Quilt Math

I got my sewing machine back from the shop yesterday. I had it in for semi-routine maintenance. The 'dashboard' has service symbols when it's time for an oiling or professional service. I oil my machine far more often than the light indicates. Maybe that's why the service symbol doesn't come on, I just bring it in when it's been a while.

Last time I had it in for service was in April of 2008. The tech provided me with some statistics from my machine's computer.

General sewing time: 25:39
Stitches: 6,802,510
Time using the embroidery module: 1:23
Embroidery stitches: 502,400
Time quilting with the stitch regulator module (BSR): 1:36
BSR stitches: 5,490,480
Total time: 28:38
Total stitches: 12,795,390

Since I bought my machine used, all the embroidery work was done by the previous owner since I don't have that part.

I asked for the same statistics this time, almost three years later.

General sewing time: 99:37
stitches: 2,572,174
Time using the embroidery module: 1:23
embroidery stitches: 50,240
Time using BSR: 1:43
BSR stitches: 773,830
Total time: 102:43
Total stitches: 3,396,244
Total time turned on: 6233:51


OK, so do you see the problem here? The first set of numbers is off. By a lot, a factor of 10. I'm guessing there's an extra zero at the end of the older counts. After I adjust for that what puzzles me the most is how I could have sewn 224,782 stitches with the BSR in seven minutes.

I guess it's a new form of quilt math I'm not aware of.

July

Ok, July is gone, but the heat lingers.

I still haven't watched Howard's End yet, the netflix disc taunts me continually. I did see the rest of the Harry Potter movies before the premier of HP-VIIb. I took Kevin to see the show at midnight. It was fun, getting caught up in the whole first-night frenzy, but I really want to see it again in a normal way, no craziness, no kids in school uniforms. Dan hasn't seen it yet, either, so I'm thinking "date night!" Every time I think I have an open evening, our darling daughter gets a call asking her to work, and no daughter means no supervision for Kevin.

Speaking of Kevin, Dan and I are discussing getting him a cell phone. There are many times when he's out on his bike, for example, and I want to get a message to him, like, "come home!" Last month when Dan was in California I'd hand my phone to Kevin so he could type out a message to his dad. Sometime he'd rebel, sometime he'd answer Dan's questions, and sometimes he'd just type back what was asked of him. Written echolalia. I'm afraid, on the other hand, he'll lose it, or it'll get taken from him; he won't be responsible for it, or he'll manage to run up a $600 phone bill. Fern managed to rack up an extra $120 last month, so anything is possible with The Boy.

I have a stack of Girl Scout vests I've been ignoring and many quilting projects that should require my attention. I've set a goal of finishing one by the time state and county fair entries are due so I'll have to get it done. I need to get another quilt done by October so it can be included in a book being published by the woman who designed the patterns. Add the monthly sewing obligation of the swap we're doing in my bee. Sheesh.

OK, that's enough for now, just listing it all out makes my head hurt.

Another Misplaced Round-up

The lovely large white envelope addressed to some office in Andover, MA was placed in the mail box in front of my office building before the 12:00 pick-up yesterday, along with a lovely large check, a full 12 hours and twenty minutes before the deadline. Moments later the state taxes were filed on-line. I should be getting that refund in a few days. Yippee.

Fern skated well at the ISI District 4 championships over the weekend, unfortunately there were others who skated better. She took home ribbons for two second places and two fourth places. She wants to do more competitions, so I can only surmise she had a good time and isn't detrimentally brokenhearted about not getting a first place. We bought the DVDs for her events, but I have no idea about how to upload the video so you all can see, too.

One of the local Brownie Girl Scout leaders asked me to come and sew badges on vests for girls during their weekly meeting last night. She gets quite aggravated when the girls don't have the insignia in the correct locations and wants to make it very easy for the parents to get it "right." There are four troops meeting at the same time in one of the churches so she was hoping for my sake I'd get a lot of business. As it turns out, I got four new clients and was able to finish vests for three of them. Then my machine jammed, the one I just picked up from the shop for its 7500 mile checkup. Time was up anyway so I brought home the fourth one. I charge $25 per year of service or $1 per badge. If a year is purchased, I feel it good service to fix anything on the vest that's loose or out of place. The last parent wanted to only pay for the six badges to be sewn on. However several more should be adjusted and I'm in a quandary as to how much work to do and how much to charge for it. I'm leaning towards thinking if she can't afford the $25 and only wanted to pay $6, then I should fix everything and sew on the new things for $7 or $8 total, and not any more. This is a pocket-change job anyway, not a mortgage payment.

I'm very glad Jason got the boot on last night's Hell's Kitchen, I didn't like him.

Photo of the Day

A Window in Pula, Croatia

How was your weekend?

