Getting Ready for Sew Expo

My Wool and Wax Tote Bag class is on Friday. I still hadn’t finished the blue and gray version—the top edge needed to be topstitched—so I did that yesterday. The husband put the new light up over the Juki 1541, the machine affectionately known as “The Beast.”

We need to raise the light a bit; the thread coming from the thread stand is too close to it, but otherwise, it is lovely to have so much task lighting right where I need it.

The topstitching took 10 minutes but now it’s done. I hand sewed the opening for turning in the lining closed last night. Yes, I could have done that by machine but I don’t mind the hand sewing.

Now all I have to do with that bag is attach the handles. I will do that in class. I am taking the rivet press with me so students can use it, and attaching the handles will be a good demonstration of how to use the press.

I also found some time to cut out a Toaster Sweater and a Burda 9315 (heavily hacked). For the Toaster Sweater, I used a burgundy cabled knit that I bought at Joanns a year or two ago. I already have two other Toasters in that same fabric in light blue and navy blue, and they are in regular rotation. I wanted to sew it together, but I don’t have the correct serger thread color. Sometimes, I am willing to use a non-matching thread, but not with that fabric. I’ll get the thread I need today when I am teaching my ruler class.

I thought about making a Jalee Nathalie top with the other fabric—the French terry I ordered from KnitFabric.com when I ordered the fabric for the boys’ tops—but I only had two yards and need almost three for the Nathalie. It worked perfectly for the Burda 9315. I was able to put that one together. I just need to hem it on the coverstitch machine.

I always like to wear me-mades when I teach and now I’ll have a couple of new tops for Sew Expo. No, it is not lost on me that I’ll be teaching knitting classes while wearing sweaters that I sewed.

The pile of Sew Expo supplies in the living room is growing. That is where I put everything so I don’t forget it when I am packing the car.

I have a shopping list for Sew Expo. (I also have one for Joanns clearance sales, although I suspect the pickings may be slim by the time I get to those stores.) One of my favorite vendors at Sew Expo is Amanda’s Bundles. They have a great selection of knits, and this year, they are supposed to have some sewing-themed knits. I noticed that the Sew Expo organizers have consolidated all of the vendors into the larger of the two buildings; I wonder if that is because the number of vendors is down or if it was done for convenience. That main vendor building had plenty of room, so I think it’s a good move regardless.

Ellie Lum of Klum House is teaching a new waxed canvas bag pattern and the pattern will be released at Sew Expo. I’m looking forward to seeing what she has designed. Billie’s Designer Fabrics is another great apparel fabric vendor. I’ve gotten a lot of fabric for the little boys’ shirts from them. I’m hoping to pick up some nice gabardines or other trouser fabric (wool?) so I can get started on making pants for myself.

Joy in Snow

It has been a very snowy (and cold) February and the snow is still coming down. This was the view out the kitchen door yesterday afternoon:

We have a bucket for both the forklift and the track loader, so the husband can move the snow into huge piles. They made great sledding hills when the girls were little.

Snow falls off the metal roof and piles up along the edge of the porch. The winter of 1996-97, we had so much snow that it was up to the porch roof. Walking from the driveway to the kitchen door was like walking through a tunnel.

The chicken coop:

The chickens won’t go out in the snow, so they get quite cranky at this time of year.

It’s hard to see, but there is a platform on the fencepost just to the left of the coop. It acts as our snow gauge. The husband must have cleared it off Sunday, because just before I left for church, it had over a foot of snow on it. When I looked out this morning, it was up to about 10".

The herb garden:

We need the moisture, so I will not complain about the snow. And it’s pretty.

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I finished all my class prep, so now it’s a matter of collecting and packing supplies. I’m glad I can drive to Sew Expo; I don’t know how I would manage if I had to fly. The class coordinators are making a point of telling teachers that some students will show up unprepared, without the requisite class supplies, so we should bring extras. 🙄 I have found that many students think that all they have to do is show up for the class and everything will be provided for them. When Tera and I went to Sew Expo two years ago, each of us had a rolling tote full of all the supplies we thought we might need for our classes.

It’s a fine line. Sometimes it is easier to tell students that a kit of supplies will be provided (and charged for accordingly). I do that when I want students to have specific supplies. My thread class comes with a thread kit—put together by Wonderfil—and I provide 5" squares of light-colored fabric backed with a lightweight interfacing. (I fuse interfacing to a large piece of fabric and cut the squares on my Accuquilt cutter.) When it comes to basic supplies, though, such as scissors and marking tools, students should come prepared.

I finished sewing down the binding on the Correspondence quilt last night. That one has been crossed off the list. I’m kicking around the idea of starting a scrap quilt because my bag of red strips is absolutely overflowing. Sewing strips together is a good mindless activity. I can’t decide if I want to take a sewing machine with me to Sew Expo or not. I could sew in the evenings, but after a day of teaching, I like to vegetate.

Dreaming of Tomatoes

Seeds are beginning to arrive.

I started my seed ordering at Victory Seeds, where I’ve been a customer for over a decade. They moved from Oregon to Texas a few years ago, though, and I think the quality of their seeds took a hit. They were also sold out of quite a few things this year, so I had to go looking for alternative suppliers. (I do have some seed saved, but I like to have backups.) Victory Seeds did not have my beloved Orgeon Star paste tomato. However, TomtatoFest did. While I was there, I got sucked into looking around and ordered a few new varieties. I am particularly excited about Cherokee Chocolate and Cherokee Green, because Cherokee Purple is a staple in my garden. We’ll see how those two do this year. (Sarah, I will make sure to save a couple for you if you want them.)

I know, I said I wasn’t going to plant 40 tomato plants again this year but I lied. 😇

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I am making progress on my to-do list. My last class handout is almost done. I’ve made copies of the other ones and put each set of handouts into its own folder with the date and time of the class on the front. I am teaching six classes next week and I need to keep them straight.

The binding has been sewn down on the jelly roll quilt. Yesterday afternoon, I made and attached binding to the Correspondence quilt. I began sewing it down last night. I lost my favorite binding needle and have not been able to find a replacement. The quilting betweens are close, but they are shorter than the one I was using for binding. I think I need a sharp, but I have to find the correct size.

This week’s podcast episode is going to be on interfacing, and wow, has that been a tour of a bunch of rabbit holes. I now know more about interfacing than I thought I needed to. Oh well, I am just adding to the base of knowledge I can pull out when I am teaching.

I spent an hour before dinner yesterday cutting the last group of 5" squares from my pile of scraps. I’ll give the tote to Pat this morning at church. The husband spent his day moving snow. It has been snowing off and on for the past couple of days and now we’re under a winter storm watch for another system moving in. Mid-week, though, it is supposed to warm up —into the 40s!—which is going to turn everything into a sloppy mess. That bodes well for my trip to Sew Expo, however.

