A Zippy Trip to Spokane

Ashlee and I left early yesterday morning for a quick over-and-back trip to Spokane. I still don’t have the Jeep so we took her 4-Runner. The weather was good, roads were clear, and traffic was minimal. We were in Spokane with time to spare before the show opened. I really meant to take pictures for the blog but we were so busy talking about stuff that I forgot. Also, there were signs all over requesting no photos of booths due to copyright protections. I got one general photo of part of the show barn:

The barn had two bays, one on each side. Quilts were on display in the center section.

My impressions:

• This is the first year of this event in Spokane, so I wasn’t expecting a big show. I would say maybe 30 vendors? Some came from as far away as Nevada. It took us about two hours to make the rounds of all the booths.

• There was a lot of homogeneity in what was offered by the vendors. I saw a lot of wool embroidery. If I had needed any more Tim Holtz fabric, I could have loaded up on his Palette line because several vendors had it. Quilting panels were for sale everywhere.

• I saw very little modern quilting fabric and few patterns.

• Despite being advertised as a show focusing on quilting, garment making, and general sewing, only one booth had any garment fabric, and that consisted of two bolts of rayon woven fabric. I bought a yard and a half of one of them to make a summer top.

I would love to attend the show put on by this same promotional company in November in Puyallup, WA—where Sew Expo is held—just to compare the two. I know the vendors would be different, but would there be more garment fabric and a smaller emphasis on quilting supplies? Unfortunately, I can’t make that show because I have a conflict.

Ashlee’s purpose in going was to determine whether or not the store should vend at the show in the future. The store does have a booth at the Washington State Quilters Guild show in the fall and does very well.

By the time we left, it was noon and we were hungry. I suggested Mexican—no one in my family except me likes cilantro so I don’t get good Mexican food very often—and Ashlee found a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant a few miles from the fairgrounds. We both had the Friday special of fish tacos. They were life-changing. I am still thinking about them, LOL.

We stopped at The Quilting Bee on the way out of Spokane. The store was very busy. I found a bolt of black Kona Crush. This quickly became one of my favorite garment fabrics when our store began carrying it. Unfortunately, Robert Kaufman (the fabric company) can no longer get it from the mill that was making it. Ashlee brought what she could source but our store doesn’t have any in black. I bought the five yards that were on the bolt at The Quilting Bee. As an added bonus, it was 20% off because of the storewide sale.

The only other item I bought was this quilted jacket pattern. I really need to stop with the quilted jackets, but this one looks like it is drafted well—especially the sleeves—and I like the collar:

It is by Melly and Me. I might break into my precious Tim Holtz stash again for this one, but probably not until the fall.

All in all, we had a very enjoyable day. And the nice weather we had in Spokane appears to have followed us back—we are in for a couple of sunny days with temps up near 60F.

3, 2, 1 . .

I am trying to keep projects moving through the pipeline. The Burnside Bibs are done save for the hemming, and for that, I need to see them on the intended wearer. That probably won’t happen until next week. Ashlee—the owner’s daughter and operations manager at the quilt store where I teach—and I are going to make a quick over-and-back trip to the Quilt, Craft, and Sewing show in Spokane tomorrow. This is market research. I am reporting on it for the podcast and Ashlee is going because the store may want to vend there in the future.

I also need to make my reservations soon for Bernina University in New Orleans in June.

I quilted the fabric for one of the collar pieces yesterday afternoon while watching the countdown for the Artemis II launch. My father, Steve Szabo, was the head of the Engineering Directorate at Lewis Research Center in Cleveland (now Glenn Research Center) and one of my cousins works for a NASA contractor there. Our family spent a lot of time in Florida in the summers and we got to see a number of launches including Viking and Voyager. One time, we even got to be in one of the bunkers for the countdown—it was a satellite launch—and at the last minute, we all went outside to watch the liftoff. (They probably don’t let people do that anymore.) I still remember the way the ground shook even though we were fairly far away from the launch pad. Watching the Artemis II launch brought back a lot of great memories.

I’m half a collar closer to finishing the jacket.

I have to prioritize my sewing projects. When the seasons change, I get carried away looking at all the new patterns. It’s far better if I drill down and focus on a few pieces, although I also need to think about classes I could teach at the store. It’s going to be time soon to start putting more classes on the calendar.

This month’s Threads podcast was an interview with the authors of Plus-Size Patternmaking for Womenswear—Gabby Brown and Leila Kelleher.

I listened to the episode yesterday. The book is intended to be a textbook for fashion design students but I ordered a copy for myself. I think it will be a great resource to have on hand.

How to Tell When There is a Full Moon

I know when there is a full moon by looking at my Twitter feed. I’ve been casually documenting this phenomenon for about a year now. Every month, like clockwork, Twitter loses its collective mind over something. This month, it happens to be about a guy who lives very simply in a rural area, although he does have a Twitter following. He’s had an somewhat difficult life which included being homeless for a time. Now he is married with a baby. I’ve been following him for a while because I enjoy reading what he writes, but this week, I began seeing him literally everywhere on Twitter. He was being re-tweeted by other people I follow who had lots to say about his posts. (Yes, I get that some of that could be attributed to the algorithm, but not all of it.) People I follow because they write about fashion were commenting on the way he dresses. One person said he and his wife were cosplaying as Mennonites, which made me chuckle. Other people went ballistic because he posted about eating roadkill. That is a thing in rural areas. If you hit a deer in the head and the rest of it is undamaged, Animal Control may pick up the fresh kill and take it to a processor, who processes it and gives the meat to a local food bank. Why waste it?

It all comes down to the fact that 1) a lot of people have too much time on their hands and 2) having too much time on their hands, they feel the need to become the village busybody and police other people’s lifestyles. The full moon just speeds that along a bit.

I never post on Twitter. I have a carefully curated feed that shows me posts from interesting people I follow and that is as far as my interaction goes with that app.

Other than that, it hasn’t been an exciting week here; hence, the lack of blog posts. On Monday, I delivered the deposit check to the venue where DD#2 will have her wedding. My mother and the girls and I have been to this hotel in the past because we would get massages and facials in their spa. The hotel has valet parking. I am still driving DD#1’s car. (I related this story to the husband and he knew exactly where I was going with it.) I pulled up to the valet stand and opened the door and a young man came hustling over to me. I said, “Are you good with a stick shift?” His face fell and he said, “No, I can’t drive a stick. Can you park your own car?”

