Wednesday, April 25, 2012

I started my day with a screening mammogram at the hospital. If you’ve never had a mammogram you may not appreciate the humor in this tidbit that was pasted on the wall of the center. “Mammogram technologists are like magicians. They can turn your cups into saucers!”

I had a bit of time to waste before picking Margaret up for a doctor’s appointment so I stopped at Wal-Mart and bought a few travel-sized toiletries for our trip. I stopped at the bank and Safeway and still had time to kill but I had my book with me so I got some reading done. I’m really enjoying The Good Earth.

When I got home I spent a bit of time doing some hand stitching on my Block of the Month. I had to admit to myself that I was procrastinating and I finally headed up to the studio to tackle some quilting. But then I remembered that I should try to find coverage for the three remaining Red Cross shifts that I won’t be here for. That took a couple of phone calls and then I really had no reason not to get busy on the quilting.

I decided I’d quilt one of my cards just to check that the tension was right before I started my Sudoku quilt. Guess what – the tension wasn’t right and the bottom of the piece was a mess. I took that stitching out, got my practice sandwich and tried again. I adjusted the tension on both the top and bobbin, I changed the needle, I cleaned the machine, I changed bobbin thread but I still couldn’t get a clean stitch on the backside. I was about to give up when I had an inspiration.

I have a very basic machine and after looking at the manual several times I realized that they weren’t talking about quilting with a “walking foot”. I switched back to the regular foot on my machine and guess what – it worked!

From that point on I didn’t want to quit in case things stopped working. I finished the card, I quilted the back for my Guild Challenge project and then I finished the outline stitching on the quilt. Keep your fingers crossed that things work out as well tomorrow!