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. 😇

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

A Big Day for the Piglets

The piglets quarantine in the Piggy Palace for a week after we pick them up. This allows them to settle in and gives us a chance to spot little problems before they become big problems. Yesterday morning, the husband did one last walk of the fence line to make sure it was secure, then let the piglets out to explore:

They had a few unpleasant encounters with the electric fence—the only way to learn—and took a mid-day nap in the Piggy Palace. The rest of the time was spent nosing around. This group came back to the Piggy Palace when it got dark, which is great. We’ve had batches of pigs before that decided that the pasture was their preferred place to sleep. With bears around, though, that isn’t the safest place for them, especially when they are small.

While the pigs were out exploring, the husband and I planted potatoes:

We planted the usual varieties: Red Pontiac, Teton Russet, and German Butterball. We used potatoes left from last year’s crop, augmented by a few pounds of new seed potatoes.

Once the potatoes were in, I finished pruning out the raspberry patch and cut back the lavender hedges. And after those jobs were done, I came back to the herb garden and cleaned and weeded the raised beds. If I don’t stay on top of the quackgrass—it came in with the topsoil for the beds—I’ll have a bigger mess on my hands in a few months.

I was a bit sore by late afternoon, but it was that good kind of sore that means that my body is stretching and working.

Today is the husband’s birthday. No doubt he will celebrate it by working. 😃

I tried to finish the Free Range Slacks yesterday afternoon, but things were not going well so I gave up. I know better than to keep pushing when I am making stupid mistakes. I’d like to finish them today, but I also have one last tray of seedlings to transplant.

Lavender in the Strawberries

I tackled the strawberry bed yesterday morning. I still need to do some thinning, but the paths between the rows are clear. The strawberry bed is right next to the lavender hedge, so this was not a surprise:

It’s a lavender seedling. It can’t stay where it is, so I will dig it up and move it to a better location.

The lavender seeds I planted in a tray in the greenhouse never germinated, but seedlings pop up in all sorts of inappropriate places in the garden. Go figure.

The squash seedlings are looking good.

The garden and the greenhouse are my two favorite places to be right now.

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I started a pair of long Free Range Slacks from some black linen yesterday. I got as far as cutting them out and attaching the pockets to the fronts. I am trying very hard to get out of the habit of not working on a project unless I can focus on it for hours and hours, because sometimes I only have 30 minutes. Even if all I can do is rethread the serger and finish some edges, that’s forward progress.

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I bought four more chicks from WS. He incubated eggs last month, including one of our Leghorn eggs. He is keeping that one, but I am curious to see what that chick looks like, with Little Roo as the dad and a white Leghorn as the mom. All of the chicks seem to be getting along. A couple of the chicks might be roosters, but that’s the way genetics works. We will deal with that when the time comes.

I talk to Little Roo several times a day and I think he has learned his name. He stops and looks at me when I call him.

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Our homestead foundation has a YouTube channel and I posted a new video to it yesterday. This video was produced by Rhianyon Larson for an eighth-grade history project in 2016. She placed at the state level and went on to the national competition. She has graciously shared the video with the foundation. It gives the history of our community—called Mountain Brook—and I thought some of you might like to see it. My friend Arlene Johnson makes an appearance and there are photos of some of the people who were our neighbors when we first moved here in 1994.

We really do love it here. This is a special place.

Bursting at the Seams

I am all registered for my classes at Bernina University. I was able to get into the ones I really wanted to take—a class with Amanda Murphy and a class with Gail Yellen, yay!—as well as a few on machine embroidery, threads, and serging. Someone signed me up for karaoke on Friday night. LOL, we’ll see. I also got into a couple of classes focused on helping customers with garment sewing. My sense is that most Bernina dealers lean more toward quilting, but with the demise of Joanns, some may want to expend their inventories a bit. I think it’s great that Bernina is providing support for that.

I will have a full four days, but I am excited to see what I will learn.

My last ruler class was yesterday. The students want to know what else we’re going to do, so I told them I would try to come up with something for the fall.

I ordered Tim Holtz’s latest Palette collection (green) from Fat Quarter Shop and it came this week:

So pretty.

I am hoping to work on the BU jacket today. I need to make a decision about the inside layer. It’s either going to be the silk batting or a layer of flannel. I have plenty of stars and just need to get the pieces made.

