Serging My Way Around the Pacific Northwest

Serger class on Monday went well. I had four students—three with newer air-threading BabyLock machines and one with a vintage HuskyLock that had belonged to a friend’s mother. This store is a BabyLock dealer, so I expect to see at least a couple of BabyLock machines in my classes there.

[The young woman with the HuskyLock mentioned that she had just gotten an industrial Sailrite sewing machine “because my husband keeps bringing me his Carhartt work pants and asking me to fix them.” I laughed.]

Some aspects of teaching are very predictable. I always have a couple of students who come into class very anxious and asking lots of questions right off the bat. I spend the first few minutes reassuring them that yes, I will talk about needles and yes, I will talk about thread and yes, I will talk about when to use which stitch. We always start with an explanation of terminology and a tour of my serger, which I have set up and threaded with four different colors of thread to make it easy to see how the stitches are made.

I’ve seen so many machines by now that I can trace the development of serger technology from the bare bones domestic machines that came out in the early 1980s all the way to the slick air-threading ones available today. I am careful not to allow my biases to creep into class, though—I told the young woman with the HuskyLockthat a $300 serger worked just fine for me for seven years and that I still use it even after upgrading to a fancier machine. Being familiar with a basic machine also will give her an idea of what features are most important to her when she does upgrade. I did suggest that she get the HuskyLock serviced, though, as we were having trouble adjusting the differential feed settings.

All of the students seemed happy and comfortable using their machines by the end of class. One lady was still there serging practice pieces when I left. She said she was having so much fun she didn’t want to stop.

The owner of the store in Spokane called yesterday morning and we’ve got a Serger 101 class scheduled at that store in August. She’s doing a quilt show this weekend and said she’ll advertise the class there. I’m still waiting to hear from the other quilt store in Kalispell about what they want to put on the calendar. That store offers a lot of classes and clubs and it’s been hard to shoehorn more serger classes into the schedule, although I do have a Serger 101 class there on July 5. I’m kicking around the idea of approaching the other quilting store in Spokane—they are a Bernina dealer—to teach classes there. They have a Bernina Serger Club but I very rarely see serger-specific classes on their schedule. If I am going to Spokane to teach, I might as well make it worth the trip.

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We have a few days of dry weather before the next round of rain moves in. I’ll need to try to get the grass cut today and a few more things into the ground out in the garden. I also have some weeding to do, but the black plastic really helps keep that to a dull roar.

The peas are looking good.

The grapes are budding out, finally.

I’m a bit concerned about what the garden is going to produce given that the growing season seems like it’s going to be short(er) this year. This is the kind of weather that I remember from the first few years we lived here, though, and I had a garden then, so it’s not like nothing will grow. I might just have to alter my expectations a bit. And I love how lush everything looks from the rain.

Rain Forest

I’m sure I would tire of the rain eventually, but it seems like it’s been so long since we’ve had a nice stretch of rainy weather that I’m really enjoying it.

[The husband reminded me that we’ve had stretches of rainy weather this spring, but the rain was white.]

Everything is nice and green and even though I know it means that I will be mowing a lot of grass and doing some weeding later this week, I’m thrilled that the garden is looking so lush.

The rain has also given me some bonus sewing time. My obsession with knot tops continues. I hemmed—finally—the prototype Liz Claiborne top that I reverse engineered. The fabric is a teal rayon/spandex from the clearance bin at Joanns:

And then I made another one:

This striped knit is a polyester blend that the quilt store south of town had in stock; I can’t remember the manufacturer and I don’t feel like digging out the remnant to see who it is. What is interesting to me is how the different fabrics behave in the same pattern. This stripe is lighter and drapier.

I like both. I’ll wear both—I think I am going to wear the striped one to teach my Serger 101 class today. The tops are long enough, but I plan to lengthen the pattern by an inch or two on the next one.

The couple of weeks that elapsed between making the teal one and making the striped one was just long enough that I had to stop and remind myself what the steps were for putting this together. I’ve got it to where it makes sense in my head, although I probably should write it down . . .

And I found another knot top pattern:

This is the Sinclair Azalea top. I went to SewingPatternReview.com and looked at the reviews. They were overwhelmingly positive. As a bonus, Karina Trinidad at the Lifting Pins and Needles YouTube channel did a video detailing the (very clever) construction of this top. When I went to purchase the pattern, I discovered that Sinclair Patterns include TALL sizes in every pattern! Yay! I won’t have to lengthen it!

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I bought another hummingbird feeder at Lowes last week. I need to pick up big bag of sugar today. The hummingbirds are draining the feeders every other day or so.

While I was at Lowes, I bought the husband a present:

We all have our idiosyncrasies, and one of the husband’s is that he prefers all the hoses to be the same size. He has a collection of 3/4” diameter hoses, and one of my jobs every spring is to hunt down more of them. Most of the stores here carry 5/8” hose. We looked at Lowes when we were there on date night a few weeks ago but didn’t see any. As I was wandering through the garden center in search of hummingbird feeders, I spotted two of these in a bin—the only two in the bin—so I grabbed them and bought them.

Sometimes that 1/8” makes all the difference, LOL.

No Complaints About the Rain

May and June are “typically” the rainy months in Montana. I put that word in quotes for a reason—those months haven’t always been rainy, especially over the past several years. We’ve even had a few Junes recently that came with heat waves and catapulted us right into fire season in July. We’re getting rain this year, though, and I am not going to complain about it. I won’t even complain if it’s a cool summer, although the tomatoes won’t be happy.

[I was shopping yesterday and overheard someone tell her friend that she was moving back to Oregon where they have a “real summer” that lasts longer than three months. Three months is long enough for me.]

I put a couple of big rain barrels out in the garden a few days ago. I am hoping to use them as an additional water source over the summer.

The husband is off to look at a job this morning. I am going to do a bit of cleaning and then see what kind of trouble I can get into in my sewing room.

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It rained last night, so I sat with the husband after dinner and worked on my embroidered chicken:

The crosshatching at the bottom is yarn couched with embroidery thread. The pattern gives some embellishing ideas, although there is plenty of room for creativity. I probably will add tiny beads in the spaces between the crosshatching.

DD#2 finished a cross-stitch pattern a few weeks ago and sent me a picture:

I meant to get this when I was there so I could bring it home and have it framed for her. Next time.

