Research and Development Continues

I tested out my self-drafted DP templates and made a couple of blocks out of scraps.

I made them slightly oversized for trimming, which was good. That background piece, being so skinny at the ends, has a tendency to stretch more than in the previous DP blocks. Now I just need to make and attach the other element of this block to see if the larger circle was the answer to this block conundrum or if I should give up and move on. Hopefully it works, in which case I’ll sew it up into an actual design.

I’ve been watching a lot of videos by my favorite designers—Lisa Bongean, Sherri McConnell, and Edyta Sitar, to name a few—and they all say the similar things about designing and creativity. You can’t force it. You just have to figure out how to stay afloat when the tsunami comes.

Anna Graham of Noodlehead is starting a sewalong next week for her Sandhill Sling bag. I went ahead and cut pieces for it out of the Klum House royal blue waxed canvas:

The lining print doesn’t contrast very much, but I love it and wanted to use it. This is my last attempt at seeing if I can figure out how to make the industrial Necchi happy about sewing this canvas. It has zero problems sewing the AL Frances waxed canvas, but chokes on this stuff for some reason.

I’ve got time yet, to get to the actual bag sewing—Anna is only going to cover materials and cutting in the first installment and I already have that done. I love her patterns, though, and I think this will be a nice change of pace from quilt blocks.

I got a package in the mail yesterday containing some custom spice blends:

I ordered the Spicy Italian seasoning from Honey Bees Kitchen and Mercantile a few months ago and love it. I was almost out and needed more. When I placed my order, I asked Melissa if she had any chorizo seasoning. Our pork processor ran out of theirs while they were processing our pork, so most of the ground meat we got back is unseasoned. Melissa said that was a blend she had been planning to add. She mixed it up for me and I get to be one of the first ones to try it! I opened the pouch yesterday to take a whiff and I can tell it’s going to be great.

Honey Bees doesn’t have a website yet, but you can contact Melissa on Facebook. She’s very responsive, more than willing to make custom blends, and ships promptly.

I am supposed to participate in a Pacific NW Mennonite conference webinar this morning, but we’re under a winter storm warning through noon tomorrow. We got about 10” of snow yesterday. The poor husband had to spend a couple of hours tracking down a hydraulic fluid leak on the snowplow that turned out to be a bad O-ring. This next storm, though, is a back-door cold front bringing arctic air from Canada that will slam into a wave of moisture. The snow amounts are not supposed to be as high, but the wind is going to be an issue (again). Let’s hope we don’t lose any more trees or we’ll be living in a meadow.