Three Weeks, 21 States, and 9,712 miles

 I had scheduled my blog to update ahead of time, so you may not have realized I was gone for three weeks! DH and I went on a bucket list train adventure, that had a lot of misadventures mixed in. 

We planned this massive train trip back in December of 2021, so we had lots of time to research and finalize the details of our trip. We thought we were ready, and in a lot of ways we were, but this trip was determined to throw us off our game. 

I had watched the YouTube videos, I knew to expect Amtrak to run late, even several hours late. I knew how to pack for a sleeper car, and what to bring to make the trip easier. We each had one carry on sized suitcase, which I knew from my research would fit under the train seats, and one backpack a piece. I packed light, but efficiently. 

When we got on the train, the bedroom we had booked looked like the YouTube videos, but felt smaller than they looked online. As we got to used to it, it was large enough. Note the shower in with the toilet, I now know from experience that taking a shower on a moving train is an adventure all its own. 

Maybe we should have known things were going to go awry when the train had to stop before we even left town due a mechanical issue. Or perhaps when we went to the observation car and it was 90 degrees, maybe we should have known then. Call us optimists, or just naive, but we ignored all of that. 

At the beginning of the trip, the part that worried me most was the transfer in Chicago. We had an 8 hour layover, but after watching dozens of YouTube videos. I knew Amtrak can run VERY late due to freight train traffic, and I wasn't sure that was enough time. Little did I know that was not going to be the problem, and the first major problem we had I hadn't even considered. 

Our first train was the Texas Eagle, and I knew that in San Antonio the train cars would be separated, our cars going north to Chicago, the others going east to New Orleans. From what I had seen, the transfer happens while you are sleeping, and it's no big deal. Well, it should have been no big deal, but our train was so late because of freight train traffic, that the northbound train left without our train cars! Where we had thought we'd be in the same car for three days, we were now being told to hurry up and get off the train, so they can get us to an intercept point with the train we missed. It was an early morning rush packing everything up and wondering what would happen next.

This view awaited us off the train. It was not encouraging. Who names their company OK Tours??? Not really good tours, excellent tours, fantastic tours? All the many passengers who had missed the connection loaded onto two tour buses.

We tried to have a good attitude, even though the bus was uncomfortable, and crowded, and it made me motion sick. I was following the train we should have been on on the Track the Train app. I saw us catching up to where the train was, and we indeed got to Temple, TX before the train did, after being on a bus for two hours. I was all excited when the bus got off the highway, only to stop at a Buckee's, not the train station. Why weren't we going to the train station? Well, the bus was chartered to Longview, TX, not to actually catch the train. I looked at google maps and realized there was a shortcut to Longview, surely the bus driver will go that way. Nope. We went the long way, getting further and further ahead of the train anyway. After another four hours on the bus, all of which I was feeling horribly nauseated, we finally got to Longview, TX. The thing is, the train was delayed in Dallas, for multiple hours, so we had to wait seven hours in Longview for the train to arrive. 

I worked on my EPP project while I was waiting.

Now one of the perks of riding first class on Amtrak is that your meals are included, but you have to actually be on the train for that to happen. We had eaten breakfast on the train, but a lot of other passengers hadn't. We missed lunch, and we were going to be missing dinner as well, but we ended up ordering fast food via Uber Eats, once my stomach had settled down. By the time we got back on the train, it had been a long, frustrating day.

They never did fix the air conditioning in the observation car, but we did get to Chicago in plenty of time for our transfer. We were quite late, but 8 hours was plenty of time, and we got to explore Chicago Union Station a bit, where the scale is larger than life.

We went into the metro lounge, where I scored some hot water to make my favorite tea. Yes, I did bring my own tea bags with me! 

We got on the next train, the Lake Shore Limited. I don't know what it was about that train, but all the staff was in foul moods. Still, we had a good time anyway, and got to our destination only a bit late the next day. 

I hadn't seen my parents in far too long, and we had a great visit with them! We helped them with a few tech issues, and I ordered some parts for my mom's vintage Necchi sewing machine, since I knew where to get them, being a vintage sewing machine enthusiast myself. She actually bought her machine new, back in the day, so to her it's not vintage, just what she's used for 60+ years! 

