One Of THOSE Days -

"This will be so quick and easy!" I thought to myself.

Just put some borders on - quilt it up quick, get the binding on there and voilà!

Easy Peasy, right?

I think things like this out loud, get to sure of myself and the universe laughs.

Not only at the quilting, but with the rest of my day too.

Read on folks - if it makes you giggle and perhaps commiserate we can get past this, move on, and get back to quilting.

It all started out rather well. No issues there so far.

I got the laundry under way and started in on the quilting of my County Clare Leader & Ender challenge quilt with out a lot of fan fare.

I chose a pale, pale baby blue thread and an edge-to-edge design called Frisky Feathers by Hermione Agee.

I scaled the design fairly large, but small enough to have quilting lines go through all of the patches to anchor seams and intersections.

Texture looking pretty good!

Click to Play:

Little did I know what was about to come!
It reached going home time - so I shut everything down, turned off the lights, locked the door and planned on coming back to it yesterday morning.
But before I was able to start quilting there was something I needed Hubster Dave's help to check into.
The Brown Bird Bee gals let me know that the gas oven was taking a super long time to heat up. Tuesday evening when we tried - it wouldn't ignite at all, even though the igniter switch was glowing red hot.  
Something was up with the burner below.
When we got down into it - the oven burner had become corroded and just wouldn't light anymore.
Not a huge problem - we got on the phone with the company and they are overnighting a new burner that should arrive today.  It just meant that the October Quiltvillians who arrived yesterday afternoon wouldn't be able to use the oven until we get the new burner installed.
But it is coming!  It is a small problem.  We pulled out the Oster Roster countertop oven to cook up Tonni's sweet potatoes for the potato pancakes she plans on making for one of the breakfasts, and the gals tonight are doing a baked potato bar, so the countertop roaster will do just fine.
Back to quilting:

I turned everything on and started quilting only to have the quilting machine just STOP dead cold with the needle still going up and down in place.  Oh no!  What is going on here?
I couldn't for the life of me figure it out, even after a couple or resets, starting from scratch, booting off, booting up again....
So I called my tech guru Patty and she was talking me through things when.....my phone died.  Like really?  Just....0%??  How did that happen?
Evidently I didn't have it on the charger pad right the night before.
I called her back via the desktop computer on Facebook messenger.
She gave me some things to try and would call me back later as she was busy with an install.
Wouldn't you know it?  It took a bit to find the problem, but way back toward the front motor, there was a little piece of thread wound tightly BEHIND the wheel that runs on the machine rails.  It was so black you could hardly see it against the black rubber of the wheel...but there it was.  A thread.
And it was on there tight - so tweezers and hemostats to the rescue, rolling back and forth a bit to try to get it out of there.
And...that was it!  That one tiny thread in the wrong place stopped the quilting machine cold.  I'm glad that's all it was. 
Burned out oven element, dead phone, quilting machine errors....what next?
The hatch on the Subaru stopped going up all the way.  It would only open a few inches and stop.
REALLY!???  What now?
Something got pushed somewhere and needed to be reset - but we didn't figure that out until after dinner time last night.

We deal with the things we can.  We set aside the things we can't fix until we can.  And we keep moving forward.
My phone slowly charged back up.
I got back to quilting - I had time to finish the quilting, trim up the quilt and get the binding on before the October Quiltvillians would arrive.

You have GOT to be kidding me?!?!?!
A slip of the ruler while trimming up the quilt edges and....well crap.
Solution?  Trim 1/2'' off all the way around.  Good thing I started with a fairly wide outer border!

Moving on - choosing binding.

Nearly 23 years old and still the perfect binding choice. Plaids and plaidy looking things never look dated, do they?

I got the binding on there, along with the label and a hanging sleeve.
I put a hanging sleeve on everything that may have the reason to be hung at any given time. Better to do it while the binding goes on, than to have to think of it later.
And here's where we are. Did I do any binding stitching last night? Not much.
I ran into a place where my seam allowance was a bit too wide and the binding wouldn't roll over well, so I did some unsewing and set it aside.
I'll fix that spot today, and perhaps tonight I'll be more in a mood to stitch that down.
Some days just go like this. And that's okay.
I slept well, I'm up and at it, and headed over to greet everyone and fill this day with all the good things.

I want to thank everyone for the response to yesterday's Ladder Star Gift-Away!

I am thrilled with the response and can't wait to see what you make!
Entries are coming in on the gift-away post.  Did you get yours in?

I'll be drawing for two winners who will each receive a Ladder Star PDF pattern from me, and a Crème de la crème neutrals roll from  Cotton to Quilts.

These beautiful ivory shades will blend wonderfully with your plaids and scrap fabrics to make Ladder Star your own.

And check out the other fabric rolls they have in stock as well - there are 20 fabrics in each roll, each piece measures approximately 8 1/2'' X 22''. Great for building variety.

Introductory Pricing: I have placed Ladder Star at 25% off.  No coupon code needed. Price is good through 10/31/24. 

Stars and Scraps were meant for each other! Create this stunning star quilt in scrappy plaids from recycled shirts or with your own stash yardage. Piecing options, full color photos and graphics and many tips for easy piecing pleasure included.

Quilt Size: 84’’ X 84’’

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Are you feeling this way, too? ⁣
⁣
However.. I'm loving this string star quilt with a blue background!

Have a terrific Thursday, everyone!