Tops in Time Out

While I was pulling quilts yesterday to send to Ritzville, I corralled all of my works-in-progress. Having unfinished projects hanging around is a drag on my creative process and I need to see if I can move some of them along. I’ve got a stack of table runners that need to be quilted. They will be good for getting back up to speed with my free motion quilting on the Q20 because I also have at least five tops basted and ready to quilt. I also have several quilt tops in progress. Either the blocks have been made but not assembled or more blocks need to be made.

This first one has languished far too long. One of my Ritzville quilts from a number of years ago was a blue-and-white scrap quilt comprised of 1000+ half-square triangle units. My friend Pat, at church, quilted it for me. I had so many of those HST units left that I made an additional 20 sampler blocks with them. The blocks were in a box, partially sashed, so I took them out and finished sashing them. Two hours later, I had a top:

I am still thinking on this one a bit. I might take off that outer border and replace it with something else. Or I could leave the top as is and quilt it and bind it.

I also unearthed another top I started several years ago. I think I finally have a prayer of getting this one done. It’s from about the same time as the blue top. Corey Yoder, of Coriander Quilts, had designed a fabric line back then called Pepper and Flax. The colors were cream, gray, a butter yellow, and an acid green. It sounds weird together but I loved it. That was back when I wasn’t sure how much fabric I needed to make something—obviously, because I had made enough blue-and-white HSTs for two quilts, one of which fit a king sized bed—and I had only purchased a small fat quarter bundle of Pepper and Flax. By the time I realized that I couldn’t make much with it, that whole line had sold out. I tried supplementing with fabrics from the stash, but I couldn’t get the colors right.

Corey released Spring Brook, which had similar colors to Pepper and Flax with a blue thrown in. I bought a fat quarter bundle of that, too, and used a few pieces, but the colors still weren’t entirely correct and I didn’t want to add the blue to the mix.

Corey’s new line, Buttercup and Slate, just hit stores. The colors are very similar to Pepper and Flax. I picked up a few more fat quarters when I was teaching on Tuesday and NOW I think I can finish this quilt. Finally.

Our church is sending six quilts to Ritzville this year, four of which are mine. I dropped them all off with Elaine last night and she will make sure they get where they need to be for the sale.

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I couldn’t get out to the garden until it warmed up yesterday, so I spent the early part of the day ripping apart the living room. I took the slipcovers off the couch and loveseat and washed them, took down the valances and washed them, and I’ll wash the Ruggable rug today. I dusted and wiped down every surface so I could get as much dust as possible stirred up while the air scrubber was running. I think it has made a tremendous difference. Usually when I clean like that, my eyes will be dry and gritty afterward. I am not having that problem now. I’ll need to do a similar deep clean in other parts of the house and then, hopefully, we’ll just need to run the air scrubber periodically.

Most of the garden has been cleaned up and put to bed. After it warmed up a bit, I drove the tractor with the wagon out to the garden so I could toss all of the overripe cucumbers and other produce in it to haul back for the chickens. I brought in a giant box of acorn squash, one last watermelon, and half a dozen cantaloupe. All of the spent plants have been pulled up and stacked on the compost pile. I rolled up all the hoses and put the tomato cages away.

We were planning to dig potatoes on Saturday, but the husband got a call yesterday that the wood boiler is at the dealer in Missoula and ready to be picked up. They had given him a delivery date at the end of October, so this was a bit of a surprise. He’s going to try to pour the pad for it tomorrow afternoon and we’ll drive down Saturday and pick it up.

Small, Small World

The older I get, the more opportunities I have to look at the tapestry of my life and see all the intertwining threads. What’s really fun is to find where people and situations intersect—especially the ones that appear, at first, to have nothing to do with each other.

Sunnie took this picture of me and Sarah Anderson at the pie social a few weeks ago (I’m on the left and Sarah is on the right):

Sarah is a spinner and knitter and author of the book The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs. Sarah started reading my blog a few years ago after a student in one of her classes mentioned it. (I think that’s how the story goes, but Sarah can correct me if I’m wrong.) Sarah and her husband were planning to move from Seattle to Kalispell to be near their son and his wife and the grandkids, and then we discovered that the house they bought was only a few miles from me. Sarah has joined our sewing group that meets on Thursday and it’s like she’s always lived here. She also helped out with our pie social in the spring and brought her three sisters in from the midwest to attend the fall pie social.

[The apron I happen to be wearing in this pic says, “Borderline Spinners” on it, which is the name of the spinning group I belonged to in Pennsylvania before the husband and I moved to Montana.]

I’ve mentioned before that I listen to the Living Free in Tennessee podcast. I’m also active in that community’s chat group. Nicole Sauce, podcaster and homesteader extraordinaire, is learning to spin. (She also knits.) The topic of spinning popped up in the chat yesterday morning. A couple of us there have spinning experience.

I posted this picture of Sarah and me, and one of the other members—who lives in Denmark—said, “I adore that book!” I told Sarah that she has a devoted follower on the other side of the planet.

Sarah knows JC Briar, too, who was my tech editor when I was publishing knitting patterns and books. JC and Sarah were at the same Visionary Retreat hosted by the late Cat Bordhi.

Sunnie, who took this picture, has a dear friend in Texas named Bunny. In another bizarre twist, we found out a few years ago that Bunny knows a woman named Staige, who went to high school with the husband in Baltimore. Staige and Bunny are both active in the national organization for their college sorority, Delta Gamma. I am friends with both Staige and Bunny on Facebook.

The world is much smaller than we think it is.

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I was supposed to have four students in my serger class yesterday. When I got to the store, I discovered that one student had switched to the November class date because of a conflict. Another student—Cindy—was already in the classroom setting up. Cindy has taken two other classes from me, including the Serger 101 class and the apron class.

The other two students never showed up. The store staff tried to contact them without success. I get paid whether or not students attend the class, so it was no money out of my pocket, but the students forfeit their class fee.

Cindy and I had a lovely day of serging. She has come such a long way from that first class when she was terrified of her machine. She is comfortable enough now that she was willing to try some things without needing to be shown. We started out by making a table runner. She made this gorgeous Christmas version, specifically designed to fit her dining room table:

Cindy also mastered rolled hems and pintucks, and she’s going to experiment with some flatlock projects at home. I told her to bring some of her projects in so I can see what she has made.

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That air scrubber has been running intermittently for two days and I am amazed at how much better my allergies are. My eyes often bother me because of the gritty dust and I’ve noticed some relief from that discomfort, too. We’re supposed to get rain for the next couple of days. I think I might take the living room apart and wash the valances and slipcovers. That should stir up more dust to be filtered out. Once I have the downstairs cleaned up, I’ll have the husband move the air scrubber upstairs and repeat the process. (It is much bigger and heavier than I thought it would be.) After that, I should only need to run the air scrubber periodically.

I’ll be out in the garden today doing more cleanup before the rain. Digging up potatoes is on the schedule for Saturday morning. The husband is going to help me with that.

Home Dec Serging

I’m teaching a serger home dec class at the quilt store north of town today. I think we scheduled this back in March, after one of my first classes there. We scheduled the class and then I had to come up with a plan for what I was going to teach. One of the women who works there, Kathy, suggested the fabric line—Decorum by BasicGrey for Moda—and I think it was a great choice. We’ll be making a table runner, rolled hem napkins, placemats with pintucks, and a basket liner:

I’ve also got a flatlock pillow project in my back pocket in case we get through all of these. This is a day-long class and I have four students signed up, so we’ll see.

There is a stack of serger books sitting next to my chair, waiting for me to look through them. I need to come up with some new class ideas.

I decided not to do the craft co-op sale after all. I will go and help out for a few hours, but it was just too much for me to find all the stuff I’ve made and label and price it. Next year. Teaching serger classes really upended my plans for 2022—such as they were—and I need to get back on an even keel.

[Can you hear the universe laughing?]

I also decided not to go to Ritzville. Elaine is planning to go and will take the quilts. Robin and I are planning a trip to Spokane at the beginning of November.

The air scrubber arrived via the Big Brown Truck of Happiness yesterday afternoon. I had it running in the living room until the husband got home. It’s sounds like a jet engine, but even after a few hours, I could tell that it is making a difference. I need to do some deep cleaning and dusting and get the air stirred up. And I am curious to see how long it takes for the “change air filter” indicator light to come on.

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The war against rodents rages on. I came home from a meeting Sunday night around 8 pm. The house was unlocked but the husband was nowhere to be found. I kept hearing thumping noises from the chicken coop. I called his cell phone.

