Bit by Bit

Word count: 416.  Leaving off in the middle of a scene because it's meaty, conflict-filled, and I need to ruminate a few more hours on what bombshells are getting dropped in the middle of it.

I took the boys over to my parents' for a few hours today so they could play with Niecelet, who my parents care for a couple days a week, as my sister does several days of back-to-back 12-hour shifts.  It all went mostly well, until it was time for us to leave and Niecelet threw a small fit because she wanted to go home too.

I also finished the bulk of the quilting on the rainbow mermaid quilt.  I was failing at figuring out what to do for the center section, with the mermaid panel, until Wonderful Husband suggested quilting waves - literally just wavy lines - into it to simulate water currents.  Brilliant man!  So next is trimming it, making the binding, sewing on the binding, and then finishing quilting that outermost white border.

Writing, History (Horrible), and a Bit of Quilting

Word count: 531.

It's been... an eventful few days, historically.  Which have left me too stressed to write.  Let me just say that (a) I am thankful Trump's reign will be over soon, (b) I am thankful that social media platforms have finally gotten off their lazy asses and stopped promulgating his hatefulness because it's become socially too expensive for them, and (c) I hope he gets impeached again and barred from holding future public office.  He is not fit for it.

ETA: I forgot to mention the actual tears of relief/joy I cried when I learned that Georgia's races both went to the Democrats.  A nice parallel to that night I spent crying when Trump won in 2016.  Stacey Abrams and her people are amazing and incredible.

Beyond that, on the quilting front I got all the straight-line stitching done on the rainbow mermaid quilt, as well as the free-motion quilting on the red, orange, and yellow rows.  I'm a quarter of the way through the green, but stopped for the night since I don't like to be running the sewing machine while the boys are trying to sleep.  I'm still debating what to do with the center purple mermaid panel.  Outline some of the motifs?  Do clamshells?

And, there.  I have just submitted my first set of pages to my writing class in... well, ages.  Since before we moved, certainly!  See, this writing resolution is a good thing for me.

Tuesday Report

Ugh.  No word count today.  I did finish the library book I was reading (Hope on the Inside, by Marie Bostwick - quite good, though I'm not sure if it's one I'll be purchasing a copy of) and I also worked through the 35 pages of editing my classmates' writing for class tomorrow night.

I finished stitching the binding down on the wallhanging, and started the straight-line quilting for the rainbow mermaid quilt, though I didn't even get one full round done.

Mostly, though, I was being mama today, and herding children.  To get up, to get dressed, to eat, to get to the school bus, to do their online lessons, to go to their vision appointment, to finish their online lessons...

...and now, rather than staying up writing, I am going to herd myself into going to bed only half an hour late.

'Night, y'all.

Stitch By Stitch

 Word count: 501.

No pictures today, I'm afraid, as all my stitching was sitting on Squiddle's bed and hand-sewing the binding for the wallhanging down.  I'm... somewhere between half and three-quarters done.  Given Squiddle has his first vision therapy appointment tomorrow, I'm guessing I'll finish it in the office during that, maybe?  Still need to do hanging sleeves and a label, though.

My fingers started cramping up during the sewing, though, so I went out into the garage in search of my binding clips.  Found them in only the second box I tried!  But that prompted some further deboxing and fabric consolidation this evening, while the rice for dinner was soaking.  I got four boxes sorted and flattened, as well as three others that had been hanging around out there, empty.  But I counted all the totes of fabric I have, and... way too many.  Fifteen.  No buying fabric this year!  Only basting spray.

The One That Got Away

Word count: 692.

I didn't get much sewing done today, because it ended up being a non-rainy afternoon, so I did some gardening.  I got the tulips my neighbor gave me a couple months ago finally planted in the rhubarb bed, and I took the strawberry runners I've been rooting and planted them, turning last year's tomato bed into next year's strawberry bed.

I did, however, get the label written out and attached for the rainbow mermaid quilt!

