Serger Studies

I finished the second BabyLock serger apron, another design by Deb Canham. I don’t often wear a half apron—I am just too messy and need the coverage of a full one—but this would be cute for a special occasion.

The main fabric is from Cathe Holden’s Flea Market Fresh line for Moda. (She has a similar line called Flea Market Mix.) The contrast fabric is something that I pulled out of my stash. I have no idea where it came from. The selvage says E.E. Schenck, which is one of the big fabric distributors. I thought it coordinated nicely.

I would do this differently on the second iteration. Those flatlock ladder stitches on the skirt were made with a turquoise 12wt Wonderfil thread, but I switched to the orange for the edge of the ruffle and I wish I had used the orange in the skirt, too. That’s one of the hazards of working through a pattern for the first time. The photo of the finished design did not show any details, so I had no idea how this was going to look until I finished mine. Oh, well. I think I would also thread some 1/4” ribbon through those flatlock ladders. I can’t really do it after the fact because there would be no good way to secure them. I’ll leave it as is. These are all class samples and sometimes it’s good for students to see what didn’t work just as much as what did.

I am in love with the three-thread narrow edge using 12wt threads in both loopers:

It’s so ridiculously simple but looks so nice—much better than a plain hem, I think.

I am still making friends with that gathering foot. When it’s used to gather a single layer of fabric, it works really well—I gathered the top of the skirt that way and it’s such an improvement over gathering on the sewing machine. The edge is finished and doesn’t fray, and the two needle threads are strong enough for adjusting the fullness of the gathers along the width. Using the gathering foot to gather and attach simultaneously, though, is a bit trickier. Even with the differential all the way up and the stitch length at its longest setting, the ruffle doesn’t gather as much as it does alone. And there is the problem of managing the two layers of fabric as they feed into the machine. The top layer feeds into a separate opening on the foot to keep it from being gathered and it tends to want to slide out. Also, you really only get one chance to do it correctly.

I’ll keep working at it.

The other detail I love about this apron is that piping between the skirt and the waistband. I used the piping foot for that and the whole process was fast and easy.

After I finished the apron, I pulled out another BabyLock pattern—for a wine gift bag. I knew I had wine-themed fabric in the stash, so I pulled that out, too, and some coordinating fabric for the lining. I had just enough of the wine-themed fabric for three bags, which turned out to be a good thing because I didn’t get it right until the third one.

It’s a free pattern, so I don’t expect much, but I do expect some basic information. No seam allowance was given, so I shaved off a knife’s width as I serged. The instructions call for 1/4” wide ribbon or cord for the tie, but don’t say how long the ribbon should be. I used 24”, which seemed about right. The tie is folded in half and inserted into the seam. For the first bag, I tried some decorative cord, but it shredded itself and came out of the seam when I tried to tie it.

Bad words were said.

For the second one, I used black satin ribbon and was careful to shorten the stitch length as I came to that part of the seam to make sure the ribbon was securely anchored. Somehow, though, the ribbon slipped out of the seam before I sewed it and I did not discover that fact until I turned the bag inside out and found the ribbon on the floor.

More bad words were said.

On the third try, the ribbon stayed put. These are super quick to make and I might do some for next year’s co-op sale.

My cutting room looks like a toddler went through it. It’s a mess because I was pulling down bins to get out supplies and changing threads and needles on the serger. I have a few more projects I want to make with other stitches—I played around with blanket stitch edgings on fleece and flannel before I had to stop and make dinner—so it will probably stay messy until later this week.

I’ve got four people signed up for sewing on Saturday thanks to Susan’s publicity efforts. She put up a sign at the apple cider pressing day last weekend. Nicole Sauce’s podcast yesterday was a debrief of the recent Self-Reliance Festival in Camden, Tennessee and she mentioned that people need to see something an average of seven times before it sticks in their brains.

Tater Tots

The husband and I dug potatoes yesterday afternoon. I drove the tractor out to the garden and parked it and we dumped the bounty into the wagon:

We did a couple of new varieties this year, including German Butterball and fingerlings, both of which did well. The husband said the fingerlings looked like tater tots as he was digging them up. We also had the usual Yukon Gold, Red Norlands, Classic Russets, and Purple Vikings. These all got sorted into burlap bags and put in the root cellar. We’ll use the yellow ones first as they don’t keep much past Thanksgiving.