“Where are you?”

“I’m in the chicken coop.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m killing mice with the shovel.”

The neighbor’s cat—christened Sylvester by the husband because he looks like one—was waiting outside the coop. He probably thinks he is in paradise with all those mice to catch and eat. Now that the feed is in the garage instead of the coop, the number of mice out there has decreased substantially, but we’re still seeing them. I counted six running around outside, and we caught one in a trap in here yesterday morning. The chickens are getting plenty of protein in their diet.

I’m hoping for a cold hard freeze soon. We’ve had chickens for almost 15 years and it has never been like this.

One of the Buff Orpingtons is sitting on a pile of eggs again. I candled them and at least a couple have embryos, so we’ll see if she can close the deal.

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I needed some mindless sewing more than I realized. I’ve got five cream-and-white scrap log cabin blocks done and another half dozen in various stages. I do chain piece them, sort of, although they grow at different rates depending on what scraps I pull out of the bag. I find it so interesting that such a traditional scrappy block has such a modern look when the blocks are put together. This quilt, when it’s finished, would look right at home in a contemporary setting.

The table that my Q20 sits in in was home to stacks of various items over the summer. The table has been cleaned off and now I’ll be able to start quilting there again. First up will be finishing my college roommate’s Sunbonnet Sue quilt. When I saw her in June, I mentioned that I was going to use a purple fabric for the sashing and backing and she told me that purple was her favorite color. She is planning to put the quilt in a room in her house that is painted that color. That was a lovely bit of serendipity.

Knot Sure About This One

I wish there were a way to make this seasonal transition happen more smoothly. My brain is ready for winter, but I still have some summer tasks to finish up. I cleaned off the apple and pear trees yesterday, then went out to the garden and pulled up all the tomato plants. I had invited people to come and help themselves to tomatoes while I was in Seattle, but there were still some left on the vines. I brought in one last wagon load of tomatoes to ripen. They will get added to the 30 or so gallon zip bags of tomatoes already in the freezer. I need to spend one or two more days out in the garden cleaning up and then I’ll be done.

I finished the knot top except for the cuffs. I am trying to decide how I want them—hemmed or with a band. Raglan tops look funny on my dress form, which has narrow shoulders and no arms.

I may make this again because it is so incredibly comfortable, but the second iteration will have some changes.

• The size is good—this pattern gave finished garment measurements, so I chose the size that gave me about 1-1/2 inches of ease on either side in the bust. The next size down was the same as my full bust measurement, and I didn’t want to run the risk of it being too tight.

• I do like the raglan sleeves. I could envision using just the top part of this pattern and redrafting the bottom plain, without a knot, for a very comfy sweatshirt-style top.

• I think that vertical seam opening I complained about has a purpose, which is to keep the back side of the fabric from wanting to flip over below the knot. In a solid color French terry, that would be a non-issue, but I’m using a print. And the backside of the fabric doesn’t show that much. Taking the seam back an inch would fix the problem, but I maintain that the opening does not need to be as long as it was in the original pattern.

• I sometimes forget, too, that I have a coverstitch machine, especially when I am trying to make a pattern according to the instructions. I started to make a narrow hem on the back, as instructed, and then remembered that I could do the hem on the coverstitch. That was a huge improvement. I think I could do a coverstitch hem on the front, too.

• This pattern has a facing for the neck opening. Eh. I would change that to a plain knit neckband and be done with it.

We’ll see. I don’t love this pattern enough to put it in the tried and true pile, but I might make another one with changes.

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In preparation for quilting season, I ordered myself a set of Amanda Murphy’s new Baptist Fan rulers. I also cut the fabric scraps that Robin gave me into long strips. I probably have enough fabric now for two cream-and-white scrap quilts. I didn’t feel like making another Candy Coated quilt with these, so I am doing the log cabin blocks that I did to make the quilt that is on our bed. I made one up last night to see how I liked it:

This is not a quilt that can be done in a weekend. I need 64 of these 12-1/2” blocks for a king-sized quilt. I’ve got these prepped for when I need some mindless sewing time.

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This should arrive tomorrow:

I am attempting to do something about the insane amount of dust and ash in this house. The industrial air scrubber models were about the same price as the home models, so I ordered this one. We’ll see how it does. I plan to put it in the living room. If it works well there, I may get a second one for the upstairs.

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Someone destroyed our mailbox while I was in Seattle. It happened in the couple of hours between when the mail lady brings the mail—usually around 3 pm—and when the husband got home at 5 pm. He came home and found all our mail scattered across the road. I noticed a few other destroyed mailboxes up and down our road, so I wonder if some delinquents with too much time on their hands thought it would be fun to drive down the road with a baseball bat and pretend the mailboxes were piñatas.

The husband has made sure that won’t happen again:

The Smell of Pumpkin Spice in the Morning

I spent a fair chunk of time on administrative tasks yesterday morning. When I created the new website for the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation, I put up a very basic site with the plan that I would add/adjust things as we went along and figured out what was needed. I am offering a Beginning Sewing class on October 15—we’re going to make burrito pillowcases—and my class seemed like a good opportunity to install the online registration feature and test it out. We’ll see if anyone signs up that way. I also added the rest of the upcoming events for 2022. We will have a cider pressing day on October 8. Susan is doing an apple tree grafting workshop that afternoon, too.

At the risk of some of you telling me I am overloading my already-full plate, I’ll be taking over as chairman of the Homestead Foundation Fundraising Committee in November. I’m currently on that committee. The pastor of our Mennonite church is retiring at the end of October and he is the chairman. He has expressed a desire to pull back from his obligations for a while, so I’m going to head up the committee for next year. We have good ideas and I think we’ve done a great job meeting our fundraising goals so far, but like most groups, we lack manpower. I’ve had plenty of people tell me what they think we ought to be doing, but very few step up and actually put any action behind their suggestions. When we had the first garden tour, Robin—who was my hostess—actually wrote down all her ideas and identified who could do what, and that was an HUGE help when it came time to plan the second garden tour. I could use a couple more Robins.

The Homestead Foundation has a lot of potential. I am thrilled that we’re starting to have more seminars and classes at the Community Center.

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I cut out another Lark Tee yesterday and set it aside to take with me some time when I go in for Open Sew. (For me, it will be Open Serge, but that’s a minor detail.) I told Marianne that I would try to drop in for Open Sew at the quilt store on either a Thursday or a Sunday afternoon. I cut the Lark Tee from some DBP I picked up at Joanns in Seattle. Double-brushed polyester has now become my favorite fabric. I hated it when it was hot, but it’s nice and toasty when it’s cool out. I saw the bolt of fabric on the shelf and wanted some, but there wasn’t enough left on the bolt for a top. However, there was a chunk of that same fabric on the remnant rack. I took that as a sign from above. I bought the remnant and what was left on the bolt and had just enough for a top. This is me sweating it out as I cut the sleeves yesterday:

I tried on a lot of clothing when I was shopping in Seattle. I wanted to see what the different styles looked like on my body so that I would have a better appreciation of what patterns to search out—kind of a “sew the look” study for myself. I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of pieces, including a knot top (Halogen) from Nordstrom. The knot on that top, which I bought, is down at the bottom of the front rather than at the neck. I recently bought New Look 6689, intending to make the pants, but the top is similar in style to the Halogen top:

I cut out the top yesterday and started putting it together. The jury is still out on this one. Like most sewing patterns, this one is written assuming that the sewist will make it on a sewing machine, not a serger, so I had to spend the first few minutes figuring out the order of operations. Some edges need to be finished before seaming and some seams can be done on the serger. I am trying to be good and follow the instructions as given, but I got the front mostly done and realized that the front seam was left open—deliberately—for a good six inches above the knot. Theoretically, that opening will be covered up by the extra material there, but it’s unnecessary. I’m assuming that if I make this top out of the suggested lightweight French terry, which I did, I’m not going to have another shirt underneath and I’ll also be wearing it in cooler weather. Why would I want a 6” vertical opening over my abdomen?????? There is no opening like that on the Halogen top.

I took out what I had done there and closed the seam all the way to the knot. I don’t have high hopes for this one, but we’ll see. I do think the raglan sleeves are going to be comfortable and flattering.

I’ve got garden clean-up on the schedule for this weekend and next week. The furnace has been running and I put most of the insulated shades back up on the windows.

Changing Seasons

It’s raining now and supposed to rain all day. I am delighted. Today is also the autumnal equinox and I can say an official goodbye to the 2022 gardening season.

