Phil and I have been busy the last few days getting ready to leave. We now have an estimated leave date of Saturday, July 6 to go to Port Stanley to join friends on S/V Notorious and see our friends at PSSS who I hope will be able to go down to the club. (Hint. Hint) That is IF we get everything done and I get the Quarterberth cushions made and, of course, the weather is good.

Saturday we had Openhouse at the boat for family, co-workers, and friends that wanted to see us or the boat before we left. The weather didn’t cooperate until later in the afternoon when Phil’s oldest cousin Jeanne D. came to visit with her daughter, Nancy. Shortly afterwards, Phil sisters and Brother-in-law came. We showed off the boat and had BBQ chicken on the grill. Then Elizabeth P. from work came for a short visit and saw what our home is going to be for the next year. Thanks for coming! Later more friends came until the Mosquitos scared us away. Thank you everyone for coming and for the appropriate oohs and aahs on all our hard work on Changes. Here are some photos of our visitors

 

Sunday’s project was work on the Quarterberth cushions. I need to cover the new foam before we leave. We started early in the morning after having breakfast at Jimmy’s Restaurant, our favorite in Painesville. They have the best and the most consistently good potatoes we’ve had. They are all so friendly too!

 

 

 Then we started cutting out the fabric. I needed top, bottom and side pieces and for where the bevel is the for hull edge, we are extending the bottom piece to cover. For those that are not use to being on a sailboat, NOTHING is square, so trying to figure out how to cut fabric so the it fits all the angles of the cushion when sewed, is challenging. The first one I cut a rectangle that I hope was big enough. It wasn’t. then I enlisted Phil skills and we used math. That worked, but too complicated and took too much time. Then the light went on and we laid out the cushion on the fabric and measured the seam allowances from that. Much easier and we moved right along.

 

I started sewing the smallest cushion most aft, so if it didn’t work out so well, that most people wouldn’t see it anyway. I started sewing and after changing a needle, I had a bad jam on my Pfaff sewing machine and bent something. Oh well, lets go get my Viking sewing machine out of storage. Sewing machines ( yes plural) I have. We get back to the club house, I sew one more seam then Pop, Poof, and smoke with the worst electrical smell came out of the machine where the power cord goes in. WHAT??? I have never in my life had two machines break back to back, and they are my best machines! So we get the Sailrite out of the sail locker on the boat and I finish the last seam on the cushion while Phil buts the batting around the cushion. It looks good! No picture yet, but will take one. So. Figure I’ll start on the next cushion. The sewing Gods are against me. I need to sew the side panel to the zipper and of course this requires getting close to the teeth wit the pressure foot. I know that I have the right pressure foot somewhere, but for the life of us, we can’t find it or the other tub that has more Sailrite and canvas supplies. The joys of packing away all of your belongings. So we stop, take showers and relax.

As side note, I have ordered the pressure foot and cruisers kit overnight deliver from Sailrite. Phil took in my Pfaff to get fixed and it should be done in a day or two, so by Wednesday, I should be up and running again.