They call them millennial anti-theft devices for a reason.

I bought paint for the rental house. That project is on my schedule for next week, along with planting the next round of seeds.

I did a podcast interview yesterday morning with someone I’ve known since about 2017. We bonded on one of the Facebook Necchi groups over our shared love of those machines. Each of us has a Necchi BV industrial. She has a career as a technical writer but started a side hustle making home dec items and then transitioned to designing handbags. She recently popped up again in my Facebook feed and it was good to reconnect with her and find out how her business is going.

After the interview, I spent the remainder of yesterday working on the second iteration of the Burnside Bibs for the young woman who works at the store. I don’t want this project to languish.

The fabric is a Tula Pink wideback. All that remains is to make and attach the shoulder straps, sew down the facing on the inside, and attach the belt loops on the back. I may try to finish it this morning.

I am caught up on Call the Midwife so I binge-watched the PBS version of The Count of Monte Cristo this week. I enjoyed it very much. It made me think of the PBS kids’ show, Wishbone, that the girls watched when they were little. The show’s main character was a small dog that acted out great classics, and TCOMC was one of them.

Enjoy the full moon. You may want to avoid Twitter for a few days.

A Spring Saturday

Spring is well underway here, although the weather has not been as warm as predicted. The weather forecasts have overestimated the high temps by 10-15 degrees. I would say the weather has been typical for this time of year. We are supposed to get rain again today.

Our Mountain Brook Ladies Club and Friends make a raffle quilt every year to help raise money for the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation. The quilt is currently in my possession because I have been waiting for the right conditions—overcast, but not rainy or windy—to get a photo for the website and for marketing. The husband helped me yesterday morning with hanging the quilt on the side of the woodshed. It makes a nice backdrop:

This year’s quilt is entitled “Cascading Gems.” I think it’s gorgeous. I’ll take it and the display rack up to the community center tomorrow so it can hang there.

Bunny is beginning to turn brown, but not as quickly as I would like. I worry about the owls getting him.

I took down the porch lights and replaced them with the wind chimes. The hummingbird feeders have been cleaned and I will fill and hang them this afternoon.

Some of my tomato seedlings are up:

And the babies have been moved to the coop:

This process was accompanied by much squawking, but everyone seems to have settled in. The big chickens stand there and watch the babies and the babies stand there and look at the big chickens. Roo did not seem terribly interested in the new additions. He spends a lot of his time harassing the smaller rooster. I may have to re-home the little guy.

After we moved the chicks, I swept out the garage and the husband re-graded the driveway. When he plows, a lot of the gravel gets pushed into the snow piles. He uses the track loader to spread the gravel back onto the driveway.

I did no sewing yesterday. I’d like to cut out some patterns this afternoon so I have them to work on this week, but I’ll have to see how things play out.

A Big Day for the Chicks

We have a lot of work to do today on the farm. The baby velociraptors are moving from the brooder box to the coop. We have a separate room in the coop which allows everyone to see each other but the big chickens can’t get to the chicks. The separate room has its own door to the outside, and around the first of July, the husband will fence off part of the chicken yard so the babies can go out with the big chickens but continue to be protected from them. We’ve used this system for years and it works well. By the end of August or so, the chicks will be big enough to hold their own against the other chickens and everyone will get mixed together.

My “happy lights” are coming down off the porch, to be replaced with the wind chimes and hummingbird feeders.

I am taking down the insulated shades on all the windows and putting them away for the summer.

After the babies move out of the garage, I need to sweep the winter’s accumulation of dirt out of there.

I have to install the temperature sensors in the freezer at the rental house and in the greenhouse. They are a cheap insurance policy against freezer failure or propane heater failure.

The husband has textured the ceiling in the rental house and will put a coat of primer on it and the walls today in preparation for me painting in there next week.

Charlotte is going to be moved over to the greenhouse. It is nice and toasty in there and I’ve seen plenty of winged insects flying around. I have not yet devised a method for capturing and moving her—she is surprisingly quick when she needs to be—but she really needs to go live somewhere other than in my kitchen. She has been there since the end of August—that’s seven months of me hand-delivering flies and crickets to a barn spider—and it’s time for her to go back out into the wild.

******

Sewing next week—and hopefully, there will be some—will be focused on finishing the second iteration of the Burnside Bibs and putting the collar on the Rosebud Quilted Coat. After that, I need to work on making some warm-weather tops and pants for myself.

I am going to start with this pants pattern:

It’s a dead simple pull-on pant that can be made in two lengths. I never used to like pull-on pants but the method I use to anchor my pants around my waist seems to matter less the older I get. I never tuck in my tops because I get that “sausage tied in the middle” look. I’ll run up a quick muslin of these in a shorts version to check the rise and lengthen it if necessary. I suspect this will morph into some kind of amalgamation with the Free Range Slacks.

I also really like this skirt pattern. The closure is an invisible zipper at the back:

I wear a lot of skirts (or skorts) in the summer. I want to be cool but I am not a fan of shorts.

I have way more ideas than I have hours in the day.

Sewing the Stash

I needed a quick project yesterday. Sometimes I just want to sew the fabric in my stash. The store has begun carrying the Fableism woven fabrics and could use a store sample. The owners have been so good about ordering and carrying apparel fabrics. I want to support them so they continue to do so. I’d like to think that the store is slowly building up a reputation as a place to buy all kinds of fabrics, not just quilting cottons.

After I located the chunk of Fableism I bought at Pacific Fabrics last fall, I got out Butterick 6736:

I bought this because I really liked View B, on the left, but I didn’t want a project with that much fussiness yesterday so I opted to make View A.

The pattern is ridiculously simple and took about three hours to make. Four side seams, some gathering, and a folded-down waistband and I had a skirt:

It has some definite Little House on the Prairie overtones, but it will give people an idea of what that fabric looks like when it is sewn up.

I had a Zoom meeting on Tuesday with the class coordinator for Sew Expo. She asked me how many classes I wanted to teach next year—basically, I can teach as much as I want. I said six 2-1/2 hour classes over three days was a goodly number. We may add an intensive four-hour class on either Wednesday or Sunday but that is yet to be determined. I really like that the organizers select the classes, first, and then ask the teachers to submit detailed proposals. Having to come up with detailed proposals for classes that aren’t chosen is not a good use of my time.