Potatoes are so ridiculously easy. You put them in the ground, let them grow, and dig them up five months later.

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The husband had to saw cut a slab yesterday morning so I spent a couple of hours on that second apron pattern while waiting for him to get back. I got to test out a few stitch ideas, too, and I am excited about the possibilities.

This is the two-thread reverse flatlock stitch—serger thread in the lower looper and 12wt decorative thread in the needle—with quarter-inch ribbon threaded through it.

Gail Yellen has done some videos on this technique on her YouTube channel. I really hope I get to take a class with her some time. I went back and watched a few of the videos again now that I have a better understanding of what she’s describing.

I’m teaching the Bernina serger mastery class this week at the quilt store south of town. We might not get to try out all of these techniques, but I’ll cover as many as I can.

It feels like we’ve now settled into the fall/winter routine. My recliner and I are getting reacquainted. I don’t use it much during the summer. I sat and watched those Gail Yellen videos last night while sewing down the binding of that table runner I quilted last week. I have another chicken embroidery block prepped and ready to work on, and I’d like to revisit the Sue Spargo Squash Squad project, too. I bought the actual pattern for that one as I had so much trouble with the original Instagram release. And I always have hexies to work on if I get bored. (Honestly, how does anyone get bored with so much fun stuff to do?)

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I am supposed to teach a Beginning Sewing class at the Mountain Brook Community Center on Saturday. The promotional information says, very clearly, that pre-registration is required, because I need to know how many kits to put together. (I plan to teach how to make burrito pillowcases.) We’ve had expressions of interest and a few inquiries but thus far, no registrations. Susan and I talked about it briefly yesterday and I said that I would not be at all surprised if people show up at 9 am next Saturday expecting there to be a class even if they didn’t pre-register. (“Pre-register” does not mean five minutes before the class, either.) Reading comprehension seems to be at an all-time low these days. Do I spend time this week getting class kits together if no one signs up, just in case people do show up at the Community Center?

I’ll decide by Thursday. I have another one of these on the schedule for January, so perhaps the timing may be better then.

Skill Building

I did not coin the term “time confetti”—that honor belongs to a woman named Brigid Schulte in her book entitled Overwhelmed: Work, Love, And Play When No One Has The Time. I did not read the book, so I must have picked up that phrase from reading a review.

I do sometimes feel overwhelmed, but certainly not as much as I used to when my kids were growing up and I was producing books and knitting patterns. I am far more cognizant now of that feeling creeping up on me and therefore better about nipping it in the bud. I am also painfully aware that my time problems—such as they are—stem from the fact that tasks take longer in real life than they do when I am doing them in my head. A quilt takes longer to make than the 30 minutes I spend laying it out in EQ8.

And even with years of teaching experience, class prep still takes time. I have found no way around that. Just because I know how to do the technique does not mean I am prepared to teach other people how to do it. A lesson always sticks better with a tangible project. A handout provides support during and after the class. All of this takes time to find and assemble.

I kissed the husband off to work yesterday morning and went straight to my cutting table where fabric and an apron pattern were waiting for me. Most of the serger and sewing machine manufacturers have free project tutorials on their websites. BabyLock has some really good ones, including two apron patterns designed by Deb Canham. I’m thinking of teaching one of these next spring at the quilt store north of town—the BabyLock dealer—but I needed to make the apron, first.

The instructions were reasonably well written. I appreciated that the order of operations had been arranged to minimize thread changes, although there were still several throughout the pattern. This is a good skill-building pattern. The bodice features pintucks, the pocket has reverse flatlocking, and the bottom ruffle is attached with the gathering foot. Again, I wish it had been written in a less machine-specific manner, but I understand that the manufacturers want to highlight their machines. I had to do a bit of translating from BabyLock-ese to Bernina-ese.

Even knowing my serger as well as I do, the apron took most of the day to make. The design is not simple. I was working slowly and deliberately and I had to change threads and needles half a dozen times. The gathering foot took a bit of practice to master. I think the apron turned out well, though:

The fabric is 30’s Playtime by Chloe’s Closet. It has little spools of thread all over it. This was a thread-intensive project and used up most of a 400 meter spool of 12wt thread. I’m going to have to put in a WonderFil order soon. And I added several stitch swatches to my record book:

I made up this record sheet so I could have a place to write down stitches, thread, and machine settings. This book has been a lifesaver. I hand out copies of this record sheet to the students in all my classes so they can make their own record books.

