Wardrobe by Walmart

I did not expect to be buying apparel fabric at Walmart, but it’s 2022 and nothing is normal. May I present the Harper Cardigan in what I believe is a rayon French terry:

(That is not a pleat in the front band, just a trick of the light.) This is not polyester fabric, of that I am sure. Rayon and polyester both can be slinky, but polyester has a plasticky feel to it that rayon lacks. This fabric was a delight to sew. It’s thin and drapey, but because it’s a micro French terry, it has more body than would a rayon spandex knit.

I LOVE THIS CARDIGAN. I put it on and did not want to take it off. Could I have five more in bright jewel tones?

The Harper Cardigan is a free pattern from Sinclair Designs and has gone straight to the top of my tried-and-true pile. This pattern is worth paying for, so if you go there to download it, please consider buying one or two (or more!) of their excellent patterns. All are well designed, well written, and are accompanied by lots of clear color photos. I made the size 14 in Regular (the patterns come in Petite and Tall versions, too) and the fit is perfect. The is the Classic length. The pattern also has options for cropped, long, and duster length versions. I spent about two hours on it. The construction is simple and straightforward. Everything was done on the serger because the hem, cuffs, and front neckline are banded.

Royal blue seems to be dominating my closet at the moment, which is fine as it is one of my favorite colors. And now I have two royal blue cardigans, although I would be tempted to reach for this one more often, I think. The royal blue waterfall cardigan consists of so much fabric that it feels overwhelming in a way that my black one doesn’t. That might change after I alter the fronts to remove some of the excess, but I haven’t done that yet.

I also have a three-yard length of some rayon spandex from the Walmart rack in a gorgeous raspberry color that I think I’m going to make into a long-sleeve Laundry Day Tee with a cowl, just for fun.

This next top is a Nancy Raglan from 5 out of 4 Patterns. This pattern is also in the tried-and-true pile. I’ve made two others. The main fabric is Robert Kaufman Trainers fleece, purchased at The Confident Stitch in Missoula. (Someone needs to get out the steamer.)

When I cut this out, I discovered that I did not have quite enough of the Trainers fleece for the two-layer cowl. I wasn’t even sure I had enough for one layer, so I set it all aside for a couple of days. While I was at Walmart the other day, cleaning out the Rack of Mystery Fabric, I spotted this lighter green heather knit (another rayon, I think), and decided that at $3 for two yards, I could take it home to see if it coordinated with the fleece. After a bit of origami, I was able to get one layer of the cowl from the fleece. (Plan B would have been to use two layers of the light green knit with interfacing.) The other layer makes a nice contrast cowl.

I am not a Dark Winter—one of the subseasons of Winter that looks best in darker jewel tones—but I don’t need to dress like a peacock all the time and this is a good color for me, even with the lighter cowl. I like that it is a truer green because I am still rather tired of teal.

[I am such a Robert Kaufman fangirl. I think I have more of their fabric in my stash than just about anything else. (They make Kona.) I wish the fabrics were easier to find.]

This top is going to get a lot of use, I think. I know I am making a ton of clothing right now, but I expect to do another culling once I am done and pare down to just those items I really like and will wear. Also, my two previous Nancy Raglans are looking a bit worn.

************************

The Craft Industry Alliance newsletter showed up in my inbox yesterday, after I had written my blog post, with a bit more of the backstory behind the Fabric.com closure. This paragraph, in particular, jumped out at me:

About six months ago, Amazon reached out to Fabric.com vendors to say that all fabric would soon need to be sold directly on Amazon.com. Vendors were told to upload all of their products to Amazon in one, three, or five-yard increments, seemingly with no regard to the fact that fabric manufacturers sell wholesale by the roll or bolt, and not by the yard. “They expect us to cut and ship overnight for free,” this executive said. “They don’t understand fabric at all.”

Amazon is a necessary evil in my world as I sell the bulk of my knitting books through them. I’ve specified, repeatedly, that books are sold in case quantities, but that does not keep them from trying to order one book at a time, at wholesale, and expecting me to ship it via UPS, effectively cutting my profit margin to zero. I ignore those orders. I know that Amazon gave financial considerations as a reason for shuttering Fabric.com, but part of me wonders if that was a self-inflicted wound given that Amazon seems to be lumbering around like a bull in a china shop.

The entire retail fabric world feels like it is shifting underneath us. (I am sure that is true of many other industries, too.) We’ll have to wait and see how it shakes out, but change comes with opportunity, and that can be positive.

Retail Questions

I went to town to run errands yesterday and came home with lots of questions. I am also heartily sick and tired of people turning left in front of me when they don’t have the right of way, but that’s another story.

I stopped in at Walmart—we need replacement bags for our 12-gallon Shop Vac—and checked the Rack of Mystery Fabric. The rack had been restocked and was quite full. I picked up a few more pieces of fabric to use as muslins for future patterns, although again, if they turn out to be wearable muslins, that will be a bonus.