I will be teaching the serger cording foot class again, the interfacing class, the thread class, a “what’s wrong with my knitting?” class, a new class on decorative coverstitching, and a new class on serging with sweater knits. Serging classes seem to be in demand. We shortened the interfacing class to 90 minutes and expanded the cording foot class to 2-1/2 hours. I will be in the Bernina classrooms again.

I am very happy about this. I need to go through my stash of leftover fabrics and pull all the sweater knits so I can use those in making up kits. I hate to get rid of anything for precisely this reason—I often use leftovers from my projects in my classes—but storage space is becoming an issue.

The Sew Expo organizers are also going to start selling tickets much earlier, probably right after Thanksgiving. That will help with planning, as I’ll know earlier if a class sells out and we need to add a second session. Attendance was up this year, which was great to hear.

******

The kids set a date for their wedding of August 28, 2027. That seems like it’s so far away but a lot of planning has to happen between now and then. Dates for the venue were already filling up. I may have to rethink my dress plans a bit in case it’s 90 degrees that weekend.

SIL’s parents are going to come out to visit us, probably in the fall. The kids will come over that weekend, too. I’ve spent some time with DSIL’s mom and like her very much.

Spring on the Farm(ette)

The Jeep is at the body shop and I am toodling around in DD#1’s Acura RSX. It’s over 20 years old but still has a lot of life left in it and I am enjoying driving a stick shift again. I went to Costco yesterday and bought one more apple tree. We have three new varieties to plant—Jonagold, Fuji, and Ambrosia—and a second Lodi. I am running out of room.

I planted five trays of tomatoes on Sunday. I put in my usual Oregon Star and Northern Ruby paste tomatoes as well as Cherokee Green, Cherokee Chocolate, and Thunder Mountain. We are supposed to get rain today, so after I tackle the mountain of paperwork on my desk, I am going to go out and plant peppers and some herbs and flowers. The greenhouse is a wonderful place to spend a rainy afternoon.

I spotted a mouse running through the kitchen yesterday so the husband put down another trap. He reported the demise of said mouse when he came to bed last night. He jokingly said that it is time to get a pet owl. (The yard already looks like a zoo; what’s one more animal?) We are going to have to see what we can do to attract and keep some owls here, although I don’t really want one to carry off Bunny. I just want the owls to eat mice and ground squirrels.

I wonder if the hummingbirds will show up early because of the mild winter. I need to get the feeders cleaned and ready to go. The male turkeys have been quite obnoxious lately, harassing the hens and showing off their feathers.

The chicks are outgrowing the brooder box and will move to the coop soon. They were very noisy when I was in the garage sewing on The Beast the other day. They are no longer cute and fluffy, having reached the baby velociraptor stage.

Another month and it will be time to get piglets.

******

Sewing is on the back burner for a while. This happens every year. My brain gets occupied with planting and pruning and other spring tasks and doesn’t have room to think about creative pursuits, although Sarah reminded me the other day that I am planning to make my mother-of-the-bride dress. 🤪 That project will have to move closer to the top of the queue as it is going to require at least a couple of muslins and maybe another fitting session with Ryliss Bod at the Sewing and Design School in Tacoma. Vogue 1983 (view B) is still the top contender (pending DD#2’s approval):

I have a Zoom meeting with the Sew Expo class coordinator this morning to talk about my submissions for Sew Expo 2027. (By the way, Sew Expo dates for 2027 have changed; they will be March 3-7.) I like that the organizers are no longer waiting until the middle of the summer to solicit proposals. If I know what I am teaching, I’ll have more time to prepare, so when they sent out the link for proposals a few weeks ago, I uploaded my list.

Much to do.

Golf Cart Collab

Yesterday was a quintessential March day in Montana—40F with a hard rain. I said to the husband that I thought it was a good day to make a new cover for the golf cart seat, so after a breakfast of bacon and eggs, we got started.

The old seat was in bad shape:

Both the headliner and the plywood had rotted. We took everything apart. I worked on making the new cover and he cut a new plywood base.

I took apart the old cover to use as a pattern. That was the most time-consuming part of the whole project. It was so filthy that I didn’t want to take it upstairs to my cutting table, so I worked on the living room floor.

The vinyl is from Sailrite and easy to work with. I have always been very impressed with their products.

I started with the backrest covers, because they were small. I seamed the pieces, then topstitched.

I was working on my Juki 1541, affectionately known as The Beast. I have the servo motor set to the slowest speed of 200 stitches per minute, which is still a respectable speed for someone like me who only sews on this machine occasionally. After I finished the backrest covers, I made the seat cover and topstitched it.

I took the finger guard off the machine as soon as I got it because I switched out the standard foot for my preferred narrow foot and the guard doesn’t fit with that foot installed. I am very careful not to position my fingers in front of the foot. I always have them on either side of what I am sewing in case the machine takes off before I am ready.

By about 4:00 pm, we were ready to reassemble the seat and backrests. We used the old cushion because it was in reasonably good shape and I didn’t want to have to source more foam.

The seat looks much better now. Total cost: About $60 for vinyl and plywood. (Cost of The Beast is being amortized over projects, LOL.) I said to the husband that this was the kind of project his mother would have loved, because she did a lot of upholstery.

And now we’re ready to drive around the property in our souped-up golf cart!

I have a few more projects to complete on The Beast, hopefully this week. I made a generator cover for the Miller generator that we used to use when the power went out. That generator was replaced by a diesel one, so the husband put the Miller on one of the work trucks. He said he needs a way to tie down the cover at the base so it doesn’t flap around when he’s driving down the road. I’ll pull the leftover Cordura from the stash and make some kind of casing for a bungee cord.

******

While we were working on this project, DD#2’s boyfriend proposed to her, complete with brunch, a photo session, and an evening engagement party with their friends. 💍 We are very excited for them and happy to welcome future SIL to the family. Wedding date TBD.

Friction Slows You Down

I was lamenting to the husband yesterday that I had such hopes that this would be a productive week, and here it was, Friday already, and it seemed like I had little to show for my efforts. He reminded me that I hit a big patch of friction on Monday and that slowed me down.

