Tomatoes, Grapes, and Hardware

The tomatoes are all planted. I need to replace a couple of tomato cages. I really like the heavy coated red and yellow galvanized wire ones and I’m hoping I can find more:

From this angle, I am looking straight into the pig pasture. (It’s hard to see the fence, but it’s there.) Our pigs have a very nice place to live while they are here. We pick up piglets on Sunday.

The grapes are leafing out, right on schedule:

I weeded the potatoes until I couldn’t stand the bugs anymore. They seem to be especially bad this year.

I mowed again—I could have waited another day or two, but it’s fun riding that mower around. The backyard takes 20 minutes on the tractor and then I do the trimming with the push mower. I came inside when it got too hot. We hit 86 yesterday. Anything above 75 and I wilt. There is a reason I live in Montana. It’s supposed to be cooler this weekend.

My afternoon project was to begin assembling Slabtown. The first step was easy—make the side pockets and sew them to the side panels. The pockets have a crease from marking, but a quick shot with a hairdryer at the end will make that crease disappear.

The next step was to add some leather accents and hardware. Adding hardware always makes me nervous. There is so little room for error. I bought the hardware kit for this pattern so I would have the correct pieces and the tools to attach them. The line snap—that piece in the center of the leather tab—is one I’ve done before, so that wasn’t too hard. I went out to the husband’s shop and used his anvil as the hard surface.

The tubular rivets on either side were new to me. The require a “tubular peening tool,” which bends the edges of the tube downward and into the leather on the backside of the piece to secure the rivet:

Pretty cool. This bag has a fair bit of hardware, so I’ll get even more practice in later steps.

I would have kept going, but the next step involved attaching the zipper to the front pocket. I clipped the zipper to that pattern piece and discovered that it was too long. I checked the pattern—it called for a 12” zipper. I checked the zipper—it was 14”. (These came as part of the kit and they’re metal, so I can’t shorten them easily.) I know that there have been at least two iterations of this pattern and I’m wondering if I got the kit for the first iteration, which must have had longer zippers. Klum House is sending me the correct zippers, but it’s going to take a few days for those to get here. I’ll just set this aside for now and work on something else.

We delivered the BMW to the transport place without incident last night. I drove it and the husband followed behind me in the truck. We took the back way into town in case there was a problem. The warning message didn’t reappear, but I can tell something is going on with the transmission because the car just wasn’t shifting smoothly. Oh well, it’s going to be the BMW dealer’s problem to fix shortly.

Back to Bagmaking

Anna Graham at Noodlehead released a new pattern a few weeks ago called the Firefly Tote.

I might stick this in the queue soon. I love the way this design provides a way to feature those fun prints that are too big to cut up. And either size would make a great knitting or sewing project bag.

I should also make myself a new purse. I’m using an Eagle Creek crossbody travel bag, but it’s not ideal.

First, though, I want to make the Slabtown Backpack. I’ve had the supplies for over a year and it’s time to move this project to the finished column. I pulled out the cutting table yesterday—what a joy to cut on a stable surface!—and prepped the waxed canvas pieces.

I still need to choose a lining fabric. I could use some Tim Holtz quilting cotton if I interface it. The pattern suggests a 10 oz canvas. Meh. Nylon or a light cordura is a possibility, although I’d like to use something from the stash. I’ll keep thinking about it and work on the parts that can be done until the point where I need to make a decision.

I’ve been making more hexies and hexie flowers. That’s good handwork for an hour in the late afternoon while I bask in the sunshine on the porch and wait for the husband to get home.

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I talked to our pig supplier yesterday. She has a litter of piglets ready to go, but another customer wants to look them over and choose breeding stock. Once that’s done, she’ll let us know and we can pick ours up. I am anticipating that it will be sometime this weekend.

The husband set up the fencing in the chicken yard last weekend so the babies can go outside without being harassed by the big chickens. It’s always funny to watch them try to figure out how to get out of the coop—usually they fall out—and get back in by climbing up the ramp. The Leghorns that he brought home last month finally ventured out, too. I don’t think they had much outdoor time at their old home, so they were reluctant to leave the coop. Once they went outside, they decided it was Good Thing. I see them out there often now.

My lame rooster died last week. I knew he was failing and there wasn’t much I could do about it. We gave him a good life, short though it may have been. And the two big roosters seem to have settled their differences, at least for the moment. I much prefer peace in the coop.

A Bumpy Ride

It’s been an eventful week or two here—we have had a bunch of vehicle issues topped off by me visiting the ER yesterday afternoon. I will discuss that here, briefly, because many of my family members and friends may want to know, but I have to preface this by saying that while I appreciate everyone’s concern for my health, it really does no good to treat me like a china doll that is about to break. Please do not insinuate that I am not taking care of myself or that I work too hard. I think I do a very good job of taking care of myself. I don’t smoke, I drink one glass of wine per day, I exercise—I spent all day Saturday working in the garden and yard—and we eat food I cook from scratch using a lot of ingredients we grow ourselves. It just so happens that I’ve got a colorful medical history with a lot of issues. I can’t do anything to change that. As I pointed out to the husband, I could have a perfectly spotless health history and die in a car wreck on the road. Life is full of risks. Believe me, I know that better than anyone. I am not taking unnecessary risks, but neither am I going to sit around and let life pass me by.

The official diagnosis was an episode of atrial flutter, where the electrical impulses to my heart got out of sync. I waited to see if it would resolve spontaneously (in some people it will), but when it did not, I decided that I should seek medical care. The husband was setting up a job, so I called my friend, Elaine, and asked if she would drive me to urgent care. The docs at urgent care did an EKG and suggested I go over to the ER. There, I got settled in a room and discussed the plan of attack with the ER doctor. He wanted to start with a dose of medication and see how my heart rhythm reacted. That gave him a much clearer picture of what was going on. After consultation with a cardiologist, he came back and said they wanted to do a cardioversion, which is basically shocking my heart with an electrical current, similar to what they do when someone is crashing. They sedated me for that part (although Elaine stayed in the room) and I felt absolutely nothing. When I came to again, my heart rhythm was back to normal. According to Elaine, I told them all about my chickens while I was still loopy and coming out of the sedation, LOL. After another hour or so of observation, they gave me my discharge paperwork and sent me home. I have to make an appointment with a cardiologist for later this week.

This is not a benign condition, but it is treatable. The question is why it is happening. This could be a late side effect of one of the chemo drugs I got for the leukemia 27 years ago. Idarubicin is known to be cardiotoxic. Of course, given that the Cleveland Clinic doesn’t seem to care about long-term followup of cancer survivors—an oversight that annoys me to no end—information about long-term effects of treatment is almost nonexistent. This could also be linked to my known MTHFR mutation (I had to explain that one to the ER doc as it’s not a widely-known problem). I’ll lay all of this out for the cardiologist and see what he thinks. As with many of my medical issues, there may never be a clear-cut answer.

Props to the medical staff at both urgent care and the ER. Given my medical history, walking into a hospital causes me no small amount of anxiety. I appreciated the fact that despite this being a cardiac event, they did not immediately escalate the situation to Defcon 3. In addition, my having experience as a medical transcriptionist and a solid grasp of my medical history allowed all of us to skip the preliminaries. It’s far easier for everyone when they don’t have to translate everything into layman’s terms. And I also appreciated having Elaine’s calm presence with me. She brought her knitting and worked on a sweater.

