More Upheaval in the Sewing World

Two pieces of news caught my eye yesterday. The first is that Michaels, the craft chain, purchased some of Joann’s intellectual property:

Joann’s future a mystery as Michaels snaps up IP, private labels

The article states:

The spokesperson declined to disclose the purchase price and didn’t address questions about how it might use Joann’s logo or other trademarks, except to say it will be developing Joann private brands Big Twist Value Plus, Big Twist Twinkle, Big Twist Posh and Big Twist Baby Bear.

This article on the Craft Industry Alliance website has some additional information. I have no idea if any of this is related to the teaser that has been posted on Joann’s website.

The second piece of news is a bit more troubling, although not entirely a surprise:

Parent Company of the Big 4 Sewing Pattern Brands Sold to a Liquidator

From the article:

The brands were owned by IG Design Group, a leading manufacturer and distributor of stationery, crafts, party, and gift products based in the UK. On Friday, the company announced it had sold its US division, IG Design Group Americas (DGA), which owns the sewing pattern brands, to Hilco Capital, a liquidation firm. DGA also owns other craft brands, including Boye needles, Wrights trim, and Perler fusible beads, among others. Hilco has also been involved with liquidating Joann’s assets after it filed for bankruptcy in January.

IG Design Group cited the impact of tariffs imposed by the US as a factor. Over 50% of DGA’s products are manufactured in China, although the sewing patterns are made in the US. The company also mentioned a softening market over the last several years, as well as the bankruptcy of Joann, as factors in the sale.

I say it’s not a surprise because the Big 4/Big 7 (add in New Look, KnowMe, and Burda) have faced a lot of pressure from indie designers in the past several years. Indie designers have been much more inclusive in their sizing and offered options like copyshop and projector versions of their patterns. The Big4/Big 7 only began offering PDF options in the last year or so for patterns purchased from their website.

Several YouTube content creators have complained recently that the new-season pattern releases are rehashes of existing patterns.

Some of you may also remember that the McCall’s tissue-printing facility in Manhattan Kansas, was down for a few months in the fall of 2020. This is the only tissue-printing facility in the United States. It is owned by IG Design Group and (presumably) part of the liquidation. A few indie designers may be impacted by this as they contracted with this facility to print their patterns.

I’ve had a number of people say to me that, “No one sews anymore,” although I find that comment difficult to reconcile with the billion-dollar quilting industry. I might be willing to admit that fewer people sew their own garments anymore. There seem to be enough garment sewists to keep indie designers in business, however.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the market adjusts to these changes. I don’t know, either, how this will affect Burda, KnowMe, and New Look patterns, as it’s unclear to me whether they are part of the sale.

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I planted squash and tomatoes yesterday morning.

The pigs and the garter snake kept me company. I asked the snake if it has relatives, but it declined to comment.

I only planted 29 tomato plants this year. (“Only,” LOL). I went heavy on the paste tomatoes because we’re almost out of sauce.

After some consideration, I think I’m only going to start tomatoes for me next spring and concentrate on starting more squash and cucumbers. Sarah does a stellar job with tomatoes for the plant sale but we always run out of cucurbits. I’ll also start more flowers and herbs, because those sell well, too.

The poppies are spectacular:

After planting, I drove to town to buy a stove for the rental house. The salesman who helped me with the washer and dryer purchase on Wednesday gave me the sale price on the stove even though the sale ended on Tuesday. Everything will be delivered on the same day, and for $10, they will haul away the old stove. We buy all our appliances at Fred’s Appliance, which is a northwest chain, because we’ve had such great service from them.

More Than One Kind of Drought

I have no sewing to show you. The only sewing I’ve done this week has been to hem a shower curtain for our rental house. Our tenants moved out as of June 1 and I am working on getting things set up over there for family. Yesterday, I went shopping for a washer and dryer. Last night, I found out that the stove hasn’t been working. We decided to replace it as I am sure it is over 20 years old and the husband doesn’t have time to figure out what is wrong with it. If I order a new one today, I think the appliance store will be able to deliver all three appliances on the same day.

The husband and I both are on our respective hamster wheels at the moment. Things flow more smoothly when only one of us is on a hamster wheel at a time, but it is what it is. My schedule, at least, should loosen up a bit next week.

I met my friend Tera for coffee yesterday morning. She and her husband are leaving next week on a three-year mission trip. I wanted to see her and say good-bye. This is an exciting opportunity for them, but I will miss my sewing partner in crime.

Planting is on the schedule for this morning. I doubt we will have any more frosts, and the plants need to get into the ground. The greenhouse is very empty. The husband and the crew will put the shade cloth back on it for the summer. The grass in the garden needs to be cut again, too, but that may have to wait until next week.

I’m tackling what is most urgent right now. This is why I am not a fan of summers in Montana. 🫤 This is the time of year when everything is urgent.

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Tim Holtz has released his newest Palette collection. I am waiting for notification from Fat Quarter Shop that it is in stock so I can order some. I love this one:

I think it might be my favorite so far and I haven’t even seen it in person yet.

I miss my sewing machines.

Rising From the Ashes?

I am fascinated by how the demise of Joanns is reshaping the sewing and craft industry. I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday and noticed that their McCall’s patterns were $2.99 (previously $4.99). The Simplicity website is also running 75% off sales on patterns. I don’t think the market will bear $15-30 for a Big 7 pattern, not after Joanns discounted them to $1.99 each (or $5.99 for Vogue) on a regular basis, and not when many high-quality indie patterns are available in the $10-12 range.

