Only 89 Days Until Christmas

Yesterday’s Christmas stocking class was so much fun. I had two students—both of whom have been in some of my other classes—so we were able to relax and enjoy the process. If I teach that class again, it will have to be over two days or the students will have to do some prep work ahead of time. I would have struggled having to teach a larger group. The techniques are not complicated, but they require a lot of threading and rethreading the serger.

One student finished her stocking:

The other student was very close to finishing but wanted to do the final bits of sewing at home, so I didn’t get a photo of her stocking.

My friend Janet—who schedules classes for the store and was there yesterday—gifted me some stretch lace in both black and white, which reminds me that one of my goals for 2024 was to make some underwear. I still have three months.

I have a serger mastery class on the calendar for next month and that is the last class for 2024. I am not going to try to schedule anything else. September was an exhausting month and October will be busy, too. I just want my schedule to slow down so I can sew. And it takes time to develop new classes for next year. I think one of my upcoming podcast episodes is going to be about how to find time to sew when you don’t have time to sew. 🫤

The Simplicity.com website has a fun online exhibit posted for National Sewing Month on the history of the Big 4 pattern companies (now referred to as the “Core 4”). The exhibit includes vintage photos, background information on the families involved, and links to current pattern offerings.

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I’m not sure how the garden will look this morning; a strong cold front came through last night with a thunderstorm and some hail. Fortunately, my friend Anna went through the tomato patch before the storm hit. Spokane got the storm, too, along with a lot of blowing dust coming in from the fields to the west.

I met some of the members of our co-op at the Mennonite church last evening to give them my key for the weekend. They were bringing in display items needed for setup today. The co-op sale is tomorrow and Saturday. I would like to pop in and help during the weekend but much depends on how things play out. Getting the tomatoes out of the freezer to make room for the pork is priority #1.