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Reddit, for all that it has a dubious reputation in the social media world, has been a great source of information about that MTHFR mutation and my discovery that extra riboflavin is helping some of my health issues. I have been researching this issue for a long time—long before a lot of this information was readily available—and Reddit seems to be the repository for what Tom Naughton refers to as “the wisdom of crowds.” There is a lot of anecdata there that would be dismissed by conventional practitioners, but if you’re willing to be persistent and sift through it, you can find a lot of great information. One poster in the MTHFR forum is particularly knowledgable and helpful. He developed a road map of treatment for people with the same mutation that I have. I was amused to discover that I had developed a similar road map for myself—through a great deal of trial and error, because the information wasn’t available five or ten years ago—except that he starts with riboflavin and I am finally adding it in as the last piece of the puzzle. I think that’s because I uncovered that mutation as a result of a folate deficiency, so the focus has always been on folate. Also, the riboflavin information has come to light more recently.

In any case, I find it fascinating how scientific research meanders down the path of discovery.

In the Land of Class Prep

I like deadlines. I find them very motivating. I am up against a couple of deadlines in the next week, so it’s been nonstop nose to the grindstone here. The Correspondence top has been quilted and is awaiting trimming and binding. I should be able to finish sewing down the binding on the jelly roll quilt this evening. The Bernina Event class sample is done. The class sample for my rulerwork class next Wednesday is done. My class handouts, save one, are complete. Finishing the last one is today’s task. I have been making lists of things I need to take with me to Sew Expo so I don’t forget anything. I have a few open days on the schedule this week but I don’t like leaving anything until the last minute if I can avoid it. I’ve also got one eye on the weather forecast in case I have to leave a day early to avoid a storm.

I stopped in at Joann Fabrics on Thursday and they are indeed putting all of their patterns on sale every weekend now. Vogue Patterns are $4.99 and everything else is $1.99. I picked up half a dozen new ones—none that I intend to make immediately, but patterns to have in the library in case I need them. I would like to try Vogue V9325 sooner rather than later, though:

I had a dress like this a few years ago and wore the heck out of it until it got a stain on the front. I have several sheath dress patterns but none with linings. This one is lined. I would like guidance on making a dress with a lining.

Apparently, the Joann Fabrics stores that are closing are going to begin their clearance sales this weekend. I plan to stay in Spokane overnight on my way to Sew Expo and will check out the stores there to see what is left. 😢

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I need a jumpstart for my embroidery projects because I haven’t felt like working on them. The quilt store had Nichole Vogelsinger’s books on display the other day, so I picked up Needles Out:

It is a stunningly beautiful book—even the cover is embossed and full of texture. When Sew Expo is over, I plan to sit down and study this.

If I get everything crossed off today’s list, I might reward myself by sewing up that new French terry I got from KnitFabric.com.

RIP Joann Fabrics

I am sure that by now, those of you who care have heard that Joann Fabrics is closing 500+ stores around the country. The ones on the chopping block can be found here. Amazingly, the stores in Kalispell and Missoula are not on the list. (The store in Kalispell has so little inventory, though, that they might as well close it.) Most of the Seattle stores are closing, as well as two of the three Spokane stores. It makes sense that they would close the most-expensive-to-operate stores first.

I hope that enough of this company is left that something good can grow out of the stump. I have heard a few rumors that Joanns will transition to online-only sales, but it is way too difficult to buy fabric online on a regular basis. (That idea sounds to me like it came from bean counters who don’t sew and don’t understand the purchasing habits of their customers.) Perhaps Hobby Lobby and/or Michaels will up their game in the sewing department to help fill in the gaps.

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I have mostly finished the sample for the Bernina event at the end of March. I can’t show the entire project, but here is a teaser:

This is decorative chainstitching done on the coverstitch machine with Spagetti 12 wt thread. (That’s not a typo—that is the correct spelling.) The fabric is part of a Kaffe Fassett line from Free Spirit.

This project has a lot going on. I first had to do the decorative stitching on the coverstitch machine. I then moved to the serger to piece the units and assemble them. Finally, I went to the 880 to do some quilting, both decorative—using the built-in stitches—and free motion. Normally, I would do my quilting on the Q20, but this project specified the use of domestic machines with the Bernina Stitch Regulator. I haven’t ever used mine, so that was a good learning experience. (The BSR is a foot assembly for free motion quilting that attaches to the machine and plugs into the back of it.) All that’s left is to do some quilting using the embroidery hoop and program.

I didn’t receive the second part of the instructions for this project until just before lunchtime yesterday. Fortunately—and this is why I have the equivalent of a Joann Fabrics store in my house—I had the threads that were specified in the instructions and didn’t have to wait until my next trip to town to get them.

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I do buy fabric online occasionally. I placed an order with KnitFabric.com for some material to make shirts for Susan’s grandsons—the boys requested them and were very specific about what they want—and the order arrived yesterday. This tag was on one of the pieces:

I love that they do this. Fabric.com used to do this, too.

While I was shopping, I ordered some fabric for myself, too:

This is a French terry and I think it’s probably destined for a Jalie Nathalie top.

I Love Loops

The binding is on the jelly roll quilt. I’ll be sewing that down over the next couple of evenings. I basted the Correspondence top together with its backing and batting and it is on the Q20. I had only a few minutes last night to try out some quilting on it. I’ve decided to do a double loop pattern—what I am calling “double bubbles”—and I like it so far:

It’s a loop meander with a twist, and it will go quickly.

I started the class sample—a table runner—for the Bernina event. This one is a bit tricky, because I don’t have the same machines that we’ll be using for the event. For example, the instructions call for decorative chainstitching to be done using the L890 serger/coverstitch combo machine. I have the L860, which is a serger only, and I have a Janome 3000cpx coverstitch machine, so I’ll be doing the decorative chainstitching on my Janome. I’ve used the L890 machines so frequently at the store, though, that I know how to set them up for what we’ll be doing in class.

Once the table runner is constructed, it needs to be quilted. The class will use the Bernina 770 or 990 machines with the embroidery module for the quilting portion. I have a Bernina 880 and it does have an embroidery module, but I need to get a quick tutorial on using it from the store owner. I don’t want my first attempt at using my embroidery module to be on a class sample.

In any case, the end result will look the same. What is important is that I can teach the concepts. I am reminded of the interview with Marianne Fons and Liz Porter where they talked about the first quilting classes they taught. The store gave them the topics they wanted covered, so Marianne and Liz went home and taught themselves how to do those techniques.

I’ve had some conversations this week with the class coordinator at Sew Expo. She said that last year, the knitting and other non-sewing classes were really popular, but this year, they are struggling to fill them. Go figure. I think that next year, I’ll submit proposals for a mix of both sewing and knitting.

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Apparently, Joanns had a big sale on patterns last weekend. I wondered why nothing was on sale last Thursday when I stopped in. They usually put one brand of patterns on sale every Thursday-Sunday. One week, the McCall’s patterns will be on sale, the next week Butterick, etc. It sounds like all of the Big 4 patterns were on sale last Friday-Sunday, but I don’t go to town on the weekends so I missed it.

