A finish, some decorations and a repair

I finished the last of the 6 aprons that needed to be done before Christmas. This one is also for an eight year old girl. Her mom wanted it sized a bit larger so that she could enjoy it for a few years. She loves pink and black. I hope she loves this;


The reverse side (two aprons in one!!)


I was having some trouble with my machine, I just could not get a beautiful stitch. I was pulling my hair out! Good thing the hammers are kept out in the shop because that was my next means of repair. Hubby even came in to take a look but could only offer sympathy. I dug out my other machine, a Brother and hoped that the stitch would be good enough for top-stitching. That is all I had to do to finish the apron and get it sent on its way. Hallelujah!!! The stitch looked great, the machine sewed like a champ. I top-stitched the apron, got it packaged up and went to bed (very early this morning!!)

While I was busy sewing yesterday, College Girl was hauling the Christmas decorations out of the shop and the garage. She did a great job decorating the house a bit.



She even put a small lit tree on the counter in the kitchen with all my little cookie cutter ornaments, the teeny rolling pin, sifter, colander and spatula. We still don't have the big tree, but hopefully tomorrow or Saturday for sure.

Long winded repair story ahead -
So Thursday is the day that the sewing machine repair guy from a podunkier town drives to our podunk town and works out of the little craft store. I thought they opened at 10. I woke up just before 9 (hey, I stayed up till the wee hours!) and thought to give them a call to see if their hours were on a message at least. If I couldn't get the machine fixed there I would have to drive 1.5 hours to the Bernina dealer, but they were OPEN!! The repair guy was there!! I asked to speak to him and he said he planned on leaving in about 45 minutes. I told him to hang on I would be there just as fast as I could. Oh my! I had to get dressed, do SOMETHING with my hair, get my machine packed up and drive the 30 minutes to the store. I got there about 47 minutes after speaking with him on the phone. He was waiting for me. I showed him my test piece of fabric and the rows and rows of AWFUL looking stitches. He opened up the bobbin compartment, took out the bobbin case and said, "Well there's your problem. Look at how loose this thread is. This little screw needs to be turned." WHAT??? That's it?? WHY was that not one of the options in the trouble shooting section of the manual. Have I ever mentioned that I think the manual is SORELY lacking? I think I have mentioned it. Anyway, it is. Sorely lacking. The repair man didn't even have his tools with him today (he forgot them when he went back into his shop to get something else) but he was able to tighten the screw with his fingernail. He then stitched a couple of rows, adjusted the top tension (which I had fiddled with endlessly last night) and sewed two rows of GORGEOUS stitches! I almost grabbed him and kissed him. I asked him to solve my buttonhole problem then. He attempted to make a buttonhole and I was actually glad that it FAILED for him too. That elimated the possibility that it was all my fault. He tried to update it but the manual that he had was, say it with me, SORELY LACKING! You got it! I told him no worries as I had no buttonholes in my immediate future and I would bring it back in after Christmas. I said I would call him at his shop on a Wednesday to make sure he had his tool and a better manual for the buttonhole problem. I got out my wallet and was ready to empty it at his feet and he said NO CHARGE! Merry Christmas. I can hardly wait to sew something!

Praise - College boy is FINISHED with this semester!! The repair man was able to fix my machine.

Prayers - College Boy plans to drive home tonight after a filmfest. 6 Hours, in the middle of nowhere for most of the trip. Dark, snow, mountain pass, ice, deer, elk.

BSR Blast!

That was the name of the class I took last Wednesday at the closest Bernina dealer. Closest being a relative term and all. For some reason I didn't sleep well the night before the class and the thought of a 1.5 hour drive down and back was not appealing to me when I got out of bed in the morning. I had been looking forward to the day, taking the class, shopping at Costco, going to find something to wear to the wedding, going to JoAnn's to get some Warm & White. I knew I was going to be driving home pretty late in the day by the time I got all that done. It is a long, monotonous and dangerous drive when you are alert. My hubby had the day off and was still in bed and I asked him if he wanted to go with me. He said well if you want me to drive you I will. Awwwwwwwwww. We were on the road about 20 minutes later. We had such a great day together, we talked all the way down and even had some time to sit and pray together before I went in for the class. To save time I gave him the Costco list, the JoAnn's list with explicit directions on where the batting is in the store and handed over the most important coupon.

There were six students in the BSR class which was being taught by the Bernina expert/certified technician. First of all, she talks way too fast. I realize when someone is familiar with everything on the machine they might assume everyone else is up to speed with them. I just felt there was not time to listen to her instructions, write down notes and look at the machine and samples at the same time. I asked her to repeat a few things and she did, but she gave me a funny look each time. I know I was not the only one that she was leaving in the dust but no one else spoke up. She kept urging us to come take more classes and such. Yeah I would do that if it was not a 3 hour round trip!