As for Joann Fabrics, this is on their website:

It states, “We’re stitching something new behind the scenes and we can’t wait to share what’s next.”

If “what’s next” is an online-only store, I think that’s going to miss the mark. The June issue of Craft Industry Insider arrived in my e-mail box yesterday morning. This is a publication of Craft Industry Alliance and is a great way to keep up on current events in the sewing and crafting industry. The lead article noted that an industry research paper presented at the recent h+h Americas trade show in Chicago found that customers are showing a marked preference for shopping in person at brick-and-mortar stores as opposed to shopping online.

Dispatches From the Desk of the Obvious, indeed. Some things, like fabric, are best shopped for in person. Joanns corporate—in whatever form is still exists—is going to have to learn to listen to what customers want if it wants to be successful.

And, of course, this is a great opportunity for independent fabric stores to seize some of the market share if they are willing to make the effort.

Speaking of McCall’s patterns, I snagged this one at Hobby Lobby yesterday.

I found myself reaching for my half-zip and quarter-zip tops a lot last winter.

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I haven’t gotten plants into the ground yet, mostly due to lack of time and waiting for my foot to heal a bit more, but that turned out to be a good thing. The temp this morning, as I write this, is 30F. It has been hard to plan my week because the forecast changes every time I look at it. Tomorrow may be a good day to plant. After that, it is supposed to warm up again.

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Still no word from QuickBooks, and my mother e-mailed me yesterday that she was having issues. She was trying to do an update to her payroll module and the system crashed. The support rep told her the system crashed due to all the new subscribers.

This is my skeptical face. 🧐

QuickBooks is quickly becoming something that needs to be burned down and rebuilt. (Rather like Joann Fabrics, actually.)

On to the Next Thing

We had a successful plant sale on Saturday. I am happy with the results. Mostly, I am happy it’s over, although I don’t get to rest quite yet. June is a full month with a lot of church-related events on the schedule, beginning with a meeting yesterday afternoon. I should have a bit more time now to work on the quilted BU jacket, though, once I get the garden planted. Planting is on the schedule for this week.

My eye feels much better and the foot is healing. I need to make another batch of comfrey salve.

Still nothing from QuickBooks. I have to do payroll again this week so I hope they resolve the issue soon.

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A forest fire broke out Saturday afternoon on the route I take to get to I-90 when I am heading west. Within a few hours, it had grown to 200 acres and officials temporarily closed that road. That is unusual fire behavior for the end of May/beginning of June, although that area of Montana is much drier than normal. It’s still a good reminder to be careful about fires this summer.

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The Long Thread Podcast has a wonderful interview episode with Tom Knisely. I listened to it on the way down to Missoula last week. I know Tom because he used to be the weaving instructor at The Mannings, which was located in East Berlin, PA. When the husband and I lived in Pennsylvania (32 years ago), we were only about 40 minutes from East Berlin. I used to visit The Mannings frequently and taught a knitting class there just before they closed. I enjoyed hearing him talk about how he learned to spin and weave and his 37-year career at The Mannings.

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Once I get the BU jacket done and the Place for Everything Tote finished, I’d like to make the Kandou Patterns Retro Sling Bag:

I want to sew some projects on the 1541 and this looks like a fun and challenging make. The 1541 is in the (cool) garage and it’s nice to work in there when it’s too hot to be outside.

Walking Wounded

I have had a bit of a rough week. On Wednesday afternoon, I felt like I had something in my right eye. I liberally doused my eye with Systane drops (for dry eyes) and it improved a bit, but I still had discomfort in that eye when I woke up yesterday morning. The doctor’s office was able to get me in an hour after I called. I have a scratched cornea. I got a prescription for some antibiotic drops and the doctor said my eye should heal up within a few days.

Last evening, Susan and I were setting up the library building to receive plants—putting tarps on the floor and moving tables—when I managed to drop the corner of a table onto my foot, just below my pinky toe. It hurt. A lot. Susan got me a bag of ice right away and I put my foot up. The husband had the brilliant idea to put comfrey salve on it and my foot feels much better this morning. I can walk mostly without limping and the swelling has gone down. I don’t think anything is broken because I can move my toes without pain.

[I make my own comfrey salve by chopping up the leaves and cooking them with coconut oil in the crockpot, on low heat, for eight hours. The stuff is amazing.]

I will be glad when this plant sale is over. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything that is going on right now.

I brought some lettuce in for salad yesterday and this little guy walked off one of the leaves:

It’s a baby praying mantis. I know I have mantises out in the big garden but it’s nice to get confirmation that they are reproducing. I put this one out in the herb garden.

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Someone asked a question in the Flathead 411 group on Facebook yesterday about where to get fabric now that Joanns has closed. The ensuing conversation bolstered my suspicion that this is an opportunity for our quilt store to attract new customers. A lot of people pointed out that we have three quilt stores in town. However, some of the commenters said they were looking for apparel fabric. I chimed in to let everyone know that the quilt store where I teach carries apparel fabric and also offers garment classes. And we’re going to offer a beginning sewing class in July. The response to that information made it clear to me that people weren’t thinking about a quilt store for apparel fabric and garment classes.

This is part of what makes me nuts about the “No one is sewing anymore” argument. I think people are sewing and want to sew. Just because something isn’t blatantly obvious doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. And this is at least one reason why Joanns went out of business. If you don’t pay attention to your customer base—and work on increasing your customer base—you won’t succeed as a business. I am so happy to work with a store that understands this and is willing to take steps to make it happen.

