Stories from the Sewing Room

Why is it that the more I try to simplify my life and commitments, the busier I seem to be? 

We are now officially done with robotics forever. The tournament we hosted went pretty well and people seemed to have fun. Two teams didn't show up. On our own team, we were already down one kid (vacationing out of the country) and another fell ill the day of. That left us with two kids, the ones who typically showed up and did all the work, which seems a fitting way to end our coaching career. Our very last match ever was kind of a train wreck, but the boys had fun and laughed through it, so I will call it a success. They even managed to win one of the individual event trophies. 

Robotics typically takes up 6 - 8 months of each year and has for 12+ years. What will we do with all our free time? My husband wants to volunteer with Habitat. I think that's great, but like I said above, the more things we edit out, the busier our schedules seem to be. We still need to address the porch, the landscaping, finish the barn, get rid of things we're done with, and so on.

We did start setting up the second longarm. We moved the lights my husband made me from my existing machine over to the new/used machine because the lighting isn't as good in that area. This frame is 10 feet, so the lights overlap a bit since they were fabricated for a 12-foot frame. My husband installed his fabric advance bypass system. He 3D-printed me a bracket to hold the laser. The laser cable for Lucey 2 is really long compared to my original and would be in the way. Luckily we found a reasonably priced, shorter version online. We also had to order a Tripp Lite since that didn't come with the used iQ, and also a UPS. I suspect we might be buying an additional surge protector as well. I will need to sew in channels and dividers to hold my beloved SewTites Magnums, which means removing the leaders. That part won't be fun. Hopefully I'll have this thing up and running by next week. I'm looking forward to it.

My to-do list feels somewhat insurmountable right now. It looks something like this:

• make 15 guild items (secret)
• bind one client quilt
• keep up with quilting workload
• figure out what to do with sloper for class/attend live class later today
• tighten elastic in tiered gingham skirt & hand sew shut the weird waistband gaps
• make progress on Forever Neverland quilt
• table runner?
• figure out fair entries (I have two weeks.)
• make progress on race car quilt (I have like 12 days to get this done before I need to do the OMG link up post.)
• mend shorts
• find & apply correct fertilizer in vegetable garden
• weed all three flower gardens--my foot and the rainy weather are slowing me down
• figure out how and where to transplant things I want to keep from the upper garden to prepare for porch repair
• continue to work on business website issues
• make muslin of shorts pattern to see if they fit/if so, make some shorts (Why are all the shorts I see this year so short--like 3" inseams? I'm too old for that.)
• continue working on things needed to set up second longarm & iQ

Besides doing all the tournament prep and resting my foot as much as possible, I made a small amount of progress on my Forever Neverland quilt kit. As you can see, I have three blocks totally sewn. I have the HST sewn for the rest, but still need to cut and trim them prior to assembling the blocks. The prints for these blocks are mostly directional, so I've been trying to make sure to orient things correctly.

I added a few more rows to the knit blanket I shared last week. No picture because it looks just about the same. I now have 5/12 rows done.

I quilted Tina's quilt with Paw Prints. I fully bound this one.

I quilted Kristie's quilt with Boho Boxes.

I quilted Sherri's quilt with small-scale Ginger Snap and will be making and applying bias binding to this quilt.

My hummingbirds are finally starting to come in to the feeder. So is this woodpecker. LOL

May was a challenging month. I didn't think I'd have any progress to share for this month's PHD update, but I pulled off a finish at the last minute.

Linking with Ms. P Designs PHD

I added one project, a Forever Neverland panel quilt. 

I have made no progress on items 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10. 

I added two sets of borders to project 11, the race car quilt. It still needs two more sets of plain borders and a pieced block outer border. 

I did finish item 9, one clothing item. I made the Caprice Skirt from Love Notions. This pattern has lot of options. I made view D, the tiered skirt (center skirt in bottom row).

My fabric ended up being more challenging to work with than I'd anticipated--it is a poly/cotton poplin blend. I keep thinking of Maria making the kids clothes from the curtains in The Sound of Music. 😆 Part way through construction, I actually thought that the skirt wouldn't fit at all and I was not feeling happy about it. My measurements easily fit in the size I made and the finished measurements were adequate, but it looked small. To be sure, I basted the sides and tried it on and it fit. So I continued. 

This skirt has pockets. I found the pocket position and the finished area a bit weird. Love Notions patterns are tested pretty extensively, so maybe I misunderstood or missed something? I don't know. Something isn't right.

There is a gap in the waistband above the pocket on each side. You can stick your finger in there. I'll need to hand-sew these openings shut.

I also added a partial slip using rayon challis and Sew Mary Mac's instructions. I found the challis hard to cut out. It's pretty stretchy. It held a press really well though. 

The skirt fits. It's not the most flattering thing. I need to make the elastic in the waistband smaller; it's way too loose right now. That might help. I think I would look better in a skirt that doesn't have a seam right at my hips. I also wonder if the challis slip is adding to the bulk in my already pudgy tummy area. Maybe it's just my body. LOL. The length feels nice--not too revealing--but I think a shorter skirt might suit my build better. I have a denim jacket and some navy shoes I could add to this outfit. I'm still dealing with the foot issues, so I can only wear my tennis shoes with a carbon fiber plate added in at the moment. 

So what else have I been up to? This arrived. 

My husband found me a used intelliQuilter at an amazing price, so once we get past our last-ever robotics event this weekend (which I think we are woefully unprepared for, particularly since our team is hosting the event), hopefully we can get the second machine and the iQ hooked up and into service. 

I'm slowly making progress on client quilts. I quilted Calder on Terry's Harmony quilt. She left it up to me and I thought the curves and angles played well with the piecing and fabric. 

I quilted Cakewalk on Marilyn's Star Pop (by Quilty Love) quilt. 

         

She picked Midsummer Dream and requested thread to match her dark green fabric on her Knitted Star quilt. Have you ever pieced one of Lo and Behold's patterns? I haven't, but I've quilted several. They look challenging!

Jae decided on In the Swirls for this bargello quilt. 

My daughter has recently picked up crochet after we bought her a Woobles kit in the Jo-Ann's clearance sale. Here is her first project.

She bought a second clearance kit and successfully finished that. 

I sent her several Amazon knock-off kits and those aren't going as well. The thread snips that were included in one of the kits look nice but don't actually cut. The instructions aren't as good as the Woobles kits. Oh well, gives her something to complain about. 

Anyway, she inspired me to get out my knitting bag and start working on this baby blanket again. We all laugh about this project any time it resurfaces because it was originally intended to be a gift for a co-worker's first child. I saw there was no way I'd get it done in time and made a quilt to gift instead. We think the child is eight or nine now! 😂

I did end up going to the orthopedic walk-in clinic to get my foot check out last week. The provider I saw thought it was a repetitive motion injury. I have to wear the carbon fiber insert I mentioned above in my tennis shoe to stabilize my foot (and wear shoes all day). They referred me to podiatry. I took the next available appointment, which is in late August. 😒 I really hope this thing heals up well before that. I'm trying to take it easy, but I am really missing my nightly walks. I walked 7.64 miles less than normal last week. It will be worse this week. 

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.