Best Laid Plans

     It was going to be a lovely day.  I had decided to start an indoor project, be done by noon, and enjoy the rest of the afternoon outdoors.  

     I set up shop in the middle of the living room.  Card table, chair, then trotted down to the basement for the right tool.....the sewing machine.  I got this sewing machine as my big gift for graduating high school, which means it is now an antique.  Nowadays, kids get new cars......I was obviously born in the wrong time lapse. 

     Let's see, how long had it been since I had used this machine?  I walked through the house, looking for some crafty project I had constructed that needed a stitch or two.  I could not find a thing.  Looking at the machine, in its carrying case, I knew it had been quite awhile from the cobwebs that had accumulated on the backside.  I lugged the machine upstairs, along with its accompanying sewing goodies box, also an antique, and set up the work station.  The project?  Runtly needed a new pillow and matching kennel cover.  Piece of cake.  I had it all planned in my head and figured it would be a breeze.

     As usual, I have some element in my grey matter that lets me forget how much time has actually passed since I last did, or used, something.  I removed the case lid and began the threading process.  I smiled to myself, just like riding a bicycle, some things you just don't forget.  Within minutes, I was ready to sew. 

    The material I used was a large, king size quilted bedspread.  I had purchased this spread a few years ago at a department store.  It was just what I had been looking for, plain and simple.  It was a light sky blue on one side and off white on the other.  We used this quilt on our bed for about three or four months.  During that time I began to have leg pains when I would wake up in the morning and my feet would hurt when I got out of bed.  I was literally hobbling. Thoughts of something being terribly wrong with me were spinning in my head.  One night, as I was staring at the ceiling, tucked under the quilt, I realized my feet were being pulled in a downward position from the weight of the quilt.  Could this be the reason my legs and feet hurt?  The next morning I yanked that sucker off the bed and within two nights sleep, I was cured. Needless to say, the quilt found a new home in the closet.

     With the quilt covering the kitchen island and Runtly hanging on to one side of it, I measured and cut the pieces I needed.  Back at the machine, I carefully began to feed my creation under the needle.  Things seamed (no pun intended) to be going well until the thread began to bunch.  I figured this had something to do with the tension on the thread.  I am not an expert seamstress, I know just enough to be dangerous.  Thread tension was an aspect of sewing that always eluded my understanding.  Rather like my piano playing years....I never understood how to figure out what key a musical piece was played in.  When confronted with these kind of situations, my eyes begin to glass over and I just wing it.

     I referred to the instruction manual.  The machine may be over forty years old, but I still have the instruction manual.  I scanned the pages looking for the solution to bunched thread.  When I put the manual down, I noticed on the back cover a picture of a Sears service man.  There he was, in his Sears uniform, complete with matching cap, a bow tie and crisply creased pants......good grief, I wondered how I got so old.

     I messed with the tension, a most appropriate word, and still had bunched thread.  Then I noticed something, I had missed a crucial point while threading the machine.....the thing that makes the thread go up and down.  

     Six hours later at three in the afternoon, Runtly was the proud owner of a new designer pillow and kennel cover.  He was impressed and happy and I headed out the door with a cold brewsky.