About a month ago, my world was rocked when my husband was diagnosed with a very rare form of thyroid cancer.  We were immediately dispatched to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for further evaluation. We knew the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes surrounding the thyroid on his right side.  What worried us was a suspect lesion on his lung that appeared on the CT scan done locally. The battery of tests conducted that long week spent in Houston for evaluation concluded that the cancer had NOT spread.

That’s good news since the only protocol for this type of cancer is removal by surgery. There’s no chemo or radiation afterwards. Hubs will be under the knife for several hours as Dr. Z. and his team work their magic. Hubs will come away with a nice, long scar as his souvenir.  My fervent hope is that the surgical team gets ALL the cancer and there are no surprises during surgery.  I sincerely hope hubby heals quickly and with minimal pain. Well, the previous sentence is for me, too, as I will be the one with him in Houston for those two weeks.

Yes, I’m packing my Janome Jem Gold 660 and Granny’s Garden (a Lori Holt sew-a-long) project to work on while I’m there.  [Ideally, I’d bring a Featherweight, but I need a zigzag stitch for applique.]  Others in similar circumstances actually encouraged me to bring a machine or pick up an inexpensive one at Wal-Mart once we got to Houston. It will give me something to do either in the hotel suite or in the community room (we’re staying at a property adjacent to the medical center). Handwork can be saved for time spent waiting in the doctor’s office.

We’re on Fall Break this week. I’ve spent time outfitting the Janome with accessories I might need and sourcing fabrics/tools/templates for the quilt. Tomorrow, I will make the first block – all the way from start to finish. Lori Holt suggests that you precut everything and put it in baggies before you begin to sew. No time for that. I might try to precut parts for the next 5 blocks and bring the rest of the fabric with me.  I plan to use a low sheen, invisible poly thread for the inner appliques and white thread to stitch down the large circles to the background squares. I don’t have room in the suitcase for multiple spools of thread to match each applique piece. I need to find my notes from the invisible applique class I took with Jan Cunningham!

The Janome Jem Gold 660 is a wonderful sewing machine. However, it features stitches that come with preset stitch length and width. I could not find stitch length and width measurements anywhere for the straight and plain zigag stitches. I even called Janome. Their USA customer service didn’t have the info either.

Some experts recommend disregarding any sewing machine without adjustable stitch length and width. For most sewists, preset stitches are really not that big of a deal unless you are taking a class that requires decorative stitches and uses heirloom sewing techniques.  The Jem Gold 660 is perfectly fine for quilting classes, raw edge & Lori Holt appliqué projects, plus most garment sewing applications.  It also makes a great travel machine.

Following is my best approximation of the actual stitch length and width for the preset straight and zigzag stitches only:

Straight stitch length

Small  1.7 mm – 15 stitches per inch (anything where foundation paper is torn away after stitching)

Medium 2.5 mm   – 10 stitches per inch (95% of your sewing will be done with this stitch)

Large 4.0 mm  – 6 stitches per inch (basting and gathering)

Zigzag stitch width x length

Small  1.5 mm x 1.5 mm (appliqué  – most of your appliqué will probably use this stitch)

Medium   3.0 x 3.5 mm (appliqué, decorative, seam finish)

Large  5.0 x 2.5 mm  (seam finish, decorative)

(I measured actual zigzag stitch samples with a metric ruler.)

* In a pinch, you could probably use the narrow and wide stitches in the 4 step buttonhole for a satin stitch!

Sometimes I feel like the company clerk on MASH – you know the guy who had or could find you almost anything?  Even with sewing studio B dismantled because we no longer do clubs at school, I keep a super stocked sewing kit in my office.  That plastic bin probably knows the school’s layout as well as I do because so many people have borrowed it!

Today, the new music teacher came to discuss a small hole in her daughter’s leotard.  Fortunately, I had polyester thread and appropriate hand sewing needles in the box. What she really needed, though, was a 2″ square of black, fusible knit interfacing to reinforce the hole prior to stitching it. My coworker showed me her handiwork as we left school for the day.  She did a nice job. I hope the repair held through her daughter’s competition this evening.

You can easily make your own mini-sewing kit by repurposing a small hinged metal or plastic box (like an Altoids tin).  Wind bobbins of white, medium tan and black polyester thread.  Include thread conditioner, a thimble and some hand sewing needles. A small pair of stork scissors adds a nice touch.  A needle threader is a necessity for me.  Place your needles and a few straight pins on a small piece of felt.  Add a few wonder clips,  safety pins and translucent shirt buttons – you’re all set. Some folks like to add a small magnet (needle minder) or a tape measure. Add whatever items you need – it’s your sewing box.