Sewin' up a storm

 I've been quilting A LOT in the past month or so.  I don't know whether people feel sorry for us because of our job situation, or whether it's a blessing from heaven, but whatever the case I've taken a lot of local quilts lately. Most of them needed to be done for a graduation, or a wedding, so they had to be done right away.

I was doing pretty good at keeping up with the house (gotta have it ready to show at a moments notice...) and    getting some quilting time in each day, when I got to the end of this one:

This is the bottom right hand corner.  It's hard to see in the picture, but I had about six square inches of quilting left, when I ran out of bobbin thread....grr.  I took the bobbin out, wound some more thread, and that's when I heard it:

CLUNK.  

GRIND.  

HALT. 

and PING (broken needle flying across the room).

Did I mention that I had two more queen sized quilts that needed to be finished within the next 36 hours?  for a wedding? and the closest place to have my machine serviced was over 3 hours away? yeah.

My timing was shot to he!l, the rocking finger was facing the wrong direction, and my hook assembly was off by more than 1/4 inch.  I've had a few mechanical problems with my machine before, but never anything like this, and never so many vital things at once.

I waited (somewhat patiently) for Todd to come home, and pulled out my maintenance DVD.  We watched the appropriate sections, and then watched them again. I was still trying to wrap my head around the mechanics of it all when a lightbulb went on in Todd's head.

He was awestruck at the way the thread was pulled around the bobbin case, and the rocking finger moved out of the way to let the thread pass through, and then pushed the case to allow the thread through the top.

I was awestruck that he could grasp it all, and knew exactly what to do to time my machine.   He walked in, grabbed a screwdriver and went to work, and within a few minutes my machine was back in business.

I never could have done it without him, and I have to say (now that it's over) it turned out to be kind of fun.  Next time we're looking for a cheap date, I'll have to remember my Gammill maintenance video ;o)

 Thanks, Todd.  You're my hero. 

I was able to get the next two quilts finished, and then I threw in this tablerunner that I made for a store sample:

I have four more quilts to finish, and then I hope to start packing up our house. We still don't have an official offer, but we've got a few people interested so I'm going to start packing in an "act of faith". I really, really, really want to move before school starts...

Easter 2011

We had a simple, but wonderful Easter this year.  Our bishopric's wives spoke in sacrament meeting and did a wonderful job.  I left church feeling even more hope and peace in our current situation.

The easter bunny came after church and left our kids more than they usually get in their baskets, but he couldn't pass up those $6 Harry Potter movies at Target.

I made Justin (basket on the right) a "Peep Plushie" using this pattern. As a fellow crafter, I felt an ethical obligation to make it, since someone went to all the trouble to figure it out and post it online for free.

We divided into teams (boys against girl) and tried to make as many words as we could using the letters from EASTER SUNDAY.  The girl (me) won by a landslide :o)

Nate and Erin came to dinner, and we ate a spiral-cut ham, twice baked potatoes, steamed carrots, deviled eggs, Jell-O eggs, rolls, and carrot cake.

Next time you're in line at the grocery store...

Next time you're in line at the grocery store,

pick up the Spring 2011 edition of Quilts and More 

and turn to page 32 to see a quilt that I quilted for Vanessa!

It's called Little Sprouts.

Here it is--pretty cute, huh?

On page 88 you can see this argyle quilt that I helped figure out the measurements on.

My friend Becky quilted this one.

The next edition of this magazine will have another quilt that I quilted. There is also a new Moda Bake Shop book that has a quilt in it that I quilted.  I'll post a picture when I get my hands on the book.