Let’s move on to some sewing, shall we?

Just before I left for Alaska, the cutting table I ordered from Tracey’s Tables was delivered via freight. I told the husband not to worry about it until I got back. We finally had time to uncrate it over the weekend. I had thought I would put it upstairs in DD#2’s room, where my original cutting table has been living, but this is a substantial table made of solid oak. It weighs several hundred pounds. We might be able to get it up there if we can find another strong guy to help the husband move it, but I am inclined to leave it down here. I have it parked in my office at the moment.

I can pull it out, flip up the sides, and do my cutting here. When DD#2 was home, we talked about moving the bed out of her room to give me more space for my sewing supplies. I need to think about that some more. We do get guests every so often and I like to have a place for them to sleep, but I could rearrange things to make my workflow more efficient.

Also before I left for Alaska, I had a marathon cutting session with my Accuquilt cutter and made lots and lots of little paper hexies and fabric hexies. These were a terrific portable sewing project to work on at DD#1’s house in Ketchikan. I sat next to the window and watched the seals playing in the cove while making a pile of these:

I even sewed some together to make a little hexie flower:

No, I have no idea what I’m going to do with them. I likely will make this my summer project for working on at church, as wrangling a prayer shawl around is getting to be a bit much.

I still have a few tomato plants and the corn to put in the garden, and then weeding season will commence. The husband worked on the potatoes, which are looking stellar. I’m still trying to get in touch with the pig lady to see if she has stock for us. If she doesn’t, we’ll take a year off.

Here It Comes

I am curious to see how this year’s tourist season plays out. We have become Aspen-ified here in Kalispell, with businesses having to cut hours and services because of a huge labor shortage.

DISCLAIMER (and please don’t bother to comment unless you’ve read the whole post): The current labor shortage is a complex problem with many factors feeding into it. No one magic bullet is going to solve it. I will cut short a conversation with anyone who says to me, “Well, employers just need to pay more,” especially if that person has never owned a business with employees. I am happy to discuss potential solutions with people willing to make a good-faith effort to understand what owning a business with employees is actually like, not what they think it should be like in a perfect world of rainbows and unicorn farts where employers have money trees growing in their backyards.

Before we moved to Montana, I worked for a software company as a tech support specialist. (Some of you are old enough to remember 300 baud modems.) Every year on the employee’s hiring anniversary, the company provided a printout explaining not only how the person’s salary was calculated, but also the additional expenses such as payroll taxes, unemployment tax, health insurance, pension contributions, and work comp costs associated with that position. That was done to give the employee a clear picture of exactly how much it cost the company to employ him or her. Some people might think that’s harsh, but perhaps if that kind of information were more readily available, it would help to stem this epidemic of misunderstanding of the costs of running a business. Depending upon the position, the total cost of having an employee on the payroll could be twice the stated monetary compensation. As the employee’s compensation went up, so did the associated costs.

In any discussion of economics, we need to start with the basic understanding that “the government” traditionally has not had any money except that which it takes from taxpayers. (I say “traditionally” because of the rampant money-printing that the government is indulging in currently—creating “money” out of thin air—which comes with its own set of problems.) Many people seem to think that all of these unemployment benefits that are being handed out are provided as manna from heaven. They aren’t. Unemployment benefits are funded by a tax on employers. We pay quarterly unemployment taxes to both the state and federal governments, although the majority of it goes to the state. And if the government is handing out benefits left and right, I’m sure you can guess who they are going to go back to when they run out of money.

I am vigilant about watching to see who files for unemployment benefits from us, not because I don’t want our employees to be able to collect benefits when we don’t have work for them, but because every dollar that is paid out in benefits gets charged against our account. We have employees who file for benefits for a couple of months every winter when things shut down. I never contest those claims because they are using those benefits in the manner for which they were intended. However, anyone who has left our employ voluntarily is not eligible to collect from us, although many of them try.

[We had one former employee who quit in September and told the husband he was going back east to work for his uncle. We found out from another employee that this guy’s real plan was to go back east and collect unemployment and spend the fall hunting. As expected, he submitted an unemployment claim a week or two after he left. I contested his claim—because he quit and we still had work available—and the state agreed with me. No doubt he was disappointed to find out that we weren’t going to fund his hunting season vacation.]

Work comp is another big expense of ours. Rates are, not surprisingly, based on how difficult/dangerous the work is. Construction has some of the highest work comp rates out there. And here’s an example of how that works: The husband hired a guy who started working for us on March 1. He was a 60-year-old retired homeowner for whom the husband had done a job last year. The guy was in good physical shape and wanted to pick up some extra spending money. The husband needed the help. He worked for us for five days. On his last day of work—and you’ll understand why it was his last day of work in a moment—he tore his bicep muscle off the bone when he tried to pry a 2 x 6 out of the ground.

I filed the claim immediately on his behalf so he could get timely medical treatment. He had two MRIs followed by surgery and rehab. “The government” is not going to pay for that treatment. His health insurance isn’t obligated to cover it. All of those costs will get charged to us via work comp and our work comp premiums will automatically increase for the next three years. (I am waiting to find out how big the increase will be.) He got hurt on our job and we are responsible for seeing that his treatment is paid for. We have done everything we could to make that happen. But it is a huge hit for us for as a result of having an employee for one week.

I don’t disagree that wages haven’t kept up over the last several decades. Corporate CEO compensation is bizarrely distorted compared to what workers make. I made less working full-time as a medical transcriptionist than I did in my first job out of college. (It’s “just typing,” you know.) Classifying people as independent contractors in a gig economy has allowed companies to dodge costs associated with having employees. However, the solution isn’t as simple as paying people more, especially for small business owners. Employers have a lot of extra costs that aren’t always obvious to casual onlookers.

Part of the labor shortage here is also being caused by unaffordable housing. We are in a part of the country that many people want to visit. Some of them even want to live here. A lot of long-term rentals have been converted to Airbnbs, and what long-term rentals are still available have monthly rents in the $1600-1800 range. (For the record, we charge our renters a very reasonable amount and haven’t increased it since they moved in about seven years ago, because they are good renters and we want them to be able to save enough money to buy their own place eventually.) Some local companies have started buying up real estate, like apartment complexes, to provide housing for their employees.

And of course, if the government is handing out extra money in the form of additional unemployment benefits, that is going to be a dis-incentive for people to look for work. We even had an employee ask the husband last summer if he could be laid off so he could collect unemployment—and this was in the middle of a huge custom home foundation project. (The answer was no.)

I see a perfect storm on the horizon: We will have an influx of tourists shortly who will want services that are being provided marginally or not at all because people can no longer afford to work and live here. This is going to take some time and creative thinking to untangle.

You’re no doubt aware, if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, that we lean libertarian. I don’t even enter into discussions with certain people because I get so frustrated by the ones who immediately call for more government intervention with no understanding or acknowledgement of how many of these problems are caused—directly or indirectly—by the government. It reminds me of that joke that the government will break your leg and then be happy to sell you a crutch.

Here endeth today’s sermon.

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I did buy some fabric in Alaska:

We went to the Whale’s Tail Quilt Shop in Ketchikan. I remember visiting this store when we stopped in Ketchikan on the cruise. Sadly, it is in a retail mall that has seen a lot of businesses go under as a result of the pandemic. And this store was thin on inventory because of recent shipping delays. Props to these store owners for hanging on in what is arguably the most business-unfriendly environment in my lifetime.

