The definition of insanity

is doing the same thing, the same way, over and over again, and expecting a different result.

And, this time, I took pictures before I fixed it.

So, it seems like I’ve been trying to insert these eighth inch lines in Stargazer for a month.  But, it’s only been a week.  And, I’ve made them a half dozen times.  And, they just weren’t working out.

Remember this picture?  See how nice and straight they look?  How nicely they mitered together?

Turned out that was a trick of the iron.  I had ironed the lines straight and I was very happy with that. 

But, this week, I have folded and unfolded and wadded up and carried back and forth to work and packed in my backpack and pulled out and “messed with” the poor quilt so much that this morning, before I could go on, it needed a good pressing.

And, when I did, those fine straight lines went all wonky to follow their sewn lines instead of those wonderful ironed in lines. 

For about 13 seconds, I decided I could live with it.  “It’ll quilt out”, right? 

And, then I cut more fabric to try once again.

And, it wasn’t any better, but I did pay closer attention to the things that made this hard.  And, one of them was the foot I was using.  So, I picked it out and tried again.  And, again.

I’m sewing right along the trimmed edge of seam line.  I really need to be able to see that trimmed edge if I’m going to sew along it.  And, while these two pics make it look like you can see where the needle penetrates the fabric, I really couldn’t.  The foot itself obstructed my view.

I could aim, but I didn’t have much control over where the stitch actually happened.

 

So, I went after feet that were more open around the needle and about the best I had was my walking foot.  (If this hadn’t worked, I was going to try a one sided zipper foot!)

Perfect view of the line I want to sew on.

Perfect line sewn. 

Persistence pays off again.  Now, I just need to pick that last set of borders out…AGAIN! and make a new set, using what I learned this morning. 

If I don’t stop learning, my head’s going to explode.

Thank you all so much for your well wishes on our anniversary.  The best I could do on the spur of the moment was steak for dinner, and it seemed to go over very well.  And, it was sure nice to eat my own cooking again.

I wanted to talk just for a second about the golf outing.

I wonder how the guy that organized that would have felt if I’d brought in my machine and set it up in front of the whole team and showed them how easy it is to freehand FMQ, and then sit him at the machine and have him give it a try, while everyone watched.

Actually, having just survived that with more grace and charm than I knew I had, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Wanna know my secret?  The worse I was, the louder I laughed.  Loud enough I couldn’t hear whether anybody else laughed.

If you swung the club and missed the ball, that was called a “lane”.  If you hit the ball and it went less than three feet, that was called a “sara”.  Sara and I had a lot of fun.  Maybe more than anybody else. 

A little Dutch courage didn’t hurt.

Have a great Friday.  Tomorrow is bee.  Next week, Syd is on spring break.  I’ll need to find a long list of “activities”.

Lane