Maybe we can get back to the point where independent fabric stores carry a variety of fabrics and notions—not just quilting cottons—and are willing to train up the next generation of sewists. And some of this is going to require making an effort to let sewists know that quilt stores aren’t just for quilting.

Here endeth that sermon. I have others, don’t worry. 😉

Puzzle Pieces

It was too hot to work in the greenhouse yesterday afternoon so I came inside and sewed for a bit. The back and one of the fronts of the jacket are assembled and ready to quilt. I’ll work on the second front and the sleeves next:

These are two-part sleeves with an elbow dart in one of the pieces, so they likely will have more background fabric and fewer (and smaller) stars. I am beginning to love how the jacket is coming together and it feels like I am on the downhill side of this project. Yay.

I think I have gotten quilted jackets out of my system for a while. Once this jacket is finished, I need to make a few more warm-weather tops.

Sarah came over for a bit last evening and we worked on organizing plants for the sale. I pulled the ones I started for my garden and set them aside. It’s supposed to cool off to the low 70s on Sunday—the forecast high for the day of the plant sale is 87F, ugh—so I think I’ll wait until Sunday or Monday to start planting.

I did plant some flowers and herbs in the herb garden yesterday morning.

What do you see in this picture?

There is a spot in the garden at the edge of the black plastic where the snakes like to hang out. The plastic covers a pile of rotting stumps and the husband thinks that serves as a snake condominium. I saw this snake out there yesterday morning. It was not small. The snakes usually disappear under the plastic as soon as they see me. I think this one was sleeping because I was able to get a decent photo.

My apologies to those of you who do not share my love of reptiles, but I’d rather have snakes in the garden than have to deal with potato beetles or tomato hornworms on my plants. I think snakes in the garden are the sign of a healthy ecosystem.

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The Sew Expo organizers sent out an e-mail yesterday reminding teachers that our Sew Expo proposals have to be submitted by August 1. I haven’t even thought about what I might teach next year. I’d like to teach my thread class again and maybe add one or two additional sewing classes. I just think it’s getting harder (and more expensive) to get people to take classes in person when they can take them online. But online classes don’t offer the best teaching setting for everything.

I’ll have to set aside a day in the next couple of weeks to work on class proposals for Sew Expo and for the quilt stores.

The Nope Ropes are Here

It must be summer. The snakes have arrived:

This one was stretched out on the path over to the garden, sunning itself. This is the skinniest garter snake I’ve ever seen. Once it bulks up, it’s going to be a respectable specimen—it was a good two feet long—but I mistook it for a stick and almost stepped over it. I said hello and walked around it instead.

[I have a friend who calls snakes “nope ropes” and another who refers to them as “dragon noodles.” I’m just happy they are in my garden and eat bugs.]

All the forest animals.

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I am trying something I saw on Pinterest. My plant labels always fade and become illegible by the end of the summer—no matter what I use to write on them—and I need to know which tomatoes are which in case I want to save seed. The Pinterest poster suggested buying old butter knives at thrift stores and labeling them with a label maker. I stopped in at one of the thrift stores in town yesterday and picked up a dozen knives for $0.22 apiece.

We shall find out if this works. I may need more if I can’t control myself and end up with 40 tomato plants again this year, but this is a good start.

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I have assembled most of the back of the BU jacket. The process involved a bit of trial and error, but putting together the other pattern pieces should be easier now that I (think I) know what I’m doing. This was the hardest part. Quilting won’t take long, and sewing the jacket shouldn’t take long, either. Stay tuned.

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I spent another 30 minutes on the phone with QB support yesterday morning. Apparently, the programmers thought they fixed the problem, so they sent out an e-mail to all the affected customers only to find out that some users were still having issues. I did get QB to refund the first month’s subscription fee, though, so that was a win.

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And finally:

Joann Fabrics was always my last stop on the way out of town. No more.

The Grass Grows

We are in the thick of grass-cutting season. This will last until about July, after which it gets hot and the grass goes dormant. I had to cut the grass in the garden again yesterday. If I don’t keep it trimmed out there, I find it too hard to work—rather like having to have a clean kitchen in order to cook.

The strawberries are coming on beautifully. However, I spotted a turkey on a reconnaissance mission in the garden yesterday afternoon. That may become an issue. I am not interested in sharing the bounty with the neighborhood wildlife, and the turkeys seem to be particularly fond of berries.

I started running my hose lines, too, although the final layout will depend on where I put plants. Everything is on schedule. The plant sale is this Saturday and I will be glad to have that over and done with.

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I made more flying geese for the BU jacket:

The first batch of flying geese went into making the Sawtooth Stars. This second batch will be used as fillers for smaller areas. They range in size from 1-1/2" wide to 3" wide. I may not have time to work on the jacket again until after the plant sale, but I’m trying to do a little bit every day. Slow and steady wins the race.

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QuickBooks sent me an e-mail this morning claiming to have fixed the problem I was having with payroll. I tried it again and got the same error message, so I’ll have to call them AGAIN and let them know they missed the mark. If this continues much longer, I am going to demand a refund of my first month’s payment for the payroll module. At the moment, it’s useless to me.

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I’m trying not to rush time, but I already find myself looking forward to the fall. I think I just don’t like the frantic pace of summer here in Montana. The season is so short that everything has to be crammed into a couple of months. I like cooler weather, too. And I get to spend more time with the husband during the winter. Our 35th wedding anniversary was yesterday. We’ll go on date night soon to celebrate.