I’m not done by a long shot—I still have to clean up and put the garden to bed, make tomato sauce and salsa, and start up the indoor lettuce-growing system, but my schedule will no longer be dominated by time- and weather-sensitive tasks. That’s a relief.

It’s soup weather again. The sweaters and jackets have come out. Soon we will be relaxing with YouTube videos and embroidery projects after dinner. I love to garden, but summer is a hard season for me. I like the slower pace of winter.

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I taught two serger classes yesterday. We are still working out some scheduling hiccups. I have told both stores that I will be happy to teach classes even if only one person signs up. A time may come when I am less willing to do that, but until we generate steady interest in serger classes, I think the consistency is important. I do not want to get a reputation as a teacher who cancels classes. And a class of one or two students gives me a low-pressure opportunity to see if I’ve paced the material well.

The morning class was on rolled hems. I had two students signed up, one of whom was the owner’s son. He is the store’s sewing machine technician. I asked him if he was taking the class so he could make things with a serger or so he would know more about how they worked, and he said, “Yes.” He was very much interested in making cloth napkins. The other lady had plenty of serging experience but a new-to-her serger. This is us trying to puzzle out how to thread her lower looper:

We got it sorted. She completed a lovely set of batik napkins by the end of class.

I always get a giggle out of the differences between male and female students. Ryan, the sewing machine tech, spent a solid half an hour testing his rolled hem settings to get them dialed in. Even I don’t test that thoroughly, LOL. For someone with very little serging experience, though, he did well and also finished a set of napkins.

Toward the end of class, a lady walked in carrying a serger and said, with some surprise, “Is this the morning class?” Unfortunately, she wanted to take the morning class but had been told it was cancelled. She was understandably a bit disappointed. She and the lady in the photo, above, were my two students for the afternoon class, or so I thought. The afternoon class wasn’t supposed to start until 2 pm, but because we were all there, I asked the two of them if they wanted to get going half an hour earlier. The afternoon class was a flatlock scarf project. Both of them were serging along when the door opened and another woman came in with a serger. She said, “Am I late?” and I said that no, the other students were just early. After a bit of questioning, I determined that the third student thought she had signed up for the class online.

I’ll have to talk to the store owner about the scheduling bumps. It wasn’t a problem to add another student at the last minute, but clearly, some bugs need to be worked out.

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I have a dilemma and I haven’t yet come up with a solution. The Mennonite relief sale in Ritzville, WA, is next weekend. I go every year. I’ve been planning to go this year. I’m not crazy about driving back to Spokane again so soon after the Seattle trip, but I will do it.

However, that plan was predicated in part on the timing of the craft co-op sale. I had been told that the craft co-op sale would be held September 23 and 24 (tomorrow and Saturday). I opted not to participate this year because I was getting back from Seattle and teaching two serger classes and I thought that throwing the co-op sale into the mix might send me around the bend. I did ask if I could help out with some publicity on two of the local Facebook groups by making an event listing as I did for the plant sale and the garden tour. I was given the go-ahead and created the events, only to discover afterward that the sale dates had been changed some time in the last couple of months. The sale is NEXT Friday and Saturday. That information was not disseminated to the co-op members who weren’t present when that decision was made.

Sigh. The road to hell and all that. I edited the Facebook events and fixed the dates. I need to brush up on my mind-reading skills.

Now I have to decide. Do I want to go to Ritzville or do I want to stay here and participate in the co-op sale? Or do I want to stay home and make tomato sauce? I’m still thinking about it. I’d like to participate in the co-op sale and now I have time to get ready, but it means skipping the relief sale.

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The poor husband had his hands full dealing with mice while I was gone. We have always had a low-level mouse infestation in the chicken coop because the feed is out there. (The bags of feed and scratch grains were in garbage cans with lids, but the feeder is close to the floor.) The problem got bad enough this summer, though, that the husband booby-trapped the outside perimeter of the coop with mousetraps. They were constantly filling up, but our neighbor’s cat kept dragging off the full traps. We suspect there is a pile of mousetraps stacked up in the woods somewhere.

A few weeks ago, I went out to the coop with the husband one morning to check on something, and as soon as he turned on the light, many, many mice ran across the floor. A lot of mice. I’ve never seen that many mice in one place. The chickens, by the way, are happy to eat mice but they are lousy at catching them. They would prefer to have them served up by the farmer.

The husband rigged up a system to get the feeder off the floor at night and he put the bags of feed elsewhere. That solved the problem of mice in the coop, but then they began invading the house. I think he caught at least a dozen while I was gone. I haven’t seen any since I got back—although he caught one the other night after I went to bed—so he’s hoping that we’ve convinced them to go elsewhere.

All the rodents were bad in general this year. I don’t know where the coyotes were, but I hope they come back next season.

It’s raining today, so I am going to sew. I have a pile of new fabric waiting to be made into clothing. You’ll see it soon, either as yardage or completed garments.

A Week and a Wedding, Part 2

On Thursday morning, DD#1 and DSIL borrowed DD#2’s car and drove out to visit his parents, who live about two hours from Seattle. The rest of us piled into the rented minivan and went to Bellevue Square to do some more shopping. (Shopping is a blood sport in my family.) We had lunch at Nordstrom Grill, which is one of our favorite places to eat.

And for dinner, we went to The Pink Door, a block up from Pike Place Market. Years ago, when the girls were little—probably 5 and 10 or thereabouts—we took the train, with my mother, from Kalispell to Seattle. My sister flew in and met us. We stayed at the Marriott downtown, and one of the places we ate was The Pink Door. DD#2 was able to get us reservations for Thursday night. We ate outside, on the patio, and enjoyed a great meal and the absolutely stellar weather.

I had gotten a text Thursday afternoon that my dress was ready to be picked up, so on Friday, my mother and my sister’s fiancé and I drove back up to Alderwood Mall to pick it up. The girls and my sister went to get pedicures. While Ty was shopping for a dress shirt, my mother and I also went to the Soft Surroundings store, which apparently is going out of business. I have had good luck at that store finding long tunics in bright colors, and I also picked up a T-shirt and a sweater.

For dinner on Friday, DD#1 had made us reservations at Sogno de Vino, in Poulsbo, WA. We took the ferry across Puget Sound to this adorable little Scandanavian town and had another great meal there. (I had my fill of delicious seafood last week.) Poulsbo connects to Bainbridge Island via a bridge, so after dinner, we headed over to the wedding venue where the groom’s family was throwing a welcome party.

It was so good to see my cousins! My cousin Amy and her husband, Matt, were there, too, which was a lovely surprise. They live in Columbus, Ohio, and decided at the last minute to come to the wedding.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and our group of seven boarded another ferry to ride over to Bainbridge again for the wedding. We arrived in time to have lunch at the Hitchcock Cafe. My mother and I had eaten there in June, too, and I had the most amazing grilled cheese sandwich both times. After lunch, we went to the hotel rooms we had reserved for getting ready. And here is yours truly in her new dress:

Yes, it is different than what I normally wear, but I loved the color and the style. I’m hoping to have another reason to wear it some time.

The wedding was held at a small inn on Bainbridge Island. The setting was just lovely (photo shamelessly borrowed from my sister):

We had cocktails, dinner, and dancing after the ceremony, and then it was time to head back over to Seattle on the ferry again.

One of the fun parts of the night was meeting my aunt and uncle’s friend, Marcie, who reads the blog (hi, Marcie!) She has been friends with them since they all lived in Peoria, Illinois (decades ago). I also got to visit a bit with her daughter, Stephanie, although it’s hard to have an in-depth conversation at a wedding reception.

Our group was tired on Sunday and mostly hung out at the Airbnb. I took DD#1 and DSIL to Trader Joe’s to get cheese and other snacks to take back with them to Alaska. Some things are hideously expensive in Alaska, so they try to pick up those items when they are in Seattle.

I dropped my mother off at the airport Monday morning and headed back to Spokane. The BMW was ready and waiting when I arrived and I was home by dinner time.

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Yesterday was spent catching up and checking on who is registered for today’s serger classes at the quilt store south of town so I know what supplies to bring. We are having trouble getting students to understand that they cannot just waltz in and register for a class at the beginning of a class. As of yesterday morning, I had one person registered for this morning’s class on rolled hems and we were thinking of canceling it. That has happened before with other instructors, and the store did cancel the class. It is not fair to the store and especially to the teacher, who might need to know class numbers ahead of time in order to put together kits and supplies. Another student registered yesterday afternoon, so I am going ahead with that class.

