Sordid Sewing

Cleaned/oiled/reassembled all the Bernina bits and it worked right away! The tab on the bobbin winder wasn't lining up with the bobbin, but I just bent it a little and now it's good. I didn't have to do anything to the timing because I was unable to remove the bit that holds the bobbin case, so I had to clean it in place as best I could.

The 2 needles it came with aren't flat shank or round shank, but a mostly round shank with a groove, which I'd never seen before. Aside from the groove they're the same size as DBX1 needles, which are easy to get. The industrial I use at my alterations job takes them, but I also had a pack of my own that I'd mistakenly bought while trying to find needles to fit my serger. The hole in the needle bar had a tiny little nubbin on the inside (for the needle shank groove) which was evidently made by sticking a small bit of wire through a hole drilled in from the outside. I sheared off the nubbin and now it fits DBX1's!

It came with 3 bobbins and I have some more bobbins I bought from a junk shop that might perhaps fit, but I haven't tested them yet. I also haven't got the drop feed to work (possibly because I wasn't doing it correctly) but those are problems for later when it has a power source.

The art of mindless embroidery.

Color study

All of my funguary quilts together (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)🍄

Chicken of the woods, destroying angel, black trumpets, pixies parasol aaaand wrinkled peach mushrooms.

@crustose & I reupholstered a chair!

The original chair seat had completely worn through- to the point that the previous owner had already done their own replacement top. it was good enough to make it catch our eyes, but we knew we could do better. The new seat is made from a quilted table runner Sage had found at the bins a while back & wasnt using

After removing the old top, taking a rough pattern (and then spending probably too much time fussing over the exact pattern placement) i basted the seam allowance inside and then we got to stitching! This is a ladder stitch- super easy to do and honestly gorgeous results. we went back through the original stitching holes on the pleather side, which helped keep the lines straight and the stitches even, and i think it looks as seamless as if we had sewn it by machine!

take a "100000 hours" approach to your selvedges - pay attention and correct problems, but don't expect them to be perfect, it's something you'll get better at with experience.

That experience might mean nothing if you're working with a different yarn/sett/fiber/structure than usual

it's likely you're working with too much warp tension. Think canopy not tightrope.

If you think you need high tension to get even tension over your warp, the problem might be in how you wind the warp or how you dress your loom

It takes practice to build the muscle memory and rhythm that makes it look easy, give yourself time

Take care of your joints - stretching, massage, and proper rest are important. Weaving is a whole-body activity.

Sample. It's the weaving version of a swatch. A piece of cardboard with slits corresponding to the sett and a tapestry needle threaded with your weft is all you need and can save you some headache.

Image 1: Abby Cadabby looks pensive. Text: Think about the last few posts you saw. How did they make you feel? Which ones felt helpful or harmful?

Image 2: Elmo holds his hand up, looking at it. Text: Notice how you feel in your mind and body. Can you name an emotion you're feeling?

Image 3. Grover looks at a smartphone. His free hand is raised, as if in exclamation. Text: How much longer do you want to scroll? Is there something you set out to do when you picked up your device?

included a mistake or two to let the ghosts out. this was not foundation paper pieced, just a lot of noodling around

i'm responding to these tags so i can post my original mockup:

the three pink blooms absolutely is a traditional block that comes with a lot of different names and variations. i copied it by sight/with graph paper from the above image (Carolina Lily block by Quilt Missouri) and from this Bernina blog post about the Tulips In Vase block.

you can see i was planning to include more traditional blocks and got lost in the sauce of making stuff up. the less traditional blocks in the mockup are by BurlapandBlossom on etsy