Limbo-ish

 I've been feeling a bit in limbo this week and it's been hard to concentrate.  A bit like when you are counting down the days to a big slightly scary trip, or perhaps a minor surgery or scary dentist visit -  everything else seems to pale in significance as you wait for the 'big' thing to arrive.  Work seems particularly tedious since all the waffly meetings and endless recycled discussions seem even less relevant than usual.  I am having to suppress a strong urge to shriek, when someone once again questions why our productivity is not hitting our targets, "COULD IT POSSIBLY BE BECAUSE WE WASTE SO MUCH TIME IN THESE EFFING MEETINGS!!!!?????"  I am clinging to some sense of professionalism by my fingernails.

Still feeling like a bit of embroidery while I wait for the next block in the BOM, I dug around in my collection and found a freebie giveaway from a long ago Lace Day to make a bobbin bookmark.  You prick holes in the provided card then stitch thread between the holes to make a picture.  Deceptively simple but harder than it looks to stitch card without bending it or leaving too much slack in the thread, and of course any slight wobble in the holes shows up glaringly.  It doesn't look too bad though.  I will look out for a plastic bookmark sleeve to put it into.

For some light relief last weekend, I sewed a little length of bunting in cheerful colours, copying a picture I saw online.  It's not perfect in execution, my machine was struggling with top-stitching through the bulk of the trim at the points, but it's fun. I've pinned it up over my mirror in my bedroom.

I'm making a push on the tedious strip-pieced star quilt and have now assembled all 36 strips.  They were getting into a tangled mess so after a bit of thought, I hung a laundry airer on my door and draped the strips over that in numerical order.  I've started assembling the rows, which is also tedious since almost every seam junction needs to be pinned so they match up properly.  The end effect looks nice though, I like the soft colours.  I think it will probably benefit from a border but I'll see what it looks like on the bed when it is assembled.

After the bunting, but before the quilt piecing, I took my ancient overlocker apart to investigate why it isn't working very well.  I managed to unscrew and disassemble all of the exterior cosmetic covers and doors, and the base, leaving only the metal exoskeleton like some kind of sci-fi film robot.  I think I was hoping there would be some obvious glob of thread fluff that would explain all the issues it's been having, but there wasn't.  There was a decent amount of fluff which I cleaned all out, I also drizzled oil onto every moving part that I could spot.  Then I managed to put it all back together without any screws left over, although the screws have not necessarily gone back in where they came from as they were different shapes and I stupidly didn't keep track of what came from where.  I plugged the machine in afterwards and ran it without thread, it immediately sounds much smoother and quieter, whirring rather than rattling, so perhaps the thorough cleaning and oiling did it some good.  I need to thread it up to check how the sewing quality is, but since I normally pull the threads through rather than threading from scratch, I am putting that fun job off for now.  I still think I probably need a new one though.  I did a bit of research online, there is no comprehensive bricks and mortar overlocker supplier anywhere near me.  There are a few models on display here and there but I will probably have to rely mainly on reviews when deciding what to get.  I would like to buy from Sewing Machines Direct in Wales, whom I bought my main sewing machine from, so am looking primarily at their models but they don't seem to have much in the midrange.  I'm wondering about the Jaguar machine (formerly Frister & Rossman) but I'm not familiar with that brand.

Another ancient thing I tackled this week was an unfinished quilt top that I bought on my first trip to America in the early 90s, I think from a Mennonite quilter that we visited on our tour. She was selling off some old period fabric and unfinished blocks and I bought a bag of scrap fabric which I have dipped into occasionally for scrap quilts and I think also this top. I think the blocks are a variation on the Anvil pattern. This top was stiff with dirt and stains and a weird brown colour overall, I assume it was really cheap which is probably why I bought it because I don't love it, and it's been living in the back of a cupboard for decades.  I didn't think of taking a 'before' picture, sorry.  The top  is pieced out of a variety of light scraps in original 30s prints (probably feedsack prints), and three different red fabrics, so could be from mid or early 20thC. I strongly suspected the red colour was going to run.  To tackle the weird brown colour,  I soaked the top for 24 hours in Retro Clean as recommended by Kelly Cline for vintage linens.  The water immediately turned brown and went darker and darker.  After 24 hours, the lighter fabrics around the red plaid that makes up the majority of the blocks had become much whiter and clearer, losing most of their brown tint.  However the two other reds used in blocks at the two ends of the top are obviously running as their light fabrics are now a delicate pink, and one red has faded almost to a pink now when before it wasn't too different from the red plaid.  So probably only the red plaid blocks are going to be usable.  It's drying now.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.  I could either piece more blocks in coordinating fabric to make it bigger, or perhaps just add a border to make a throw.

What's your oldest UFO that you've been hanging on to?