I also sent my proposed serger classes and schedule for 2023 to the other quilt store in Kalispell. I want as much of my schedule set ahead of time as possible so I know where and when I am teaching, although I am not averse to adding classes if needed. I’m teaching a home dec serger class next Tuesday and added a second session at the end of November for some students who couldn’t make next week’s class.

My next-door neighbor called Monday night. This is a lovely family with four little girls. She wanted to know if I would give her kids piano lessons. (I knew she was looking for a teacher because she posted on the NextDoor site a few weeks ago.) As much as I enjoy teaching, I don’t enjoy teaching piano. If I did, I’d be advertising myself as a piano teacher because I know it would bring in a significant chunk of income. She pushed a bit to try to get me to say yes, and I finally said, “I just don’t have time to do that.” She responded, rather incredulously, “You’re too busy . . . at home?”

From the outside, I know I look like a retired middle-aged woman with plenty of time on her hands, not someone who is teaching two serger classes today and going to a meeting after dinner tonight. LOL.

A Week and a Wedding, Part 1

My cousin Lucy got married last Saturday, on Bainbridge Island near Seattle. Her mother and my dad were siblings. Lucy also works at Nordstrom. She and DD#2 see each other fairly often. The seven of us—my mother, my sister and her fiancé, DD#1 and DSIL, DD#2, and I—rented an Airbnb and spent a long weekend together.

All of my trips have a thousand moving parts. I actually left here right after church last Sunday. I drove to Spokane and spent the night and was at the BMW dealer bright and early Monday morning to drop off the car. My station wagon is a diesel and requires the addition of diesel exhaust fluid every several thousand miles. The “Add Diesel Exhaust Fluid” warning light came on the day Sunnie, Robin, and I went to Missoula. The husband filled the DEF tank when I got home, but the warning light wouldn’t go off. Part of the warning system includes a counter that counts back from 1000 miles, and when it gets to zero, the car won’t start again once it is shut off. It is a known issue with this system that urea crystals build up on the sensor inside the tank and cause it to malfunction. The husband has flushed the tank with distilled water in the past to dissolve the crystals, but this time, the warning light wouldn’t go out. I knew I couldn’t get to Seattle and back before those 1000 miles expired.

At least the BMW has a good sense of timing. I called Kevin and made an appointment to drop the car off and leave it in Spokane for the week. On the way over, the passenger’s side door locks started to malfunction. I told Kevin to fix everything that popped up on the diagnostic report, and if they got bored and ran out of things to do, the car probably could stand to have the front end aligned before I get new snow tires this winter. For all its issues, my car gets 40 mpg and I don’t want to give it up before I have to.

[The husband opined that if it broke down on the way, I should set it on fire and we would mail the ashes to the EPA. Kevin also told me that if it weren’t for the emissions components, he would rarely see those cars in the service department except for oil changes.]

I dropped off the car, Kevin got me a ride to the airport, I picked up the rental car, and was on my way. I had a 3 pm alterations appointment at the Nordstrom at Alderwood Mall, north of Seattle, where DD#2 worked as an assistant manager after graduation. The dress fit well in the hips but—wonder of wonders—needed to be taken in at the bust. It was a fairly simple alteration but one I did not want to tackle myself, and because I had bought the dress at Nordstrom, I took advantage of their alterations service. The seamstress fitted and pinned the dress and promised to have it done by Friday.

DD#2 and I went out to dinner. I must have done something right with those kids because both of them manage to find the most excellent restaurants. We went to a Mexican place in Ballard. I had scallop and bacon tacos.

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DD#2 picked me up on Tuesday morning. We drove to Nordstrom downtown, to her office, where I dropped her off. She has to go to the office two days a week now. I then took the car (a Jetta) to the VW dealer for an oil change. They had it done in an hour and I was back on the road, this time to the area down by the airport south of Seattle. I started at a place in Renton called Fabrics for Less. Had I been looking for trims, home dec fabric, or anything polyester, I would have hit the jackpot there. They were slim on garment fabrics, however. I then stopped in at Quality Sewing and Vacuum, in Tukwila, where I picked up a quilting ruler and one of these, from Traditional Primitives:

I had seen this in action on a quilting video. I like my stiletto and use it often when piecing, so I am eager to try this one.

After that, it was Joann Fabrics and then to the mall. My family has long been under the impression that I hate to spend money on clothes. That is not true. I hate to spend money on poor quality, badly fitting clothes that I end up not wearing. I bought a lot of new clothing on this trip. The stores are stocked with merchandise again, and at least a couple of CEOs got the message that some middle-aged women don’t want to wear low-cut jeans and crop tops. I had much better luck finding clothing that fit in colors that I want to wear, including a hot pink denim jacket (!).

I made myself adhere to one set of rules: I had to love whatever I bought—as in, I would have been sad to leave Seattle without it—and I was ruthless about it fitting properly. I stuck mostly to buying key pieces that I wouldn’t want to make myself. I did really well at Macy’s, although DD#2 pointed out that I was shopping at her competition. I noticed that there were a lot of items in knit ponte. I bought a pair of gorgeous green ponte pants and also a collarless black ponte jacket. DD#2 explained that ponte was big this year because people have been working at home (in athleisure wear and PJs) for two years and want comfortable office attire. Ponte is perfect.

I needed to be back downtown to retrieve DD#2 at 4:30 pm, so I arranged my route such that I could spend an hour at Pacific Fabrics. I haven’t been there in a couple of years. They used to have stores all over Seattle, but closed all but the one by the stadium. Their selection of garment fabrics was vast and included a lot of the lines put out by companies like Robert Kaufman (purveyors of Kona Cotton). I bought some Kaufman Brussels Washer Linen (a rayon/linen blend) and this gorgeous Ruby Star Society rayon challis:

I retrieved DD#2 from work and we went out for dinner.

On Wednesday, I did more shopping—I’ll do a review of the entire fabric haul later this week—and picked up food to have on hand at the Airbnb. My mother was the last to arrive, in the evening, and we all settled in for the rest of the wedding week festivities.

Back Soon

I’ll be back to regular blogging on Tuesday—stay tuned!

Husband Radar

I have this uncanny ability to locate the husband—I discovered this when we were dating and it’s been a bit of a joke between us for the past 35 years. He’ll give me the barest of jobsite information and I will find him. It’s a habit of mine every morning to ask him where he’ll be that day in case there is an emergency. I don’t need specifics, just a general location in the valley.

I was in the area where he was pouring a slab yesterday, so I drove around until I spotted his truck. Actually, the first thing I spotted was the bright blue generator cover I made for him; there are a lot of white heavy-duty work trucks around here, including some that look like his, but no one else has a custom generator cover. I parked the car and walked over and he said, “What brings you here?” and I said that I was making sure the husband radar still worked.

They poured a big slab yesterday. He was running the power trowel. The employees get to do the hand troweling.

It was a lovely day. We did have some rain in the morning, which was nice, and it is blessedly cooler. We covered the tomatoes last night because of a frost warning.

People do not believe me when I tell them how much the husband eats, although at fire department events, we make him wait until everyone else at least gets one serving before he goes through the line. I made a raspberry crisp the other day. He came home from work and ate half of it—HALF—while waiting for dinner to finish cooking.

If I ate that much, I’d gain 15 pounds immediately and someone would have to give me an insulin shot. I had two bites. I am pretty sure he consumes about 5000 calories a day, and he wears the same size clothes he wore in college.

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A fabric order from Girl Charlee arrived yesterday. I am indulging my need for bright colors:

The top fabric is a French terry, destined to be another Burda 6315 but hacked to make it longer. I made that pattern with a black-and-white French terry last year and wear it a lot. This print is supposed to look like a high-end designer scarf. The hot pink fabric is also a French terry and may end up as a Burda 6315, as well, to replace a hot pink French terry top that is about 10 years old and has been worn to death.

The middle fabric was a delightful surprise. It is a Hacci knit and it feels wonderful. Hacci knits are lightweight sweater knits. (This website has an excellent description of the different kinds.) The one I ordered from Girl Charlee is a blend of cotton, rayon, and polyester. I don’t wear sweaters much anymore, but every so often it is nice to have one to throw on over a lighter-weight top. I only feel like a little bit of a traitor sewing my sweaters instead of knitting them by hand. I will probably make a nice open-front cardigan out of the green. That fabric comes in other beautiful bright colors, too, so I could have several.

