I've got the Kenmore Blues

I'm in withdrawal. My sewing machine has been running a little rough, and the reverse wasn't working anymore, so now that the quilt show is over, I took it to Foam and Fabric on Friday. They told me the repairman usually picks up and drops off on Friday afternoons.

Today I got a phone call from Mark. The good news is I have a good machine, a 15-year-old Kenmore. The Kenmores have Janome insides, and mine is old enough that it still has the metal parts, and not the plastic parts they come with these days. He says trouble with the reverse is a chronic problem with these machines, but that it's a keeper, and he'd try to hold onto it as long as possible if he were me.

The bad news is, he's backlogged, and it could be 3 weeks before I get it back. I groaned when he told me. He offered to rush it through, but I don't want to hold up someone who really needs their machine. For me it's a hobby, almost a passion, but my livelihood doesn't depend on it. Just my mental health.

Oh, and I was on such a roll! While I was off with my knee, I began going through all my old quilting magazines and tearing out projects, tips, tutorials and color schemes I really liked. I can't keep all the magazines; just don't have that much room. And face it, with that many sources out there, including the internet, it all comes around again sooner or later. I kept all my magazines from '06 and '07, because they are still so recent, and any magazines that were chock full of ideas.

All those pages are now in pge protectors, in any one of 5 different 3-ring binders. I'm trying to categorize them now: applique and quilting motifs, seasonal projects, small projects, etc. As for the magazines I can't toss yet, well, they have sticky notes all in them.

In addition, I went through my bins and bags of stuff and listed UFOs, WIPs, projects I'd pulled fabrics for, ideas I had or things I'd been wanting to do. I filled 1 1/3 legal sheets with this list and tacked it to my corkboard, so when I had a few minutes, or got stuck on one project, I could check my list and move on to another. I've made more progress in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last year. Guess it's time to cut up all that fabric, and do what fusible applique and handwork I can.

In the meantime, here are links to a couple of cute projects:

http://allsorts.typepad.com/allsorts/2006/11/crisscross_coas.html

I made some of these cute little coasters for the boutique at our local quilt show the last weekend in June. The patriotic ones sold right off, as it was the weekend before the holiday. They make up quickly, and 2 fat quarters will make 6 of them. The photo above is of 3 that I had left over. I didn't find a copyright for them, and I gave the link to the instructions, so I don't think I've broken any laws by selling them. However, if someone sees this and can show me I was in the wrong, I won't make any more to sell.


Another cute project:
http://www.sewingweb.com/Projects/MugMatLois/
This is what I wanted to make for a swap at an upcoming quilting retreat, but don't know if I will be able to make 20 or so by mid-Aug. if I don't get my sewing machine back until the end of July. I haven't tried these yet, but there are copyright laws in force on this one, so they cannot be made for sale without permission from the designer. But they'll make cute gifts for co-workers at Christmas. Last year I gave the gals all mug mixes in mugs--pudding in a mug, cake in a mug, etc. This would be a cute follow-up.