My grandma is an amazing seamstress. However, I have failed to inherit this skill. I don't like focusing on details, and sewing involves a lot of that. But I am determined that this is something I will share with my grandma, who is one of my favorite people in the world. So we are making a quilt.
I bought the kit over two years ago. It is going to be adorable. It's like a Sunbonnet Sue pattern in shades of blue. But there has been one problem after another, the biggest obstacle being free time, followed by a broken sewing machine and her 60 year old sewing machine that doesn't do fancy stitches. So finally this summer it occurred to me that my grandma is 89, so we can't let this go another few years.
I arrived at her house today armed with a new sewing machine, thinking we were ready to go. First, we realized we had no black thread, so I had run to Meijer. Then we had to learn how to use the sewing machine, because it was pretty complicated. Finally, we fell into a pattern. I would sew the piece on the quilt square, then hand it over to my grandma, who promptly got out the seam ripper and took it apart while I started destroying another quilt square. My sewing skillz are less than adequate. On the fourth messed-up square, the bobbin went crazy and we couldn't figure out how to fix it. At this point, my grandma said, "Why don't we go watch the Cubs?"
And we did. And we reminisced about our family's love for the Cubs. And they finally won, which was lovely.
During the sewing disaster, I remarked to my grandma that this all would've gone faster if we'd done it by hand. I was joking, but we realized this was true. And since I love doing hand embroidery, it might actually look better than if I used the machine.
So as I watched the craziness that is the Real World Cancun tonight, I sewed by hand. And it looks decent. And so this quilt might actually be finished within the next year or so. Sweet.
I bought the kit over two years ago. It is going to be adorable. It's like a Sunbonnet Sue pattern in shades of blue. But there has been one problem after another, the biggest obstacle being free time, followed by a broken sewing machine and her 60 year old sewing machine that doesn't do fancy stitches. So finally this summer it occurred to me that my grandma is 89, so we can't let this go another few years.
I arrived at her house today armed with a new sewing machine, thinking we were ready to go. First, we realized we had no black thread, so I had run to Meijer. Then we had to learn how to use the sewing machine, because it was pretty complicated. Finally, we fell into a pattern. I would sew the piece on the quilt square, then hand it over to my grandma, who promptly got out the seam ripper and took it apart while I started destroying another quilt square. My sewing skillz are less than adequate. On the fourth messed-up square, the bobbin went crazy and we couldn't figure out how to fix it. At this point, my grandma said, "Why don't we go watch the Cubs?"
And we did. And we reminisced about our family's love for the Cubs. And they finally won, which was lovely.
During the sewing disaster, I remarked to my grandma that this all would've gone faster if we'd done it by hand. I was joking, but we realized this was true. And since I love doing hand embroidery, it might actually look better than if I used the machine.
So as I watched the craziness that is the Real World Cancun tonight, I sewed by hand. And it looks decent. And so this quilt might actually be finished within the next year or so. Sweet.
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