Nature and Vacuums and All of That

I am having a heck of a time keeping my desk clean these days. Every time I get it cleaned off, I come back to find a pile of papers on it. I’ve got several big projects in process at the moment with a lot of moving parts.

I’ve given up on QuickBooks for payroll. Their programmers appear to be more interested in adding AI to everything than in fixing the bug that is keeping me from using the payroll module. I went to reconcile the bank statement this month—a process which used to take me 10 minutes and now takes twice that long—and a screen popped up announcing that AI was ready to help me. I DON’T NEED HELP RECONCILING THE BANK STATEMENT. I need QB to get out of the way.

Our accountant recommended Gusto for payroll. Honestly, I may just continue with my old-school Excel spreadsheet. Payroll software makes the tax deposits automatically, but even making them manually isn’t that onerous. I’d love to ditch QB altogether but there is no good alternative, unfortunately.

Monday was not a sewing day; I had an appointment with my naturopath and had to record this week’s podcast episode. I thought I might get some sewing in on Tuesday, but the husband is buying another work truck—he will sell one of his other ones—and I needed to fill out the loan paperwork and get it back to the bank. This is the truck he wanted to buy last time he bought a work truck, but there weren’t any to be had in the entire United States. He found one in Arizona, so we jumped on it.

On my way to the bank Tuesday (around noon), I stopped in at the quilt store. I traded in my L860 serger for an L890 and had to drop off the L860. I was scheduled to teach a serger mastery class on Tuesday afternoon, but as of Sunday afternoon, when I checked with the class coordinator, no one had signed up. She said she would cancel it. However, the store staff didn’t know it had been canceled and someone signed up for the class on Monday. I didn’t know I had a student because I was operating under the assumption that the class had been canceled. I happened to be in the store, taking care of the serger trade, when a woman walked in and said, “I’m here for the serger class!”

Ooof.

I taught the serger class. Becky had mentioned to me at BU that she also wanted to take the next serger class so we called her and she came right in. I didn’t have my class samples or handouts but I made it work. Marci, who was working at the store that day, had a notebook of samples that she had put together after she took my class a few years ago, so we used that. And I got to the bank just before closing time and dropped off the paperwork. Crisis averted.

Ashlee and I came back from Bernina University with all sorts of ideas, some of which are what led to me trading up to the L890 serger. I will explain that in the next blog post so this one doesn’t get too long. I’m taking over teaching the mastery classes on all the machines, which will free up the owner and the rest of the store staff for other tasks. I have some work to do in the next couple of weeks to get up to speed on what I don’t know.

I also ordered a Bernina 700 PRO embroidery machine. That model has no feed dogs and can’t sew; its entire reason for existing is to do embroidery. The 880 came with an embroidery module, but I don’t want to tie up the 880 with embroidery projects. Its embroidery module can be used on the 700.

[Everyone in my family will be getting embroidered gifts for Christmas. You have been warned.]

I am also making samples to put around the store. Samples sell fabric, and sometimes patterns, and sometimes even machines. And they generate interest for classes. Ashlee asked for some samples ahead of Kaffe Fassett’s visit. I have one of the tops I made from a cotton sateen wideback and I picked up some Kaffe quilt cotton to make a very cute little girl’s dress pattern. Before BU, I cut out a Harper Cardigan from the Marcia Derse cotton jersey that the store received a few weeks ago, so I finished that yesterday (on my new serger!):

This pattern comes in four lengths. I made the longline version this time instead of the classic version I usually make. I like the longer length. The fabric is from Marcia’s Art History line. This is also going to the store.

The Remy Raglan is up next. I’ll make the muslin this weekend and—hopefully—the store sample right after that.

I’m excited that I’ll be teaching more this fall. I also have a reason to learn machine embroidery and I have more reasons to sew. Now if I can just keep my desk clean . . .