Stories from the Sewing Room

I've still been on the struggle bus for getting things done. I'm just sort of in a slump. I've done basically no personal sewing over the past week. I did sew together the rows of a test quilt, but I'm not sure if I can show it yet or not.

Besides that, I have managed to work on a few quilts.

This one is Maria's, quilted with Arabesque. I also made and attached the binding to the front. She selected brown thread to match her backing.

Next is Sally's, quilted with Indigenous Circles. This is fabric she purchased around 20 years ago in Australia, so I found an appropriate design on an Australian designer's site.

I quilted Linda's tractor quilt with loopy meander. She wanted red thread to go with the tractors.

I'm currently working on Elaine's quilt. This one is full custom. I am so slow at custom. I had a ton of stitch in the ditch, which takes forever and doesn't really look like you've done anything. Plus three thread color changes. I'll end up using four thread colors once I'm done with everything.

I guess I've done more than I thought, all things considered. We were able to move things around in our upstairs living room and while it is far from ideal, it is 100 times better than it was before. 

I also have a bunch of cucumbers right now. I've already made freezer pickles. I made eight jars of sweet relish Monday and I have enough to make another eight, but I'm not really sure we need 16 jars of pickle relish. 

If anyone has tips for making edible fresh pack pickles, I'd sure appreciate tips. I've tried the recipes in the Ball canning guide and they do not turn out for me. They are usually overly salty and really mushy. Yuck. I am following the recipes to the letter and using the correct salt. I've also tried the pickle crisp additive Ball sells.

I took a few pictures around the yard the other day while waiting for my husband to be ready for our evening walk. These first couple are of one of my Rose of Sharon bushes. I'm excited this one is blooming because the critters usually eat all the buds. I was lucky enough to capture a bee at work.

This is a weed or a native flower growing in the yard next to the silt fence for the barn.

This one is out in a clump of trees on the side property. There were tons of baby sassafras trees all around.

Speaking of sassafras, the other night our young neighbors asked us if we could identify some trees with really odd berries that were growing in their yard. It turns out they were sassafras but the ones with fruit didn't have the typical leaf forms as shown above. They were almost entirely just elliptical leaves. The berries are really odd and the tips turn yellow before they drop. Don't eat them though; they are not edible! We learned all sorts of interesting things about sassafras. You should Google it if you have a few spare minutes.

It's time to set a new monthly goal. As always, I am very appreciative of Patty at Elm Street Quilts for helping me stay on track and try to accomplish anything in my sewing room. Here are some of the options I have.

1. Make a backing for last month's Tall Tales quilt. I'm planning to use my existing fabric and piece a backing. Possibly quilt and bind. I was lucky enough to win the last prize offered for the QAL!

2. Bind Flower Patch SAL.

3. Bind the pink and green baby quilt I re-did.

4. Assemble the top for my guild BOM.

5. Finish piecing Chalk. Possibly quilt.

6. Grassy Creek border.

7. Quilt & bind Gemstone test quilt.

8. Add border and quilt the art quilt.

9. Finish last two blocks from #Trending quilt.

My official goal this month is to assemble the guild BOM top. This has been hanging around since late 2020, but I couldn't actually assemble it until December of 2021 since I had to show each block individually. I have left it because it needs sashing and I don't like sewing sashing. It's time to finish it. Well, at least the top because I'm not sure if I want to custom or edge-to-edge it. My blocks are all square and I really did put them on the design wall super crookedly. Also, the background fabric is a beautiful dark blue print, not black.

Ideally I can get a few more of those things finished too, but one is enough for this month.

Meanwhile, I have an actual finish. Finally! This is my Macaron Mystery quilt from last year's Meadow Mist Designs mystery. I finished binding it the other morning while our power was out again. Anyway, I finished it just in time for the next clue in this year's Melodic Mystery that comes out tomorrow. That should be cutting. Have I ever mentioned that cutting is one of my favorite things? It is, for real. 

