Solutions

Good morning, my friends. How is everybody doing today? My yesterday amounted to one frustrating day of sewing. Fortunately, I believe I have things sorted out now, and today should go better...right after I mop the floor. I'm not including floor-mopping in the "better day" category, but it must be done. 

Things started out okay. I spent a little extra time on the morning's slow-stitching so that I could finish off this third of seven pieces for the Girls' Getaway quilt. I think, of the seven, this one has the most stitching

After that, I took a walk on the treadmill and finished off my assigned housekeeping chores. After lunch, I went to work on the "Mosaic" piece. From the get-go, this technique has had me confused. I thought I was doing exactly what the book told me to do, following along step by step. Still, my pieces seemed to come out a mirror image of what I was going for. And this is applique, so I'm thinking somehow I'm doing something backwards. 

Mike came into the room about the time of my peak frustration, and I began to talk it through with him, reading along in the book when 

DUH!

As I started reading the instructions aloud to him, I saw instantly what I was doing wrong. I should be tracing the shapes onto the shiny side of the freezer paper, and I was doing it on the dull side. And I should have known that without being so confused. You know how it is when you think you're on the right track and you just keep getting more and more lost? Yeah...that was me. Today should be a better day. 

I was making it all work by hook or by crook. This is what I have so far (blurring a part of the image...no peeking!). 

Since I'm not very far along, I've decided to start over. As you know, I'm working from a photograph, and I wanted to change the colors of the photograph to make it more whimsical. Now, I'm thinking that's a mistake, and so I'm going to start again with colors more true to the original. Fortunately, I'm not very far along, and so we'll just think of this is practice before the real thing.

Smitty fully suppurrts this idea.

Okay, so I was too frustrated to continue on with that. It seemed like a good time to head upstairs to the quilting room and get started with the Beach Bums. I want to use a monofilament thread both top and bottom. My bobbin was nearly empty, but I started with it anyway. I haven't done any quilting on this machine for a while, and with the time change, it was fairly dark by the time I went upstairs. Usually I'm getting good light from my window, but not yesterday. It was nearly dark, and I was having a heck of a time even seeing that thread.

It was like working with a thin spiderweb. Monofilament wants to jump out of the thread track there, and so I use an alligator clip and run the thread through the opening. Since I couldn't see a danged thing, I resorted to using my headlamp. It made it a whole lot easier. Here's the same picture as above, but with the headlamp. You can see how the thread reflects the light, making it visible.

Okay, and tension is always an issue with this thin thread, but this looks pretty good.

And so I'm starting with the smallest pieces, stitching them down before they have a chance to fall off. I'm using a 60/8 needle here, and I have a splint on my left troublesome wrist. This quilt is relatively small, and so it's pretty easy to maneuver as I go. Hopefully, I can finish this project without breaking myself.

And here, you should insert at least an hour of wasted time. I ran out of bobbin thread right away, as expected. And then, I had the hardest time getting a bobbin wound. It's always hard with this thread because it's slippery, and it doesn't want to catch as the bobbin starts to spin on the winder. And a lot of other stuff happened here that I won't even try to explain, but you should know I enlisted Mike's help three times before I could get back to my sewing. 

In the end, I'd stitched the flip flops and the bag on the left, as well as a small part of the blue end of the towel. I left it needle down and called it quits on this day of sowing frustration. Yes, "sowing." It's appropriate here. While it was tempting to give this post the title of "Day of Frustration," I decided to focus on the "Solutions." Hopefully, today will go more smoothly...right after the floor is mopped.

Just now I'm heading downstairs to make our Sunday morning pancakes. I'll start stitching on the fourth of seven motifs this morning...this one:

Artisanal breads. Sounds good, doesn't it? Since we're spending the winter here at home, I might decide to get back into some bread-baking. But it's too early to be making rash decisions. I'll stick with mopping the floor and sewing for today.