Oh the Frustration of Sewing.

You see, some people love sewing for the relaxation that it brings, while some hate it becasue it can be so tedious. Some love the quiet humming of a sewing machine, while others find themselves with the most extreme migraine after listening to it for just a few minutes.

I fall somewhere in between those lines. I guess it is what some people call a love-hate relationship. On the last quilt i made, i was definitely feeling HATE.

What? I hate sewing? Well let me explain. I was finishing up the front of TW's quilt. As in it was 9:00pm and all i had to do was put the back on and i was done. NOT so fast. You see as i was laying down the front of the quilt on my living room floor so i could upload a picture on to facebook, something about it just wasn't right. It took me a few minutes to realize that i had sewn the ENTIRE front of his quilt with FLOWER fabric that was intended for a girl friend of mine's quilt. It was a nightmare.

I sat down on my couch and began seam ripping. Each little stitch had to come out. Three hours later i was back to square one.  By now its midnight, and i am just beginning a quilt i thought i would have finished a couple hours before.

I am finally almost done with the front (around you know, 3:30am) and what happens? The needle on my machine breaks in half. Despite the inconvenience, i don't stress out right away because i know i have several other back ups. I go rummaging in my supplies kit and find the package of spare machine needles. It is EMPTY. *sigh* At this point i am beyond frustrated.

Luckily, my mother has this disease called compulsive sewing machine buying. I swear we have at least ten in our house. Each one of my sisters has one and I own two. So I get down one of my mother's machines, thread the machine with my last spool of black thread, and get ready to work. I open the bobbin case and there is no bobbin in that machine. Now because this happens to be one of my mom's, I have NO IDEA where she keeps her notions. Plan B has offically failed.

The three machines i used on Friday night. The two on the floor are mine. Both Singers. 

There is only one thing left to do. 'Old Faithful' is what i call her. She is nine million pounds and I keep her on the very top shelf in my closet. Because she is nine hundred years old and so heavy, I usually do not use her unless its an emergency. However at 4:00am, an unfinished project IS an emergency.

After coming close to breaking my back lifting this thing off the top shelf while standing on the bottom shelf of my closet ( a very dangerous maneuver might I add), I set up the old girl and get to sewing. She works like a charm.

My girl 'Old Faithful'

Old Faithful was a gift to me from my aunt when i was in 3rd Grade. My very first sewing machine. Oh the torture i put her through. The endless stitching on paper (to practice straight lines of course!), pressing the pedal down so hard that the needle was going so fast I could practically see smoke coming out of her.    But despite her age, she is still my favorite machine. I have decided to tote her with me to college this year even though I will need a football team to carry her into my dorm room.

Needless to say it was around 6:00am when i finished TW's quilt. A LONG night indeed. But TW loved his blanket so it was well worth the all-nighter of frustration!