What I Did Last Night

 

Look, I know it isn't very exciting, but last night I wound 25 bobbins* with my favorite light gray thread. It's Presencia 60w, and I order it in large spools. 

I know it isn't particularly exciting, but, hey, that's what I did last night.

That and set up my Elsa machine back in the studio. It had been taking a vacation while I sewed up the Awash in a Sea of Blue quilt. The backing fabric is being shipped and I should have it to work on this weekend.

*Yes, I know this is 23 bobbins. One is in the machine and the other is still in the bobbin winding gizmo. And yes, I know I can buy pre-wound bobbins, but that just doesn't seem right to me.

Insomnia & 20 More

 

"They" say that when you can't sleep you should get up and do something instead of lying in bed tossing and turning. So the other night, about 1:30 AM, I got up out of bed, put a sweater over my nightgown and headed into the studio. I made this bird, above, and she may be nicknamed "Insomnia."

Sigh.

I got home from work earlier that night and wound 20 bobbins for my own sewing machine. Yeah, I know, really boring to do, but there is nothing like being able to grab a bobbin and pop it in your machine when you have run one out. It's such a luxury to just reach over and grab a full one, pop it in the machine and then just GO!

BTW, the grey thread I use is Presencia 60 wt cotton thread, color # 352. It is a 3 ply 100% mercerized Egyptian cotton. I buy a cone of 4882 yards. And even though it might take me a few months to go through one, I ALWAYS have a spare. Because running out is such a PITA. Right now the spare one is on my Bernina, which Julie will use. When we visit QT when she visits I will buy another one to have as a "spare."

20 Bobbins

 

In this little bin are 20 bobbins filled with gray thread, ready for my pal Julie's visit in June. I usually hate sitting there winding bobbins, but the Bernina 1250 that Julie will be using winds them like a dream, and it isn't even noisy.

Julie will be bringing some of her own tools, like her pincushions and pins and rotary cutter. She's going to ship them to me beforehand so she doesn't have to worry about getting them through airport security. The last time she visited me in NH I gave her a quilt top - I had started it, and we finished it together. It became MHT2MEM (Manchester to Memphis). She actually shipped some of her clothes home so she could bring the quilt top with her. Yeah, we are kinda crazy like that.

Did I tell you that Julie has crafted a detailed itinerary of the things we plan to do during her stay? The itinerary includes links of all the places we want to visit. Julie has even checked out the hours the places are open so we are sure to be able to get to see the things we want to see. It's really quite amazing.

What's even more amazing is that we are on Version 8. 

Here is today's bird. The wing fabric is some pink orchids I bought oh, geez, maybe 15 years ago?

Bobbin Along...

Here are another pair of pairs that look a lot alike, but are different.

Here is another set.

   My bobbins are wound and ready to go.

Ann, I use this medium gray thread for all my piecing. I find it disappears equally well on all colors.  Some quilters use beige, but I think gray is a better choice. It isn't as "bright." The only time I wind a bobbin with another color is when I am sewing the binding on a quilt. And then I don't even fill it all the way.

This is what those fabrics look like as triangles next to each other. I am happy with these combinations.

I pulled out some of my other leftover triangles so I could try to figure out what I want this quilt to look like. The other one has a kind of magic about it that is lovely and I want to figure out what that is so I can recreate the magic. I think I know, but I have to make more blocks before I can know for sure.

Oh gee, where have I heard THAT before?
              

Happiness is...

Happiness is a bowl full of bobbins.

One of the things that makes me happy is NOT to have to stop sewing to wind a bobbin, so having what... eighteen bobbins filled and ready to go really floats my boat big-time. The only reason I have only 18 is that is how many empty bobbins I have. If I had more (note to self, buy more bobbins), I would have filled them all.

I do all my piecing with this medium gray thread. (ALL!) I feel it disappears equally well on lights as on darks (a medium beige is another option).

So when I'm watching something particularly boring on TV, I'll set myself up and wind all the empty bobbins I can find, because there's not much more boring than having to wind 18 bobbins in one sitting.

See that big cone of grey thread over on the side... it takes me a little over a year to use up one of those. I find it amusing as I read the blogs to see how many empty spools of thread other quilters collect in the course of a year.

Me, just one.