dublb

I see that I haven't posted all week. I have felt purdy bad though. I had asthma bad enough that I went to the Dr on Monday. Today I am feeling better. I worked on 3 sewing machines this last week. (I sure am glad that I brought all of those home from the storage unit to work on.) I am also working like the dickens to get my Irish Chain made. My background blocks are gonna have bluebonnets embroidered on 'em. I have all of the background blocks made & am running my embroidery machine hard. I am getting 4 bluebonnets embroidered each day. Today I started sewing the strip sets together to make the chain blocks. I now have 200 2P's of the 548 that I need. I do still have a bunch of strips sewn to cut from.
My embroidery machine has been working so hard that (even though I know I cleaned it in class) I decided to give it an extra oiling. I was gonna do that on Monday but it started making a scraping sound! Alright, I took it down & searched for that sound. I was convinced that it was the take-up lever rubbing on the plastic cover of the machine. But there was nothing touching in that area. I searched & searched for what seemed like forever when I finally found it. It was the needle bar going through the plastic needle threader! Nothing critical! I got it all oiled, buttoned back up & set it to making bluebonnets again.

carriem

I had a message all typed up yesterday but must have never hit "post"?? Unless of course I replied on a different thread thinking it was this one, then oops!

It will be a few years before I start thinking about Medicare...I just turned 40 in April. Thankfully my MIL (81), who I take to all her doctor appts, had signed up for it before I started caring for her and I didn't have to figure it out!

We traveled to College Station, Texas last weekend for my son's last outdoor archery tournament of the year. He took 3rd place...that moved him up to a 13th place National Ranking for 2019, not quite the top 10 he was hoping for, but after a couple rough tournament a great way to finish the year. Unfortunately it didn't work out to meet up with dublb when we were so close, but maybe next time!

We got home late Monday afternoon after a long two days in the car...bought a new to me Jeep Grand Cherokee in Kansas City, KS on our way home (we had a few on our list to look at on our path to/from TX). That made the last 5hrs home a little long since we both had to drive alone.

Then I've spent the week getting the house in order and making freezer meals...I think I ended up with at least 20 in the freezer. Some still need to be thawed/cooked, others are just take out/warm up meals. My friend from FL is coming tomorrow for 3 weeks so I wanted to have some easy meals prepped since I'll be sewing during the days. I really hope to get *lots* done!!!!

Today will be spent packing sewing stuff and finishing cutting fabrics. We will set up at the airbnb she is renting nearby me. That way she'll be able to sew in the evenings after I leave to come home and tend to my family.

oksewglad

The next day after the increased premium letter, there was a letter from our agent. They are on top of it! Good to know.

givio...you can sign up for Medicare on line. We chose to do it @ SS office as we share a birthday and that can be confusing and cause extra ?'s

Two of our guild members did a wshop with BH, too. They enjoyed it and are reporting back to us at one of our meetings.

I remember keeping up with the kids' activities, carrie! There's a reason you have kids when you are younger...you have more energy. Congrats to your son! I imagine you are looking forward to your sew date! Sounds like you are preparing to make the most of your time...Enjoy!

I am attempting to add a photo of the last UFO I finished. My camera/phone pictures have been too big. #1GS helped a bit this morning to downsize initial image...will see how that works in the future. This quilt was based on Barbara Brackman's Under Lincoln's Stars. Of course "I go big or go home sometimes" and made increased the overall size and added the outer rows of stars with a small 16P in the center. Darn...must still be too big...

dublb

I have been so busy working on machines! I had an old (70's) Kenmore that just didn't want to switch the stitches. No matter where ya set the Zig Zag it would do a blind stitch. It is now working right. Took it soaking in oil 3 days to get it right. It's nice to get one of these old ladies going again.
I have also been working on my Bluebonnet Double Irish Chain.

oksewglad

What kind of oil did you use, Bev? I have an old "badge" machine that belonged to a dear aunt that I would like to get Mooooving again.

I worked from 10:00 to 3:00 today...got out to the car and had to clean snow off of the windshields! Thick wet stuff...most is gone from the ground now, but a damp, chilly wind is blowing from the west...yuk!

dublb

I have Zoom oil here at the house. I have ordered a lube kit that has some different oils. But the main one is the same formula as Zoom w/a better applicator than that tube that leaks everywhere. I highly recommend that everyone get some of that Zoom & see if ya can get some kinda bottle w/a tiny tip to dispense it with.

To oil that li'le beauty look at every moving "joint" & put a tiny drop of oil right there. You'll need to grease the gears also. I'll remember the name of the grease once I get my kit. For now I have been using Vasoline but that'll only last a couple of months. I'm gonna have to redo all the ones that I have worked on so far, in January.
Snow!? Wow! That's something I hadn't even considered! We did get a bit of a cool front blow through but we didn't even turn on a space heater much less light the wood burning stove!

oksewglad

Thanks Bev...I have Zoom to oil my machines...good stuff.

dublb

Yup it is!

JeanieG

There is a grease that came with my Singer 503 for the gears. Gosh that stuff is over 50 years old!!! I wondered what kind of grease to use now! Let us know the name of that kind you use Bev. I'll get some of that Zoom. Thanks for the info. My Singer has such a great manual. It tells you where to put the grease and oil.

dublb

Those older ladies are so neat! The more modern one's have parts that are not as evident about what to oil. There are oil penetrating bearings, &/or wicks in addition to the rest of the normal moving parts & gears. These are also very hard to get to. I was pleased to find that my Janome had 2 wicks & no bearings. I don't know if all of Janome's are that way but my 2012 does.