tiny stars: end of an era

The tiny star construction has come to a close, as of about noon today!

This past week, I have sewn the last sets of tiny stars, bringing my grand total to 1072. I might be off a few, but that's okay.  It's a few more than I need, so if it's off either way, I'm good.  Now I just have to wait for Saturday to go lay them all out!

Want to see the last batches?  Of course you do!

That last batch has a lot more than usual.  About this time, the hubby returned home from a week of fishing and I was ready to be done with these.  Also, no matter what I try to do, he is forever interrupting me, so I figured if I wasn't going to make quick progress on anything, I might as well finish the last pile of squares I had cut and stop and start as needed.

I can't believe these are done.

On May 5, 2017 the first tiny wonky star was made.  Just on a whim.  I made it into a pincushion.  Then I made a second.  Into a pincushion. I made another tiny pincushion from scraps that day, too.  I chased a lot of squirrels that day.  And then I went to bed.  And dreamed up a whole QUILT of tiny stars.  On May 7th, 2017, the first true tiny star was made for this quilt.  (And yes, maybe the dates are a bit off, but that's when they were reported in my blog and it's close enough.)

This journey has lasted over four years.  I've had stretches of ridiculous production of tiny stars and months of none.  I never set out to finish it quickly, it was a "forever" project that would take as long as it took because I didn't want to get sick of it before I was done.

I do not look forward to sewing them all together.  Longarming them might be a nightmare.  And the thing is bound to weigh half a ton since there is about as much fabric in seam allowances as in blocks.  But I love it still.

Continuing with leader-ender stars for the charity star drive, I made three more blocks:

I may continue to make more as I start on the next project, but even seven is a good number to send, right?  And these are kinda fun because I'm trying out blocks I've never made before, but not committed to a large project.

Finally, thank you to all of you who offered suggestions about my new machine.  Purchased at Hobby Lobby for $200, it is not a terribly expensive machine, so I expected I would have a few things to tweak to get it just right.  It also makes me not too worried about drilling a small hole in it, as voiding a warranty is the least of my concerns (though I haven't done that yet).  The box has printed on it, about 12 times, to not return it to the store, but to call Brother help line if something is wrong, so I was not going to take it back.  I know how those phone calls go - more often than not it is not fun or helpful.

But I am stubborn.  I went looking for answers on my own.  The internet is a vast place and you can find pretty much anything if you look hard enough.  What I found, though I wasn't sure it would be helpful at the start, was a gal comparing my new machine with an equivalent Singer machine.  She was into repurposing all sorts of materials (into what I'm still not sure) and was testing how well the machines would go through multiple layers of denim and leather and whatnot.  Her first trial through denim on my machine had it skipping stitches.  That made me feel better - she was having trouble, too!  But then she did something miraculous!  She remembered she had a smaller needle in there, one that was not heavy duty enough to sew through denim.  And she changed to a heavier needle.  Guess what?  It sewed BETTER than the Singer every single seam after.  Not one skipped stitch, even through like 10 layers of denim!  So what did I do?  I swapped out the 80/12 needle I had in there, the size I have always sewn with and had no trouble, for a 90/14.  Guess what?  Not one single skipped stitch in all those stars you see above.  It still has a little thunk when it goes through a particularly thick seam, but it goes through and catches.

All it took was a different needle.

I'm so happy that's all it was.

And I'm very happy that I am stubborn and didn't just give up and return it, however that could have gone.

I still do pause and check the stitches periodically when it does the thunk, and sometimes when not (because, you know, that's a good thing), but I think I'm back in business!

As for the thread spindle, I still haven't gone looking for the older one.  Since my hubby was gone for the past week, it wasn't something I could even get done until now anyways.  I'll continue to work without it for now, but also the thread spool I was using that had some manufacturing defects (burrs) on it is now empty.  So maybe I'll be able to use the horizontal spindle that is hiding in there with the handle (yes, I knew it was there for those of you suggesting I didn't know that) with this one.  Meantime?  I'm sewing!

Again this week I have no kitty photos to offer.  I was busy having the whole house to myself.  I did work a few days, but with no one else here to dictate my eating schedule, the menu or anything else, I tended to be less distracted and just kept busy sewing.  After I finished chores each morning, of course!

Now I'm off to contemplate the next project.  I found a quilt-along that, when done, you donate the finished quilt to Quilts for Kids, and that starts in just a few days.  The fabric requirements have been released, but not the pattern, but it looks simple enough.  And small enough that I can easily keep up with the schedule.  I'm debating making two, since I already have to spend postage to get one sent, why not add a bit more and do two?  (You know I'm crazy, so this should be no surprise!)

Happy quilting!

Katie