DH had planned a bit of business for his scooter magazine while we were on this trip, so one day we drove to upstate New York, and another we drove to Kennebunk, Maine. We had a great time with other scooter riders, and got to see a bit of the local sites as well. 

DH is a desert rat, but I'm a water girl through and through, so seeing water put me right back in my happy place! 

Besides spending time with my parents, I got to see aunts, uncles, cousins and even spend a day with my best friend from high school. We went to a local theater production of Mamma Mia! which was fantastic! 

Unfortunately for DH, New England is not Gluten Free-friendly, and his back was bad the whole time we were there. His back pain is manageable if he stays gluten-free, but that wasn't working there.

On our last day in New England, I got a notification from Amtrak. They had cancelled the next leg of our journey in anticipation of the train strike. I didn't really understand why our train had gotten cancelled, because we would have gotten back to Chicago before the strike started, which is the starting place for that train. 

We called the car rental company, and explained what was happening. They were great about it, and extended our rental to Chicago, and said if we had to drive all the way back to Tucson it was no problem. 

We left the next day by car instead of train, but we were on our way. It would have been closer to get to Chicago by way of Canada, which I've never been too, but because of Covid restrictions that wasn't going to work. Oh well, we both love road trips anyway. 

How's this for a picturesque scene in New York State? Since we were now driving to Chicago, DH stopped at a scooter location in Cleveland, Ohio. The shop owner told us about some great BBQ, so we stopped there too. 

We stopped at a lighthouse on Lake Erie. I was fascinated to learn that lighthouse only has the equivalent of a 100W bulb, but because of the specially engineered lens on the lighthouse, the light can be seen for ten miles!

I ended up being able to see a cousin in Indiana that I hadn't seen in over 40 years! Driving ended up being a sweet deal. 

We got to Chicago and did another scooter event which was well attended. We still weren't sure how we were getting home. The day came to leave, and our train wasn't cancelled! We were going to be able to go on the California Zephyr, considered the USA's prettiest train trip. 

We got on the train, and were a bit disappointed in the condition of the train. It was very old, unacceptably dirty, and again, the staff were not pleasant, aside from one conductor and one person in the dining car who were both very nice. The other dining car attendant was a curmudgeon, and seemed proud of it. Our train car attendant was mostly unavailable. 

The train was a mess, the staff was grumpy, and the weather was too. We were delayed 4 hours the first night by tornadoes and high winds. The views? The views were fantastic! 

Our last morning on the California Zephyr started out with the toilets in our car not functioning. The train attendant didn't bother notifying anyone of the malfunction, so the first anyone knew of it was when the toilet in their room wouldn't flush. We could use the toilets in the next car which were working, but meanwhile we spent 13 hours smelling sewage. It was not a good way to end that trip. 

We got to San Francisco that night, and walked to our hotel from the train station. We were on plan, except for when I twisted wrong and hurt my back. I thought I had just pulled a muscle, and it would be better in a couple days. Well, by the next day I was in full blown sciatica, with a firey pain running from my back, into my hip and down my right leg! We had scheduled an extra day in San Francisco, so aside from walking to lunch, we just had a rest day, and I hoped it was enough. 

Onto the Coast Starlight! Since this wasn't an overnight ride to Los Angeles, we had opted for a roomette instead of a bedroom on the train. Our train attendant was great, and when we realized we weren't on the side of the train that gave us ocean views, he let us switch to a different roomette when those passengers got off. 

I was alternating sitting and standing, trying to do some of the stretches they recommend for sciatica while on the train. I held it together until the last three hours, at which point I was hurting really badly. Besides the pain I was in, the ride was fantastic. 

At times the train runs right next to the water, and we even saw whales from the train. 

When we got into Los Angeles, we had to walk past 20 some odd train tracks, then got to baggage claim to get our suitcases. I have no idea why LA thought it was a great idea to get rid of all the seating at the train station, but here I was, miserable with sciatica, first having to walk all that ways, then standing around for 30 minutes at baggage claim, then another 10-15 minutes waiting for our Uber to take us to our hotel. 

DH had a scooter event the next day, but I stayed at the hotel, trying to get my pain under control. If anything it was getting worse. We were supposed to see my niece and great niece in San Diego on the way home, but I was in too much pain to want to spend another night at a hotel. 

