pickleball – agilejack

It’s been quite some time since I posted here. Life has been about the same. Work has been really stressful. Spring has come to the Pacific Northwest and I’m glad to see it.

Over the last two months since I posted here I’ve actually put my hands to some fabric, have completed one project (and almost all of another) and even had a little vacation. I’ll get around to posting what I’ve been up to but I’m going to take it easy and not do it all at once.

I read a post from someone I follow on Instagram and they said their creative life is made stressful by the feeling that they have to be constantly posting content… on social media, on blogs, etc… I totally get that! I think that’s part of what has caused the burnout that I’m trying to make my way out of. It’s been a long haul. I have to be honest… I’m sort of forcing myself to make this post tonight. So I’m going topic myself and not feel obligated to post several times a week.

Anyway, several weeks ago I took a six hour class at a local quilting store that was all about servicing and maintaining Featherweight sewing machines. I had been waiting for months for the class to be scheduled again and when I saw it was on the calendar I signed up immediately.

The instructor found my machine and the one next to me particularly interesting of all those in the class. Nice to know my machine is special.

The Featherweight sewing machines were designed to be easy to service and maintain. But I had always been a little intimidated to dig in and work on my own.

Well, I loved the class! There were around 10 people in the class, all with their gorgeous little machines, and we took them apart, oiled and greased all the parts, learned about how the machine and all it’s parts work, and then put it all back together again.

They had us bring a pie plate to keep all of our spare parts contained. You can see the blue paper towels I used to clean out grease and dirt from inside my machine.

I bought a really cool little magnetic thread cutter at the class!

I’m so glad I took this class! Now I feel confident taking care of this sweet little machine and keeping it humming for many more years.

After being in that room with all those machines and hearing them hum, I got the urge to get mine set up and start a project. So I decided to dig out my Kaffe Fassett woven stripes and shot cottons that I started cutting into 2.5 inch strips back in November of 2022.

I had already cut all the shot cotton pieces I needed. So ironed the 20 woven stripes that had been waiting for me and got one 2.5 inch strip cut from each one.

OMG! Look at all that gorgeousness! These really are amazing fabrics and the colors are so incredible. I could stand there all day and just look at all of this!

Now that I had 40 strips cut from 40 different woven stripes I paired each strip with a shot cotton and sewed them into strip sets, then cut, sewed again, etc… I got 20 blocks made and up on my design wall.

The close up photos are much more representative of the fabrics.

That was all a couple weeks ago. Then tonight I dug in and started sewing the final 20 strip sets together.

I got all 20 sewn, then finger pressed and ironed each one using my metal ruler method. Here’s a video I made a couple years ago showing how I do this.

I love the way my strip sets come out perfectly straight!

These stripes and shots are quite delicate and it would be really easy to press some wonkiness into these sets if I wasn’t careful.

I cut each strip set in half then sewed those twenty sets together.

Then pressed and sliced again. All 20 sets are ready for one more seam before they are sliced the final time.

The final seam, press and slice will go pretty quickly. Then I’ll carefully pin every seam so they nest perfectly. It will probably take a couple nights to get these done. Then they will spend some time on the design wall. It will be fun to see all 40 blocks up on the wall.

We celebrated Bender’s 12th birthday on April 9.

This kid is really showing his age the last few months. All the sudden he seems like an old dog. I’m pretty sure he’s got some doggie dementia going on. He is developing some odd behaviors. He’s always been a quirky dog, but he’s being creative with new quirks.

I’ve been enjoying spring. We’ve had lovely sunny spells paired with rainy and cloudy spells. So everything is growing like crazy! My lilacs are currently in bloom and the yard smells glorious in the evenings.

My boys love the weather this time of year. They are content to spend the entire day outside as I work from home.

It’s also a great time of year for pickleball! I joined some friends yesterday morning for one of our first outdoor games in months.

We had such a great morning! And look at that sun!!!

I haven’t posted here since June 24! That might be the longest dry spell in many years.

Why? It’s been damned hot. I’ve been playing a ridiculous amount of pickleball. I’m doing all I can to take advantage of the short summer months here in the Pacific Northwest.

I haven’t been doing much sewing since my last post. I have made a few more of the scrappy blocks with the indigo corners. I think I’m up to 36 total. No idea how big this quilt will be.

I still have to trim most of those blocks, Since my injured wrist is feeling so much better I can start trimming them any day now. I’ll just chunk away on this. No hurry to get it done.

In the mean time, I just loved these two blocks.

I also picked up a little project a couple of weeks ago. I kept seeing an ad on Facebook and Instagram for a little wallet that looked really easy to make. They were selling a template to make the wallet for almost $20. I’m pretty cheap and I thought I could probably figure it out after a few tries. Well, I started digging around in YouTube and found this tutorial.

It’s the exact same thing as the template that was too pricey! So I took some notes and made my own template using a priority mail envelope.

Then I pulled out my interfacing, dug into my scraps and got busy.

I cut and sewed a few at a time.

I whipped up a handful of these cute little things in no time.

They are so quick and easy to make. I love having things like this on hand for little gifts when people visit or when I go to lunch with friends. Plus, I have a million uses for little things like this. I have one that I use for my iPhone headphones. I’m going to use one for bandaids in my pickleball bag.

They have the flap with a snap and two compartments inside.

Here’s a few images with some detail.

I gave almost all of these away pretty quickly. I’ll probably make a few more to have on hand.

I keep waiting for my quilting inspiration to come back. It’s not coming back quickly. I’m sure it will be back in full force when the rain starts in the fall. In the mean time I’ll do some small projects and think about what I’ll make when the mood hits.

I was talking to my friend who just moved here the other night. She was saying she needed something for the walls of her sewing room. I shared with her a pattern I’ve had for years that I’ve been wanting to make.

We tossed around the idea of making that at the same time. I’ve seen a few done in all Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics that are really spectacular and colorful. That might have to be a winter project. My friend has a Singer Featherweight as I do. It would be fun to make them both on those little work horses.

I had my biggest strawberry harvest this evening… just when I was considering tearing out my strawberry plants because they just don’t produce much. I was thinking of putting in some raspberries instead. Maybe the the strawberries knew what I was thinking and kicked it in gear.

You may not know this but I’m a sucker for an estate sale. I was on my way home from pickleball a week ago when I saw a sign in my neighborhood for one. So I stopped by. And by did I score! I got a brand new Olfa cutting mat and a pristine Black and Decker iron for a total of $8!!!

I’ve been meaning to buy a new Olfa mat. I really hate the Fiskars mat I’m using now. It’s really slick and my fabrics slides all over the place on it. It may be on its way out and this one will find a nice home on my cutting table.

And I love a very basic iron. I had an old Sunbeam my mom bought me when I was in college that petered out a few years ago. I bought a new basic Sunbeam but it doesn’t get as hot as my old one. I haven’t plugged this Black and Decker in yet but I’m hopeful that it will be nice and hot.

My friend and I decided that we are going to play women’s doubles in a couple pickleball tournaments in July and August. And my coach asked me if I wanted to play mixed doubles in one of those tournaments. It will be interesting to dive into the tournament world and see if I like it.

I hope everyone is able to stay cool in this terribly hot summer. We’ve had several days over 100 and plenty up in the 90s. We have another week of hot weather and then it should cool down a bit. The good thing is that is cools down nicely at night. I’m so glad I have central air conditioning.

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