I wonder if this will be the sales tactic going forward?

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It’s been cold here, albeit with brilliant sunshine every day. We’ve been waking up to temps in the negative teens. The husband doesn’t work outside when it’s this cold. Machinery doesn’t like to function at these temps, even if he’s willing to tolerate the conditions. He did a concrete cutting job up at the hospital last week and the general contractor wants him to come back and do a bit more work there, but he can’t do it until after 5 pm today because the equipment makes a lot of noise and vibration.

He put an extra heat lamp in the chicken coop because there was some jockeying by the roosters to see who got to sleep under it. He claims that the two of them behave themselves when he is in there, but when I go out to feed them and collect eggs, Dave chases Little Roo around the coop. Thankfully, no bloodshed yet. I hope it stays that way.

This Quilt Needs Some Binding

I finished quilting the jelly roll top. The border was done in ribbon candy and I used Amanda Murphy’s Every Daisy ruler set to quilt flowers in each corner:

I stopped in at the quilt store yesterday morning to get thread to finish the hexie wallhanging—I found the color I needed—and binding fabric for this quilt. I also came out with fabric to make the sample for the Bernina event scheduled at the end of March. Bernina dealers have at least one or two “events” every year, which are day-long classes designed to allow people to come in and use the machines to make something. It’s a great way to try out a machine you might be thinking of purchasing.

Stores have the option of bringing in a Bernina educator for these events or having someone from the store teach them. I taught the serger event a couple of years ago, and last September, I was a class angel for the Bernina educator who came in to teach it. I’m teaching the event at the end of March. The pattern is for a table runner. I don’t think it will take me long to put it together.

In between the quilt store and a Costco run, I stopped at the farm store to get some bales of pine shavings. We use those in the nesting boxes. I also picked up a copy of this year’s chick schedule. Apparently, designer chickens are all the rage. The chick schedule has several pages full of fancy chicken breeds. I had to look to find the dates for the New Hampshire Reds and Brown Leghorns. I guess the more common breeds are no longer popular. 🙄 We’re aiming to get chicks around the third week of March.

I’m not ready to think about planting, but people are asking me if I’ve started seeds yet. Even if we could get to the greenhouse easily—which we can’t—the amount of daylight isn’t yet sufficient.

And I still have so much sewing to do between now and spring planting. I’m putting my nose to the grindstone this week and trying to knock out all of my to-do list. At some point, I’m also going to have to think about what clothes I need to make for spring. I have a distinct lack of dresses in my closet, which I notice every Sunday when I get dressed for church. I know what I’d like to make, but some of those items require pattern drafting. I need a solid chunk of uninterrupted time to tackle that, and I also have to be in the right mood.

I suspect I will come back from my Sew Expo trip with some fabric. I plan to stop at Pacific Fabrics in Seattle and I know there will be a some apparel fabric vendors at the show. And from the “Too Little, Too Late” department, I see that Joann Fabrics is carrying a new line called Draper James. This line actually has quite a few really nice apparel fabrics in it. Why did they wait so long??????

Sewing and Growing

I taught a sewing class at the community center yesterday morning. I do these periodically and donate the class fee to the homestead foundation. They are always a lot of fun. I set up a couple of sewing machines and my ironing board and bring all the fabric and supplies. Yesterday’s class had three students: a woman about my age and two 20-something girls. Each of them made two pillowcases during the three-hour class.

We make the pillowcases using the burrito method, which is always rather magical. Along the way, I try to teach good sewing and pressing habits.

Halfway through the class, the older lady mentioned that she had a sewing machine and had brought it with her, so I asked her if I could look it over. It turned out to be a serger! All she could tell me was that she had bought it at an estate sale. I threaded it up and got it to make a serger chain, but I’d need to tinker with it a bit more to get it to stitch properly.

The pillowcases turned out well. We do simple ones without the flange between the header and body because I’ve found that beginning sewists have enough trouble keeping three layers of fabric together (even with pins), let alone five.

After class, I packed up my supplies and came home. The husband is doing some concrete work at the hospital and went to work yesterday with a couple of our employees. He said it was much easier to work on the weekend when fewer people were there.

I was going to finish quilting the hexie wallhanging, but I don’t have the correct thread color for the border. I’ll get some this week. I started working on the jelly roll quilt, instead:

This one is getting a loopy meander in the center. I know that’s my default free motion quilting pattern, but it’s fast and relaxing. I don’t want to take the time to do rulerwork or custom quilting on this top.

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The husband has been queuing up seed starting and garden planning videos for our evening viewing, but I’m not ready to think about planting yet. He found an interesting channel called Montana Mid-Valley Farm, which is produced by a young couple living somewhere near Helena. We watched their videos about building a root cellar. The husband says that building one here is on his to-do list for this summer. We’re using a spot in our basement as a root cellar, but it would be nice to have a larger one for more storage. He also said it would make a good fire shelter in the event of a wildfire, although I don’t like to think about that.

In any case, it’s going to be about six weeks before I can get into the greenhouse to do anything. The lettuce in the basement is about ready to cut, and I need to start the next round in the rooting plugs.

Hexie Quilting and a Puzzle

I spent yesterday making quilt backings. I couldn’t find any 108" wide fabrics that I liked at the quilt store, so I bought 44" wide yardage and pieced the backings. Then I basted them to the tops and batting. After lunch, I worked on quilting the EPP hexie wallhanging:

I’m stitching in the ditch around all the units. I’ll do something fun in the border. I’m just happy to be moving some of these projects through the pipeline.

Anna at Noodlehead released a new pattern, the Trail Tote:

I bought the pattern (of course), although I probably won’t make it immediately. I do love the piping detail. I carry a ton of stuff around with me—if we’re ever shopping together and you need a tape measure, I have one—so I would make the larger version. I think it would be great in a waxed canvas. I might order some of the waxed canvas that Sailrite sells just to see how it compares to the AL Frances canvas and the Klum House canvas.

So many things to make.

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I don’t talk about medical stuff very often here on the blog, because I am not a doctor and I don’t give medical advice, but I am living a medical puzzle and one of the pieces dropped into place this week. I am sharing in case it helps anyone else.

I am homozygous for the C677T mutation in the MTHFR gene. That means I got one copy from each of my parents. Maybe you’ve heard of MTHFR, maybe not. It has become more notorious thanks to DNA testing. (There is also a mutation known as A1298C, which I do not have.) The MTHFR gene codes for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, an enzyme involved in one of the metabolic pathways in our bodies. Because I am homozygous for that mutation, I have about 75% less methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. The lack of that enzyme can lead to a laundry list of problems, and the fact that I got one copy of that gene from each of my parents means that it is running rampant on both sides of my family. We’ve done enough DNA testing that I know who has it and it what form.

