Revenge of the Quilted Jacket

I am going to Bernina University at the end of June. This year, it’s being held in Salt Lake City, so I asked the owner of our quilt store if I could pay my own way and tag along with the group of employees she is sending. (When I teach, I am working as an independent contractor, not an employee, so it isn’t fair to ask her to send me on her dime.) I view this as a way to increase my teaching knowledge base. I get to take classes on the newest machines, learn from nationally-known instructors, and come back with new class ideas. I think it’s going to be an amazing time.

Yesterday, when I arrived at the store to teach my class, one of the employees who is going to BU handed me a pattern and said, “We’re all making quilted jackets to wear at BU!”

😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

This is the pattern we’re using:

It’s the Beachcomber Jacket by Laundry Basket Quilts. This design uses a sweatshirt as the base—the batting, essentially. I don’t want to be the only one of the group not wearing a quilted jacket, so guess what has just gone onto my to-do list?

Each person has chosen a specific designer’s fabric for her jacket—Tula Pink, Kaffe Fassett, etc. I am going to do mine in Tim Holtz fabric.

It shouldn’t be too difficult. The irony is astounding, however. The universe is having a great laugh at my expense.

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I taught my class yesterday, then had a mini-session from the store owner on learning machine embroidery. It is part of the Bernina Event this weekend, As the instructor, I should have a basic understanding of what I’m teaching. (This is part of why I want to go to Bernina University.)

Machine embroidery is interesting, but it’s not something that really grabs me. (Sorry, Deana.) I could see adding it to quilts and other projects occasionally. I am glad I have a machine with the capability, but I probably won’t use it very often.

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It was 68F when I left the store yesterday afternoon. Plants are beginning to pop up in the greenhouse. The broccoli was up when I checked yesterday morning.

The flies this year have been awful. We always get some in the spring, but this year seems to be particularly bad. I swat at least half a dozen every day.

A Lavender Experiment

I planted and now I am (impatiently) waiting for things to come up. The temperature inside the greenhouse is holding steady at a balmy 80-ish degrees so it shouldn’t be long.

When I finished yesterday morning, I had half a tray of nine-packs full of dirt and nothing left to plant in them. I decided to try an experiment. I went out to the garden and scooped up a handful of lavender seeds:

I’ve never grown lavender from seed, at least not intentionally. My plants are so prolific that I have seedlings popping up everywhere. Lavender plants that began as seedlings in my garden are scattered from one end of Mountain Brook to the other because I gave them to anyone who wanted some. Propagating from cuttings or digging up random seedlings is easier than growing from seed. Lavender seeds need to be stratified—left in the freezer for a few weeks—and they can take up to a month to germinate. These seeds were stratified for me by Mother Nature, and if they take a month to germinate, that’s okay. This is an experiment. If they don’t germinate, I haven’t lost anything. If they do, I may have 36 lavender seedlings for the plant sale.

I took a good look at the garden yesterday and said to the husband that if he wants to take the track loader out there and do some leveling work, I would be most appreciative. The west side of the garden is not as level as the east side. There are also a couple of rotting stumps on the edge that could be pulled out.

I am going to sprinkle some lettuce seeds into the raised beds in the herb garden where we had lettuce last year. I found a few survivors that must have been insulated by the snow:

I’m always amazed at what comes up or survives even when it’s still cold out.

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The project for the boys is done. I am going to start working on my mother’s robe next week. I’ll be teaching for most of the rest of this week. And next week is April already. 🤯

Today is supposed to be stelllar—a high of 64F and sunny. We won’t know what to do with ourselves. I’m going to have to put away the sweater knits soon and take out the bin of woven fabrics to make some spring and summer tops.

I Love the Smell of Dirt

I’ve got tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, cabbage (red and white), broccoli, tomatillos, and a variety of flowers planted. It doesn’t look like a lot right now, but many of these are in six- and nine-packs and will get transplanted into 3-1/2" pots once they come up.

I want to grow more flowers this year, both in the herb garden and the big garden. I like having flowers everywhere, and the bees don’t complain, either.

Susan is getting ready to start her tomatoes, so I think I am right on schedule. (She has a master’s degree in botany and we regard her as the neighborhood expert in all things planting.) The squash and cucumbers can wait until about the middle of April, and the corn and beans will go in toward the end of April.

Susan gave me a package of cowpeas after church yesterday. I was lamenting to her that cowpeas are the one thing I haven’t been able to grow successfully. The variety she gave me is called Red Ripper and they did well in her garden, so I will try again.

I need to mix up a second batch of planting mix. Just underneath the bench at the front of this photo is a large galvanized tub. It was here on the property when we moved in 30 years ago and we have used it for all sorts of projects. It holds a 40-lb bag of potting soil. I got a huge bag of perlite from Susan’s daughter and son-in-law. The perlite was left over after they finished building their house, so I traded them eggs for it. I combine the potting soil with the perlite, a bit of well-aged chicken manure, and a couple of big coffee cans of sand and it makes a nice, well-draining mix for starting seeds.

The heater seems to be working well and hasn’t shut itself off. Yay.

The only hassle at the moment is getting water. There is a wellhead/spigot about 50 feet from the greenhouse, but the snow is still deep in that spot. I am hoping enough snow melts in the next few days that I can hook the hose to the spigot and run it into the greenhouse. Until then, I have to go back and forth with the watering can and fill it. I’ll still have to unhook the hose so it doesn’t freeze overnight, but running it into the greenhouse will save me some steps and let me use the watering wand.

Trenching a permanent water line to the greenhouse is on my wish list of infrastructure projects.

I am going to try to get the peas in earlier this year. Last year I waited too long, and it got too hot too fast. The potatoes will have to go in some time in the next few weeks, too. I’m going to sprinkle some lettuce seeds on the raised bed in the herb garden where I planted lettuce last summer and that should give us a jump start on greens. And I have to prune the fruit trees.

I have much to do in the next two months, but it feels good to get outside and work.