She is not one for traditional cross-stitch, obviously. I suggested she look at the Subversive Cross-Stitch website—STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING, so don’t click on that link unless you’re prepared to have your eyeballs singed. I also found a little boutique in Seattle near her that carries the Subversive kits.

Meanwhile, older daughter is zipping around Alaska:

She travels to the islands around Ketchikan to see her pediatric occupational therapy patients. Normally, she takes the ferry and stays a few days, but this week, she went by float plane.

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Bernina put out an open call for Bernina Ambassador applicants a few days ago. I went and looked at the requirements just out of curiosity. I qualify under the Social Influencer/Blogger category, but I don’t like the exclusivity requirement. That would be difficult if I am teaching at stores that are dealers for other brands. I’m not crazy about giving up the content rights, either. It’s something to keep in mind for the future, though.

The Herb Garden Conundrum

The husband had a dentist appointment yesterday morning—no cavities—so he sent the employees here for a couple of hours until he got back. They helped me pull the billboard tarp off the old strawberry bed at the back of the big garden and moved some other stuff that was just too heavy for me.

I can’t decide what to do about the herb garden, whether I should try to salvage the old one or put in a new one. The husband thought he might turn the old herb garden here by the house into part of the chicken run, but we’ve been talking about that for three years now. That old herb garden is horribly overgrown. I wouldn’t mind cleaning it up and starting over. Ideally, I would expand it into the old vegetable garden next to it, which is even more overgrown, but to clean that part up would involve a lot of work. I literally have to dig it by hand and pull out the quackgrass roots or the quackgrass will just keep coming back. The other option is to put a tarp down in there for a couple of years like we did out in the big garden. Thanks to a billboard tarp being down for two hot summers, I have a nice piece of sterile ground where the old strawberry patch used to be, but it’s horribly uneven and needs to be smoothed out before I lay down landscape fabric and make a new herb garden out there. The husband could take the track loader back there and level it, but that would require taking down part of the fence. Or I could order a load of topsoil, but that would involve someone—probably me—carting wheelbarrow loads of dirt. I could just plant herbs in and among the other plants in the garden, but I prefer the idea of it all being together.

The husband would do all this work for me if he had time, but the fact is that it’s building season and he is meeting himself coming and going. So I am pondering my options and taking advantage of help when I get it.

I’ve settled into a routine, mostly. Mornings are for working outside before it gets hot. The garden is coming along nicely. The peas are up. The potatoes are looking good. The rhubarb is almost ready to harvest. The grapes are about to bud out and I am very glad I got them pruned when I did. I’m happy with where things are right now. This morning, if it’s not raining hard, I plan to get the rest of the watering system set up.

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I made another table runner yesterday:

I am becoming quite fond of this pattern. It works up in about half an hour—great for when I have a bit of time but don’t want to start a big project—and uses up those large-scale prints that are hard to incorporate into quilts. The center piece on this table runner is cut at 10” wide by width of fabric, so it’s perfect, too, for smaller remnants. I try not to buy remnants that are less than half a yard, but sometimes the print is just too cute.

The husband’s crew was over at Elysian’s yesterday afternoon, setting up the foundation for an addition:

She’s putting a mud room/root cellar onto the back of her house. I am not sure when they are going to pour this; the husband is having to schedule his concrete pours days in advance because the demand is so high now.

I’m teaching a serger class at the quilt store north of town on Monday. This is an intro class and so far, four students have signed up. I was at Joann Fabrics the other day, looking at their book selections and trying to get a sense of what the next big thing is going to be. These crafts are all cyclical. I saw a lot of crochet books, so I’m wondering if there is going to be a surge in crocheters soon, although at the rate I’ve got people signing up for serger classes, serging doesn’t seem to be far behind.

Decorating the Balcony

I don’t require much convincing to take a road trip. I commented to the husband one Sunday morning not long ago that I was about ready for another one, even if it meant just going to Missoula. When I got to church later that morning, my friend Twila asked me if I had any plans to go to Seattle again. Her daughter lives barely a mile from DD#2 and had her car stolen a couple of months ago. Car theft has always been a problem there, but it’s getting worse along with all the other crime. This young woman came home at Easter and borrowed another car from her parents until she could buy one. She found a replacement car and now had two, and Twila needed to get to Seattle to bring the borrowed one back. Twila is the manager of a clothing store in town, so I told her to figure out when she could get time off and we would work around her schedule.

Twila and I have done this trip before. One big advantage is that we’re both morning people, so when she suggested we leave early, I was all for it. We left her house at 4:30 this past Sunday morning. At this time of year, it’s just about light by then. Traffic was very light—so light that I set a new speed record. I know that trip can be done in eight hours in the summer, but I usually hit traffic and it ends up being more like nine or ten. We left Twila’s driveway at 4:30 am Montana time and were pulling into her daughter’s driveway at 11:30 am Seattle time, almost exactly eight hours later.

We don’t mess around. We also solved all the world’s problems on the way. Twila and I work well together.

After I dropped Twila off, I went to DD#2’s apartment to deliver the patio furniture cushions. We had about six hours together because I was planning to spend the night at a hotel east of the city. (I just saw DD#2 a month ago and I’ll see her again in a few weeks, so I didn’t feel the need to linger.) We spent that time doing some shopping to finish off her balcony into a nice outdoor space.

I think it turned out well:

Now the weather needs to warm up so she and her roommate can enjoy it. Seattle has had a cold spring, too, just like the rest of the Pacific northwest.

I was back on the road by 5:00 am Monday morning. I love this time of year because we have enough daylight that I can drive that early without worrying too much about hitting wildlife. I got back to Spokane around 9:00 am. I could have driven all the way back to Montana by mid-afternoon, but I had already decided to treat myself to a night in Spokane—thank you, hotel points—and do some shopping. Over and back to Seattle on two consecutive days is grueling.

There are two quilt stores in Spokane. One is The Quilting Bee, which is a mega-store destination quilt shop. They were closed on Monday. The other store is called Regal Fabric and Gifts. I shop at both. Tera and I took our Laura Heine collage class at Regal Fabrics a couple of years ago. The owner is a Juki dealer. When I was there in January, she and I chatted about scheduling some serger classes. Alas, the past couple of months got away from me and I didn’t follow up.

Regal Fabrics was open on Monday. I thought I could sneak in do my shopping without the owner seeing me, but it’s not a big store. She saw me come in and said, “Janet! I have been thinking about you! When are you coming over to do a serger class? I have a couple of students for you!”