Our first baby was born without a brain, a birth defect which falls under the category of neural tube defects and is directly attributable to that MTHFR mutation. It’s why pregnant women are now told to take folic acid. In my case, I don’t metabolize folate properly. You might think I could fix that by taking a folic acid supplement, but it’s more complicated than that. The folic acid that is available now is synthetic, and it actually causes more problems for people with MTHFR than it solves. A lot of doctors recommend methylfolate as an alternative, but I can’t take that, either, because it causes violent mood swings. I can tolerate folinic acid, which is a precursor to methylfolate, so I take that.

My mother has a B12 deficiency, also known as pernicious anemia. For most of her life, doctors told her to take more iron. 🙄 Pernicious anemia cannot be fixed by taking more iron. She requires B12 supplementation. That’s another manifestation of the MTHFR mutation.

That mutation can also cause elevated homocysteine which, in turn, leads to inflammation in the blood vessels. Blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks feature prominently in our medical history on both sides.

I want my girls to be armed with as much knowledge about this and how it affects them as possible, so I’ve done a ton of research. Thankfully, I have a naturopath as my primary care doctor who is also fairly knowledgeable about MTHFR. Most conventional doctors don’t have a clue.

I happened to be surfing Pinterest the other night when I ran across an article entitled, “Your ‘MTHFR’ is Just a Riboflavin Deficiency.” That led me to Chris Masterjohn, who has a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and a Substack account where he writes about this stuff. (The Substack account has a free version and a subscription version.) He argues that because the MTHFR mutations are so common—something like 75% of the population has a version of them—they’ve only become a problem for some people because the quality of our diets have deteriorated so much. I do know that I’d be happy to live on a diet of beans, rice, and leafy greens, all of which happen to be foods high in folate. My body knows what it needs.

Every so often, I get cracking and redness around my mouth. It’s more than just chapped lips. The dentist also told me in December that my tongue looked swollen and red. I had read somewhere a few years ago that that could be due to a B vitamin deficiency. I take the Seeking Health B-Minus complex every day, which is a formulation from Dr. Ben Lynch that doesn’t have any methylfolate or folic acid in it. (I take the folinic acid separately.) That B-complex has 20 mg of riboflavin in it. The dietary recommendation is something like 1.5 mg per day, so I thought I was getting plenty of riboflavin, but I still had this cracking and redness issue. According to Chris Masterjohn, some people with the MTHFR mutation may need up to 400 mg of riboflavin a day. I started taking 100 mg capsules in addition to my B-complex and guess what?—the redness around my mouth is resolving. I am working my way up to 400 mg a day. Riboflavin is a water-soluble vitamin and any excess is eliminated from the body, so I don’t need to worry about toxicity.

I haven’t solved the entire puzzle yet, but I have way more information than I had 35 years ago. Comprehensive metabolic testing is available, although it’s expensive. I’m going to ask my naturopath about it on my next visit.

I’m not a doctor and I don’t give medical advice. Please don’t ask me. I present this for informational purposes only. If you have questions, ask your doctor.

Toward the Finish Line

I’m still in the midst of cleaning up and organizing my sewing area. I have a stack of quilts I’ve made that I want to keep, but finding a place to store them has been an issue. I got the brilliant idea to stack them, opened, on the spare bed, in the manner of a bed turning. Once the top quilt is on, the quilts underneath are (mostly) hidden. It works, and it keeps the quilts from getting damaged by fold lines.

Because I need to get backing fabric for the Correspondence quilt, I decided to figure out what other projects need backings. I might as well buy everything at once. That English paper piecing hexie wallhanging needs one. I also unearthed a jelly roll quilt with a chunk of yardage intended for borders, so I went ahead and put the borders on it yesterday:

I think this is a fabric line from Laundry Basket Quilts. I remember buying the jelly roll to take with me to Alaska a couple of years ago. When I visit DD#1, I usually take a project to work on while I am there. I left a Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine at her house on my first visit.

I’ll see what backings I can find at the quilt store today. I also need to get lining fabric for the blue quilted Hobby Lobby fabric. I love that fabric and want to get it made into a jacket, but I am beginning to wish I hadn’t bought it. For some reason, I didn’t notice that the reverse side of the fabric is a scrim-type batting, so the jacket will need to be lined no matter which pattern I use. Or—I’ve been kicking this around as an idea—I could cut lining pieces to match each pattern piece, then baste the lining fabric to the fashion fabric and treat them as a single piece. If I did that, I’d probably want to bind the inside seams, even if I finish the edges on the serger.

It will be a minor miracle if I ever get this Hobby Lobby fabric made into a jacket.

Class handouts are almost complete. One class still needs a handout, and for that one, I need to knit some samples so I can take photos.

I’m teaching a beginning sewing class (pillowcases) for the homestead foundation this weekend. That’s always a lot of fun. We’re supposed to get more snow, too, followed by another deep freeze. It’s February in Montana.

Snow and Scraps

I think the National Weather Service has revised its guidelines for issuing warnings, but I am not sure those changes were for the better. We’ve lived here for almost 32 years. It seems to me that we only used to get winter storm warnings when something serious was going to happen. Now we get winter storm warnings for typical, average snowfall events. That’s like warning people that it’s going to be hot in July. 😑

I worked on class handouts yesterday morning. The first one I tackled was for a four-hour class on sweater drafting. I opened up my class template file and began writing down everything I could think of that I want to cover. That class is scheduled for the first day of Sew Expo, from 8 am to noon. I’ll have to be careful not to come in like a shining supernova and overwhelm people who haven’t finished drinking their coffee.

After lunch, I cut scraps. I keep my 5" scrap squares in a clear tote, and when it gets full, I take it to church and give it to my friend, Pat. She sews the squares into comforter tops that get tied and finished to donate to Mennonite Central Committee. It’s a very efficient system. She gave me the empty tote on Sunday and said she could use more scraps. I’ve been going through my bins and pulling out smaller remnants and cutting them into 5" squares. I have all this fabric and it’s not doing anyone any good sitting in bins.

That dark blue print, interestingly, is some old Joann Fabrics yardage. (It must have come in a shipment from my mother.) The fabric says “Richloom” on the selvedge, which is not something Joanns has carried for a long time. The quality is also nicer than what is being sold currently.

My Accuquilt Studio cutter can cut eighty 5" squares in one pass, so it didn’t take long to amass a pile of squares:

I also cut a bunch of tumbler units.

I have a bin of tumblers, too, and I’ve been using the brown ones as leaders and enders as I sew the Tim Holtz quilt top together. Some people begin sewing on a piece of scrap fabric, then follow it with the quilt block or unit without cutting the thread. It’s a way to save thread. If you make your leader (and ender) out of another quilt unit instead of a piece of scrap fabric, it’s possible to sew units for a second quilt simultaneously. When I can’t chain piece, for whatever reason, I try to use leaders and enders, and now I’ve got a nice stack of rows sewn together for a brown tumbler quilt.

