Covers, quilting, and a full moon

Apparently the National Guard doesn't read my blog so they didn't show up despite being invited! LOL!!  Since  they didn't show up there was a lot that didn't get done, but I did get some stuff done. I worked on the covers for my brother on Sunday. Look at the nice neat way they are folded coming out of the package.

Then after sewing four together like a giant 4-patch, they look like this.

I took them upstairs to spread them out and fold them. I used a couple of my cast iron pans to hold down one end so I could stretch them out. Here is the one cover which measured 17 feet and folded in half was now 8'. So yes, the covers measure approx. 17 feet by 16 feet! It was almost as hard to fold them as to sew them!

Here are the two covers all neatly stuffed in a bag I made just for them. I took them over to another brother's house and they will be picked up today.

Friday night and Saturday I worked on quilting the vintage rail fence top. Friday night I had no issues, but on Saturday it was a battle. The thread kept jumping out of the bobbin and goobering up. I thought maybe I needed to oil the bobbin, so I did that but still had a problem. I made sure to clean the bobbin casing area out, and the thread was still jumping. I though maybe the thread was the issue - nothing I could do about that. I just keep plugging away and had to stop and fix the bobbin at least once every bobbin. I finally decided to tighten the screw on the bobbin and the last two bobbins sewed without any issues. After a lot of messing around, I finally got the quilting done, made the binding, and sewed on the binding. On Sunday after I got the covers done, I started hand stitching the binding. I ran out of time and have 55" of binding to finish.

On Friday I did find two shirts at the Goodwill to add to the mix of plaids for the binding.

The full moon must have been crushing my vibe since several things were off kilter. First, the bobbin thread issue, my lower level toilet kept intermittently running which was driving me crazy, and the pattern for the vest still hadn't arrived. I ordered the pattern 8/29 and it was coming from a town on the other side of the state. I messed around with the toilet adjusting the water level float, but that didn't work so I stuck a knife in the float so the water wouldn't kick on.  The water eventually drains out of the tank so I think the problem is with the seal. At least I don't have to listen to the water kick on and off. 

Then on Saturday the pattern for the vest I need to make finally showed up. The seller mailed it on 9/2 and it arrived 9/10. I have gotten stuff from California faster! Geeze! At least now I have the denim fabric, interfacing and the pattern so I can make the vest. I will find something in my stash for the lining. Too bad I didn't think about it earlier and get some fabric with a train theme. Oh well. I do have a piece of fabric that looks like a railroad stripe. I haven't measured to see it there is enough, but I will find out tonight!