the storage area under the stairs wasn't discovered till Tuesday morning.

Everything came to a standstill. I didn't sew a stitch from early Monday through Friday, and I heated leftovers or supermarket rotisserie chicken for every meal. The pictures tell the story.

Everything was shoved together away from the wet areas. The sewing machine is almost hidden behind the piles.

It was too much for the shop vac.

Carpet pads drying outside on the makeshift clothesline.

Almost dry floors.

Lots of baking soda sprinkled under dry carpet pads.

I'll be sewing tomorrow. A cat quilt needs to be finished. 

The cutting tables sit right in the corner where water came in. They are easily collapsed, the desk is on sliders, and most of the storage drawers have wheels.

For the time being I've rearranged furniture and put the heavy dresser against a wall that stayed dry, and more easily moved furniture by the wet areas. After we get some work done to stop the water, I'll decide where to place furniture permanently. 

They say we'll have a wet summer, and more rain is expected Sunday night through Tuesday. We are hoping we can schedule something quickly, but it's taking time to find a contractor. Everyone who works with basements is overwhelmed by calls for help from all over the city. 

It could have been so much worse! The tornado missed us, and nothing more than a pack of wrapping paper was ruined. This little bit of water is a nuisance, but falls way down in the minor category on the scale of things that could go wrong. I'll be sewing again today. 

Stay dry and safe, everyone! 

Wishing you a super great week!