This is the baby we were all interested in using;


I think 4 or 5 in the class were classified as BSR virgins, but that didn't slow her down at all. She gave us quilt sandwiches made with muslin and instructed us to make some different patterns on it. Every single BSR in the class was making these HUGE skipped stitches. The teacher was flabbergasted! She had us change settings, no difference. She decided it was the cheap muslin that was the problem and then encouraged everyone to use the fabric we brought. My machine was still skipping. She sat at my machine and tried this and that. To tell you the truth I was so glad that it was doing this for her! At least I knew it wasn't operator error now. She sent me over to her machine to practice making free motion roses while she helped some others and fiddled with my machine. I think the class finished although no one made the project because we all ended up using our fabric for the practicing! That was fine with me because I didn't want a tea cozy anyway. It was determined ahead of time that we would have to finish the project at home but there was no instruction for that at all, just a little piece of paper handed out. The instructor then took my machine to the back room and updated the BSR. She said it showed ZERO hours. Huh, wonder what happened to the 5 hours that I stippled on my quilt along quilt. She said my machine had 20 hours of sewing (in a year's time???) and 200 hours of stand-by time. That just blew me away. I don't even see how that is possible. I don't leave my machine on or plugged in even if I leave the room (read back to last August and the lightning strike story if you need to ;) )so just the time it is on while getting ready to sew or jumping over to iron seams - 200 hours??

After she updated the BSR it worked perfectly. So right there, that was worth the trip and the price of the class. What I didn't understand is why it would not work to the standard of an UN-updated BSR. It was basically new out of the box. Makes no sense to me. I gave this information so that anyone having trouble using their BSR might see if it is due for an update. I wouldn't let this information discourage you from getting a BSR, I know that if they are working properly they are a pretty amazing little tool. I can't wait to get some time to play with mine again and try some of the free motion techniques we practiced.

Before I left the classroom I got to chatting with the lady across from me. Turns out she taught at the same elementary school I attended from K-5th grade! She was just starting there as a 1st grade teacher when I was in the 5th grade. I had to ask her about my favorite teacher of all time - Mr. Peterson. Of course she knew him and she said if she could find out anything about him she would email me. Who would have thought I would meet a teacher from southern CA in a quilting class in north Idaho close to 42 years later!

Hubby and I backtracked to Costco to have lunch. I'm a cheap date, what can I say, and I LOVE hot dogs! Then we stopped at the mall and I found a dress to wear to the wedding and a couple of tops. We chatted all the way home and had a lovely day together (even if JoAnn's was out of Warm & White).

Praise - I thank God for giving me the hubby that He did. I'm so thankful that we both became believers at the same time and that we have so many memories to share.

Prayers - For our time with family this coming weekend. That we would be good witnesses to those around us. That our words and actions would point to Christ.

Quilt Sandwich

On Tuesday I tackled the sandwich making. I had never done a quilt this large with this method. The wood floor was a great surface to tape to but it was insanely hard on my knees! It is Saturday night now and my knees are Still bruised! I wasn't even on them for very long since I used the spray baste method, and I did put in a few pins. I was almost finished when my hubby suggested that I use his volleyball knee pads. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Next time I will start out with those.

So here is the gadget that I was all excited about getting with my Bernina last summer, the stitch regulator. I tried it out and really didn't get it so I put it away. After doing some more research on it (nothing helpful from Bernina!)I decided to give it another try. I needed to get a mirror to get it plugged in, although I could feel the place it needed to be plugged I could not for the life of me get it positioned correctly until I had the mirror.

Here are some of the resulting stitches done with it! I was pretty pleased, although it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and I still have long stitches in places and lots of beeping by the BSR. I stippled for about 5 hours last night! FIVE hours! The kids had friends over and were playing games and I was just in here sewing away listening to them have fun. I got 4 out of the 7 columns of the quilt along quilt done. When I finally walked away from the quilt it was almost like I just got off of a boat. I was swaying and a little woozy. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was 2:15 A.M. too.


So this morning I came down to fill up a few bobbins and get back to work and nothing would work correctly! I was getting tons of long stitches which made me think that the bobbin was empty. I would cut my top thread and go to look and nope, that was not the case. I have no idea what was different this morning from last night. Now I wish I would have just gone a few more hours last night and finished it. I started on a block today and no matter what I did I was not happy. I finally picked all of that out (which takes WAY longer than putting the stitches in, in case you were wondering).

