Ponte and Patterns

No trip would be complete without some fabric-related shopping. At the store in Issaquah, I bought a couple of thread storage boxes. Thread is threatening to take over here and I need a good way to corral it. Floriani makes some nice drawer boxes that work really well for the smaller spools of decorative serger thread.

[I will be appearing on Quilt Gallery’s Facebook Live in a few weeks to talk about thread. The owner and employee who usually do the Tuesday morning broadcast will be away at a conference, so I offered to step in and talk about the Wonderfil threads that the store carries.]

I hit the Joann Fabrics in Renton, Kent, and Tukwila, although I am being much more selective about what I buy. I found enough remnants of a navy blue double-brushed polyester to make a top, and I also scored some navy blue ponte for a pair of Renee pants. I am making an effort to sew a few basic pieces of clothing that I need and that coordinate with pieces I already have. Navy blue has been hard to find. Sometimes I get tired of wearing black.

Ketchikan has a quilt store downtown called The Whale’s Tail. I wonder if it is under new ownership. When I was there last year, I was waited on by an older woman who spent several minutes complaining to me about the loss of business from the pandemic and supply chain issues. (Products are difficult enough to get to Alaska without supply chain disruptions.) I expected to see that the store had closed, but it’s still there, staffed by a couple of younger women. They also have a website, which they didn’t have before. Inventory is still a bit thin, but it seems like someone is making an effort to revive the store.

I bought this pattern:

The store had one of these kuspuks made up and on display. I thought it would be good to have something uniquely Alaskan in my pattern collection.

My mother and I spent Thursday and Friday in Seattle. On Thursday, we took the ferry over to the peninsula to visit DSIL’s parents. We also got to meet his younger sister, who was visiting from Norway. She went there a few years ago to get her master’s degree but due to the pandemic, she wasn’t able to come back for the wedding. She’s still working and living there. DSIL’s uncle—his mom’s brother—lives in Norway, too, so there is a strong family connection.

On Friday, we took a different ferry over to Bainbridge Island. My youngest cousin on my dad’s side, who also works for Nordstrom, is getting married in September and we wanted to check out her wedding venue. My girls, DSIL, my sister and her boyfriend, and my mother and I are staying at an Airbnb in Seattle for the wedding and I thought it would be good to know where we were going.

We had stellar weather in Seattle. This is a view from the sun deck of the ferry just before we left. Trust me when I say this is not usually how Seattle looks.

It’s about half an hour on the ferry over to the island, and then it took us another half an hour to find the venue because Google Maps confused a roundabout for a stop sign. The island is very pretty, so the detour wasn’t a big deal. We found the venue—it’s lovely—then went back to the town near the ferry landing to do more shopping.

Bainbridge Island sports a cute little store called Esther’s Fabrics. My mother went to the boutique next door and I popped in to see what Esther’s carried. I bought this pattern:

Yes, I can draft my own patterns, but there is value is seeing how other designers approach the process. This booklet has a lot of good information. I also got two lengths of some decorative ribbon, one with Singer sewing machines on it and one with pigs on it.

My mother was supposed to fly back to Cleveland on Saturday morning, but at 11:30 pm Friday night, Alaska Airlines texted her to say that the flight was cancelled and they could not re-book her on anything else. We couldn’t find a flight leaving Seattle for a few days, but Delta had one leaving Spokane in the afternoon with a few seats still available. We had enough time to pack up and hit the road, and I dropped her off at the Spokane airport in time for her flight. As much as I like Alaska Airlines, these flight cancellations are a problem. They’ve done this to DD#2 twice. My mother is supposed to take this same flight to Seattle in September for the wedding. At least we were able to find a workaround. There were several hundred other people on that flight back to Cleveland who probably got stuck in Seattle longer than anticipated.

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I got my garden chores done yesterday morning before it got hot. (It got up to 86 yesterday, which for some people is not “hot,” but my friend Anna and I were discussing how much we prefer cooler weather.) The rows of lettuce and collard greens have been weeded and I did more trimming with the weedeater. I was able to find some replacement plants at the nursery on Sunday and I will get those put into the ground today. The husband has been pulling stumps and doing some landscaping in the yard in order to make it easier to mow the grass. I’ll get some garden and yard pics today while I am out working.