Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday again. With the weather as cold as it has been lately I am beginning to think the bear has the right idea. Sleep all winter then when it warms up get out of bed. Don’t seem all that bad. The wind is what I could do without. It is howling right now. Saw an eagle flying around out over the pond this morning, they are always a treat to see. It was being buffeted by the breeze but seemed to handle it ok.

Misbehavin'

Carol here ~

Lena Longarm is misbehavin'. I mentioned last week that her tension was not consistent and I had to keep adjusting it. That never happens, I usually finish up one quilt, load another and keep on going with no tension adjustment necessary.  I remembered that last time this happened I needed to replace the check spring. The check spring regulates the thread tension and stitch formation to maintain consistent pressure as the needle moves.  A worn spring leads to broken threads, skipped stitches, uneven tension and lots of snaggles, top and bottom.

Ugh.  Definitely what's happening.  That snaggle was just a few seconds in the making.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~


Apparently it’s Thursday again. Not a great deal has been happening around here. The weather is too cold to hold much interest for me to go outside to just “find” something to do. I did think about going out on Green Pond today. I looked out at the still virgin snow on the pond. No tracks of animals or anything. The neighbor up the pond has not been back since the storm that left about a foot of new whiteness on what he had previously cleared off for skating. I have only had fleeting thoughts of clearing off a portion of the pond. I wouldn’t be skating on it afterwards, so really, what is the point. Mud Pond is covered with snowmobile tracks. I thought of going out on Green Pond with snowshoes and making some tracks, maybe spelling something or drawing a picture or something. I then checked the temperature and the wind and looked out across the pond and was amazed at how wonderful it looked with no tracks all over it.

Too Many Too's

Carol here ~

Happy February!

Yesterday was finally a nice enough day to get outside for a walk.  Most of January was too cold, too icy, too snowy, too windy, too everything! Counting down ~ only 44 days until spring!

Lena Longarm and I had a bit of a snag the other day. The top thread had jumped out of one of the thread guides which resulted in lousy bottom thread tension.  Top tension looked fine so luckily I caught it before Lena made a complete pass.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. Dang it’s been cold. The older I get the less I like it. Carol’s car doesn’t like it as well. Doesn’t like to start when it is cold. The dealer says the battery is fine, car just don’t like the cold. The only real issue with that is that means I have to go out and jump it to get it running. Good thing my truck starts. Next week is supposed to be warmer. 40’s would be nice, melt the snow off the blacktop although they did sand it today. The only trouble with that, is that when you walk on the sanded areas, you track the sand inside. Winter problems. It seems that the sand that gets tracked in during winter is different. It must be the salt mixed in.

January Finishes

Carol here ~

January sure is flying by, I can hardly believe this is the last week of the month.  

I have had a bit of the January blahs but still have managed to get quite a bit accomplished. Lena Longarm and I quilted up this pile of quilts...

I thought there were six but when I just counted there were seven and I still have a week to go! I have appointments this week so might get one more done before February rolls around.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening, frigid cold and snow for this weekend into Monday. Oh well, winter was bound to find us eventually. I’ll do my best to relocate whatever arrives, not going to worry too much about it until then.

Saturday I return to work with my new job at Sew Orchid Design, a local quilt shop in Norway. I am prepping now for a demo day celebrating your local quilt shops. I have been making different shapes ~ V-blocks. Corner beams, Half squares, Quarter squares, Combination units, Flying Geese, Square in Square blocks etc. using Studio 180 Tools.  Just making the blocks, I will demo trimming them on Saturday. I have a couple hours left of prep work to finish getting prepared. Hopefully I don’t make a fool of myself.