The Tim Holtz Correspondence top is finished.

I need to get a backing for it. Our quilt store carries Tim Holtz yardage and I know they have something that will coordinate with this line.

More class handout work and some sewing is on the schedule for today. I’m in no hurry for spring to get here.

Two More Months of Winter (At Least)

Last week was insanely busy, with lots of meetings. I have to chair a fundraising committee tonight, but other than that, this week’s schedule is clear. (I’m whispering again so the universe doesn’t hear me.) This week will be devoted to class prep for Sew Expo. I’m teaching seven classes. A few of the classes are new and need handouts. The rest are classes I taught last year, but I need to pare down the handouts a bit to reflect the shortened class time. Classes are 2-1/2 hours, which is so awkward. I wish the organizers would make them three-hour classes.

Don’t laugh, but I think I’ve found the jacket pattern I want to use for the blue quilted Hobby Lobby fabric:

I will never have to buy another jacket pattern ever again—I now own them all. 🤪 I like the pink zipper version on the left. I will make it with the lower welt pockets but I’ll leave off the upper patch pockets. I’ll probably lengthen it a bit, too, but I’ll determine that when I make a muslin of the pattern. Alissah, the designer, has a YouTube video on constructing the jacket. That will come in handy when I do the welt pockets, because—of course—I couldn’t visualize how to put them together from reading the instructions.

I am sure we’ll all be happy when I stop dithering and finally make a quilted jacket with that Hobby Lobby fabric.

One of my followers suggested the Megan Nielsen Hovea Jacket pattern—that one is full of value for the money because it has five different variations. Maybe for a future jacket.

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The husband asked me yesterday if I’ve ordered seeds yet. I haven’t, but I need to get on that soon. When we first moved here, I was very optimistic and thought that spring began in March. 🤣🤣🤣 It took a couple of years, but I finally had that beaten out of me. Even with a greenhouse, I don’t usually start seeds until the middle of March at the earliest, and only for some crops. Beans and squash don’t take long to germinate, so they get started later in the spring.

I’ll make a list, though, and get the order in this week. I’m growing for us and for the plant sale, so it’s usually a substantial list.

The lettuce is coming along nicely:

My container of Texas Tomato Food was out in the greenhouse, so I stopped by on the way home from town one day and retrieved it. I use the TTF to feed the lettuce. It will grow without it, but the TTF provides some extra nutrients.

We were under a winter storm watch until Wednesday morning, but that’s been changed to a winter weather advisory. Cold air is coming down from the Arctic and moisture is coming up from the south, but it looks like those two things will collide over Missoula. We’ll get the cold air but likely not much snow.

Hello, February

I finished making the blocks for the Tim Holtz Correspondence quilt:

It looks very denim-y to me. This isn’t my favorite Tim Holtz line but I like how this quilt turned out and I am happy to have used up some stash. Now I just have to sew the blocks together. The pattern called for 32 blocks and a border; I had enough fabric to make 45 blocks (5 rows by 9 columns) and I am going to leave off the border. This is a generously-sized lap quilt.

I’m sure I’ll use that Fat Eights Flapjacks pattern again. It was easy to piece.

We’ll see if this has scratched my quilting itch for a while. I am ready to work on some clothing projects again. I did all that work last fall to get a pants sloper that fits me and I really need to put it to use.

The husband and I were eating dinner last night when I heard the UPS truck pull in. We have a great UPS guy—he’s here so often that I make him a batch of chocolate chip cookies every so often as a thank you. He brought a package addressed to me, which was odd because I hadn’t ordered anything recently. Inside was a very special gift!

My friends Robert and Deana came to visit in September. At the time, Deana was shopping for an embroidery machine. She makes and sells items at local craft fairs. I put her in touch with one of the ladies from our Thursday sewing group who does a lot of embroidery. Later in the fall, she bought a new machine and has been embroidering up a storm. She made me this custom-embroidered hoodie and all the letters are made up of sewing motifs! She said she used her brightest thread colors because she knows I don’t like muddy earth tones, LOL.

I will get a lot of use out of this. Thank you, Deana! 😘

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We have a gathering here this morning for our semi-annual church conference meeting. I’ve hosted this gathering every year for the past several years. A group of us used to attend the meeting in person, but traveling to Portland was always dicey in February. During the pandemic, the conference organizers moved the meeting to Zoom and have continued that tradition. I’m a bit bummed not to have a reason to go to Portland in February, but a Zoom meeting is better than nothing. This year, the focus of the meeting is on the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism.

I hook the computer up to the television so everyone can see the meeting and it works nicely. We’ll have soup for lunch and lots of other treats to snack on.

Good Stuff But Not Much Sewing

The grant meeting I went to Tuesday morning was very interesting. The Whitefish Community Foundation exists to give money to local Flathead Valley nonprofit organizations. Our local volunteer fire department’s support organization participates in the Great Fish Challenge every summer, which is a five-week event during which each group has to raise at least $25,000. Those funds are then matched in part by the Community Foundation. Our homestead foundation is not big enough to participate in the Great Fish Challenge, but they have some smaller grant programs for which we qualify.

Being a small community organization is both a blessing and a curse. We have a lot of community support, but we don’t have the infrastructure that larger organizations do. Many of the organizations attending the meeting on Tuesday have paid staff. The Whitefish Community Foundation wants all of their participating nonprofits to use QuickBooks, which our organization does not—yet, but we’ll be moving to that shortly. I’ve been on several nonprofit boards and they tend to be filled with people who want to do good work in their communities but who don’t always have a solid understanding of basic business principles. When I joined the board of the homestead foundation and built the new website, I included features that allow for passive income streams. We have business sponsors, we can take payment for memberships and events online, and I am in the process of setting up a merchandise store where we can sell things like T-shirts, aprons, and tote bags with our logo and other artwork on them.

After the grant meeting, I went to one of the assisted living facilities in town. Several members of our congregation live there and they invited us to a hymn sing at 11 am. We ended up with a group of 12 people from our church. Half of us stayed for lunch. The food in their dining room is very good and we all had a lovely visit.

[I am not kidding about the Mennonite singing thing. All you have to do is mention singing and a bunch of Mennonites will show up.]

Ruler class yesterday was a lot of fun. It is so gratifying to witness those “A-ha!” moments in a class when students understand a concept or master a skill. I also had a good chat with the store owner’s daughter, who runs their website and social media. She has some intriguing ideas about the podcast and ways we might work together.

As predicted, the only sewing that is happening this week has been on the Tim Holtz Correspondence quilt.

I finished sewing thirty-two of these units together. They need to have another rectangle sewn to the ends and then I can assemble the top. This has gone together quickly.

This is What I Do All Day

Let’s revisit that question of what I do all day, because this week is a good example of everything I do rolled into one.

