Maintenance and Mending

 "I'm a quilter not a seamstress!" All quilters have said this or at least wished we had the ability to scream it loud and proud.  Normally I don't have a problem saying no to mending or alterations. 

But when Mr. Podunk asks, I have to say yes to the man who funds my quilting obsession. So when he asked me to patch a hole in his favorite pair of around the house jeans, I happily agreed, tossed them into the Studio, and let them get lost below the ever growing clutter.  That was about a year ago.  He never mentioned it again and I forgot about them until yesterday when I found them at the bottom of a pile of projects to be completed.  

It was a simple fix since I have a huge collection of blue jeans saved for making a jean quilt.  A patch was quickly cut from a pair of old jeans, added a little Heat and Bond Ultra to the four edges of the patch. Once pressed in place, it only took a few minutes to wrestle the leg under the needle and do a simple double zigzag around the outer edges of the patch.

It's not pretty but it's functional.  I'm a quilter not a seamstress.

In order to sew around the patch I need to use the free arm on my sewing machine.  This meant it needed to be removed from the homemade recessed table.   As you can see below it was pretty simple.  Just lift it out of the hole, remove the extension table, and add a pressing board over the hole in the table.  When the mending was finished just drop it back down in the hole.

Well while I have it out.... I can't put it back in this filthy hole.  It's been two years or more since I last cleaned under here.  

Honestly I don't really know how long its been...maybe longer.

Looks like there might have been more than dust, thread and pins under here.  Is that spiderwebs?  Oh my goodness.  To think about spiders being right there above my legs...EWW! and YIKES!  A good reason to check under here more often.  I'm going to be thinking about spiders crawling on my legs for a long time.  Sewing will not be the same for awhile.  Imagine the spider dance I would do if one of those creepy crawlies came creeping up my leg. 

A quick wipe down with a wet paper towel and all is well again.  No dust bunnies or spiderwebs...for now.

I don't know about you but when I start dusting I can't stop.   And in this case I really shouldn't.  Take a look at the top of the machine.  Shame on me for letting it get this bad.

So I removed the thread, cleaned the entire outside of the machine and put things back to normal.  I rarely use the spool area for spools of thread.  This is where I keep my bobbin piecing thread.

The top piecing thread is on my handy dandy homemade cone holder.  It's nothing more than a coat hander and a scrap of oddly shaped wood I found in Mr. Podunk's scrap wood box.  Again, it's not pretty but it's functional.

All is good and back to normal and I can start cutting for the Lone Star needing to be finished in less than two weeks.  The deadline is self imposed and the recipient doesn't know I'm making it for them.  But I would like to give it to them on a very memorable date.  More on that after it's gifted, just incase they lurk around my blog.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!