It felt very good to have an entire day to do nothing but sew. I also pulled fabric for the other apron pattern. That design features piping and cording techniques, so I’m eager to try that one. Now that I am playing with new serger techniques, I have even more project ideas swirling around in my head.

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The mouse problem seems to have been solved, but now there is a rodent larger than a mouse running around in the ceiling. I hear it early in the morning and I heard it again the other night while we were watching TV. The husband seems unconcerned. He suggested it was a chipmunk but I think it is more on the order of a squirrel. Hopefully it will not die up there.

Little Bunny Foo-Foo is starting to turn white. The husband saw him outside the kitchen door the other morning and alerted me. It’s too bad these animals don’t talk. I’d like to interview some of them and find out what they think about the coming winter. They know things we don’t.

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I pulled a bunch of knit fabric remnants to take to one of the young women who works at the quilt store south of town. She bought the Juki serger I traded in when I got my Bernina. She’s busy making headbands and I am happy to give her my leftovers. I freed up an entire storage bin yesterday.

Controlling the Time Confetti

Keeping my schedule from being fragmented into a million pieces is an ongoing battle. Some weeks it’s easier than others. Winter usually has less time confetti than the warmer months. (That may be why I prefer it.) Although I have learned to maximize little bits of time here and there, I still have projects to which I would like to devote single-minded focus for several hours (or a whole day), especially when I need to puzzle out some construction or design issue. It is almost physically painful for me to have to stop and switch gears in the middle of that process, and that, in turn, makes me hesitant even to start.

I taught serger classes on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, Susan and Elysian and I spent five hours putting the homestead foundation quarterly newsletter together to mail. That had been on the schedule for several months and I knew it was going to take a good chunk of the day. Even with three of us working and a new paper folding machine (it is so slick), it still takes five hours to do the newsletter because we are limited by the speed of my copier. The copier will print 300 double-sided pages per hour. We send out 1500 newsletters.

You get a photo of the new paper folding machine because I don’t have any other pictures for you:

This absolutely was money well spent.

I looked at my calendar and didn’t see anything for Thursday or Friday, but as he was leaving for work yesterday morning, the husband said he had gotten my snow tires out and I remembered that I needed to get that taken care of. (He could do it here were it not for those stupid tire pressure monitors on most cars now.) I try to get tires changed by the end of September or beginning of October. Most people wait until it actually snows, and then it’s a mad rush. The tire places do not take appointments. It is first come, first served. I traced a few patterns before heading to craft co-op, where I popped in and visited for 15 minutes, then continued on to town.

On my first foray through the tire place’s parking lot, I could not find a spot. I left and ran some errands and came back about an hour later. (It was 12:30.) I was able to find a parking spot and went in and talked to one of the owners. I need new snow tires this fall, but I do not want to put those on until later in the season because I don’t want to drive new studded tires on bare roads. The current set will be adequate even if we get a surprise early snowstorm. I went ahead and ordered the new ones, and the owner said, “Come back in an hour and we will fit you in.” We chatted a bit about how busy they were so early in the season and the owner told me she thought it was because so many new people had moved to the valley.

[I will stay home the first time it snows because I don’t want to be out there when all of these newcomers discover that watching a YouTube video on winter driving did not prepare them for the real thing.]

I went and had lunch and came back as requested. They were able to get my car in and the tires changed and I was home by 3:30. I took care of chicken chores and made dinner and wondered where the day had gone.

I realize I am whining about a first-world problem, but it’s my blog and this influx of newcomers has caused all sorts of issues here. While I was waiting to go back to the tire place to get my tires changed, I stopped in at the quilt store north of town to pick up fabric for a project. Mary, one of the women who works there, said she had spent two whole days doing nothing but sewing. I told her that sounded heavenly.

Therefore, today and tomorrow—after we get the potatoes dug up—are going to be devoted to nothing but sewing. I am going to work on those projects, mostly for future classes, that are going to require some experimentation. I will get projects stacked that I can work on in the evenings or at craft co-op. I will close the curtain on the kitchen door and make it look like no one is home. I’ve got podcasts and videos queued up and dinner will go into the crock pot to cook. Wish me luck.

