Inching Toward Spring — Janet Szabo

I went to my Ruler of the Month class yesterday afternoon. The instructor demonstrated how to use the ruler on both the longarm machine (a HandiQuilter model) and the sitdown Q20. It’s interesting to see the differences; on a longarm, the machine is moving and the ruler is stationary, and on the Q20, the quilt and ruler are moving and the machine is stationary. This month’s ruler is an on-point square. (The store ran short on their supply so I’ll get mine later this week.) I’m already thinking of ways to use it in the border of the Big Top quilt. That quilt is still on my Q20 and I need to finish quilting it.

I don’t think I’ll become a ruler fanatic, but I would like to get to some basic level of competence with them.

The store had also received a shipment from Bernina and had my extra bobbin case and package of bobbins. I bought an extra bobbin case so I could play around with heavier thread on the bottom without having to continually adjust my original bobbin case. I get 20% off all Bernina accessories because I bought my Q20 at the store, so that’s a nice benefit.

I took my Sandhill Sling in to the other quilt store to show it off—the ladies who work there make a lot of bags and the store also carries Noodlehead patterns. They asked me to bring it in so they could see it. And of course, I stopped in at Joann Fabrics and raided the remnant rack.

The green and purple star blocks are in the assembly stage. It takes me about 20 minutes to do one block:

I don’t want to get too many tops done and not be able to get them quilted and written up. I’m trying to work on writing up the Big Top pattern before I forget what I did. I took notes and made drawings, but I want that pattern out of my head before those notes cease to make sense. The pattern for Cobbles and Pebbles is almost done and ready to list in the store.

I am trying not to make too many assumptions about my schedule. I have a rough idea of how things may go, because winter and summer are so drastically different in terms of daily tasks, but nothing about the last couple of years has been consistent. In the spring of 2019, I was working from 5-noon as a transcriptionist and managing gardening and animals in the afternoons. Last spring, my transcriptionist job went from full-time to part-time and eventually disappeared altogether, and we were in the midst of a pandemic. I may have more time this spring than I anticipate and can keep working on quilt projects.

The farm store put out their chick schedule so I grabbed one yesterday. We’re aiming to get chicks the last week of March or first week of April. It looks like they’ve ordered from additional hatcheries, so the supply should be adequate. This year, we need white or black pullets. (I do a different color breed every year so we know what ages they are.) I’ve got it narrowed down to Black Star, Black Australorp (we’ve had those before), Black Jersey Giant, White Plymouth Rock, White Orpington, and Pearl White Leghorn. We had Leghorns once and I said never again because they were so flighty. For egg production, though, they cannot be beat, so I would be willing to consider them. Some of what I get depends on what the store has when I go in.

The store is also getting in 25 Blue Australorp pullets the week of April 19. I am not much for rare or designer chicken breeds—and especially not at $10 apiece—but I would get one or two if they don’t sell out.

Decisions, decisions. I am glad I have all my seeds and don’t need to worry about them. And it occurred to me that I am going to have to prune fruit trees in another week or two.