Stories from the Sewing Room

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 the other day. 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.