A Flood of Ideas

I finished quilting the table runner. The fabric is Pumpkin and Blossoms by Fig Tree for Moda. The binding will be in coordinating Grunge. This picture was taken in lower light so the quilting would be more visible:

That ribbon candy quilting pattern in the border is so much fun.

I can see why Sherri McConnell is so addicted to making table runners. They are quick, easy, instant-gratification projects and a great way to try out new quilting stitch patterns.

I stopped at Staples yesterday to see what kind of system I could put together for organizing my quilting rulers. They have outgrown the box they reside in currently. I bought a plastic milk crate and these expandable hanging file folders and they work perfectly:

Now I can locate a specific ruler quickly. One folder has my Amanda Murphy rulers and the other one has the HandiQuilter rulers.

My new rolling serger/tool case is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I like being organized.

I taught a Serger 101 class on Monday with two students and another one yesterday with three students. I thought both classes went well. I am always happy when students leave wanting to go home and make a few things or take additional classes to learn new techniques. However, teaching serger classes sends the creative part of my brain into overdrive. I have a ton of pattern and class ideas swirling around in my head. I’m going to try to eke out an hour or so to at least make up some samples on the serger.

Truly, I don’t have a “favorite” part of sewing. I love it all, from piecing to serging to machine quilting, making bags, making clothing, making quilts.

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Some of us from the sewing group/Ladies Club had a going-away party for Sunnie last night at Moose’s Saloon, a Kalispell landmark. Sunnie is going back to Texas for the winter. Preliminary reports are that this year’s craft co-op sale beat out last year’s gross revenue, which is wonderful. And everyone agreed that using the sanctuary to display the quilts worked really well. I expect we will do it again that way next year.

Susan and Elysian are coming over this morning so we can print the Homestead Foundation quarterly newsletter and get it ready for mailing. After that, my three main tasks are going to be continuing a deep clean of this house and running the air scrubber, making tomato sauce and salsa, and working on sewing projects. We do have to get the potatoes dug this weekend—we put it off last Saturday so we could go get the wood boiler—and finish putting garden tools away. The weather has been stellar. Temps have been in the low 70s and that continues through the early part of next week. I’m seeing forecasts for low-elevation snow after that, though, so I wonder if this is a head fake that will be followed by an early winter. In 1996, it started snowing on October 15 and the snow didn’t stop until May. We’re about due for a hard winter.

The husband mentioned that he wanted to take a trip to Spokane some time and order a pair of custom boots from Nick’s. He’s been so frustrated with the cheaply-made work boots that fall apart after a few months. Nick’s will measure and custom make a pair of boots, although the delivery time is anywhere from 18-30 weeks depending on their workload. We need to order some soon so he has them for next spring. We’ll probably make a quick overnight trip to get that crossed off the list.

DD#1 and DSIL are also looking for a new truck. Their current truck bit the dust, although I think they—or actually, DSIL’s parents—got their money’s worth as it was the vehicle DSIL drove in high school. The dealer in Spokane might be able to get them the new truck they want. I told DD#1 that if I needed to pick it up and drive it to Seattle to get it on the ferry to Alaska, I’d be happy to do that.

Lots to do, still, even with the end of gardening season.

Checking the Muscle Memory

I uncovered the Q20 yesterday, vacuumed out the guts, and oiled it thoroughly. It’s time to start quilting with it again. I was a bit worried that I had lost some muscle memory over the summer—I haven’t quilted on this machine for almost four months—but I did a few practice pieces and the movements came back to me quickly.

I pulled out a simple table runner (Nine-Patch Table Runner pattern by Sherri McConnell) and began with Amanda Murphy’s advice to “quilt the bones” with some stitch-in-the-ditch quilting around the blocks.

Then I moved to making circle flowers inside the nine-patch blocks:

That was fun. I think I will do some matchstick quilting in those side triangles and ribbon candy in the border. I wish I had used a slightly thicker batting inside this runner, but it still looks good. I’ll get through the stack of table runners and then get back to working on some bigger quilts.

I think that taking a break from serger projects for a while is a good idea. If I stop obsessing about all things serger, the brain will continue to process without my assistance. Perhaps it is just waiting for me to get out of the way.