My number one priority is the Schuster-Szabo empire. I run the business end of the construction company. We have 4-5 employees, depending on the time of year. I do all the paperwork and bookkeeping—basically, anything that doesn’t involve the actual pouring of concrete. The husband often says that if it weren’t for me, he’d be part of the underground economy. He has no interest in any of that stuff. And I am OCD about tracking every last penny. I reconcile the bank statement every month and our accountant has everything he needs to prepare our tax returns by the end of January. Have I mentioned how much I hate QuickBooks?

I am on the board of the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation. That is our local community organization. The Foundation owns the property on which stands the original 1927 schoolhouse as well as our community center where the sewing group meets on Thursdays.

I built and manage the Foundation website, produce the quarterly newsletter, and I am the chairman of the Fundraising Committee which meets once a month. I am also the chairman of the annual plant sale. Last year, the Fundraising Committee set a goal of raising $25,000. We beat that by over a thousand dollars. That sounds like a lot of money, but half of that is earmarked just for keeping the lights on and the doors open. Our insurance premiums alone are $6000 a year. This morning, I’m going to a presentation by the Whitefish Community Foundation to see about possible grant opportunities for our organization because we would like to renovate and improve the 1927 schoolhouse building.

I produce a weekly podcast. (Yes, I am going back to a weekly schedule.) That isn’t generating much income at the moment, but I enjoy it and will keep doing it. I have met a lot of very fascinating people.

I teach sewing (and knitting). I have a class on ruler quilting scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at the quilt store south of town. I’ll be teaching at Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA, at the end of February. I enjoy teaching and probably would travel more except that I promised the husband that I would confine my roaming around to the Pacific Northwest. Traveling does take a lot of time and it’s very disruptive.

I am the pianist at the Mennonite Church. Every Sunday. As part of that position, I’m on the worship planning team. I am also currently the chairman of the pastor search team. Our previous pastor retired in the fall of 2022 and we are searching for another pastor. There are five very devoted people on the committee with me. I enjoy working with them, although that position comes with a lot of expectations and pressure.

The daily chicken chores are partly my responsibility and I do 90% of the work in the garden. The husband helps with the heavy lifting, but starting and growing all of our crops—as well as half the plants for the Homestead Foundation plant sale in May—falls under my purview. All of the food canning and preservation is my responsibility.

In short, I am not sitting around doing nothing. I know that people look at me and think, “Well, she doesn’t have a real job so she must have all the time in the world.” Ha. (The husband reminds me frequently that I do have a real job as the CFO of the construction company.) Most of the time, I enjoy the way my schedule is set up. It’s only when people assume that I am their paid staff and treat me as such that I get annoyed.

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Recording today’s podcast interview was a lot of fun. I got an e-mail from a woman in the Netherlands a few weeks ago. She asked if I would be interested in visiting with her about how she created her own custom dress form. She had a local company do a 3D scan of her body, then sent the files to another company to have them make a foam copy of her body. She set up a website to help other sewists do the same thing for themselves. I finished that interview thinking what a shame is is that we’re on opposite side of the planet, because she would make a great sewing buddy. And I am kicking around the idea of making myself a custom dress form.

That Was a Learning Experience

The quilted jacket is done.

Eh. It’s not really something I would wear. Those sleeves are enormous and annoying. I’m glad I made the pattern—even with all the issues—but I am going to move on. This one goes into class sample storage.

I started tracing the Tamarack jacket pattern yesterday afternoon. I have another chunk of prequilted fabric with which to make a test version. Kate, at The Confident Stitch in Missoula, had a wonderful Tamarack on display in the store. She’s also done a video showing how she made it. She and I are about the same size—although she’s a bit taller than me—so her comments about sizing were helpful as I have been dithering about which size to make. That pattern doesn’t call for seam finishes on the inside. Kate serged the edges of her pattern pieces and I thought they looked fine.

So much goes into good design. I follow a menswear writer on Twitter (@dieworkwear) who posts some great examples of good and bad design in men’s clothing.

******

Sailrite has a great YouTube channel. I love watching build videos while I sew and they’ve done some fascinating ones, like the ottoman with a quilted top. The problem is that the husband and I are such tool junkies that now I am wondering how I could justify getting a tempered glass cutting mat and a cordless hot knife. 😇 I told the husband the other day that women just cut webbing and seal the ends with a lighter; men created a specialized tool to do the same thing.

Sewing has to take a backseat this week. I have half a dozen appointments and meetings on the schedule and I am teaching my quilting class on Wednesday. That one will happen because I have students signed up. I’ll keep the Tim Holtz quilt pieces next to the sewing machine so I can work on that project here and there as I have time. That may be all that happens in the sewing room this week.

Quilted Jacket Hell

All of this started because I thought the blue quilted fabric from Hobby Lobby would make a nice jacket . . .

The store in Missoula would like a quilted jacket class. They carry Riley Blake fabrics, so the owner asked me if I would consider teaching this pattern:

Sure, why not. I might decide that I like it enough to make it up with the Hobby Lobby fabric. And if I am going to teach this pattern, I need to make it up so that I can locate any possible landmines for the students ahead of time.

On the surface, it looks like an easy pattern—two fronts, two sleeves, a back, and a collar. Edges finished with binding. The pattern calls for three yards of quilted 44" wide fabric. I don’t have time to quilt three yards of fabric for a jacket right now, so I bought some solid pink pre-quilted fabric from Joanns. It’s not of the best quality, but it worked for testing.

[When I finally use that Hobby Lobby fabric, it will be in a pattern that has been thoroughly tested.]

The pattern pieces are printed in four different colors on one large piece of paper. The pattern pieces overlap, so they have to be traced. There are no grainlines or notches. I traced the pattern and cut the pieces Friday afternoon and started working on this yesterday morning. I thought it might take me 3-4 hours.

Riley Blake has a video about making this jacket on their YouTube channel. I watched a bit of it before I got started. The process looked reasonable, although I wondered why they hadn’t shown the actual sewing of the shoulder seams. Then I tried to sew my shoulder seams.

The fronts were 2" longer than the back at the shoulder seams. Had I cut the pieces incorrectly? I got out the pattern and measured the pattern pieces. The fronts are 2" longer than the back at the shoulder seams.

I adjusted the fronts by cutting back the angle of the V-neck opening so that the shoulder seams matched, then sewed them. One nice feature about this pattern is that all of the inside seams are bound. The jacket is reversible. I was a bit puzzled by the fact that the pattern calls for two different widths of binding. The 1-1/2" binding is to cover the (bulky) inside seams, while the 2" binding is for finishing the outside edges, which are not bulky. I forged on and followed the directions as written. (The directions, by the way, are skimpy and poorly illustrated.)

