Details.

Sometimes, things go swimmingly.  Your points all match, your sewing machine makes you feel like a rock star, all your tools are enhancements to your work, and your skills grow by leaps and bounds.

Other times, not so much.

In the interest of always keeping things real, I'm sharing some of my recent Not-So-Great Moments in Quilting.

These blocks, for instance.

I signed up for the Lucky Stars BOM at Don't Call Me Betsy and had not yet sewn a stitch. I love the precision and results of foundation paper-piecing. I've done a lot of it and usually get pretty good outcomes... I finally cut out all my fabrics, making sure I had a good mix (it's mostly hoarded Lizzie House, some Rounnieres, and a little bit of Architextures) of values and colour.  I wanted to do the smaller size of blocks because I didn't have a specific project for them and therefore, didn't want to commit scads of fabric to it.  I trim religiously and didn't rush the piecing but seam bulk affected my results.  After a couple of goes with the seam ripper (and its paper-tearing consequences), I called them "close enough" and washed my hands.  These are not perfect but Seester is always telling me to quit picking on my own stuff.  I'm letting these ones go.  I'll try harder with the rest. (It's not the patterns - they're great - this is totally a problem existing between sewing machine and chair...)

Then I was prepping some quilt-as-you-go stuff for  a guild meeting at the end of June.  It was going well, I thought, until I went to put my free-motion/darning foot on the machine.  And that little pin that keeps the foot steady, makes it go up/down, and rests on the needle?  Gone.  Nowhere to be found. And of course, I lent out my spare foot to a guild-mate who'd never tried free-motion. Blast.

I went rummaging.  Paper-clip?  Nope.  Too bendy.

I found a picture-hanging nail!  Much sturdier, with a little stopper, too.  Nope.  Too short to reach the needle bar.

Longer finishing nail.  Perfect length - reaches the needle bar. Sturdy.  Sew, sew, sew, happy as a clam, Ka-chunk.  Why? The nail keeps sliding back through the hole and off the needle bar.

Final solution?

I found a refill eraser for a mechanical pencil. Nail through eraser, through hole, through picture hanger. Worked like a hot damn.  So there's your emergency darning foot fix.  Does in a pinch.

I've since picked up a new spare.  I don't trust that eraser.  Something about its very nature tells me it'll try to undo what I've done... ;-)

Ciao for now!


PS:  I am having a really difficult time with getting my photos to look right ever since Flickr did their update...  Anyone else get it figured out yet?  They just don't seem to show up the right way on the blog, as if the resolution is off.  I tried it using bigger pics, too, but I'm stymied!