The two of us have arranged our lives and our schedules such that we maximize efficiency. We have lots of systems. We identify bottlenecks and eliminate them. We stay out of each other’s way and don’t micromanage (much). If we could be a closed loop, we’d be in great shape. Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of the rest of the world and occasionally, the rest of the world intrudes.

I made an appointment for a deep tissue massage next week. I don’t need it because of the accident. It just happens occasionally that my hips and spine get out of alignment and cause discomfort. I started feeling it last weekend, but I think the stress of this week has exacerbated the situation. If I don’t address the problem, it worsens to the point where I don’t want to twist and bend. I haven’t needed a massage for at least six months, so it’s probably time. I need to have flexibility and good range of motion if I am going to be out working in the garden.

The husband was able to fix DD#1’s Acura. The key fob needed to be paired to the car again and now the panic alarm doesn’t go off when the door opens.

I am giving the sermon tomorrow. Of the four lectionary texts, I chose the one on Ezekiel and the dry bones passage. I actually knocked out most of the sermon on Wednesday morning while waiting for our insurance adjuster to call me. That’s typically how I work; I do a lot of reading and gather resources for a week or two ahead of time and then spend a chunk of time synthesizing it into something (hopefully) coherent. I put the finishing touches on it this morning. Our congregation is currently without a pastor, so several of us take turns preaching. We also invite guests to come and have the sermon time.

It’s pouring this morning and is supposed to rain most of the day. I think I am going to go out and plant. I will start a few trays of tomatoes but I won’t go crazy. Sarah does a good job with tomatoes for our plant sale, so I am concentrating on cukes, squash, and and melons this year. I did succumb to the description for a new-to-me tomato variety called Thunder Mountain and ordered seeds. I can’t find a non-copyrighted photo of it, but this is the writeup from the TomatoFest website:

Created by Lee Goodwin, J&L Gardens. It is a cross of Big Rainbow, Cherokee Purple and Bosque Blue. Seeds sent to Gary Ibsen of TomatoFest. Compact indeterminate, Regular leaf plant produces good crops of 10-14 oz., big-shouldered, orange tomato with deep blue around the stem and faint yellow stripes. Lee Goodwin named this variety because the colors looked like the setting sun through thunder clouds, fruit ripening from gold to red-orange. The flavors are well-balanced and bold. RARE

I have no information on days to harvest, but we’ll find out if it ripens before frost.

Speaking of rain, I love this trench coat pattern in Simplicity’s new spring line:

Do I need another coat pattern? No, I do not. I might buy the pattern anyway just to have on hand.

Greenhouse and Garden

The husband worked on wiring some lighting into the greenhouse last week. I am getting ready to plant seeds, so yesterday morning, I went out to see what he did.

There are overhead lights:

Lights along the side:

And a couple of shorter lighted areas (with shelves!) over the workbenches:

It’s lovely to have the extra light in there.

Our weather forecast was way off. We did not get the heat that came up from the southwest because it stayed east of the mountains. The rain has continued all week. I need to photograph a quilt and I’d like to do that outside, but not until things dry out a bit. I mixed up potting soil, sand, and perlite yesterday and filled half a dozen trays of pots but that was as far as I got. I also went through my collection of seeds and wondered who ordered so many . . .

I am going to trial some of these weed barriers this year to see what I think. These are sold by Gardtree and I can get them on Amazon in various configurations:

The black plastic does a good job in areas where I don’t mind things spreading out, like the melons and cukes, but I’d like something for the areas where I plant in rows, like peppers and cabbages. Those spots in the garden always end up being pain points because the weeds are just relentless.

I also tidied up three of the raised beds in the herb garden and sprinkled some lettuce seeds in one of them. If it’s going to be warm(ish) and rainy, we might as well get started on the spring lettuce crop.

*******

I haven’t felt much like sewing this week and I am not pushing it. I went through my patterns yesterday afternoon and pulled out some warmer-weather ones, including some for dresses that I still desperately need but never seem to be able to get made.

Whose Fault?

It has been a rollercoaster couple of days. The accident happened on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, I taught the Free Range Slacks again at the store to one student who couldn’t attend Saturday’s class because of her schedule. She had bought a new machine in January and been in my mastery class in February, so we wanted to make sure she was able to take the class. I don’t mind teaching to one student. She is a lovely person and we had a great day together.

During our lunch break on Tuesday, I received a call from the other driver’s insurance company. The adjuster asked me questions and took a recorded statement of my version of events. When I finished, she said, “Your statement conflicts with our insured’s statement so we are going to deny your claim.” I did not understand how I could possibly be considered at fault in this situation. Montana law is very clear that the driver in the lane of traffic has the right of way and that the driver who is reversing has an obligation to make sure the way is clear before proceeding. For whatever reason, though, the other driver refused to take any responsibility for the accident.

I talked to the husband about it and he said, “What about the dash cam footage?” Duh. In the midst of everything, I had completely forgotten about the dash cam. When I got home, we downloaded the video from Monday afternoon and looked at it. I have a dash cam with three cameras: front, rear, and inside. The inside camera footage actually gave the best view of what happened, and it’s patently obvious that she backed into me.

Yesterday morning, I filed a claim with our insurance company and by mid-morning, I had received a call from their adjuster. She asked me a series of questions and took a recorded statement. I uploaded the dash cam video to our insurer’s website and she watched it while she was on the phone with me. She asked me to send it to the other driver’s insurance company and said she would call and speak with their adjuster. If they still refused to accept liability, then the two companies would fight it out.

Less than two hours later, I had a call from the other insurance company saying they would accept liability for the accident and pay for the repairs. The body shop was able to move up the appointment so we’ll take the Jeep in to them on Monday. They said the repairs will take about two weeks.

Whew.

That dash cam, by the way, has just paid for itself a thousand times over. The body shop’s estimate currently stands at $10,000 and I was told it could go up once they get in there and see what else is damaged. The camera I have is this one.

I drove DD#1’s Acura to class on Tuesday but I discovered the key fob needed a new battery. Unfortunately, when I got home that afternoon and was unloading the car, I managed to set off the car alarm. The husband had to disconnect the car battery because we had no way to turn off the alarm. I got a new battery for the key fob yesterday, but the alarm still won’t shut off. He monkeyed around with it a bit last night—I apologized to all the neighbors for the annoying honking—but will have to figure out what is going on.

