If anyone hasn’t noticed before, I tend to time everything based on what I was watching. Dyeing a 12 step color wheel in 4 gradations takes one season of Hustle. Summer Sunset, my first wearable piece, took the entire 4th season of Stargate SG-1. I can sew a Block of the Month usually in one episode of Holmes on Homes. Hmmm… maybe I watch too much TV….. Well, anyway.

Last Saturday, I cut and marked the crosshatching for Charm City while watching Definitely, Maybe and part of an episode of some new show with Erin Brockovich as the host. Neat show. But 2 hours to mark straight lines on a quilt that’s only 36″ square?

Then, it turns out that I didn’t like the way the even lines looked and went with uneven lines.  LOVE IT.  Finished it last night right after my post, btw.  While watching the convention.  I missed 2004, but have otherwise watched every convention in my lifetime.  And yes, I remember them.  Yes, I know I was 3 when Geraldine Ferraro was nominated for VP.  *But I remember it!*

Last night, I spent an hour or so plotting all the parts of the appliqué onto a Cartesian grid.  Am I a math geek or what?!  But it was very handy when I started attaching things this afternoon.  The green leaves needed to be stitched down with a color of Bottom Line and Lola is not-so-much as fan of BL.

I fussed.  I fumed.  I tweaked tension.  Finally, I decided to call Superior and ask if they had any suggestions….  WOW!  The gal I spoke with was all kinds of awesome!  She sat with me on the phone and gave me suggestions and answered my little questions as we went.  She didn’t make me feel like I was taking up her time and stayed with me until I got it running.  And now, I think I have the right combo for top & bobbin tension as well as sandwich tension and needle size.  Remind me, I must order some more size 19 needles if I plan on running BL or So Fine in the future.

Now Lola likes BL.  She’s still in love with MasterPiece, but we’re going to work on thread-polyamory.