Come Stitch With Me

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas on my cutting table!

Most of us like the convenience of precut quilt kits. One of the online quilting groups I follow highly encourages members to create your own project kits in advance so you can simply grab and go. This way you keep moving projects forward. In turn, this means said projects actually get done instead of languishing in the back of a closet somewhere. Very wise advise!

Early morning was spent cutting out a Twinkle Lights pillow kit using Lori Holt’s Vintage Christmas book while I listened in on a webinar for work. I thought I’d purchased a pillow kit from the local quilt shop last summer, but it must’ve been for a table runner, because I had a LOT of fabric left over.

Not to worry! Flipping through the book gave me ideas for Christmas presents – mainly potholders, placemats and small wall hangings. Potholders are the next projects to become DIY quilt kits.

I bookmarked a couple of potential layouts for my redwork Christmas sampler. I’m currently stitching block 11. Block 12 will be completed during my upcoming trip to Kansas City. The completed quilt will definitely be a two-color quilt with a vintage vibe. I plan to machine quilt this one myself. Hopefully, the ruler work class I’ve signed up for in KC will make it a bit easier.

It certainly felt like Christmas when I dumped out several storage bins of assorted STUFF. Sewing notions I’d been looking for were stashed in one of the boxes. I found several bits of red and white fabrics to add to my scrap bins for upcoming Christmas themed sewing projects. The rest will be donated to the SEQTM for summer sewing camps.

Getting lost for an hour this morning in my happy place was very therapeutic. Christmas is normally not one of my favorite holidays, so the fact I’m working on Christmas projects this far in advance and enjoying it – is a good thing, indeed.

I’ve made no secret that I work at a school in a very poor urban area. We bent over backwards to make sure students had devices and wifi access during remote learning this past year. Unlike neighboring school districts, parents were not required to pay a small fee for use of the device. BIG MISTAKE. This is what was returned to me this week. When asked, the student replied he tried to take the plastic cover off. He shrugged his shoulders when I asked why.

I have learned that people take better care of items when they have some skin in the game. My sewing students take better care of machines and supplies when a small user fee is tacked on to the class fee. Students tidy up the library before special treats or privileges are enjoyed.

When I was a kid, you didn’t admit that you received any type of government assistance. It was considered shameful. Now, it’s considered a badge of honor to get as much free stuff from the government as possible. It needs to stop.

Businesses can’t find workers because stimulus checks and unemployment benefits are far more lucrative. Now the federal government is starting to send out payments to parents based on the number of children in the family. Where’s the incentive to go to work?

Raise corporate taxes! Corporations are merely going to pass along the tax increases in the form of higher prices paid by the consumer (that would be you and me). This is also known as inflation.

Tax the rich! They don’t *need* the money! Perhaps not, but most of the more well-to-do folks that I know worked very, very hard for their money. They scrimped, saved and invested over the years. Why shouldn’t they be able to keep their money? If the government takes more via taxation, that’s usually less money they have to donate back to the local community. It may also mean the small business owner decides not to expand, not to raise wages, to decrease benefits or even close the doors because it’s no longer worth it due to all of the higher taxes. Again, no incentive to bust it every day.

That’s just wrong.

I think we all suffer from bright shiny object syndrome to some degree. Advertisers and marketers bombard us with messages that most definitely target this human tendency. You see it in both B2B and B2C advertising.

This evening, Sadie and I took a ride up to a local sewing shop to purchase a 6″x6″ ruler I need for an upcoming class. While there, I answered the siren call to test drive a new sewing machine. Mind you, the goal of the trip was to pick up the ruler, check on a specific pack of needles and head home.

I left the shop with only my ruler and several slightly damp fabric scraps that Sadie had played with during our visit. I also left with a vague sense of dissatisfaction with my current sewing machine inventory. Which was stupid on my part, because when I got home, I compared the stitch sample from my test drive to one from my current everyday machine. One stitch difference and certainly not enough to warrant buying that particular machine. I’ve very thankful my common sense prevailed.

I’m quilter. My FW and big fancy machine are great for that. They are NOT well suited for hemming knit fabrics. The FW can’t use a twin needle and the 9mm wide opening on the big fancy machine chews the fabric. Enter my little 3/4 size Elna Star Edition. It’s time to refresh my memory/learn how to use the utility stitches for basic garment sewing tasks.