The husband and I were commiserating over dinner last night about keeping plates spinning in the air. Each of us has a lot going on right now. I spend a lot of my time taking care of babies—piglets, chicks, and plants. The greenhouse is filling up:

All of the squash and cucumbers I planted last week have germinated. I need to transplant a few more trays of seedlings today and start the melons. I have high hopes for the plant sale this year. Everything looks really good and I think we will have a wonderful selection of plants.

If I don’t work on the BU jacket today, I am going to cut out a pair (or two) of Free Range Slacks. I like that pattern so much that I lengthened it to full-length pants. I spent an hour going through my closet yesterday morning to organize my warmer-weather clothes. I should not complain—I have clothing and the ability to make what I need—but my wardrobe frustrates me. This time of year, I find myself changing clothes several times a day. I put on my chore clothes in the morning to take care of animals and make breakfast and clean up the kitchen. If a trip to town—or teaching—is on the schedule, I change into something nicer. And when I get home, I have to change back into my chore clothes to take care of chickens and water plants.

The husband wakes up, puts on the same kind of clothing every day, and wears it until he’s ready to go to bed. 🫤

A first-world problem, for sure. Even a pair of coveralls wouldn’t solve the problem, because I just don’t want to risk ruining my nicer clothing.

Rollercoaster Ride

Yesterday was a weird weather day. I had a hard time keeping the greenhouse at a consistent temperature. We’re still dropping into the 20s and 30s overnight, so we keep the propane heater running from dusk to dawn. However, that heater has an annoying tendency to turn itself off, randomly, so we keep a backup diesel heater in the greenhouse as well. That one is on a thermostat. We discovered the need for redundant systems the hard way a few years ago.

The husband turns off the propane heater—if it is still running—during his morning rounds. If it gets too cold in the greenhouse, the diesel heater will come on. Usually, though, the sun has come up by 9 am and the greenhouse starts to get toasty just from the solar radiation. I keep an eye on the thermometer, because beyond 45F or so, I have to begin opening screens and vents to make sure the greenhouse doesn’t overheat.

Yesterday, the weather alternated between sunshine, clouds, rain, thunder, lightning, snow—graupel—and everything in between. When the sun was out, I had to open vents in the greenhouse. When it clouded up and cooled off again, I had to close vents and turn on heaters. Wash, rinse, repeat.

[Michael Snyder, who does the Pacific Northwest Weather Channel on YouTube. hates the term graupel. With a passion. He claims it is not a legitimate weather term.]

This is what it looked like in the yard after one system rolled through with thunder and lightning (the toe of my muck boot for scale).

The rest of this week looks like it will be less chaotic, weather-wise. I see forecasted temps in the high 50s and low 60s with just a few showers on Sunday.

Sarah brought over a few flats of plants in the afternoon. She and Susan start seedlings at their houses, but when plants get too big, they move them to the greenhouse.

While all the weather nonsense was happening, I made the samples for my last ruler class, which is tomorrow afternoon.

The first session covered straight-line quilting with rulers. The second was on circles and ovals. Last month’s class featured stars, hexagons, and flowers. This last session is on borders and sashing.

The Stellar jays have been all over the yard this week. I spotted the pileated woodpecker, too. When the husband and I were out working in the garden on Saturday, about 30 jays were clustered in the trees over our heads, squawking loudly. At one point, I stood outside the greenhouse while a jay sat on the fence post 10 feet away and scolded me roundly. I am not sure what they are so upset over, but they surely are vocal about it.

Garden Cleanup

After a lovely Easter service at church, I spent yesterday afternoon out in the garden and greenhouse. The husband and I got quite a bit done even though it was cool and showery. I transplanted a few more trays of plants while he rototilled the garden. I am not a huge fan of tilling—I think it brings up weed seeds and causes more weeds to grow—but it’s the easiest way to get the soil amendments into the ground. He tilled the area where the potatoes were last year. I had mulched the potatoes with hemp waste from our farmer friend. The hemp worked great as a mulch, but our friend warned us that it might make tilling impossible because the hemp is rather stringy. He thought the hemp fibers would wrap around the tines of the tiller. Thankfully, we did not have any trouble. The hemp mulch had broken down over the winter and tilled in nicely. That area has had a lot of rotted straw and now hemp added to it and it is reasonably free of rocks.

Once the area was tilled—that far section—we put black plastic over it.

