Please Stay On the Line – Your Screw Is Important To Us.

I am kind of treading water here with my canvas needle in the machine and a broken screw holding it in place. I can’t work on current projects, I can’t change the needle until the Porsche screw arrives, and I am not liking this at all.  I’ve been reading a lot of quilting  blogs and between feeling completely inadequate and resisting the urge to post corrections to usage ( a “thread draw”?  Really?  You put thread in a draw? It’s   DRAWER  for heaven’s sake.)  I am getting pretty cranky.  I suppose I could spend the time cleaning and organizing my sewing room.  Or my house.  (As if…)  I am downloading all kinds of podcasts and library books to keep me company on a trip home next week (woo hoo!) and trying to fix up my antique computer so that it runs a little faster than a 90-year-old on glare ice.   Not very exciting, but I guess it needs to be done.

Anticipation is both the best and worst part of anything.  I have 2 used (PRE-OWNED for you Lexus types) books somewhere in the mail, both on antique sewing and notions, nom nom nom!  Also on a truck somewhere is  this little thread caddy and pincushion from Ebay.  Speaking of Ebay, this little pair of squeeze scissors is sharp as a razor and snips thread like nobody’s business.  I love them and I’m going to order another one, maybe two.

So all of this is swirling about in my universe - and none of it has shown up yet.  Where is a box of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies when you need them?

Quilts 1700 to 2010 – The Book!

Well, the gang is all back from the trip to England, and our lovely boss brought home  fabric trip treats, woo hoo!   Lots of comments on the exhibit at the V&A, and some lovely books made the trip back “across the pond” with them.  I was able to bring home the Quilts 1700 to 2010 – Hidden Histories, Untold Stories (by Sue Prichard) for a long weekend. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this coincided with my rotary cutter finger shearing, so it was a perfect few days to sit and read. (I was careful not to bleed on the book, relax.)

The book is a beauty, filled with wonderful histories and lots of background on the quilts and quiltmakers.   I saw details in the quilts that astonished me, inspired me, and gave me a few ideas of my own.

For some reason, about halfway through the book, the contemporary quilts and quilters were explored. It was like hitting a concrete wall – the flow, the timeline, the whole experience was interrupted, and not pleasantly.  I am a new-born fan of contemporary quilts, but these were, um, how can I be nice about this – unique. Okay, yeah, unique and unusual. Yeah, that. Unusual. That is all I can say in a family publication.

When I returned the book to my boss,  I told her if it was my book I would have taken an X-Acto  knife and carved out those middle pages.  (The quilts all reappear at the end of the book, so no worries.)   She looked at my mangled finger and gave me a look that said, “Hey- no sharp instruments for a while, m’kay?”   I’m going to buy the book – it’s a definite keeper. Nice to have the chance to spend so much time with it before purchase, tho.  Sometimes being the stay-at-home Cinderella has a few advantages.

I Got a Screw….ing

EIGHT DOLLARS AND NINETY NINE CENTS worth of screwing.  That does not include an additional $2.39 for postage (ouch).  Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to have a genuine  Bernina needle clamp screw on the way to my house, but jeeeesh, what a bite in the shorts.  This thing is so small that if you dropped it you would never see it again.  I know, I’ve already had the “milling to exact specifications” lecture from my husband, blah blah blah,  “you’ll strip the head of the screw”  blah blah blah.  I get it.  I really do.  But lets face it, it’s not like these screws are hand milled by blind nuns in Switzerland.  Whatever.  Meanwhile, I’m working on a canvas tote bag, being very careful to not break the needle because I can’t replace it until my Porsche needle screw arrives.  Heaven help me if I rip open the envelope and drop the thing…..