Bear Paws and Bags

In addition to the Sunbonnet Sue quilt, I need to make four baby quilts before the end of March. I really ought to make twice that many so I have a few extra on hand. I’m using Jeni Baker’s Scrappy Bear Paw Baby Quilt tutorial, although mine won’t be scrappy. I love that pattern. It works up quickly and is fun to make, and what could be more “Montana” than a bear paw?

I knocked out one baby quilt top yesterday morning. I’ll do all four tops, then get backings and batting for them. Each quilt will be a different color combination.

I worked a bit more on the Churn Dash quilt. I’ve done eight of the 25 blocks. I will set that one aside next week and get started on the Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

The Ravenwood bag is a carrot—I am not allowed to work on it until I’ve hit milestones on other projects. I was productive enough yesterday that I rewarded myself with a couple of hours of work on it late in the afternoon.

The first step of the pattern is to make the cargo pockets for the front of the bag. The color combo is going to be green and black. The zippers will be black and the hardware black nickel. I remembered, from the first bag I made, that I didn’t like using the same lining fabric for the cargo pockets as I did the inside of the bag. No matter how carefully I sew, the edges of the lining fabric peek out from behind the waxed canvas. For these pockets, I used some green Kona in a shade to match the canvas. (I think the color is Pesto.) The thread is an upholstery-weight polyester just a bit darker then the canvas. I still haven’t decided on a lining fabric, although I am not limited to just one. A combination of prints might be nice.

I love working on my Necchi industrial. I have that machine set up as a treadle and working on a project like this is so relaxing.

That white implement is a Hera marker. I use it to make guide lines on the waxed canvas. The markings stay until the bag is completed, and a quick once-over with a hair dryer makes them all disappear.

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Seeds are here (new packaging for 2023):

I always order from Victory. I have had great success with everything I’ve gotten from them. They carry my favorite variety of leaf lettuce, called Ruby. It is what is growing in our indoor lettuce system. The flavor is amazing.

I keep looking at the chick schedule from the farm store and I can’t decide. I am leaning toward either Brown Leghorns or New Hampshire Reds, but some of that depends on whether I can get chicks at all. I noticed that this year, Lavender Orpingtons are on the schedule. Buff Orps and Black Orps are relatively common, but the Lavender Orps are much rarer, at least in the US. A breeder in the UK began selecting for them in the 1990s. The chicks I’ve seen for sale here have been three times the price (or more) of other breeds. I’ve also read that the genetics aren’t all that stable, but that may have changed with sustained breeding.