Bobbin, Bobbin

Do you have a least favorite aspect of this whole process we refer to as quilting?  I think my least favorite is having to rewind bobbins.  

Here's where the bobbins get wound on my Pfaff.  At the far right, that piece with the screw in it was originally set slightly more to the left - think clockwise - but wasn't filling the bobbin very full so I took it to the dealer (shortly after purchase) and asked if that could be adjusted.  He adjusted it and it now gives me full bobbins.

The bobbin sits on the peg and will be wound according to that diagram embedded in the plastic.

To start the bobbin, I have to manually wind a little bit of thread onto it, then slide the peg loaded with the bobbin to the right before running the machine to wind the bobbin.  More often than not, it takes several attempts before the thread actually catches and starts filling.  That is a very frustrating aspect of winding bobbins.  Now someone, I'm sure, will school me on how to poke the end of the thread through that little hole in the bobbin first.  Maybe I'll try that the next time I fill bobbins. 

I'd like to think some bright engineer could come up (or should have by now) with a system where when you add your spool of thread, you add an identical spool of thread that runs through an area that functions like a bobbin...and ideally both would run out of thread at the same time.  You'd know that when the top spool is low, that the 'bobbin' one is also low.  No more filling little plastic/metal bobbins that run out on you at inconvenient times...like before you sewed those dozen or so units without thread :/

But, until that brilliant engineer develops the machine of my dreams, I'll continue to wind bobbins the 'old-fashioned way', and experience the frustrations and aggravations of so doing each time.

Wait, What?

Sometimes I can only laugh at myself.  While watching The Voice I was busily pinning the block rows together and it suddenly dawned on me that something just didn't look right.  It isn't that all four of the yellows weren't matching because I was sifting through and grabbing the right one as I went, but...where are the center neutral 4-Patches, and that's not where things belong?

Just not right!

Somewhere along the line I got all discombobulated and had things sitting in wrong piles, having pinned about half, I then ended up having to un-pin and sort out my mess.  When all was done, I found I wasn't in such bad shape as I thought and only had to un-SEW one long seam and then lay them in their correct places so that they could be pinned and sewn correctly.  Sure glad I caught that before I'd pinned and sewn them all!

Correct layout

I'm getting a lot of mileage from this photo - this is now the third post with it - which shows the correct layout, which is how I sewed the individual units from, so once that was done, they were pressed, I have no idea how I managed to get the rows all twisted around - perhaps being distracted with the TV?  Or maybe just tired!

It's a shopping day at the big warehouse store that opens in under an hour so I'd better get myself together and get scootin'.   Have a great day!

Design Wall Monday - Week 15, 2017

I haven't had anything to post to Design Wall Monday in quite awhile, but I got busy on En Provence over the last few days.  On Saturday, I put in a full EIGHT hours of piecing time! Yesterday was only three, and I haven't done any yet today...maybe after my afternoon nap which will be right after this post. 

En Provence block layout

 I posted the above pic a few days ago but thought I'd repost it as a reminder.

Putting two units together, chain piecing all the way through the stacks.

 I had pinned a number as to row & column on the top piece of each unit in the layout.  That helped greatly in keeping things in order as I chained through rows 1 through 5 and columns 1 - 4.  The 5th column will be included in the next round, and the sashing strip (those with the pinks) were treated as a 6th row.

This is not a basket!

 As I chain pieced, I just let the units fall off the back of my Sew-Ezi table.  When I was done, this is what I saw.  The units naturally formed a 'bowl' as they landed round and round.  I thought that was pretty cool.

4/5ths of a row

 Getting ready to sew the 5th-column pieces to the respective rows.

Sashing unit pairs

 The sashing units didn't land in quite the same attractive bowl shape but they still circled into a pile of sorts.

En Provence block rows

The five rows are now ready to be sewn into blocks.  I have started the process, but didn't photograph yet.

As long as it's been since I've posted a Design Wall Monday post, it's been as equally long since I've looked to see what others have been doing.  I'm sure everyone else is far more up-to-date than I am with what everyone else has been doing, but I'm going to go have peak....and then take my nap.

Linking up to Patchwork Times!

Who's Been Missing?

I suppose I have been missing, for a very long time.  I make no promises to be better at blogging.  In my mind of course, I do very well, but when it comes to getting things done, well, not so much.

Today marks the first day I've done any sewing since mid-January.  I suppose I just needed a break.  I played a little with some re-organization of fabric, got a little genealogy done, puttered around with some personal record-keeping, and along with Marty, resolved a non-pipe leak issue in a bathroom, along with all the normal household activities and chores.

My sewing was a continuance of the En Provence mystery quilt.  I still had some elements I hadn't completed the full number of, and still need to sew about a dozen of the purple/lavender 4-patches.  I'll do those tonight.  And, I laid out all the pieces in order for making the blocks, and their scrappiness will hit where it hits...I'd go crazy trying to juggle pieces around to keep from having too many of the same in close proximity. 

En Provence main blocks and sashing blocks components all stacked in place.