Stories from the Sewing Room

Things seem to be calming down a bit. Now that I've typed that out, I've probably jinxed us. lol

I've finished the chicken cross stitch. The pattern is from The Geeky Stitching Co. I will wash this and then get it mounted in a decorative wooden hoop. 

I finished assembling the Ghostie Girls runners over the weekend. 

I quilted them on Monday. I chose the Identity design for both and used 60 wt thread so that it was very fine. I wanted it to look wispy.

I need to make and attach the binding.

I made and attached the binding to Range. It needs to be stitched down on the back. 

Jimothy is ready to be quilted. You can barely see them in the lower left, but I have the two back panels made too. Usually when I quilt a pillow I use muslin on the back since it won't ever show, but since I still have a ton of this Debbie Mumm print left, I decided to use that instead. 

I have not made progress on BOOtiFall. I have not yet started fitting my dress bodice. The dress really needs to be the priority, but I hate falling behind on the quilt along.

I've been trying to keep up with my quilting queue. The logistics of keeping everyone happy, hitting my quilting date estimates, trying to avoid machine issues, and hoping the batting I ordered multiple weeks ago that I need now shows up soon has been interesting.

I finished the last of Cathy's quilts, quilting this one with Denali. She had provided me with a standard larger spool of variegated Aurifil, only it was a shiny poly and a thick, 37 weight (Glide is 40 wt, So Fine is 50wt). It doesn't appear to be made anymore. It looks white in my picture, but it was the teal/green, some blue, and some purple. Once I got everything adjusted correctly, it stitched beautifully.

I quilted Brenda's Labyrinth quilt with Ruby Queen. This is for one of her grandsons and he chose the quilting design.

I did semi-custom quilting on her tree skirt. I quilted four of these back in 2021 for her sisters and so it was really easy to pull up the files from that and plop them into place. In fact, it took a lot less time to quilt this one than it did to do Labyrinth. In case it doesn't show, there are feathers in the stars and cross hatch on all the red.

Elizabeth selected Modern Organic for her Highland Coo. We decided on a fairly small scale and my machine was not happy about it. 

I'm kinda wondering if I need to replace the hook since I've been having odd issues with thread and tension that don't seem to have any other cause. (APQS service thinks things are great, I don't. 🤷🏻‍♀️) I ordered a new hook, along with a hook retaining finger. The hook can be a wear part and it would typically be replaced along with the thread path parts as a "mini spa" service. I've replaced the pigtails as needed and also the tension assembly already, so might as well go on and do the hook too. Goodbye, money. 💸 Really though, I'd rather spend a smaller amount on the hook rather than the $2500 spa service. 

Back to the quilts, Teah selected Grandmother's Bubbles for this quilt.

She requested Matchless Orange Peel for this one. Guess what? Turns out matchless isn't so true. 😒 But I'll get there. It will just take a lot longer than I anticipated. 

I had a bit of a surprise last week when I was struggling to get a new needle threaded. I think this is the first defective needle I've had.

My son had fall break Friday, so I picked him up and took him to vote. We then picked up my sewing machine since it is near the early voting building. It cost $40 for the repair--the repair guy replaced the pre-tension disks with a donor from a similar vintage machine for $10 and the rest was labor. I mentioned last week that I was sewing on my 430. My main squeeze is a 440 and we bought the 430 back in 2020 as a backup and so that we had parts if need be. So far they have had parts available when (rarely) needed. 

We have some pumpkin vines growing under the hummingbird feeders in the front garden. I doubt these or the one growing on the rock wall in the back will have any pumpkins grow, especially since we have frost danger forecast for this weekend. Can you see the yellow pumpkin flower? I think it's time to bring in and disinfect the feeders for the year as well. 

I also need to make time to start clearing out my gardens. Everything in its time, I guess. Until next week--

It's that time again. What will you choose for your focus this month?

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

I have multiple projects that need attention this month.

1. the Ghostie Girls table runners

2. keeping up with the BOOtiFall stitch along

3. working on the toile for the dress I need to have done for November

4. binding Range

5. continue making progress on cross stitch project

I'm hoping to get the runners finished since they are for Halloween, but I will be happy with any amount of progress on any of the projects. Sorry no pictures. Life is a bit sideways. You can see all the projects on yesterday's post.

It's time to review my PHD progress. 

Linking with Ms. P Designs' PHD project

In September I did not complete anything. I started two new projects, the Jimothy paper-pieced pillow cover and the Krista Moser BOOtiFall quilt along.

Jimothy is entirely pieced and awaiting my daughter's next visit so that she can decide on quilting and pillow finishing techniques. I expect this to be a fairly quick October finish.

I bought a kit from Krista Moser to make her BOOtiFall pattern. The purchase came with a free class/stitch along. I watched last Tuesday's class and started working on it over the weekend. The pattern is well-written and the parts are going together well, but it is A LOT of work. I am not yet done with week one and week two was published yesterday. Here's my progress on week one. I was supposed to make two full and two half blocks of each color way. I have no blocks so far. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I made a small amount of progress on August's new start, the Ghostie Girls table runner. I'm making two. It doesn't look like much yet. I'm hoping another hour or two will get the tops done.

