Goodbye Kindergarten!

My baby has passed Kindergarten and moved on. I can't believe he is getting that old. Congratulations little man. I'm very proud of you.

Fingers crossed...it is working again

I'm not exactly sure how, but the quilting machine seems to be working again. I had it in the repair shop twice and after the first time it was working worse than before. The guy at the shop said there were only three things they could adjust. The timing, the needle height and the distance the bobbin is away from the motor. He adjusted the timing so knew that was right and moved the needle up all the way. He said it was down really far. When I took it back he put it back to where it was before. But the second time I brought it home, it was still skipping stitches and breaking almost as much as before I took it in the first time. I can't tell you how frustrating that is.

I took the needle plate out and sanded the hole again. After playing with it for about an hour, I found out that the thread broke when I moved the machine away from me to the left every time, especially when I moved in a diagonal straight line. So I figured it had to have a burr on the needle plate somewhere. But, that didn't seem to fix the trouble. So, I sanded the path of the thread using the finest sandpaper they sell for sanding cars. That didn't seem to help.

I kept sewing and breaking thread and sewing and breaking and then it just stopped breaking. Don't ask me why. My husband says maybe the machine just needed to warm up. It took 6 quilts to warm up?
Well, I'm not going to question it, but I am going to keep watching and checking to see if there are troubles again. It sure does feel good to be able to put a quilt on and pull it off 15 minutes later instead of 2 hours later and 43 thread breaks later!

I have so many quilt tops waiting to be quilted and out of here into the hands of kids who need them. I have plans for this summer and now that things seem to be working again, I can get busy.

My little guy's last day of kindergarten is tomorrow. Hooray. Summer vacation is almost here! My days are pretty busy today and tomorrow, but after that things should pick up in the sewing room.

Here are the quilts I've been working on while trying to fix the machine. I hope to be posting more now that things are working better.

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
—Romans 5:3-5

I did a little rejoicing in my suffering these past couple of weeks :)

Frustrating machine

My quilting machine is giving me fits again. I've tried changing the needle, rethreading, sanding the needle hole, changing the thread, bobbin and every other suggestion that has been given to me. The thread just either skips stitches or breaks about every 12 inches. I thought I had the problem figured out because I had the bobbin in backwards. Who knew there was a wrong way to put in a bobbin? Well, I hadn't used the machine in a while so just put it in the way I thought it always went in and then went back and read the instruction manual and realized it is supposed to go in clockwise. That helped for one whole quilt. But then it started up again. I thought maybe I just had a bad bobbin, so tried several others and nothing seemed to help.

The machine is in the shop now getting a full work over. Hope he can figure out what the trouble is. Maybe the timing is off??? I'm hoping after a week of vacation the machine will be ready for work this summer. I know I am ready!

Baby shower gift

I lost my camera card reader and can't tell a story without a picture. Plus, with the end of the year madness it has just been a zoo around here. These are the gifts I made for my friend at work who is having a baby this summer. She is having a little boy so I made her two receiving blankets out of some flannel I got about 5 years ago and a quilt. I have been working more now that school is out and now that I have a new card reader and also bought an 8MB card for my camera today I will be posting more often!

I'm back

Have a minute to vote?

Once again, my daughter is up for Spring Athlete at her college and could use a vote or two. If you have a minute to cast a vote, I'd appreciate it. She could care less, but here is where my competative side comes out. I was never an athlete in school, but when it comes to voting for my kid to win anything...stand back :)

http://goyeo.com/

Thanks!

The poll is on the right side of the page, under the calendar and her name is Ariel Lewis. She plays for the women's tennis team and had a great season.

I quilted something!

My friend at work is having a baby shower (actually I'm helping host it) on Friday and of course everyone is expecting me to bring her a quilt. So, I couldn't let them down. On Saturday, I cut out the fabric and started sewing it together. Yesterday I got the top finished and pinned to the quilting frame and today I actually quilted the thing. Wow, it has been so long. Between my health issues this year and the stress of work and kids, I haven't had time or energy to do any sewing or quilting for a very long time.

Boy, did it feel good. I'm so ready for summer vacation and ready to get back to quilting again. The machine need oiling and the thread broke about 10 times which tells me there is probably a burr in the throat plate again.

Now to bind it and have it ready for Friday's party.

Ahhhh, quilting bliss.

how do you spell tired?

BAND REVIEW!

Another band review yesterday and this time I was smart and dropped my son off at 6 and went home. Had breakfast, did some laundry and even cut out a quilt! I have a baby shower I'm helping to host on Friday and everyone is expecting me to have a quilt for the mama. I started sewing it and then had to take off for the review. I stayed for the marching band and symphonic band, but left before the awards and made it home in time to get some yard work done and to see my other kids before bedtime.

My son got home at 7:30pm. Long day, but he had a great time. He has rosy cheeks today from being in the sun all day and is very sore today. I walked at least 2 miles yesterday and am getting in shape whether I want to or not :)

His band took 1st place in marching band and symphonic band. Good job guys!

another band review

Another long day yesterday in Vallejo from 6am to 6pm chaperoning a band review. It was really fun, but I came home unable to walk. I am really out of shape! I am really going to start exercising and went for a walk today with my son and dogs and plan to keep it up from now on.

Here is my son in his hair net. They are not allowed to have any hair touching their collars or they lose points in marching band. This was the first time I've seen him wearing one of these things and I laughed so hard. He asked if he could get a haircut!

They must have worked because his band got 1st place! They were so excited. The colorguard got sweepstakes and you should have heard them cheer!

Every parent should have to chaperone one of these events. I have a new appreciation for the parents who do this every weekend and the kids who stick with band for 6 years.

Feeling old

Yesterday when coming out of a store, a man says from behind me, "Mrs. Lewis?"

I turn around and there is a man, woman and baby coming up from behind me. He says, "Do you recognize me? I think you were my first grade teacher."

I asked him how old he is now and he says 20.

I told him I have a daughter turning 20 next week and he says he remembers her and tells me her name. Then, he tells me his name and I actually remember him from when I taught him 14 years ago.

I thought it was funny that he thought I could recognize him. As though he hadn't changed in 14 years. He went from being a little child to becoming a man. I thought it was funny that he remembered me after all of this time. But it is also funny that I remember my first grade teacher. Mrs. Potter. I loved Mrs. Potter. She really made an impact on me and it's been way more than 14 years since I've been in 1st grade. I remember going back to visit with her at Open House and how my face would hurt at the end of the visit from smiling so much.

I hope I am still making that kind of impact on the kids I teach today.

Iris Farm

I have been wanting to go out to the Pleasants Valley Iris Farm for a couple weeks now. They are usually a couple weeks behind in their bloom times from my iris and I figured this would be a perfect weekend to get out there.

It is in the 80's today and there is a little breeze.

I tried pulling weeds outside, but it is just too hot, so it was the perfect excuse to get out and walk among the flowers.

I was especially attracted to the yellows.

I came home with this one, called Sunday Sunshine to add to my yellow collection.

This was more of an orange. I like these too.

The place sits on about 5 acres with thousands of blooms. I found out that they had a garden tour yesterday and most of the blooming potted plants were sold the day before. That's ok, I got two of the ones I liked, plus I ordered a mix of random rhizomes that will arrive in August.

It is on their website under Operation Smiles.