Who knew it would be such an adventure?

Interesting Things in the Garden

We worked outside yesterday. I mulched the potatoes with hemp from the bale we got last season. I also weeded the peas and lettuce and dug up the collards, which had promptly gone to seed after surviving the winter. Sometimes biennial plants do that. Makes you wonder why they just don’t go to seed the first year. 🤔 The leaves were too bitter to use. I’ll replant that row.

After the garden work was done, I mowed the yard again. I did the first pass with the riding mower, then finished up with the push mower. The husband spent most of the day wielding the string trimmer. He doesn’t need to trim every time I mow, but it’s got to be done at least a couple of times a season. I have a little Dewalt battery trimmer that I use in the garden. He has a much larger gas-powered trimmer.

[I have my own set of “Mama Bear” tools because everything he buys is built for him.]

The hemp bale had mushrooms growing out of it:

The layers of these round bales peel off in one piece, so I peeled off this layer and put it down between the rows of potatoes. I didn’t have to touch anything.

I also spotted this ladybeetle on the gooseberry bush, although it’s hard for me to get close-up photos with my phone:

Ladybeetles are different from ladybugs and have a bad reputation as an invasive species. They are aggressive and will crowd out native ladybugs. They also bite, but I don’t make a practice of picking them up. All I know is that if I see these, I won’t see aphids.

It felt good to be out in the sun, moving around. No garter snakes yet.

After lunch, I got out the pieces for the BU jacket and started putting that together. This is the hardest part of the process. I have stacks of variously-sized Sawtooth Star blocks. The blocks have to be assembled into large pieces of fabric which can be quilted and from which I can cut the jacket pieces. I started with the back. Of course, I didn’t just make two sizes of blocks that sew nicely together, like 6" and 12"—no, I made blocks of several different sizes. I solved that problem by sewing strips of background fabric to some of the blocks to make them larger. I also don’t want to cut off any parts of the blocks when I cut the pattern pieces, so in addition to the “sashing,” there will be a border around the outside edges.

This is as improv as I get. I don’t enjoy flying by the seat of my pants and I’ve already gone way off script with this project. It will be what it will be, but I am motivated to get it done because it’s holding up the rest of the sewing queue. And June is going to be an insanely busy month. I get back from BU late on June 30th. My friends from Tennessee arrive that day to spend three weeks in the Flathead and I plan to do nothing but goof around with them while they are here. That will be my reward for having gotten through April, May, and June.

I have church this morning. By the time I get home, eat lunch, and call my mother, it will be too late (and hot) to start any garden work, so I’ll probably work on the jacket or edit this week’s podcast episode. Tomorrow, I plan to start putting some plants in the garden.

A Wish for Simpler Times

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate QuickBooks? I was on the last step on Thursday—literally, entering the last bit of historical payroll data so I could run this week’s payroll—when I encountered an error message. I called the QBO help line and discovered that it’s an error on QB’s end. I am not the only person getting that message. The representative said she would escalate the trouble ticket and QB would let me know when the issue has been resolved. It’s Saturday morning and still no resolution.

I calculated payroll the old-fashioned way yesterday morning so I could write checks. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate QB?

The amount of friction I’ve run into lately just getting simple tasks accomplished has been ridiculous. “Progress” does not always move us in a positive direction. I miss the 1980s.

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I went to Missoula yesterday to teach a serger mastery class. The drive down was lovely. Traffic was light and the weather was beautiful. (No rain.) I had two students; three had registered but one didn’t show up. I get paid, regardless, but I find it baffling that people register for classes and ghost them. Oh, well. The two students and I had a great time. The owners of that store are also going to Bernina University next month and I think we’re registered for some of the same classes.

On the way home, I stopped at the Amish store for ice cream, then stopped at the Amish furniture store and ordered the gliders for my garden. (I think both places are owned by the same family as both places have the same name and the Amish store has some Amish furniture available for sale.) I ordered two 5' gliders. The color I want—antique mahogany, which is actually kind of a dark golden oak—isn’t in stock, so it’s going to be a few weeks. They will deliver, though, when the gliders are built.

Traffic was much worse on the way back. I almost went straight up Hwy 93 from Polson, where the Amish furniture store is located, but I decided to backtrack and come up the east side of Flathead Lake as that is the shorter route to my house. Thank goodness, because there was a big accident that shut down Hwy 93 about an hour later and I probably would have been stuck in that backup.

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I finished another squash in the Sue Spargo “Squash Squad” series:

This makes three. I think I will take a break and move over to embroidering chickens again.

There is no rain in the forecast today and temps are supposed to be in the mid-60s. The husband is home this weekend—last weekend, he was cutting concrete—and both of us plan to work around the property. I have lots to do in the garden.

I Hate Group Projects

Nicole Sauce talks often about the “My Three Things” system on her podcast. She uses it to drill down on the three most important tasks she needs to get done every day. I use it, too, although sometimes I have more than three items on my list. I’ve found that its usefulness to me isn’t in helping me focus. I don’t have trouble with that. Its usefulness lies in the fact that it allows me to let go of—and not be distracted by—things that aren’t on the list. That’s a hair-splitting distinction, but an important one.

