Our air quality is terrible lately. AQI’s in the high 100’s the air is thick with tiny particles of ashes and dust. It seems like you could cut it with a knife, or rotary cutter. What it means for me is staying in and sewing. I did venture out last weekend, my DH and I went to Napa California for the Labor Day weekend. We did lots of wine tasting and gourmet food eating, no fabric or quilting related activities. I feel like I should mention that all anti-COVID related procedures were in effect and strictly followed. Although there is a winery tasting room in downtown Napa called Quilt and Co. There are no quilts, the name symbolizes the nature of estate wine making, bringing pieces (grapes?) together to make a complete project (wine?). If it sells wine, I guess its okay with me.

I’m still working on my hour-a-day sewing project, I am really going to finish a part today. Or close to it, just keep sewing. Yesterday I put the halloween panel quilt on the frame. I am trying to decide if I just want to do a panto, or free hand/ruler work. It’s not too big, maybe a hybrid is in order, do panto borders and freehand the center.

I am still having intermittent problems with my machine. It stops sewing in mid-stitch, I haven’t figured out the trigger for what causes it. It may be related to the presser foot mechanism, or the bobbin sensor. I have the bobbin sensor turned off, because it wasn’t sensing the bobbin and giving me an error screen. I was hoping that I could bring it down to the Bernina dealer in San Jose, and see if they could fix it. But they only have a certified Bernina repair tech in their Sacramento store. My dealer no longer has a certified tech, and would send it out to Chicago. As one can imagine, this would be costly for shipping and take lots of time. The drive to Sacramento is about two hours from here. I would still be without my machine for a few weeks, but I’d save on the shipping.

My hand stitching time is making a difference on the cross stitch project. I have been stitching nightly before going to bed. I’m about 75% done, starting to think about all the back stitching. I’m thinking I may go with #100 black silk instead of the DMC. The flowers are delicate and I think that they may be overwhelmed by the thicker thread. Plus I would be able to add some half stitches and slightly curved lines to it.

Off to sew, be kind.