The furnace to take the chill off of the house felt really good this morning. Going down into the sewing studio, it felt like someone else had started projects and then up and left them undone. It took a bit of time to realize where I had left off several weeks ago. Coffee and patience. Knowing that Dennis and I have taken care of what was best for us in our Stauffer Avenue home with the help of Kevin and Kersten, I can well take my time acclimating myself with threads, fuzz and fabric in the lower level of our home. I am not putting away the paint pail to finish up the basement stairwell, just taking a few days off.
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Noreen
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Noreen
Whoopee! What a grand feeling. I feel really good to have primed and painted our kitchen ceiling. Grammie can still do it! It did take me three days, but this cold cup of coffee I am now enjoying is the best tasting coffee ever. Time to kick back for several days and see if anyone has moved in on my sewing studio.
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Noreen
Love these cool outdoor temperatures. I could go without the drone of the air conditioner for the rest of the year. It does get a bit noisy in my sewing studio. Our sump pump has not quit running . . . since forever. Right now it is going every three to four minutes. We have an air exchanger with a charcoal filter running non stop. A dehumidifier is running in what was the old cistern, now converted to a nice closet. The height of that cistern closet is also the access to the crawl space under the bathroom. When the central air is running . . . it is just way too much going in one ear and out the other. Now, on the plus side: our basement is dry and it does not smell like a basement. In reality, the pluses outnumber the minuses. So, shut your mouth, Grammie, and be thankful that a sewing studio is in place and it is super sweet!
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Noreen
1,392
On the left shoulder, the little devil was saying, “Just leave this on the quilt. It doesn’t really matter.” On my right shoulder was the little angel named Kevin. “You are going to take the stitches out . . . aren’t you mother?” 1,392 stitches were picked out and 1,392 stitches have been put back in, in the correct spot. I do feel better. I do feel satisfied knowing that it was the best that needed to be done. When I am applying an embroidery motif, my sewing machine allows me to know how many stitches are within the pattern. Picking them out, it sure felt like more.
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Noreen
Hmm
Today I spent quite a bit of time finishing this scrappy quilt. I needed to spend time positioning embroidery motifs using the virtual positioning tool. Computer loaded designs can be manipulated not only in actual size, but can also be turned 90 degrees at a time. If, by chance, I did not get the project into the embroidery hoop at just the right angle to the dangle, I can move the needle to allow for adjustment.
. . . and then when I am multi-tasking; boiling my catheters, running a load of laundry while the embroidery machine is set to run, I run-a-muck. It is kind of like . . . measure twice, cut once and it’s still too short. No, I did not pick it out. This is me. This is who I am; striving to get it done right, but knowing I have foibles.
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Noreen
Multi-Task Gadgets
Many gadgets came with my sewing machine. One of them was to give me the option of using my knee to control my stitching rather than the foot pedal. Either my legs are too short or the table is too high, it didn’t appear that I would be making use of it so on the shelf it went. Nothing is more bothersome to have yards and yards of binding fall to the floor during the application process. It would be twisted and be a real pain for smooth sewing. Out came the knee control for the sewing machine. I stuck it into the machine just enough so it wouldn’t fall out and it has become my most favorite of gadgets. The binding doesn’t fall on the floor for me to roll over with with my sewing chair, it doesn’t get twisted and it continuously unrolls as I sew. I do so appreciate gadgets that multi-task.
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Noreen
Rainy Day Business
When I did take a peek this morning, I saw and then I heard the rain. I did decide to sleep in a bit longer. Here we are at four in the afternoon and it is thundering and . . . still raining.
Any and every color or print that can be imagined.
Not all projects out of my sewing studio are fussy. Just plain old comfort blankets can come in very handy. The plan was for straight stitching two and a half inch square over the top of this scrappy pieced quilt. Trying out a fairly simple attachment allowed for very tidy looking squares and it went quite quickly. My next plan is to use the embroidery hoop and put some fall leaves on the borders. I can tell you that this evening after supper, I will be hecking out some YouTube videos to find the best method. I have free lessons at Bird Island Bernina any time I want. It is so much easier to pull up a video; watch it, back it up, watch it again until I feel comfortable. It is very assuring that both Al and Karen are just a phone call away if something comes up on the display that looks like a bit more than I can understand; “Error 1010, machine is out of sync. Please restart your machine.” After several tries, Al can talk you through most items.