I decided on a rolling tote for transporting my Juki serger back and forth to classes. I went with the Husky Stack System:

This is basically the same design as the serger trolleys that Joann Fabrics sells. The front unzips and peels down to expose the inside. However, these have a hard plastic frame and additional bags can be stacked on top of this one. I’m starting with the base and will add another one if needed.

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While I was quilting yesterday afternoon, the husband was getting the wood boiler in place. I had to go out and help him snake wires down through a pipe in the slab and over to the basement. Eventually, the boiler will heat all three buildings—house, garage, and shop—but we’re starting with the house.

He has been studying all the documentation so that he knows exactly how this boiler works. The husband is nothing if not thorough.

Clarity in All Things

I’m going to have to switch to other sewing until I get this serger stuff figured out. My frustration level is too high right now and trying to push my way through this isn’t the best course of action.

I started working on the serger pillow pattern that I bought in Spokane in August. Oh, my. This is a line of very attractive patterns with full-color printing, but they are not written well at all. I can tell when patterns haven’t been tested or tech edited and these could have benefitted from both.

Problem #1 is that there is no schematic or up-front instructions to indicate how many pieces to cut in what size. The general supplies list on the back specifies 1-1/2 yards for the pillow body and ruffle, 1/2 yard coordinating fabric for the fringing strips, and 1/8 yard fabric for the ladder (flatlock) and chain stitch sections. A simple schematic identifying which fabric was which on the pillow would have gone a long way toward improving these instructions, as the fabrics used in the sample pillow in the photos are similar in color and print. A cutting list would be even better. And there needs to be some consistency in terminology, units, and other picayune details that annoy people like me.

After puzzling out what needed to be done with which fabric, I set the Bernina serger up for a two-thread wrapped overlock stitch on the widest setting—needle in the left position and cutting width at 9. This pattern is written for the Bernina L-series sergers, specifically the L890. It does say that, in tiny print, on the front of the pattern. However, I would rather see this pattern written more generally, to apply to a wider variety of sergers. I do not think it is necessary to have an $8000 serger to make a pillow. Even my $400 Juki serger will make this stitch.

The two-thread wrapped overlock stitch is serged on the folded edges of three strips. That stitch then needs to be secured on the sewing machine before cutting the needle thread and releasing the lower looper threads to form a fringe. It’s a slick technique, but it requires a bit of practice. I had to serge the edges of the fringing strips, then take them over the sewing machine and run a very short straight stitch through the serger needle thread to secure the fringe before cutting.

As suggested in the pattern, I used two 12wt threads in the lower looper (Spaghetti, from Wonderfil).

It took me over two hours to make three fringing strips. This is part of why I have to make things ahead of time for classes, because I need to know how long each step is going to take. I got this far and just didn’t have it in me to figure out the next couple of steps.

This project is in time out. I may try again at some point or I may not. We’ll see.

I did get a couple of good class project ideas from the woman who coordinates the classes at one of the quilt stores. I’ll see her on Tuesday after my Serger 101 class at that store and we’ll discuss them further.

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The husband and I went to Missoula yesterday morning to get the wood boiler. One the way, we listened to a couple of podcasts, including an interview with Danielle Dimartino Booth. She’s a very sharp financial analyst and I always like to hear what she has to say.

We hauled the wood boiler back here on a trailer. The husband will get it hooked up soon and I’ll get some pictures of that process when it happens.

Date Day continued with a visit to the finished home of one of the husband’s customers. The homeowners hosted an open house for all the contractors. We don’t get to do this very often, so it was lovely to go and talk to the homeowners and the other subs and see the home. Most of the husband’s work was hidden, holding up the structure, but he also did some concrete patios around the outside.

And after that, we went to a new-to-us restaurant courtesy of a gift card from another homeowner. I think this place has been there for a long time; we’ve just never eaten there. I felt rather like we had been sent back in time 25 years. The decor was old-fashioned (very Montana), the food was great—it’s a steakhouse—and the service was exemplary. I think we’ll be going back. The husband said he wished it was closer to home, but it’s not that far from Home Depot, which was where we went afterward. I am looking for a rolling case for my Juki serger so I can transport it back and forth to class. I’m using a rolling milk crate at the moment, which is adequate, but I need something sturdier that will also hold more of my supplies so I’m not carting around three or four separate containers. I looked at a few different systems but haven’t decided on one yet.

