Podcasts and Pouches

I spent yesterday morning editing two podcast episodes. One was today’s episode, which is an interview with Anne Graham. She repairs products for Patagonia. I learned a lot listening to her talk about her job. I also edited next week’s podcast because I needed to have the information available ahead of time to send to C&T Publishing for a blog tour. The guest is Kathleen McVeigh, who has a book coming out next Tuesday entitled Reclaimed Quilts: Sew Modern Clothing and Accessories From Vintage Textiles. That was another fun interview. We discovered, during out post-interview chat, that she knows a young man from our church because they attended college together.

[Cue “It’s a Small World, After All” music. You may thank me later if that gets stuck in your head.]

I have so much fun with these interviews. The world is filled with fascinating people. I just wish more of them would say yes to being podcast guests. A lot of the older people I want to interview don’t feel comfortable with the technology.

I didn’t do any sewing yesterday, but I did prep a couple of patterns. I cut pattern pieces for the Haralson Bag and I also printed and taped patterns for a collection of quilted pouches from Rosie Caldwell.

You might be saying to yourself, “Why on earth would Janet need a pattern for something so basic?” I’ll tell you why. Sometimes Janet gets tired of doing everything from scratch. It was absolutely worth the $5 I spent on this pattern to have the math already done for seven different zip pouch sizes. Also, the designer did a superb YouTube video detailing her methods. And I never balk at supporting an indie designer.

I plan to start by making the largest size pouch because I want to experiment with appliquéing some hexie flowers onto the base fabric before quilting it. I have a ton of hexie flowers. They need to be used and I don’t have the patience to sew them into a Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt.

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I woke up this morning fully expecting to mourn the loss of my cucumber and squash plants. Missoula was under a winter storm warning yesterday (!) and I wasn’t sure how cold we would get overnight. It’s 40F as I write this, though, so I think the plants are okay for another day. They were covered. The husband and I checked on everything last evening. If they can survive one more night, we might be out of the woods. (This is Montana, though. Who knows?)

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I am being a thorn in the side of our denominational conference. Part of me thinks I should just shut up and be gracious, but the other part of me says, “No, they need to know your thoughts about this.” Mennonite Church USA is divided into regional conferences—broken up roughly along geographic lines—and our church belongs to the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference. One of the challenges our congregation faces is the fact that we are so far from the rest of the churches in the conference. The majority of churches are located in Oregon, but there are some in Washington and Idaho, one in Alaska, and ours.

We have an annual meeting every summer. Until the pandemic, tradition dictated that a different church would host annual meeting each year, and they would alternate—one in Oregon, the next in a different state, then back to Oregon, etc. Our congregation hosted it twice and I was chairman of the planning committee both times. I also served for four years on the board and did a lot of traveling to and from Portland (where the office is located) for board meetings. Even in February.

The pandemic meant we didn’t have an in-person annual meeting for two years. Last year, it was held in Portland as a one-day meeting. Elaine and I went (and then went to Seattle for a few days afterward), but I expressed my disappointment that it was only a one-day meeting. Getting to Portland is a 10-hour drive.

This year, it is in Bend, OR, which is in the middle of the state. The schedule of events obviously was created with the expectation that people would be traveling on Friday morning and Sunday afternoon, as most of the attendees have a half-day drive or less. We have an 11-hour drive. What bothers me most is that the second delegate session is scheduled for Sunday morning before the worship service. Did I mention that we have an 11-hour drive and we lose an hour going back? The other delegate and I will miss that session. If we stay for it, I’ll be pulling into my driveway at midnight. Yesterday, we received information for the second delegate session, which is table discussions, and the question that caught my eye was “Are there ways in which your congregation yearns for greater connectedness [to PNMC]?”

Oh, the irony.

Yes, we yearn for greater connectedness and annual meeting is one of the ways we get it, but not if the schedule is set up such that we miss key events. I realize that we are a minority and the event has to be planned with all the churches in mind, but in the past, delegate sessions rarely were scheduled for Sunday morning.

I sent off an e-mail with my concerns. I expect there will be additional discussion about this at the actual meeting. In the meantime, I am working on my attitude.