Ever Have A Day Like This?

Have you ever had a day where things seem to take way longer then they should to complete? How about when you finally felt like you were making progress you ended up stopping in your tracks because of a big goof? I have been working on this wall hanging off and on for quite a while. This story behind this wall hanging is a post in itself and I won't go into detail about it here. I was machine quilting a little while ago and look what happened!

I had just repositioned the quilt under the machine and thought it sounded different as I was sewing. I thought I had better stop and check it out. Yikes! This is a first for me - sewing a quilting template to the back of a quilt! For non quilting readers this is a heavy piece of plastic that has slits cut through it so a quilting design can be marked on a quilt prior to quilting. After I found my new design addition I decided it was time for a blogging break before I took the stitching out and started over. Quilting through a stencil is a first for me, and I hope a last!

In my last post I mentioned that my Father had open heart surgery. He is doing well now and is home recovering. The weather cooperated enough to allow my Hubby and I to travel down to see my Father. It was a snowy, icy drive, but we made it safe and sound. My Father was able to go home the day after we arrived and we were able to help my Mother settle him in at home to start the recovery process. Thanks to all who prayed for my Father. We so appreciate it! One thing that helped pass the time in the car and while sitting at the hospital was the scarf that I am knitting. I have about two thirds of it finished. I am using a Debbie Mumm yarn that I bought at Joann's. I like the way the colors flow into each other, but I do not enjoy using the yarn. The best way to describe the problem is that there seems to be a center core and the outside part kinks up. It comes off the skein kinked and that makes it difficult to work with. It will also kink while working with it. I doubt very much if I ever buy any more of this type of yarn again. I have found it easier to work with the yarn after I rolled it into a ball (as I was able to work some of the kinks out of it while winding). I will be taking one skein back to the store because I ran across three knots put in the yarn by the manufacturer. After the third large knot I quit winding and decided that I would be taking it back to the store. I don't want a knot in the middle of the piece and the color sections were completely off by the new yarn tied to the old. Ugh! I am glad I bought extra yarn as I was able to put out a fourth skein to work with, but I will be taking any of the unused yarn back as I don't want to make anything else with it. I stopped at Hobby Lobby on the way back home Saturday and bought some yarn to make a pair of socks with...I hope it is easier to work with!

I guess I should go and "unstitch" my machine quilting now and put the quilting stencil in a safe place before I begin quilting again!