We did manage to take a selfie at the coast, but I was hurting far too much to go walk on the beach. I was miserable on the drive home from LA, and to add to the chaos, DH has his milkshake cup disintegrate in his hand, in the rental car, which led to a HUGE mess!

We got home a week ago, I've finished a round of steroids which haven't worked as well as I'd hoped, but slowly, I am doing better. I'm having to change positions constantly, and if it weren't for the deadline of the rally quilt I wouldn't be sewing at all. I can sit and sew for about 20 minutes at a time, which isn't a lot, but I'll take any progress at this point. 

I'm alternating heating pads, ice packs, stretching, and constant position changing. I've only had sciatica one other time in my life, when I was pregnant with baby #4 over 30 years ago. I've got to say, I hadn't missed it! But just like our misadventures, this too shall pass. 

In case you are wondering, yes, we would give Amtrak another try! We were looking for an adventure, and that they delivered! 

Let the Finishes Continue!

My list of finishes for the year is growing! 

^A twin sized scrappy rail fence.

^A throw made with orphan QST's

^A twin sized quilt I made from a Missouri Star tutorial called Cascade. I really like the trippy look of it, and now I want to make another one! 

^A baby quilt that I didn't have quite enough orphan blocks for, so I made a big center block to get it to size. Of course, now I want to make another quilt with all of that style block! 

 ^A throw I made with extra HST's. I just love playing with HST's, there's so many options! 

I need to get serious about making that quilt for the scooter rally! It's getting raffled off to raise money for our community food bank!

Some Game Changers

 Summer is so not my thing, and in southern Arizona, it seems to last FOREVER! I often change which quilty things I'm concentrating on based on how hot it is. After all, who wants to iron when it's 110F? 

I actually like FMQ in the summer, because after the first day when I'm smack dab in the center of the quilt, I'm usually working my way around the edges so there's not usually that much quilt on my lap. I had been using Machingers gloves, which I really like, but they are so hot!

Here's my first game changer

Swan Amity quilting gloves! DH bought these for my birthday at a local quilt shop when I dropped off my Bernina for a spa treatment. The tops of the gloves are a very breathable fabric, and I was amazed how much cooler having two fingers out of gloves was. These gloves work with touch screens, on my Janome and my iPhone. Is it just me or does someone always text you as soon as you put your quilting gloves on? Happens to me almost every time! 

The suede is quite grippy, and the padding is a nice addition. My palms are really big compared to my short fingers. The mediums I'm wearing here fit my fingers just right in length, but my palm would likely do better in a large. Overall, the mediums are probably the best fit I can get in this brand, and the velcro at the wrist does keep the glove from riding up, even if they aren't quite long enough for my palm. 

I'm not giving up my Machingers just yet. My sewing studio is on the basement, and can get quite cold in the winter. Those Machingers feel really good when my hands are cold down in the basement.

Patsy Thompson FMQ DVD's There are lots of FMQ instructors out there, and they are really great. The thing is, to find one that makes sense to you! It wasn't until I starting using Patsy Thompson's DVD's that I started getting better at FMQ. The quilt those DVD's are on? Yeah, she taught me that quilting design. It's part of the rotating axis family. Now that I've gone through Patsy Thompson's stuff, I better understand teachers like Leah Day and Angela Walters. For me, Patsy Thompson was a better entry into FMQ. I like the dvd format too, so I can rewatch things easily, and I don't have to deal with YouTube ads. 

Slotted rulers! I have most of the June Tailor Shape Cut slotted rulers, and all the Stripology ones. They both have their good points and bad. June Tailor rulers are less expensive, and they are also less sturdy, but you can buy them at JoAnn with a coupon so the price difference is substantial. If you want to go Stripology because they are sturdier, I use the Stripology squared and the mini the most. The XL ruler is so huge it's unwieldy, and the original was ill-designed, but I don't think it's being made anymore. 

If you travel with quilting stuff at all here is the best part of having the mini Stripology ruler.

You can stick it in this 8x11 Omnigrid travel folder, it will still fasten just fine, and it protects the ruler. If I'm quilting on the go, I always pre-cut any strips I need, and I'm just sub-cutting on the road. The mini usually works just fine for me. 