Planting in a Snowstorm

I worked in the greenhouse yesterday morning. All of the tomatoes and peppers are planted, although seed suppliers seem to be cutting way down on the number of seeds they put in packets. Some of my tomato seed packets only had 15-18 seeds. I will get more on my next trip to town. I know Susan and Sarah will have lots of tomato starts, but they always go quickly at the sale.

The weather outside was lousy. I woke up to about 2" of heavy, wet snow, and another inch or two came down while I was planting:

Hopefully, that was the last big snow of the season. (Yes, I know, we’ve had snow in June. This is Montana.) The high is supposed to be 63F on Wednesday. I’m going to plant cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower today.

The husband switched out the gas line to the propane tank at the greenhouse. We have had ongoing problems with the propane heater turning itself off in the middle of the night. He installed a bigger line that he hopes will keep that from happening. We do have a backup diesel heater on a thermostat, but it would be nice to be able to rely on the propane heater.

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I worked on class samples on Friday. I have a ruler class coming up on Wednesday and we’re going to be using the star, heart, and hexagon rulers. Making these samples takes some time, but I’ll be able to use them for all future ruler classes.

I did some hexagon quilting in the border of my English Paper Piecing hexie wallhanging:

I’ll take this with me as an additional class sample.

I also loaded the PowerPoint files for the Bernina event onto the laptop. I don’t normally incorporate a lot of tech into my classes, but these are helpful for the Bernina events so I use them.

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The bunny came hopping through the yard yesterday. I was a bit worried that maybe something had gotten it because I haven’t seen it all winter. It is still pure white. I tried to get a picture but it went under the porch before I could grab my phone.

Still No Chicks

I arrived at the farm store at 6:45 yesterday morning. There was one other vehicle in the parking lot, with a guy inside. He waved at me and I waved back, and when I got out to go stand by the door, he rolled down his window and we chatted for a while. By 7:15, we were the first and second in a line of about half a dozen people waiting for the store to open. He told me this was his third attempt to get chicks. Another lady in line said she’d been trying for two weeks. Eventually, after listening to all the stories, I was able to paste together an explanation of what has been happening:

The store orders chicks from the hatcheries. The hatcheries send them through the US postal service. The postal service is a hot mess, so chicks don’t arrive on schedule. When they do arrive, the chicks are extra stressed and many of them die en route or shortly after. As a result, the store has been handing out numbers when people get there at 7:30 (when the store opens), but then customers with numbers have to come back at 10:00 am to give the chicks time to get acclimated. The store also has a policy that any chicks that die within the first 24 hours will be replaced for free, so those customers get their replacement chicks before anyone else, even the customers with numbers. Sometimes, there are no chicks left for new customers after the replacement chicks are handed out.

WHAT. A. MESS. We cannot seem to do anything properly in this country anymore.

We all waited until 7:30, at which point, one of the cashiers came out and said that the expected chick shipment hadn’t arrived. The chicks were either east of the mountains or down in Texas.

I am not going to go back this morning. We got a mix of snow and rain overnight and I know the roads will be awful. Also, if this is yesterday’s shipment of chicks, it’s likely that they will be too stressed to survive. I don’t have time—or the desire—to go back tomorrow to get replacement chicks if the ones I bought today died.

These are my options:

• Wait and try again next week, although my schedule next week is problematic. The week after could be better. The farm store will have chicks until the middle of April. By then, perhaps the newbie farmers will have gotten their chicks or given up.

• Forego getting chicks this year, which means our egg production is going to take a hit.

• Incubate eggs and deal with the inevitable surfeit of roosters in the fall.

• Hope that some of my hens go broody and hatch out chicks of their own, in which case I will still have excess roosters.

• Try to find a local person who has chicks to sell. WS came over to get eggs the other day and told me that he had done that and gotten a dozen chicks from a lady locally. Unclear whether I will have to take straight run (mixed sex) or can get only pullets. If it’s straight run, I might as well incubate our own eggs.

I have lots of thoughts about this entire situation. 🧐 You can ask me privately if you want to hear them.

On the plus side, Little Roo learned well from Dave. He does a good job with the hens:

Little Roo is half Black Australorp, one-quarter New Hampshire Red, and one-quarter Buff Orpington. I ought to change his name to Heinz (57), but he answers to Little Roo so I’ll probably leave it. Any babies he fathers are going to be mongrels, for sure.

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I’ve got some class prep to do today for next week’s classes. The Bernina event next weekend incorporates some PowerPoint presentations, so I need to get those set up on my laptop.

Tomorrow, though, I will be in the greenhouse, planting tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes.

Life is a Whirlwind

This has been a week of early morning activities, which is why there have not been any blog posts. On Tuesday, I took my friend Elaine into town for a 6:45 am appointment. Yesterday, I taught in Missoula. Class started at 9 am so I had to be on the road no later than 6:30 am. This morning, I need to be at the farm store by 7 am in an attempt to get chicks. Wish me luck.

This is the time of year when everything happens at once.

Yesterday’s class went well. I had three students. One had just purchased a basic Brother model and wants to make clothing. I suspect—and I told her as much—that she will outgrow that machine in less than a year. She had no trouble learning how to use it. Another lady had an older Bernette. I love those vintage Bernette models. They just work. The third lady had a BabyLock high-end combo machine. At the end of the class, I showed her how to switch it from serging to coverstitching and she said, “How do you know how to do this without looking up everything in the manual?”

Teaching requires that one be flexible and be able to think on one’s feet. And I do have some experience with those BabyLock models.

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We are supposed to get snow today and tomorrow. I am going to use these days to catch up on my to-do list. Saturday is planting-in-the-greenhouse day. I also need to find some time in the next week to get out and prune the fruit trees. I didn’t do it last year and they desperately need to be pruned this year.

This is me right now: 🤪

The schedule will calm down again at some point. March and April are always like this. If you don’t see blog posts for a few days, though, this is why.

March is Messy

I spent Friday afternoon out in the greenhouse getting everything cleaned up for planting. The air temp was only in the high 40s, but it was sunny, so the greenhouse was nice and toasty. I worked in short sleeves.