I headed over to Hobby Lobby. They have changed their sales rotation and I am still trying to figure out the pattern. Fabric was 40% off this week. When I got to the fabric section, however, I discovered that a good third of the bolts were gone. The department was looking quite empty. I eventually found all those bolts a few aisles away, marked down on clearance.

Hmmmm.

I went back to look at what fabric was still on the displays and just about fell over when I saw they were stocking some new Robert Kaufman Essex Linen in both solids and prints. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the prints, especially because I cannot find those fabrics on either the Hobby Lobby website or the Kaufman website. They looked like they belonged to the same collection of prints in black, red, and cream. I check Hobby Lobby every couple of days and haven’t seen these before, so they must have come in recently, although the bolts were down to just a couple of yards each.

I bought some Essex Linen in a lovely pink color. I need to make half a dozen more Bear Paw baby quilts to have on hand and this is my favorite fabric for those. Pink is a color I don’t have in the stash.

The supply chain disruptions mean that I have no good handle on what’s new and what is old stock whose delivery was delayed. The fact that so much has been put on clearance says to me that they are trying to make room for new stock, but the fact that I can’t find those prints on the Robert Kaufman site—or anywhere else on the internet—makes me wonder if they are last season’s offerings. This is where the Fabric.com website would come in very handy, as they usually carried overstocks and leftovers. Is that line so new it hasn’t been listed yet? Or is this some kind of Hobby Lobby exclusive?

I have so many questions. I will be curious to see what is in the Spokane Hobby Lobby stores when Robin and I get there. We’re rather in a backwater here in Kalispell and our retail landscape doesn’t always track with what is happening elsewhere.

I always stop at Joanns on my way home from town, but it’s getting depressing to go in there anymore. I was perusing the remnant rack when I heard a lady behind me ask the employee at the cutting counter about their store hours. The employee answered that they were open from 11-5 every day.

I don’t know how a store stays viable when it’s only open six hours a day.

If I were the CEO of Joann Fabrics, I think I might be a bit nervous right now. I don’t think their business model is sustainable. They are pushing online shopping hard. Their sales schedule makes less and less sense. They offer coupons on regular-price items, but when you get to the store, everything is on sale and the coupons are worthless. (I once used a coupon on a chocolate bar because that was all it was good for.) The Kalispell store seems to survive mostly on sales of flannel and fleece, but even if they carried more apparel fabric, it’s all in muddy earth tones and ugly prints. I said to the husband that based on what I saw yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hobby Lobby and even Walmart put our Joanns out of business.

The Super 1 grocery store in downtown Kalispell, where I usually shop, has taken out two registers and replaced them with six self checkout registers. I know that people have strong opinions about self checkout. I use them at Walmart because they never have enough cashiers and I don’t want to stand in line. (Also, I am not fond of making small talk with people.) Target has four self checkouts and I wish they would add more, because the other 12 checkout lines are never open and the four self checkouts are always busy. I am less inclined to use the self checkouts at the grocery store because when I go—which is only every other week—I usually have a full cart.

*********************

Our internet (CenturyLink) was down for a few hours yesterday afternoon. A couple of places in town were having issues, too. I’m about ready to sign up for Starlink. CenturyLink has been having more frequent problems lately.

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to work on today. I redid the sleeve seams on that waterfall cardigan yesterday and the fit is better. I looked at my black one to see what the fronts look like. They are rounded off, so I’m going to round off the fronts on the blue one before I finish that edge. I’ve traced a couple of new patterns for sweater knits, including this one:

This is the Cocoon Cardigan by Patterns for Pirates. It looks to be a quick sew and another something to throw on over a T-shirt. And I want to try sewing my sweaters instead of knitting them.

A Waterfall Cardigan and the Sadie Top

I’m really sad that my black waterfall cardigan is falling apart. (The fabric is starting to disintegrate, not just the seams.) I’ve looked at how it’s put together and the construction is a bit more complicated than I feel I can copy, but I might revisit that idea. McCall’s 6084 resembles it most closely. I made one up yesterday in the blue mystery fabric from Walmart:

This definitely is a wearable muslin. The neckline is tricky, so it was good that I made those other two jackets first. The Little Somethin’ Jacket pattern suggests seaming the back neckline before sewing the shoulder seams rather than trying to sew them as one long seam, pivoting at the corners. I did the same thing with this jacket. I sewed the neckline and shoulder seams on the machine before finishing them on the serger. What isn’t obvious in the photo are the long darts at each front shoulder, which I also sewed on the machine.

My black cardigan fits me closely—which I like—so I found my size on this pattern but then went down a size. This still fits more loosely than I want. I prefer my shoulder/sleeve seams to sit on my shoulders, not drop off. I think I can fix that by re-serging those seams and taking them in a bit. That should help to pull up the sleeves, which are also too long and which I narrowed a bit. This fashion trend of big floppy sleeves only works for people who never do things with their hands, like cook or play the piano.

