Life is what happens when you are busy
doing something else…
I was forcing my sewing machine to do all
sorts of things. I doubt it liked them -
ertainly it has protested quite heavily about the layers and layers of jean, corduroy,
batting, flannel, and mystery fabric I’ve jammed through it while making rag
quilts out of recycled materials scavenged from the thrift shop. I
broke my fair share of needles too. I learned
to wear safety glasses while sewing before any of those needles hit me in the eye
causing lasting damage. It is a
workhorse of a machine. It was a hand me
down from my grandmother, who replaced it 20 years ago with a fancier and newer
model. The original date of purchase for
my beloved machine is totally beyond me.
My beloved sears Kenmore might be older than I am.
I wonder if the age of the machine could be
said to be “vintage”? (Vintage is what
you call something that is old enough to be trendy and cool, as opposed to just
old and heavy.)
Anyway the old girl finally had enough of
the abuse I’d been throwing at it and it coughed sputtered and SNARLED. Yes – sewing machines don’t seem to die they
seem to SNARL. The thread coming out of
the bobbin looked like a first rate birds nest, and nothing I could do changed
that fact. It needed a Dr. plain and
simple.
My quilt project - my-first-ever-“real”-not-a-rag-quilt project
sat stalled too. Not that it hadn’t been
over a year in the making, but I HAD actually been working on it when the
sewing machine broke down. A little boy’s
bright coloured blanket. Nothing so
short lived as baby bottles, pacifiers and diaper pins…. But rather bright bold
colours with trucks, owls, and numbers.
So while the quilt languished, and my
painting projects collected dust, I went camping. Chicken little at almost two is a much nicer
age to camp with than he was a year ago before he could walk and when he was
still putting every rock into his mouth.
We camped locally, but then we took off on a two week adventure.
We loaded up the snail… and set off to
drier turf and hot sunny places to sit at the lake and to swim. It was divine….
Some how in the process of all this
camping and hot weather. We traded our
camper (for more than we paid for it) in for a small trailer. The day we did that I was quite in
shock. I had not anticipated this turn
of events. Although in the long run it was positively lovely to camp in.
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| Chicken Little at the Beach |
After two weeks of heat, of sun, of
swimming, of ice-cream and sand we returned with our trailer, stopping en-route
at my grandmothers house. When I told
her the sad story of the sick sewing machine she said to me – you can take my
old machine. (I thought I did have her
OLD machine. – turns out there was a newer old machine) . Thus I became the
happy owner of yet another sewing machine… this one only 20 years old and
running like a top.
Thus I was able to finish the FIRST “real”
quilt I’ve ever made. Now the rules are – you are not allowed to
look too close to the stitching, nor how well the corners line up. You are simply required to say “LOVELY!” in a
chirpy and pleasant voice. The flaws are
many and I am not asking for advice or for them to be pointed out. I am simply proud of myself for having
completed this quilt. And just in time
for my second child to be born!
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| Finished Quilt |
Also an update on the sick sewing machine
- it has been taken to the Dr. and will
return home in a few days apparently feeling much improved.