I’m not a huge fan of batiks, but all the Alaskan-themed fabric is batik, so I bought this one. I will probably make an apron out of it.

And now, I am off to the garden to plant.

Waiting to Plant

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional planting time here in Montana. We could still get a frost—or even snow­—but conditions usually have warmed up enough that plants are safe in the ground. Yesterday was gorgeous, with sunshine and temps into the low 70s. Unfortunately, today isn’t supposed to get much above 50, with wind and rain. The rest of the weekend looks good, though, and next week is supposed to be sunny and warm. I took advantage of yesterday’s nice weather to cut the grass and run the weedeater around the garden so I could get to the garden this weekend to plant. It is so amazing to me how the weeds and the grass outpace everything else. 

The potatoes and peas are up. The potatoes need to be weeded (of course), but it’s a small area and won’t take long. The black plastic in other parts of the garden helps considerably. I try to keep tilling to a minimum. 

These are the plants that need to go in:

• About 60 tomatoes, including Amish Paste, Oregon Star paste, Indian Stripe, Cherokee Purple, Dirty Girl, and Purple Russian paste.

• Cauliflower

• Corn

• Cucumbers

• Watermelon

• Cantaloupe

• Lettuce starts

I also need to plant beans, but I am not sure the soil is warm enough yet. The berry bushes look amazing, and the grapes are about to leaf out. 

Once I am finished with the planting, I get to try out the John Deere tractor in the yard. The husband mowed while I was gone and said that we should have gotten a tractor like that years ago. Huh. 

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DD#2 and I visited the Nordic Museum in Seattle last weekend. The husband has Norwegian ancestry on his mother’s side. Of course, I was most interested in the fiber-related displays, like the spinning wheels:

And the clothing:

And this dress, which the display said was knitted from fiber spun from plants and moss. I am surprised it has survived and survived in such good condition.

This was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning.

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In other news, I think the BMW is headed over to Spokane next week via car transport, hopefully to be fixed with the recall work. I haven’t decided what to do about it after that. I need to have a reliable car and that one has proven that it isn’t. I’d prefer to have a vehicle without all of the bells and whistles, because bells and whistles break. I really wish that human beings were better at recognizing the point of diminishing returns. Technology is great, but overly complex systems break more often and cost more to fix when they do.

Cars, Quilts, and Knits

I got back to Seattle late Wednesday afternoon (the 19th) and headed to the Airbnb. The little studio space in the other half of DD#2’s duplex wasn’t available, so I stayed at a different one a few blocks away.

The backup camera on DD#2’s Jetta stopped working a couple of months ago. She had made an appointment at the dealer to have it looked at and asked me if I could take it in for her on Thursday morning so she didn’t have to miss work. I had nothing pressing on my schedule, so I didn’t mind sitting and waiting while they looked at it. Unfortunately, all they could tell me was that it was a break in the wiring somewhere between the dash display/radio (which still works) and the camera, and that to take it apart and hunt down the cause would be a day’s labor at $150 an hour.

I have lots of thoughts about vehicles right now, none of them charitable.

The husband is willing to take a stab at fixing this camera issue, but the car has to be in Montana for him to do that. More on that in a moment.

I spent the rest of Thursday visiting various stores on my list to pick up mundane necessities like socks and underwear. I went to Half-Price Books and found up a blacksmithing book for the husband. I am familiar enough with Seattle that I am quite comfortable keeping myself occupied during the day while DD#2 is working.

Friday’s schedule included a trip down to Puyallup, about 40 miles south/southeast of Seattle and not too far from Pacific Lutheran, where DD#1 went to college. I know this area, too, and there was a quilt store I wanted to visit.

The Quilt Barn in Puyallup is a lovely store, chock full of all sorts of fun things for quilters. I bought two new Handi-Quilter longarm rulers for the Q20 and a wool/cotton quilt batt.

I also stopped in at Joanns, where I hit the motherlode on the remnant rack. I had gotten an e-mail earlier in the week from the quilt store here in Kalispell. They put my serger class on the schedule for June and decided to go ahead and make it a monthly event. We had talked about doing that, but not until the fall. It really doesn’t matter either way to me as I have plenty of ideas for additional serger classes. The remnant rack at this Joanns had half a dozen pieces of juvenile knit fabrics that will be perfect for making up samples for future classes. Kids’ clothing doesn’t require much fabric. (And any grandchildren that might come along are going to have plenty of cute Grandma-made outfits.) The quilt store owner and I talked about fabric for the classes and she knows some of it will come from Joanns as she doesn’t really want to carry a line of knits.

[I related all of this to the husband later that day and mentioned that I had not planned on teaching serger classes, but here I am, because this, apparently, is how the universe has decided I should spend my summer. Whatever. I just go where I’m told.]

On the way back, I stopped at Ikea, another Half-Price Books store, another Joanns, and got some lunch. I try to time my trips so I miss the worst of Seattle traffic, although it’s never great no matter the time of day. DD#2 met me at the Airbnb and we ordered in pizza for dinner.

My original plan had been to stay in Seattle until Monday. DD#2 had some other stuff going on, though, that she needed a break from, so between those things and the car issue, we decided that she would come home to Montana for a week. She’s telecommuting until this fall and can work from anywhere. We left Seattle Sunday morning. She followed me to Spokane and then continued to Kalispell. I stayed in Spokane overnight because I needed to stop in and visit with the BMW dealer and also retrieve my sewing machine from the quilt store where I had left it for service.

Musical Cars and a Trip to Alaska

Not everything on this latest adventure went as planned. The BMW was all packed and ready to go on the morning of May 13, but as I started to pull out of the driveway, the car made a very strange noise, followed by a warning chime and this message on the dash:

Drive train malfunction! Drive moderately!

Sigh.

Almost exactly two years ago, on May 1, 2019, the CV joint/transfer case in the BMW blew up (literally, with a bang), rendering the car undriveable. Fortunately, I was only five miles from home at the time. We had the car towed back here. The husband took it apart and discovered that, due to a design and manufacturing defect, that part had failed spectacularly at only 70,000 miles. Long story short—he ordered the replacement parts, changed them out, and I’ve driven the car for an additional two years and 32,000 miles with no issues.

It appears that the replacement part also may have failed. I said a short prayer of thanks that this happened at the end of my driveway and not somewhere between here and Spokane with no cell phone service. The husband helped me transfer all of my gear to DD#1’s car, which we’ve had here since the wedding. My FIL gifted her his 2001 Acura RSX when she graduated from college. It’s a terrific little car, but not very practical for Alaska. After that short delay, I was on the road to Seattle.

[The Acura has a manual transmission. Driving a stick is like riding a bike. The skill comes back quickly, but that car did take a bit of getting used to. The last manual transmission car I drove was my Jetta station wagon, which had a terrible clutch. Everyone who ever drove that car— including the husband, who can drive anything—stalled it at least once. You had to rev the engine while letting the clutch out very slowly, because it wouldn’t catch until it was almost all the way out. Hills were lots of fun in that car.]

I made it to Seattle without further incident and was on a flight to Ketchikan on Friday morning. The airport is actually on an island, so I had to take a quick ferry ride to get to Ketchikan proper, where DD#1’s smiling face was waiting for me at the top of the gangplank. We drove to their house, which sits on the edge of a small bay. This was the view out of my bedroom window:

A storm was starting to move in, and by the time I got up the next morning, that little bay was churning and angry. At high tide, the water comes about halfway up the rock seawall. At low tide, about 50’ of beach is exposed. Seals make frequent appearances in the bay, and DD#1 told me that they had also seen a whale out there.