It snowed yesterday. Instead of planting, I stayed inside. I cleaned and organized the pantry and made an apple pie for the husband. I have decided to work on perfecting pie crusts. I don’t enjoy baking and pie crusts have been my nemesis. I will never achieve the level of pie-crust art that Sarah produces, but I am getting better. I gave yesterday’s effort a B+. The husband doesn’t care because it’s a pie.

I also set up a YouTube channel for the homestead foundation and made a short introductory video. I know how to make and edit (simple) videos in iMovie, but this is not something I want to take on as a project. I’m hoping that someone else from the community will want to adopt the channel. If you’re interested, you can watch the video here.

I am going to try some new dry bean varieties this year. I ordered Dapple Gray Bush Beans, Hutterite Soup Beans, and Henderson Lima Bush Beans from MIgardener. I’m also going to plant some beans that are left from last year. I was especially pleased with these:

This variety is Emmalou’s Golden, which I got from Triple Divide. They grew well and were easy to clean. We eat a lot of beans here.

I am not sure what is going on with the big garden center, Hoopers, in Kalispell. This is the time of year when people should be working in there, getting plants ready to sell for the upcoming season. The sign says that the garden center is closed. (A health food store rents space in the building and it is open.) If Hoopers is done for business, our fundraising plant sale could do really well, but we’ll need to have some extra inventory.

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I haven’t felt much like sewing, which is fine. Mentally, I am switching gears from winter to spring and a break from sewing is not unwelcome. I can tell I’m a bit restless because I had to force myself to pick up some handsewing last night after dinner. I worked on some English Paper Piecing and embroidered a bit on the current Squash Squad block.

This will pass. In the meantime, I am cleaning and organizing and getting ready to work on the robe project and the shirts for the boys. Some time in the next week, I have to set up the embroidery module on my 880 and do a test run.

And I am going to try to get chicks this week. The farm store is handing out numbers, so I have to be there when they open at 7:30 am and hope I get a number and am able to get chicks. What a hassle this is. The hatcheries are not filling individual orders—and it’s too late to order from them anyway—so if I can’t get pullets from the farm store, I’ll have to set up the incubator and deal with the inevitable excess of roosters in six months.

Imagining the Garden

I wandered out to the garden yesterday to see how everything looked. The snow is mostly gone, but it will be weeks yet before I can begin working out there.

This is the west half of the garden:

And this is the east half:

It’s been cold and rainy and is forecast to be that way for at least another couple of days. I am working very hard to imagine the garden as it will be in a few months, not as it looks now.

The husband and the crew took the shade cloth off the greenhouse for me. We’re running the heater for a few days to help warm up the greenhouse and dry it out. It’s time to start seeds. I’ll also have the herb garden to clean up this year, but those beds still have snow on them.

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I have had a productive week, so I rewarded myself with a couple of hours of sewing time yesterday afternoon. I knocked out a waxed canvas zipper pouch:

This is a pattern from Bernina’s We All Sew website. I’ve used it before, although I sew my zipper in at the beginning of construction, not the end. This pattern is great for leftover pieces of waxed canvas and I always seem to have those lying around.

The Homestead Foundation is moving forward on restoring the original schoolhouse building (built in 1922, not 1927 as originally thought) and we’re hosting two presenters from Preserve Montana for a workshop at the end of April. One of our volunteers is putting together a thank-you basket for each presenter and asked for donations of items made by Mountain Brook residents. These zipper pouches will be my contribution.

Ruler Class in Missoula

I went to Missoula on Tuesday to teach a rulerwork class at the quilt store there. This class was similar to the class I teach in Kalispell, but the students were on domestic machines rather than a sit-down longarm machine. I was reminded again that I need to be very specific on the supply list, because two of the students left their extended machine tables at home. We can’t use rulers without the tables. The store was able to provide some, thankfully.

[Pro tip: When you take a sewing class, bring everything with you, even if you don’t think you’ll need it.]

Once past that hiccup, though, the class went really well. The students were hesitant at first, but when I told them that they needed to concentrate on building muscle memory rather than on how their quilting looked, they relaxed and began to have fun. By the end of the class, each of them had purchased Amanda Murphy rulers and books and signed up for the second class in May.

I always say that it’s a great class when the teacher enjoys herself as much as the students do.

I also made a visit to the Joanns in Missoula to see what they had left. The liquidation company is emptying the warehouses and interesting things are showing up at the stores. My question is why did they have to wait until the liquidation to empty the warehouses? Some of the stores could have used this stock over the past couple of years!!! The Kalispell store had half a dozen plastic-wrapped full bolts of Robert Kaufman yarn-dyed Essex Linen when I was in there the other day. Yet another shining example of poor management.

I mentioned previously that I had made three Toaster Sweaters out of some cabled knit fabric in a lovely rayon blend from Joanns. I have one in light blue, one in navy, and one in burgundy. Yesterday, I found three yards of that same fabric in black. I haven’t ever seen the black fabric (in stores or online) before. Every time I put on one of my Toasters, I think how nice it would be to have one in black, so I am welcoming the discovery of the black fabric yesterday as a gift from the universe.

I haven’t gone nuts during this Joanns closing, but I am stocking up on things I know I will use when I see them.

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I measured my finished Tamarack at the shoulders to see what kind of alterations I am going to have to incorporate if I make it again. The jacket measures 16" from shoulder to shoulder at the sleeve seams. When you factor in the 1/2" seam allowances in bulky fabric, that brings the internal width down to about 15", which is way too narrow for me. I think the jacket would fit me better with a cross-shoulder measurement of about 18". I suspect that would fix the too-short sleeve problem, too.

I’ve really got to drill down and prioritize my sewing projects from here on out, just because my sewing time is going to be limited. A robe for my mother is next on the list as she’ll need it for warmer weather.

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The employees will be here helping the husband this morning, so they are going to take a few minutes to remove the shade cloth from the greenhouse for me. We put it up there last fall because it was the easiest way to store it. We won’t need it again until the middle of the summer.