Yesterday, I had two fairly big (non-sewing) tasks on the list and a couple of smaller ones. The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t complete them; the problem was that I had to wait on other people to get me information I needed to complete them. I’ve been playing phone tag for three days with one of those people. I have no trouble being productive when I am the only person in the equation. (I hated group projects in school.) But just when I had given up waiting and thought I might use my time productively to cut the grass again, it started raining. 😑

[Rain wasn’t in the forecast, at least not until it started raining.]

I am hoping to finish up those two big tasks today. We’ll see.

I decided the universe was sending me a message, so I worked on some sewing projects. The “pages” for the Place for Everything Tote have all their pockets attached. I need to trim the corners of the pages and bind them, but that will have to wait.

I also traced a deconstructed Liz Claiborne top. I bought myself a couple of LC knot tops last month and really like them. On a hunch, I stopped in at our JC Penney store and found the same top in my size on the clearance rack for $4.99. I can’t buy a pattern for $4.99. I bought the top, brought it home, and took it apart. The clearance rack top is not a Tall size, so I didn’t feel too bad about taking it apart. The process of deconstructing it also let me see how it was put together.

I have no idea when I’ll get around to making a version of this, but at least I have the pattern ready when inspiration strikes. I traced the original, then lengthened it by 2" and traced it again.

Next week will be devoted to getting ready for the plant sale—and getting some of my own plants into the ground—after which, I need to focus on finishing my Bernina University jacket.

I am teaching a serger class tomorrow in Missoula and really looking forward to it. And it looks like the rain is supposed to end tomorrow, so I’ll be out doing yardwork on Saturday.

The husband says we have two bunnies now, and I think there are at least three or four robins with nests in the porch rafters. I’m waiting for the garter snakes in the garden to show up. I only had one hummingbird for a couple of weeks—a male—but a few days ago, a female arrived.

And our Joann Fabrics has a “countdown until closing” sign on the door. It looks like they’ll be out of business for good by the end of the holiday weekend. RIP Joann Fabrics. You had a good run.

Adventures in Sewing Vinyl

Rain held off until yesterday evening, but the temps never got above 50F. It was overcast and raw outside. I half-heartedly did some string trimming in the garden, then came in and sewed. I need to clear some space to be able to work on my BU jacket, and the best way to do that is to finish up some projects that are in the way.

The byAnnie Place For Everything Tote is far from being finished, but I did move it down the pipeline a ways. I put a nonstick needle in the machine, attached the Teflon zipper foot, and proceeded to sew the first set of vinyl zipper pouches to the quilted “pages.”

The needle and foot worked beautifully together. I had zero sticking issues.

The pouches have to be sewn on in a specific order. I attached the first one and breathed a big sigh of relief. Sewing something like this for the first time is a bit nervewracking. (Apologies for the washed-out photos—it was late afternoon in the sewing room.)

The second pouch was sewn on so that its top covered the line of stitching from the upper pouch. I chose to divide that pouch in two.

The pouches on the other side of the page were sewn on in the same way. Some of the zipper pulls are going the wrong way, but I call this a win.

I have another page to make that will look exactly like this one. Two full-page pouches will be sewn on the reverse sides of each of these pages.

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I broke 1000 downloads on the May 6 podcast episode. That’s the first time that has happened, and I’ve been told by more than one person that 1000 seems to be a magic number. We shall see.

On the drive to Seattle, I listened to my backlog of podcast episodes (by other content creators), including an episode of Bernina’s Sew and So podcast that included interviews with Bernina dealers about how their businesses have evolved over the years. I was struck by the fact that two of the dealers, in two different parts of the country, said that they began teaching classes at their local community colleges as a way to get people into their stores.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Initially, I found it odd that students didn’t just come to the stores for classes. I suppose, though, that some people want to learn to sew but don’t necessarily want to learn to quilt, and many Bernina dealers are quilt store owners. I’ve been kicking this idea around with the owner of our local store, her daughter, and the class coordinator. They all think I should teach some classes at the college. Unfortunately, I missed the May 1 deadline for the fall term, so any classes proposals I submit to the college will be for next spring term. We may also try having some beginning sewing—not quilting—classes at the store and advertise them more broadly.

At least one of the classes I signed up for at Bernina University is about how to build a base of garment-sewing customers. I’m excited about that one.

It's a Jungle Out There

I woke up to rain yesterday, but by mid-morning, things had dried out enough that I was able to cut the grass. The garden needed attention first as the grass out there was almost knee high. I have to do that area with the push mower. Normally, I enjoy cutting the grass out there because it’s good exercise to walk the perimeter. With such tall grass, though, it was a slog. Each pass around the perimeter filled the bag, so I had to stop and empty it. (The grass clippings make great mulch between the rows of potatoes.) Now that the initial mowing is done, though, I should be able to stay on top of it.

[The husband said he would weed whack the garden for me when he’s out cleaning up the fence around the pig pasture, but we have a 100% chance of rain—up to an inch!—today. He has to keep the grass from getting too tall around the electric fence or the fence won’t work properly. I don’t think he’ll be able to get it done today, though.]

After lunch, I got out my John Deere riding mower and tackled the yard. It looks like a drunk Roomba mowed out there. The robins with nests in the front porch rafters were having absolute conniption fits, so I tried to stay away from the porch. I’ve been strafed by angry mama robins before and don’t care to repeat the experience. The yard is in rough shape. The husband “landscaped” the property last year with the track loader, which smoothed out some areas but brought up a ton of rocks. And when he plows, his primary concern is getting the snow out of the way, but he pushes a lot of the crushed gravel from the driveway into the yard. I did the best I could to get as much of the grass cut without running over rocks and turning the mower blades into hamburger. We will not win any landscaping awards.

