Slackin'

Since the pandemic hit in March, Bruce and I have a new thing going in the evening. Get your mind out of the gutter! The last one of us to put on our pajamas is the “slacker”. Yeah, I know it’s backwards thinking.  But at the time, there was no one to see and nowhere to go, so neither one of us wanted to be the slacker and keep our daytime clothes on when we could vegetate around the house in our comfy jammies. We took it to extremes, of course. There was one morning when I changed from my sleeping pajamas into my daytime pajamas and Bruce was the slacker for an entire day!

Now things are, well, not normal, but at least the weather is nice enough to go out in, and the grocery stores and other things are open. The new normal. We do venture out to doctor visits (still a lot of them for Bruce, but his quarterly chest CT scan was clear, so that is great news) and necessary errands. Sometimes we’re both slackers until early evening. 

Well, this week I felt like a real slacker with my sewing. Usually on Sundays I make myself a list of creative things to accomplish for the following week. I got just a bit more than half of it done. My first goal was to assemble the Pineapple quilt top and get it layered and basted.  I managed to get the top sewn, but that’s it.

Although I didn’t get it layered or basted, I did get the back sewn together too. I had a 5-yard piece of a pineapple print fabric from a Kate Spain older line, so one seam to sew and that was ready. Now, the first item on my list for the upcoming week is to finally get the top basted and then to quilt and bind it. Finishing it is my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for July. It’s looking as though I’ll make that goal well before month end. 

My second goal for the past week was to make a scrap basket out of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month for July, which is dark blue. I did get that done, completing it with blues from light to dark.

But I sewed sides to the bottom upside down, so the handle (the blue piece with orange flowers) is low down instead of higher up. Oh well. It works fine either way. The insides are a combination of the floral print and a squirrel print that Sally sent me. 

Speaking of Sally, her boss Molly Kitten wrote to me this week, threatening to obtain a Restraining Order on me. Apparently Molly had it “on so-so-authority” (her words) that I was encouraging her Staff (that would be Sally) to drive an hour and a half away (at least three hours round trip) to attend an estate sale of a late quilter and peruse the fabric. That absence would, of course, constitute Kitten Neglect. So, I guess either I have to start chastising Sally, or Sally is going to have to stop blabbing relating our conversations to her cat boss.

My third weekly goal was to sew up 8-10 new Zipper blocks. I got those done, of course, because making them is the most fun I have in any given week. (Don’t judge; there’s a pandemic going on!)

And in order to suck up to appease Molly Kitten, I made two blocks with fabric containing cats. 

I also got the borders sewn onto this panel quilt, even if I didn’t get it basted, which was my fourth goal. *Sigh*  So this project moves forward to the coming week for completion.

Besides all the errand-running and appointments this week, I had some work sewing to do. My son and daughter-in-law asked me to hem pants for them, so that took a couple hours. And then a friend asked me to quilt a table runner for her. Normally, that would not be a problem. However, Bernadette (my machine) is not loving the spray basting she used. At least I hope that’s the issue. It started skipping stitches when there were 2 floral motifs left to quilt. I tried re-threading the top and bobbin threads (which are good brands I always use), cleaned the machine, changed the needle (same size and brand I always use), and then tried the old standby - turning the machine off and then on again, LOL. I got one of the final two motifs quilted and then it started acting up again. I’ve sewn and unpicked the last motif three times. Then I sewed it the fourth time, and it skipped stitches again. So, my machine is in time out while I contemplate what to do next. I’ll start fresh today, unpicking and trying that last dang motif yet again. 

This coming week I’ll baste and quilt the two flimsies above, sew my dark blue strings into string blocks and make 8-10 more zipper blocks. If Bernadette cooperates, that is. And I may even be sewing while in my pajamas because we have no appointments next week. And if you’re in the neighborhood, do stop by and pick up some lettuce, spinach or peas from the garden!