Piecing in to May!

This is the kind of little stuff I want to use.

All of those cut off triangles – many of them gifted to me in baggies by well meaning students who wish to feed my addiction for small pieces and parts.

ALL of these wonderful fabrics and prints.  SO much color – a treasure trove – and oh, the variety!

I love paper piecing – and generally stick with a design where the seam goes edge to edge across the paper so that I can chain piece sections.

Makes sense, right?

Well, ,every once in a while a design comes along that doesn’t do that.  The design starts in the CENTER of the paper and you work your way out to the corners and edges.

My love of vintage machines only goes so far and I start to wonder with all of the stops and starts and short seams in the middle of a paper foundation if there has to be a better way to piece these.

There is.

Big Beast Janome 11000.

It does a gazillion wonderful stitches, has the embroidery module, everything – and what I am using it for?

Straight stitch, presser foot lifter lever and a thread cutter.

I’ve yet to learn to use all of the other amenities – because there are some things I just like BEST on a vintage machine.

At one time I thought this machine would be great for embroidering labels – especially for quilts I was gifting to someone.  But that hasn’t happened.

What has happened is this!

I have a bit more than a dozen made – but yesterday things just kind of fell apart one after the other after the other.

Have you EVER missed a seam allowance not catching one fabric clear in the middle of a block and you didn’t see it until you had trimmed the block and were removing the paper and oops – your fingers go through??  Well yes.

And the whole block is sewn with such tiny stitches because it makes the paper easier to remove and…you find yourself just pitching the whole thing?

And then you pull it back out of the trash and at least cut off the last 4 large corner triangles because you can use them in another block.

While all of this was going on, my battery back up system for the long arm machine started beeping.  Every 30 seconds.  And I went to check it out.

I couldn’t figure out what the deal was, so I turned the beeper part off and went back to the Janome.

A couple of minutes after that – the overhead lights went down to half-bright.  WEIRD.  Like REALLY WEIRD!

And just as I was commenting to the cats how weird this really was, the whole building shut down.  Power OFF.

Even if I had switched to the treadle there wasn’t enough light to see by.  There wasn’t a hot iron to press with – and I was kind of fed up with the whole thing by this point. 

IT WAS A SIGN!

And so I took the drive I had been dreading and headed over to Independence for some groceries – because you can’t have enchilada casserole for dinner with out enchilada sauce.  And other things that were on the list.

And the angels began to sing!!! 

“Halleluiah!”

This is the first time I have seen toilet paper on the shelves since March.  And let me tell you – when the sign says 1 per customer – you are going to grab that 12 Mega Roll pack and run with it!

I was down to the last roll at the QPO – I’m now good for the next 4 months or so.

While all of this was going on – I received a frantic message from my friend Andee that my Twitter had been taken over and was spewing forth foul spam.

ACCCCKKKKKKK!

You guys, this was such a nightmare!  I don’t even watch porn so why would I send it through my readers?  At any rate – I changed my password numerous times, but it continued.  I revoked all permissions from various apps that post to Twitter for me, and it continued.  I finally deleted my entire Tumblr account which was really just a mirror site of things I post to Instagram, and this morning there is no more filth. And no more Tumblr.

To those who endured it. I’m so sorry.  And I’m seriously reconsidering why I have to post to each and every format anyway.  At this point I am on the fence of whether just to also discontinue Twitter.  I’m not engaging with folks there – it’s just another mirror site of things I post elsewhere.  Time to clean the closet.

But it was just that kind of day, you know?  The kind you wish you could have a do-over on.  The kind where temps don’t reach beyond 49 chilly degrees with breezy yuck and you just want to take it to the return counter and say, I need a different one – this one doesn’t work for me.

Let’s hope that today is a better one!

Let’s make it better with a 25% off sale!

I really DO love May! And to celebrate the beauty of May (with a do-over day today) I am putting all digital patterns in the Quiltville Store at 25٪ off using coupon code DIGITAL25.

This coupon code is good for the entire month, but code must be used at time of purchase for the sale price to be in effect. Don't forget to use the code!

No refunds if you forget, okay?

You'll find everything in the digital pattern section of the Quiltville Store.

Where you will also find the Addicted to Scraps book still at the low low price of $15.99 while lock-down lasts. (June 10th here in Virginia.) 

And it comes with a free Wanderlust table runner PDF pattern, so maybe instead of purchasing that one at 25% off in the digital pattern sale, you’d like it for FREE with the purchase of Addicted to Scraps?  No coupon required for the book purchase.

The weather promises to be better today.  There may be a hike today.  Or I might just take today off and do little-to-nothing.  We shall see.

Oh, and that enchilada casserole turned out SO YUMMY.  Leftovers for lunch today.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

I believe this whole sheltering at home has had many of us tackling projects we had pushed back due to lack of time.

Closets are being cleared of old clothing and gear. Garages, attics and basements and sheds are being emptied-contents being reevaluated as to keep or to let go.

Many are doing the same with emotions, old hurts, belief systems that no longer work, and will come out of this Covid storm ready to move forward in better directions.

Letting go isn't something we do just once. Repeat as often as necessary!

We will be different when this is past. For the better.

Have a lovely Saturday, everyone!