Silver Lining…..

So our first week of summer break, the girls and I are waking to dreary, cool, weather and gray skies!!

I expect and am accustomed to our usual June gloom in the morning that gives way to afternoon sun.  However, this week, not so much…..  blah!!!

 Okay, so find that silver lining right?  We ended up making it into an opportunity to explore our creativity; the girls drawing, painting, cutting pretty paper, etc.,

and I busily working in the sewing room during the occasional lull. I  made huge progress on my design wall quilt,finished another blouse,  and was just about halfway through a second one when my beloved Bernina pooped out on me.  Ugh!!

Now what?  You know when you’re in that crafty, creative headspace and you’re on a roll how hard it is to stop?  This isn’t like stopping to go make dinner or change a diaper, it’s like stopping to pack up your machine and face the reality of being without for a week or so.  Of course I only realized this after tinkering with it for a good hour and becoming more frustrated by the minute.

Alas, it was time to call the shop….. to find out my attempts were futile and it was likely a timing issue!!  How could this be?  I just took it down there a month ago to have a quick fix and have probably done that a handful of times in the three years or so that I’ve owned it.  I’ve never owned anything this nice or expensive, with the exception of a car.  Is it possible that I have as many problems with this as I did with my mom’s old Kenmore machine?  Sometimes it feels like it.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my Bernina, but it does seem uuuhhh, temperamental if you will, a bit high maintenance you could say. Now in it’s defense, this machine gets used A LOT!  I suppose it’s like your car, the more you drive it, the more often you need to take it in for maintenance.

Okay, so find that silver lining again.  With my machine out of commission, I’ll have more time to play and extra card game with the girls, make another fort out of blankets, make extra fun Father’s Day Gifts, make another block town,  try out a new bread recipe, learn how to make plum preserves, work on those undone knitting projects, clean up my sewing room, not to mention all the many mundane tasks,  and lastly (for this post anyway) cut those HSTs that I started last week.

I was inspired by this quilt  and decided to try it out starting with some of my pink stash.  A week without a machine will give me time to cut, layout squares and gather more stash.

In the end, it’s all okay.  My machine will come back good as new and I’ll have had a break that will hopefully give me renewed energy to get back on my creative journey.

Hope you’re able to find your silver lining this week!