Fabric.com has an Act Fast Friday sale every week, so I nabbed two yards of this Tammie Green rayon challis from Riley Blake yesterday morning:

I am glad I didn’t dither, as it is now sold out. There are advantages to shopping at 4 am.

I don’t even care that I have to sew these fabrics into actual garments. I am just happy to have bright colors to wear.

I expect to settle into my winter routine here before too long and get back to some quilting projects in between making clothing.

Knit Top, Perfected

This is it. This is the top I would like to be able to find in stores but can’t. (Yes, I know, Duluth Trading carries long T-shirts, but sometimes I would like to be dressed up for more than just going out to the chicken coop.)

It has bust darts. It’s long enough. There is some subtle waist shaping. There are no goofy cuff details or other gew-gaws to get in the way. It can be made in colors other than muddy earth tones.

Hallelujah.

I really like this print. The background is navy with pink and white flowers, and I think it reads blue enough that I can get away with wearing a few bright yellow birds. I had two almost-a-yard remnants of double-brushed poly from Joanns and that was plenty.

At this point, I am limited only by my imagination and my ability to source fabrics I like in colors I want. I think I will draft a V-neck version, too, at some point. The one drawback, and it’s minor, is that I have to use the sewing machine for part of the construction. Theoretically, I could do bust darts on the serger, but that’s not the best tool for the job. Sewing them on the machine only adds about 10 minutes to the process.

I went to town again yesterday—part of a long story that has to do with the husband chasing down an issue on the BMW—and narrowly escaped being part of a multi-car pileup. Some idiot missed the left-turn lane to his destination, but instead of driving on and turning around to come back, he hit the brakes and attempted to turn left from the traveling lane. I saw the driver in front of me (who was behind this idiot) slam on his brakes. I hit my brakes, too, and would have been able to stop in time (I don’t tailgate), but I looked in my rearview mirror and realized that the car behind me wouldn’t. I managed to steer the BMW around the car in front of me with about six inches to spare and we all avoided meeting each other in the middle of the road.

Some days, it’s like Mad Max Thunderdome out there, and all because a few drivers behave as though they are the only ones on the road.

I stopped in at the quit store south of town because the dolman top I made over the weekend was out of some rayon challis that I bought there. I was going to offer to let Marianne (the owner) use the top as a shop model now that it’s cooler out, but she took one look at it and said, “I’ll buy this from you.” She went into the bathroom and came out wearing it. I actually think it looks better on her than on me:

We settled on a price and she got a new top. As expected, she did ask me if it was going to be a class. Maybe next spring.

[Is this not a lovely shop? This is only a small section of it.]

While I was in there, two women came in to shop (not together) and each of them asked if the store carried any garment fabrics. Marianne said that yes, she had some in stock with more on order and asked what they were looking for. I saw one of them carrying a bolt of this same fabric as well as the other rayon in stock.

Maybe it’s because I am in the midst of making my own clothes and everything looks like a nail to me (pardon the butchered metaphor), but I get the sense that a lot of women are annoyed/disgusted/disappointed with what is being offered in stores and want to make clothing that fits and flatters and lasts longer than one washing. When you have to go to the quilt store and ask if they carry garment fabrics, something is off. It’s not that I think the quilt store carrying garment fabric is a bad thing, just that a quilt store is not where you would expect to get rayon challis and ponte knits. Joann Fabrics is missing the boat in a big way. I am not sure who their corporate officers are, but I think they could stand to interview some middle-aged women and ask them how they feel about fashion and making their own clothing. A lot of the quilt fabric manufacturers make some really nice garment fabrics, too, but finding them is not easy.

Get off my lawn, LOL.

The BMW may be going in to the dealer in Spokane for an extended spa visit. I talked to Kevin in the service department yesterday, consulted with the husband last night, and will talk to Kevin again this morning. The husband could fix this particular problem if he had time—which he doesn’t—so he is willing to let the dealer take care of it. I just need to work out some logistics.

Fabric Confusion and a Gift

I am just not ready to quilt yet, but I needed to do something with my clothing patterns. I decided to re-trace the Classic T-shirt Dress pattern onto fresh tracing paper. I had cut and taped the first version to move the bust dart and the tape doesn’t always stick well to that Pellon Easy Pattern. While I was at it, I decided to make an actual T-shirt version of the pattern, too. And once that was done, I decided to test my pattern and make a muslin out of some double-brushed poly remnants from the stash. (If you give a moose a muffin…) I think I’ve got this one dialed in. I made it long enough that I could fold up the fabric to see where the length was most flattering—which is about 4” longer than anything in stores—and adjusted the pattern to match. I still have to attach the neckband and hem it, so you won’t get a picture until that’s done.

I still can’t decide how I feel about double-brushed polyester. DBP just doesn’t breathe. In the winter, though, it’s toasty warm (because it doesn’t breathe). And it doesn’t drape well. It’s actually kind of “sticky.” DBP seems to be the in thing, though, and fabric suppliers have a lot of it. DBP makes up the bulk of Joanns fall and winter knit fabrics.

Shopping for fabric frustrates me. I would prefer to see (and feel) it in person, but I can’t even find decent clothing here in Kalispell, Montana, let alone fabric with which to make my own. I make a point of looking at the fiber content tags on the pieces of RTW that I do like. I have a Liz Claiborne tunic from a few years ago that I love, but I am going to have to retire it soon because it’s starting to look faded and worn. (I still have a Liz Claiborne T-shirt from about 20 years ago that I only wear around the house because I cannot bear to get rid of it, but my kids said I shouldn’t wear it in public.) I would hack the tunic into a pattern and make myself a few more, but I am having trouble finding a similar fabric. The tag says 95% rayon/5% spandex—a blend I sew with a lot, actually—but it’s much heavier than any rayon knits in my stash.

I went in search of heavier rayon/spandex blends, but how do I know what is “heavy” without being able to feel it and see how it drapes? Some suppliers will give the weight of the fabric, but that’s useless to me without a frame of reference. And some suppliers give the weight in ounces and some in grams per square meter (GSM). I think I’ve finally found one online fabric store from which I can order swatches in each of the weights of rayon/spandex they carry so that I have something tangible for reference.

T-shirt fabric is another conundrum. My favorite store-bought T-shirts are a blend of polyester and cotton, usually 60% cotton/40% polyester or vice-versa. Can I find that as yardage anywhere? Nope. I can find cotton/spandex and polyester/spandex, but it appears that the only way one can get the kind of T-shirt fabric I’m searching for is to order it from overseas on Alibaba. I am not planning to go into garment manufacturing.

The husband has zero problems finding clothing. Just sayin’.

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I was in town yesterday getting groceries when Sunnie texted me that she was at the thrift store in Bigfork and was I interested in this?

I have picked up several little Janome machines at various thrift stores, including one that went to live at DD#1’s house in Alaska and another one that I take to quilt classes. They have plastic cases but the insides are all metal. This model retailed for $199 and Sunnie said that it had just arrived in the store yesterday. She brought it home and gifted it to me because she said I wouldn’t let her pay for fuel when we went to Missoula.

I have a bit of an ulterior motive here, too—I am going to schedule some beginner sewing classes at the community center up the road. I’m thinking classes of six students where I teach them how to make a burrito pillowcase. I have plenty of sewing machines, but I’d rather take plastic machines than 40-pound all-metal vintage ones, and these are sturdy little models.

I am going to start with one Saturday morning sewing class in October to see if there is interest. Susan offered to help me. We’d really like our community center to be a place where people can come to learn new skills. We’ve already had some classes on making soap, starting seeds, and making pie crusts.

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DD#2 texted me a copy of the welcome e-mail that Nordstrom sends out whenever someone gets a promotion and joins a new team. She was promoted to Assistant Buy Planner recently. As she explained it to me, the buy planner is the person who comes up with the budget and the buyer is the person who chooses and orders the products. The e-mail included a summary of her four-year work history with Nordstrom, starting with the Retail Management Internship she did when she was still at Gonzaga. She’s accomplished a lot in that time. Nordstrom does a really good job of training its workforce and promoting from within. She’s still working primarily from home, although she has to go into the office two days a week. As frustrated as I am personally with clothing, it’s fascinating to hear about what she does every day.

Stuck Between Seasons

This heat should break, finally, by Thursday. The forecast high for tomorrow is 89 but only 67 on Friday. Hallelujah.

I pulled up the tomatillo plants yesterday. I think they would produce as long as the weather holds, but I have to call a halt at some point. There is one winter squash plant with aspirations toward world domination, and it grew itself right through the middle of the tomatillo patch. I had to surgically excise some of the tomatillo plants. Now the winter squash has (more) room to spread.

