Some fun, some not so fun

This weekend, I started off by replacing the gears in my Mom’s sewing machine.  That went pretty well.  The guy in the video did it all in 15 minutes.  I replaced the gears in 1 hour…but it took 4 additional hours to time the machine and get it stitching correctly again.  Grrrr.  But, overall, a good sense of accomplishment.  At some point, I’ll get it back in it’s cabinet and will have an additional machine for sewing. 

But, most of the three day weekend was spent on the show quilts.  I’m not holding up to the pressure very well.  It was a comedy of things going wrong and that was just frustrating the pee out of me.  My only consolation is that I’m writing down the instructions so I don’t have to have such a frustrating experience again.  It’s all those final details…the fancy labels and the fancy transport bags and all that is getting to me.  I should just go plain.  But, we all know I won’t.

Anyway, on Sunday, Barbara Brackman released the August Civil War block.  I thought piecing it would be fun.  But, it was less fun than I thought it would be.  I’m not so good at working from paper templates to cut my pieces.  But, I got it together and it’s a nice block.

Here they all are, together.  Starting to get crowded and I need to spread them out again, or stack them up.  That’s eight of twelve. 

And, while I was rooting around for some fabric, I found a kit.  I ordered this kit from ebay several years ago, when I was collecting 30’s repro fabrics.  It’s incomplete.  There are 8 blocks and a bit of extra fabric and an extra pattern.  I bought it for the fabrics, to use in piecing a 30’s repro quilt that never got started.  But, the blocks are nice and the fabric is cute, so I gave myself permission to make some blocks yesterday afternoon.

And, that’s when I found the joy of quilting again.  I used my best techniques to cut and piece these blocks and if anything went wrong, it wouldn’t matter.  So, it was all about the fun of it.  And fun I had, too.  I could hardly stop for family time last night.

Everybody have a great Tuesday.  I’ve made all my labels and sleeves, so now it’s just a bit of hand sewing them on.  The silk quilt is blocked and is hanging in the living room.  One more transport bag to make.  One small quilt to wash and block.  But, in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy making a few more of these repro blocks and just enjoy the lack of stress that comes from a bit of fun sewing.  I need it because I was feeling some serious quilting burnout on Sunday afternoon.

Lane