The front is also much longer than my black cardigan. On someone shorter than me, that would be a problem.

I need to decide how to finish the raw edge. My black cardigan’s edges aren’t finished at all—which is okay on a knit fabric that doesn’t ravel—but I’d like to neaten these up a bit. I think I will do a simple three-thread narrow edging on the serger in matching thread, either flat or a rolled hem. I can probably also shorten those front edges at the same time. The sleeves were hemmed on the coverstitch.

Three yards of fabric for $8 and I got a cardigan out of it.

************************

The second project I completed yesterday was the Sadie Top from Seamwork. I chose this pattern because it is similar to a Liz Claiborne tunic I bought last spring. Also, Seamwork patterns are drafted for 5’8” models, not 5’5” models like the Love Notions patterns. I was curious to see how they fit my 5’7” frame.

I’m happy with it. (Obviously, it had not been hemmed yet when I took this photo.) That oversized funnel neck can be pulled down to be more of a cowl, which is how I would wear it. I like the banded sleeves. The shoulders are just a smidge too wide, and I have fairly broad shoulders. I think I may have to start using smaller sizes at the shoulders on some of these patterns and grading out at the bust.

I’m not sure this was the best fabric choice for this top. I was going for something similar to the fabric in the Liz tunic, which is a textured horizontal rib knit. This is also a textured horizontal rib knit, from Joanns, but it doesn’t have quite the same drape. It behaves almost like a ponte. I think it would make a great jacket fabric and I’d be inclined to buy more if it came in colors other than muddy earth tones and sad pastels. (This is a creamy white and not my best color, but I could get away with it.) I like the overall pattern, though, and probably will make it again.

Or maybe I just need to suck it up and copy that Liz tunic and my black waterfall cardigan directly.

************************

Teri commented yesterday that if this were knitting, I’d likely be fielding comments from people admonishing me for using “cheap” yarn instead of expensive natural fibers. The knitting universe—and the quilting universe, for that matter—are full of fiber snobs. My criteria for whether or not to purchase fabric is “How does it feel?” I’ve gotten some awful fabric at quilt stores and some nice fabric at Walmart. That blue fabric in the waterfall cardigan feels no different than something I would find in RTW at a department store. I’m also not going to make a muslin out of $32 a yard fabric.

Nothing is as black and white as people would like to make it out to be.

************************

It got cold enough to snow here yesterday, and now all the mice are trying to get into the house. I was reading e-mail yesterday afternoon when a trap near the bookcase behind me went off. The chickens got a snack. The husband re-baited the trap and it has another victim this morning. That spot is near the front corner of the house, so they must be coming in somewhere over there. Pretty much the entire perimeter of the ground floor is booby-trapped, though. If the first trap doesn’t get them, another one will.

No More Naked Wall

The husband put up the brackets and rod for me yesterday morning so I could hang the quilt I made for the space above the stairs. Decorating this space was the entire reason I took up quilting—12 years ago.

Better late than never!

The color combo is weird, and not my palette at all, but I love it and it cozies up this space. I also adore that pattern. I’ll make it again some time into a quilt. I should also clean that fence off and stop using it as extra fabric storage, but it’s so handy.

Yay.

I made another jacket over the weekend:

This is Simplicity 8811, not the Little Somethin’ jacket, but the two are very similar. This is made out of the rayon fleece that Joanns brought in last fall. Our store has never had it in stock, but the store in Missoula carries it. I bought two yards in a grape color, then three more yards in black. This is one of those fabrics I think of as “cotton candy” fabric. It’s light and luscious and feels wonderful, but has zero durability. I knew that going in, and this jacket has a specific purpose because of that. When I travel, I like to have something to throw on over my PJs in the morning while I am drinking my coffee. (At home, I wear a long robe.) This will work.

The pattern is okay; I had a few problems that were rooted more in operator error than anything. The jacket comes in three lengths. I had intended to make the middle length. When I started to sew it together, though, I discovered that I had traced two different lengths—the back in the middle length but the fronts in the shortest length. I had to trim the back to match. The jacket is still plenty long. The pattern also includes two sleeve styles, which I did not realize. I traced the wide sleeve, not the narrow sleeve. I prefer closer-fitting sleeves. I could have narrowed these as I sewed them, but I left them and they are okay. I did shorten them, however, as they were hanging halfway down to my fingertips and I knew that would drive me nuts.

The photos and line art on the pattern cover are a bit deceiving and make the jacket look more tailored than it is. The finished garment has a slight flare to it that isn’t obvious on the models. The shoulders are dropped and slouchy. I reinforced the shoulder seams with 1/4” organza ribbon as I usually do, but I also used it when sewing the sleeves to the body because I was afraid they would continue to grow otherwise. The construction of that collar is identical to the Little Somethin’ Jacket. The fabric was very easy to work with on both the serger and the sewing machine, although I can tell just from working with it that the fleece side wants to pill.

