Friday, July 4, 2014

Never fear...

Yesterday while starting to work on my secret project, the first step was winding the bobbin. Everything went well until I heard a crack. Then I heard another one. At that point I stopped winding, and took the bobbin off the spindle.

What's wrong with this picture?!

What? You can't see it? Hint: look at the one in focus!


So when this happens never fear! I was stunned for a second because I hate to waste good thread. Not even when I got the whole spool for under $2. No. So I got the idea of putting the damaged spool on the vertical spindle on my machine, and wind it as it was regular thread. I'd set my machine to a lower speed (because it's great, and has that nice feature) and wound the bobbin like I normally would.


The result? A totally functional bobbin. There, you have it! :)

'Til we blog again! :)

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Checking in

I have been away for a while as I haven't touched my sewing machine in a month. Which is a big deal as I got a brand new one with all the features I wanted. It's "only" a Singer, but since I've had Singers since I started sewing, even back in Hungary, I stayed with the brand. I bought a lot of accessories over the years that I can still use with both my vintage and my computerized sewing machine. I didn't want to shell out a lot of money for a big brand machine as I don't do everyday quilting, and I'm not a big shot blogger, or a professional quilter. This is just my hobby, which I do as my mood changes. Speaking of which...

The reason why I was away is that I lost both my dear grandparents within 4 days in the beginning of June. It was a lot of pain, and lot of whys, and the thought to know I will not be able to see them again. The funeral was held last Friday and I feel like I'm getting better. I even managed not to cry the last few days which is a lot from me :)
They were really close and dear to me as I spent all my summer vacations with them as a kid, my Grandmother even took me to work with her before she retired. Now I accept the fact that they were old, Grandpa 91, Grandma 84, but you don't think about that when they are in such a good shape from all the hard physical work they've done their whole life. Besides a cold they were never sick, had to take no medication. After all that happened I just didn't feel like doing anything, my days were passing by. Now that we said our final good-bye-s I just have to move on and follow the land of living.

That involves a secret project which was delayed with all this going on, but I got on it and will post pictures soon. Promise :)

I am still working on the Lucky Stars top, as I didn't calculate the border right and I ran a side short, oops! I have to make a few more strips, and sew them together to be able to attach it to the top. I still haven't washed the backing fabrics I had ordered, so it's all good. It's not that they're crying to be used or anything... :)
Once that's done I'm planning to do an inventory with my UFO-s just to know how many tops I need to quilt, and how many backs to make/order. I did clean up my sewing room which involved taking everything out, and I found a few battings in the process that I forgot about. So I think I'm okay in that department.

I started running again, not as intensively as I used to, but slowly working my way up. The longest I did the other day was 3.5 miles, which is fine, since the weather is crazy hot here these days, and the humidity is just ridiculous... Today it's 85%. I'm okay with walking, thank you very much!

I have been cooking off my Pinterest board this week. So far all the recipes I tried were delicious, and really healthy. If you need some ideas, hop on over, and also check out the Eatingwell, and Healthy food ideas boards. There is also one with healthy snacks and juice recipes. I did a juice fast for 7 days back in February (After watching Fat, sick, and nearly dead on Netflix), and decided to avoid wheat, and dairy products in my eating. Dairy was bothering me anyways, even though I was never diagnosed with lactose intolerance, but it runs in my family, so I know it's a problem. Originally I cut back on sugar, too, but I eat fruits, and that counts, even though it's the good one. As a result I lost 26.5 pounds, which I needed desperately. I'm thinking about doing another juice fast one of these weeks, just to reboot my system.

That is all for now, and so we don't go without pictures, I will paste in the photo of the pretty petunias in front of our house:


'Til we blog again! :)