This was not my first visit to Ketchikan. I had been there in September of 2009 when JC Briar and I taught on a Craft Cruises Alaskan knitting cruise. The town’s tourism industry has taken a big hit because of the pandemic. Also, the week before I arrived, the entire town went on high alert due to a covid outbreak that was traced to the high school wrestling team, so most everything was closed.

[I understand that cruise ships will start calling there again in July, which sounds like it will be just in the nick of time, although many businesses weren’t able to survive the year-long shutdown and have ceased business permanently.]

Ketchikan reminds me a lot of what Kalispell was like in 1993, but with internet. I don’t require a lot of entertainment, so the kids and I spent most of our time hanging out at the house—that view is better than television—and catching up. I had been hoping to go to church with them, but the service was canceled for Sunday morning, so we went to a hiking area on the north end and walked around.

Ketchikan’s climate is very similar to Seattle’s. They do get snow, but not as much as you might think when you hear “Alaska.”

We went to a small state park called Totem Bight for our picnic lunch on the beach:

And walked around to look at the totem displays:

We finished up the day with a visit to a nearby nursery to get a few flowers and herbs to plant around the house. The kids are renting a place from a friend of DSIL’s family, but it hasn’t been occupied for a while so they’ve been cleaning up the yard.

DD#1 had all the supplies on hand for making S’mores. DSIL built a fire in the fire pit and we sat out there after dinner and enjoyed the sunshine.

DSIL has settled in to his new position as a dentist in Ketchikan, but DD#1 hasn’t yet found a job. She suffers from a double dose of being unable to sit still—she got it from both her father and me—and while she’s had fun setting up housekeeping, I think she’s a bit restless. I bought her a small Cricut machine and she’s been learning to use that. It is a bit of a family joke that she has always loved her Dymo labelmaker. The Cricut is an extension of that and I am pleased that she has a creative outlet.

I would visit my children no matter where in the world they might be living, but they’ve done us the great (unasked-for) favor of locating themselves in the same geographical area. I flew back to Seattle on Wednesday, the 19th, to spend a few days with DD#2. I’ll talk more about that part of the trip in the next blog post, because it also involves malfunctioning vehicles.

The Sweet Spot

I sewed my nine Providence blocks into a wallhanging on Sunday. I picked up some fabric for a border yesterday and now that’s done. The top still needs to be quilted, but I like the end result enough that I think I will go ahead with a larger quilt size. I’m keeping that one under wraps for the moment.

The supply list and photos for the serger class are done and should be going up on the quilt store’s website soon. I have started working on the handout.

And I hit the sweet spot with the hem on the tops I made over the weekend:

I have one of the first-generation Janome coverstitch machines. This particular model has been plagued with problems—so much so that I doubt Janome will ever recover their share of that market now that other manufacturers have come out with their own coverstitch models. Thank goodness for the internet and for people willing to share their experiences. When I joined the coverstitch group on Facebook, I discovered that many Janome coverstitch owners had to raise the feed dogs. I opened the machine, oiled it thoroughly (it was tight and noisy), adjusted the feed dogs as directed, and put the machine back together. That helped considerably, but I had still had issues with the tension. The machine works well on thicker cotton and woven fabrics, but when it came to hemming lighter, slinkier knits, I had all sorts of problems.

Are you wearing a T-shirt or other knit top? Look at the hem. It probably looks similar to the one in the photo above. A coverstitch has several variations, but often consists of two needles with a looper thread that swings back and forth between them. Unlike a serger, however, the coverstitch has no knife and doesn’t cut the fabric. On the front side, the stitch looks similar to what you would get using a twin needle on a sewing machine. Done correctly, a coverstitch “covers” the raw edge of the hem. The kicker is that you have to sew with the front side of the garment facing you, and hope that you’re catching the hem properly underneath.

The machine balked at hemming lighter knits like rayon/spandex. The most noticeable issue was “tunneling,” where the looper thread pulls too tightly on the backside and creates a raised ridge of fabric between the two needles on the front. Common sense would dictate lowering the looper tension to keep that from happening—except that it happened even when the looper tension was on 0. Can’t get much lower than 0.

The other problem was that I could never keep the hem from shifting out of place as I sewed. I tried washable hem tape, a hem guide attachment (not cheap) and a few other fixes, with mixed success.

I’ve got a chart showing suggested thread tension, looper tension, stitch length, and differential settings for different weights of knit fabric. I had the presser foot pressure knob at the suggested 3/8” height. Before I hemmed the two tops I made on Saturday, though, I went back to the hive mind for any additional suggestions. I ran across a post on one forum, authored by someone with industrial coverstitch experience, in which she commented that most domestic coverstitch machines come out of the factory with the presser foot pressure set way too high. On industrial machines, apparently, the foot pressure is very light. Hmmm.

I took some scrap fabric to the machine and started messing around with the presser foot pressure. By the time I was done—and happy with the stitch I was getting—the presser foot pressure knob was set at a height of 5/8”. The tunneling disappeared, although it came back as soon as I set the looper tension higher than 0. (I might be able to fix that if I took the machine apart, but I think I’ll just live with it.) The best—and most unexpected—benefit, though, was that the hem no longer shifted out of place as I sewed. I was able to keep my left index finger on the fabric as it fed into the machine, feeling the hem edge underneath and guiding it between the needles. (I can’t see it, remember?) Hemming was almost effortless, where before, it had been an unpleasant fight with the machine. And it required nothing more than a quick press with an iron to set the hem in place.

Replacing this machine doesn’t make much sense given that I only use it for one specific task. I know what adjustments I need to make to get the results I want. I suspect, though, that a lot of these Janome machines—the 900cpx and the 1000cpx, which is the model I have—were either junked or donated to thrift stores. (The 2000cpx model doesn’t have quite as many issues.) If you can find one cheap, they are worth having once they are adjusted properly.

Depending on the interest, I might teach a coverstitch class at the quilt store in the future.

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I’ve got an appointment to leave my Janome (speaking of) sewing machine at the quilt store in Spokane on my way to Alaska/Seattle and pick it up on my way back. Part of the reason I bought the Janome coverstitch machine was because my 6600P sewing machine has been such a joy. This is its yearly service appointment. I won’t take it to the Janome dealer here in Kalispell. The owner is a class A jerk. I stopped in there a few weeks ago to get some quilting thread and happened to let slip that it was for my Bernina Q20. He doesn’t hesitate to trash talk the brands he doesn’t carry, and he made sure I knew what a poor decision he thought it was that I had bought that machine. (Belittling a customer is an interesting marketing technique. I am not sure how he stays in business.)

And Tera and I have a quilting trip planned for September. She mentioned that she was going to Garden of Quilts in Salt Lake City and asked if I wanted to come with her. I’m going to fly down for two days and meet her there. We both signed up for an English paper piecing class on Thursday afternoon, have tickets to the special event with Jenny Doan (Missouri Star Quilt Company) on Thursday night, and tickets to the quilt display on Friday. The quilts are hung up in a botanical garden and Tera says it’s quite a sight.