The jacket is done and it will serve its intended purpose.

**************************

Over the weekend, I also put together a French terry pullover (Burda 6315) that has been sitting for way too long. The French terry is not of very good quality, but I can wear it to work outside if nothing else. I cut a Nancy Raglan (5 Out of 4 Patterns) in some spruce green Trainers French terry from Robert Kaufman, although I have to figure out how I want to do the collar on that one. The first two tops I made using that pattern had cowl necks, but I didn’t have enough of the Kaufman fabric for a full cowl. I either have to scale it back to a turtleneck or use a different fabric for the cowl. I am still thinking on that.

Today’s to-do list begins with that royal blue waterfall cardigan. I need to tackle that one while I am fresh and not likely to do something stupid. I may cut out a few more Burda 6315 tops and/or Nancy Raglans. I have plenty of fabric in the stash and those are easy to put together.

**************************

Winter has arrived, at least in the mountains:

Activity in the north Pacific is ramping up. Waves of moisture are rolling into Seattle and eventually (hopefully?) in our direction. I’m still hoping for a good, hard winter.

Cowl Class

I was unsure how the Easton Cowl class would go yesterday, but it exceeded all my expectations. I had four students—my friend Tera; one of the store employees; another woman who took Serger 101 a couple of weeks ago; and a fourth lady who had never been in any of my classes. I was so proud of that last student. She came in and said, “I never make anything for myself because it never fits.” I said, “We’re going to fix that,” and by the end of the class, she had a top that looked great on her.

We started with a discussion about measurements—”they are numbers, not judgments”—and how to determine what size to make. Each student tried on the top I had made so we could see how it fit. I talked about tracing and grading, design ease versus wearing ease, differences between fabrics, and other details. They measured each other and wrote down numbers. I had them trace their patterns and they started cutting them out.

Tera brought a Joanns remnant of DBP and managed to get a top out of a bare yard of fabric, although she had to make 3/4-length sleeves:

Barb made her top out of some of the Quilting Traditions DBP that the store is carrying.

I need to put pattern weights on the supply list—I forgot, and Diane had to get creative with her supplies.

Diane actually made her top entirely on her sewing machine. That was great, because even though sergers are great for knits, they aren’t essential. We need to do more to encourage people to take these classes even if they don’t have a serger.

This group of ladies worked steadily with only a short break for lunch, and by 3 o’clock, we were posing for a fashion shot:

Three of them stayed an extra hour so they could hem their tops. Barb and Tera got to use the coverstitch functions on their machines.

Diane said to me about halfway through the class that this was the first time she had taken a class where she wasn’t anxious and nervous about what she was doing. That made me feel good, because I want my classes to be a fun experience for every student.

We’ll probably do this class again. I am teaching the jacket class next month but that will be it for 2022. I need to sit down with the class coordinator and my calendar soon and schedule 2023 classes.

*************************

A cold front was blowing in yesterday morning as I was driving to class, making it a very blustery and rainy day. Our wood boiler is keeping the house nice and toasty. We also have plenty of hot water.

I’ve got a meeting at church this morning and then I’ll probably come back and sew. I want to knock out a few more tops before I switch over to quilts. I have also gotten far enough into that second serger project to see how it’s working out and what changes I want to make to it.

RIP Fabric.com

I was perusing Twitter early this morning when I came across the news that Amazon planned to close Fabric.com. Indeed, Fabric.com’s landing page now sports this notice:

I’m sad about this, obviously, because I did shop there, but what I’m going to miss most of all is that Fabric.com was a great place to do research. As I have pointed out to the husband—who loves online shopping—I can’t order online if I don’t know something even exists. The Fabric.com search engine was so powerful. It allowed me to drill down with specifics of brand, color, weight, fiber content, and many other features. Even if I eventually ordered elsewhere, beginning my search at Fabric.com helped me narrow down the options. Amazon did not port that same search engine over to its Amazon Fabric Shop, sadly.

**********************

I took a load of donations to the thrift store yesterday morning, picked up the thread I needed, then stopped at sewing to visit for an hour over lunch. Sarah is thrilled with how well her garden did this year and we talked about all the tomato varieties we want to plant next spring. Robin is back from her trip to Florida and we’ll be heading over to Spokane in a couple of weeks. Our first stop on that trip will be The Quilting Bee—I called and made an appointment to drop my machine off for service while we are there. They offer one-day service for out of town customers. We have a Janome dealer here but I will not take my machine there for service. Robin has the same machine I do and she took hers to Missoula for service. I’m in Spokane so much that it’s easy for me to have The Quilting Bee service mine.

UPS brought my shipment of Baptist Fan rulers from Amanda Murphy.

I am going to have to watch her videos on how to use these because they are a bit more involved than other rulers. I also picked up that triangle ruler when I got thread yesterday.