We did not lose any fruit trees over the winter. In fact, all of the young apple trees in the front orchard—grafted for me by Susan—look really good. We should have a nice crop of Honeycrisps from the more mature trees this fall.

One of the tasks on my to-do list soon is to visit Stutzman’s Amish Furniture in Polson and choose some pieces for the herb garden. We left an area empty of raised beds in anticipation of putting a seating area out there. I want one of these gliders:

They are made from recycled plastic and can be left outside all year round. I’d also like to put a little fire pit out there so we can make s’mores this summer.

******

I did some field testing with a couple of tops while I was in Seattle. I still really like the one I made from the Burda 6146 pattern, but the upper bodice doesn’t fit as well as the upper bodice from the version I frankenpatterned from the Love Notions Cadence Top and New Look 6543. Something about the way the upper bodice and sleeves were drafted on that Cadence Top are perfect for me. Yesterday, after I finished the yardwork, I frankenpatterned my frankenpatterned top with the Burda 6145 pattern. I think—at this point—I just need to make myself a new sloper from my frankenpatterned pattern.

Any sewing I do this week will be on the Bernina University quilted jacket. I don’t want to leave that until the last possible second.

Bureaucratic Purgatory

Just before I left for Seattle, I had to arrange for a certificate of insurance to be sent to one of the general contractors for whom the husband is doing a foundation. This is a routine matter and requires that I send a request to our insurance agent. We get a copy of the certificate. When the copy of the certificate arrived in my e-mail inbox, it was accompanied by a note saying that our work comp insurance policy had been cancelled as of April 30.

Of course, that sent me into a mild panic. We can’t have employees on a construction site with no work comp coverage. I called the work comp help line and spoke to an representative, who said that the reason the policy had been cancelled was because the quarterly payroll reports hadn’t been filed.

[We have our work comp policy through Montana State Fund. Interestingly, they don’t notify the policyholder when a policy has been cancelled. They notify the person in charge of filing the quarterly payroll reports. 🤔]

I haven’t been doing payroll—until now—because we hired that out to an accountant 25 years ago when I had small kids and was traveling more frequently. The original accountant died five or six years ago and her assistant took over the company. Inertia on my end kept the system in place. However, the assistant-now-owner obviously hasn’t been doing her job.

She never answers the business phone. I sent a couple of pointed text messages and e-mails. By the end of the day, I was able to confirm that she had filed the overdue reports. I also was able to get the policy reinstated with no lapse in coverage. Whew.

My next call was to QuickBooks to set up payroll. If I am doing it, there won’t be a risk of us losing insurance coverage or getting fined by the IRS because the person we hired is too lazy to do her job. Payroll in QBO is fairly straightforward. What has been an absolute nightmare is getting all the payroll deposit accounts under the correct business name and address. The IRS, in particular, has an annoying habit of changing our address of record at random, and good luck getting a human being on the phone who isn’t just reading from a scripted flow chart and actually knows how to fix things. The address of record with the IRS shows our correct street address and city name but the wrong zip code. I have no idea how that happened.

I spent far more time on this project than I wanted to this week. I should be ready to do payroll going forward, though.

People think I am retired with all the time in the world to do what I want. If only.

*******

I was hoping to cut the grass today—this was supposed to be the one day without rain all week—but I woke up to the sound of a fairly steady rain on the metal roof. Perhaps things will dry out enough by this afternoon that I can mow. The grass in the garden is almost knee high.

Our local elementary school had its plant sale on Wednesday and Thursday. For several years, we’ve had an arrangement with them to take any leftover plants at the end of their sale to sell at the homestead foundation plant sale. A group of us went to the school on Thursday evening to pick up plants and bring them to my greenhouse, which effectively doubled our tomato inventory. I spent a couple of hours out there yesterday morning getting trays organized. We have separate displays for cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, and slicing tomatoes at our sale, and it’s easier if the plants are sorted ahead of time.

*******

The robins have been very busy getting their nests ready. The porch rafters look like a condominium complex:

A mama robin was sitting on that nest on the right, but she flew away just as I snapped this pic.

Salad Season Has Arrived

I cut lettuce for salad last night. I made a big garden salad for the husband and a smaller one for me, because I like a different kind of salad.

Mine consists of lettuce, bleu cheese, craisins, and walnuts, dressed with a simple vinaigrette of walnut oil and white wine vinegar. It was delicious.

The potatoes are up:

The grass in the garden is ridiculously tall and I would love to mow, but it has been raining all week (which makes the grass grow even taller . . . ). Saturday is supposed to be relatively dry. I am hoping to cut grass then.

The greenhouse also looks like a jungle:

Truly, I think some of the plants doubled in size while I was gone. I need more of those metal racks to increase the growing surface.

I made a test sample of quilting for my BU jacket. I love the thread—the variegated gold Wonderfil Fabulux I bought in Seattle—but I am still undecided about the inner layer. I used a layer of Robert Kaufman Mammoth Flannel on this first sample and I think I would like something just a tad thicker. I will try the silk batting next.

I have to go back to Missoula again next week or the week after. That store sold several sergers recently and those customers want a serger mastery class. We just need to decide on a date. And I need to start thinking about fall classes for both the store there and the store here.

Fabric Prepper

I ran away last week. I was in desperate need of a road trip, so I went to Seattle and saw my kids. DD#1 and her husband came down from Alaska for a few days and stayed with his parents, so I went and spent a day with all of them. The rest of the time, I was bopping around Seattle. I have no trouble entertaining myself there, although DD#2 took Friday off and we did some shopping and sightseeing.

