Spring Break

It is spring break which makes for a slower week in the guardian ad litem business. Much like Christmas, no one wants to have to deal with custody matters or other unpleasant things, when they’d rather be off at Disneyworld bribing the kids to love them best (I am being deliberately jaded just for the fun of it). Accordingly, it has been a good week to start to get acquainted with my long arm (yeah!!) and work on taxes (boo/hiss!!).

I’ve never sewn on a zipper. Yesterday, I sewed “zippers” on the long arm rollers. The idea is that you can zip a backing on and off, easily, instead of having to stand there and pin it on.


I was a little leery about stitching my first zipper since it was on my beloved long arm and if I screwed it up I’d be staring at it for years to come. Fortunately, it turned out fine. Who knew zippers were a piece of cake? Let’s not discuss the 4 needles I busted by getting too close to the zipper tracks. That just gave me practice in changing needles, right?

I only had court in the afternoon, yesterday. In the morning, after I sewed on the zippers, I practiced loading a quilt. I used old, nasty fabric that I thought was stupendous when I first started quilting but now think is hideous. I'm not sure I did it right but there you go. (The end result eventually ended up, sans binding, on the floor for Evelyn to sleep on but she didn't want any part of it.)


When I got back home from court, I started practicing stitching. The machine purred and whirred and I was delighted. Then, the stitches (the top and bottom were in the same neutral shade) started looking a little wonky (rail road tracks?). I switched to a pre wound bobbin of darker thread to try to see the stitches a little better and it all started going to hell. Thread was breaking right and left. I returned to the original bobbin and had less thread breakage but still couldn’t see the stitches well.

I switched the top thread to a bright orange (yes, I spent $12.00 for BRIGHT orange thread) for contrast and suddenly realized I didn’t know how to rethread it. That is because I am an idiot. I’d taken pictures on the digital but the part I needed was missing. Moreover, the official manual was no help (Gammill – please take note that the manual has the wrong pictures and directions for the Premier Plus). By that time it was after 5:00 so I didn’t even try to call the tech. I was exasperated because nothing I tried was working. After about an hour and a half, I threaded it as if it were a Classic (the pictures in the manual looked more similar) and it started working better. Not perfect, but better.

This exercise brought home to me that I have no idea how to finish off a quilt at the bottom or do the edges. The machine was doing fine with small stitches but when I did something sort of sweeping and wide, the thread broke. Hmmm. Learning curve!

That was yesterday.

TODAY:

I enrolled in a class for Gammill owners that deal with maintenance, basting, etc. I hope I don’t have to wait two weeks to discover that I have not been threading the machine, properly. It is included in the cost of the machine. Oh happy day!

I finished pulling my tax information together. Oh happy day!!

I called the insurance agent to find out how much I needed to cough up to cover the long arm in case of fire. She said we really didn’t need it. Again, oh happy day!!!

Finally - Daughter #2 called and mentioned that she paid off two student loans. OH HAPPY RED LETTER DAY!!!

Let the good times roll.