Leggings and Tops

I made two pairs of baby leggings on Friday and tried out a couple of different construction techniques:

The pair on the right has hemmed leg openings, which I did on my Janome coverstitch machine. One of these days, I may get around to replacing that machine, but I’ve got it adjusted perfectly now and it makes a good stitch. That pair also has an elastic waistband. The pair on the left has a “yoga band” waistband with no elastic, and cuffs on the bottom. The longer cuffs on baby clothes make more sense, as they can be folded up and let down as the baby grows.

I used the last of the dinosaur knit print for one more knot-top baby beanie. That one and the green one both have a ribbed knit band. I might run up another pair of baby leggings and use the same black ribbed knit for cuffs.

Tera called and offered to come help with the serger class next month, an offer I happily accepted. She knows a lot about serging and sewing with knits and will be a big help as an extra pair of hands. I’m not planning to include the baby leggings in this first class; these were more for me to play around with construction techniques. A leggings class really needs to be a class unto itself.

The weather yesterday was awful—it hovered around 30 degrees all day and alternated between rain and snow. The poor husband was out stripping a foundation in the morning and came home soaking wet. I spent the day making some tops for myself. This is a pattern I drafted off a Liz Claiborne top—Liz Claiborne used to be my favorite brand because it fit me well and looked good, especially back when Isaac Mizrahi was designing for that label. Alas, ever since the Liz brand was taken over by JC Penney, the quality has gone way downhill. Everything is now too short, the sizing is capricious (will I wear a size 6 or a size 12 in this pair of pants?) and the quality has suffered. I took one of my favorite Liz tops and copied it and made myself a top last fall. I wear it all the time because it is so comfortable. It’s a simple tunic-length pattern. When I make these long-sleeve versions, I add a turtleneck, but I also have pattern pieces to make it with short sleeves and a plain neckband.

I made a cheery flower version:

And a black one with small white flowers.

Each of these takes about two hours, start to finish. It’s so nice to have a top that is long enough on me. I’m about comfort, not fashion. I also know that the clothes I make won’t fall apart after one wash.

I’ve got a nice supply of knit fabric laid up. I might make a few more of these. I’ll need some summer versions eventually, if it stops snowing.

After the husband came home yesterday, he put new front brake pads and sensors on the BMW. I need to get the snow tires taken off this week and then I can put that car back in sport mode.

And We Meet Again

According to the minutes, our last Mennonite Women meeting was March 5, 2020. We haven’t met for over a year, so our first get-together in more than 13 months was cause for rejoicing. Some of the women worked on the quilt that Pat and I set up on Tuesday:

They are doing a form of quilting called “prairie stitch,” which is done with a single strand of crochet cotton. It looks especially nice on this cheater top:

Elaine and I got out a comforter and spread it out on a table between us so we could tie it. She worked from one side and I worked from the other and we got most of it finished.

Holly showed us some wallhangings she put together. She said that one benefit of the pandemic was being able to get out and finish a whole bunch of kits and works-in-progress. I think that resonates with many of us. She’s going to send the wallhangings to Margaret in Indiana, who will hand quilt them and forward them to Mennonite Disaster Service. MDS gives each homeowner a hand-quilted wallhanging at the completion of a project.

I have missed this so much.

Yesterday was a gorgeous spring day with temps well up into the 70s. We’re back to cooler and rainier weather today, though, so I’ll be inside working on a few more serger projects. Out of curiosity, I went into the Old Navy store in Kalispell yesterday. The store opened just a few months ago, and while I stopped buying clothes from Old Navy when their inventory deteriorated to poorly-made goods that fell apart after one washing, I wanted to see what kinds of kids’ clothes they had. I picked up a pair of baby leggings so I could analyze the construction and possibly re-create them for a future serger class. I also found a top for myself made from knit fabric—the kicker is that this knit fabric is a blend of 55% linen and 45% cotton. I knew these plant fiber knit blends were out there, but I hadn’t seen any in person.

Clothing research. It’s about time to make myself some summer T-shirts, too.

Serger Class Prep

I spent most of yesterday running up projects on my serger. I’ve now got a nice stack of class samples and also a good grasp on what concepts I think will be most important for students to learn. The class isn’t for another month yet, but we need to get the information onto the website and make the supply list available for students.

I sewed with double gauze for the first time. That makes great lightweight summer baby blankets. I tried a couple of different beanie patterns with knit fabric. The one in the picture, above, is from Made for Mermaids and takes a grand total of 10 minutes, start to finish. Bernina also has a free beanie pattern with a knot top, but I wasn’t happy with my first iteration. I need to get more knit fabric and possibly change the settings on my serger.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I don’t like wooly nylon. I am trying to decide how to approach that in the class, because I think that people automatically assume “serger + wooly nylon,” and while it is widely used in the clothing industry, I have good reasons for avoiding it with newbies. Several of my class samples show both regular serger thread and wooly nylon so that students can see the difference.

[I try not to be dogmatic in my classes, but if I am going to recommend one practice or technique over another, I want to have valid reasons backing up that recommendation. And I always tell students they have the option to disagree with me and do what they think is best.]

Wooly nylon is a “thread” that isn’t spun like regular sewing thread, but is instead a lot of parallel stretchy fibers. It can be made out of either nylon or polyester. When it’s used in the loopers of a serger, it spreads out and covers the edges of the fabric. Because it’s not spun, per se, some people find it softer against the skin. Wooly nylon is used a lot in baby knits, lingerie, and for decorative serger edgings. When you’re just learning how to use a serger, though, I think it adds an unnecessary layer of complexity. It tends to get static-y and flyaway—which can be controlled with a thread net—and it requires much different tension settings. I’ve made tops for myself using just regular serger thread in needles and loopers and been very happy with the results.

I watched a lot of serger videos on YouTube while I worked, including an overview of the Bernina sergers, as those are what this store sells. I want to be familiar with the models that might show up in class. And I think I am going to borrow the Bernette serger, circa late 1980s model, that I found for my friend Marcie at a thrift store for $22, and take it to class with me. It is a fine little serger for all that it is 30 years old.

And of course, we’re going to run into the issue of fabric availability here in Kalispell. The quilt store has a couple of bolts of knit fabric and some double gauze, but the owner is, understandably, reluctant to lay in an inventory of those fabrics and then get stuck with them. (If I do my job, though, and get people excited about sewing with knits, she may start carrying more.) When we talked, she said she understood that students would probably bring Joanns fabric to the class. I looked at what was available at Joanns when I was there on Tuesday. The selection of polyester/spandex and rayon/spandex knits is good, but I wasn’t delighted with the cotton/spandex juvenile knits. That navy blue dinosaur fabric in the photo, above, was a Joann’s remnant (and nice to work with), but I couldn’t find any more of it at the store. I’m going to see about compiling a list of sources.

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The brake pad warning light went on in the BMW a few weeks ago. The husband ordered new front pads and sensors and is going to put those on this weekend. The brakes are not in danger of failing as the warning light goes on well in advance of catastrophic failure. I’ve been driving the police cruiser more than the station wagon, though. Driving the police cruiser is like riding around on a couch, but I miss the cargo capacity of the wagon when I need to haul something.

Today is our first Mennonite Women/sewing meeting at church in more than a year. We’ve got some catching up to do. Our pastor is back from his sabbatical, too.

Quilting, Serging, and Sewing

Pat and I met at the church yesterday morning to set up a quilt for our sewing group to work on now that we’re meeting again. I’ll get a picture of it tomorrow. It’s what we call a “cheater” quilt, because the pieced design is printed onto a single piece of fabric. Once it’s quilted, though, it will look lovely. I haven’t seen Pat in person in months—only on Zoom church—and it was good to catch up. Getting the quilt into the frame took us about an hour and then I went to town and ran errands.