The 1-1/2" binding is folded in half lengthwise and pressed, making it 3/4" wide—or 6/8" for the math, as you’ll see in a moment. The seam allowances are 1/2" trimmed down to 3/8". After sewing the seam, the pattern instructions have you trim down the seam, then sew the binding along the seam. The pattern doesn’t specify that the raw edges of the seam and the binding should be aligned, although that was mentioned at one point in the video. After sewing the binding along the seam, the folded edge gets turned over the (very bulky) seam and topstitched down. It should look like this when it is done (oh how I love that #10 edgestitch foot):

Let’s do the math. The folded binding is 6/8" wide. It is sewn to a 3/8" seam with the raw edges aligned, meaning that 3/8" of the binding width becomes part of the seam, leaving only 3/8" to be folded over a very bulky seam—because the seam is two layers of quilted fabric!—and topstitched down.

I couldn’t make it happen. And I kept watching the video and thinking to myself that the binding they were sewing over the shoulder seam on their sample was wider than 3/8". From that point, in order to get that binding folded over and sewn down, I had to sew the binding on so that its raw edge was positioned below the raw edge of the seam by at least 1/8" and then trim the seam down even further.

This begs the question of why the narrower binding is specified in the pattern. It doesn’t work. The designer of the pattern is in the Riley Blake video and she says she prefers very tight binding, but this was ridiculous. I wonder if it’s a mistake in the pattern and the 1-1/2" binding was meant for the outer edge and the wider binding meant for the seams. The pattern clearly states to use the 1-1/2" binding for the seams, though.

It took me two hours to get those shoulder seams sorted out. I was able to get the sleeves attached and bound by lunchtime, although the instructions given in the pattern differ from the instructions that were given in the video. In the pattern, the binding is attached on the sleeve side of the seam and folded over to the body and stitched down. In the video, the instructions are to sew the binding to the body and fold it over to the sleeve side and stitch it down, which works much better.

And if I thought that trying to get that narrow binding folded over the shoulder seams was bad, trying to fold it over at the underarm on the side seam—where there are FOUR thicknesses of quilted fabric and two layers of sleeve seam binding—was next to impossible. I got a pair of very sharp, small scissors and trimmed that seam down to within an inch of its life.

Before I topstitched the side seam binding, I decided to attach the collar. The collar piece has to be bound on three sides with the wider binding. I did that, then began pinning the collar onto the jacket from the center back neck out.

The collar was an inch too long on either end, even after having cut back the angle of the V neck to get the shoulder seams to match. I went back to the pattern and measured. Yep, the collar pattern piece is longer than the measurement of the front Vs combined with the back neck.

Sigh. I did a bit more trimming to get the collar to attach to the body properly.

I was finishing up the topstitching on the side/body seam—which requires wrestling the jacket through the machine from one direction as far as possible, then turning it around and wrestling it through the machine from the other direction—when the husband came upstairs and asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner. I love that man.

All that is left now is to sew down the binding around the perimeter of the jacket and attach binding to the cuffs. I was hoping to have a photo of the completed jacket this morning, but it’s going to take another hour or two of work.

This pattern is currently unavailable on the Riley Blake website, although it says “coming soon.” I wonder if they had so many issues with sewists not being able to make the jacket as written that they are revising the pattern. The husband and I discussed this project on our way to dinner. He asked me why I hadn’t just ditched the pattern and made the jacket the way I thought it should go together. I said that if I am going to teach a pattern, I need to make it the way the designer specifies the first time, because the designer may have very good reasons for choosing certain techniques.

Believe me, I understand the work that goes into producing a quality pattern. Mistakes can creep in. On something this simple, though, many of these issues should have been caught in the testing stage. And I am a garment sewist. I suspect that a lot of the people who buy this pattern are quilters who don’t have a lot of garment-making experience. (That may be true of the designer, too.) This pattern is not a good introduction to garment sewing.

I still don’t know which pattern I’m going to use for that Hobby Lobby fabric. I have the Tamarack Jacket and the new McCall’s 8560 to test out. Neither of those patterns appears to have bound seams on the inside, at least from my initial reading. I don’t think it would be difficult to bind seams on either one, though, especially if I use binding of sufficient width. The bounds seams are a nice finishing detail.

We did go out to dinner, stopping by one of the jobsites on the way so the husband could check on a few things. This house is being built on the west shore of Flathead Lake. The views are stunning:

We couldn’t get a reservation at Mercantile Steak—our favorite date night restaurant—so we settled for Famous Dave’s, followed by a stop at Home Depot. The husband is going to put better lighting over my Juki 1541 in the garage so I can see what I am sewing.

A Tale of Two Tops

Stores where I teach like to have display samples. They prefer to have display samples in fabrics they carry so they can sell more fabric. I get that. As much as I can, I try to accommodate the stores. When it comes to clothing classes, I make the display samples in my size so I get some use of out them. (I am providing the fabric.) Also, I think it helps students to see clothing made for real people, not 98-pound models.

The quilt store here in Kalispell carries a fair bit of apparel fabric, including ponte, rayon batiks, and linen/rayon blends. The store in Missoula doesn’t carry any apparel fabric. Making their samples is a bit more challenging. They don’t require students to buy fabric for classes from them, but they want to encourage people to shop at stores other than Hobby Lobby, Walmart, and Joanns. If a student can’t find fabric at the quilt store, the quilt store will send them over to The Confident Stitch. I may specify in the supply list to bring muslin fabric. Sometimes we need to use less expensive fabrics to make the first iteration and refine the fit, because it is demoralizing for students to use expensive fabric on something they can’t wear.

For the Missoula store’s display sample, I chose the Fableism fabric. You’ll see from the photo that perhaps it isn’t technically an apparel fabric, but The Confident Stitch carries it and it did make a comfortable Cadence Top. Quilting cottons, lovely though they may be, don’t usually lend themselves well to garments, although some of the lawns and sateens work.

I wish I had a good way to get photos of me wearing these tops, because I think it would be more informative. The dress form will have to do.

I tested out a mashup of the upper bodice of the Cadence with the lower half of New Look 6543 and I think I have created the perfect woven tee pattern for me:

This is one of the rayon batiks that our store carries. You can see how much flowier it is than the Fableism fabric. I love the way this one fits and definitely prefer the French darts to horizontal bust darts. I also set in the sleeves in via the conventional method and they went in perfectly without the need for any ease stitches.

[I look at this top and I totally understand why I can’t wear store-bought tops—they are a good 6" or 8" too short, and this is far from tunic length on me. It hits about mid-hip.]

I see a batch of these tops in my future, although I am not yet ready for spring sewing. Social media is full of sewists starting to work on spring projects, and I’m going to be wearing sweater knits for at least another two months. I do have half a dozen chunks of rayon batiks in my stash, though, that will get made into more T’s and possibly a dress or two as warm weather approaches.

After I finished this top, I spent some time cleaning and organizing my sewing area. I need to stop procrastinating the pocket construction steps of that Place for Everything tote, so those have been stacked up next to the machine. And because seeing and comparing patterns is so helpful for cementing some of these fitting concepts into my brain, I traced the Amarena Dress (Liesl + Co). I have no intention of making it up right now, but I was able to compare the way it was drafted to the Cadence Top and the Scout Tee.