**********************

I hemmed all my tops yesterday afternoon when I got home from town. I’m rather proud of the fact that my coverstitch hems are darn near perfect, because coverstitch machines are notoriously difficult to master. Part of that is due to the transition of coverstitch machines from industrial use to domestic use—the early models did not work well—and part of that is operator error. The coverstitch support groups are full of tips and tricks for getting good hems, including pressing, using washable hem tape, hem guides, and other hacks, but people are still plagued by skipped stitches and broken threads. I’ve got my settings dialed in. Literally all I do is to fold up a 1” hem (which I eyeball) pin it in place, then run it through the machine. No hacks needed. My line of stitching is perfectly straight and covers the raw edge of the fabric. If I get a skipped stitch, it’s because I need to change my needles.

And I started that second serger project I cut out earlier in the week. It was getting late in the day, though, and I should know better than to sew when I’m tired. I used the wrong pattern piece at one point. That was easily fixed, but I set the project aside to work on tomorrow.

Today, I am teaching the Easton Cowl class. Tera is signed up to take it, so we’ll have a day of visiting and catching up.

A Craft Fairy Delivery

Whenever I have opined on the blog about not being able to find craft supplies, a package invariably shows up a few days later. I took up embroidery and not long after that, UPS delivered a box full of my mother’s DMC thread collection and books. (She used to do cross-stitch; some of those supplies have been passed on to DD#2.) Another time, I got a shipment of elastic and fabric. This past weekend, a box came bearing these:

I believe I am set for ribbon now. Thank you, mom. At least your craft room is getting cleaned out.

Tuesday was errand day, so I didn’t get much sewing done. I did put together the last Lark Tee before I left for town. I dropped the jacket off at the quilt store, went to Costco, and picked up a three-yard length of royal blue double-brushed poly from the Mystery Fabric rack at Walmart. That’s going to be the muslin fabric for a waterfall jacket (McCalls 6084). If the muslin turns out well, I’ll have a royal blue waterfall jacket. The style is similar to that A Little Somethin’ Jacket I made on Monday, but out of a knit and much closer fitting. I have a black one that is just about worn out and also needs to be remade.

[As I was getting dressed for church on Sunday, I thought to myself how nice it is to have a closet full of clothing that coordinates, in colors that I like to wear.]

After lunch, I cut the fabric for a couple more serger class samples, but I need thread before I can start putting those together. I’ll pick up some of the thread on my next trip to town. I put in a big order with Wonderfil for the rest. One of the class samples is another version of that half apron I made last week. Now that I have ribbon, I’m going to experiment with adding ribbon to the flatlock seams. The second project may end up being a class next spring, but I need to find out if it works, first, and that means making up the pattern.

***********************

We had a very productive day here yesterday at Chez Schuster-Szabo. I did a deep clean of the foyer and my office and ran the air scrubber most of the day. I need to do the kitchen (again) and the laundry room and then I’ll start working on the upstairs. That air scrubber definitely has cut down the amount of dust circulating in the house.

While I was working inside, the husband and his crew were working outside. They had a day off between jobs (very unusual) so he had the guys working here. Two of them split and stacked wood and the other two helped the husband replace the plastic on the greenhouse:

The original plastic lasted 10 years. The new plastic is reinforced, and the husband also ordered some shade cloth to keep it a bit cooler in there in mid-summer. He got a smaller piece of shade cloth for the chicken yard, too. We’re getting everything battened down because a cold front is coming through on Friday and snow is in the forecast for the whole week after that. Nothing like falling off a cliff into winter.

***********************

The husband has a business credit card that gets Amazon reward points. The reward points are mine to spend as part of my “salary” for being the construction company bookkeeper. We had a hefty balance, so I ordered myself a nice Arrow cabinet for my Bernina serger with a custom insert to make the machine sit flush with the table. I prefer flatbed machines and all of mine are set up that way.

I’ve got a pile of stuff to take to the thrift store on my next trip to town. I’m also going to check and see if any of the stores will take fabric scraps for recycling. I’ve sorted out what I can either pass on, use in my classes, or turn into scrap quilts, but I still have quite a bit left, especially garment fabrics. I hate to send them to the landfill if they can be recycled. One store does package up bales of clothing that isn’t saleable, so I’ll start with them. (Yes, I know, I could make dog beds to donate to the animal shelter, but there are only so many hours in the day.)

A Jacket and Three Tops

I was on fire yesterday. I knocked out a jacket and three tops and have a fourth top cut out but not assembled. I love productive days like that. Let’s review:

This is the A Little Somethin’ Jacket from CNT Patterns:

The fabric is a rayon batik from Robert Kaufman, purchased in Missoula. This went together in two hours. I made the tunic-length jacket with long sleeves, but it’s still a couple of inches too short for me—when I have it on, I can tell that the proportions are wrong. I knew that was likely, but this is a class sample and I wanted it off my to-do list, so I didn’t take the time to lengthen it.

