A Bunch of Threads

All the masks are done and one batch has been mailed to the east coast. The others will go west and northwest.

The prototype apron is finished:

Even though it’s a prototype done in some Joann’s clearance fabric, I am quite happy with it. The customer liked the sawtooth design but wanted something much longer. I wasn’t sure how the added length would translate. I also wasn’t sure where and how to scale up the design to maintain the balance. In the end, I winged it and trusted my instincts. I added most of the increased length and width to the gores of the body, then scaled up the bottom sawtooth sections so they matched. All seams were sewn, then finished on the serger and topstitched by machine.

The final design will have a pocket and I might still add a pocket to this one. For the prototype, though, I was most interested in the overall look. I prefer full-body aprons because I am messy, but this would be a good one for church to wear over a dress (if we ever get to have potlucks again). The only thing I might do is to deepen the angle of the sawtooth sections. When I scaled them up, they got a bit lost.

And certainly, if I run out of things to do—like that will happen soon—I could write up the pattern.

I finished the couching portions of the first SqSq block:

I need to add embellishments to the stem and leaf next.

The Squash Squad blocks that Sue Spargo designed and that most people are making are quirky, bright ones. I am usually all about quirky and bright, but my SqSq blocks are leaning toward more realistic colors. Part of that is because I want to use the supplies I’ve got, but I think part of it is also that I grow these veggies in my garden. I must subconsciously want them to look more like the real thing. We’ll see. I’ll finish the first one and re-evaluate. I can always redo them in brighter colors.

The husband went to fire training last night. I spent some time organizing my plastic shoebox full of embroidery thread.

Most of this was bequeathed to me by my mother, supplemented by thrift store purchases. I’ve got to come up with an alternate method of storing these, probably in smaller plastic containers by color. This collection included some partially-used skeins, which got wrapped around bobbins to be stored in a tray.

My YouTube viewing this week while sewing has included a number of documentaries on the history of Seattle and Spokane. I am learning a lot. Apparently, one of the richest people in Seattle history was a madame named Lou Graham who ran a brothel there in the late 1800s. Prostitution was illegal, so when she brought women in to work for her, she put down their occupation as “seamstress.”

I watched an hour-long documentary on rumrunners in Spokane during prohibition and another on the history of silver mining in North Idaho. And while making that apron yesterday afternoon, I got the inside scoop on how Spokane managed to host the World’s Fair in 1974. A group of businessmen had a vision to turn the railyard downtown into the site of the fair, but to do that, they had to get the land from the railroads, demolish everything, and build the infrastructure for what is now Riverfront Park. That was quite an amazing story.

For my viewing pleasure today, I am going to line up a bunch of videos on the Kratky lettuce growing system. I’d really prefer to buy a starter system rather than cobble together something on my own, but I should at least have a solid understanding of what I am looking for. If I can get something up and running by the end of November, we could have a nice supply of lettuce all winter.