A Sewing Day

We brought the rain to Hemet when we came...it never fails. I know these folks are happy for the moisture, and so we aren't complaining...much. Mike still had a few things to do in town, and so it was a good day for me to set up the sewing machine. My goal was to make a fabric postcard for my exchange partner.

I'm fairly certain my partner doesn't read my blog, and in any case, I'm not going to give you any identifying information for now.

This is an exchange organized by Elm Street Quilts. There is a tutorial provided right here. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were to provide a prompt for our exchange partner to use in creating our postcard. My partner's prompt was "Irish." The first step for me was to attempt to cut an applique shamrock. I found one online that combined the shamrock with a sort of celtic knot design, and so I gave that a try.

It didn't work very well because I didn't have a good sharp pair of scissors to work with. Still, I thought I could pull it off until I started top-stitching. Those were tight little curves and so I shortened my stitch length significantly. The fabric just frayed apart wherever the needle hit, and so that didn't work at all. Next, I went with Plan B.

Plan B was to do a straight applique, and that worked better. Still, I'm not as practiced with my travel machine as I am with Big Bertha back home, and so the buttonhole stitch top-stitching isn't done as well as I'd like. Also, I was so engrossed in the project that I neglected to take any pictures until it was finished.

My desired stitch for the outer edge was an overlock stitch, but none of the overlock stitches on my machine were going to work very well. I ended up using a closely spaced zig-zag stitch. On the back, we were to write a message. As I said, I've blotted out any identifying information.

Mine was designed to appear as if it has gone through the mail, but I'll be using an envelope to mail it to my partner. At first, I didn't like the way this hand lettering looked, but it kind of grew on me. It achieved the goal of looking as if it came through the mail. The only thing missing are the spilled coffee smudges. (Don't you think the postal workers probably read every postcard? I don't really, but it brings an image to mind...kind of like telephone operators listening in on telephone conversations back then we had "switchboards.")

So, it was a little frustrating to make it, and harder than it looks. But it's finished, and I'm happy with it. I hope my partner likes it. You can see postcards that have been mailed and received at this hashtag right here. #esqpostcardswap There are a couple of cat ones there...I wonder if one of them is for me. Mine will be going to Erik and Mae back home, and so I won't see it until we get there. I've asked Mae to take a photo for me and to send along the identifying information so that I can post it and participate in the upcoming "Postcard Parade." This has been a very fun project, and so my thanks go to Elm Street Quilts for organizing it. Also, that was my goal for this month's

and so I'll be linking up at the finish party.

That's probably the last machine sewing I'll do before we head for home. The only projects I have along with me are applique projects, and I found it difficult to do the applique top-stitching without the knee lift feature of my sewing machine back home. I finished the two big projects I wanted to finish during our travels, namely, completing the quilt top for Hocuspocusville:

Weirdly, I searched and searched on the blog for when I posted the image of this finished quilt top. I found where I posted it without the final border, but this might be the first time I've shown you the completed top, border and all. Man, I'm getting even older than I thought. How could I have missed that?

Also, the Solstice Challenge quilt top:

Both were large quilts, and I'll be sandwiching and quilting them when we get home. My other finish was this little mini quilt for the kitties:

This was from a mini block challenge by Temecula Quilt Company and it was pieced together and then quilted while we've been traveling. Now it belongs to the kitties. And this gives me a perfect opportunity to say that the Temecula Quilt Company quilt shop is on the agenda for our stay here in Hemet. We're meeting some friends in Temecula today, but the quilt shop won't be open on a Sunday. We'll do that another day. It's important to pace yourself, you know? Today we'll visit some wineries and walk around in "old town" Temecula. The weather has improved, and so it'll be a nice day for it.

Yesterday Mike and I agreed that one of the things this time in Hemet will give us is some time to settle into a routine. It's one of the things that makes traveling stressful...not being in any kind of a routine, and no prospects for it. After traveling for 7 months, we're both craving something that approximates a rut we can fall into. We're not there yet, but we're hoping we'll achieve it sometime next week when all the errands have been run, all the laundry is caught up, and things settle down a little bit.