The war of sewing

My sewing machine is currently set up in our basement workshop.  I recently made four skirts:  two from tablecloth fabric, one from a sheet, and one from batik fabric that I was given for Christmas.  I had a lot of problems with breaking threads, and used up several more spools of handed-down thread than I expected to.  I used the same pattern for all four skirts, from a sketch I had in one of the wardrobe booklets that I had made a couple of years ago.  One of the skirts is waiting to be overdyed.

I also sewed a new seat and back for one of our director's chairs, which had been waiting a long time for new canvas.  That process involved more troubleshooting than sewing, because my sewing machine didn't like the weight of thread that I was trying to use.  At one point I had my machine more taken apart for dust removal than I had ever done before; its innards were actually a lot cleaner than I expected.

Back from a working vacation...

 ...in which we scraped and repainted a porch for family, and then went and started the clean-out of a very cluttered rental house owned by other family members.

I came back with ideas about things that need to be done to declutter my own house.

Someone dumped a push mower in our yard while we were away; both my husband and I have been thinking about learning about small engine repair, so we are going to see what we can do with it.