Winter in May

It snowed again yesterday. All day. I’m starting to wonder if we will have a gardening season at all this year. We’ve had cool springs before, but nothing like this in recent memory. We had one year when it snowed 3” on June 10, but that was rather a freak event. I’d estimate that we’re a good month behind right now. My grapes should be leafing out and I haven’t even had a chance to prune them yet.

The long-range forecast for the rest of the month isn’t awful, but it isn’t warm, either.

Every year is different, but this year seems really different.

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I received a phone call yesterday that I’ve been looking forward to getting. Before I left for Seattle, I applied to join the Wonderfil Teacher Program. The quilt store south of town carries Wonderfil threads. I think they are some of the best on the market. I still love Aurifil for piecing on my Necchi—Italian thread for an Italian machine—but the Wonderfil Konfetti may be my new favorite quilting thread for the Q20. And their decorative threads for serging are amazing. The SoftLoc wooly polyester makes the most beautiful rolled hem edgings.

The coordinator for the teacher program called yesterday afternoon to tell me they had approved my application. She and I visited for about 20 minutes. Wonderfil provides all kinds of support for teachers who use their threads, including free class handouts and custom thread kits. They see this program as being an adjunct to their retailers, not a replacement, and I had already let the owner of the quilt store know that I had applied. I am currently the only teacher in Montana.

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I am prepping a pattern for an upcoming serger class—I have to make two of these, one for each store:

This is the Cookin’ in Color pattern, designed by Sue O’Very. It happened to work out that both stores suggested this as a class. The pattern is designed to teach several serger techniques and I think it will be a fun make. And you know how much I love aprons.