As far as my actual PHD list, the only thing that has had any progress is the Range quilt. It is fully quilted and awaiting binding. I need to decide what fabric I'm using for binding since I'm not sure I want to commit to the original plan of royal blue.

The other thing I've been working on this month is actually a half-done project, but it wasn't included on my list. I've been working on a cross stitch project and made a good amount of progress. 

I've been studying how to start addressing my fitting issues with the Cashmerette patterns I own since I need to make a dress to wear to a wedding in November that has a specific dress code. I need to make a mock up of the bodice. I know how important it is, but it feels so wasteful when I'm working on a knit mock-up/toile because there really isn't much very inexpensive knit fabric out there these days. The planned dress is made with ponte and that definitely isn't cheap. 

I need more hours in my days. September has felt like a real struggle, ending with a real kick in the pants yesterday (more at the bottom). I'm finally starting to feel healthier after last month's bout of Covid. The brain fog is lessening, but still lingering. I have more tasks to complete than feels remotely possible. It's hard to prioritize what to do. I usually put work first to avoid letting anyone besides myself down (Plus, you know, money). Then I feel upset that I can't take care of the housekeeping and yard work to the standard that I want. And I feel a bit sad that I don't have enough time to do my own projects. I've been trying to set aside some weekend hours to sew, but like I said, the struggle is real. 

If you're reading this and you'd be willing to take over hosting One Monthly Goal for 2027, I would be most appreciative.

Okay, so moving along to the quilting I did last week, I completed five quilts. The first one belongs to Sara. She picked Scramble.

Next is another of Jeri's quilts, quilted with Fusion.

I bound one of her quilts from last week and have three more to go.

I quilted Midnight Sparkle on both of these quilts from Cindy.

Cindy wanted Peace quilted on this one.

Moving along, we found a good sale on pears, so we bought five pounds to can. This is the first time I've ever had a canning failure--one lid did not seal. We opted to just put them in the fridge and eat them right away instead of trying to seal it again. I think I might have overfilled that jar. I was working alone and trying to rush a bit and I just didn't get them divided into the jars equally. And now I know what happens when you do that. I can say that the pears we ate were really good, so the four jars that did seal will be yummy.

Over the weekend I washed the front door. I also vacuumed all the window screens, cleaned all the windows (on the inside), dusted some of the walls, and vacuumed blinds and light shades. It took way longer than I expected, so I didn't get much sewing time. But the front door isn't quite so tragic now, so there's that. I also found out that my husband's insulation helper for the barn had to leave part way through and he did the rest totally by himself. Oops. If I'd known, I would have gone to help.

I was really surprised the other night to see what I think are two monarch butterflies on the zinnias. I haven't seen hardly any all summer. Actually, taking this picture through the screen is what prompted me to clean all the windows. 

We also made a quick trip to the orchard (not so quick since it's at least 40 miles away, but very efficient once we got there) to buy my favorite combo of Golden Delicious and Jonagold apples. No one closer sells the Jonagolds. These apples make a very nice apple sauce without needing to add any sugar. I haven't had enough time yet to to take care of these, but it will need to happen very soon. 

On the way to the apple orchard, we saw this gem. Sorry it's so pixelated. I had to zoom way in because they were driving faster than we were. 

Yesterday my day started with getting a water bill that was double what I expected. I wondered if we had a leak. After logging in to the utility website, I discovered that the payment I sent electronically via my bank was apparently not received by the utility, so the bill was for two months plus a $1.95 late fee. The employee at the water utility had only been on the job for a week and was trying to tell me that my check was lost in the mail. ?? I paid electronically and the bank sent it electronically. The bank thinks there may have been an issue with the Bill Pay service. I suspect the real issue was at the water utility since I've never had an issue with it in all the years I've been using Bill Pay. Plus I found out at least two other people had the same issue with their bills too. It is not yet resolved. While I was on the website, I noticed that the current fee to get a water meter is over $2500. We definitely won't be getting a meter for our garden on our spare lot. Geez.

It's time to share your September progress.

This link up will remain open until September 30 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal for September was to quilt my Range quilt. I'm pleased to say that after a weekend spent quilting, I was successful.

I decided to try something new and change threads as I went down the quilt. I pulled out these eight threads to match my fabrics. I only ended up using six of them, omitting Rock Navy and Blizzard. I used only white thread in the bobbin.

The quilting design, Rich Girl, has eight lines per design unit. I did split out one of the lines to change the color sooner, but overall I just went with where it felt right to make the transition. I split the quilting over two days. I've tried to photo each of the transitions, but the pictures didn't turn out very well. It's been very dark and gloomy the past few days. Only the bottom picture with the backing is the correct color.

Now I need to decide what to use for binding. I have the Royal Blue set aside, but I think maybe it's too dark for the upper half of the quilt. It's color number six of eight as you progress down the quilt. It's the bottom blue on the picture right above with the backing. Which color would you use?