Charity Quilt Week 2 - Day 7
Oh the irony.
Today is the last day of my two weeks of focused charity quilting - when I was pushing hard to get a lot done.
I was only going to be able to work til about 11:00 am and then need to take a long, long break as I had to go with my friend (who has cancer) to the hospital for physical therapy. I didn’t know how much time I’d have at the end of the day - probably a bit of time, but the heart of the day was taken.
I was going along smoothly, thinking if I was careful, I should be able to have a bumper day in spite of the fact that a lot of it would be gone. It was time to “reap a good result!” A REALLY good day!.
Then I had another issue with my machine - This time it’s all my fault. I admit that.
I had decided that now was a good time to go through my bobbin case and pull out some bobbins that I could use up as they were random colors.
I put quite a few of them on top of my machine in a sort of indented area.
One of them had a piece of thread hanging down and it was sucked into the gears as I started to sew.
The machine made an awful sound and I stopped. I turned it off and then back again and tried to turn the hand wheel (at this point I didn’t know what had happened).
It didn’t want to turn easily. Then I checked out what was going on and found that a piece of brown thread that had been wound on a bobbin had apparently been sucked into the area where there are some little vents. My fault. I let that thread hang down over the side.
Grrr.
Progress halted immediately.
I started to take the side off my machine and then stopped.
I had second thoughts. My husband wasn’t around and this is a Janome 8900 and it’s working better than ever - ever since i bought it - the last time to the repair shop they really did finally fix it (had to replace a major part underneath the bobbin area) - and I didn’t want to ruin that.
So, I put the side back on that I was starting to take off and I felt like crying.
I was trying so hard to get as much as I could done in these 14 days.
I decided to send it to the shop and let them open the side and take that piece of thread out. I have no reason to think I did any damage to the motor - as I stopped when I heard the sound - truthfully, the machine stopped - I couldn’t sew anymore - but I didn’t try to force the issue, either.
So…not sure if you are keeping up with my machine saga, or maybe I haven’t told you - but I had sent both my Janome 12000 and the Janome 1600 QCP to the shop. They had told me the 1600 needed a new motor and it would take 100 days to get the motor from the factory. The 12000 was at the shop but being adjusted for embroidery as well as the sewing (it probably isn’t anything major). Those are my major machines. This one was my Janome 8900 - the last sewing machine I had in my room.
Hmm.
Obviously I wasn’t going to do any more sewing unless I went to the church building and brought home one of the Pfaff hobby ones that I have bought for using with the classes I hope to offer. Going back to a light weight hobby style machine after using one of these workhorses isn’t going to be easy, let me assure you!
To summarize - all sewing stopped for the day! I got ready to go with my friend and tried not to think about it.
So………
These are what I managed to finish up:
Toggl said I only actually worked 3 hours, 5 min today on sewing tops.
The reason I have this many is because I had finished up 4 after I took yesterday’s pictures. Then I finished up 5 this morning. I was actually hoping for a “bumper” day of finishes. :( Oh well. It’s life. I wanted to get closer to being able to focus on those solids with shadows.
Here are the piles of finished tops:
And the totals:
Did you add that up? Getting there….
As of right now I need to order more red, royal blue, navy blue and black (solids). Blenders, as you know them, don’t really exist here, so solids are the best option.
So, I as I think about what I can do while I wait for my big machines back, these are some possibilities;
I need to:
Prepare backings
Cut and prepare 20 more tops - mostly these are centers that Fran has made - for putting together
Take inventory of my solid squares and get 12 of each color ready to go.
Clean up my sewing room.
Clean up my sewing room some more. It kind of looks like a hurricane in there.
Clean up my sewing room some more.
Clean up my sewing room. Yeah. It’s that bad.
Embroider some labels. I could do that with my lone Janome machine left in my sewing room.
So now you know. I managed to finish up 96 tops - of course, you know by seeing what I’ve done that I actually didn’t MAKE those tops that Fran did - just added borders to them. It took about 30 min to 45 min. of sewing to get one of those done. Plus cutting. Sometimes the decisions about what fabrics to add as borders took a while. Obviously, also, I did not actually make the tops that other people sent me.
So what do I really think about this enforced cessation of progress?
Part of me is RELIEVED! I’ve had my nose to the grindstone for the last 14 days - literally.
My left thumb is sore.
I think it is because of how I hold the ruler as I cut. I NEED a break.
There is a reason the Lord built in a day of rest 1 out of 7 - and I’ve not been doing that - and frankly, my hands, especially my left one, have needed it.
So, actually, after my initial frustration at not being able to get closer to my goal - I knew I wasn’t going to actually HIT the goal of 120 finished tops - I took to heart what I already knew - and that none of this was a surprise to God, and while it was my stupidity that caused the machine to eat the thread, it was really for the best.
Seriously. My hand needed a break.
All the name brand selvages that I’ve been using lately. The close ups will be at the end of the post for your enjoyment.
This post is getting long enough, however, so I’ll stop for now. Obviously, this isn’t really the “end of the story”.
Check back tomorrow -
I’m hoping to show you the fabric I bought from two Polish sources primarily for backings.
The selvage close ups!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!
Price is by the Yard.