Prime. Or Not.
I still have no navy blue bias binding. The package I ordered was supposed to be delivered today but wasn’t, and when I checked the Amazon order tracking, it said, “Oops, looks like your package won’t be delivered until Saturday. Maybe.” (This is a Prime order, too.) Tracking shows that the package was shipped from Hillsboro, Oregon, yesterday, but has been delayed en route. Really? It’s not like there is a snowstorm between Oregon and Montana that is slowing down the ponies.
Amazon just built a huge fulfillment center in Spokane. I was hoping it would solve some of these problems.
These are my options:
Enter the green apron with the red trim. Certainly an acceptable option, although I think the current iteration of the apron shows off my skills a bit better.
Make another apron with stash fabric and a sufficient color of bias binding (I have some packages of other colors in my stash).
Make a different apron that doesn’t include any bias binding. I could make another version of that Mary Apron from the class I took in Spokane in June and enter that, but the wow factor isn’t quite as big.
Drive to Missoula and get binding there.
I’ll check the shipment tracking on Friday and reassess. I have to deliver the apron to the fairgrounds either Sunday or Monday. I stopped in yesterday to get my entry tag. The woman who checked me in said I picked a good time to come in as they had just had a woman who entered 75 items. SEVENTY-FIVE ITEMS. I am a poser.
This is such a first-world problem. I shouldn’t be complaining.
I am going to go to the fair with Elysian next week. She is taking the kids from her preschool/summer camp. I figured she could use the additional adult help and it will be more fun than going by myself.
I was sewing upstairs last night when I looked out the window and noticed a woman and four kids walking down the road. A new family has moved into the house on the property just south of and adjacent to ours, so I dashed downstairs and went out to the road and introduced myself. We had a short but informative visit. (Her husband had already stopped and talked to my husband a few weeks ago.) I am thrilled that we have so many little kids in the neighborhood now, and I told her that she should let me know if they need anything.
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I listened to a Threads Magazine podcast this morning. It was an interview with Gretchen Hirsch (AKA “Gertie”) who has had a blog for many years and designs for Butterick. Her specialty is vintage women’s wear—think 40s and 50s—complete with spiral steel boning and body-shaping foundation garments. I had two takeaways from the podcast. One is that the editors of Threads spend a lot of time sitting around discussing the proper sewing terms to use in the magazine. “Bias binding” is different than “bias facing” and woe unto you who cannot make the distinction. And “cut and spread” is preferable to “slash and spread.” (That does sound like something out of a horror movie.) I also learned that it takes Gretchen approximately nine months to a year to take a sewing pattern from idea to saleable pattern. Hmmmm.
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I am doing transcription subcoverage this week, but “coverage” is a relative term. I did 45 minutes on Monday—I got started late due to some technical issues—and 75 minutes yesterday, and then it occurred to me that I should check in with my supervisor to see how much work she wanted me to cover. I don’t want to be taking work away from someone else. She said, “Oh, if you could do 30 minutes a day, that would be great.”
Oops.
I did 32 minutes this morning, which only took me about two hours. I am not going to get rich being a transcriptionist, although I am enjoying being back at it.
Because I had no bias binding with which to finish my apron, I tackled the seemingly-endless pile of things that need to be finished or moved along. I am making another quilt to go on our bed this winter. We have on there the multi-colored “Scrapper’s Delight” from Sunday Morning Quilts that I made a few years ago, but I want another one that is slightly bigger—48 squares instead of 36. I’ve been chain-piecing those in the evenings. When they get to be almost 12-1/2”, though, I work on them individually. I got through the pile and put them up on the design wall to play around with color placement:
These are good to work on in the evenings because they don’t require much brainpower. The scrap pile does not seem to have decreased in size, however.
I pressed some fabric and I made the new backing for the Candy Coated Quilt, also from Sunday Morning Quilts. That one will get quilted this fall when the weather cools down. I still need to make the binding for the Ritzville quilt and get that sewn on. The clock is ticking.
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The Black Australorp broody hen finally gave up and abandoned the nesting box. I removed the eggs to the compost bin, cleaned out the box, and put new bedding in all of the nesting boxes. Perhaps another chicken will feel the tug of those maternal instincts. We’ve been getting a few pullet eggs, too, so I think the Light Brahmas and Barred Rocks are starting to lay. And Baby Rooster sounds less like a rusty gate and more like a rooster when he crows now.