One thing I experienced with the BSR last night, that I did not experience with the Pinwheel Baby Quilt that was also spray basted but used the darning foot, was a gumming up of the works. The BSR would get this gummed on layer of 'lint', for lack of a better word, stuck to the bottom of the foot and sometimes on the needle. I'm wondering tonight if that is part of the problem with the long stitches today. Does anyone have any thoughts on that?

On Thursday night I decided to look up the closest Bernina dealer's website and they have a BSR class coming up on the 8th. It will require a one and a half hour drive to get there and a shuffling of cars so that everyone can get to work yet I can have a car all day. Hubby thought it would be great for me to attend the class so that I get the most out of that feature. I'm excited about it too (except for the part about hauling my machine and such). I'm thinking now of leaving the quilt along quilt to finish once I have taken the class but then I don't want to be dissatisfied with the portion I have finished already. There is NO WAY I would unpick all of that. NO.WAY.

Praise - Hubby heard back on his interview and he did not get the position. Although we are both sad about that we know that it is all part of God's plan and we just need to continue trusting in Him. We have been able to host two young men from Chile this weekend and feel we have made two new friends.

Prayers - There is someone interested in the house that we have for sale. They are going to look at it again on Monday and we are hoping that it will meet their needs and that they will be making an offer on it sometime this coming week.

It has been a GOOD WEEK!

Good but very busy. I have been stitching away on that binding. There were moments that I enjoyed it. MOMENTS. Most of the time it was just 'get er dun' thinking. I had a deadline! My daughter leaves for school on the 24th. I didn't even sit in front of the tv. That would require moving a comfortable chair and a good light and all my 'stuff'. I just sat in the chair in my bedroom and put on some music and stitched. And stitched. And stitched some more. I finally had to put in the mouth guard that I bought the other day when I realized that I was clenching my jaw. Hand sewing is NOT relaxing to me. ;)

But before the binding was finished I remembered to call and order some bobbins for my machine. My daughter picked them up for me on Thursday at the LQS. The Bernina repairman makes a stop there each Thursday and had some on hand so he brought them. Now I can use different colors! Now I don't have to unwind other bobbins so I can sew in a different color! How liberating a few bobbins can make me feel. :D

Then, I had a good mail day! WOOO HOOOO! Who doesn't love a good mail day and then when that mail day means FABRIC, all the better. The rest of the Andover Halfway Cafe fabric arrived. This is for the Galveston Quilt (free patten on the Andover site). I wasn't able to find the brown Dimples fabric that the pattern called for but I found a good substitute last week. I just need some time...

THEN look what I got. FINALLY! I have been stalking Tanya's site to see when she would have the new patterns available. It seemed forever since her last post and then FINALLY a post AND it was about her new patterns. I got an 'old' pattern too. Again with the time requirement...

All the while that I was stitching the binding I was thinking about a quilt label. I have never made one before. I have never labeled a quilt before! Des from Quilt Taffy had told me she was making one the other day. I thought about NOT making one. I thought about making one. I thought about HOW to make one. I thought about how to attach it. I thought about what it should say. All that time to bind a quilt sure allows for a lot of thought. Binding DONE! Label made and on!! Here is what I came up with. I am not sure that I LOVE it. I am not sure that I did it correctly. Seems a little bulky to me. I know some people put the fabric used and the pattern and where the pattern came from. That would have taken the entire back of the quilt. I kept it short and sweet. So what should I have done differently with the label? You know, for next time. (note - the one line I 'smudged' on purpose in photo editing, for privacy)

Now for the washing and drying. I am a bit apprehensive about this. I LOVED the quilt all smooth and pretty. I wasn't sure it was the style of quilt to be wrinkled and puckery. I wasn't sure that I was going to like it still. I wasn't sure that all the colors weren't going to run. I wasn't sure that the binding wasn't going to come undone. I wasn't sure that the label wasn't going to fall off. I forged ahead. I said a little prayer. It seemed so much smaller when it came out of the wash. All the colors were still in place, as was the label. Now for the dryer. When I opened the dryer - puckers! I really liked it! But would my daughter??

YES!! My daughter loves it! She likes the puckers and wrinkles. She LOVES the love note on the label. :D

The quilt top went together pretty quickly but the rest of the process seemed to drag on forever. I am glad to have the hand sewing of a binding under my belt. I won't have to put it off so long for the next quilt. I'm not afraid of that part anymore. I don't LOVE it but I know that I can do it. Next challenge will be machine sewing the binding on and getting those corners right. Always something.

Prayers - I have a LOT of packing to do! That was hanging over my head while I was sewing. For me to stay focused and on task as I get that huge job underway. Prayers that the entire house buying process goes well and we are able to close in early October. Praise that the quilt turned out just fine. An answer to my prayer before sticking it in the wash.