Humming Right Along

Good early morning Arizona.  It's still very dark outside as the latest train goes lumbering and screeching by.  Those steel wheels going around the big sweeping corner can sing a song of woe.   It's not as cool as yesterday, so my door remains shut.  

It's funny though ... I can still hear the sirens, and just like any dog, I can hear the coyotes singing along.  I laughed when I heard that.

Since it was Sunday (usually the last day of a great rodeo), I just hung out with my quilting machine while the TV was on.  Although it causes me lots of stress on occasion, the machine doesn't talk back.  This is the quilt I was stuck on yet again ... the one where I took out about 1,000 stitches ... one at a time.

The good news is I finally got the resetting part down, so it knows where it is and where it's going to start. It's like having a windows computer on steroids when you've only used a MAC computer.  I immediately sat down and wrote up an entire page of instructions on how to do it, because you KNOW in three months I won't remember.

It finished stitching out beautifully with no problems, but I did keep pushing the USB cable in to be sure it worked.  No telling when the new cable will show up.  It even came out perfect at the end ... so I wrote down all those instruction too!!  

In case you were wondering, there is NO instruction included with this machine.  That's how they get you to sign up for the $1900 class in Salt Lake City Utah in order to learn how to make it work.  Luckily I got ahold of some nice ladies there who sent a set of retail teaching instructions.  I think this is my all time favorite quilt ... even if it is only a lap quilt size.  I'm sure you can guess why.

While that was quilting ... and I was listening to the machine like I was sitting on that D9 caterpillar making darn sure I didn't get stuck ... I worked on the binding of this pink one.  That's how it is when you were raised on a ranch.  Machinery was expensive to fix and if something went wrong, you better be able to recognize it instantly and shut it down.  That's how I am with the longarm.  The slightly little squeak, rattle or hesitation and I hit the STOP button to find out why.

This is what it looks like when Cooper decides he either wants outside or he requires a treat.  Mostly treats, but he has to go outside to get one!!

Back at it again, this is the next quilt to hit the rack.  This is for a customer, so I held my breath the entire time.  I didn't pass out because it's a small lap quilt.  Only four rows of quilting compared to the normal eight.  She hummed right along, but I'm not getting overconfident.  This makes three that now require a very sharp needle to hand stitch the binding, along with lots of bandaids.  There's nothing like sticking a needle up under your fingernail.

In the meantime, the hummers are out in force.  Apparently the migration is starting.  This is the first time I've seen some of these guys, as told by their coloring.  I filled this feeder in the morning, and look how much has disappeared thus far.  It's crazy how much these guys can drink.  By 5:00 it was almost empty.

As soon as the sun is up, they come in droves for breakfast.  The guy on the bottom is the type that usually stays around all summer.  They disappear during the heat of the day, then return about 4:00 for dinner.

This guy ... aren't their colors amazing?  There are so many varieties, I have no idea what his official name is, other than beautiful.

Most of the day it looked like this.  It's so weird during monsoon season that it can be sunny with nary a cloud in the sky, when you hear raindrops on the chimney.  I go outside to see rain falling on one side of my patio and not on the other, about 30 feet away.  

Today I'm a house prisoner.  I'm having the carpets cleaned and of course they give you a time slot of noon to 6:00 pm.  I think I'll while away the hours by separating out that can of change I found in the cupboard. Shades of Bingo!!!  I may even be forced to read a book.  Oh the pain!!!!