The squash and pumpkins will go there this year. I grow them on black plastic anyway, so I’m hoping that putting the plastic over the freshly-tilled soil will keep the weeds to a minimum between now and the end of May. Black plastic does not an asthetically-pleasing garden make, but it works. Weeds in Montana are absolutely relentless.

The tomatoes will go in that middle section. They do well there.

Except for the potatoes and the brassicas, there isn’t much to plant until the end of May. I spotted a couple of emerging pea shoots yesterday. I need to keep pruning out the raspberry patch. The strawberry bed also needs some attention. I still have to prune back the lavender hedge. And I can putter around in the herb garden.

After their big day on Saturday, the piglets have been sleeping a lot. They are still babies.

When they aren’t sleeping, they are eating. We will keep them inside the Piggy Palace for most of the week. When they go out into the pasture, the husband will train them to recognize and respect the electric fence.

Piglets

The local community college had an Earth Day celebration yesterday with activities and seminars. Our church’s communications person—who does a great job of highlighting local events—posted about it on our church’s Facebook page on Friday afternoon with the comment, “For all our gardeners, our homesteaders and our climate care advocates… see you tomorrow?”

Alas, this gardener and homesteader did not have time to attend the Earth Day event. That is sometimes the sad irony—we don’t have time to celebrate because the to-do list is so long. Yesterday was a busy day. The husband moved a dozen wheelbarrows of pig manure from the Piggy Palace over to the garden for me.

Pig manure is like nuclear fuel for plants. Chicken manure works, too, but this is the good stuff. The piles will get raked out and spread around before I put the plastic down.

While he was doing that, I raked up dead vegetation into piles for burning. The potatoes are going to get planted where the tomatoes were last year. I move things around from year to year, as much as I can. It confuses the bugs.

I also planted squash and cucumbers for the plant sale. This year, I am trying Burpee’s Butterbush, a butternut squash variety that ripens in 75 days. I’ve been planting Waltham’s Butternut, but it takes 95 days to ripen and doesn’t always make it before a frost takes it out. I’m also trying Burgess Buttercup this year. Buttercup squash is a favorite of a couple of our gardeners at church and often shows up in potluck dishes. It’s very good.

I am going to try West Indian Gherkins again, too. I started those last year and they did really well until I put them outside and they got snowed on (in June). They never recovered. I’ll give it one more shot.

We were due at the pig supplier’s farm at 2 pm to pick up piglets. She supplies piglets for many of the 4-H kids, too, and they were allowed to choose first. We arrived after most of the kids had left. The piglets were out in a big pen in the yard.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wrangle them ourselves. Carol and her kids caught them and handed them off to the husband, who put them into large dog crates in the back of the truck. Pigs hate it when their feet leave the ground, so as soon as a piglet got picked up, it started squealing. Loudly.

I forgot to ask Carol what the breed cross was this year, but I can text her today and ask. They are usually Duroc crossed with something else—York, Landrace, etc.

Late in the afternoon, Susan’s grandsons came over (with their parents) to see the chicks and piglets. They always ask if they can play with the wooden trucks, too, so we let them do that for a while. My dad made those trucks when I was pregnant with DD#1, and they have been a huge hit with little boys.

We have rain in the forecast for today and tomorrow, but then things dry out for the rest of the week. I’m teaching a class Wednesday afternoon. Otherwise, I’ll be working out in the garden.

More Stars and Lots of Tomato Seedlings

This end of this post includes a long discussion about my favorite gene mutation. You won’t hurt my feelings if you skip it.

I finally felt better yesterday after being run over by that virus for two days. I spent the morning out in the greenhouse re-potting tomatoes. My conservative count is something like 250-300 tomato plants. I suspect more. These are not all for me. Most of what is out there is inventory for the plant sale at the end of May. What doesn’t sell there gets donated to the local food bank.

I am pleased with how the plants look. (But of course I forgot to take a picture while I was out there.) I need to transplant a few more trays of seedlings into larger pots and it’s also time to begin planting the squash and cucumbers.

Thursday was cold and windy and we lost power for a bit. I started the generator. Had it just been me, I would have puttered around without electricity for an hour or so, but I didn’t want the chicks to get cold without their heat lamps.

Our pig supplier called and said that weaners will be available to pick up on Saturday. I didn’t think we were going to do pigs this year, but the husband changed his mind a few weeks ago. We’re getting four. The 4-H kids get first choice, which is fine. We’re not raising pigs to show. I managed to get a date on the calendar with our processor for late August. He informed me, though, that he’s retiring after this year. ☹️

This hasn’t been the most productive week of my life. At least I got a little forward motion on the Tim Holtz quilted jacket. I think I am just about ready to start sewing blocks together.

