I’m working on a piece for the SDA Member Show at the San Antonio conference. I put together panels for three pieces and was going to finish all three and then pick the best one. Great idea but, with the cold I’m still recovering from and the fact that I’m leaving for a trip to Paris on Saturday (!!!), I decided one is just fine.

So I sat down at my sewing machine for the first time in over a month yesterday to do the stitching on the piece. Wow, was it a rough reentry! Some combination of the silk crepe fabric and the slippery rayon thread made for very uneven tension. That and the fact that the thread kept breaking made it a very frustrating experience. Once I moved on to the other panel of the piece it was smooth sailing which was reassuring. I haven’t lost my touch, after all.

the offending uneven tension

Working with the rayon threads can be so frustrating. I have some polyester thread made by Mettler which is great stuff but none of my local shops carry it anymore. It’s hard for me to pay the extra money to shop online. JoAnn’s carries all the Sulky rayon threads and I get them at 40% off when they’re on sale. They drive me crazy because they break so much but I love the luster they add.

The piece is just about done. Just the final stitching together and gluing it up to a canvas. I’m trying not to obsess about the uneven tension in my thread. I told my husband about it and he scoffed, “No one’s going to notice but you.” Hah! I’m entering it in a show of surface designers! If anyone’s going to notice, it will be this crowd.

One of these days I really should learn how to fine-tune the tension on my machine. I have a book but I’m such a visual learner that it doesn’t make sense. I really just need someone to show me. Anybody local want to spend 15 minutes showing me? I’ll buy you a cup of coffee!

ready to finish up!

the inside of the piece that won't be seen once it's finished