Stories from the Sewing Room

Well. The title sums up my sewing progress this week. I had made the remaining 20 square-in-a-square blocks for the Marble Mystery quilt. They ended up too far off to salvage, so I ripped them all apart, printed off foundations, and will need to start over. You can download these foundations for free if you sign up for Cheryl's newsletter; they come in a bunch of sizes. 

Meanwhile, I've gotten my travel sewing machine, the Cotton + Steel 350, back from being serviced (I bought this used and found out after servicing that it has a really low stitch count 🎉) and given them my main squeeze, my 440, to clean. I'm sure I've sewn the 2,000,000 stitches it allows between services, but the service indicator hasn't come on since I last had it cleaned three years ago. 😕

I pulled out my 430 to use while I'm waiting on the 440. Guess I'll be getting the third machine in for service. It is making a loud pounding noise somewhere in the head if I sew faster than snail pace. I'm a bit concerned about this one.

I'm trying to make progress on my OMG--the Batesville quilt. It is slow going because it's just not an appealing project for me. I have to have it done for Sunday when the finish link up opens. I may be an incomplete this month. I've completed the sashing and first border. 

I really want to quilt my Melodic Mystery, but I haven't had enough open time in life or on the longarm to get it done. I pulled out my abandoned Nessie cross stitch and I've been working on that in the evenings. Monday night I accidentally stitched a bunch with the wrong color and had to remove it all. Oops. I think I'll have it completed tonight, or maybe tomorrow night. I'm planning to do the chicken cross stitch next. 

We made a quick trip through the Handmade Market over the weekend before going to pick up some robot parts (see below). There were lots of beautiful things on display. I purchased only this small rope bowl from a local couple. 

This Friday our robotics team is participating in (not sure if we'll be at the competing-in level, ha ha) a drone competition. This involves a balloon filled with helium that you attach to a very basic drone from a kit. I believe the only variations for the high school version are the programming and potentially adding things to the balloon. It should be interesting. Our event follows the college competition. Here is information about the competition if you're interested--there are some images of the college drones. It's gonna be an interesting day. 

I've been working extra to get things done. I hadn't planned on being away from the machine this week and I also had a bit of ripping to do last week that slowed things down a bit. Sometimes the machine just doesn't cooperate. Plus, the sooner I get everyone's quilts back to them, the sooner my vacation starts. Anyway, here are the quilts I've finished over the past week. 

First up we have two nearly identical quilts for Barbara quilted with Mouse Ears Bows/Flipped. She had Disney characters sign fabric squares instead of an autograph book. Isn't this a cute idea?!

Jess's Halloween quilt is quilted with Cobwebs. She sent along a row of large flying geese for me to piece into her wide back fabric. 

I mostly custom-quilted Margaret's quilt by hand. This wasn't totally my plan, but it's where it ended up.

Next I quilted Echo Blossoms on Cynthia's quilt. It's hard to see. 

Then I stitched Plus on Sara's quilt. I have actually made this quilt pattern before. It's the Gemini pattern from Villa Rosa. 

Marsali's quilt is stitched with Lei. 

Thanks for the comments on the plants last week. I ordered a package of white drip trays from Amazon only they ended up not being white. I may or may not send them back, but I will be adding holes to the bottoms of my pots and adding drip trays of some sort soon.

By now we are all aware that Google is setting everyone as a no-reply. If you would like me to directly reply to you, please leave me your email. Thanks!

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