We might plant potatoes this weekend or next.

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I’ve mentioned before that I have done a lot of research on that MTHFR gene mutation that runs rampant on both sides of my family. The last time I saw my naturopath, I said to him that I thought I was mostly dialed in, but it felt like there was still a critical piece of the puzzle missing.

The MTHFR gene is involved in the methylation cycle in the body. The methylation cycle is complicated and affected by more genes than just MTHFR, but that one seems to cause the most issues. I am homozygous—two mutated copies—for that gene, which downregulates the effectiveness of my methylation cycle by something like 80%. The mutation manifests in different ways in different people. My mother has a B12 deficiency. I cannot utilize folate. Other effects can include blood clots and strokes.

[It is also interesting to note that there is a higher incidence of autism in people with this gene mutation. I’m not going to get into that, because it’s a huge topic and the cause/effect is far from clear, but DD#1, who is a pediatric occupational therapist, does a lot of work with kids on the autism spectrum. She and I compare notes periodically on what we’ve found regarding this mutation.]

Because the MTHFR gene codes for an enzyme called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, and the mutation reduces the amount and effectiveness of that enzyme, the focus on “fixing” that gene mutation has always been on folate. It is why foods are fortified with added folic acid, except that the folic acid is synthetic and it actually causes more problems than it solves. The irony is that people with the MTHFR gene mutation do better not eating foods fortified with folic acid.

A lot of medical practitioners will prescribe methylfolate to their patients with this gene mutation. That works for some people. The problem is that other people—me included—cannot tolerate methylfolate. My naturopath and I tried several times to see if adding methylfolate would help me. It doesn’t. I get anxious and angry within a few hours of taking it.

I’ve managed to work around the negative effects of this mutation by taking a B complex with a different form of folate (folinic acid) and a few other supplements. And then I ran across the missing piece. My problem isn’t lack of folate per se; virtually all of my issues disappeared when I began taking 400 mg of riboflavin every day. I started that back in December because every so often I get a swollen tongue and redness around my lips. My dentist remarked on it when I was in to see her in December. I knew it could be related to a B vitamin deficiency—possibly riboflavin—but my B complex had 20 mg of riboflavin in it, which is way more than the RDA of 1.1 mg per day for women. (Riboflavin is a water-soluble vitamin so any excess gets eliminated from the body.) I thought I was getting plenty.

Studies have shown that 100-400 mg per day of riboflavin seems to be a therapeutic dose for those who need it. I started taking 400 mg of riboflavin every day. I told my mother to start at 100 mg a day. (The husband asked me why I was running clinical trials on my family members but my mother is used to me floating these weird ideas. I was the one who figured out she had a B12 deficiency in the first place.) The redness around my lips and the tongue swelling disappeared. The problem wasn’t a lack of folate. The problem was a lack of riboflavin, which is required for folate to be effective in the methylation cycle. And while I didn’t feel bad before—I am fairly healthy and have lots of energy—I feel even better taking the riboflavin. 🤯

It is worth noting here that my mother got headaches at dosages above 100 mg per day of riboflavin. Obviously, she doesn’t need as much as I do.

Here’s the sad part about all of this. Right now, the place where I am finding the most information on this mutation is in the MTHFR forum on Reddit. There are a couple of very helpful, very knowledgable people in that group. One of them has come up with a protocol for people who find themselves with this mutation. I’m going to print out the protocol and give it to my naturopath when I see him in July so he has it for future reference. The protocol starts with optimizing riboflavin levels.

The other new tool in the toolbox is ChatGPT. People are using artificial intelligence to come up with personalized “supplement stacks” based on their genetic data. While I have mixed feelings about AI, I understand the desperation that some people feel. This morning, one of the members of the forum said in a post that, “ChatGPT is light years ahead of my doctors. Not because it has more knowledge but [because] it's actually listening to me.”

