Frustration is… Being SO CLOSE to finishing “All American”, the top for my veteran’s quilt, but yet so far away!
This weekend, I spent some time working on “All American”, my veteran’s quilt. I finished Row #5, which was actually easier than I thought it would be; “One down, three to go!”
About twenty minutes later, I finished Row #6; “two down, two to go!”
About thirty minutes later, I finished Row #7; “three down, one to go!”
Ten minutes later, I discovered that I had screwed up while putting the LAST row (Row #8) together, so I had to start over — by ripping out some seams. No problem… “The seam ripper (the fancy pink one that I won on the last day of this summer’s quilting retreat) is my friend! The seam ripper is my friend!”
After sewing all of Row #8’s blocks together individually, I STILL HAD PROBLEMS! Emmy (my Husqvarna Viking Emerald 118 sewing machine) jammed up on me! “!Grrr… I’m SO CLOSE to being finished with this quilt top!” I lamented to myself as I tried to resolve Emmy’s ISSUES.
Three minutes later, I managed to get it unjammed, but it jammed up yet again. So close, but so far…
Then, I spent the next ten minutes doing what I’d seen both Liz (my quilting instructor) and Josh (my sewing machine repair man) do: I took off the top plate to see if it was clogged with lint and loose threads. It wasn’t, but… I LOST the screw that held the plate in place. I looked and looked for the missing screw — to no avail. At that point, I figured that I needed another pair of eyes, so… I asked Sweet Thing to look for it, but neither of us could find it.
At that point, I started putting everything away while Sweet Thing looked online to find me a replacement for it. As he was searching, I FOUND THE MISSING SCREW — in the last place I’d have thought to look: on top of the sewing platform! It was obscured by my thread trimmer. Go figure…
After putting Emmy away for the night, I thought I’d be able to get “All American” finished the next day since I’d found the missing screw, but that wasn’t meant to be because something was STILL wrong with Emmy! I’m suspecting there’s a problem with the bobbin thread. I just hope Liz will be able to figure out what’s ailing Emmy when I go to this week’s community “sew-cial”.
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Update:
Liz was NOT at the community “sew-cial” on Tuesday! So… I asked Christy to text her to request the contact information for Josh, our sewing machine repair man. She did, and Liz responded. But… Liz sent it as an attachment to her text. Unfortunately, Christy wasn’t able to open the attachment. Asked her to send me an e-mail message with the contact information, but I have yet to receive it. I’m not sure whether the contact information I have for a “Josh” is for the right person. Oh, well…
The good news is that I managed to FINISH “All American” at the community “sew-ciall” — by using a loaner sewing machine. Now, I’ve just got to decide which backing to use before I give it to Liz to work her “long arm magic” on it and get it ready for this year’s veteran’s dinner!