I put six gallon zip bags of tomatillos into the freezer for later processing. This is the first year I’ve grown them, so I don’t know if that will be too few, too many, or just enough. We’ll find out. They were a delightful addition to the garden. Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your seedlings with me! I will do tomatillos again next year for sure.

I hauled in another wagon load of tomatoes yesterday morning. Some of them are absolutely huge. I’ve got a variety called Weisnicht’s Ukrainian, from Susan, and most of those tomatoes are larger than my palm. I also have an Abe Lincoln tomato plant, from Elysian, and one of those clocked in at almost two pounds:

I wish I could tell you my secret for growing these enormous tomatoes, but I have no idea how it happens. Not tilling the soil and growing on black plastic certainly makes a difference.

It’s quite a rainbow of tomatoes out there. Left to right, these are Dr. Wyche, Weisnicht’s Ukrainian, and Cherokee Purple.

I also have an orange one—variety unknown—and the green Aunt Ruby. (Sarah, I have one of those for you.)

We’ve been eating watermelon and cantaloupe. I’m not a big fruit person, but I do like strawberries and cantaloupe.

I am ready for the garden to be done soon. At some point, we’ll have to go out and dig potatoes. The winter squash need another week or two, but the 2022 season is coming to an end, at least the outside part of it. I’ll still need to make tomato sauce and salsa.

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I had a marathon session Sunday afternoon with the coverstitch machine and hemmed two Laundry Day Tees, a pair of black ponte Renee pants, the black ponte Magic Pencil skirt, and a black stretch velvet top that I made but didn’t show you. I expect those black Renee pants will get a lot of wear. I wore my navy ones to church on Sunday and could have left them on all day. They are that comfortable.

I’ve lost my sew-jo, however. I don’t want to make any more hot-weather clothes, but it’s still too hot to think about making cooler-weather clothes. I was not motivated to start anything yesterday. I tried to put the sleeves into the teal polyester top, but the Janome—despite sewing everything else I threw at it without complaint, including ponte and a drapey woven rayon—balked at that fabric again. I tried three times and now that top is in indefinite time out. Sometimes it just isn’t worth it. That was clearance fabric and I wasn’t in love with the design, so I won’t be too upset if the top never gets finished.

I pulled out my stash of knit fabrics and looked them over. If I can find my lost motivation, I might make a long-sleeve black Laundry Day Tee out of some rayon/spandex. I’ve just sewn so much black lately. That one won’t take long, though, and it’ll get me through this transitional season.

Golf Cart Driving Lessons

WS spent the day here yesterday so Elysian could go on a fishing trip with the veterans group (she’s former Navy). He is a very responsible 8 year-old, so I decided he could learn to drive the golf cart. I let him drive me around the driveway and yard until he got tired of it. When his mom came to pick him up, he drove her around, too.

The little boys have their own YouTube account. I learn such interesting stuff watching the videos they choose. I never knew there were so many creative ways to blow things up, LOL. (Boys are so different from girls.) And now I have to put Mentos and Coke on my shopping list so we can try making a geyser. If we’re going to blow things up, we should have a chemistry lesson in the process.

I hauled in another wagon load of tomatoes from the garden. We’re getting some yellow Dr. Wyche tomatoes—a variety Elysian likes—as well as some unknown orange ones. I sacrificed a couple of huge Oregon Star, Cherokee Purple, and Purple Russian tomatoes for seed; those will ferment this week to remove the gelatinous seed covering and then I can dry them and save them for next year.

I am happy with the number of tomatoes going into the freezer. I should have plenty for salsa and sauce.

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After Elysian and WS left, I knocked out a top from the New Look 6555 pattern:

This pattern is going into the tried-and-true pile. Not only does it fit well, it only took me two hours to make, start to finish. I think I’ve also gotten over my dolman allergy as this doesn’t feel bulky under the arms at all. The fabric is a rayon batik from Northcott that I picked up at The Quilt Gallery in Kalispell.

[I’ve noticed that the stock a store carries has a lot to do with what colors the owner favors. I think the woman who owns The Confident Stitch in Missoula leans toward brights, because I can always find good colors for winters there. The owner of The Quilt Gallery tends to prefer muddy earth tones. I’ve been with her when she has ordered fabric and she gravitates towards browns, navy, and charcoal. This rayon batik line comes in some really beautiful brights, but she went with the more muted colors.]

I sewed the front and back center seams on the Janome and finished the edges on the serger. I had to do the front center seam on the machine because of that keyhole opening, so I did the back center seam the same way just for consistency. I did the shoulder and side seams right on the serger, however. And the Janome was fine with this rayon, so I think the issues I was having with that teal polyester were mostly because of the fabric. Putting the sleeves in and hemming the teal top is on the schedule for tomorrow.

I was watching some TomKat Stitchery videos yesterday while making this, and was pleased to hear her say that individual sewists will prefer certain pattern lines over others depending on what sloper the designer uses for drafting. The fact that I have trouble with Love Notions patterns is not in my head. She also said that some people do just fine with patterns from the Big 4 companies. As long as the pattern information includes the finished garment measurements, I have very little trouble getting the correct size. For the New Look 6555, I started with the size that corresponded to my full bust measurement but then went down one size after looking at the finished measurements. I wanted flowy, but not so flowy that it was flowing off my body. I can’t stand it when a top slides around on my shoulders.

No doubt two or three of the rayons I bought in Missoula will end up as versions of this top. I’m going to wear it to the quilt store this week, too, just to show the owner what the fabric looks like made up, but I know she’s going to ask me to do a class on it because I used fabric from the store. I am still trying to figure out how to resolve the clothing class conundrum. Making clothing is not as simple as making a quilt, and not every garment lends itself well to a class.

One of the patterns I picked up at Joanns on Friday is this dress:

I have just enough of the In the Neighborhood rayon from The Confident Stitch to make this, but I will do a muslin first in one of the other fabrics. That rayon was not inexpensive and I don’t want to risk ruining it.

Temperatures are supposed to cool to something more seasonable by the middle of this week. I hope so. I’m tired of being hot.

I Hauled Fabric

Robin, Sunnie, and I left yesterday morning around 7:30 and headed to Missoula for the day. Robin needed to drop her Janome 6600 off for service—neither of us will use the dealer here—Sunnie is always up for an adventure, and I had some fabric shopping to do. The drive down was cool and pleasant, although we arrived before most of the stores were opened. I adjusted my route a bit and we started at Joann Fabrics, which opened at 9 am. I found a couple of clearance fabrics in two-yard chunks.

I’ll probably use these for muslins, although they are in colors I can (mostly) wear, so if the muslins are wearable, I’ll have a couple of extra tops. I cannot do mustard yellow. I am hoping that top fabric will read more white/pink than yellow once it’s made up, because it is pretty and I like it.

After Joanns, we headed to Vicki’s Quilts Down Under. Robin was looking for more Halloween fabric she bought there last time, but it was all gone. I had fun in the back room with the garment fabrics and picked up two lengths.

The top fabric is a rayon challis and the bottom fabric is a rayon jersey.

[Let me just say, preemptively, that I would like a wider range of colors, but sometimes fabric colors are almost as limited as RTW clothing colors. I happily would have bought emerald green if I could find it anywhere.]

We dropped Robin’s machine off, stopped at Goodwill, then went to Kohls. I didn’t buy anything there—everything is in muddy earth tones (or teal) and too short—but I did see quite a few ponte pieces, including a black ponte sheath dress. I tried that one on just to evaluate the style and sizing. I like mine better.

Our next stop was the mall. Sunnie wanted to shop at Chicos. I thought we might also get lunch at the mall, but apparently, the pandemic finished off Caffe Dolce once and for all and both their locations are now closed. We went to Red Robin, instead, but that turned into a teaching moment for the kitchen and wait staff who didn’t bother to tell us that the chicken for our salads was frozen. They made us wait far too long for our food, although the salads were delicious when we finally got to eat them.

After lunch, we visited another thrift store. I had not been to this one as it is in a part of Missoula I don’t frequent, but it was large, clean, and well stocked. I will visit again.

By then it was after 3 pm. We headed downtown to the Confident Stitch. I know that merchants in downtown locations want people to come downtown to shop, but honestly, there is a reason people go to malls in the suburbs. Missoula’s downtown is always congested to begin with. Throw in some construction on top of that, and I had to drive around—and around and around—for about 20 minutes in order to find a place to park. Sunnie had brought her handicapped tag, but even that didn’t help us. We finally found a parking spot and made it to the store.