[The husband says I am going to have to start traveling in disguise.]

We talked and I promised to get something on the schedule soon. While I was there, she filled me in her tentative plans to move her store closer to downtown. She’s currently paying ridiculous rent for a tiny space because of her location. A move would give her almost twice as much room for less rent, AND she would be moving into a spot with a lot of local history. I hope it all comes together.

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My high school art teacher passed away last week. I saw her a few years ago on one of my trips to visit my mother; she retired from teaching and was running an antique store in my hometown. I only took one year of art, as a high school freshman. I was hardly a star pupil because I cannot draw to save my life, but I learned solid design principles that have served me well through the years. And this fall, I will get out and finish my “88 Squares” quilt, which is based on a color study project she had us do in art class. I’ve been using it as a leader-and-ender project for a while. It deserves to be completed.

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I get Rufous hummingbirds here every year starting around April. This year, for the first time, I also have a couple of Calliope hummingbirds. I was walking back from the garden one day last week when I saw them. The Rufous hummers are red (females are brown), but the Calliope hummers are a brilliant grass green and hard to miss. I might have to put up a few more feeders.

Another Project Off the List

I managed to get the grass cut on Thursday while the weather was nice. The apple trees are just about to blossom. I might have to thin the fruit on some of them—the State Fair tree is loaded with flowers—but I’ll see later in the spring. I read somewhere that thinning also helps to keep the trees from going biennial, and that State Fair does seem to produce only every other year or so. I will consult Susan.

I thought I might get the tomatoes planted yesterday, but it rained for most of the day. I don’t mind working in a light shower, but planting in a torrential downpour would have been unpleasant.

Luckily for DD#2, the fact that I was stuck inside meant I could work on her patio cushion project. I finished the second chair cushion and got the couch cushion ready to put together:

I decided to wait and do that this morning when I am less prone to making stupid mistakes. Once it’s done, I’ll be able to cross this project off the list. She asked for coordinating pillows, too, but I think we can find those at Home Goods or Hobby Lobby.

The more I use that new Bernina serger, the more I love it. I have a Serger 101 class scheduled at the quilt store north of town on June 6, and the store owner e-mailed me the other day to tell me there are four students signed up so far. That class has a limit of 6. I also talked to the class coordinator at the other quilt store and we are working to get more classes on the schedule for late summer and into the fall.

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I offered to lay out the tour booklet for this year’s garden tour. I have all the software and it’s a small enough project that I’ll enjoy doing it. We plan to have a map, a profile of each gardener, pictures of the gardens, and a recipe from each one. I was going to include lavender biscotti as my recipe, but our friend Anna brought over lavender shortbread last night and now I am rethinking that idea. This shortbread was amazing:

Anna does vegan take-and-bake meals at a local market in addition to her vegan catering business. We sometimes get the benefit of being her test kitchen for new recipes, and the chickens get all the food scraps. She has got the baked goods dialed in, which is difficult to do without eggs and butter. (She brought us some chocolate mini-cupcakes last week with a fantastic cherry frosting, and I don’t even like cherry.) The husband hoovered down most of one container of these after dinner. I try not to eat wheat or sugar so I only had one, but it was delicious.

Anna is the person responsible for naming us Krause Basin Farm. I’ve planted extra out in the garden this year because she likes to buy local produce.

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The husband put the fence up in the chicken yard to separate the little chickens from the big chickens, and we opened the door on the little chickens’ side of the coop so they could go out. This is always an entertaining process. A couple of curious ones will stand in the doorway looking out, and eventually enough other little chickens will range in behind them that the ones standing in the doorway get pushed out. Then they have to learn how to get back up the ramp and into the coop. Once they get it figured out, though, they are in and out all day.

It Looks Like a Cushion

I had to run into town again yesterday morning for chicken feed—I had tires in my car on Tuesday and no room for anything else—so I took the opportunity to drop some tomato plants off at Cathy’s on the way. We only had a short time to chat because she was on her way to the dentist, but it was good to see her (and her cows). After a stop to get food for both chickens and humans, I came home and tackled DD#2’s patio furniture cushion project. We got rain again yesterday, so this was a good inside project.

The first one, for one of the chairs, turned out okay. (That left front corner is a little wonky.)

Now I have a pattern—sort of—to follow. I also know how this fabric behaves, although it was obvious from the start that the edges would have to be finished to prevent fraying. All of the pieces went through the serger before I assembled them on the Necchi industrial. I followed the design of the cushions that came with the furniture. They did not have piping and I wasn’t going to offer that as a design option. The top and bottom pieces wrap over the front with a gusset only on three sides. If I were doing this again, I might change that, but I’ll stick to the same design for this batch. We’ll see how the covers hold up. I can always make another set, although this fabric is sold out and I only have enough for the cushions I need to make.

The foam I ordered is nice and thick, too. These cushions will be way more comfortable than the cheap ones that came with the furniture.

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I got a call at the beginning of last week from one of the quilt stores. They had a customer who wanted to hem a dress on her coverstitch machine—would I be willing to call her and see what she needed? (I very much appreciated that they did not just give out my number, but checked with me first.) I called the customer, we talked about the project, and she asked if I had some time to meet her at the store to look at the project. I said that yes, I could meet her on Tuesday (two days ago) at 10 am. I said that if she brought the extra fabric that was left over after shortening the dress, we could use that to test out the settings on her machine. She has the same serger/coverstitch machine that Tera does. She has been in several of the same classes that I’ve taken, although I have never had her as a student.

Somewhere along the line, I think there was a breakdown in communication, or else the customer had different expectations than I did. When I got there, I saw that she had her machine set up and the dress with her, but she hadn’t cut off any extra material. All she had done was pin it to the desired length. I said that I couldn’t tell her what settings would be appropriate without testing it on the dress material, first, especially because I have a different brand of coverstitch machine. I got the distinct impression that she was hoping that I would either offer to hem the dress for her or walk her through the process step by step.

I don’t mind giving a few minutes of my time. If she had cut off the extra fabric ahead of time, I would have been happy to run a few test hems through the machine to give her some suggestions on appropriate settings. I did not have time to stay and wait while she cut the extra fabric off, first. This time of year, when I’ve got a short window of opportunity to get the garden planted, my time is at a premium. I’ve got two tops sitting next to my coverstitch machine waiting to be hemmed. I also don’t give classes for free, and me walking her through the entire process of hemming the dress would have amounted to a class by the time we were done.