I don’t have to go anywhere again until Sunday (thank goodness), and if I have to, I can get a rental from the insurance company.

******

I would like to work on some projects now that I have a few days at home, but I have to get back into my sewing headspace. I should quilt the collar of the Rosebud Coat so I can finish that project and get it off my to-do list. I may start by tracing some patterns or cutting some spring tops for myself. If it ever dries out, I’ll go out to the greenhouse and start prepping for planting.

A pic of my bee balm to get us all excited for spring. 😊

Unhappy

Yesterday started out well despite the fog and snow. I taught my thread class to the store staff and we had a fun couple of hours together talking and sewing. It is always helpful to me, as a teacher in a quilt store, to find out what kinds of questions the staff gets from customers about products.

After lunch, I went to Costco to see if our store had received its shipment of fruit trees yet. I was delighted to see a display at the front of the store. One pallet had the “designer” trees—multiple varieties of apples grafted onto the same root stock—and one pallet had the apple, pear, peach, and cherry varieties. Two more pallets were on the floor with the shrink wrap still around them, so the shipment must just have come in.

I couldn’t find any varieties I wanted in either of those pallets, but on the other side of electronics were two more pallets (what a weird spot for them) so I wandered over there to investigate. Those pallets held more apple varieties and I spotted a Lodi. I have a Lodi and it is my absolute favorite pie apple. I would love to have another Lodi tree. I had to move a bunch of trees to get to the Lodi, but I got it out and popped it into the cart. That was the only thing I bought yesterday. I’ll go back later this week and see what’s on the other couple of pallets.

I was supposed to get an eyebrow wax at 3:00 pm but still had an hour to kill, so I decided to go to the grocery store. As I was driving through the parking lot at the Super 1 in Kalispell looking for a space, some lady in a pickup truck who wasn’t paying attention backed out right into my car—my brand new car with less than 3300 miles on it:

I pulled into a parking spot and got out. She was standing next to her truck glaring at me. I expected her to come over and apologize, but she didn’t look like she was going to move, so I walked over to her. I was about to ask her for her contact and insurance information when she started yelling at me about this being my fault for not seeing her backing out.

I have no patience for that kind of behavior, so I held up my phone and said, “I’ll call dispatch and we’ll get an officer headed in this direction to make an official report.” About 10 minutes later, an officer pulled into the parking lot. He spoke briefly with me, then went over to where she was standing. I think the two of them must have gone into the store to look at the video, because I didn’t see them for several minutes. He came back, took my license, registration, and insurance card, and wrote up a report. He said the store has clear video footage of what happened.

I called and canceled my eyebrow wax appointment. The husband suggested I stop at the body shop on the way out of town, so I did that and they got an estimate underway. As soon as I got home, I filed a claim with her insurance company. The body shop has me on the schedule for March 30, but will get me in sooner if possible.

I can drive DD#1’s Acura until the Jeep is fixed—and I should be entitled to a loaner through insurance—but this is a huge hassle. I am planning to visit the girls again in mid-April and I’d like to be able to have my Jeep back by then.

*****

I am teaching another Free Range Slacks class today for someone who couldn’t make it to the Saturday class. The weather is supposed to improve soon, but at the moment, it is still about 30F with a messy rain/snow mix. I am looking forward to getting out to the greenhouse later this week. The husband has finished the wiring work out there and now there are some overhead lights.

Pants and Chickens

Let’s have a happy post today.

I taught the Free Range Slacks class at the store yesterday to three students. One had never made a garment before. Two were garment sewists, but one of them—with a fair bit of experience making pants—had never made pants with pockets because she was afraid of pockets.

We got started at 10 am. I always encourage students to try on the class samples because that helps narrow down what size they need to make. One student wore the same size I do, so I gave her my already-traced pattern and got her started on cutting. The other two needed to trace their patterns, so they did that first.

The class took all day and we were cleaning up as the store was closing, but each student had a finished pair of pants to show for her work. All of the pants fit. If it hadn’t been so hectic, I would have tried to get a photo.

That was the third time I’ve taught that pattern and it is probably my favorite class. The Free Range Slacks pattern teaches so many good skills. The students sewed. They serged. They understitched. They topstitched. They pressed. And the pattern lends itself well to lots of different fabrics. One student made hers in some Kaffe fabric. Another used a Fableism woven, which is a new line the store just brought in. The third student made a pair out of some green batik fabric from her stash. She was the one who was afraid of pockets, but left class saying she no longer feared them and that she was going to make several more pairs of pants from all the linen in her stash.

I took the Burnside Bibs with me so Sammy could try them on. I am going to make a couple of adjustments to the pattern and sew up the final pair from a Tula Pink wideback she’s been hoarding. This current version will be the store sample. The funny thing is that the store brought in the pattern so I could teach the bibs as a class, but I said I thought it was too advanced. At the very least, it would have to be a two-day class. However, two of the women in yesterday’s class saw the bibs and wanted to know when I was going to teach that pattern. It may be going on the schedule after all. (The bibs look darling on Sammy, by the way.)

The store is closed on Mondays, but I am going in tomorrow to teach the staff training, which will be my thread class. While I was there yesterday, I picked up a roll of Wonderfil Total Support embroidery stabilizer and a tube of Spotlite metallic thread. I want to try embroidering with this.

As an educator, I have a wholesale Wonderfil account, but they are in Canada so I try to order only when I need a lot of something. For one or two items, I just buy at the store.

******

I only stuffed six of my 12 chickens this week. I was going to do the rest last night, but I was wiped out when I finally got home and had dinner.

I’ll take these to church this morning and stuff the remainder this week.

Missing Packages

I am going to gripe a bit more today because I am curious to know if this is happening to anyone else. I’ve placed three orders in the past four months that have yet to be filled. I think I mentioned the first one, which was an order through Accuquilt for a 2-1/2" Studio strip cutter die. I placed that back in November. It never arrived and frankly, I forgot I had ordered it. The dies went on sale again in January and I remembered that I needed one, so I ordered the same die again. I looked at my account history and realized that I now had two orders for the same die, so I contacted Accuquilt. I asked where the first die was and if I could cancel one of the orders. I was told that no, once the order was in the pipeline, it could not be canceled, so I am going to receive two of the same die. According to the rep who answered my inquiry, the (new) Chinese supplier was having trouble filling orders. I was told it would be shipped in mid-February.