Other sewists who reviewed this pattern noted a few issues. It is drafted generously, so I went down a size and was glad I did. The sleeves are inserted flat, which I’m used to doing with knits but not wovens. One reviewer thought the sleeve caps needed to be redrafted. I agree with her. The sleeve cap is too shallow for the armscye. In a knit, that wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but this rayon batik did not stretch. Normally, I would have set in the sleeves on the serger, but I ended up sewing them on the machine with the sleeve side down so the feed dogs could ease in the extra material. That worked nicely. I finished the seam on the serger.

[And of course, after I finished this, I happened upon a serger technique video for adjusting the differential feed to ease and serge a sleeve into an armscye. I’ll put that in the arsenal of techniques to try next time, although it is one of those serger methods that you really only get one opportunity to get right.]

Again, this pattern was written for assembling on the sewing machine, so I had to think about what parts I wanted to do that way and what parts I wanted to do on the serger. The seams have to be finished in some manner because rayon batik will fray if you look at it sideways. I reinforced the corners of the neck with some squares of interfacing, which was a good decision as they would be a weak point otherwise after clipping into them. I also used stay tape on the shoulder seams. As a result, the inside does not look as couture as I would have liked, but at least I know this won’t fall apart in the wash.

The front has a self-facing. I finished the bottom edge on the serger before folding it up and hemming on the sewing machine. All the exposed seams are finished or sewn on the serger.

I think this will make a good class. If I have time, I might lengthen the pattern and make this up again in some cotton interlock.

Task #2 was to make a second Easton Cowl out of a rayon jersey from the stash. That one was another quick sew. I was done by noon:

I think this top will get a lot of wear. It could be worn either with jeans or dress pants—or those Renee ponte pants that I reach for over and over because they are so comfortable. This still has to be hemmed, but it’s the beginning of a stack of tops that I will hem later in the week in a marathon coverstitch session.

I took a break for lunch, then got out the Lark Tee pattern from Grainline Studio and cut two of those from the double-brushed poly prints I got at the quilt store last week. After wearing the one Lark Tee that I had made a few months ago, I decided that I like that pattern even more than the top I drafted for myself, so I am just going to use it for my basic T-shirts. I discovered, as I was serging the first one together, that I had cut the 3/4-length sleeves for both tops instead of the long sleeves. I was momentarily annoyed until I looked down and realized I was wearing one of my favorite Liz Claiborne tops with 3/4-length sleeves, which is why it is one of my favorite tops.

Some days I just need to get out of my own way.

Those two Lark Tees are finished and in the queue to be hemmed. I have a third one—with long sleeves—cut out and waiting to be assembled. I might try to get that one done this morning before running errands.

I haven’t quite decided what is next. Getting the jacket and the second Easton cowl made up were the most urgent clothing projects and now they’re done. I should get back to quilting and make a dent in that pile of projects. I also need to continue my deep house cleaning and make tomato sauce and salsa.

Heat and Hot Water

The husband spent the weekend finishing the wood boiler project. I know better than to interrupt him when he is in focused work mode. Just before dinner, I spotted this:

The wood boiler is now operational. We can use this to heat the house and keep the propane as a backup heat source. The wood boiler is also hooked up to the hot water heater to provide virtually unlimited hot water. (DD#2 will be happy to hear that.) The system looks like this:

The husband explained it to me, but I didn’t make an in-depth study of how this works. The wood boiler comes with an app and is hooked up to our wifi. He has been keeping tabs on the temperature from his phone. The house did get pretty toasty last night, although anything above 70 degrees is too warm for me.

On to the next project.

*************************

While the husband was working on the wood boiler, I cut out fabric for this:

This is the A Little Somethin’ Jacket by CNT Patterns. We’re going to try this as a class next month. The class coordinator at the quilt store south of town suggested it. She made one years ago and liked it well enough that she wants to try making the jacket again in flannel. I pulled a rayon batik out of my stash—it’s the wrong season for a light jacket, but I know the store has rayon batiks in stock and I try to make class samples in fabrics they carry. If I like this, I might make a version out of some heavier rayon knit (sweatshirt weight). Theoretically, this could even be made from a ponte knit.

The pattern consists of three pieces. The front is self-faced. This shouldn’t take long to make up. I’m doing the tunic version with long sleeves, although I suspect it may still be short on me. We’ll see.

I’m also going to make another Liesel + Co Easton Cowl. That’s the class I am teaching on Friday. Tera texted me yesterday to let me know she’s planning to take it. I made that top way back in May or June and I want to familiarize myself with the pattern again. I’m doing the long-sleeve version this time.

I’ve got a few other patterns stacked and ready to cut out once I get these two done.

*************************

The mother of one of my high school friends sent me this by way of my mother. They’ve been in Women’s Club together for decades and Laura reads the blog, so she knows how I feel:

I showed it to the husband and it made him laugh, too. Thank you, Laura! I have this hanging over my desk now.

We Made Pillowcases

Some day I might learn to quit paving the road to hell with my good intentions. Or not.