She probably wasn’t happy when I left, but I emphasized that all of us who have coverstitch machines have to go through the same process of testing, testing, and testing again to dial in the settings for different fabrics. There is no shortcut for that process. And the best way to learn the ins and outs of your machine is to practice with it.

I’m also trying to maintain boundaries, both for myself and the store. It isn’t fair for someone to expect a free class from me, nor is it fair to expect the store to make its classroom space available.

Boundaries with students/customers is something I learned from teaching knitting classes. It’s why I won’t accept social media friend requests from people who have taken classes from me or who are friends of other knitting designers. I don’t post much on Facebook, but I have lots of friends and family who do, and everyone in the world does not need to have access to that content. If I am friends with you on social media, it’s because you and I have a relationship that extends beyond knitting or sewing.

I’ll check in with the store owner and see what she thinks. I suspect she will back me 100% in not having given a free class on hemming a dress. I will put a coverstitch class on the schedule for the future, though.

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Today is our 32nd wedding anniversary. We might try to have date night this weekend. The husband has a customer who always sends along a restaurant gift card as an extra thank-you, and we got one from him last week. I look at that number, though, and it boggles my mind. Apparently, we’ve been having so much fun that time has flown by.

Back in Sport Mode

I got the snow tires taken off and the summer tires put back on the car yesterday. Now I can drive in sport mode again. That should make a certain young man happy.

A vineyard manager is a member of one of the homesteading groups I belong to. I asked her to explain grape pruning to me in a way that a six year-old could understand. She pointed me to some great resources and I spent two hours yesterday afternoon pruning grapes. It makes such a difference to be able to visualize what needs to come off and what needs to stay. My grapes will never look like they live in Tuscany, but hopefully I will be able to get them to be healthy and produce well.

Today looks like it will be cool and showery, so I might be working on some inside projects. This arrived yesterday:

It’s the foam for DD#2’s new patio furniture cushions. I found a place online called Foam Factory where I could order exactly the size and thickness of foam I needed, and it wasn’t much more expensive than what I would have bought at Joanns. I have the fabric and a roll of zipper tape and I am all ready to go.

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We’ve had a tom turkey hanging out in the yard for the past couple of days. He has been trying—unsuccessfully—to woo some hens. I would love to get a video of him when he’s got his feathers up. He makes a fascinating thrumming noise in his chest, too. (He’s so single-minded about his pursuit that he has been coming close enough to the porch that I can hear him.) The hens, of course, are indifferent. Watching him strut around the yard has been very entertaining. And the little flying roosters—the two male hummingbirds—are back in town and strafing anyone who happens to be outside.

The husband saw a bear yesterday. He was at a jobsite about 20 minutes south of here, standing in the yard talking to the homeowner, when a black bear casually wandered through about 30’ feet from them and climbed a tree.

It’s not wilderness unless there is something out there that can kill you and eat you.

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I ordered a yard of this fabric from an Etsy seller last week:

It is even prettier in real life. This is UPF 50+ fabric, often used to make swimsuits, rash guards, and yoga clothing. Some companies are also using it to make gardening sleeves, which are basically gloves for your arms. I thought I might try making a few pair to see if they are something I might make for market or to incorporate into one of our gardening fundraisers for the community center. They’d be almost ridiculously simple to run up on the serger and coverstitch machines.

Just Add Water and Sunshine

I went out to the garden yesterday as soon as the husband left for work and started in on the list of tasks.

I transplanted the corn, cauliflower, red cabbage, and something called Purple Peacock, which Susan tells me is a cross between kale and broccoli (she grows it):

Those grapes are going to get a haircut today. They are out of control.

The tomato cages are in place, although I am reluctant to put the tomatoes out just yet. Maybe in another couple of days.

I have a problem with tomato math. I vowed that I would not plant 45 tomato plants again this year because last year, I was giving tomatoes away to the entire neighborhood. I did cut the number down—I thought—but I still have 39 plants. I only have room in this spot for 30, so I need to downsize a bit more.

I try to move things around every year and not plant in the same place. Some years that works better than others. The squash, cucumbers, and melons will be planted where the tomatoes were last year. The snakes like that spot, too. I haven’t seen any yet this year.

I assembled my new soaker hose system over the potatoes, lettuce, collards, and Swiss chard:

Watering this far section of the garden has been a problem in the past. The potatoes usually do really well in this spot, though. I am planning to put this system on a timer and water early in the morning.

When all that was done, I spent another hour in the greenhouse planting beans. The problem with beans is that if I wait until the soil truly is warm enough to plant them outside, they don’t have a long enough growing season. They sprout and grow so quickly in the greenhouse that I am going to start them in pots and move them outside in early June.

The garden is getting there. By the time the garden tour rolls around in mid-July, the raspberries will be ripe and the lavender will be blooming.

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Our total take for the plant sale was about $1800. I am very happy with that. At our Financial Planning Committee meeting last night, we talked a bit about the changes we want to make for next year’s sale. And hopefully next spring won’t be so cold.

The next event coming up is the garden tour. I am in charge of laying out and printing the booklet that will be given to attendees and will contain information about the gardens and the gardeners. I’ve got the basic layout done and just need to drop in the information and make it pretty.

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Sewing projects will be relegated to rainy days for the next month or two. I do have to schedule a few more serger classes, but those will be months out yet as the class schedules at both stores are pretty full.

We Sold Plants and Had Fun

Our Plant Sale volunteers met at my greenhouse on Friday afternoon at 3 pm to move plants up to the community center.

We got everything into five vehicles and headed up the road a few miles. After unloading there, we went to the elementary school to pick up their unsold plants. They have a sale on the Thursday and Friday before our sale and donate what’s left to us.

Our community center looked like a jungle:

I had been watching the weather forecast nervously all week. Saturday’s forecast was for cloudy skies and a high of 56 degrees. We got the cloudy skies. I don’t think the high made it to 56, but intrepid shoppers, clad in parkas, showed up right at 9 am:

I confess that I did not dress properly for the weather—having been far too optimistic—and had to run home mid-morning for warmer clothes. We might have hit 50 by the afternoon, but there was a chill wind. At least it didn’t snow.

Sunnie’s table was at the entrance to the community center, where we had the raffle quilt on display. She greeted shoppers, answered questions, and encouraged people to buy raffle tickets and join the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation.