I’m on the mailing list for The Confident Stitch, so I knew they were having a 20% off Labor Day sale. I also knew which fabrics I wanted. These are both Goldie Olding fabrics, from a line called In The Neighborhood.

There was still plenty of the blue/turquoise print, although it was going fast. The pink was gone save for this remnant of 1-1/3 yards. That is enough for a flowy tank top. I don’t wear many tank tops, and I got rid of most of the ones I had, but when it’s 96 degrees outside, sometimes they are a nice option.

We finished off the afternoon with scoops of ice cream from Sweet Peaks, a Montana company. DD#1 knows the owners and worked at the Sweet Peaks here one summer. I had Campfire S’Mores, which was delicious.

Getting home took a bit longer than we wanted due to a few residual tourists, but I arrived home to find two packages of even MORE fabric. The first one is from KnitFabric.com. These are all jersey knits:

Again, I’d order a wider range of colors if I could find them. The black jersey is earmarked for a simple waterfall cardigan to replace one that I have just about worn out.

And finally, these came from Stylemaker Fabrics:

Yay! Hot, screaming, retina-scorching pink!

I’ll have plenty too keep me busy. I also traced New Look 6555, which is that dolman top.

There are only three pattern pieces to this one: Front/sleeve, Back/sleeve, and neckband. This should be a quick sew.

I’m still working on warm-weather tops. It is supposed to be 94 degrees here today. I have WS for the day and his mother said he could help me around the property, but I think once we bring in tomatoes, cukes, peppers, and tomatillos, we’ll be looking for inside projects.

I was home for about half an hour last night when our fire department got paged out for a structure fire in our neighborhood. I went to see if the firefighters needed food but ended up getting drafted to make sure they stayed hydrated. I’ve been on enough fire scenes to know how to be useful without getting in the way. I was there until it got dark and the fire was mostly out. The husband didn’t roll in until about 3 o’clock this morning.

Fussy

The yoke was the least of my worries with that Burda pattern. Sewingpatternreview.com only had one review, and the reviewer noted that the pleated neck detail gave her the most trouble. With that in mind, I carefully marked the lines from the pattern onto the fabric and paid close attention to the instructions for making and anchoring the pleat. Or so I thought.

The fabric is clearance polyester crepe-y something from Joanns. It was giving my sewing machine fits. I changed thread, changed needles, and eventually got the machine to sew it. I need to take my machine in for service. I hit a pin a week or so ago (arrrggghhh), and although the machine seems to sew fine on quilting cotton, the fact that I was having such issues with this polyester is making me wonder if I threw it out of time ever so slightly. Or it could have been the fabric. It is thin and drapey but it does not want to hold a crease, so pressing it is an exercise in frustration. The serger wasn’t terribly fond of the fabric, either, so maybe it’s just the fabric. Sometimes it really is the fabric.

All was going well until it came time to attach the neck facing. The neck facing didn’t line up with the pleat in the front. Clearly, I had done something wrong. I ended up taking out the stitching to release the pleat and worked backwards. I pinned everything at the back neck and shoulders and worked my way around to the V, then re-formed the pleat there so it lined up with the facing. I had sewn the pleat correctly, but the instructions on how to anchor it to the other side of the bodice were confusing (I’m being kind), and that was where I had gone astray. Now that I’ve done it, I see how it needs to go, but that took some work.

Burda instructions assume a lot. There were no further facing instructions—nothing about understitching—but I went ahead and graded the seams and understitched the facing, and after some gentle persuasion, I got the neck facing to lie nice and smooth on the front. In fact, it looks much better than I expected given all the fussiness.

The inside isn’t too bad, either.

I clipped that facing into the V as close to the stitching as I dared. Also, I used the tricot interfacing on this piece and I think I will do that as a matter of course going forward, even on wovens. I think it is an improvement over the woven interfacing.

Marguerite, you were right about the yoke construction. The second yoke piece is to enclose the seams. The instructions say that the inner yoke piece can be hand-tacked to the inside or the yoke can be topstitched from the outside to anchor it. I chose the latter option. If I make this pattern again, though, I will dispense with the second yoke piece, serge the yoke seams instead, and draft a facing piece for the back neck.

I still need to set in the sleeves, but I am satisfied with the way the body fits. (It looks better on me than the dress form, I think.) At least I nailed the correct size the first time. And it’s long enough.

I am trying to be disciplined and make things according to the pattern before I change things. I’m doing that partly because I am totally self-taught when it comes to sewing, so I want to see what construction techniques the designer of the pattern thinks are the best. I learn new ones that way, too. I need to remember, though, that patterns are written for people without sergers and that there are plenty of ways I can streamline construction using mine.

Will I make this again? Eh, I’m not sure. I don’t know if I like it enough to put up with the fussiness of that pleat. I noticed that the sewist who posted the review of this pattern added buttons at the pleat on her top. I was thinking that one big button in that area might jazz things up a bit.

I’ll see how I feel after I add the sleeves. Also, this is teal and I really don’t need Yet Another Teal Top in my closet.

I’ve got the Susie Blouse pattern ready to go, and a pattern for another top that looks like it might be suitable for a flowy rayon. That one has dolman sleeves, though. I’ve got a serious mental block when it comes to dolman sleeves and dropped shoulder sleeves. I avoided those like the plague when I was knitting because they always added so much bulk at the underarm in a place where I didn’t need more. A flowy rayon behaves far differently than knitted sweater fabric, though, so perhaps I just need to suck it up and try the dolman pattern.

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I pruned the raspberries yesterday morning. I think it’s easier to do in the fall when I can see which canes are done bearing. I’m also trying to prune out the thorny variety in favor of the thornless one, which produces bigger, tastier berries. After a couple of seasons of serious pruning, I am making headway, but I still have one section that needs work. The raspberries are determined to spread and I am determined not to let them, so it’s a constant battle.

One of the tomato varieties I got from Susan is called Aunt Ruby, and she reminded me the other day that it is a green variety. The only way to tell it is ripe is to feel it. When I went through the tomato patch yesterday, I located the plant. Thankfully, the label was intact. I also got a Grandma Mary’s paste tomato from her and a Weaver’s Black Brandywine, both of which are producing. I may not save seed this year, though, because I just can’t be sure of some of the varieties.

Another Tourist Season is Over

Our visitors flew home to Cleveland yesterday, but they left a few gifts. One came from my cousin Aimee, who sent a T-shirt:

So very true!

And Hannah and Matt gave us a gift card to one of our favorite date night restaurants. It came in this beautiful card that revealed a pop-up greenhouse when I opened it.

Hannah used to work at American Greetings, so she knows her cards. I’ve got this one sitting here by my desk. Isn’t that beautiful?

After Matt and Hannah left for the airport, I tidied up the house until my friend Susan arrived. She and I spent the afternoon together yesterday making postcards to mail for the upcoming Fall Pie Social, one of the fundraisers for the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation. (That’s the website I’ve been working on this summer.) I have a big office photocopier. Susan brought the cardstock and we printed and cut and stacked until we had 1400 postcards ready to mail to local addresses. We also put the event listing up on the local Facebook pages. If you’re local, please join us that day for pulled pork, nachos, ice cream, and—of course—homemade pies. The Pie Social will be held at the Mountain Brook Community Center, 2353 Foothill Road, on Saturday, September 10, from 4-7 pm.

The husband had to babysit a slab yesterday—they poured in the morning but he needs to make sure it sets up properly, and depending on the size of the slab and the weather conditions, that can take all day—so after Susan left, I worked on some sewing projects until he got home around 8 pm. I traced this Burda top (6278):

This one has deep buttoned cuffs, which I will change to either a plain band or a hem. There is also a shoulder yoke detail, which I like, but when I read through the directions, I could not for the life of me figure out why the pattern has you cut and interface TWO yoke pieces. Burda pattern instructions are minimal, to say the least. I think they are also translated from German because some of the verbiage is worded interestingly. I read the instructions over and over and studied the illustrations (also minimal) and eventually figured out how the top goes together. I feel better about starting this one. I also checked the bust darts against the Classic T-Shirt Dress pattern and they shouldn’t need to be adjusted. I think I might make a cardboard version of the bodice of that Classic T-Shirt Dress to have for comparing to new patterns I want to sew—sort of a quick-and-dirty sloper.