I hit as many of the Joann Fabrics stores—the ones that are still open—as I could along the way. Interfacing is now 50% off and almost all of the stores had full bolts on the shelves, some still wrapped in plastic. I stocked up on Pellon Easy Pattern, which I use for tracing patterns. I also got a bolt of white and a bolt of black knit interfacing.

Issaquah Sewing and Vacuum, a lovely little store just off I-90, started their closing sale last Monday. I stopped there on my way into Seattle on Wednesday. Most of the store had already been cleaned out. I picked up a large spool of Wonderfil Fabulux in a variegated golds because I think I might use that for quilting my Bernina University jacket. I have to make some test samples.

On Thursday, I went to District Fabric in Port Townsend and bought a two-yard piece of a rustic woven fabric in black, green, blue, and purple. This was on the consignment rack so two yards was all I could get:

I wish it were a larger piece because it would make a wonderful jacket, but I will figure out what to do with it. I could serge the edges and make a shawl out of it.

I also hit up Pacific Fabrics in the SODO area of Seattle (SOuth of DOwntown). That is my favorite fabric store in Seattle, bar none. I got some lovely rayon woven fabric for a top:

And this gorgeous William Morris print—Mini Strawberry Thief—for another woven top. I think this will look great with a pair of jeans.

I didn’t go wild on this trip. I am trying to slow down on stash acquisitions, although I pointed out to the husband that my robust stash is going to serve me very well in the coming years, what with Joann Fabrics going out of business. He called me a fabric prepper, which I like better than fabric hoarder. 😇

*****

The weather here in Kalispell was lovely last week. The plants in the greenhouse responded accordingly. I think everything doubled in size while I was gone. The chicks are starting to look like teenagers, and the piglets have attacked the pasture with relish. I’d like to cut the grass soon but we’re getting rain every day. I see Bunny almost every day. The husband said that he saw two rabbits out there last night.

The peas remain unmolested by ground squirrels and we’ll be having salads every night soon.

Wearing Flowers

I love love love this Burda 6146 top. I see several more in my future. I adore basic patterns like this because I can change sleeve styles and necklines for fun variations. No one wants a Flintstones wardrobe. This is probably the most perfect V-neck ever. It’s not so low that I am flashing my bra at everyone.

I lengthened this top so it’s more like a tunic. I’m kicking around the idea of lengthening the pattern into a dress, maybe with a loose self-fabric belt?

******

Saturday was an absolutely stellar day—75F and sunny. You can tell you’re in Montana when it hits the mid-70s and everyone says, “Wow, it’s hot today.”

We moved the chicks from the garage to the nursery room in the coop Saturday morning. Seeing big chickens staring at them through the wire is scary—those Leghorns are very nosy—so they stayed huddled in the corner most of the day. However, the husband reported that they were partying in there by the time he closed up the coop that night.

I moved my car out of the garage and swept the garage floor with the push broom. I could plant another raised bed in the garden with the amount of dirt that comes in on my car every winter. 🫤 I need to vacuum out the car now.

The Homestead Foundation hosted its Spring Pie Social on Saturday evening. I think it was the best one ever in terms of attendance and money raised, and there was no pie left at the end of the evening.

I have made the decision to resign from the Foundation Board on June 1, the day after the plant sale. I want to stay involved and will manage the website and chair future plant sales, but I cannot continue to volunteer the amount of time that I’ve been spending on Foundation activities. There have been times of the year when that board position has been the equivalent of a part-time job. I might be willing to continue if I weren’t also the chairman of the pastor search team for our church, but that is a demanding position and there just isn’t enough of me to go around. I want to have time and energy for the things I want to do.

******

Cali Fabrics is carrying a designer viscose/nylon stretch twill, so I ordered some for a pair of StyleArc Linda pants. I bought it in red, because I never seem to have a pair of red pants when I need them.

I also bought what they had left of some Robert Kaufman ponte, which is the black-and-gray print on top. I wanted three yards, for a dress, but they only had half of that amount left so a pair of pants it will be. (Probably also Linda pants.)

Both fabrics are quite nice.

Dressing Like a Parrot

Burda 6146 floated to the top of my pile of patterns, so I took another look at it:

When I bought this pattern, it was with the plan to make view A, on the left, minus the fussy cuffs. However, I also like view B. I compared the bodice pieces to my perfect (for me) woven tee pieces and they were so similar that I decided to make view B.

I think this will end up being another tried-and-true pattern. I still have to add the second sleeve, finish the cuffs, and hem it, but I’ve already found much to love about this one.

• It fits very much like my woven tee pattern.

• The V-neckline is nice and modest.

• I love the sleeves, and that sleeve cap was drafted so well that no ease stitching was required or even included in the pattern. I followed the instructions to pin in the cap as directed and sewed with the cap on the bottom so that any excess was eased in by the feed dogs. I still think that the sleeves in most patterns, except those on very tailored garments, are drafted with too much ease in the cap. It’s not that there should be no ease; it’s that I shouldn’t have to work so hard to set in a sleeve as I have to with some patterns.

I used a Kaffe Fassett cotton sateen wideback (108"). This is the closest I can get to using Kaffe fabrics for clothing. I believe they may have produced some rayon wovens at one time, but no more. The 44" wide quilting cottons are just that—quilting cottons—but the widebacks are a silky, drapey cotton sateen. I used one yard of a cotton sateen wideback for view B.

