The Little Rocketeer

Since my sewing machine is inoperable and I found myself still motivated... I decided to start planning the quilt I intend to make for Dyson. I picked out the pattern and purchased the fabric for this quilt months ago. Because I am always SO organized (HA,HA!) I still needed to sit down to figure out what fabric goes where. Of course, I did this initially but never wrote it down anywhere and needed to figure it all out again.

The pattern I chose for Dyson's quilt is "Little Rocketeer" from McCall's Quick Quilts, July 2009. It took me close to an hour to figure out which fabric's I intended to use where in the quilt since the color scheme was a little different.



According to my receipt, I purchased three cuts of the galaxy print fabric for a total of 4.75 yards (1.75 yds, 1.00 yds and 2 yds). When I initially looked at the receipt, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out why I purchased only 4.75 yds when I was going to need a total of 6 yards (1 yd for the blocks and 5 yards for the backing). Well after pulling out the tape measure, I discovered that I clearly have more than the needed 6 yards. Joann's messed up and in my favor for the first time ever!!!

I built the color scheme off of the galaxy print using solids, batiks and tone-on-tone prints to highlight the main print. I decided to change the border to a starry sky. Within that border, I plan to applique two space ships at opposite ends of the quilt and use machine quilting in the border to make them fly.



Galaxy Print (Main Block and Backing)



Dark Blue Batik (Four Patch Block)



Medium Red Batik (Four Patch Block)



Orange Tone-On-Tone Print (Inner Border)



Medium Blue Print (Outer Border)

The Little Gem Derailed

I had so much motivation today to work on The Little Gem quilt. Got my sewing machine out, carried it and all the paraphernalia upstairs, set everything up and then guess what?! The sewing machine tried to eat a hole in the quilt!!! Once I finally got all the strains snipped without cutting a bigger hole in the quilt, I spent the next 30 minutes disassembling, testing and reassembling my sewing machine. Nothing helped, there is something seriously wrong that is causing my top thread to get tied around the bobbin spinney thing.

Very deflated, I packed that puppy back downstairs and looked up the nearest Brother Authorized Service Center. There is one just 9 miles away (Sew 'n Save, Brookfield, WI) and they have a service person there Monday-Friday AND offer free diagnostics. I will take it in Monday to see what needs to be done. What peeves me the most about this situation is I still have another 2 years of service warranty on the machine at Quality Sewing & Vacuum in Seattle that would make this whole "fix" free. But the warranty is not a Brother warranty and therefore not transferable to other non-Sewing and Vach stores :(

The good news is while taking everything apart, I found a portion of a needle I don't recall breaking, which ironically was not the problem.