This was the second year of the plant sale. Elysian came up with the idea and headed it up last year, although I missed that sale because I was in Alaska. I went into this one flying blind. I now have a much better idea of how it runs. I think we had a very successful sale yesterday. We surpassed last year’s total raised, although I won’t know by how much until our Financial Planning Committee meeting tomorrow night. We had very few hiccups. We now know that we need to grow more zucchini and cucumbers, because they sold out right away. We had many varieties of tomatoes, which was fabulous, but we need to organize them better. I think our group will meet in January and decide who is going to grow what and how much, and that will help us manage our inventory better. And we had a dedicated group of volunteers who pitched in and made it all happen.

Our leftover plants will be in the community center for a few days for additional sales, and then the Food Bank will come and get what’s left.

My greenhouse looks empty now. The weather forecast for this week, while not tropical, at least looks warm enough that I can get the corn put out and the grass cut. I am glad to have the sale behind me. And I am getting better about recognizing how much energy I can devote to some of these things, worthwhile as they are. Our fire department has a fundraiser happening this week. I didn’t sign up to help because I was focused on the plant sale, and I am glad I didn’t commit. There is only so much of me to go around. We have a potluck after church today, too, and I said to the husband that other people are going to have to feed me today. I didn’t have time to make anything yesterday, obviously. This morning, I have an 8 am breakfast meeting regarding our pastor search process and then I have to play piano for the service. I have a lot of energy, yes, but it’s not limitless.

Sharks and Table Runners and Hot Pink Pants

I miss my medical transcription job for a lot of reasons, one of which is that it gave some structure to my day. I knew that I would be working from 4 am to noon, Monday through Friday, no matter what. Every day was different, but every day was the same. I lost that structure when that job went away. And while I am disciplined enough to impose structure on my days in the absence of any outside force, it takes a fair bit of effort.

[The husband sometimes helps by rattling off a to-do list as he is leaving in the morning.]

This time of year is especially frustrating as I cannot settle into a routine. I got all excited about working in the garden and planting stuff, AND THEN IT SNOWED. But if I get all excited about starting a new sewing project, I’ll have to set it aside because the weather will improve and I’ll need to attend to outdoor tasks. I hate being jerked around like this.

It snowed again yesterday—not kidding—so I decided to go through the sewing to-do list and knock off as much stuff as I could. I finished the pink Lori Holt apron and the black-and-white vegetable apron. That one was gifted to Elysian, because she commented on how much she liked it and also because she asked if she could borrow an apron to wear at the plant sale. Done and done. I have more of that fabric to make myself an apron.

I made a Last Minute Table Runner.

I have been wanting to audition this pattern for possible inclusion for a future class as it can be made entirely on the serger. The center fabric is from Joanns and the border fabric is from Hobby Lobby. They just happened to coordinate. The colors are hard to see in the photo, but they are a combination of golds, rusts, and a dark turquoise blue. I also added two narrow piping strips of some gold metallic Grunge.

It’s a fast, easy pattern. I want to make another one with the fabrics reversed. Some gold tassels at each end would be a nice touch, too.

My friend Robin asked me what I was planning to have in the co-op sale in September. At this point, I think what I may have is whatever I can make on the serger.

I made a T-shirt for Ali’s little guy—it’s waiting for me to sew on the neckband and hem it:

He picked out the fabric at Joanns and they brought it over to me a few days ago.

I traced the Renee pants pattern—whew. There are 28 sizes (!) on that pattern, so finding the lines I needed to trace took some doing. That one is ready to go, though, and I just need to cut the fabric and put it together.

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The Plant Sale Committee is meeting at our greenhouse this afternoon to load up vehicles and transport all the plants for the sale to the community center. They will be put inside the building on tarps overnight. We’ll be there bright and early tomorrow morning to set up tables and popups and put all the plants out. Right now, the forecast is for partly cloudy skies and a high of 56 degrees. I’ll be happy if it doesn’t snow.

Apron Order of Operations

I need to write down my apron pattern steps and not assume that I will be able to remember the order. On the first one, I forgot to put the pocket on before I sewed the front and back together. I added it afterward, but I like it better when the pocket stitching does not show on the reverse side.

On the second one, I forgot that I have to bind the top of both apron pieces together. And that, boys and girls, is why we have seam rippers.

By the sixth one, I might know what I am doing. Oh well, they are aprons and not heirloom sewing.

This is the second apron:

The fabric is a Lori Holt home dec canvas that I bought at the small quilt store in Spokane. I had enough that I was able to indulge my OCD tendencies and match the pattern on the pocket perfectly to the pattern on the front. And for this one, I did make bias binding. The difference is subtle, but I’ll do it that way from now on. Making bias binding is a matter of folding an 18” by width of fabric piece on the bias and cutting it with my Accuquilt strip cutter. Easy-peasy.

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We got rain yesterday, as anticipated. I am glad I got the peas and collard greens planted on Tuesday. And I was able to get some grass seed spread on a few bare spots in the front yard yesterday afternoon before the deluge started.

Mother Nature is dogging us all the way to this plant sale. The forecast low for the next several nights is close to freezing. We’ve never kept the heaters going this late into the season.

This weather has caused a peculiar sort of disorientation—the calendar says it is May, but I have gotten used to calibrating my schedule by the seasons, so part of me thinks it’s still March or April, because this is the kind of weather we have in March and April. Every so often, I realize that we’re actually two months further into the year and it makes me a bit dizzy.

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I picked up the Renee pants pattern at the quilt store yesterday. I need to make a muslin—test version—of the pattern, but I’d rather not use $20 a yard ponte for that because the pants require two yards. I remembered that Joanns had some hot pink ponte in the clearance bin, so I stopped in and got it for $5 a yard. With my luck, the pants will fit perfectly and then I’ll have to find some place to wear hot pink pants, LOL.

The Garden is Inching Along

I got the peas planted yesterday and a row of collard greens put in. I briefly considered putting the corn out—my corn is already over a foot tall in pots in the greenhouse—but with the forecast for snow tomorrow morning, I think I will wait until next week.

Susan, Elysian, and I are getting everything in place for the plant sale this weekend. I’m kind of a jaded gardener at this point, so it’s fun to be around Elysian and be infected by her enthusiasm for growing stuff. We’re going to have a good time on Saturday visiting with hopeful gardeners. I’m planning to buy a few new varieties of plants at the sale, too, to add to my garden this year. And once this plant sale is behind us, I can concentrate on getting everything put in and prettied up for the garden tour in July.