So now that's ready for quilting.

But today's story, however, is about what happened a week ago today!  I had gone up to Port Orchard, to find more of the green fabric for the rainbow mermaid quilt at JoAnn Fabrics.  And since I was there and it's very close by, I popped into Goodwill.  Where there was this:

A Singer 27, in a seven-drawer cabinet.  I checked the drawers and they were empty - no sign of the missing front slide plate or bobbin shuttle.  A moderate amount of wear on the table and on the decals.  But both the machine and the treadle moved freely, and more importantly, when I checked its serial number, it dated to 1894.  A 126-year-old sewing machine.

It was $100.  Not out of budget.  But did I have space for it?  Where would it go?  I walked away and debated and agonized on it for three days.  I arranged to meet up and go thrifting with my mother and sister on Tuesday, and told myself if it was still there, I would get it.

They got to the store first, and were going to place a hold on it for me.  But as they walked in, a sales ticket was being written up for the machine.

Beaten by ten minutes.

So, the one that got away. *points up at post title*

I'm a little wistful about it, but not crushed.  If it was meant to be, someone else wouldn't've been ten minutes faster.  (Still, sewing on something that old would have been awesome!)

And I'm thinking about where I could put the treadle I do have, so I could finish converting the Singer 201 in it to treadle-ability, and sew on that.

WIPs

Today's word count: 605.

When I got up this morning, during the quiet hour and a half before anyone else rose, I worked more on quilting the wallhanging.

I was having some bobbin tension issues, so eventually I tried to tighten the bobbin case screw, only to find that the (gun) screwdriver kit I have for sewing machine maintenance did not have anything tiny enough for the bobbin screw!  So I rummaged through Wonderful Husband's office, since I knew there's a glasses repair kit in there somewhere.  However, as he's been doing a massive clean and tidy in there this week, I couldn't find it.  But I did find a box cutter, which I made work.

I got all four of the fancy feather wreaths with corner swirlies done, and straight-line quilting in the borders.  Ran out the first thread spool of the year, and changed to a new needle at the same time, since I could hear that the one on the machine was dulling.

And I got the wallhanging trimmed, and the binding sewn on.  I must say, my usual method of machine-stitching the binding on both sides goes faster, but I suppose I wanted a finer finish on this?  In any case, I only stitched one length of thread down because it occurred to me that it might be a good project to do while sitting in Squiddle's room and silently keeping him on target for schoolwork this week.

And I got two more blocks for the Vintage Valentine done.  Since there was a bit of red binding left over from the wallhanging, I tossed it into the mix.  I think it works well on that upper block.

Next, I reset my machine and start in on the baby quilts!

Pink? Pink? Well, what's wrong with pink?

Writing, day 1: 565 words.

I didn't stay up until midnight on New Year's.  I do remember waking up briefly when Wonderful Husband came to bed at 12:03, but, really, I chose sleep and chipping away at my exhaustion over listening to another hour of people shooting off fireworks.

When I got up, I fed the cat, let the chickens out, and got the Christmas wallhanging basted.  I then spent a fair amount of the morning doing cleaning - getting the kitchen back in shape, and sorting and returning to the boxes in the garage all the fabrics I've allowed to build up in my sewing space while working pedal-to-the-metal on Christmas quilts.  I folded and stowed the ironing board, since I won't need it for a bit, and set up a small ironing space atop one of my sewing desks instead.  There is ever so much more space now!

January's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is pink!  So I've decided to use up some tiny scraps that I got from Quilters By The Bay's last in-person sewing session:

I'm using them to make Temecula Quilt Company's Vintage Valentine!  I got the first two tiny blocks done this afternoon:

I also pulled out my stainless steel kitchen bowls and found three that worked for outer, middle, and inner markings for feather wreaths on the Christmas wallhanging.  So that got marked and I've got one quilted so far... we'll see if I do any others tonight.