I had the brilliant idea of scheduling a sewing class at the Community Center. This is one of those chicken-and-egg situations that involves throwing a bunch of stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks, metaphorically speaking. Until we offer classes, we can’t generate interest in the classes, and until there is interest in the classes, we don’t know what classes people want to take. Also, I needed to test out the reservation plug-in on the website. That part, at least, worked well, as every student reserved a spot and paid through the website.

Two ladies signed up for the morning session. I had interest from a mom with two girls, as well, but they had a conflict in the morning so I said I would do an afternoon session for them. I took all my stuff up to the Community Center yesterday morning; Susan’s husband, Jim, came over and helped me unload the car. Susan and Jim live right across the road.

Class was supposed to start at 9 am. At 9 am, I had no students.

9:05: No students.

9:10: Still no students.

9:15: I texted Susan and told her I was waiting until 9:20, then going home.

9:20: I got back in my car and headed for home. I live about five minutes away. As I was pulling into my driveway, Susan texted me and said she thought the students had shown up. I turned around and went back to the Community Center. When I arrived, two ladies cheerfully got out of the vehicle and said they were late because they “had to stop for coffee.”

I put on my polite face and invited them inside and we had a class on making pillowcases.

[I could have been snide about the fact that they were half an hour late, but I am representing the homestead foundation and trying to generate interest in our organization. Also, just because they had been inconsiderate didn’t mean that I needed to be rude in return.]

One lady had some quilting and sewing experience, but the other lady was a rank beginner. The lady who had never sewn before was delighted that she actually made something. I took a picture of her finished pillowcase:

That was the only picture I got. It’s hard to remember to take photos when one is in the middle of teaching.

I took a break for lunch, then went back for the afternoon class. This was a mom and her 10 year-old daughter and the daughter’s friend. We had a great time. The daughter’s friend is a sharp little cookie who has a bright future as a sewing designer, LOL. She would have made pillowcases all night if we had let her. Unfortunately, I had only brought enough fabric with me for each of them to make one. Mom also asked if I would teach beginning knitting classes as she wants to learn.

I probably will offer some classes again, but not until after Christmas. The class fee generated some income for the homestead foundation and every little bit helps.

************************

I’m looking at a stretch of open days on my schedule and contemplating what I want to work on next. After dinner last night, I got out the Squash Squad wool embroidery pattern and prepped the first block:

This was a Sue Spargo stitchalong on Instagram two years ago. I tried to follow along, but there were all sorts of problems with Instagram. (I am no fan of Instagram.) I couldn’t find the posts with the instructions, Instagram TV didn’t work properly, etc. I gave up in frustration. When the printed pattern became available, I bought it. This second attempt is proceeding much more smoothly. I will have plenty to work on in the evenings this winter. I just love all those bright bits of wool.

I think tomorrow is going to be a marathon cutting session for clothing patterns. The fabric does me no good until it is sewn into something. In the meantime, I’ve been making up serger technique samples here and there and adding them to my class materials.

The husband spent all day yesterday getting the guts of the wood boiler system hooked up in the basement. I think he’s getting close to the end of this part of the project and we should be able to fire it up soon.

Rescue Machines

I taught a Bernina serger mastery class on Wednesday at the quilt store south of town. The class is open to anyone who has a newish Bernina serger; it’s free to customers who purchased their machines at that store. The store offers similar mastery classes for people who have purchased sewing or embroidery machines.

I had two students. One had a Bernette air-threading model and the other had the L890, which is the serger like mine but with coverstitch capabilities. The class ran from 10-3, and that gave me ample time to cram as much information about their machines into their heads as I could. This was my first time teaching the class. I was not sure how best to structure it, but I was happy with how it went. The first hour consisted of most of my Serger 101 class material—threads, needles, basic serger operation, etc. (These were upgrade machines for both students.) After that, I took them through the stitches, starting with a four-thread stitch, then the three-thread stitches, the two-thread flatlock, and ending with the gathering foot and piping foot before we ran out of time.

I’ll do that class again in January.

I have four students signed up for tomorrow’s beginning sewing class at the Community Center, so I spent yesterday morning getting machines in order. I’ve picked up a couple of Janome entry-level machines at thrift stores on my travels. Even their lower-end models have all-metal guts. One of the machines went to live in Alaska for me to use when I visit the kids. The other is a Janome Jem, which is a sought-after model for taking to quilt classes. And in August, Sunnie found a Janome One-Step at the thrift store in Bigfork and brought it to me.

That poor little machine—judging by the stickers on it, it had been thrifted and re-thrifted several times, and I suspect that’s because someone got into it and mucked it up. The needle was stuck in the left-hand position. The plastic housing obviously had been opened at some point and hadn’t been put back together correctly. I cleaned and oiled the machine, put all the settings back where they were supposed to be, closed the plastic housing properly, then tested the stitching. It sews beautifully! Thank you, Sunnie! We will use it in class.