I only did a few quilts last week. I just couldn't get it together. 😐

Amber's Pokemon/Red Sox quilt. This has the cutest Pokemon fabrics ever!

Susan's HST quilt, quilted with Stipple. This is a multi-generational quilt which includes scraps her Depression-era grandmother couldn't throw all the way through her own scraps.  My grandparents also went through the Depression and that mentality has made its way to me on some things. We are fairly thrifty here. How about you?

I also quilted and fully bound this one for Jess.

Last week I talked about going to APQS for the maintenance class. I thought I'd share a bit about it. The class is 1.5 days, though you can stay longer the second day if you'd wish. We didn't because we had a 9.5+ hour drive and I wanted to get home that night. We got home at 1:30 am, so technically it was that night. The class is limited to 10 people. Ours had nine because someone got sick and couldn't come at the last minute. You get a printed and bound maintenance guide, some hands-on practice with some of the things, and a bag of goodies (spare parts like screws, pigtails, bobbin case, check spring, etc.

Some of the things I learned were that you should never use anything containing ammonia on the machine or table (no Windex). Use rubbing alcohol for cleaning. Only oil the wicks if they are completely dry. I have been over-oiling mine. I knew to clean and oil the bobbin area at each bobbin change, but I have not been doing that. I'm making more of an effort. Do a WD-40 bath once per week, or up to 3-4x/week if you quilt a lot. Check the motor brushes once per year and blow out that area. I only knew to do that because one of my friends shared the page in her manual that explained it (not in my manual). It's really important to put the brushes back in the correct orientation. You should also remove the top covers and blow compressed air throughout on an annual basis. How you do this depends on which generation machine you have. I have had my machine two years and this is how mine looked after two years. Pretty gross. Now I know to do it on an annual schedule.

We also learned about the importance of having a UPS on the machine. I do have one, but it turns out mine isn't powerful enough for the current generation of machines if there is a computer attached, so I will probably need to invest in a better one. 😞 💸

I purchased the adjustable handlebars while I was there. These are an option for MY19 machines. It looks like all current MY19 come with these since they were on all of the machines in the showroom. I think it looks like the machine is in a dancing pose with the way I have them configured currently. :)

I was coveting the light bars, but those are out of my price range. I'm trying to figure out an attractive way to recreate them for a much lower price point.

I mentioned the importance of cleaning and checking the motor brushes each year. My son and I had done this a few weeks before we went to the class. Mine were fine and I do use my machine heavily. I debated purchasing a spare set while I was there, but since they should last eight to 10 years, decided to wait. Got home and double-checked them while I had everything torn apart to clean. My son had put his back in the wrong way and I needed a new set. 😫 They came last week and I switched them out and put everything back together. I then cleaned and oiled in preparation for the next quilt. I was talking on the phone to my mom while oiling. I turned on the machine to let the oil cycle through and the machine sounded terrible. My mom even noticed. I couldn't figure out what it was. Finally I realized that I'd forgotten to tighten down two of the screws on the top back cover and the vibration of all the metal was the cause of the horrible noise. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ I felt so stupid. At least it was an easy fix. 

Do you remember when I talked about my king roll of Hobbs not being 120"? They had me flip it the other direction to stretch it. I got it from 115" to 117" and then it shrunk back to 116". Here is my replacement roll compared to the stubby roll!

Moving over to the garden, I had enough cucumbers to make freezer pickles. My recipe calls for a generous 16 cups and I used all but one cucumber. I forgot to take a pretty picture, but here they are, ready to go in the freezer.

Almost all my baby pears have been eaten. They are mostly just gone and the one big one had huge bites out of it. 😭

The clouds looked so weird the other night. Like a bunch of ping pong balls in the sky. My photos don't show it that well.

Finally, if you know someone who uses PremoSoft thread from Hab & Dash, I have quite a bit I'm looking to sell. Five are unused, six partially used, plus a thing of new M bobbins. I can throw in some green Super Bobs too. I just don't use it and I don't have any drawer space left for it.