I’ve got paperwork to do today, but tomorrow and Saturday have been earmarked for seed starting in the greenhouse. I’ll take some photos of the current state of the garden. Cleanup outside won’t start for another couple of weeks, but I need to be thinking about where crops are going to go this season.

A (Mostly) Finished Tamarack

I was able to finish the Tamarack Jacket yesterday, although I have not yet attached the snaps. I know better than to attempt those kinds of tasks late in the day when I’m tired.

From a construction standpoint, I am pleased with how this turned out:

From a fitting standpoint, I have some issues. Usually I would make a muslin, first, but this is a class/store sample. I always try to make samples exactly as the pattern describes so I can find potential pitfalls both in sizing and in construction. The jacket fits well except at the back and shoulders—they are too narrow for me. I can’t bring my arms forward comfortably. This seems to be a common problem for me with Grainline patterns, because the Scout Tee fit the same way. It fit well in the bust but was tight in the upper bodice. If I went up to a jacket size where the back and shoulders fit me better, I think the bust area would be enormous. The bust area is perfect at this size. The jacket sleeves also could be longer. When Kate, owner of The Confident Stitch in Missoula, made her Tamarack, she lengthened the sleeves by 3". That should have been a clue for me. Mine could be at least an inch longer.

Would I make this again? Yes, but I would alter the sleeves and upper bodice to fit me better. I also think I would quilt the fabric before cutting out the pattern pieces.

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Have you seen this piece from a guy named Robert Sterling? (He is @RobertMSterling on X.) This has been making the rounds of social media recently:

I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results. I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm. I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card. I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place. I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore.

The level of “friction” in life is getting to be ridiculous. Simple tasks that used to take a few minutes now cause projects to grind to a halt. I needed to ship books to Amazon yesterday to fill an order. I went to log in to my UPS account to prepare the shipment and got a message that “this request cannot not be fulfilled,” followed by a phone number to call for help. I called the phone number. I got a recording instructing me to leave a description of my problem and a number where I could be reached. I did so.

No one ever called me back. I had to take my package to Staples and send it from there. Today, I will have to repeat the process all over again until I can get an actual human being to help me.

And don’t get me started on QuickBooks. 🤬 They harassed me with daily phone calls from my newly-appointed “account manager” while I was in Seattle.

“Progress” is not always positive. I hate inefficiency and I seem to encounter it at every turn these days. And behind that inefficiency often lurks some version of a modern-day mafia that will fix your problem—in essence, bump you up to a more frictionless level—if you just give them more money. It’s maddening.

Making the Tamarack Jacket

Developing new classes can be a time-consuming process. Most sewing and knitting instructors I know would much rather avoid it if possible. It’s why submitting class ideas to conferences can be such a trial when the conference organizers insist on having fully-developed class information for classes that might not be selected.

The store in Missoula wants a quilted jacket class. I’ve already made the one quilted jacket from the Riley Blake pattern that had so many problems. At my suggestion, we ditched that pattern and decided to use the Tamarack Jacket for the class. I had the Tamarack on my list to make, and the class isn’t until next fall, but I’m feeling the pressure to get the jacket made before all hell breaks loose with gardening season and my sewing time disappears. As it is, the house is a disaster area because I’ve been focused on this project.

This is a popular jacket. There are plenty of videos out there, including a series by Grainline Studio, the designer. The pattern is reasonably good, albeit thin on details. I’ve got notes written all over it for things I want to mention to students.

1. The pieces are cut first, then quilted. The upper size range has a bust dart—a narrow one, but a bust dart nonetheless. Cutting the pieces first, then quilting them, allows for the bust dart to be finished neatly on both the fronts and lining of the garment. (The batting has a dart in it, too.) Kate, the owner of The Confident Stitch in Missoula, made a video of her Tamarack Jacket in which she quilted her fabric first, then cut the pattern pieces. It meant that she waited to make her darts until the fabric was quilted, so the cut edges of the bust dart were visible on the inside of her jacket. Even so, I think that quilting the fabric before cutting the pattern is infinitely easier than the reverse. And quilting tends to shrink the pieces. That shrinkage may be built into the sizing, but I won’t know until I get the jacket done. I’m also not convinced the bust dart is going to contribute significantly to the fitting because it’s so narrow, but we’ll see when I get the jacket done.

2. I am glad I watched the Grainline Studio video series, because one entire video was devoted to chalking out the quilting lines on the pieces with the bust darts. The bust darts distort the fabric, so in order to trick the eye into seeing straight lines, the quilting lines have to angle at the bust area. I decided to do straight line vertical quilting on my jacket, and if I hadn’t watched that video, I wouldn’t have known to do that. It’s not mentioned in the pattern. Having to make that adjustment also added another layer of complexity to the quilting process.

3. I decided to make the welt pockets. I’ve made similar zipper pockets in bags but wanted to see how these were handled in this jacket. They are worth the extra effort, but I am going to suggest to students that we stick to the patch pockets for their versions or we’ll be spending all of our class time making the welted pockets.

4. Probably the most frustrating thing about this pattern—and many others—is not being able to “see ahead” to know when certain techniques should be added. I had half of one of my welt pockets made before I realized that the pocket bag edges should be serged first. The pattern indicates that the pocket bag edges should be finished after the pocket is constructed but I saw no good way to do that; I wouldn’t have been able to get the edges under the serger foot. I also had to trim the batting out of the seam allowances, which was not mentioned in the pattern.

I am close to being finished. I only have to assemble the jacket, finish the front edges with bias binding, and add the snaps. I’d like to make a second one now that I’m aware of some of these refinements and how to incorporate them, but I simply don’t have time right now.

This was part of the process of making the welt pockets. Basting was recommended and definitely needed:

But the pocket did turn out well. The instructions are exceptionally clear and well illustrated:

This is one of those times of the year when I am juggling a thousand different things. I’m a slave to my calendar at the moment. And I’ll have to get out to the greenhouse next weekend and start getting things ready for planting, because that has to happen soon.

