Sunday, January 12, 2014

Lily's Temper Tantrum

It was a busy weekend getting ready for a sewing class.  I had 40 strips of 40 different fabrics each of which was 2.5"  x  ± 40".  The job was to lay out the strip, than lay an equally sized strip of batting on top of the fabric, fold the two layers in half length-wise, and iron it.  Then one had to tuck the outer edges in towards the middle so the raw ends were inside, pin the entire strip, and sew it shut.  This resulted in a puffy tentacle-like piece.  

The next step is where I encountered technical difficulties.  My big at-home sewing machine (her name is Lily) decided she was having no part of sewing the tentacles together with a zig-zag stitch.  She moaned, and whined, and wheezed.  When I didn't stop making this odd demand of her, she coughed, rattled, and threw a hair-ball at me.  After which she shut herself down with an error message and that was that.

Deciding that Lily deserved some babying, I took some of her parts out, gently dusted her innards, gave her a new needle, a new bobbin, and a kind word.  By that time (this was Saturday late afternoon), dinner was ready.  Figuring that giving her a rest would be good for her temper, I left Lily alone fully intending to return and finish the task.

Well, that didn't happen.  I felt that I was too tired to attempt to do any further sewing without damaging either or both my project and Lily.

Sadly, I went to class today with my homework only half done, but it turned out I wasn't the only one with a recalcitrant machine!  Another member of the class had tried using all three of her machines and none of them would cooperate!  Luckily both of us were able to get the machines we had with us (I took my smaller, lighter-weight machine, Baby Ruth) up and running on this project with little problem.

And here's what I accomplished!


I know.  You're looking at that wondering what on earth I've made now.  Well, this is what I was supposed to have had ready for class, and if I had, I might have had a recognizable, nearly finished project by now.  But I didn't so I don't!

Fortunately, our instructor has agreed to hold another class for those of us who need special attention.  Sandra, you're a peach!  

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