Friday Finish: A Good Week/Bad Week

Ever have one of those good weeks, that was also a bad week.  Well welcome to my world.  I had time off for the 4th so I should have gotten lots done, but sadly that is not what happened.  I was off Thursday/Friday and Monday/Tuesday and worked from home on Saturday/Sunday.  So I should have at least one quilt finished, progress on my #TexasRoadTripQAL, and maybe even work on the shirts for the memory quilts. That is what I should have, what do I have....not much.  I did get a block done for the road trip, it is the El Paso block which is the railroad block. The fabrics are just some I picked up at my LQS.

Now I had great plans for finishing a quilt.  I got one loaded on to the frame, and it sat for a couple of days, while I did really important stuff like watch movies.  We rented 6 different movies over the holidays, which means I saw more movies than I've probably seen in a year.  But on Monday I was determined to get the quilt going, and I started. Then I broke a thread, broke a thread, broke a thread, broke a thread, broke a thread.  Getting the picture. In between breaks I checked and changed the needle, checked and changed the bobbin, checked and cleaned the tension gauge, checked and re-threaded the machine, changed needle size, changed the tightness of the top and backing. To say I was frustrated is putting it mildly.  I finally walked away after only doing one row because I just couldn't do it anymore.  Tuesday morning I called the place where I bought the machine and they started going over everything to try, and my response every time was did that, did that, etc.  They said it might be thread.  Now that I didn't want to hear.  If if changed thread it would have to be a different color.  After messing with it again, and it breaking twice more.  I pulled the thread off and just moved to cream.  I was able to finish the row without issue.  But I don't want to use cream.  So now I'm going to have to pull it off the frame, unpick what has been done and then start over with a new thread. This is the how it sits for now.

Now I did get a little more sewing done over the weekend.  I had bought a dog bed for Tucker (because he is old and needs one in every room) but the cover was slick plastic feeling, so I made and envelope pillow case for it.  I just used some fabric I had gotten from JoAnns on clearance.  At first it was only butt worthy. His head still had to be on his quilt.

But as time went on, he decided it wasn't so bad after all. It was soft, and that is all that matters.  I need to go get a couple more, because they were fairly cheap and dog beds don't last long in my house.

Now that was the bad part of the week, so I'm sure you're wondering what the good part was. Well Saturday was my birthday and Sharla and I went to take her machine in to be serviced.  They told us the cost to service it, and based on the issues she was having the most likely part that would have to be replaced and the cost of that and we said uhhh stop.  So we looked at some new machines.  Well we found one that she loved and that I loved. So happy birthday to me, we both got new machines.  

They had to order them, so we only got them last night.  Which meant I got it unboxed and sewed a few samples but that is all.  My goal is clean my sewing table off tonight, so I can start using it.  I'm very excited. We take a class on it next weekend and hopefully learn all the cool things it does.

Overall I didn't get much accomplished, but at the same time, I think I needed the break so it worked out for the best.  I have lots of things planned for the next couple of months, so I need to get busy.  Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social with Sew Fresh Quilts, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link a Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts, TGIFF...at Glory Be Quilter, Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, and  Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric Studio.