Little Roo is growing into his role as rooster-in-charge. He is very enthusiastic about herding the hens around. Dave was fairly laid back, so it’s funny to watch Little Roo get so excited. I’ll try to get some pictures of him soon.

Classes—Teaching and Taking

My Sew Expo classes were smaller than last year’s classes, but after seeing that overall attendance seemed to be down, I am not surprised. And small classes aren’t necessarily bad. I can give much more personalized instruction to fewer people. I thought this year’s classes went well, although I need to stress to the organizers that my classes are not “learn to knit” classes. One lady showed up halfway through one of my classes and announced that she had never knit and had no supplies with her. Apparently, someone sold her a ticket anyway. She went out to the vendor floor and bought enormous needles (size 15 or so) and some thin yarn and came back expecting to learn how to knit. I could only give her a few minutes of instruction.

My thread class had the largest number of students enrolled—eleven—although only seven people actually came to class. I find that a bit odd. Class tickets were about $60 for a three-hour class, so why would you buy a ticket and not show up? I guess some people have money to fling around indiscriminately.

I’ve taught that class almost half a dozen times now and have a good idea of pacing and potential issues, but teaching at Sew Expo throws another wrench into the works. Local sewing machine dealers bring in machines for the classrooms. After the show, the machines are sold as “gently used” for discount prices. It’s a great way to get a really nice machine for less than full retail. That’s how I bought my Janome 6600P. It had been used for one day at a quilt show. The problem is that students are sewing on machines that are entirely unfamiliar to them. The stores providing the machines do assign an employee to each classroom to help with troubleshooting issues, but that’s not always enough.

The thread class was in the Brother classroom and we were on the Innovis machines. These are nice, mid-level machines that did basic stitches and a variety of decorative stitches. For that class, I give students the Wonderfil thread kits, eight 5" squares of Kona cotton backed with a lightweight interfacing, and two appliqué shapes to iron onto the squares for practicing machine appliqué.

I’m about to say something potentially sexist, but this has been my observation and I stand by it. Had that been a class full of men, we would have had no machine issues. They would have had those machines threaded and sewing within 30 seconds. Women want to walk in, sit down, and have the machine do everything for them without needing to understand the mechanics.

I get it. I am the same way with my vehicle. The husband was always very patient about explaining to me what was going on with The Diva—and I know more about cars than most women because I am married to him—but at the end of the day, I just want to get in my car, start the engine, and drive. Still, a basic understanding of what is going on with any kind of machine is helpful for troubleshooting, and most sewing machines operate the same way.

I also took a class while I was at Sew Expo. I had a few hours on Saturday morning with nothing to do, so I signed up for the Nadia No-Show Undies class taught by Amanda of Amanda’s bundles. The kit came with a yard of their Peached Performance fabric and the Nadia pattern from Made for Mermaids. We had enough fabric—and class time—to make two undies on the Bernina sergers. I probably could have made half a dozen in the time allotted; the pattern is not difficult. Before I make more for myself, though, I want to refine the pattern and fit. And before I make any for myself, I want to try making a pair of Comox Trunks for the husband using the Peached Performance fabric.

[Everyone I’ve talked to who makes their own underwear says that once you start, you never go back to store-bought. I totally get it.]

While I was in Seattle, I hit up all three of the Half-Price Books locations and found this treasure of a book:

I am sure this is a textbook from someone’s pattern drafting class in fashion school. It is full of all sorts of fantastic information. I am not much for tissue fitting. I would rather draft my patterns using paper and a calculator.

*******

I’ve been playing catch-up all week but also working on the Tamarack Jacket. I’ll have some things to say about the pattern when I’m done with it. That’s going to be a class at the quilt store in Missoula in the fall and the store would like a display sample.

We’re having false spring here in Montana—as soon as the weather hits the high 40s, people get antsy about planting. It’s too early. I won’t start seeds for another couple of weeks yet. And it looks like I may have to break out the incubator because 2025 looks like a repeat of 2020. It may be impossible to get chicks from the farm store. The husband wants Brown Leghorns but I think we’ll be lucky to get whatever we can.

Shopping at Sew Expo

I went to Sew Expo with a shopping list. It is so easy to get overwhelmed when presented with nine or ten aisles that look like this:

Disneyland for sewists.

As soon as the doors opened, I raced to the Amanda’s Bundles booth. They’ve gotten the majority of my shopping dollars at each Sew Expo. I knew they were going to be stocking this fabric and I didn’t want to miss getting some:

Amanda’s Bundles is based in LA and specializes in athleisure fabrics (yes, that’s a thing). These are two different fabrics with the same print in slightly different colorways. The one on the left is a single-brushed poly and the one on the right is called Peached Performance fabric. PP is very similar to the fabric found in higher-end leggings and tops.

I also bought this PP print:

And this one:

These will all become hoodies of some sort.

Amanda’s has limited amounts of designer deadstock. I scored three yards of a black Italian wool blend suiting fabric, at least some of which is destined for a pair of pants. It is gorgeous!

Billie’s Designer Fabrics also had a booth full of apparel fabric. I’ve shopped with them at past Expos, but was a bit disappointed in the selection this year as it was mostly fabrics in muddy earth tones. Not a hot pink or emerald green in sight. 😞

I bought a few yards of some cottons at Vogue Fabrics and picked up some supplies at the Klum House booth, where apparently they know me because I buy from them regularly. The cashier who helped me recognized my name immediately.

My overall impression of Expo this year was that it continues to shrink. (I’ve been to all three since they began meeting in person again after the pandemic.) All of the vendors were in one hall. I am not sure why, although it made shopping much easier. The classrooms downsized from three buildings to two, and the whole event just didn’t seem as crowded as in previous years. Classes were smaller. Noticeably absent were Joe Veccharelli and his company French European, as well as the Gammill longarm people. I suspect Gamill is getting a lot of competition now because all of the major machine manufacturers have some version of frame and/or sit-down longarm machines. Gammill used to be the only game in town.

