I had a big surprise when I went to put this week’s block on my little stand and found out that the block from 2 weeks ago was on there.  I thought I was on block 14 this week, but I’m a week ahead!

It’s been a week like that in Texas.  I followed Lori’s template picks and fabric picks, but I made some small adjustments to the layout from her original plan.  That’s a nice way of saying that typically I take my iPad into the room and scroll down through her instructions to determine how far to position the petals and leaves from the top, bottom and side to get it to look as close to what she intended as possible.  After all, she spent a lot of time working on it to make it look a certain way.

Not this week though.  My iPad’s battery was nearly dead and I’d already had the drama of a sewing machine in the repair shop so I decided to wing it.  I ball-parked everything from the layout of the petals and leaves, to the space between them.  Mine is spread out more than hers but unless you have the pattern, I don’t think anyone would ever notice.  

Done is better than perfect and not done!

And while I’m at it, another saying is “under promise and over deliver”.  While generally thought of in terms of a sales person, that was the tune of the day yesterday.  I got home from dropping my machine off, and got a call from Mr. Repairman.  It apparently won’t be 2 days, but instead 2-3 weeks that my machine will be ready.  In other words, just about the same amount of time as if I’d taken it to the store where I bought it.  That was a disappointment since a big selling point was he was super speedy but in his defense that’s how long he said it would take the missing piece to come in.  Once he gets the piece, he can turn it around in a matter of minutes.

The really good news though is I was inspired by this time to take another crack at repairing my old machine.  I pretty much took every screw out of it, had it upside down and sideways and then put it all back together again.  I made some adjustments along the way and – voila! – it’s working again!  Suddenly that 2-3 week repair time was much more palatable.

I had forgotten just how noisy this old machine is.  I can carry on a regular conversation with someone when I’m on my regular machine but I’m pretty sure the neighbors 2 blocks down can hear this one – haha!  That might be a slight exaggeration.  But it works and that’s all that matters.  Plus, my quarter inch foot fits on it so I got this block done in no time once I had the hand sewing on the appliqued portion completed.