My friend Susan’s daughter dropped off a Singer 401 over the summer and asked me to check it out. There was an issue with the bobbin case. (She was not in a hurry to use it but I know she’s visiting this weekend and I want to get it back to her.) While I had all my tools out, I went over that machine, too, and fixed the problem.

I need to make time to tinker with machines this winter. Getting them up and running is so satisfying.

*************************

I’ve found myself doing a lot of publicity work for both the homestead foundation and now for our church’s gift festival in November, and it’s a perfect example of how progress is not always positive. Publicity used to involve printing and mailing press releases to local newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations. Now, everything is done online, except that to submit a press release, you have to fill out an online form and—in many cases—create an account. All of that takes so much time. I spent 10 minutes yesterday morning creating and verifying an account in order to add information to a local TV station’s online calendar. When I was all done, I hit “submit,” and got this message:

Your event appears to be spam and will not be accepted!

The message came with no way to appeal that decision. I scoured the website looking for a contact e-mail without success. I’ll try again today, but I am not going to waste time on it.

I’ve also been frustrated by one of the local Facebook groups. We have two: one for Bigfork and one for Kalispell. The Bigfork one is so easy—I create an “event” for what I want to publicize and it goes right through. I’ve done the same thing for the Kalispell group but getting it past the admins is next to impossible. Sometimes (rarely) the event gets approved and sometimes it doesn’t, and I can’t figure out why. I’ve e-mailed to ask for clarification and gotten crickets in response. Sigh.

*************************

After tomorrow, I have nothing on the calendar until next Friday, and nothing on the calendar the week after that. I plan to keep it that way. I’ve got to get my canning projects done and I plan to sew. I have so many ideas clamoring to get out of my head. It occurred to me the other day that I haven’t even begun to explore the possibilities of my coverstitch machine. I’ve only used it for hemming, and it has decorative stitch capabilities just like sergers do (top coverstitch and chain stitches). Much to do.

Health and Beauty Day

I went to the dentist yesterday morning for my twice-yearly cleaning. The hygienist pronounced my gums “very healthy” and the dentist said my teeth were “beautiful.” Apparently, the dentist my mother took us to as children did an exceptionally good job with the fillings I do have and the dentist said she doubts I will have problems with them. I had very little plaque and I was in and out of there within 45 minutes.

This is the toothpaste we use:

I can hardly stand to brush with Colgate or Crest anymore—it’s like brushing with soap. As long as this keeps working so well, we will continue to use it.

I ran a few errands between the dentist appointment and my afternoon haircut appointment. I dropped off the aprons at the quilt store north of town so they could display them for an upcoming class (not scheduled yet, but probably in January), and picked up two additional yards to make another apron for myself. I went to Walmart, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels in search of 1/4” ribbon for my serger experiments. This is the wrong time to be shopping for it. Apparently, it’s all been bought by other crafters using it for Christmas projects.

Our Walmart has a new display that I have started referring to as “mystery fabric.” It’s full of 2-, 3-, and 4-yard rolls of fabric with very little fiber content information. At most, the label might say “100% polyester,” but often it says, “Fiber Content Unknown” or something similar. I’ve taken to perusing that display periodically. Yesterday, I happened upon a three-yard bundle of some navy blue knit that I am 99.9% sure is rayon spandex. I bought it because it was only $8 and I can always use it for muslins, if nothing else, although the fabric is not bad. I’m wondering if Walmart some other entity is buying up mill ends and packaging them for sale.

I stopped in at the quilt store south of town—which was insanely busy—to check on the enrollment for my serger mastery class today. I came out of there with some flannel and two cuts of double-brushed polyester knit from Quilting Treasures. I was in the store the day the QT sales rep was there and I knew the fabric was on order. It arrived this week. QT’s line of DBP is some of the nicest I’ve seen, with gorgeous prints in saturated colors. I got this one:

And this one:

Both likely will end up as fall T-shirts. If I had had time yesterday, I would have whipped one up to wear to class today.

I think it’s rather a shame that some of these gorgeous fabrics don’t make it to quilt stores. I’ve concluded that people with winter coloring are a definite minority; most store owners seem to gravitate toward muddy earth tones because those are the colors they personally prefer. (The other two prints that came in were just as lovely, but they weren’t colors I could wear.)

The last place I stopped was Joann Fabrics, of course, so I could check the remnant rack there. I ran into a friend of mine and chatted with her for a bit.

Tomorrow and Friday will be devoted to getting ready for my sewing class on Saturday. I am waiting to work on canning projects because the husband has the basement torn up while he installs the guts of the wood boiler system down there. As soon as he’s done, though, I’ll get to work on canning up tomatoes, dry beans, and BBQ sauce.

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.

*****************************

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?)

*****************************

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.

*****************************

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.

*****************************

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.

***********************

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.

*************************

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.

*****************************

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.

*****************************

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.

*************************

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.

*************************

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.