Here we are, a month later, and still no dies. I have given Accuquilt over $300 and have nothing to show for it. (The dies are not cheap and I bought them on sale.) I contacted them again a few days ago. Same response, although this time they said they would give me a 25% refund on the purchase price, so that’s something, I suppose.

Back at the beginning of February, I placed an order with Pacific Trimming for some interfacing. I thought I might include it in my class kits, but the order still hasn’t been filled. Pacific Trimming is not some fly-by-night operation. They have a store in New York’s garment district. I ordered three Bosal interfacings, all of which were listed on their website. None of them was noted as being out of stock. It’s now six weeks after I placed the order and still nothing. I e-mailed them to find out the status of the order.

[I am beginning to think that interfacings—other than the same eight kinds of Pellon sold at Hobby Lobby—are unicorns. Why so much trouble sourcing them?]

I get that there might be supply issues from time to time, orders get lost, etc., but it seems that a lot of online retailers are listing and selling items without knowing if they will be able to fill the order. I suspect much of that has to do with “just in time” inventory; they don’t want to keep items on hand so they wait to get them until a customer places an order. However, if the retailer can’t get an item, or if it takes longer than a few weeks to fill the order, then it behooves the retailer to contact the customer and let them know what is happening. The customer shouldn’t have to be chasing down orders.

What’s even more galling is that Accuquilt has put NOTHING on their website to indicate that if you order a Studio die, you might be waiting for months to receive it. They are knowingly continuing to sell those dies even though they can’t fill the orders.

Is AI causing this? Can AI fix it? (I have no love for AI, let me tell you.) I follow Alaska Airlines on Twitter. AI bots now respond to tweets. Seattle got snow yesterday and Sea-Tac—which is the Alaska Airlines hub—had all sorts of issues with delayed flights. Someone posted on Twitter that when they called the customer service line, they were told there was an eight-hour wait for their call to be answered and they couldn’t get help through the app. They tagged Alaska Airlines on the tweet and the bot responded—by telling them to call the customer service number. (?!?!?!?!)

It’s a dystopian hellscape some days. Don’t get me started on QuickBooks. I called our account’s “payroll expert” the other day with a question and she couldn’t answer it. And it wasn’t a complicated question. These are first-world problems, I know, but this is the water I swim in right now.

*******

I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass was closed overnight. The road was too treacherous to travel and there were a lot of spinouts and accidents yesterday. Highway 2 over Stevens Pass was also closed because people who went up to ski parked in the highway and the plows couldn’t get through. Aside from the utter selfishness and idiocy of some people, think about the fact that the two main routes for getting in and out of Seattle from west to east are impassable. That leaves I-5 north to Canada or south to Portland. To the west is Puget Sound and then the Pacific Ocean. That’s it. There are no back roads or surface streets over the Cascades.

We got snow as well, about 6". It is supposed to be 52F on Tuesday and in the low 60s next weekend. My mother was in a windstorm in Cleveland yesterday. March is really trying to make a statement.

Embroidering on a Snow Day

Yesterday turned out to be mostly a nothingburger, weather-wise, although we did get snow. I think the worst of the storm went south of us. Wyoming looked like it was getting hit pretty hard.

I decided I didn’t want to work on either the Burnside Bibs or the Rosebud Coat, so I spent the day playing with my embroidery machine. The result is two drawstring bags and a long blog post with lots of opinions. You have been warned.

I haven’t decided if my learning style is at odds with the way information is presented or if the way information is presented is the problem. We’re back to the interfacing issue here. I heard from so many podcast listeners after that episode—and also in my class at Sew Expo—that they have had the same experience I did of not being able to cut through the fog to get clear answers. I still have not been able to source many of the interfacings that Pellon claims they manufacture.

I am finding that sussing out information about machine embroidery has similar pitfalls. There are several variables to conisder when it comes to machine embroidery. (Deana, correct me if I get any of this wrong.)

• The fabric being embroidered: Embroidering on knits is different than embroidering on wovens. Embroidering on chiffon is different than embroidering on waxed canvas.

• The stabilizer: Stabilizers come in different weights. Some are cut away and some are tear away. Some are water soluble. Some are sticky. I was given the advice, “If you wear it, don’t tear it”—which means that if you’re embroidering on a garment, you should use a cut away stabilizer. Denser stitch patterns require heavier stabilizers. Beyond that, the recommendations are about as vague for stabilizers as they are for interfacings.

• The thread: If you’re an older sewist or a garment sewist, you probably use the same thread in top and bobbin. My sense is that the recommendation is starting to change, with the trend moving more toward using a 60wt or 80wt thread in the bobbin no matter what is on top. We do that in my thread class, but I can tell you that stitch integrity suffers when you have a 12wt thread on top and an 80wt thread in the bobbin—that’s simply too large a disparity between sizes. For embroidery, though, having a lighter-weight thread in the bobbin means there is less chance of it showing on top, which means I can use a light gray bobbin thread for just about everything and don’t have to change my bobbin thread every time I change colors on top.

• The needles: Embroidery needles come in two main sizes, which are 75/11 and 90/14 but no 80/12. (The larger the numbers, the larger the diameter and eye of the needle. On my industrial Juki, I am routinely up in the 120/19 range.) Quilting needles also come in 75/11 and 90/14 but no 80/12, which makes me wonder, why the discrimination against that size? I asked a Schmetz rep about that once and she couldn’t give me a straight answer. The recommendation for embroidery is to use as small a needle as possible because the needle is puncturing the fabric thousands of times. However, an embroidery needle is preferable because it has a larger eye, which relieves stress on the thread. Bernina sells two packages of embroidery needles. One just says “Embroidery” and is suitable for both woven and knitted fabrics. (I suspect it’s what is known as a “universal needle,” with a hybrid point between sharp and ballpoint.) The other says “Jersey/Embroidery” and has the SUK designation after it, which tells me it is specifically for knitted fabrics. Schmetz sells one “embroidery” needle with a hybrid/universal point. Organ is the only needle company I have been able to find which sells embroidery needles specifically labeled as sharp point. They also manufacture nonstick embroidery needles for embroidering with sticky stabilizers.

