Well this morning I woke up raring to sew. I didn't waste time on breakfast or caffeine. First thing I did was throw the front door open so's I would have plenty of light to stitch by. Three cats heard the door open and decided to lay in the sun streaming into the livingroom, one on my sewing chair and another between the feet of said chair, and the third begging for rubs while standing on the back of DH's recliner. Well, this just wouldn't do. I fling open all the curtains, thus creating new choice sunbathing areas and manage to herd the first two cats out of the sewing zone while giving loads of rubs to the third one. Ah, now the sewing area is mine again.
I have three blocks already cut out for sewing and I begin on one. Several seams later I must pause to press seams and such before I can finish the first block, but I decide it would be better to sew parts of another block or two, do all the pressing at once, and then finish sewing all three. Sounds good, less time wasted going back and forth to the ironing board. So I get out the second block's pieces and set to work.
Immediately the machine refuses to play nice. Well my best bet for a quick return to sewing is to re-thread the whole machine and go ahead and take the time to clean and oil it's innards while I've got the bobbin case out. I haven't the slightest which process it needs, but curing all possibilities at once seems to make the machine happy so that is what I've learned to do. Now that's done, and I've sewn on the tester cloth, and all is right again to sew on the second block.
The first four pieces of the second block join their other halves and all is well. I take out the next batch of pieces and sew them quickly. It's a simple matter of joining squares at each end of two strips, and I'm on a roll. Lovely 1/4 inch seams. Open them and I have sewn the squares on backwards so that I have a strip consisting of one square right side up, center wrong side up, and another square right side up. The real kicker--I have made two of these strips exactly alike. Hahahaha.
I have now unsewn those funny strips and sewn them back correctly. Now it's time for pressing, but I think I'm ready for breakfast. If I set up the ironing board now the cats are likely to use it as a jungle gym whilst I'm eating so I think I'll leave it down for now.
I could have kept the whole story a secret because re-worked blocks tell no tales, but then you wouldn't have had this nice story to read today.
Tune in next time for..............More Adventures in Piecing! Debra in VA See my quilts at