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I’ve got a Serger 101 class tomorrow morning at one quilt store and a Serger 101 class Tuesday afternoon at the other quilt store. People can be very particular about what store(s) they patronize. I’ve had some students take classes from me at both stores. Other students will only take classes at one store or the other. I don’t sense any overt hostility from either store toward the other one—and I have zero desire to get caught up in any drama—but I probably need to be more mindful of scheduling issues.

Quilts in the Sanctuary

Toward the end of last year’s co-op sale, a group of us discussed the fact that we were running out of room for all the merchandise. That sale started in our community center up the road—which it outgrew—and moved the nearby Mennonite church fellowship hall. I suggested we display the quilts in the sanctuary, draped over the pews. That idea took a bit of time to settle, because many of us grew up viewing church sanctuaries as holy places. Our congregation actually refers to it as the “auditorium,” so I didn’t think it would be a problem.

We tried it this year and it turned out to have been a good idea. This is how all the sale quilts looked from the balcony:

At the start of the sale, I was stationed in a chair just outside the auditorium, in the Christmas section, listening to the comments as people came through that area and saw the quilts. The visual impact was dramatic.

This is such a talented group. I walked around just before the doors opened and looked at all the beautiful items for sale. The Christmas section is always full of lovely quilts and home dec pieces:

And Sarah put up a wonderful display of her dipped beeswax candles and linen tea towels. I suspect she will sell out today if she didn’t yesterday. I saw lots of people walking around with candles.

I stayed until noon. We had a lot of shoppers come through and everyone seemed happy with their purchases. I bought some of Sarah’s candles and two green linen towels for my kitchen.

I will try very hard to get my act together for next year’s sale.

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One of the topics Sarah and I discuss frequently is class prep. She understands what is involved. Teaching is only the tip of the iceberg, really. One first has to be somewhat competent in the subject matter, although I think all of us have been guilty at one time or another of being just one page ahead of the students. Marianne Fons talked about that one time in an interview and said that she and Liz Porter would come up with a topic for their quilt class, then go home and spend the week learning how to do it.

I’m trying to get these serger classes under control for 2023 but it’s frustrating. There are so many elements to balance: Choosing a topic, finding a project that illustrates the technique—either a commercial pattern or something I design—making class samples, preparing the handouts and supply lists, anticipating problems, etc. Stores want classes unique to them, and they also want to be able to sell patterns and/or fabric in conjunction with the class. And then we have to find a class time that works for everyone. Once the class development work is done, it’s done (for the most part), but class development doesn’t happen overnight.

I found a line of patterns designed for sergers and asked the store if they could order them. I bought one of the patterns from this line in Spokane in August. One of the issues I’m running into is that many of these newer serger patterns are designed for the high-end sergers. The patterns incorporate both serger and coverstitch techniques, although decorative stitches on the sewing machine can be substituted for the coverstitch chain stitches. Still, that means students have to use two machines. And I don’t want someone to come to a class and be stymied because they don’t have some specialty foot for a technique I’m teaching. I’ve also got to make sure that the recommended thread weights are available. Spools of 12wt thread are not exactly growing on trees in Kalispell, Montana. I can order sample spools of thread or thread kits from WonderFil, but I have to give them a fair bit of lead time.

I’m currently working up the serger pattern I bought. What I need is a solid week where I can do nothing but lock myself in my sewing room, sew up patterns and class samples, and put all of my class materials together. That won’t happen in the next two weeks—the calendar is already full—but I think I will put that on the schedule for the third week of October. I told the husband I might make a bunch of meals and freeze them for him so I don’t have to take time out to cook.

Maybe I am overthinking this and just need to get out of that headspace for a while. I worked on those scrappy log cabin blocks yesterday afternoon and before I knew it, an hour and a half had gone by and I had finished two more blocks. I like being in that sewing zone.

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The husband and I have Date Day today. We are heading down to Missoula to pick up the wood boiler. We also got an invitation to an open house this afternoon from one of his clients. The homeowner invited all the contractors to come and see the finished product. I suggested we combine a stop there with dinner out.

Our neighbor Smokey came by yesterday. He thanked me for inviting him to help himself to tomatoes while I was in Seattle and said that he took four big bags of them. That made me so happy. I did not want them just rotting out there. He makes sauce and salsa every fall and said that now his freezer is full of both.

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.