Challenge within a Challenge

I thought that finishing a quilt in 30 days, even a partially completed one, was a pretty big challenge. I was feeling pretty full of myself that I would take on this great feat, and publicly no less. But no, my friend throws in the mix, in the middle of the mix, a quilt in an afternoon challenge. And I still call her a friend.

Discussing Binding Tape

(very cool invention for quilter's doing crazy challenges)

I was sewing like the devil. My needle was flying. (cue music "Devil Went Down to Georgia" ) The lights were intense over the work stations. I was sewing, sewing. sewing.

(cut music: lights up.

Scene: family spaghetti dinner - discussion: American Political History

Cue elevator Musak - several bars of Girl from Ipanema)

(cut lights: back to sewing stations.

cue music: Devil Went Down to Georgia.)

Oh, it was grueling. But, I was up to the challenge. Filling bobbins, cleaning bobbin casings, letting the thread fly again through the needle. Oh the intensity of it all...

In the end, the devil won. I didn't do it. I wasn't able to construct a quilt in an afternoon. For that matter, I got up there at 1:30 p.m. or so and didn't leave until 10 p.m.-ish. I did get all the way to the binding, that got sewn on but needs adjusting (I kinda screwed up...). There's maybe 45 minutes of work left on the quilt. It's an hour drive home out of the mountains and lord knows the devil takes 'em when they's tired.

My machine is back on the table at home here, but still in the case. I don't want to open the case on an overheated sewing machine. Best to let it cool a bit...

7 Days Into this Challenge

I'm seven days into this challenge to finish Katie's quilt and I am already feeling the stretch. I have finished the blocks of gradient color. The rest of the blocks are all black. It should be a breeze, but there are 11 of them. That translates into 5 hours of sewing. I can only hope that because they are all black I can whip through these without thinking. Can I get this part done by Thursday night? I only have enough energy to go at this a couple hours a night on week nights.

If I could have this done by Thursday, these last few black only blocks, I would be able to lay out the combinations (on the floor for a visual) to find the blocks that I sewed in reverse last year and get them redone. I could be, quite possibly could be, piecing the quilt top together by this Saturday. Thursday is the first goal...I'm shooting to have all sixty blocks finished (round one) by Thursday.

Go Team!!

Getting Serious, or not

I starting taking apart the machine this morning. The sewing machine is skipping stitches again. I was going to have a sewing machine shipped out to me but it seems there is no Greyhound bus station in the little Wisconsin burg to drop the shipment off at. (Is that a dangling participle? Something is dangling...oops, back on track...) I did take a look at the machinery and all looks well. I will need another machine for the actual quilting, the stuff that shows (I'm not a handstitch quilter). I have one more person to go to nearby to borrow from. I'm waiting until I get to that point of quilting before I borrow. This machine will get all the piecing done, the top of the quilt and the back of the quilt can all be done with this machine. I put it all back together this morning and got one more block put together. Every bit helps.

Yesterday I pulled together several block AND watched the football game. No need to deny myself the best of entertainment, especially with friends. I've had a good week in general. I guess I just feel better when I have a project, an active interest. It seems when I'm not working on this quilt my mind falls into rollercoaster mode. I find myself laughing out loud at the innuendo my brain comes up with. I might be crazy, but at least I find myself entertaining.

Help is on the Way

I was talking with one of my bus buddies this week about The Big Challenge to finish the quilt in 30 days and that I was rolling through thread as fast as it unwinds (which is the truth). Today as she slid into the seat next to me she handed me a bag of six partially used spools of thread. According to my bus buddy the spools of thread have been sitting around taking up space at her house and every time she needs thread she ends up buying a new one anyway.

Which all just goes to show (again) that no matter what the project, the need, the want, the ideal - when one puts one's mind to something, puts one's mind to task, help arrives. Help you didn't even think to ask for arrives. Set your mind on the final, wonderful outcome and the path becomes paved just before you. (And if the path feels cluttered and full of issues, then you know there's things to deal with before the end result can be fully enjoyed. Eh.)

I'll be sewing this weekend.

Road Block or Marathon

This morning I was called a "Hussy". That got me laughing straight out of the gate. It seems my bus buddy saw me waving unabashedly, she says, to her bus driver yesterday. Well yeah, he's my favorite bus driver (even if they all are my favorite bus driver). That bus driver waited while I ran for the bus last summer, repeatedly. That bus driver let me know what the Metro Fitness Program really was. When the drivers change routes as they are required to at regular intervals, he was off to another bus. I make sure I am on time for this new driver. He doesn't smile the same, but he does wave to me when I get off the bus downtown. He's my new favorite, but in a different way. I guess I'm fickle...it depends on who's driving.

For the quilting 30 Day Challenge, I didn't sew anything last night. But I did get the last of the black strips cut to size. I have black flannel to cut and add in as well. Sparingly, as accent, not seen but tactile. Last night was prep work for tomorrow.

Thing One has invited me to a Mad Men Marathon night tonight. We just bought Season 4 of Mad Men and we want to get caught up before Season 5 starts back up on television. I don't think she plans on my sewing. I'd rather spend the time with her than slaving over anything. Thing One knows of my 30 Day Challenge. She better not throw any more roadblocks up for me...even if this hardly counts as a road block.