I always block fuse the fabric for my facings. There is a bit of fabric waste, but the results are so much better. Block fusing means that I fuse a piece of interfacing to a piece of fabric and then cut out the facings, rather than cutting out the facings and the interfacing and trying to fuse them together:

LOL, my pattern weights just happen to coordinate with the fabric.

And these are the facings:

I need to thank Kaffe Fassett at the workshop in the fall for enabling me to dress like a parrot. I think I have two more Kaffe widebacks in the stash earmarked for tops.

*******

The chicks have reached the Baby Velociraptor stage of their development. They really do look like miniature versions of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, and they chatter to each other like them, too. We will move them to the coop this morning.

And I think this is the easiest group of piglets we’ve ever had. They come back to the Piggy Palace to sleep at night, they figured out right away how to drink from the nipples on the watering system, and they spend their days rooting around the pasture. “The pigness of pigs,” as Joel Salatin says.

Tire Tango

This was one of those weeks when there was a lot of motion but not a lot to show for it, which is why the blog posts have been rather sparse. Today, I make the twice-yearly visit to the tire dealer to have my snow tires swapped out for summer tires. These places don’t take appointments, as a rule, so I need to be there when they open.

I taught the Scout Tee class on Tuesday. Two women were signed up, but one didn’t feel well the day of the class and stayed home. The other student got individualized instruction. She’s been in my classes before and I enjoy teaching her. She’s fearless and willing to try anything.

And because I was inspired, I did manage to knock out another woven tee on Wednesday afternoon using my custom pattern:

The fabric is a 50% cotton/50% modal by Cloud 9 (Nightfall, by Pip & Lo), purchased at Pacific Fabrics. It feels wonderful.

I’ve got plans for another couple of tops and a few more pairs of Style Arc Linda pants and Free Range Slacks. All of my wovens are in two stacks—one for pants and one for tops—on the table next to my cutting table, so when I have a moment, I grab something and cut it out.

******

The weather has been lovely, and I have been second-guessing my decision to change the date of the plant sale to the end of May. We started out having it in the middle of May, but there were some plant sales where I had to wear a wool coat because it wasn’t exactly warm. Last year, we had such a cold spring that I pushed back the sale to the last weekend of May. This year, I scheduled it for the last weekend in May again. I worry a bit that everyone will have already planted their gardens because of the nice weather, but I also know that it’s entirely possible—and it has happened in the past—that beautiful weather fools people into planting early, and all of their plants die because our last frost date isn’t until the end of May.

I can only make my best guess. Trying to juggle the combination of planting schedules, weather, and keeping the greenhouse at the correct temperature for baby plants is not easy. This is a stressful time of year. Once the plant sale is over, I’ll be able to coast for a bit.

The chicks are getting moved to the separate room in the chicken coop this weekend. They are crowding the brooder box. One of the white chicks I got from WS is a rooster, and he is already trying to lord it over the other chicks. He will be a stunning rooster when he grows up, though, and I don’t think I’ll have trouble finding a home for him.

Bunny is almost completely brown now:

He has plenty of nice grass to eat.

Almost May

I am just tickled with how the plants look this year. We haven’t had any issues with rodents digging up seeds. The sale isn’t for another month yet, and I expect that by the time it rolls around, we will have some really stellar-looking plants to sell.

I finished the black linen Free Range Slacks Sunday afternoon, but not without some angst. I am going to redraft the waistband facing for the next iteration. The facing folds down to the inside of the pants and creates a casing for a length of 1-1/2" wide elastic. I’ve had issues with the casing on both pairs I’ve made. Also, the instructions state to cut a piece of elastic 1/2" longer than the waist measurement. I’ve had to cut my elastic down to 3" less than my waist measurement to get the pants to stay put.

Otherwise, I love the pattern. I am not a huge fan of pockets but the pockets on these pants are fabulous, both front and back.

It’s time to knock out a couple of woven tees.

******

As if Joann Fabrics going out of business wasn’t a big enough shock to the sewing universe, independent fabric stores are beginning to disappear at an alarming rate. On my trips to Seattle, I always stop in Issaquah, just off I-90, to visit Gossypium Quilt Shop and Issaquah Sewing and Vacuum. The two stores were on the same road about a mile apart. Gossypium Quilts closed its brick-and-mortar store some six months ago, although they still sell online. Yesterday, I got an e-mail from Issaquah Sewing and Vac that the owner would like to retire, so they are also closing. They looked for a buyer for two years and were unsuccessful.

I get it. This is a tough economic climate. (Especially in Washington state, which won’t be satisfied until it has taxed all its businesses and residents into the neighboring state of Idaho. The last person out should turn off the lights.) I also understand that owners are getting older. However, fabric—especially garment fabric—is one of those products that is difficult to purchase online unless you know exactly what you’re ordering. If you can identify a couple of trusted suppliers, that helps, but there is no substitute for seeing and feeling fabric in person.

******

I ordered some Liz Caliborne tall tops from the JC Penney website and they arrived yesterday. Two of them have a knot detail on the front that is really flattering. I knew I had seen something similar in a commercial pattern recently, so I went looking and found this one:

I’ll pop into Joanns today to see if they still have it. Some of the Joanns stores are beginning to close. I could hack this into a top pattern without much effort, and it wouldn’t hurt to have some dresses like this.

I’m teaching the Scout Tee class today. I expect it will be fun.