Lucky

Two story lines here:

First, I've always said that I never win anything. Grade school carnival cake walks, scratch-off lotteries, blog give-aways -- I come away empty handed every time. I was once one of 3 -- 3! -- who signed up for a blog give-away & I did not win.

Second, I have always admired the quilts & fabrics of Malka Dubrawsky & was very excited when I heard she was coming out with a line of fabric. I thought I was watching carefully for it to come to market but somehow I missed it. I asked a guild friend who is much more clever than me about the comings (& goings) of fabric lines & she told me it had come out some time ago, if I searched, I might find a print or two, but it had come & gone. {sigh}

At the HMQG retreat this past spring, everyone got a goodie bag -- a prize, of sort. I "won" mine for coming in last in the jelly roll race! Everyone's bag had lots of great loot -- patterns, notions, fabric. I got lots of great loot & my greatest loot of all was a layer cake of Stitch in Color by Malka Dubrawsky!!!

I was giddy with pleasure & wanted to use it right away. So my Stitch in Color quilt jumped to the front of my to-do list & came together quite quickly. I've decided to call it "Lucky" -- to remind me that Good Fortune is less about getting stuff than it is about valuing the stuff you already have.

Batting One Thousand

I had Shug give me some lessons in baseball batting averages.

A player's batting average is calculated by dividing their number of hits by their number of at-bats. So say I was at bat 8 times & got 2 hits: that would give me a batting average if 0.250, kind of average. But say I got a hit every time I was at bat -- that would be 1 divided 1, or 1.000 -- or batting one thousand. Perfect.

Well, I am not perfect when it comes to how I buy batting. Right now I have 3 tops ready to layer & baste. I have quite a few bags of batting on hand -- but they have all been cut into. I could do some piecing together of my batting scraps, but THERE ARE HARDLY 2 BAGS OF THE SAME KIND OF BATTING!!! Low-loft polyester, medium-loft black polyester, bamboo, cotton & polyester, all cotton. I would have some kind of crazy Franken-batting if I tried to cobble something together with all of them!

I thought about what I have & what I've used & decided that my favorites are the low-loft polyester & the bamboo. The polyester makes a nice, light-weight quilt. I nearly always machine quilt & I used to have problems with tucks on the back. But with a light spritz of spray adhesive & some safety pins (I am a belt & suspenders kind of girl), the tucks are minimal. I was delighted with bamboo batting from the first time I used it -- nice & 'sticky', so no tucks. I also like that it is a more green choice. But it makes a slightly warmer & heavier quilt than we often need here on the Gulf Coast. I think that between these two types of batting, I think I can happily quilt on into the future. If I limit myself to buying just these two I will be able to put together a scrappy batting when I haven't any whole, unused bags.

 



Shug tells me that a 1.000 batting average is possible over a short period, like one game, but unheard of over a season, much less a lifetime of baseball. A lifetime average of 0.300 is considered very good. So maybe I'm not doing all that badly.

Plan B or Life Teaches Me a Lesson

At the beginning of last week, I had just completed and sandwiched my Shirts and Slacks quilt. I was hopeful that if I worked very (very) hard, I might, I just might, get it done in time to enter to possibly hang with the Modern Quilts at this year's Quilt Festival. I was coming home from work, would quilt for an hour, eat dinner, watch a little television, then quilt some more. I was going to have all day Friday for quilting, so there was a chance I could get it done.

 

Then Life stepped in.

I was just using up my first spool of thread & changing it out for a new one (if you are doing detective work, this is a key bit of information). I threaded the machine, tapped the foot peddle to bring up the bobbin thread and -- nothing, nothing moved; I could feel a hum of the motor, but the needle didn't budge. I took out the hook, cleaned & oiled it, rethreaded the machine, turned it off, turned it on, tapped the peddle, and -- nothing. I was so disgusted, disappointed, depressed -- I even cried a little.

The next day I started doing research on sewing machine repair places & possible new sewing machines. I got out my cutting matt and began cutting. If I couldn't quilt, I might as well do something constructive & productive. I got out a bag of mixed reds that I brought home from the last HMQG work day. Do you remember me telling you of the mountain of fabric that Mabel St. Martin gave us? ("Mabel St. Martin" is how I've begun to refer to that nice woman who donated the 6 bags of fabric. If it sounds disrespectful, I don't at all mean it to be: "Mabel" was one of my Grandmother's name & "St. Martin" is the name of the church where the Guild meets.) Anyway, I had gathered about 30 different red fabrics to make a quilt (or quilts) for donation. One top is done now (pieced with the Featherweight) & I'm ready to lay out another.

 

I finally decided to take my machine to the closest place. I've taken it there before & I am not in love with this place, but they are an authorized dealership & if there was a computer problem then I thought they would be the best to handle it.

I set the machine on the counter & the woman was beginning to write up the work order when she noticed that the little lever you flip to fill a bobbin was flipped -- you know, the one that disengages the needle. It is right up there near the thread spindle &, well, I guess I flipped it when I replaced the spool of thread. I was now disgusted, relieved and felt really, really silly. No repair needed, no new machine needed (though I am thinking about getting a non-computerized, deep-throated industrial machine for quilting).

{sigh}

Shug said my lesson from all this is that "things aren't always as bad as they seem". I thought that my lesson was for me to "get my priorities straight" & to quit trying "get above myself". Anyway, I guess I learned something, though I am not sure what just yet. "All's well that ends well" or something like that, right?