In the meantime, I am making aprons:

I am as particular about my aprons as I am about the rest of my clothing. I like full-length aprons with pockets. I settled on this design for myself after I realized I was reaching for the same apron over and over again. This is based on an apron my MIL gave me many years ago—so long ago that whatever was printed on the front of it has washed off. That apron is made of a beefy twill fabric. I like the fact that the ties come down from the neckband. My waist is in a weird place, so anything that ties horizontally around my waist usually doesn’t sit where it is supposed to and requires me to be tugging at it constantly. I don’t have to do that with this style of apron.

I’m still refining the design. On the next one, I think I may make a pocket that spans the whole width of the front. I made double-fold binding from black Kona, although I cut it on the crossgrain of the fabric thinking it would be stretchy enough. Eh. I should probably make bias binding for the next one. That’s easy enough to do on my Accuquilt cutter. This apron still needs the ties, and those will be made from 1” wide double-fold binding, also out of black Kona. I bought a special 50mm wide bias tape maker from Sailrite to make that. Some 2” wide twill tape folded over would work, too, but that is hard to find in colors other than black and white.

This apron is also reversible. The front is a home dec canvas and the backs will be whatever coordinating remnant I can find in the stash that is large enough. I’ve got another one of these that I made using some coated cotton for the front. I like that it’s water resistant.

I have half a dozen of these cut out, and once they are all put together, I should have plenty of aprons to keep me covered this summer.

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I talked to the class coordinator at the quilt store south of town yesterday. This was the store that hosted the Bernina Mystery Make, and several of the students who were in that class want to make the Jalie Renee pants pattern:

Sandra, the Mystery Make instructor, wore a pair of these to class She had made them from some sparkly Robert Kaufman ponte knit. When I was at the store last week, the owner was meeting with the fabric rep and she put a bolt of that same fabric on the order. I have the pattern and some ponte and will need to make up a pair of these soon so that we know whether the class needs to be three hours, six hours, or two sessions. (I may change mine to a boot-cut style, but we’ll see.)

I see a lot of rain in the forecast for the next week—which is great, because we need it—so I should have plenty of sewing time when I am not out in the garden. My Wonderfil teacher thread order came the other day. I am itching to make up samples with those threads to see how they look.

We Are Weeks Behind

I think spring may finally be on the way. I am trying not to obsess about how far behind I am and how much work needs to be done before the garden tour in July. I will just do the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing.

I found the first potato plant:

The morels are popping up (two weeks late!):

At this rate, summer should arrive around the end of July or so. Winter, of course, will arrive right on schedule.

Yesterday was overcast, but in the 60s. I repaired the pea trellis and got that row ready for planting. I put in the rest of the lettuce starts and labelled more plants for the sale. I trimmed up my lavender hedges. I checked on the spot where I want to put the new herb garden, although that will have to wait until everything else is planted.

The weather forecast has improved for Saturday. I am hoping people feel the urge to get out and shop for plants.

I’ll have to cut the grass soon. The husband had the tractor out a couple of weekends ago and was running it around the yard with the wagon, so it should be all ready to go.

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My sewing area has shelves:

I could use three times this much shelf space, honestly, but this is good. I may have to move the bed out of this room. In order for that to happen, though, A Series of Other Things has to happen, some of which I need the husband’s help with. Ideally, I’d like to have both the serger and coverstitch machines in here.

I took out a stack of aprons I cut a few months ago. I desperately need new ones for myself, so I am going to finish them before I work on any other sewing projects.

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We’ve received an offer from the insurance company for the loss of the truck and trailer. We are still waiting to hear about the tools. We’re dealing with Safeco/Liberty Mutual on the other end and there have been some hiccups with agents losing paperwork and getting fired. I think we will come out okay in the end, though, and it will be good to have that all settled.

Date Night Disappointment

I spent a couple of pleasant hours in the greenhouse yesterday morning, organizing and labelling plants for the sale. It was a chilly day outside; I don’t think we broke 50 degrees. The husband and I walked out and looked at the potato patch. Nothing is up yet, although the lettuce I planted out there doesn’t seem to mind being snowed on. It’s doing fine. I have another tray of starts to plant this week. We’ll be eating plenty of salads if nothing else.

After lunch, I knocked out the second Cookin’ in Color Apron:

I can make one in about an hour and a half, start to finish. That’s important to know for pacing the class. Because I now have my piping feet (for both sergers), I was able to put the zipper in using the L860. Eh. I stand by my assertion that just because you can do something using a serger, that doesn’t mean it’s the best tool for the job. This pattern, however, does do a great job of teaching and reinforcing serger skills.

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The husband and I had date night last night. We struggle to find good places to eat. The little restaurant closest to us has a long history of boom and bust. It seemed to be doing really well for the past couple of years under new ownership, but their chef—who was only in his late 30s or early 40s—died unexpectedly in January. The owners announced about a month ago that they were closing permanently. Workers have been putting a new roof on the building this week, though. Perhaps someone else bought it and will open another restaurant.

We decided to go to Backslope Brewing, up toward Glacier Park. The husband loves their Foreman Stout and usually brings home a couple of growlers to enjoy during the week.

I wonder if Backslope has new owners. We walked in and were offered two seats at the bar—which we didn’t want—so the hostess showed us to a table. This used to be a very cute place, but no longer. For some reason, they’ve cut the number of tables by two-thirds, and each table is separated by a large, clear plastic divider. No other restaurants in the Flathead are doing this. The husband commented that the dividers were fairly useless, especially because they initially offered to seat us at the bar where there are no dividers and a lot more people milling around. The waitress, a woman about my age, seemed to be more interested in flirting with the husband than she was in doing her job. (He was clueless, so her efforts—although annoying—were entertaining.) The whole atmosphere was really depressing. They also scaled back their menu and removed the husband’s favorite burger. I had the Sesame Almond Salad from the specials menu, which was so good I practically licked the plate, but that was the only positive. I’m not sure we’ll be going back there. I don’t know how they can stay in business operating in such a manner. Tourist season will tell, I suppose.

No date night would be complete without a trip to Tool World, so that’s where we headed after dinner. The husband had a Lowes birthday gift card from my mother burning a hole in his pocket. We also got the shelving for DD#2’s room and he’s going to install it for me today. I’ll be able to get more of my sewing stuff organized.