I met with the owner of the quilt store to talk about serger classes. We’re aiming for a Thursday evening class in mid-June. We both agreed that having actual projects to work on will be more interesting than sitting there listening to me talk or two hours of making swatches, so I’m going to come up with a couple of baby projects to illustrate basic techniques. I’m walking into this one blind, never having taught a serger class to multiple people before. I am confident in my teaching and troubleshooting skills, but any class of 6-8 rank newbies bringing their own (unfamiliar) machines is guaranteed to come with some unforeseen pitfalls no matter who is teaching it.

When I got home from town, I pulled out my bin of baby fabric and ran up some samples. I started with a couple of flannel receiving blankets.

I am going to make a few more items today. I’m doing this not only to have visuals for the class, but also so I can work through how I want to approach the class and what needs to be in the handout. Teaching a class is going to hone my own skills and that’s never a bad thing. Long term—if this class goes well—the store owner would like to add more classes and perhaps a monthly a “serger club” for next fall and winter. Lots of possibilities there.

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I’ve got nine 10” Providence blocks—three assembled and six waiting to be assembled—which is enough for a wallhanging. I used just about every square inch of the fabric I had pulled to make those blocks, too. I am still undecided about where to go with that block and need to let it marinate for a bit.

Back at the beginning of February, I ordered myself a new cutting table from Tracey’s Tables. Each table is custom-built so I knew it would take a while to get here. After not hearing anything for almost two months, I contacted the company and got a message back that it was going to be shipped this week. I have the tracking number but no further information. I think it’s heavy enough that it’s going to be freighted, so I’m expecting a call from the freight company to arrange a delivery time.

I’ve been using one of the cheaper cutting tables from Joann’s and I am ready for an upgrade. The one I’ve got now tends to torque back and forth and the screws have to be tightened every couple of months.

Klum House, which sells waxed canvas, patterns, and bag-making supplies, is having a Me-Made May event in their Facebook group. They are encouraging people to start (or finish!) one of their bag patterns during the month of May. I thought about doing the Slabtown Backpack as I’d like to get that one done so I can start using it, but May has already filled up with other activities. Once this cutting table arrives, though, I may at least commit to cutting the pattern pieces.

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The husband beefed up security around the chicken coop in light of recent bear activity:

He added a wire across both ends of this walkway between the coop and the old herb garden. We’re still planning to expand the chicken run into that area. He has to make some infrastructure modifications, though, before that happens. We call this a “coop,” but if it had any kind of plumbing and heating system, it would be nicer than some homesteading cabins I’ve seen.

Ready to Run

The dealer delivered my John Deere tractor on Friday but forgot to bring the wagon with it. I ran into town yesterday morning to pick it up. (I love that all the farm-related stores open at 7 or 8 in the morning, so I can do my shopping before the crowds come out.) The husband assembled the wagon when he got home from doing a concrete job—yes, he works on Saturdays—although the wagon isn’t hooked up to the mower yet. He wants to fabricate an extended tongue for it. I have a bagging attachment on my mower and we’d rather not have to take it off every time we want to hook up the wagon. The bagging attachment is quite the thing (picture from the John Deere website):

I look at this and think that my father would be very impressed by this bit of engineering. In the 1970s, he built a bagging attachment for our riding mower from a set of Popular Mechanics plans. It consisted of a wagon with a framed and screened box over it hooked up to a flexible hose attached to the mower deck with a hose clamp. He loved to ride around in the fall and suck up all the leaves in the yard.

Bring on the grass. The husband says that the little boys and I can start our own lawn maintenance business.

Garden cleanup is done. We’re ready for planting. I pruned the grapevines—pretty heavily, now that I have a better sense of what I am doing and can “see” what needs to be removed. Every time I prune them, they produce like crazy, so I anticipate another good crop this fall. I just need to figure out how to keep the turkeys from eating the grapes. I planted peas and visited with our neighbor, Mike, who was out working in his garden. We looked at the seedlings in the greenhouse and I admired the planters he put on his porch. We had a couple of large pots in the greenhouse that weren’t being used, so I suggested he take them and fill them with some flowers. They look nice.

I’ve seen a few trilliums scattered around the property:

The robins have forsaken the porch rafters as nesting sites in favor of the rafters at the new shop. I assume they know what they are doing, although those rafters are higher up off the ground. The babies will be safer from Lila, however.

We finished off our day with an excellent dinner at a local restaurant. The husband had an appetizer of three beef sliders—fancy little hamburgers—a salad, another hamburger, and a slice of cheesecake with whipped cream for dessert. He also finished off part of my meal. I think the waitress was a bit stunned to see someone eat that much food.

I’ve put together a total of three Providence quilt blocks and am trying to decide how far I want to go with this one as it’s not a simple block. There are 12 half-square triangle units and four quarter-square triangle units in a 25-unit block (5 x 5 grid). This is not the fiddliest block I’ve ever made, but neither is it quick and easy. Would anyone (me, especially) have the patience to make an entire quilt? I’ve already pulled the fabric for it, but I’m having second thoughts. Stay tuned.

Flighty Leghorns

The husband brought the group of Leghorns home Wednesday evening. That night, several of them refused to come inside the coop. They slept outside. Yesterday, the entire group of Leghorns refused to come out of the coop, even for scratch grains.

The husband reminds me—frequently—that chickens have brains the size of peas.

These are some of the new chickens. It is hard to tell in the photo, but the ones in the middle are the ones I am calling “lavender” colored. They are actually a purple-tinged gray (use your imagination).

The one to the far left has more brownish coloring. Up close, the color differences are fairly dramatic. Leghorns are so flighty, though, that it was hard to get a good shot. That yellow rope in the middle of the picture is there to hold a metal cover over the waterer and feeder so the birds don’t roost on them.

The chicks now have their big chicken feathers. They are, however, the smallest creatures in the coop and tend to cower in abject terror when someone comes in.

The morels are up—this one was a mere 1” tall, so it will be a few more days yet to harvesting.

My new tractor is supposed to arrive today, complete with bagging attachment. I am eager to put it to work. Garden cleanup is mostly done save for moving a few pieces of black plastic around. I might plant some rows of lettuce, too. I had to kill off our perpetual lettuce patch last year because of weeds and I’d like to re-establish a new one somewhere else. The tray of lettuce in the greenhouse is coming along nicely, though.

Lavender Chickens?

The husband is doing a concrete job down in the valley. The owners put in a big hops farm and processing center last year and now they are building a sales office. The wife also breeds show chickens. She had 10 hens, each a year old, that she didn’t want to breed, so they came to live here. I am hoping that having a few more hens will be a distraction for the roosters. She told the husband that they were all Leghorn varieties, including some lavender ones. Lavender is a recognized color in some chicken breeds—like Orpingtons—but I am not sure how stable the genetics are. These almost look like Ameracaunas to me, so they may been crossed with lavender Ameracaunas at some point to get the coloring. I’ll take some pictures today.

I live in a zoo. No bear sightings, fortunately. And the hummingbirds came back. They seem to be late this year,—I expect them at the beginning of April—but at least they are here.

