Am I Sewing Anything?

I still haven’t sewn anything on the 1541. I’m not afraid of it; rather, it is more that I don’t want to learn by making stupid, avoidable mistakes. I am watching lots of YouTube videos. Jess, at the Jess OklaRoots channel, makes bags on a 1541 and her videos have been helpful. She calls her machine “Beasty” which is the perfect name for it.

I also decided to organize and reacquaint myself with the utility fabrics section of my stash. I took all of those bins out of the closet. One of them contained parts of canvas grocery bags—abandoned halfway through the assembly process—so I spent some time cutting more duck canvas and making a stack to finish.

I don’t like half-finished projects. They weigh on me. I want to finish my Ravenwood Messenger bag, too. The outside shell is done:

I have to finish the lining and sew it in. (The color is a bit more green and less yellow.)

My thread order from Wawak arrived yesterday. Their service is amazing. I placed that order Monday afternoon. I ordered needles from Cutex and they are supposed to arrive Monday. That’s assuming we don’t have a substitute mail carrier who decides to quit and go home even though all of the mail hasn’t been delivered, which happened this week. I made a quick trip into town yesterday afternoon to look for more duck canvas at Joanns and to pick up some concrete supplies for the husband. I left Joanns empty-handed, which seems to be the way of things lately. I don’t think I have bought anything there for almost two months. They had no black or navy duck canvas. I went to Hobby Lobby instead. I also stopped at the sew and vac place in town hoping they would have some industrial needles, which they did, so I picked up a few more packs. I have an irrational fear of running out of needles.

I have to plant beans this morning and get some hose lines laid out, but after lunch, I am hoping (finally) to sew on the 1541. I’ve got plenty of projects stacked up. I have thread. I have needles. I understand the basic operation of the machine. I am out of excuses.

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The CenturyLink saga continues. They disconnected our internet per my request, but then our long-distance phone service stopped working. I contacted them to find out what was going on. The customer service rep said they would have to send out a tech to check the line. She said that if the problem was inside our house, we would be responsible for the repairs. Would I like to add “inside line insurance” to our account for $15 a month? I declined, saying that I was pretty sure the problem was on their end. In the meantime, I’ve gotten a barrage of e-mails from CenturyLink asking “How Can We Make it Right?” Apparently they have never heard (or heeded) the advice that it is easier to keep an existing customer than to woo back one who has left.

I don’t know how some of these companies stay in business. And I know that I am starting to sound like a broken record but really, some of this nonsense is getting ridiculous.

My complaint to the insurance commissioner of Montana yielded stunning results. Not only did Liberty Mutual issue the check they had been promising for six months, they sent a second check for interest AND they responded formally by letter to the insurance commissioner. The letter acknowledged that they had failed to process the claim properly and that upon further review, they concluded that they owed us another several hundred dollars in interest and would be sending a check for that amount. It pays to be a squeaky wheel.