Speaking of quilty travel, do you have a travel iron? 

I've had this Sunbeam Travel iron for several years and it's still going strong. Funny thing is, when I want to travel I always have to hunt it down, because I've learned it's the absolute best when pressing smaller units, so I use it all the time!

It's not really quilting related, but who knows what this is?

It's a bodkin, used to pull things through casings.

You slide that little ring down so it clamps hard onto whatever you need to pull through and it's much easier to grab through the fabric than the old safety pin standby. It made stringing those 50 drawstring bags I made recently a breeze! 

I've been putting those skills I learned from Patsy Thompson to work. 

The quilting shows up a bit better on the back.

How about some freehand fans?

I'm getting some finishes in now!

What Gets Me Stuck...and Unstuck

 Sticking with the theme of my last post and becoming a more prolific quilter, I'm going to address the ever annoying, what to do if you're stuck???

There's a lot of reasons you can get stuck on a quilt, or just lose your quilt mojo all together. I've dealt with both. Getting stuck on a quilt for me usually involves a tangible problem, losing my desire to sew is almost always an emotional thing. 

If you've read more than one post on my blog, you know I always have multiple projects going at once. Usually, this keeps me interested and motivated, but sometimes, it can cause a dam and block up the quiltworks.

Let's say I need to lay out a quilt, so I go to the design wall and see this

This exact quilt was on my design wall for two MONTHS! I don't know what it was, but I couldn't get myself to sew it together, even though I really liked it. Maybe part of me just liked looking at it since it was a quilt I had fun making. At any rate, the piles of quilt blocks were piling up while this sat on my design wall. When I realized that was the problem, I decided if I at least sewed it into rows and numbered the rows, I could then at least use the design wall for another quilt. I've had rows of quilts draped over my mobile carts lots of times. The thing is, once I sewed up the rows, I had no problem finishing assembling the quilt! Since I got that quilt off the design wall I've assembled three other quilts!

Sometimes I need to press a fabric so I can cut it, but I go to my pressing station and see this

So much stuff piled on my ironing surface, which all needs to be put elsewhere before I can iron anything! I know I'm not the only one who suffers from flat surface clutter!

I move that stuff, press my fabric, then go to the cutting table.

Uh oh! I still haven't basted that quilt I laid out on the cutting table. I've got to baste it before my cutting area is available. 

I often get stuck when I decide a quilt needs sashing or borders. I tend to cut all the blocks for a quilt at once, but I don't decide on sashing or borders until the blocks are done, and I lay it out and take a good look at it.

There are three quilts in this pile, all waiting for borders. The borders for one of the quilts is even cut. These quilts have been sitting here for a YEAR! Two of them have the same issue which I'll get to in a minute, but the one whose borders are cut? The day I likely cut the borders, I probably came across this.

I like to use my Bernina to sew on borders, but because it has such a nice large cabinet, sometimes multiple projects get piled up on it! 

Every single one of these issues can be a roadblock, and if I'm not motivated they can make me quit for the day. However, I can sum up all of these issues in one of two ways. I can look at it as having to finish one thing before I start another, or what works better for me is simply thinking of it as I need to tidy. When I think about it as having to finish one thing before starting another, it feels like a roadblock, like nothing will be easy to do. When I think of it as, "Boy, my sewing areas are out of hand and need a good tidy" that brings all of those projects under one title, "Tidying". It's all a game we play with ourselves, but when I know the issue is tidying, I start operation Clean Sweep and clear off all my surfaces, vertical and horizontal. For some reason, looking at it it as one problem seems easier to deal with than a list of ten things to do. If you feel satisfaction at crossing things off a list, by all means write a list of each task and cross them off with gusto! 

The borders I haven't gotten to yet brings us to another common quilting sticking point. Overcomplicating things! 

If I'm stuck and it's not a time issue or a tidying issue, it's almost always some type of overcomplicating things. Maybe I tried a pattern that my skills weren't up to doing. My first project with curved seams is still a pile of blocks. My blocks lie nice and flat, but somehow all the drunkard's path blocks vary in size. I need to bite the bullet and just trim them all to the same size, and then figure out how to proceed, or even toss them and only use the alternate blocks in a different project. 