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I’ll be focusing on plant sale prep this week. I also have to get my snow tires taken off and the summer tires put on, although I think I need to buy a new set of summer tires. I know a certain little boy who prefers the BMW to be driving in Sport mode if he goes anywhere with me, and I can’t do that unless I have the summer tires on it.

Please Stop Snowing

I know we need the moisture, but there is a big difference, crop-wise, between moisture that comes in the form of rain and that which comes in a form like this:

That was yesterday morning as I was getting ready to leave for town.

May and June are typically the rainy months in Montana. I’d be happy for rain, because rain would mean that the ground had warmed up. I hope the potatoes are not freezing and rotting in the ground. I haven’t planted peas yet. I think the only way I will get beans to grow this year is to sprout them and plant them in pots in the greenhouse. They should grow quickly and then I can transplant them into the garden. Beans are going to be the first item on my list after the plant sale, when I have room in the greenhouse again.

I had to wake the husband up at 4:30 this morning—on a day when I had hoped to let him sleep in—because it was 25 degrees when I woke up. I was worried about the plants in the greenhouse. In addition to the propane heater, we have a backup diesel heater in there because the propane heater sometimes shuts itself off in the middle of the night. The diesel heater is supposed to go on if the temperature drops below 70 degrees inside, but we can’t take any chances, not with so much of the plant sale inventory out there. He got dressed and the two of us hiked over to make sure everything was okay.

[Why didn’t I go by myself? There are bears and mountain lions out there. It would be stupid of me to be wandering around in the dark alone at that hour.]

This is a discussion that pops up in the homesteading forums from time to time. A lot of people think that if there is some kind of societal collapse, all they need to do is put a few seeds in the ground and poof!—they’ll be able to feed themselves. Well, good luck with that. I’ve been gardening for most of my adult life and it’s not that easy. And we have a greenhouse and the ability to heat it.

I will breathe a sigh of relief when the plant sale is over. This has been a challenging spring.

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The husband told me over dinner last night that two of the concrete suppliers in town can’t get cement. (Cement is an ingredient in concrete—the two terms are not synonymous, but I try not to be pedantic about it.) That is going to bring some jobs to a grinding halt. Fortunately, the concrete company the husband uses has a contract with the cement supplier who can still get it. His jobs aren’t in danger, although his concrete supplier will be helping to bolster the supply to the other companies.

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If I had to have a cold, this was a good week to have one. I didn’t feel (as) guilty about the downtime and about not being outside working in the garden. The cold didn’t hang around long, thankfully. I felt close to normal yesterday, although I still have a cough. I’m working hard to stay on top of that so it doesn’t turn into something else.

I delivered the first sample apron to the store for display and e-mailed the class information to the store owner to put on the website. The other store got a shipment from Bernina this week and I was able to pick up the extra feet for my serger.

I also made myself another top on Thursday:

This is Burda 6315. I made this one just after Christmas, using some leftover sweatshirt fleece, to see how I liked the pattern. I liked it well enough to want to make it again, but with some modifications. I lengthened it by about 8”. I also narrowed the sleeves and made them fit more closely at the wrists. I am particular about how my sleeves fit. I hate things that are floppy, but I don’t like tight ribbed cuffs, either. My preference is for closely-fitting hemmed cuffs. These are perfect. The fabric is a cozy French terry but I can’t remember where I got it.

I wore this all day yesterday. The husband was laughing at me yesterday morning because I was dancing around the kitchen exclaiming with joy about having clothing that fits me perfectly. Of course, he hasn’t spent years suffering through pants that don’t come up high enough, tops that don’t come down far enough, and clothing in colors that make him look like death warmed over.

An Apron and a Top

The husband and I both have colds—I went from the fall of 2019 all the way until January 2022 without so much as a sniffle, but both he and I have been plagued by upper respiratory gunk since the first of this year. I think this is cold #3. He’s just about back to normal. I’m going to hang out here for one more day before I venture out again. This hasn’t been the most productive week and I am tired of the downtime.

I finished the first of two class aprons yesterday. This is the Cookin’ in Color Apron by Sue O’Very.

I wish now that I had chosen a red zipper instead of the aqua one. I was trying to pick up the aqua in the main print. This is fine for a class sample, though. The fabric is all Bonnie and Camille—Smitten and Early Bird and maybe one other line. Honestly, this combo looked better together when the fabric was on the bolts, but this is done and off the list. I still have a second one to do for the other store, but I will wait for the piping foot to arrive.

I also finished the second iteration of the Liz Claiborne knot top based on the one I purchased in Seattle last month:

I still have to hem it but I need to move that teal thread over to the coverstitch machine, and before I do that, I have to hem something with the thread that is already in the coverstitch . . . and that’s how that goes.

This is another “tried and true” pattern. I plan to make at least two more short-sleeved versions and at least one long-sleeve version (definitely in black). One of the short-sleeved versions will be out of a bright multi-color Art Gallery print that one of the quilt stores just happened to have on hand. I was in that store recently when the owner was meeting with her fabric rep, and I got to sit in on the decision-making and ordering process. I appreciate that both quilt store owners are willing to go out on a limb a bit and order knit fabric for my classes. It’s a risk for them to carry specialty fabrics but they are willing to have knits on hand if they have someone teaching serger classes.

I put in my first Wonderfil order as a teacher. It was a small order—a thread pack and half a dozen sample spools—and the rep asked me if I was sure I didn’t want to order anything else. I told her that this was good for now as I am still trying to get my feet under me with these classes. I’ve also got to figure out a better storage/organization system for all these threads. I have large cones, small cones, 40wt, 30wt, 12wt, and 8wt threads, some plain and some metallic. Sergers eat a lot of thread.

I am discovering even more things to like about the Bernina L860—thoughtful features like a presser foot that swings to the left to facilitate needle changes, the onboard manual with built-in videos, a “Creative Consultant” that makes suggestions for stitches based on various fabrics, integrated tool storage in the door, etc.

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Spring is coming along, slowly. It didn’t snow yesterday, so that was a plus. The grass is finally starting to grow. I may be toodling around on the tractor by this time next week. The baby velociraptors (the chicks) are getting bigger every day. The hummingbirds finally arrived and have been gorging themselves at the feeders. I need to walk out today and take a look at the lettuce and strawberries I planted two weeks ago to see if they survived the snowfall.

