Do you remember that wonderful,quirky PBS series connections? You know the one where a fly bites a donkey’s bum and the abacus gets invented?
We ll here’s my connection:
After my Christmas visit to Dallas, I came home with all of the sewing supplies I needed.
I cleaned and organized my sewing room: and here is the proof:
I shopped in Dallas with an organized plan. I purchased lovely fabrics that all work together and these were going to be my entry in the Artisan’s Square Sewing With A Plan contest (SWAP). My darling Miss Meliss gave me a gift card at Hancock’s.
There are not a lot of fabric store choices in Dallas and I cannot shop in Hobby Lobby, they are anti-choice and against Marriage Equality, they don’t get my money.
I had ordered notions and thread online and shipped them to Miss Meliss.
I filled in with fabrics and notions at Jo-Ann’s and came home ready to sew up a storm, and enter the SWAP contest and many contests at Pattern Review.
Here’s the connection: on January 5th we went to our usual Saturday breakfast with Patricia and Gordon at Maria California. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and a little crisp for us.
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| Coco-Nut Ibrahim Garcia |
We decided to take Coco-Nut Ibrahim Garcia for a walk on the Malecon. Then I was going to go home and sew.
We were walking and talking, and I was snapping pictures of the sun on the water, and the shells on the beach to send home to my snowbound friends. Suddenly my foot rolled and I fell and could hear my bone crack. The pain was excruciating and came in waves followed by nausea and numbness.
Alas, this is not a story about my broken ankle, it is about my long –misused, and abused sewing tool.
So after the cast was put on, I was unable to stand to cut fabric, or put pressure to use the foot pedal on the machine. The cast was heavy, I was in pain, uncomfortable and depressed.
While we were waiting for a friend to get us a borrowed wheelchair, my Beloved was using my sewing room chair to roll me around.
But it was not rolling easily and it should have been smooth and fast. After all we have tile floors.
Mary my mechanical genius and shell-artist friend came over. I asked her to turn the chair over and see if the wheels were somehow locked.
“ No wonder!” She exclaimed ”The wheels are impacted, they need a hair cut.”
She flipped over the chair and this is what I saw:
All five wheels looked like this!
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| I started pulling stuff out it was wound tight before I started |
So I decided to clean out the five wheels. Armed with scissors, tweezers, a seam ripper and a box cutter I went to town. With my injured leg propped up on the sewing machine case, my Ott light aimed at the chair I went in.
It was like an archeological dig. I pulled out a 1 x 3 inch scrap. And exclaimed: “ Ah this is my robe, the one I have to replace, I made that 11 years ago!” It was incredible what I found.
Look, there is a safety pin wrapped around the wheel!
I developed many techniques, there was the “Crocodile Technique” where I grabbed a bunch of thread and rolled and rolled it around the tweezers, much like the death roll when a crocodile grabs it’s prey.
Then there was the “Dental Probe”, where I went in deep in the cracks of the wheel and gently pulled out yards and yards of thread.
There was metallic thread, serged thread tails, yarn and all kinds of scraps.
I worked at this project for five days. On the maid’s day, I could not hear her working, I was rolling around looking for her, and found her raptly working on a wheel tweezers and box cutter in hand.
It was addicting to us both. I scooted her away and said I was my project to fill all of the hours I would have been sewing.
“ And, I said (in Spanish) don’t throw away these piles of thread, I am going to take pictures and write a blog post!”
My leg swelled and throbbed in the cast, my neck aced, my fingertips were numb, but I persevered.Each one of these piles is form ONE WHEEL
My leg swelled and throbbed in the cast, my neck aced, my fingertips were numb, but I persevered.
And now my lovely chair rolls again!
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| all clean and ready to go! |
And here’s a little something from La Paz:
9 Comments
Anonymous
April 25, 2013hahahaha…That was so fun and funny too! Still sorry about your bone break, but the wheels story was precious! I do hope you have healed…along with the chair.
St Marys Park
April 25, 2013This comment has been removed by the author.
kass
April 25, 2013Susan, what will you think of next? I can't wait to read your amusing stories.
KansasKathy
April 26, 2013That is some serious impaction!
I bet you are wheeling around like a breeze now.
Susan Fogel
April 26, 2013Really, who would have thought to look at their chair wheels!
And yes it rolls better now!
Anonymous
April 29, 2013Thanks for the fun story! Only you would have tons of thread in the wheels.
Sorry about your ankle
Heal soon
Hugs for you childhood firend
T
Anonymous
May 2, 2013I have to do this every few months, but you have me beat on amount of thread from a single wheel-LOL! Just be careful when using your newly-cleaned chair–it will roll REALLY FAST. I usually run my knee into the corner of the sewing counter at least once until I get used to having wheels that really roll again.
Hope your ankle get better soon!
Susan Fogel
May 2, 2013Moms. T,
I try to be different at all times. Hugs back st you!
S
Anonymous
May 2, 2013Oh how funny! I'm sure my rolling chair and my rolling dress form have just as much thread locked into them as your chair did. Anyway, your sewing room looks absolutely beautiful. And Coco Nut is adorable. nancy2001
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