Honestly, I am a bit tired of making clothes. If I hadn’t had to get the shop sample done, I would have been working on quilts and bags.

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The article about Joanns on the Craft Industry Alliance website disappeared for a bit yesterday. When it was reposted, the photo at the top of the article had been changed. The original photo was obviously an AI-generated image—an amateurish one, at that—and it was called out by several commenters. The photo was removed and replaced with a photo of the front of a Joanns store, along with a note that the Craft Industry Alliance was drafting a policy for use of artificial intelligence-generated images.

I get that AI is almost inevitable at this point, Luddite though I may be sometimes, I realize I can’t stem this tide. However, I wish we would not rush headlong into incorporating it thoughtlessly into every part of our lives. New! Shiny!—Oh, wait, you mean there are some drawbacks?

I’ve dabbled with ChatGPT a bit, but I always feel like I need a shower afterwards. I have zero faith in humanity, and I know AI will be used for nefarious purposes. I just wish we were smarter than that.

So Much Sewing Going On

Sorry, this post got rather long. It’s also a bit heavy on nerdy sewing concepts.

I spent Tuesday afternoon working on the Tim Holtz Correspondence quilt. This project jumped the line, in a sense, but I’m not going to chastise myself over it. I am working on what seems right to me in the moment. As much as I enjoy the challenge of a project like the Place for Everything Tote, sometimes I just want mindless sewing. Balance is key.

I chain pieced units on my beloved Necchi BF:

I haven’t sewn on this machine for a while and I didn’t want it to get lonely.

These are some of the partial blocks:

I still have to sew rectangle units onto the ends of these partial blocks. I like how this is coming together, though. The gray works better as a background than white or cream.

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Hobby Lobby has not yet stocked the Spring pattern releases from McCall’s. I happened to stop in at Joanns while the manager was stocking patterns there, so I asked her if she had any new ones. The store had received a stock of KnowMe and Simplicity patterns but only a few McCall’s patterns. She said that she doesn’t think they will be getting any more pattern shipments until this bankruptcy issue is resolved.

This analysis of the entire Joanns debacle popped up on the Craft Industry Alliance website yesterday. I think it is spot on, particularly this assessment of the overall poor customer experience:

Imagine how different the experience at Joann would be as a customer if from the top-down the company was oriented to make the shopping experience pleasant instead of the “bad garage sale-like environment” of a Joann store.

That sums it up perfectly.

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The quilt store in Missoula wants a woven top class. (Quilt stores are making an effort to fill the gap in apparel classes, at least locally.) I chose the Cadence Top from Love Notions for them. Love Notions has a teaching license system, which simplifies things for everyone. I spent yesterday sewing a Cadence for myself to make sure it will work for the class.

Personally, I’ve stayed away from Love Notions patterns only because they don’t seem to fit me well. I got out the Scout Tee pattern from a few weeks ago—the one I lengthened to fit me properly—and compared it to the Cadence pattern. I was surprised to see that my altered Scout Tee pattern pieces were very similar to the Cadence top pattern pieces. I took a leap of faith and traced the Cadence Top in my size, using the full bust option, with no alterations. I used some of the Fableism fabric I got at Pacific Fabrics last spring to make my version.

I am not unhappy with the way it turned out. I love the way the shoulders and upper bodice fit. I have broad shoulders, so that’s often a sticking point for me. The Scout Tee fits more tightly in the shoulder and underarm area. I also watched the TomKat Stitchery video about making the Cadence Top, and Whitney mentioned that she put the sleeves in flat on her version. How interesting. I always put my sleeves in flat in knit garments, but never in wovens. I decided to try that on this top. They went in without a hitch. That reinforces my belief that most sleeve caps are drafted with way too much ease. I’m not alone: Sleeve Cap Ease is Bogus.

The Cadence Top has a horizontal bust dart. It fits me well in that area, but I went down a rabbit hole and pulled out a top I made last year from New Look 6543. That top—also for wovens—has what is basically a French dart, which is a dart coming up from the side near the waist rather than a dart at the side of the bodice. I think I prefer the fit of the French dart. The waist area seems to be where I have problems with Love Notions patterns. Their block is drafted for someone who is 5'5", so even though the top might be long enough, the waist is in the wrong place for me.

I got the brilliant idea to frankenpattern the upper bodice of the Cadence Top with the French dart and lower half of New Look 6543. (It may not be so brilliant, but we won’t know until I try.) I think what I may end up with is basically the French Dart Shift in top form, but at least I know it will fit me well in all the important places. I’m going to test the pattern today, and you’ll get photos of both tops in a future blog post.

My Precious Tim Holtz Fabric

While I was stash diving for the lining fabric for my red Wool and Wax Tote last week, I was seduced by my Tim Holtz fabric into making a quilt. (Blame it all on the fabric.) I have four fat eighth bundles of the Correspondence line, which is exactly the amount I need to make a Fat Eighth Flapjack quilt.

Fat Eighth Flapjack is a free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop. The thing about Tim Holtz fabric is that many of the prints feature large-scale motifs, so cutting the fabric into tiny pieces defeats the purpose. When I use my Tim Holtz fabric, I try to find patterns that are mostly based on large-ish rectangles.

I paired these fabrics with some gray Kona from the stash for the 3" background squares. I cut the gray Kona on the Accuquilt cutter. The rest of the units have to be cut by hand, but it doesn’t take long.

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I am not sure what it is about zippers. I don’t think that zippers are particularly difficult—or at least I didn’t used to think so—but they seem to thwart me at every turn.

I bought some packages of byAnnie zipper tape-by-the yard for the Place for Everything Tote. I had some time yesterday morning before a Zoom meeting, so I thought I would attach the zipper pulls to the tape per the instructions. The zipper tape is a continuous length of several yards. The instructions have you mark the tape for to the appropriate lengths, after which you are supposed to attach the needed pulls, slide them to each marked section, sew stops between the sections, and cut the tape. The zipper for the outside of the case requires two pulls going in opposite directions. The remaining zippers require one pull.

I’ve put zipper pulls on zipper tape before. There is nothing mysterious or magical about it. I attempted to attach the pulls. They would not move down the tape. I tried the fork method. I watched the byAnnie videos to see if I was missing some crucial piece of information. No luck. Nothing. I struggled with those zipper pulls for almost an hour until I had to go to my meeting.

After the meeting, I tried again. I tried from each end of the tape. I could get the pull onto the tape, but it wouldn’t slide. Finally, I tried this method from Sallie Tomato, which involves cutting one side of the zipper tape shorter than the other to attach the pulls. That worked, although it still took some effort.

I spent way too much time on that part of the project yesterday. 😡

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I changed my podcasting schedule. I don’t like it. Producing it on this new schedule doesn’t flow well or fit into my life the way it used to. I may go back to the old schedule soon.

Barring any more zipper dysfunction, I’m hoping to knock out a few projects this week.