Waning days of summer

You wouldn't know from the forecast that summer is on its last legs. High eighties today with increasing humidity, then low nineties and tropical humidity for tomorrow. It's always this nasty when I have to load up the sewing machine for a trip to the quilt shop.

This is my last free Monday, so I'm taking advantage of the free lessons that came with my sewing machine purchase. There are a few things I want refreshers on, like making consistent buttonholes (which I still can't do, and couldn't do on the old machine, either) and actually using the little foot that lets you sew buttons on by machine. I want to learn how to do "endess" embroidery, so I can embellish my sheets.

It's an all day affair. Lessons are about an hour and a half; I've one at 10:30 and another at 1:30. There's a delightful restaurant in town for lunch, and two hundred-odd books in the kindle. It should be a fun day, in spite of the heat.

Over the weekend I managed to cut out all the remaining backgrounds to the Feels Like Spring bedrunner. I was so inspired, I went ahead and started embroidering the lilies of the valley blocks that make up the border...all twenty of them. They are, thankfully, done. I'm now an expert at rethreading the machine. With three colors per block, and twenty blocks, I got enough practice to be able to thread the machine blindfolded. The finished blocks are darling and it's a relief to have them done.

Given that it will be steamy and nasty when I finally get home around four-ish, I may simply unload the sewing machine in the basement, rather than rolling it to the condo from the parking lot, then going back to put the car in the underground parking. That will give me the chance to give the studio a decent cleaning without having to take down the machine again, along with giving me an incentive to get that cleaning done quickly so I can bring the machine up and start sewing again.

I'd better go get packing, checking the list to make sure I've got all the bits, pieces and doo-dads that I'll need for class.