A wee bit of Halloween

Back in November - actually on the day of the Santa Claus parade in Toronto, something happened. My radio station started to play Christmas music - 100%  of the time. ACK! I don't mind Christmas music, but 100% of the time for the next 6 weeks? I don't think so. 

My next alternative was to listen to my old station, but I still can't stand the co-host. She's just an air head and seems to have gotten worse. How people can listen to her is beyond me, yet I know she's very popular. So now, thanks to Ronda, I'm listening to 80s and 90s. But I'm a wee bit mixed up as all the radios in the house and the car seem to be on different stations. If I was good - I could get things all in order, but it's not a priority. 

I had the best day ever yesterday. I was back sewing with the Monday group and it felt like I had never left! Well - it was weird to not have to run out at 9:30.  But I was in my glory and we had a ton of laughs. I'm back!!!!  And so happy to be there. Thanks to everyone for welcoming me back! I've missed you all. 

I'll show you what I worked on tomorrow. Today, I'm going to show you what I did on the weekend. Oh yes - the floodgates are going to open and I'm cranking stuff out faster - well, not really, but at a faster rate than I was and some of this is actually for me! Imagine that!

I decided that while sewing a couple of quilt tops together on the weekend, that I could fire up the embroidery machine and do some embroidery on my Halloween project. 

I must confess that it took me a few minutes to remember the steps for the machine embroidery applique technique and for the life of me, I couldn't remember how to load the file. But soon enough I was on my way. 

Starting a new block

It's hard sometimes because you have no idea how much thread will be required for the number of stitches. How much thread is required for 5,000 stitches?  So I just throw the thread on the machine and hope for the best. That was the case with this black. I needed a lot of thread and I knew the spool of black was getting low. I watched the thread and I watched the number of stitches. Oh - there is not nearly enough. Oh - there might be.

NO - yes!!!!   There was just enough. The last stitch was done and the thread disappeared into the sewing machine.

No more thread on the spool

However, the needle was still threaded

There was still some thread in the needle and the internal workings, but not enough to remain on the spool. When I pulled the thread out, this is all that was left. I'd say that was right on!  I did have another spool so wasn't like I was going to be totally without black thread.

All that was left of my black thread

And finally, that screen that we all love - Embroidery is finished!

Embroidery is finished!

I saw that screen TWICE on Sunday. I'm now at 18 out of 25 blocks.  Yep - only seven more to go and if I keep at this, I might just get it done in time for Christmas!

18 of 25 blocks are done!

Here are the two that I worked on on Sunday.

Two more blocks - DONE

I have lots of other things that I'd like to embroider but I really don't want to start another project until this one is done. It's very time consuming and takes about 3 hours to complete each block. I'm able to work on other things while this is happening, but you have to babysit the machine in the event it needs a thread change or the bobbin runs out or the thread breaks (a rare occurence) or to place the applique fabric.

There is nothing like waking up at 4 AM and realizing that you have an entire hour to just relax in bed before it's time to get up. And once I get up, I'm not in a panic to get things done before I would have to hit the road in the dark and the rain to get to work. My commute was a mere 20 second while I went down two flights of stairs - oh and picking up a glass of water and putting the dogs out on the way. Yes - I'm enjoying this commute. Yes - I have work to do. I'm trying to finish up a magazine quilt today to get in the mail and I have appointments today and a few other bits of paperwork that need to be done. Trust me, I'm not lounging around in my jammies and reading all day.

I also discovered something yesterday and I asked my Dad to make me a gadget. My Dad of course jumped at the opportunity. I can't wait to try it and I'll let you know how it works, but I'm hoping it'll make my life a lot easier in making something which I'll share! How mysterious is that!

On that note, I'm out of here. Back to the long arm.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!