Putting on these kind of events—and making them profitable enough to continue—is a challenge. Because a lot of teachers are now offering online courses, people no longer need to travel to take classes. I think Washington State University had some personnel issues, too, because the class coordinator I had been dealing with through August disappeared suddenly last fall and was replaced by someone else.

A few days after Expo, all of the teachers received an e-mail from the class coordinator in which she stated that teachers would be expected to have a booth at next year’s Expo or be associated with a vendor booth—I was loosely associated with Wonderfil this year—AND they would be expected to be in that booth to answer questions from students outside of class. I think the Expo organizers must have received some pushback on that policy, because yesterday, all the teachers received a second e-mail stating that that policy had been rescinded. I had sent a response to the first e-mail saying that I thought that expectation was a bit unreasonable. In order for me to have a booth after class, I have to have something to sell. My knitting patterns are digital downloads. I could sell copies of my books, but then I am not only schlepping class materials in from the parking lot, I’m also schlepping cases of books and everything I need to sell them. And that makes for an incredibly long day after teaching two three-hour classes. I’m glad they rescinded the policy, because if it had stood, I doubt I’d be teaching there again.

The Fabric Haul

My Sew Expo trip is an excellent time to stock up on fabric, especially apparel fabric. I didn’t go nuts, but I did buy a few yards.

I found this sweater knit at a Walmart.

The Walmart remnant racks started out strong but have fizzled over the past year. When the stores do stock fabric, it’s just plain ugly and in colors I wouldn’t wear, so finding something like this is unusual. This sweater knit will become some kind of pullover for next winter.

I did some damage at the Quilting Bee in Spokane. I needed some yardage for the Tamarack Jacket—which I will be making up this weekend—and chose the black with dots. The gray will be the lining:

And, of course, I got the Yellow installment of the Tim Holtz Palette line. I skipped the Orange installment. Orange is not a color I use. I also got that fat quarter bundle at the bottom right, which I think is leftovers from a variety of previous Tim Holtz lines. They play nicely together, though, and I may have most of them in the stash.

I had a couple of gift cards and used them at Pacific Fabrics, where I indulged myself:

From left to right:

• Three yards of red Kaufman Brussels Washer Linen, destined to be a summer dress.

• Two yards of a new Fableism print for a woven top.

• Two yards of Anna Maria for Free Spirit rayon woven, also for a top.

• Two yards of a Cloud 9 rayon woven for a top.

• One yard of Rifle and Paper canvas from the Alice in Wonderland line for either a bag or an apron.

I definitely had a red and blue vibe going here.

I’ll post photos of my Sew Expo purchases tomorrow.

******

Yesterday was an errand-running day, so I stopped in at Joann Fabrics. Our store is much cleaner and less of a free-for-all than the stores in Seattle. The patterns were still in the drawers and all $1.99 (or $4.99 for the Vogue patterns). I wonder if the decision to pull all the patterns from the drawers and put them in boxes at 30% off was a Seattle-area decision made by someone who knows nothing about sewing, in which case those stores are going to be sitting on disorganized mountains of patterns at the end of the liquidation. Dumb.

I stocked up on some elastic and other notions. I did not recognize any of the employees, which makes me wonder if the ones who were working there jumped ship—who could blame them?—and the store is being staffed by Great American employees.

I’ve seen lots of comments around the internet that the discounts are less than expected. I’m not surprised that things aren’t at fire sale prices yet. GA paid a chunk of money for the opportunity to oversee the liquidation. They are looking for a return on that investment and counting on a certain level of panic buying. Someone on the Joann subreddit commented that prices won’t start coming down until traffic slows in the stores.

I’ve said this before and it’s still true. Sewing—and most especially quilting—is predominantly a wealthy retired white woman hobby. That certainly was the demographic of attendees at Sew Expo. I am curious to see how the death of Joanns affects the quilting industry going forward. This article on the Modern Retail website does a fairly good postmortem and quotes Abby Glassenberg, head of the Craft Industry Alliance.

Back from Sew Expo 2025

Whew! the past 10 days have been a whirlwind! I left last Monday and ended up driving the entire way to Seattle in one day. My original plan had been to spend Monday night in Spokane, but after looking at the weather forecast and seeing what was heading onshore, I chose to power through. That was a good decision even though I did drive through a bit of snow at the top of Snoqualmie Pass. A big windstorm came through Seattle Monday night and I would have been driving through that all across the state of Washington on Tuesday had I stuck with the original plan.

Bonus: I had all of Tuesday to do some fabric shopping in Seattle and Tacoma. More on that in a moment.

The sad news is that the day I left, the husband came home from getting straw bales from our farmer friend and found Dave dead in the chicken yard. There were no signs of foul play. I was not surprised. Dave was almost five years old and that is getting way up there in rooster years. As much as I will miss Dave, Little Roo now can step up and be the rooster in charge. I think he will do a good job. He was trained by his daddy, who was trained by his daddy.

RIP, Dave. You were the best rooster ever. May your genes live on.

After breakfast at the hotel on Tuesday morning, I headed to the nearest Joann Fabrics. To say that this store liquidation is a disaster is an understatement. The liquidation company, Great American (oh, the irony), put everything out on the sales floor. Literally. Some bolts were still wrapped in plastic, stacked randomly everywhere. All of the patterns had been pulled out of the pattern drawers and haphazardly plopped into cardboard boxes placed on top of the pattern drawers. (WHY?). The patterns were no longer sorted by brand or number, so it was impossible to find specific patterns. I threw out my list, because all the stores I went to were the same way.

[I hate stupidity and lack of common sense. If they had left all the patterns organized in the drawers, no doubt they would have been snapped up by shoppers.]

None of the sewing notions were left. No needles, nothing. All gone, and they had only been marked down by 25%. I said to the husband that this looked like a Joanns apocalypse. It reminded me of the run on toilet paper at Costco during the pandemic.

You know what was left in all the stores I visited? All the plastic crap from China that NO ONE WANTED. If Joanns had stuck to being a fabric (and yarn) store, they might have survived.