The borders I've left languish for a year? One needs pieced borders, for which I have the units done, but I haven't done the math for how many of each unit I need for each border, so they aren't sewn to add to the quilt center. The other quilt is really overcomplicated, because the quilt that needs borders I'm calling Visual Frustration, so I want each border to be different. I ran out of the fabric I wanted to use, so I need to come up with four different plans to use the desired fabric in different ways to border the quilt. 

Some other ways I overcomplicate things and get stuck? Deciding a quilt needs really fancy quilting, deciding a quilt absolutely would benefit from the pieced sashing I saw on an online quilt. Thinking the quilt needs five borders instead of one or two, and of course some of those should be pieced. 

There are other reasons for getting stuck, but I'm going to address those two. How I handle them is similar to how I handle it if I lose my quilt mojo. I already said I tend to lose quilt mojo when I'm upset about something, whether it's grief, anger, worry, or resentment. The thing is, if I can get myself to sew, I usually start feeling better! 

Getting unstuck

1) Set a timer. Timers can be your best friend if you are stuck or unmotivated. Maybe your space is messier than mine and tidying seems like a mountain you don't want to climb. Set a timer for 30 minutes and tidy something. When the timer goes off you are free to do something else. I try to set the timer at least twice a day, but knowing you only have to do something for 30 minutes at a time before you can do something more fun. The timer is great for any part of quilting. Don't like cutting? Cut for 30 minutes. Don't like basting? Do it 30 minutes at a time. Are you doing a Bonnie Hunter mystery and she's having you make 3 gazillion hst's???? Set a timer!

2) Simplify. Does that quilt really need super fancy quilting, or will something easier you already are proficient at work? Cross-hatching looks great on most quilts, and with a walking foot it's super easy to do. Do these blocks really need pieced sashing, pieced borders, seven borders...whatever, is there a way to simplify your idea and still satisfy you. Sometimes the answer to that is no. Visual Frustration will sit there until I'm ready to make four different borders. The quilt needs that. Sometimes I can simplify pretty easily. Was I planning on piecing a backing? Maybe a wideback I've been saving would be a better solution so the quilt gets finished rather than sits there. Was I planning fancy sashing or borders. Look at the stash again, and maybe a fabric will jump out at you that says, "Use me and I'll be enough". 

When I first was consistently getting stuck on borders, I realized that the reason I was stuck was because I didn't actually want a border on the quilt, but I thought people would think it would look funny if I didn't add one. When you see a quilt pattern, it looks like a picture on the wall, and the border is a nice frame. When the quilt is being used "in the wild aka on a bed or couch, you don't see it laid out flat and a border can actually look out of place. The first quilt I made for our bed had a border on it, and I had made it big enough for a pillow tuck. The border then crossed the pillows in an obvious way, and since all the other borders were hanging down the sides of the bed, that top border made the bed look weird. I saw one of my kids snuggled with a quilt on the couch, and the way they were wrapped in the quilt, you could only see part of one border, and it looked like it didn't belong. If I'm making a wall hanging, it will have borders. If not, I may skip them, and now that I'm a more confident quilter, I'm ok with someone else thinking that's weird. 

3) Combine. Sometimes your quilt really does need the extra work, but if you are stuck on motivating yourself to do that step, combine it with another project you are excited about. I often assemble two quilts at once, using one as leaders/enders for the other. I've pieced the backing while I'm assembling the quilt top, the backing is usually done first, so when the top is done the backing is ready. Start the new quilt you want to be working on, but use the one you are stuck on as your leader/ender project. I've made a lot of progress the last couple years, and I've been pairing tasks. If I'm ready to baste a quilt, I grab a UFO and make myself baste two quilts. Instead of not letting myself start any new projects because I have too many UFO'S, I let myself start as many projects as I want, as long as they are using up scraps, stash or quilt kits I already own. I've only been using UFO's or scrap projects as my leader/ender project for two years, and I have finished so many things that had been sitting around. It's really upped my productivity to pair a fun project with something I'm not as excited about. 

Hopefully something in this post will help someone out there. Thinking about it has helped me already!

The quilt I needed to baste is now quilted and bound! 

The girl version of the quilt I shared last week is finished too!