the design wall is layered up three deep at the moment. my grandchildren came over for the evening while their parents went out and r and i got to sew together for the first time this year. i asked him if he wanted to work on his quilt or make some "cute betsy hearts." he chose the quarter log cabins, which i now call "robin nests" rather than "valoe cabin." i wanted to see what we'd made so far so we could keep mixing up the colors, so i put them up on the design wall on top of "pinky stinky."
i've been letting r decide which order to put the colors in, but we're ending up with a lot in a similar configuration, so i intervened a little for a few blocks and we are now a little better mixed.
to keep him from curiously pushing buttons and turning dials on the sewing machine while i'm pressing seams open and cutting strips, i introduced him to a little basket of scraps i've been saving for him to snip. using scissors develops fine motor skills in young children, so i like to give him opportunities to work on those skills. d5 looooved to cut paper or fabric into tiny little snow flurries when she was small. i've been saving my too-small scraps for r for a few months now so that he can have fun with harmless, skill-developing cutting, too. he definitely enjoyed it!
we switched up the sweet bowl for some valentine's leftovers. r wanted to put them in the harp space right in front of him so he could keep an eye on them while we sewed. he gets to pick one piece after each block we complete, which means he only got two in this session.
we were having some real difficulties with the stitch getting dropped after the first few on each new seam. it was getting really frustrating for me. i checked the bobbin several times, adjusted the tension on it, cleaned out the inside of the machine more than once. nothing was helping. i was also hearing a weird triple click every two seconds. i thought for sure something was wrong with the bobbin. finally, i decided to do the fail-safe thing and change the needle. r turned over the "key" (the machine's screwdriver piece, which he insists on holding every time we sew) so i could turn the screws for the needle.
voila! it worked it's magic just like it always does. no more issues, all smooth sailing.