Guard Duty

Good morning, my friends, and happy Saturday. I've realized that Saturday is probably my favorite day of the week. Generally, I give myself a day off from housekeeping chores. Ordinarily, I made breakfast for the two of us every day, but I've taken Saturday off for a long time. So, Saturday is my day to do only what I feel like doing. As you might guess, sewing is usually involved. Today I'll get in a Bowflex workout, but otherwise, it will be NBS. Maybe I'll bake some muffins. 

After writing yesterday's blog post, Sadie could barely wait for me to get started quilting.

She even turned on her lasers to give me more light.

Downstairs, Mike's 3D printer was busy printing out the next-to-the-last iteration of the "guard" for my sewing machine thread path.

As a reminder, this is the problem child he was trying to cover. If you missed my earlier post about this, it's the last place my thread must pass through before reaching the needle. Sometimes it gets tangled and wrapped around this thing and messes with my tension.

So, the guard Mike created uses the machine's own screws to attach a back plate to the body of the machine.

Then this cover snaps into place to cover the problem area.

Looking down, here's a profile view of how it looks.

The cover was intended to snap on and off, but it was a little tricky. I was a little afraid of breaking it. This morning, he made the final iteration. He refashioned the cover so that I can simply press on the center, and that makes it possible to grasp the outer edges to remove it. It's much, much easier.

And here's the profile view of how it looks now.

It's a clever design. I'm actually surprised at how well it works, although I shouldn't be. Mike has a gift for this sort of thing, and he's tenacious enough to keep trying until he gets it right. Nifty.

With that finished, I could get on with my quilting. I did these two pieced blocks and finished the broom straws.

To the right were four more pieced blocks, and that took me to the right edge of the quilt.

Here's how far I have it. The portion below the green line is finished...so about one-third of the way.

When I stopped for the day and turned off the light, I found Smitty guarding his terrortory at the top of the stairs. Sadie had her lasers turned on just in case she needed to send a quick death ray in his direction. Two can play this game. She only lets him think he's in charge. She will not be intimeowidated.

So, I left the machine needle down, and I'll stitch these two pieced blocks before making my way leftward again.

There are some pieced blocks in the middle of the quilt, and then at the left border. There are also some half-finished embroidered blocks that will get finished up today.

And today I'll get back to working on the "Seasons" quilt top. I'll be making  the "Summer Sun" block. It's paper-pieced. Get ready for whining.

If I can finish that one, I'll move on to fall's "Maple Leaf" block.

I didn't get in any slow stitching yesterday, and so I'll probably take a little extra time today. I'm working on February's block for A Year in the Garden.

So there's plenty to keep me busy this Saturday. What's going on at your place?