The weather was nice yesterday afternoon, so I went out and worked on the second half of the garden. I replaced the cardboard around the berry bushes and pruned the currants, then raked up all the debris into a couple of piles. (I also displaced a family of voles, which did not bother me in the least.) When the husband got home, he burned the piles for me while I cooked dinner. He also fixed the grape trellis as it was starting to come down under the weight of the vines. I’ll work on what’s left today and tomorrow, and we’ll be all ready to set plants out the last weekend in May.

The greenhouse is such a beautiful place right now with all our seedlings. I’ve got about two dozen Dirty Girl tomato plants:

These all came from the one seed I got from Susan last year. It grew into a plant and I saved all the seeds. I will plant some of these, but I will also make them available to other people. I love the potato leaves on this variety. Many heirloom and open-pollinated tomato varieties have these kinds of leaves.

I saved seed from my biggest Oregon Star paste tomatoes. I’ve only got a dozen of those, though, so they will all be planted here.

Fortunately, I also have Amish Paste and Purple Russian paste tomatoes started, so I should have plenty for sauce.

Things are looking good and we are right on schedule. Yay! I need to call the John Deere dealer today, though—they have my tractor but were waiting on the bagging attachment to arrive so they could install it. I’m going to ask them if they can deliver the tractor anyway and install the bagging attachment later, because who knows where it is being held up or how long it will take to get here. We’re going to need to cut the grass in another week or so. The mower comes with a mulch setting, so the bagging attachment isn’t critical.

Sewing is on the back burner for the moment, although another weather system is supposed to come through this weekend.

Tumblers and Testing

I’ve got several bins with die-cut scraps—one with 5” charm squares, one with 2-1/2” squares (although that one is a bit thin at the moment), and one with tumblers. I pulled out a bunch of tumblers a few weeks ago intending to get them sewn up into something. Totally scrappy tumbler quilts look like a jumbled mess to me, so I imposed a few rules: I limited myself to three colors of dark blue, bright yellow, and aqua, and I alternated the dark blues and the aquas as well as the dark blues and the yellows. I’m hoping that the placement of the dark blues will keep the rioting in check. So far, it seems to be working. I sewed the tumblers into pairs, then the pairs into quads:

Then ironed them open:

And that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I think this will be at least enough for a wallhanging, or perhaps a lap quilt with the addition of some borders. (I see that it is probably time to wash the ironing board cover, too.)

I found a block in BlockBase+ to play with. This one is called “Providence” and is attributed to Nancy Cabot. It’s on a 5 x 5 grid of 25 squares. This website has instructions for making it in 5”, 7-1/2”, and 10” sizes. I chose to do the 10” size (I am having trouble wrapping my head around making quarter-square triangles that finish at 1” square, although I might try it sometime.) The block has several variations depending on how you choose to color each square. Mine looked like this:

I did it in Christmas colors just because the fabric was handy. This block has some potential. Despite the number of units, it went together easily. With a solid sashing to tie everything together, I think it could also be made scrappy.

We’ll see. where it ends up. BlockBase+ has a huge number of blocks that don’t seem to have made it into many quilt designs. I love playing with the more obscure ones.

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Dave, the younger rooster, has decided that he wants to be King of the Coop, so he and Baby (his dad) have been duking it out. When I went into the coop yesterday, Baby was a bit bloodied up and wandering around dazed and confused. (The husband said the same thing happened last spring, when Baby and the black rooster got into it.) I don’t care who is in charge. And I don’t think Dave will get aggressive toward me. He is a year and a half old and he knows the coop routine. He won’t eat out of my hand, but he will come and stand next to me until I get the scoop of scratch grains, at which point he hustles the hens out to the chicken yard. In terms of rooster behavior, he does exactly what he is supposed to.

Hopefully they won’t kill each other, but I am not going to stand out there and referee.

Our neighbor, Mike, had a bear in his yard the other night. The bear left a calling card:

Clearly, it has been raiding trash cans somewhere. The husband said that the homeowner he’s been working for a couple of miles south of here saw a grizzly sow with two cubs. The bears are awake and looking for food.

Putter Putter Putter

I did not do a good job of managing projects in the pipeline after all, because now I have nothing in the pipeline. And while it feels good to have finished so many projects, I was at loose ends yesterday, which does not feel good. I hesitate to start another big project, because I am sure that as soon as I do, the weather will improve and I will need to be spending my time outside.

I played around with BlockBase+ and EQ8 for a while and came up with a few more quilt designs. I boxed up the Guidepost sweaters to mail this week. I went out to the greenhouse mid-morning because Ali and her little guy were over there re-potting some of their seedlings, so I organized my tomatoes and planted a few more trays of seeds (flowers, mostly) and visited with them. We are all a bit concerned about the upcoming fire season. Our fire department was called to an out-of-control grass fire on Wednesday because the homeowner—someone who moved here from out of state—had been advised NOT to burn but went ahead and did it anyway. I saw the aftermath when I took some supplies to the crew. The fire had burned an area the size of two football fields in just an hour or so, and threatened not only this homeowner’s land, but neighboring properties as well.

A large part of Ali’s job is homeowner education on fires and fire behavior, but we worry that some people just aren’t educable. This particular homeowner may think twice, however, about burning again in the future. And while snowpack is near or above normal in the mountains, we need more rain than we’re getting at the moment.

I wanted to sew, so I got out the bin of 5” squares and started putting together some comforter tops for us to tie at our monthly sewing meetings at church. Finished comforters will get donated to Mennonite Central Committee. Our sewing group is meeting again May 6 after more than a year.

I’m still poking around the Newspapers.com website. I ran across a “quilt designer” whose name was unfamiliar to me—Hetty Winthrop. Interestingly, I found her name on a clipping from the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

A Google search led me to Barbara Brackman’s site for her Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. In the entry for May 25, 2020, she notes that Hetty Winthrop seems to have “lifted liberally” from other pattern designers of the time (ironic, given the copyright notice in the newspaper ad). She goes on to say:

So who was this pattern pirate? Of course Hetty Winthrop is a pen name, evoking Colonial ladies and old New England families for the Bell Syndicate, a large newspaper company in business from 1916 to 1973. They distributed many comic strips and fiction other than needlework. But quilt patterns were hot in 1932 and '33. I would imagine Hetty was an artist working for Bell recruited for this needlework task at which s(he) was not too talented.

Wilene Smith has posted a page on Hetty, noting four US papers that bought the column in the first go-round beginning in December, 1932. It was revived in 1938 & '39 for Canadian papers through Dominion News Bureau, which also printed it in the early 30s.

Wilene Smith’s page can be found here. This stuff is fascinating.

A few months ago, I set up an online library card in the Montana library system and have been borrowing and reading books on my iPad. I just finished one by an incredibly well-known romance author—so well known that when I said her name to the husband, he responded, “The woman who writes all those romance novels?” As he is not in the habit of reading romance novels (or monitoring my reading preferences, for that matter), that should tell you how well known this person is.

I can’t believe this person got published, let alone written more than several dozen books. The writing was awful. I don’t do much creative writing, but one rule I do know is “Show, don’t tell,” which means to set up the scene so that the reader can imagine it in his or her head. This novel consisted of several hundred pages of “And then this happened,” followed by “And then this happened,” etc. The storyline was interesting, which was why I finished the book, but it was like going to a fancy restaurant expecting a delicious meal and being served a McDonald’s hamburger instead.

My gold standard for excellent storytelling is a woman who writes historical fiction under the pen name of Sara Donati. She has spoiled me for anything less.