Right now I have an aunt that has made all the “high utility” quilts that her family may need. Lorraine is now making quilts that I can only classify as heirloom. The piecing is intricate and when I say I don’t do fussy, her pieces make one sixteenth of an inch look sloppy. I admire them and know that the time involved in them is extreme. I also know human nature. Perhaps those beauties will be used in a bedroom that is aired out once a year, or the recipient has no comprehension of quilt care and will see the laundry often. The third option . . . being stored because they were “too good” to use.
Dennis gave the stitching on the back of this fall looking scrappy quilt the “O.K.”.
To date, I have made no finished quilt that cannot take day in and day out use and be laundered. The secret to laundering them is to use a commercial size for the adequate whish, whish with a reasonable amount, and opting for less than more, of laundry soap. Using enough drier time to leave the quilt a bit damp and then hung over furniture or a clothesline. Leaving them very wet over a clothesline puts too much stress on the seams. As my Mom taught me; hang them over an expanse of two or three clotheslines or tenting them over the kitchen chairs. It never hurt us kids to have our lunch on the house steps if the chairs were otherwise occupied.
When I think of the poor quality of the feed sacks that were used in so many quilts that are still out there and being used today, I know the quilt store fabric used in quilts will be around long enough to get them to the Antique Road Shows in the future.
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Noreen
Check! My six month eye checkup has been taken care of. Both lenses need to be adjusted. It has been two years since the last change. No signs of cataracts. Yippee! It was hard to take that each lens was $210. Seriously, I would be hard pressed to really make it about the cost other than mentioning it. In the recent past, I have been visiting the library on a regular basis. It took several years after I had retired that reading interested me. There were way too many governmental bulletins to keep abreast of. Surprisingly, working with the embroidery aspect of my sewing is easier on the eyes than piecing fabrics for those just perfect seams to match. No matter what . . . my eyes are very precious to me.
The skies are dark today at 5:30 and the cats and kittens must feel the cooler temps as they are staying close to the porch keeping an eye on their baskets. Changing seasons is respected by all of God’s creatures.
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Noreen
Today was a day for a good old fashioned headache. I am working on a new embroidery project. Not all images that you anticipate would work can be found on one website. My all time favorite site pulls my images right into the Bernina ARTlink 7 site and then onto the USB stick. The ARTlink 7 program allows me to make the images larger or smaller and automatically adjusts the number of stitches up or down for the image to embroider to its best capacity. The alternative site downloaded as zip files that were then moved onto the USB. I also discovered the second site does not allow their images to be altered. Bummer.
I now have a sufficient number of images that I need. I did print out the colors of thread that each image needs and I will pull from what closely matches the threads I have on hand; check that off the list. This was also a bummer. Those images via ARTlink automatically allow me to know the color number of the thread I need as the machine goes through the various steps of thread changes. Yippee!
I went into my fabric store in my sewing studio and pulled the fabrics I will be embroidering on. Nothing will need to be purchased. After spending the majority of the day getting this project laid out in my mind, on the USB stick that is now loaded for the project and having the fabric laid out, my gray matter is kaput. Actually, that is a good thing. If I had a lot of “white matter” in my brain, I wouldn’t be up for this type of challenge.
God bless the ole cowboy. He has a pasta dish ready to pop into the oven for today’s supper and most likely leftovers for tomorrow evening.
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Noreen
Good bad or other, today is a quiet day for Dennis and me. Sometimes events of previous days can seem to wipe you out for the next day, or it could be that heavy wet air sucks the life out of one. I’m not sure which or both.
I am in my sewing studio and taking stock, scanning shelves to make sure I have kept things tidy in recent whirlwinds of crafting and sewing. There is nothing worse than ending up not being able to find what is needed for each task . . . because I didn’t put it back where IT belonged. I love my chair as I can swivel and take in a panoramic view.
I have had several gals in my sewing studio in the recent past and comments were made how much my area holds, but also how organized it was. There is more enjoyment out of coming down and beginning a project or picking one up where I left off than coming down to a mess. Tidy, tidy, my mantra of the day. I do pinch myself sometimes as to how well my studio has come together. Nothing fancy by any means. A dry basement with good ventilation, lots of lighting and designated areas of interest. Yes, I feel very fortunate. I am one to re-purpose, plan, and work with what I have to the max, so shopping is seldom needed before I can turn out a goodie. But . . . sometimes the trip to town just can’t be helped.