Stories from the Sewing Room

Friends, it's been a crazy ride around here. I've been feeling like I can't catch up or keep on top of anything in my life. I was toying with the idea of adding another machine to try to keep up with the workload better. I don't have space or really enough money, but I found a used Lucey on Facebook that had the specs I wanted (minus an IntelliQuilter). My husband negotiated the price, we loaned my business a bit of money to cover what I was short, and we drove to South Carolina over the weekend to pick it up. It's two years older than my current machine, but in really good shape. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds to add a computer right now, so it hasn't truly solved anything. I'm planning to quilt my own tops with it for now. This was a giant leap of faith. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Pray for me. 

My husband built a big, fancy box to transport the table in. I laughed when I saw it because it looked like a giant coffin. We wrapped the box in a new tarp. We had rain part of the trip down and most of the trip back. The machine stayed dry. We transported the table ends and the machine head in the car. 

He made special channels for the bars. Then there was a platform that the rest of the table laid on before closing up the box. We used plumbing insulation to protect the bliss rails on the table. It worked great. 

We got home quite late Saturday night, maybe 11 or so. We were working to unload everything, wanting to make sure nothing had gotten wet. I was in the house, went out to check what he was doing, and he told me he was pretty sure he heard small-caliber shots. 😦 He also saw a police car driving around, shining a light into everyone's yards. I also saw the police and lights. It freaked me out. We made sure the kids were safe in their beds, locked up, and went to bed. 

In the morning, there was a post on our neighborhood Facebook page that teenagers were trying to get into people's houses on one street, shots were fired reportedly at the other end of that street, police were called, and someone's Ring footage was turned in to the police as evidence. What no one is answering is whether the teens were from our neighborhood, who fired the shots, and were the teens really trying to break in or just goofing around knocking on doors (brave if they were, given people's propensity for firing shots). So now our feeling of security--we've been here 13 years with only minor incidents--has been shaken. Do I need to worry about random teens or worry about being shot? I have very little of material value (can they steal a heavy longarm?), but I have people that are irreplaceable. 

We also discovered in the morning that somewhere on the trip back home we lost one of the trailer tail lights. Like it fell completely out. Oops. 

Oh, we stopped at Buc-ees on our way down. It was the first time we'd been there. Please, someone explain why it has a cult following. 

Last week we discovered that we need to replace the front porch sooner than later. We've known since construction that issues were likely. We unfortunately hired an inept concrete person. He neglected to add in the rebar we'd left for him and the porch has been slowly sinking ever since (around 13  years). We did a temporary fix in the before-times where they drilled holes through the top and added some special cement to raise it up some. Anyway, I had noticed there was a spot on the trim in the corner near the door that looked dirty and I couldn't dust it off. My husband looked at it and said that it was drywall mud and the corner was damp. We've been having so much rain this spring, and though we are constantly sweeping the puddles away from the house, the water is still pooling a bit and starting to get in. So we have to figure out how to remove the columns, support the roof, tear off the siding, bust up the existing porch, and then redo everything. The hope was to put it off until next summer, but the time is now. 😫 This picture is the most recent I could find that shows parts of the porch--didn't wanna run outside in my pajamas to grab a new picture this morning. It's from 2020, back when my yard and garden were mostly under control and looking nice. There's one more column to the right. The porch runs along the entire front part. 

Meanwhile, my daughter's lease is up in a few months and her landlord sent her the new terms and that's been a source of anxiety for her. There was a rate increase and the loss of garage parking privileges. We're trying to work through that with her. Right now we're back to the original rent but with no garage. She likes living there, so we will deal. I guess.

I was really hoping to have some sewing to share. I've barely touched my own sewing in probably a month. I have most of the pieces cut for block five of the Free Block Friday sampler I've been slowly making progress on. 

I'm keeping up with the Cashmerette sloper class so far. Last week we had to submit our measurements and what sizes we thought we were for review. 

This week's assignment is to print out and assemble our pattern pieces. We have to submit photos of the pieces to make sure we've done them correctly. I have to grade in from my waist to hips on my pieces. I have about an hour of videos to watch before I do that. I'll be doing lots of cutting and taping. 

I had my large quilt guild meeting last night, have my small guild meeting Friday, and large guild sew day on Saturday. I'm hoping to attend the sew day, but I am so far behind with yard work, I don't know. I really miss sewing though. 

I'm doing okay at keeping up with my quilting work. I completed four quilts. The first one belongs to Linda. Most of the pictures came out with odd coloring, so here's the whole thing, quilted with Ground Cover. 

The picture of Deb's quilt on the frame is missing, so again, full shot. She selected Cassava for her quilting. 

Barb decided on In the Swirls for her quilt.

And Charlene picked Julie's Chicken Wire for her chicken quilt!

Out in the vegetable garden, we now have a gate. It's pictured here in progress. I hope he's made it tight enough to keep rabbits out. Squirrels can get in regardless. 

The peas are doing really well, we have asparagus coming up, and some of the carrots, beets, and kale have germinated. I'm not seeing any signs of lettuce. That is worrisome. I love fresh lettuce.

I'm growing Guelph Millennium asparagus. The stalks are about 1/8" across. It's amazing how quickly they came up and went to fern stage, maybe a matter of a week and a half?

My husband has placed rocks on the slopes on two sides of the garden. These are all rocks that came out of our basement during construction or out of the trench from putting in the barn electric line last year. We're going to plant pumpkins in the front along that bank and I want to try sunflowers on the side (pictured here). 

Lots of things are blooming in my yard right now. The weeds are also rampant! We've had so much rain everything is shaggy. Anyway, the Immortality irises are blooming, as is this mystery variety in the side yard.

A couple of the clematis are blooming. Sorry, I don't remember the names of these.

This clem is covered in buds. 

Once I get a minute this week, I need to transplant my tomatoes out to the garden and sow the warm weather seeds. Only half of my bell peppers germinated, so I replanted a few more Sunday. You might be able to tell one only grew lots of mold. Yuck.

I hope you find lots of time to take care of yourself and do something you love. 

Linking with Quiltery and Alycia Quilts.