Chilly Willie

Wow-zer!  47 degrees this morning.  First day of school for many and I will bet there was a scurry to find jackets.  I stayed in all day.  I saw how gray and damp it was and decided that I would head to the sewing studio.

I really did not have a choice.  I started an embroidery design yesterday.  It had about 84,000 stitches in it.  I don’t run my machine fast.  It never even hits the halfway mark.  I had gone onto Ebay a while back and found some brand new embroidery designs for a very far price . . . $10.00 for a collection of 18 designs that could be stitched in four different sizes.  It was a collection that had been discontinued by Anita Goodesign.  It was called Vintage Easter.  I think it was discontinued as not many would appreciate having the entire process take hours.  Yes, I said hours.  With a slower speed the machine said 390 minutes. Yesterday at supper time, I put the machine on “sleep” mode and shut off the lights in the sewing studio. 

This morning, my agenda was to get a batch of chili going.  A good way to get some extra heat in the kitchen and have a great supper for us this evening.

Vintage-DesignIMG_1648About ten this forenoon, I went down and woke up the sewing machine and we were off to the races.  I don’t leave the sewing area when the machine is working.  I have heard horrible tales of something going wrong and pieces were needed to be picked out from under the hood.  I can tell you that with the stitching taking five hours, I got a lot of cleaning done in the sewing studio.  The cleaning felt just as good as the final project.  It all turned out great.  This stitching will be ready for next Easter.  The attention to detail on these designs is amazing.  I did put in a new needle halfway through.  Two layers of the corn starch stabilizer plus the needle having to go over previous stitches, I didn’t want to take a chance to have a partial project on my hands.  I did notice with the friction heat of the needle a bit of the sticky stabilizer wanted to pull up and hang onto the needle.  I keep a bottle of nail polish remover handy to take away the sticky residue.  If not, eventually it is sticky enough the tread will break.   

It has been a good day.  I didn’t really care what was going on outside.  Dennis checked on the chili and he gave it thumbs up for supper.  I had a small pan of rhubarb crisp in the freezer.  That is now making the kitchen smell wonderful.  No . . . I had not prepared this.  When we were coming home from Mankato a time ago, Dennis stopped at the Welch Heritage Apple barn and we tucked one of their goodies in our freezer.  This is a perfect topper for us older ones on Stauffer Avenue.

Take this weather and enjoy the break from the heat and humidity.  It may not last long but a welcome break it is indeed.