I will say that sewing wovens requires a slightly different mindset than sewing knits. I can whip out a Laundry Day Tee on the serger in about an hour. Tops made from wovens require the use of both the sewing machine and the serger, and I have to stop and think about the order of operations. Do I finish the edges before or after I sew the seams? Are there seams I can do on the serger only? Does this need a four-thread seam or just a three-thread finish? I do a lot more stopping and thinking with these kinds of projects.

I got an e-mail yesterday from the woman who organizes the quilt sale for the Mennonite Country Auction in Ritzville, WA. She was checking in to see if our church had quilts to donate this year. I have a few; I am going to pull them out today and get some photos for her. I know that all the sale organizers are struggling to get enough quilts. I have several more basted and ready to quilt, but I won’t have time in the next month to get them done. They’ll have to go in next year’s sale.

And I pulled out the bag of cream-and-white scraps and started sewing strips together.

This will eventually become another Candy Coated quilt, although I might do the Sunday Morning Quilt from that same book just for a change of pace. We’ll see. I am going to work out in the garden this morning and then I need to put serger handouts together.

Black and Teal

I started cleaning out my closet. I am being ruthless. Anything that doesn’t fit well or is the wrong color is getting donated. What’s left is mostly black and a fair bit of teal. Teal seems to be the one saturated color that I am able to find on a regular basis, but I am just as tired of it as black.

I’ve got some hot pink and other jewel-toned fabrics on order. I do need to get working on some cooler-weather tops, though. I traced two patterns yesterday—the Sadie top, similar to my Liz Claiborne tunics, and this one, from Sew Over It, a UK company:

I need simple, dressy tops to wear to church. The cuffs have to be plain hems or bands so they don’t get in the way of me playing the piano. This one has a 3/4 sleeve option, which is even better. DD#2 keeps telling me I should add some V-necks, too, and I like the collar on this top very much. And the pattern includes bust darts.

Joanns had Burda patterns on sale over the weekend, so I picked up a few more of those, too, for similar kinds of tops. I suspect there will be a fair bit of frankenpatterning going on, though, because I like some details from some of the tops and some details from others.

I’m knee deep in it at the moment. Knee deep in fabric and produce.

I weighed one of my tomatoes yesterday, just for fun:

One pound, 5.5 ounces. I’ve got several this size. I really need to find the labels, though, so I know what I am saving seed from.

The zucchini plants are spent. I might pull them out this weekend. I also need to dig up horseradish and make a batch of fire cider. I made that last fall and used it over the winter when I felt like I was coming down with something. It’s heavy on the garlic, onions, horseradish, and orange juice. It needs a lot of honey to make it palatable, but it’ll warm you up nicely.

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Sherri McConnell, of A Quilting Life, is big on productivity tools. She recommended a podcast called The Productive Woman. I haven’t listened to it yet—maybe today. I am curious to hear this woman’s advice. I get a lot of comments from other people about how much I do, but working hard and being productive (and learning things!) makes me happy. And I am a poser compared to the husband. He works harder than anyone else I know.

[Robin, you will be happy to know that he replaced that rotted board in the bridge going out to the greenhouse.]

I saw Tera on Sunday. Her route home from church takes her past our church, and when she saw me in the parking lot, she pulled in. We visited for about 20 minutes. We agreed that we need to put a trip on the calendar for next year. If we don’t schedule it now, we won’t do it, and I had such fun going to Garden of Quilts with her last September. (That’s the same weekend as my cousin’s wedding this year, or we might have gone again.) We’re thinking maybe the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington, next March. That’s not too far from Pacific Lutheran, where DD#1 went to college, and I know my way around the area. Gail Yellen usually teaches serger classes there. I would love to take a class from her.

The Produce is Rolling In

I canned 12 pints of carrots yesterday:

I might do another batch—I haven’t decided. These are good to have on hand to add to soups and stews during the winter.

I will have to set up a portable folding table soon for tomatoes.

I pick them when they just start to get some color and bring them inside to ripen in this south-facing window. If I leave them on the vines, the ground squirrels and turkeys come along and take a bite out and leave the rest to rot. I need to make some notes about these varieties. I know the Cherokee Purple and Oregon Star (paste) tomatoes because I grow those every year. I am not sure what those huge slicing tomatoes are. Hopefully I can find the labels. The other paste tomatoes are either Purple Russians or Opalka (I see some of both). Susan started the Opalkas and I bought them at the plant sale. That little cherry tomato has been wonderful. I snack on those.

The husband came out to the garden and made sure the watermelon was ripe enough to pick.

I usually bring them in too early so I have him check. There is only one other little one on the vine this year. They got such a late start because June was so cold. There are quite a few cantaloupe, though.

This will be my life for the next several weeks. I won’t be done completely until I have 50 more quarts of salsa on the shelf. That will be around the middle October or so. I am rather glad we took a break from raising pigs this year.

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I can’t decide what I want to make next. I’ll probably knock out the two pairs of Renee pants I have lined up and reassess.

I bought a dress to wear to my cousin’s wedding. I ordered it from Nordstrom and it came last week, but it needs some alterations. I have alterations credit at Nordstrom, so I made an appointment for the day I get to Seattle and will have their alterations department look at it. That will be safer than me taking it apart. I might have to pay a rush fee—I get to Seattle on Monday and the wedding is Saturday—but that’s okay. I am also taking the dress I wore to DD#1’s wedding as a backup.

I have a lot of plates to keep spinning in September.

A Much Better Fit

I knocked out Version 2.0 of the See & Sew raglan cowl yesterday:

This one is two sizes smaller than the one I originally made and is the correct size for me. It fits loosely without being tent-like. I am dithering about the cowl; it probably does need to be cut on the bias, but I still wouldn’t use allover interfacing. I would use knit stay tape only on the edges of the cowl to help stabilize them. This smaller size does also need the back pleat, which I left in. I am adding this pattern to the “tried and true” pile, although the next couple of iterations probably will have long sleeves. I could also do a faced neckline instead of the cowl.

As nicely as this fits, however, I still cannot wear orange of any kind. Also, the placement of those two pink flowers on the bodice was a total accident, LOL.

I did a bit of research on color palettes. My mother, aunts, cousins, and I all did our “colors” back in the 80s when that was popular. I was identified as a Winter, in stark contrast to everyone else in my family. Now the seasons have been broken into subcategories. “Winter” encompasses three groups depending on whether one’s coloring is “cooler” or “warmer.” I can’t quite tell which subcategory I fall into, although I suspect cooler. Wardrobe advice remains the same: Avoid muddy earth tones, oranges, yellows, and faint pastels in favor of jewel tones and saturated colors.

That has been an ongoing battle for decades.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I may have to do most of my fabric shopping online or when I am in Seattle. Interestingly, the first episode of Season Two of the Whipstitch Podcast was on how to shop for fabric. The show notes include links to some new-to-me retailers, like Emma One Sock. Oh, my.

We’ve had a couple of days of cooler weather and I am more inclined to start making some fall and winter tops. I really need to do a purge of my closet, but the prospect of having clothing that fits in colors that are flattering makes me giddy with excitement.

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We have houseguests for a few days. My cousin Lynnette, who was two years older than me, died suddenly when she was 35 and left a husband and four kids under the age of eight. Lynnette’s oldest daughter and her husband are using us as a home base while they visit Glacier and do some hiking. They arrived yesterday. After they head back to Cleveland next week, I need to work on some serger class prep. I have three new serger classes scheduled in September and they happen right after I get back from another cousin’s wedding in Seattle. (I have a big family with lots of cousins.) I need to have everything ready to go before I leave for the wedding. We also have our Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation Fall pie social on September 10, and a candidate for our interim pastor position is visiting that weekend. I decided against participating in the Mountain Brook Craft Co-Op sale at the end of September because so much else is going on. I also don’t have a lot of inventory as I spent most of my sewing time this year on serger classes and clothing.

If I get through September in one piece, I’m going to Ritzville, WA, for the Mennonite Country Auction on the first Saturday in October. I am planning to stay for the quilt auction this year. I’ve always had to miss it to get back to play at church on Sunday. And I’ve got four serger classes already on the schedule in October.

The tomatoes are rolling in. I am putting the ones we don’t eat immediately into the freezer for sauce- and salsa-making later. I made a gooseberry crisp for the husband and put two gallon bags of gooseberries in the freezer for this winter. They are such a labor-intensive fruit because the stems and blossom ends have to be cut off, but the husband’s Grandma Milly used to make gooseberry pies for him and I know he likes them.

Today, it’s canning carrots. I have ten pounds to clean, cut up, and process. I’ll be in the kitchen if anybody needs me.