I find it helpful to try to establish the “rules” before I try to break them. It would be lovely if the rules were universal. 😑 I do have the Bernina Big Book of Embroidery and it has a lot of good information, but context is crucial.

Kimberbell and OESD (Oklahoma Embroidery Supply and Design) are the two heavy-hitters in the domestic embroidery space. Our store carries OESD stabilizers. The other quilt store in town carries Kimberbell. Wonderfil—my favorite thread company—recently came out with their own line of stabilizers under the Creative Mediums label. They started with seven basics: Applique Transfer Sheet, Rinse Away Design Sheet, Lace Maid, Total Support, Stitch Enhancer, and Stretch Guard. I received a sample pack of this media in a class at BU in June.

I had to get a new suitcase last fall because my old one fell apart. I like the new one very much—it’s from REI—but it lacks the internal zipper pockets of my old one. I find it less easy to separate clean unmentionables from those that have been worn. While I was traveling two weeks ago, I said to myself, “You dingbat. You sew and you have an embroidery machine. You can make yourself some drawstring bags to sort your laundry when you travel.”

I sat down at my embroidery machine yesterday and played around with the built-in designs and fonts. I came up with a stitch pattern for “clean” and one for “dirty.” I put a 75/11 needle into the machine, wound a bobbin with light gray Decobob thread (80wt), cut a bunch of pieces of Kona, and began experimenting. I tried a couple of different threads, several OESD stabilizers, and eventually pulled out the sample pack of Wonderfil stabilizers. The Total Support stabilizer gave me the best result. I will be buying more of it. The thread was Wonderfil’s Polyfast, which is their trilobal polyester and very similar to Isacord or Floriani.

It’s nothing fancy, but it worked. I turned these two pieces into drawstring bags.

Bernina has a website called WeAllSew.com, which has some great sewing, serger, and embroidery tutorials on it. I like tutorials because they provide a practical application of techniques. My biggest beef with those projects is often in the way the instructions are presented. (Shocking, I know.) The instructions list the required materials. I would like to see better explanations of why the designer chose those particular materials, especially when it comes to stabilizers. Or needles. Or thread. That would go such a long way toward helping newbies find their way through the maze.

I don’t need another project right now, but it seems to me that some kind of Interfacing for Dummies or Embroidery for Dummies books would be very helpful. If I wrote them, they would contain a series of tutorials that take novices from beginning projects to more advanced ones with detailed explanations of why certain materials were chosen in a given situation. Am I the only one would need them?

A Flying Trampoline Day

Kalispell canceled school for today because we’re under a high wind warning. That is the first time I can remember that happening. (School rarely gets canceled here due to weather.) We had a big windstorm in December that took out trees and power down in the valley, so I suspect they are being proactive. It’s a little breezy up here, but we don’t usually get the worst of the southwest winds. The east winds that accompany back door cold fronts are the ones that cause problems for us. The husband did have to reschedule a concrete pour from today to Monday, because the pour was on the east side of Flathead Lake and he would have been taking the brunt of the winds.

We shall see what happens when the worst of the windstorm comes through. As I write this, Spokane is getting hammered.

I finished quilting the body pieces for the Anna Maria Rosebud Coat and began assembling it yesterday. As expected, it is big and oversized, although wearing it feels like wearing a hug. Here is is laid out on the floor:

And on the dress form:

Those huge, drop-shoulder sleeves are never going to fit well. They don’t in knitted sweaters and they certainly don’t in quilted fabric. And this is not heavily quilted, so it still has a fair bit of drape. Even a slightly set-in sleeve—such as on the Tamarack Jacket—would fit better than these do. I am glad I cut this down to a Medium.

I keep joking that some day, I am going to design the perfect quilted jacket. It will incorporate all the best parts of all the quilted jacket patterns I’ve made so far.

I am binding the inside seams, although part of me is wishing I had simply used the serger. The shoulder and sleeve seams weren’t hard to do and look nice:

The side seams are going to be difficult to bind because of the bulk at the underarm. Oh well, I will do the best job I can and leave it at that.

I still have to quilt the collar and attach it. The invisible zipper for the Burnside Bibs came yesterday, though, so I may switch gears today and work on those again.

******

I wore my Tremont Jacket at Sew Expo. That was the one I made using the red and black and hot pink triple-gauze Anna Maria Parry fabric. One of the women in my thread class was a handweaver. She gave me the nicest compliment about that jacket. She said she was glad the fabric ended up in my hands because I knew what to do with it to show it off to best advantage. I do try to listen to what the fabric wants to become.

I think sizing and fabrication are the two biggest reasons sewists have problems making garments. Many, many people choose the size on the pattern based on ready-to-wear sizing instead of their measurements. And a lot of people base their fabric choices on color rather than what is suitable for the project.

A Flock of Fabric Chickens

A couple of times a year, we do a program with our kids in church called “My Coins Count.” The kids go around and collect spare change from attendees during the service, and after several weeks, they donate what they collect to Mennonite Central Committee or another charitable organization.

For this round, the money is being used to purchase chicks through Heifer International. As a visual aid for the kids, we decided to make little stuffed chickens to represent the amount collected—for every $5 collected, they would get a stuffed chicken. One of the guys made a wooden “roost” for the chickens to sit in.

Our members are so generous, though, that we are running out of chickens! (They will need another roost, too.) I couldn’t make any before I left for Sew Expo, but yesterday, I knocked out 12. These are a few of them. I think mine are the roosters.

They need to be stuffed and sewn shut. I probably will fill mine with ground walnut shells because a 25# bag of walnut shells from Petco is cheap and lasts a long time.

I also quilted and cut out one of the sleeves of the Rosebud Coat. Here it is with one of the fronts.

I still have to make the second sleeve, the second front, and the collar. Each piece takes me about an hour to quilt. This is a good project to work on while I am waiting for dinner to cook.

This week’s podcast episode is about to drop. I received a few e-mails asking me if I had stopped producing the podcast because I took a two-week break while I was traveling. I have portable recording equipment, but honestly, things are so busy at Sew Expo that adding a podcast episode on top of what I’m doing is a bit too much. Recording is easy; the post-production is what takes the most time.

Today is my Toaster Sweater class at the quilt store.