My weekend was busy. I wrote a post the other day about Kevin but had to save the draft and run off to something.

I missed work on Friday and spent a lot of the time working on the living and sewing rooms, getting them so you could walk around. (I still owe Lorraine a picture of my miscelaneous kitchen stuff I haven't put away yet.) It was just as well that I missed work, one of our servers is not functioning properly so I wouldn't have gotten a lot of work done anyway.

I also got most of Fern's pixie costume constructed; I just need to attach the lining to the skirt and attach the fringe on the bottom. Oh, and put grommets on the corset.


I got my sock knitting needles I ordered off the 'net and I finished another pair of socks with one set and started working again on the corn fiber Hibiscus socks (remember those?) using the other set. You can see them in the picture. These are 4" (10 cm) size 1 Addi aluminum needles by Skacel of Germany, which is very short so I'm still getting used to how they feel in my hands, they are almost like knitting with toddler needles, if there was such a thing. The other set I ordered was for the socks with the thicker yarn, size 8 5" Bry-Flex plastic needles by Bryspun. Both needles have a higher drag coefficient than the longer metal ones I had been using, so my stitches were snug and I've had to adjust my tension. I hope it won't be noticeable in the results. In the picture the green socks are for my daughter (normal woman's sized foot) and the brown socks are the first pair of Christmas present socks I've finished.

I now have 14 badge sewing clients (including my daughter) with the promise of two more. I got a lot of badges sewn on this weekend too, several clients are done. Several bags of vests are catch-up work: badges and patches earned in a previous level of scouting but neglected so I have years of things to do. Ugh. I've decided to charge extra for this, especially when it's a lot to do. On the happy side I raked in over $140 for my services.

Check my to-do list in the margin for my progress. :) But don't look for finished laundry, I didn't do any this weekend.

And now, here is the post I about my son I didn't get to publish when I started it. I must confess I stole Maddy's writing style from over at Whitterer on autism when I relay Kevin's conversation. She has such a great style of writing about her family with two autistic sons, I love reading it.

I've been spying on my son. Sort of. He will go out for a bike ride around the neighborhood and be gone for a long time. He can't tell me where he goes specifically. So I bought a bike computer and installed it. When he comes back from his rides I check it. His rides are 2-4 miles long. OK, I realize it's not really spying, but now I know how far he's riding.

He's been packing for our trip to Great Wolf Lodge. Since he has little conversation skills, he'll enter a room and just start in on what's on his mind. Like his packing list.
"He packed two pairsezez ov babing suits, and two pairsezez ov shorts, and free pairsezez ov socks, and free shirts."
"Where are we going?"
"Great Wuf Wodge."
"When are we going to Great Wolf Lodge?"
"January."

Sometimes he even puts the suitcase in the car. Every now and then I have to find and empty his suitcase so he has regular clean clothes to wear. If he sees me touching his bag he goes ballistic, so I have to be stealth-mom but whatever he's been reciting, is in the bag.

I've agreed to make a halloween costume for Fern. She wants to be a "woodland pixie." She picked out a pattern, one with multiple possibilities. She wants her outfit like the green one in the center of the picture, but with short sleeves.

I study the pattern guide, everything is lined with lots of pieces, bias cut skirts and gathers. Yuck. Fern watches me nervously. I explain some principles of garment construction. She sees it's not going to be easy and is afraid I'll back out. She asks how I learned to sew (as her friends are amazed I made her halloween dress a few years ago). I tell my 7th grader and she is shocked. I first learned to sew in 7th grade Home-Ec class. One third of the year was spent cooking, one third sewing, and one third in crafts, although I can't remember what else I learned except knitting. She's jealous. She wants to have Home-Ec. She wants to learn to sew. She also wants to be able to help with my badge sewing business. (I should have 5 more clients by the weekend, yay me!) She wants to learn to knit, I'd love for her to knit her own socks and sweaters.

I guess Home-Ec and shop got cut from schools when money and scheduling got tight. No child left behind. I wonder what kind of long term repercussions will result in this. The kids, theoretically, will be able to read, but will they know what a healthy meal is? CNN had a bit on a few weeks back saying people think of food as ready to eat. Is the lack of cooking skills leading to overeating of fast food alternatives? Is the increase in childhood obesity a result of no Home-Ec in schools?

Just wondering.

Everyday when I get home from work I check my box on the front porch, the box from which I run my business. Everyday it's empty. As much as people tell me it's a great service, I'm still disappointed when I'm not serving anybody.

Until last night when I got home from the local Six Flags, which is a horrid horrid place, by the way. It was the first time I'd been all year, hadn't been there since the fight last year. There was yet again another fight this time and a roller coaster got stuck. Anyway, there was a bag in my box with a vest and badges ready for my attention. In the words of London Tipton, "Yay me!"