I did buy some bottomweight fabrics for some summer pants, but that was about it. Lines were long at both the cut counter and checkout. I feel for those poor employees.

I also made a stop at Pacific Fabrics. What a joy that was after the soul-sucking disappointment of Joann Fabrics. I’ll show photos of the fabrics I bought after I unpack everything and get organized.

Late Tuesday afternoon, I checked into the Airbnb near the fairgrounds and organized my class supplies for Wednesday’s class on sweater drafting. I have lots of thoughts about Sew Expo, too, but I’ll save those for tomorrow’s post.

Joann's Is Gone

This was posted on the Joanns subreddit when I got up this morning. The author’s handle is rianadawn and I think she was watching the court hearing over Zoom.

The auction started at 4pm yesterday with lots of back and fourth between Gordon Brothers. Finally as of about 6:30PM tonight this is the outcome.

Gordon Brothers doesn’t have any new bids. Great American has successfully won. Great American said that they know this is not the outcome we all wanted and they were hoping for the employees and for the customers to be able to keep the stores going. They said they’ve had a long standing relationship with JoAnns. They helped close 370 of JoAnns stores while helping them to be expanded. They have a multi million dollar retention plan for the employees they will be rolling out after the court approves this. They said it’s frankly not enough and 90% is going into the stores. They want the employees to know they will help them through the transition. They said they will help with time out. They said they’ll help organize job fairs. They said most stores are stay open until end of May. They said they’re helping with payroll and wind down. They’re saying for the customers, as soon as they get settled all stores will be going on discount and the merchandise will be rolling out as soon as possible. They said they had nothing to do with the bankruptcy and they’re going to help with as much empathy as they can. Auction over and now it needs to be approved by a judge.

It’s over folks. Joann’s is gone.

I’ve had people say to me, “No one sews anymore!” After I pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, I point out that the five-billion-dollar-a-year quilting industry indicates otherwise. I am sure the demise of Joann Fabrics will provide plenty of fodder for graduate business school classes for years to come. This didn’t have to happen. The sheer stupidity of human beings stuns me anew every morning.

******

I needed a mindless sewing project yesterday, so I pulled out the bag of red scraps. The bag also contains some pink, purple, and orange scraps. Most of the scraps are in the form of “strings,” or strips of fabric at least 1-1/2" wide. Larger scraps get turned into 5" squares. I spent the afternoon making these half log cabin blocks.

The pattern originally came from the book Sunday Morning Quilts under the name “Scrapper’s Delight.” We have a mulitcolored version on our bed. I’ve also done a couple of white and cream versions. This version is fairly retina-burning, but I need to use up the bag of scraps. Honestly, I think I could make two king-size versions of this quilt and still have scraps left over. I didn’t think I used a lot of red fabric but the scraps say otherwise.

I’ve found it’s easiest to make four blocks at the same time and chain piece them through the machine. They finish at 12-1/2". Some logs are a bit wonky, but that adds to the charm. This likely will be a long-term project.

******

I was reading through the teacher guidelines from Sew Expo yesterday as I was gathering supplies. I found it interesting that they had to put a reminder in there for teachers to dress professionally. Really? Do some teachers show up in jeans and hoodies? (You can tell I’m old.) Not only do I dress up, I put on makeup. 😮

I was happy to see that some of my feedback from last year has been acted upon. I suggested that they set aside an area as a teacher lounge. Teachers had no quiet place to sit down for a few minutes, get a snack and something to drink, or meet and visit with other teachers.

Totes Adorbs

We had such fun in the tote bag class yesterday. Five students registered but one couldn’t make it due to sickness. Two students were new, one of whom had taken up sewing again after a long hiatus. And each finished tote was very different.

Ardyce made one with a waxed canvas base and wool for the body:

Jenny made hers with waxed canvas for the base and a Sevenberry canvas for the body:

Nancy, the lady who has rediscovered sewing, made hers with Kaufman Brussels Washer Linen for the base (nice) and canvas for the body. We all loved how she made her lining peek over the top edge:

And Jennifer made hers with a waxed canvas base and a bee print canvas for the body.

All of the students had Bernina machines, so I was able to introduce them to the wonders of the #10 edgestitch foot for topstitching. I think that’s my favorite presser foot, no lie.

Over our lunch break, I checked on the status of the Joanns auction. As of close of business, nothing had yet been decided. It sounds like one of the bidders asked for additional financial information. I guess we won’t know anything definitive until next week.

******

One of the patterns I picked up last week was this older McCall’s pattern:

I bought it because View C has that shawl collar detail and this saves me from having to draft it from scratch.

******

The weather is about to get very messy. There is an atmospheric river coming in to the west coast. We are supposed to get rain beginning this afternoon and we’re under a flood watch. (We live on the side of a mountain, so flooding is one thing we don’t have to worry about, but other areas in the valley do.) Temps have warmed up enough that the two feet of snow piled up on the roof is sliding off, which makes it sound like we’re under attack.

Seattle may get a windstorm tomorrow night and into Monday. That won’t affect my drive over, but the forecast is making it look worse than the windstorm that happened in November. That one knocked out power to some of the suburbs for almost a week.

What Remains of Joann Fabrics?

I suspect we may know by the end of business today what will happen to the remaining Joann Fabrics stores. If I am understanding posts in the Joanns subreddit correctly, there is an auction scheduled this morning to sell what’s left, but all three registered bidders are liquidation companies. When I stopped in at our store yesterday afternoon—I can’t stay away from that pattern sale—the manager said that what she is being told changes from minute to minute.

What.A.Mess.

My ruler class on Wednesday was a lot of fun. I very rarely teach a class I don’t enjoy. We were using the circle and curve rulers. Here is my friend Jenny using one of the circle rulers to quilt a flower. (Jenny is also on the board of the Homestead Foundation.)

I talked to the class coordinator from the store in Missoula yesterday afternoon. When I finished making that pink Riley Blake quilted jacket—the one that had so many problems—I sent an e-mail to the store owner and suggested we consider a different project. The class coordinator and I talked about it and decided on the Tamarack Jacket from Grainline Studio. We also moved the class to next fall. I’ll make the sample when I get back from Sew Expo.