I am very glad I am not driving to Sew Expo this week because the I-90 passes look like they may be completely IMpassable. Snoqualmie Pass is under a Winter Storm Warning from this afternoon until Friday morning. I am glad they are getting heavy mountain snow even this late in the season because that area needs the moisture. We are supposed to get snow and rain from now until Monday, but by next Wednesday, the forecast is for 60 degrees. (!?!?!) March is always such a bizarre month.

Oh, the Owls

More news from the wilderness. . .

The husband said there was a pygmy owl in the chicken coop the other night when he went to close the door to the chicken yard. That is the second time one has gotten into the coop. There are some small openings in the wire covering the chicken yard and they must get in that way. It flew out the door after he came in. Apparently, pygmy owls are very aggressive and kill and eat songbirds. 😳

So many forest animals, including the one that has been living in the corner of my kitchen since the end of August. Bunny resides under the porch. I caught a couple of turkeys on the porch the other night; we were watching TV and I heard scuffling outside so I went to check. All we need now is for the bears to wake up and wander through the yard.

The owl I heard calling a few weeks ago was a Great Horned Owl. The husband and I watched some YouTube videos about owls so we can identify them.

The chicks seem to be doing well. They spend their days eating and drinking and running around the brooder box. They are starting to get some of their big chicken feathers.

*****

I finished quilting the fabric for the back of the Rosebud coat and cut it out.

I am dithering about the size. This is a Large, which is supposed to finish at 49" at the bust. The pattern calls for 5/8" seams, but even so, this feels huge to me. I may cut it down to a Medium. I am now wondering about adapting the pattern for my BU jacket to have a shawl collar, because I love the way that jacket fits. Then again, I should probably stop messing around with quilted jackets. It did occur to me that it might be fun to lengthen this pattern into a long coat, though . . .

I quilted the fabric for one of the fronts yesterday afternoon. I am not going to be as particular about the placement of the front pattern piece on the fabric as I was on the back. The fronts will be partially covered by the collar anyway.

I canned nineteen pints of white beans yesterday. We were completely out. I still need to do red beans and black beans. Canning beans is not hard, but they have to process for 90 minutes, so I have to be somewhere close to the kitchen while that happens.

*****

I have all my seeds but I am waiting to open the greenhouse until next week or the week after. We are supposed to get snow this week. By the middle of the month, the forecast is for temps in the low 50s, although a lot could change between now and then. I ordered pots a few days ago and I’ll have the husband pick half a dozen bags of potting soil for me. He said I can’t paint in the rental house for at least a week.

Today is supposed to be a very blustery day with rain and wind. Might be a good day to sew. 😉

I Love Parrot Fabric

Not posting for a week means I am very chatty this week.

I am at an impasse with the Burnside Bibs. The version I am making has an invisible zipper at the side. I need a 12" brown invisible zipper and I don’t have anything remotely close in my stash. I also know that searching for one in town is a lost cause, so I ordered what I needed. That project is on hold until the zipper arrives mid-week.

I started quilting the cheater print for the Rosebud Coat:

Parrot fabric!—my favorite kind. 😊 This is from the Sweet Talk line by Jennifer Paganelli for Windham Fabrics. I’m doing ruler lines “in the ditch” to outline each fabric. I have to backtrack occasionally but that’s okay.

The backing—which will also be the contrast collar—is one of the Speckled prints by Rashida Coleman Hale for Ruby Star:

The pattern very helpfully gives suggested sizes to quilt for each pattern piece. That is much easier than quilting four continuous yards of top, batting, and backing. I am currently working on a 40" wide by 35" tall piece for the back of the coat. I quilted about half of it while waiting for the casserole to come out of the oven last evening.

When I make the collar pieces, I’ll probably use the Speckled for both top and bottom layers and quilt a simple meander pattern. And I’ve decided just to make the pattern as written. I don’t need to complicate matters by re-drafting the fronts.

I picked up a couple of treasures at Half-Price Books in Tacoma:

The one on the left is Understanding Fabrics: From Fiber to Finished Cloth. I wonder if it was used as a textbook in a fashion design class because it is chock full of all sorts of technical and industrial information. The Complete Book of Tailoring is one of those vintage tomes that has a ton of useful tips and tricks—not that I plan to take up tailoring, but I’ll have it if I need it.

Pondering Design Decisions

I’ve got two new sewing projects underway. The first is the Burnside Bibs from Sew House Seven. We were going to do these as a class at the store, but the pattern is fairly involved and I thought it would be too much. I still wanted to make them—even though they aren’t something I would wear—so I am running up a pair for one of the women who works there. Another one of the employees made herself a pair last week and they turned out beautifully.

I am using a Henry Glass wideback chosen by the intended wearer. I thought about running up a muslin, but muslin would cost as much as two yards of this wideback, so I threw caution to the wind. If they don’t fit, I can make adjustments and another pair. I cut everything yesterday afternoon and got as far as putting on the front pockets. (Yes, it’s a busy print.)

I like Sew House Seven patterns. They are detailed without being fussy. I also find their sizing to be spot on.

We shall see how these turn out.

The other project that is underway is the Rosebud Quilted Coat by Anna Maria Parry. I’ve traced the pattern. The fabric has been washed and dried but I need to press it. I love the design—as seen in this finished version from their website:

That oversized shawl collar is wonderful. I am a sucker for shawl collars. And the coat is long enough; I measured the pattern pieces against my BU quilted jacket. The instructions are for a lined coat and note that the outer patchwork should be quilted to the batting with a very lightweight backing fabric such as a batiste or lawn to reduce bulk. I think one could get away with just quilting the patchwork to the batting without a backing; the Bella Quilt Coat from byAnnie was done that way. The instructions also indicate that if using a vintage quilt and no lining, the seams will have to be finished in some way because they will be visible.

The shawl collar is a separate pattern piece. I am going to look at my drafting books today to see about cutting the collars in one piece with the fronts. That would eliminate some seams. I think I would bind the other seams as I don’t plan to put a lining in it.

I found a cheater print at the store—a cheater print looks like patchwork but isn’t—and a blender to use for the contrasting collar. I’ll quilt the cheater print to make it look like I pieced the fabric. The batting will probably be the same silk blend batting I’ve used in my other jackets.

Ideally, I can get these projects finished before the middle of the month. The weather looks a bit frightful for the next two weeks, so I won’t try to start anything in the greenhouse just yet. I am happy to be sewing again and not just talking/teaching about sewing.