The youth group at church went to Six Flags yesterday and I went as a chaperon, mostly beacuse I'm continually trying to get Kevin acclimated at church and Church with Kevin. Seven or eight years ago he was "kicked out" of Sunday school because of his autism, nobody knew how to deal with him. And the pastor didn't want to try or work with me for a solution. That pastor (why can't you accept my son, Christ does?) has since left and the new pastor, not so new now, he's been here over three years, is very accepting of all kids, he even lowered the age of junior church which meant if you were older than 7 you were welcomed in regular worship, noise and all. Back then I tried Kevin at a special needs Sunday school at a different church, but I didn't like their service, so it didn't last.

Now that Fern is of middle school age and participating in youth activities, I'm trying to get Kevin involved too. But not where it'd be stupid to try; I try to pick appropriate events. The other junior and senior high youth group kids at the park last night were very welcoming to Kevin and he would have been just fine without me there, but since I went to chaperon, he hung out with me and we rode rides together.

Not counting the Hibiscus socks I'm making for myself, I've finished 3 socks in the last week and have 6" of the cuff done on number 4, the second of the pair for Fern. Hers are shades of tweedy green. I make a lot of progress knitting during our weekly staff meeting, it tends to be boring when the boys are talking systems stuff so I knit to stay awake. When we get around to the stuff I work I'm ready to spout off the status of my assignments. (When I have client meetings, I leave the yarn at my desk, in case you were wondering.)

I finally got some clients for my home business last night. A fellow Girl Scout mom brought two vests to me for my sewing service for her daughters and a check for $50. (Yay!) She also brought large bags of badges to sew on, of course, it'd be silly not to, but it's several years worth! For each daughter! I'm not complaining, I like to have paid work to do, but this is seriously going to cut into my knitting time.

Working on my sewing badge....

I have officially started my business. It's a small business I run out of a plastic Sterlite tote box which sits on my front porch.

Fern's been a Girl Scout for several years now and I'm a perfectionist when it comes to getting her badges on her vest or sash in the correct place. It's gotta be perfect. It would drive me absolutely nuts to see other girls' vests with the badges all caddywumpus and in the completely wrong place. I never said anything to the other parents, but, boy, I wanted to. I've even held myself back from ripping the offending vest off the poor child.

Then, sometime ago, AM asked me to sew Suzy's badges on her Brownie vest and gave me $20 to do it. So, I got to thinking: they don't teach Home-Ec anymore, I bet a lot of parents don't know their way around a sewing machine, and those plastic-backed patches are murder on your fingers to sew through by hand, so they'd need help, too.

So I made up a flier and emailed it to some troop leaders and parents and put my drop-off box on my porch and I'm ready. I'm charging $1 per badge or $25 per year. It's the start of a school year, the troops are forming, money should just start rolling in now!

When it rains, it pours

Saturday was a gorgeous day. Hot. It hadn't rained in a while so I set the sprinkler out for several hours. Sunday it rained, over an inch. Now the lawn really needs to be mowed. I coulda mowed on Saturday.

Memorial Day weekend I turned on the AC for the season. Later I heard some crackling noise from the basement, went to inspect and found water dripping on the electronic air cleaner. Hmm. I called the company who put in the furnace last winter. Service call, please. How's Tuesday? Over the weekend I went downstairs for something and the basement is flooded. I'm guessing they didn't hook the AC drain back up properly when installing the new furnace. And I won't pay for the service call if they try to charge me.

Sunday morning, getting ready for church, I find a puddle around the fridge. I pull the fridge out from the wall to take a look. There is a drain line from the icemaker that is not connected. I reconnect it, and, while the fridge is pulled out, I mop back there, yuck. Later in the afternoon, I hear the icemaker fill with some additional dripping, more like pouring, sound. hmm. I pull the fridge out again. Hey! the floor is clean back there, woohoo! Oh, and the drain line is disconnected again. So I'm thinking the icemaker is clogged, frozen shut, or something, it's on the blink. (I want a new fridge. The current one is twenty years old....) So I've been trying to figure out how to get hot water up in there to thaw the innards of the icemaker to see if I can fix it, or if it really is dead.

Last week I promised to work on Fern's quilt, so I have been. And hand quilting it, too. I decided I'd finish the pattern I'd already started by hand, then use the machine to quilt the border and maybe augment the current pattern. It was then, during the initial excitement phase of working on a new project again, I remembered I owed some birthday blocks to women in my quilt guild. And top of that, I've been hired to make four 91" drapery pannels out of moss green velvet. I'm trying hard not to crush the velvet in the process. I'm also trying to figure out how much to charge my client. Too bad I can't charge her the amount of a new fridge.

It's like the Nationwide commercial: Life comes at you fast.