I’ve had enough extra time this week to eke out two tops. The first is the Burda 6315. (I think I keep saying 9315 and that’s the wrong pattern number.) This is the French terry from KnitFabric.com. I absolutely love it. I wore it to my class on Wednesday.

The second one is Yet Another Toaster Sweater from the third chunk of cable knit that I got from Joann Fabrics last year.

This is such a lovely fabric. It’s a blend with rayon in it and it wears beautifully. The color selection could have been better (could I please have some hot pink or emerald green?), but I’m okay with reds as long as they lean toward the blue end of the spectrum. These Toaster Sweaters are great to throw on with a pair of jeans.

I timed myself while making this Toaster Sweater. It took an hour and a half to make—about 30 minutes to cut it out and an hour to run it up on the serger. Gotta love these instant gratification projects.

Today is my Wool and Wax Tote class.

I am so itching for a road trip. It has been three months since I’ve gone anywhere and that’s a long time for me to be home. The weather, although rainy, should be okay for getting over the passes.

Getting Ready for Sew Expo

My Wool and Wax Tote Bag class is on Friday. I still hadn’t finished the blue and gray version—the top edge needed to be topstitched—so I did that yesterday. The husband put the new light up over the Juki 1541, the machine affectionately known as “The Beast.”

We need to raise the light a bit; the thread coming from the thread stand is too close to it, but otherwise, it is lovely to have so much task lighting right where I need it.

The topstitching took 10 minutes but now it’s done. I hand sewed the opening for turning in the lining closed last night. Yes, I could have done that by machine but I don’t mind the hand sewing.

Now all I have to do with that bag is attach the handles. I will do that in class. I am taking the rivet press with me so students can use it, and attaching the handles will be a good demonstration of how to use the press.

I also found some time to cut out a Toaster Sweater and a Burda 9315 (heavily hacked). For the Toaster Sweater, I used a burgundy cabled knit that I bought at Joanns a year or two ago. I already have two other Toasters in that same fabric in light blue and navy blue, and they are in regular rotation. I wanted to sew it together, but I don’t have the correct serger thread color. Sometimes, I am willing to use a non-matching thread, but not with that fabric. I’ll get the thread I need today when I am teaching my ruler class.

I thought about making a Jalee Nathalie top with the other fabric—the French terry I ordered from KnitFabric.com when I ordered the fabric for the boys’ tops—but I only had two yards and need almost three for the Nathalie. It worked perfectly for the Burda 9315. I was able to put that one together. I just need to hem it on the coverstitch machine.

I always like to wear me-mades when I teach and now I’ll have a couple of new tops for Sew Expo. No, it is not lost on me that I’ll be teaching knitting classes while wearing sweaters that I sewed.

The pile of Sew Expo supplies in the living room is growing. That is where I put everything so I don’t forget it when I am packing the car.

I have a shopping list for Sew Expo. (I also have one for Joanns clearance sales, although I suspect the pickings may be slim by the time I get to those stores.) One of my favorite vendors at Sew Expo is Amanda’s Bundles. They have a great selection of knits, and this year, they are supposed to have some sewing-themed knits. I noticed that the Sew Expo organizers have consolidated all of the vendors into the larger of the two buildings; I wonder if that is because the number of vendors is down or if it was done for convenience. That main vendor building had plenty of room, so I think it’s a good move regardless.

Ellie Lum of Klum House is teaching a new waxed canvas bag pattern and the pattern will be released at Sew Expo. I’m looking forward to seeing what she has designed. Billie’s Designer Fabrics is another great apparel fabric vendor. I’ve gotten a lot of fabric for the little boys’ shirts from them. I’m hoping to pick up some nice gabardines or other trouser fabric (wool?) so I can get started on making pants for myself.

Joy in Snow

It has been a very snowy (and cold) February and the snow is still coming down. This was the view out the kitchen door yesterday afternoon:

We have a bucket for both the forklift and the track loader, so the husband can move the snow into huge piles. They made great sledding hills when the girls were little.

Snow falls off the metal roof and piles up along the edge of the porch. The winter of 1996-97, we had so much snow that it was up to the porch roof. Walking from the driveway to the kitchen door was like walking through a tunnel.

The chicken coop:

The chickens won’t go out in the snow, so they get quite cranky at this time of year.

It’s hard to see, but there is a platform on the fencepost just to the left of the coop. It acts as our snow gauge. The husband must have cleared it off Sunday, because just before I left for church, it had over a foot of snow on it. When I looked out this morning, it was up to about 10".

The herb garden:

We need the moisture, so I will not complain about the snow. And it’s pretty.

*******

I finished all my class prep, so now it’s a matter of collecting and packing supplies. I’m glad I can drive to Sew Expo; I don’t know how I would manage if I had to fly. The class coordinators are making a point of telling teachers that some students will show up unprepared, without the requisite class supplies, so we should bring extras. 🙄 I have found that many students think that all they have to do is show up for the class and everything will be provided for them. When Tera and I went to Sew Expo two years ago, each of us had a rolling tote full of all the supplies we thought we might need for our classes.

It’s a fine line. Sometimes it is easier to tell students that a kit of supplies will be provided (and charged for accordingly). I do that when I want students to have specific supplies. My thread class comes with a thread kit—put together by Wonderfil—and I provide 5" squares of light-colored fabric backed with a lightweight interfacing. (I fuse interfacing to a large piece of fabric and cut the squares on my Accuquilt cutter.) When it comes to basic supplies, though, such as scissors and marking tools, students should come prepared.

I finished sewing down the binding on the Correspondence quilt last night. That one has been crossed off the list. I’m kicking around the idea of starting a scrap quilt because my bag of red strips is absolutely overflowing. Sewing strips together is a good mindless activity. I can’t decide if I want to take a sewing machine with me to Sew Expo or not. I could sew in the evenings, but after a day of teaching, I like to vegetate.