Quilt Research

I have been working on patterns, but in the process, I fell down a rabbit hole at Newspapers.com. And I found some fun stuff.

First up, the Kansas City Star listing for Noon and Night, dated January 29, 1934. This was the earliest newspaper date I could find for this pattern. Others were dated February and March of that same year.

This one, from the Madison, WI Capital Times, indicates that it is a “Laura Wheeler” design and also includes a coupon for ordering.

I am still baffled as to why Noon and Night—and several dozen other patterns—were left out of compilations of Kansas City Star quilt blocks. Was the first compilation incomplete, and then the ones that followed simply propagated the mistake? That block was ridiculously hard to hunt down.

Here is Alice Brooks’ Three-Patch, the block that inspired Under the Big Top, from the Billings Gazette, May 27, 1937:

“Start soon, and have it all ready to show at the fall fair.” LOL.

And finally, the one I went looking for: Beginner’s Choice, another Laura Wheeler design, from the Palm Beach Post, November 9, 1940.

This is a good, clear, graphic and satisfies me that the block is composed of four chisel-shaped pieces and two trapezoid pieces. I need to stop thinking of old quilt block piecing in terms of 21st century techniques. That’s a failing on my part. A “beginner” in 2021 might find those shapes and the accompanying Y-seams difficult, but a “beginner” in 1940 would not. Changing the piecing to squares and half-square triangles does simplify the construction, though, and that’s how I am writing the pattern.

I am almost afraid to keep looking through the listings at Newspapers.com. “Laura Wheeler” also designed a bunch of knitting patterns, too. If I fell down that rabbit hole, I might be gone for weeks.

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I finished sewing the last two rows of the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt together; I didn’t mean to leave that one languishing so long. I’ll piece the backing and think about how I want to quilt it.

We moved the chicks last night. I spent an hour yesterday morning mucking out that area of the chicken coop because we let the big chickens roost in there when we don’t have chicks. I did that first thing so I could then come in and take a shower. When the husband got home, he spread out a bale of pine shavings and then we moved the chicks in two batches—putting them in a deep Rubbermaid bin for transport—from the garage to the coop. The chick’s area is closed off from the rest of the coop, so even though they can see the big chickens and the big chickens can see them, the chicks are safe.

Notes From the Neighborhood

We have a whiteboard in the greenhouse where we can make lists or write notes. I noticed one day that Ali had written something on the board. The next day, the husband had written another note underneath:

I love going out to the greenhouse—it smells wonderful in there with all the little plants coming up. Ali, Mike, Elysian, and I all have plants started and sometimes we have short confabs when we’re out there at the same time. It’s a great gathering place.

And just for the record, I have zero qualms about disposing of pests that are competing for my food. If it comes down to me eating or the rodents eating, I am going to win that battle every time.

I think the peeps may get moved in with the big chickens this weekend. We have a separate area within the coop where we put the babies when they are too big for the brooder box. They have just about doubled in size and it’s getting crowded in the box. One also tried to escape yesterday. I have to scoot the wire lid over to replace their food and water and one chick got a bit too curious about what I was doing.

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I parked myself in my office chair yesterday morning and worked on patterns for most of the day. Once I get into a groove, I hate to stop. The layouts are started for Big Top, the wallhanging, and the green and purple quilt, and most of the verbiage for Big Top is written. Next up will be making the illustrations and doing the math for different sizes.

One of the issues I struggle with in these quilt patterns is whether or not I should try to write them for precuts. The Big Top quilt could be done with charm square packs and jelly rolls, but the instructions for doing it that way are completely different for the instructions for cutting it from yardage—so much so that I would be writing two separate patterns. I don’t use a lot of precuts, so I am inclined not to write patterns for them even though I know how popular they are.

We’ll see. Patterns tend to evolve along the way, just like quilts.

I also figured out exactly how that not-White Kona got into the purple and green quilt. I was writing through the process of making the Big Top blocks and remembered that after I cut those, I had some of that background fabric left. (It was Kona Natural.) It was lying on the cutting table and I grabbed it thinking it was Kona White. Note to self: Do not cut fabric for two quilts with similar background fabrics simultaneously. Or just don’t make quilts with white backgrounds.

My new cutting table is scheduled to arrive next month. I ordered it from Tracey’s Tables on February 5 and knew that it would take some time as each one is custom built, but I hadn’t heard anything from them since. No updates, nothing. As the order involved a fair chunk of money, I decided to e-mail them and see what was going on. I got a very nice, very prompt reply from customer service with the anticipated delivery date.

I’ve noticed that tiny quilt blocks are starting to become a thing now. Fat Quarter Shop has been running their Sewcialites sewalong for several months, with the option to make 3”, 6”, 9”, and 12” blocks. Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life has been making the 3” blocks. And yesterday’s Accuquilt launch party on Facebook Live was for their new 4” Qube system. I thought making those 6” blocks was tough—I can’t imagine making 3” or 4” blocks. I’d have to buy a 55-gallon drum of Best Press.

Laugh With Me

“Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused,'" Gabriel quoted. "One of the unrecorded Beatitudes.” ―Terri Garey, Devil Without a Cause

I provide myself plenty of entertainment. Yesterday, for example, I finished binding the wallhanging and decided I would take it and the purple and green quilt out to photograph. I finally got a new battery for my Sony Alpha-100 DSLR camera. That wasn’t a cheap camera when I bought it 15 or so years ago, and I really ought to be using it instead of the iPhone. I have several nice lenses for it, too.

I did the wallhanging first:

Adding that black binding helped finish it off. The border doesn’t look like it’s floating in space now. And that swag quilting along the edges absolutely was the right choice.

Then I hung up the purple and green quilt. And I looked at it. Do you see it?

These blocks were all supposed to have Kona White as the background, but somewhere along the line, I must have pulled a chunk of Kona not-White (Kona Bone or Kona Snow are the most likely suspects) out of my stash and used it instead. I have been working on this quilt for the last two months—including two days of quilting it under the bright LED lights on my Q20—and never noticed the difference in the shades. If the creamier white were evenly distributed among the blocks, I would have called it a design element, LOL.

All I could do when I saw this was laugh. I’m not upset. I had planned all along to remake this quilt in a different colorway at some point. And I do like the addition of the creamier white, so that may get factored into the remake of the quilt, although I will be sure to place it in a more controlled manner.

Some days I am a good example and some days I am a horrible warning. Learn from me. I really ought to get into the habit of cutting all my fabrics at once instead of piecemeal. I also need to figure out some better lighting for my cutting area.

I also had an epiphany about quilt names while I was standing outside laughing at myself. Quilt names need to reflect the design of the quilt and not necessarily the colors, so calling this design something like “Lilac Chain” isn’t going to work. What if a quilter decided to make it in Christmas colors? (Yes, quilters can use their imaginations and not get stuck on a particular colorway, but I can tell you from my experience as a knitting designer that it doesn’t work that way.) “Thistle Chain” is a bit better, but not much. “Pokey Stars” is nice and descriptive, but perhaps not in the best way. Needless to say, I’m still thinking about a name for this one.

So. The wallhanging can get written up as a pattern, although I still want to play around with that block and perhaps do a larger version. The purple and green quilt will be re-made, too, but with more careful attention paid to fabric shades and placement. I also have the design to make that I am calling Duck Duck Goose. I may set aside a day or two later this week for some marathon cutting sessions. I’ve got some new dies for the Studio cutter that will help with the prep work.