A Review of the L860

I got in some quality time with the new serger yesterday. I really like it. When Bernina designs something, they don’t just assume what their end-users want and then shove it down their throats. Instead, they gather together a group of sewists and ask them what they would like. This machine reflects that level of consideration.

The new serger is quiet. It is almost as quiet as my industrial serger.

It has a knee lift for the presser foot (not shown in the picture). I have a knee lift for my Janome 6600P, although I’ve never used it because it feels awkward to me. We were told in the Mystery Make class to get used to “driving” the foot pedal with our left foot and operating the knee lift with our right leg. I could make myself do that—it would be akin to driving a car with a manual transmission—but this serger is currently sitting on a sewing machine cabinet and the knee lift doesn’t have enough room to move back and forth due to the drawers on the right. I will try the machine on the table that I use for my Accuquilt cutter (a plastic folding one from Costco) and see if that’s comfortable. I suspect that if I could get used to it, the knee lift would be a game changer.

The extension table came standard and it’s wonderful. I like not having to prop up the work at the left side to keep it from dragging. The only thing better would be to have this machine in a cabinet where the extension table sits flush with the surface and forms a flatbed.

I didn’t think I would care about the air-threading capability but it’s very nice. Literally all you have to do is press down the foot pedal, hold the thread over the vacuum port and whoosh!—it sucks the thread through the machine and spits it out by the presser foot. Brilliant.

The nicest feature, though, is that Bernina didn’t make these sergers so idiot-proof that they aren’t adjustable. I’ve seen that with a few of the other brands. In an attempt to make their machines more user friendly, other manufacturers took away the ability to make any adjustments. If anything, Bernina made these machines easier to adjust in small increments and I appreciate that. Like the Q20, this machine has a touch screen and electronic controls. The first thing I did was to slow the speed down from 1500 stitches per minute to 1000 spm, LOL. I’m good, but 1500 spm is a bit high even for me.

I bought the set of presser feet that go with this serger, but they are on backorder. That was a bit of a problem yesterday while making the apron. The first step is to put the zipper into the front pocket.

[The husband asked why an apron needed a front zipper pocket and I said that this was a pattern intended to teach serging skills, but a front zipper pocket is also a good place for a phone.]

The best way to insert a zipper with a serger is using a piping foot. The piping foot has a groove underneath:

The teeth of the zipper ride in that groove. I tried with the regular presser foot and the foot kept bumping up against the teeth of the zipper.

I don’t have the piping foot for the Bernina. I don’t have a piping foot for my Juki domestic serger, either, but I ordered one yesterday. The Juki is the machine that is going to go back and forth with me to class. If I have students in class who don’t have piping feet for their machines, I want to have mine available for them to use.

I cheated a bit and put in the zipper with my sewing machine. It’s literally the first step and I want to get these aprons done and off my list.

My comment to the husband was that this is one of those instances when just because everything can be done on a serger, that doesn’t mean that a serger is the best—or only—tool for the job. The intent of this pattern is that everything be done on the serger. That works, but I found half a dozen places on the apron where I would have liked to have added topstitching with the sewing machine. If I were making the apron for myself, I would have done that.

I still have to attach the waistband to the apron. I ran out of time yesterday. This part of the pattern suggests using a decorative thread in the upper looper, so I’m going to try the 8wt Razzle rayon thread from Wonderfil.

Winter in May

It snowed again yesterday. All day. I’m starting to wonder if we will have a gardening season at all this year. We’ve had cool springs before, but nothing like this in recent memory. We had one year when it snowed 3” on June 10, but that was rather a freak event. I’d estimate that we’re a good month behind right now. My grapes should be leafing out and I haven’t even had a chance to prune them yet.

The long-range forecast for the rest of the month isn’t awful, but it isn’t warm, either.

Every year is different, but this year seems really different.

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I received a phone call yesterday that I’ve been looking forward to getting. Before I left for Seattle, I applied to join the Wonderfil Teacher Program. The quilt store south of town carries Wonderfil threads. I think they are some of the best on the market. I still love Aurifil for piecing on my Necchi—Italian thread for an Italian machine—but the Wonderfil Konfetti may be my new favorite quilting thread for the Q20. And their decorative threads for serging are amazing. The SoftLoc wooly polyester makes the most beautiful rolled hem edgings.

The coordinator for the teacher program called yesterday afternoon to tell me they had approved my application. She and I visited for about 20 minutes. Wonderfil provides all kinds of support for teachers who use their threads, including free class handouts and custom thread kits. They see this program as being an adjunct to their retailers, not a replacement, and I had already let the owner of the quilt store know that I had applied. I am currently the only teacher in Montana.

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I am prepping a pattern for an upcoming serger class—I have to make two of these, one for each store:

This is the Cookin’ in Color pattern, designed by Sue O’Very. It happened to work out that both stores suggested this as a class. The pattern is designed to teach several serger techniques and I think it will be a fun make. And you know how much I love aprons.

Socializing with Pie

I spent most of Saturday morning making six pies to take to the pie social. I wanted to do some that were a bit out of the ordinary, so I chose oatmeal, cherry macaroon, fudge, German chocolate, butterscotch, and chocolate shoofly. I made them early enough in the day to let them cool, then loaded them into the car and headed to the school, which is up the road about four miles.

There are two buildings on this campus: the 1927 schoolhouse which is undergoing renovations, and the 1950s-era “library,” which has a kitchen, two bathrooms, the smaller room used by our sewing group, and a larger room for the current community library. We had set up card tables in the library portion so people could eat in there and enjoy the music provided by the Swan Jammers. The pie, chili, and quesadilla serving stations were set up in the sewing room:

That is my friend Sarah. She read my blog even before she and her husband moved here from Washington state last year. She has become a beloved member of our Thursday sewing group. I joked with her that she read a blog and the next thing she knew, she was serving pie at the pie social (and did a great job).

[Some people move to Montana and never fit in. Some people, like Sarah, move to Montana and it’s like they’ve always lived here.]

We haven’t had a pie social for two years because of the pandemic and weren’t sure what to expect. This one was a rousing success despite the rain and cold weather. We’ll have another one in early September. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum going.

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I have not had time to try out the new serger, although I should have some time this week to do so. Both quilt stores have decided on specific classes (yay). I need to get those class samples and handouts made and knock out a few more tops.

I really ought to be out in the garden working by now, but it snowed again yesterday. This is getting old.