Last Friday I decided it was time to lay out the blocks for Good Fortune, the 2018 Bonnie Hunter mystery. When I picked them up I discovered that I had already laid them out into rows that were ready to be assembled. I was a mad woman, sewing since then to get this project ready for quilting.
Everything went reasonably well until yesterday. The top was completed except for stay stitching around the edge.
I substituted purple where Bonnie used blue. I really like the purple and lime green or whatever color green that is together. The orange looked great with them but I wasn’t sure about the red at first but I like it.
Tuesday evening I stopped for the day when the bobbin ran out of thread while I was working on the back. Yesterday, everything that could go wrong did. I started by cleaning out the bobbin area and putting in the next bobbin. When I started sewing the machine made horrible noises and there was an awful mess on the back of the piece. Sigh. Lock the machine, remove the plate, take out the bobbin, make sure the bobbin case is seated properly, insert the bobbin, unlock the machine and try to bring up the bobbin thread. I lost count of how many times I tried this. Each time the top thread got caught underneath the plate.
See where the brown thread is caught in front and to the right, looped around something down there? Yeah, that’s not supposed to happen. I sat there for a while brooding and cussing. I considered giving up and doing something else but I get stubborn from both sides of the family. I was determined to get it working. Eventually, it was happy with the way the bobbin case was seated and decided to make proper stitches.
Finished the seam where the bobbin ran out on Tuesday. Did the final seam for the next piece to be sewn to the back for the quilt. Then realized I had sewn the wrong ends together. Ripped that out and fixed it.
Started to pin the piece to the back. Well, crap. Apparently I misread the ruler and cut a piece the wrong size. Started ripping that out and cut a hole in the seam line of one of the pieces that wasn’t being replaced. Double crap. Now I had two new pieces to cut instead of one. Sigh. Finally got it right and got it sewn on. Now the back was done. Yay!
My signature big block back. I’ve done this for all of the Bonnie Hunter mysteries I’ve done except one. Making the big block is fun!
I persisted and got it done.
I started working on En Provence, the mystery from a couple or three years ago, again yesterday. I wound some bobbins and put a new one in. Then decided it was time to do a deep excavation to see if the missing screw would turn up. The area where the machine sits inside the table really needed cleaning. As luck would have it I found a screw. But it didn’t match the other hinge screw and didn’t really fit. Hmm. that’s odd. I put everything back and resumed sewing.
Somehow I managed to get the middle finger of my left hand under the needle while it was sewing and sliced the edge of the finger. I had always wondered how people managed to sew through their fingers. I’d never done it until I got this machine. This is the second time I’ve done this. I probably need to take for servicing now because this time the needle not only broke but the point somehow went through the plastic bobbin case. Took me a while to get that out. My large hemostat has gone missing somewhere so I had to use the tiny one. At least the needle pieces didn’t fly around like they did the first time this happened.
While I was looking inside the cover to see if I needed to rethread, what to my wondering eyes should appear but the missing hinge screw. Ok. Take out the wrong, ill-fitting screw and put the correct one in. Now I’m wondering where the other screw came from. As Gilda Radner’s character on Saturday Night Live, Roseanne Roseannadanna, said, “It’s always something.”
After all that, I finished the block I started yesterday and quit working. Probably won’t get back to the machine until Sunday. Tomorrow is sweatshop again so will be working on Ladies of the Sea or hand embroidery for Snowmen Will Melt Your Heart. Saturday I’m going with friends to the Maryland Seafood Festival at Sandy Point state park in Annapolis. The weather should be really nice. Last year it was cool, humid and drizzleish.
Tags: En Provence, Good Fortune, Ladies of the Sea, Snowmen Will Melt Your Heart
Stash Overflow 
September 5, 2019 at 9:47 pm |
Oh, Barbara, I feel your pain! I had piecing challenges with Good Fortune, too. I was tempted to call it Misfortune. And, like you, I’d never stitched through or grazed my finger with the needle. But my new machine — when I take my foot off the pedal it takes a stitch to complete. And if my finger is in the way the needle can get it. (Not all the way through, but close enough.)…..All that said, I really, really like the big block back! Have you showed it to Bonnie?
September 5, 2019 at 9:48 pm |
You clever clever girl! I love your backing idea! And I love the purple! Aren’t you glad you persisted thru every set back?!
September 6, 2019 at 3:35 am |
Lovely – but oh my what an ordeal you had! Anything and everything seemed to be ganging up against you! But I do love the purple too.
Years ago at school I ran over my index finger on the left hand – pulled it as I realised the needle could go in for another piercing. Ripped half my nail off and a chunk of skin – and ooh a bit of blood – luckily I had quite a lot of hard skin around the edge, so it wasn’t as bad as if I had soft fingers. I was probably about 13 years old at the time. No wonder I preferred hand sewing! Hope your finger is healing well. At least if you have a big bandage on there, that won’t go under the foot! Plus I think you’ve run the gamut of bad luck, so the future is looking bright!