I can’t blame doctors. The current medical system is set up to optimize profits, not to help people. and when one treatment shows promise—like methylfolate—they prescribe it to everyone whether it helps or not. (Most B-complexes on the market now contain methylfolate and/or methylcobalamin, which is B12.) When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

I’ll keep chipping away at this. I wish I had had this information decades ago, because I think it could have helped several of my family members, but I’ll use as much of it as I can going forward. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Slow Sewing

I came down with a cold on Monday and it has rather knocked me for a loop. Because I’ve managed to miss everything else so far this winter and spring, I was feeling somewhat invincible. 💪🏻 I can deal with being punky for a few days; the worst part is that I am moving at about a third of my usual speed and things aren’t getting done.

I’ve been lounging around, drinking hot tea, and reading for two days, although yesterday, I did muster up enough energy to sew a few stars for the BU jacket. The 12-1/2" stars are done. Yesterday, I made eight 3-1/2" stars:

The key to sewing blocks this small is thin thread. I used Wonderfil DecoBob 80wt thread and a 75/11 needle. Thread takes up space, and in a tiny block, space is at a premium. This is also one of the few times I press my seams open.

I got out the jacket pattern and did a dry fit with some of the blocks to see what I think:

Here’s where it gets a little tricky. The Beachcomber Jacket pattern doesn’t call for sashing of any kind between the blocks, but I think I might want sashing. (Those open spaces can be filled in with flying geese or half-square triangle units.) I need to think on that some more.

******

The temperature hit almost 70F yesterday afternoon. We’re supposed to get a back-door cold front this afternoon, however, that will bring E-NE winds and much cooler temps.

The six chicks that are left are doing well. The plants in the greenhouse are also coming along nicely. I’ve transplanted some of the tomatoes but have quite a few still to re-pot. I’m also hoping to get squash and cucumbers planted this weekend. And depending on the weather, we’ll need to get potatoes in soon.

Down to Six

It has been a tough weekend to be a chicken farmer. I came home with 12 chicks on Friday, and we are down to six.

I should note that this is not our first rodeo; the husband and I have had chickens for more than 15 years and we know how to care for baby chicks. We used the exact same setup this year that we have used every year.

The chicks seemed fine when I brought them home on Friday. I popped out to the garage several times during the day to check on them, counting each time to make sure we still had 12. The husband came home for dinner and I left for a meeting. When I returned a few hours later, I looked in on the chicks—and only counted 10. The husband had gone out to check on them while I was gone and found two dead ones.

I had another meeting at church all day Saturday. Before I left, I called the farm store. They were not expecting a shipment of chicks that day, so they offered us a refund on the two dead ones. Their policy is to offer replacements or refund on any chicks that die within 24 hours.

Mid-morning, I texted the husband to ask how the chicks were doing and he texted back, “Nine.”

Yesterday morning, I cooked breakfast while he went out to check on them. He came back and said two more had died.

And when I got home from church, I found another one languishing. It died later in the afternoon.

I just checked on the six that are left and they all seem to be doing fine.

The husband and I talked about trying to get more, but at the rate people are losing chicks this year, there doesn’t seem to be much point. I talked to our UPS driver last week—he and his family have almost as many chickens as we do—and he expressed frustration, too. He got chicks in March and half of them died within the first week.

It is what it is. We chalk this up to circumstances beyond our control and go forward from here.

********

I spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse yesterday afternoon transplanting tomatoes. I am pleased with how things are growing out there. Planting squash and cucumbers is on the list for later this week.

My focus for the past five days has been on church stuff. We had an outside consultant come in to help us with some visioning and identity work related to our pastor search. The process was worthwhile, but I was in charge of much of the planning and I’m a bit worn out. I need a few hours this morning to reorganize and get my feet back under me.

Peeps, Finally

I was at the farm store by 7:00 am yesterday morning and fourth in line. Three ladies were ahead of me, so we had a nice chat between ourselves and with the people who got in line behind us. At 7:30, an employee came and opened the door. We all filed in and another employee put our names down on a list and told us to come back at 9:45.

I came home, turned the lights on over the brooder box, and filled the waterer and feeder. I was back at the farm store by 9:45 along with a lot of other people. I chatted briefly with one of the women who had been in line with me earlier. Another woman standing next to me asked me what number I had, and when I told her, she said, “What time did you get here this morning?” I responded that we had been there by 7:00 and she said, “Oh, wow. I am number 37.” I thought to myself, “Lady, you’re not going to get any chicks,” because the store had only received half a shipment.

The employees began the process by giving out replacement chicks to customers who had purchased chicks previously that died within the first 24 hours. A few people came forward to get theirs. The three ladies ahead of me wanted either ducks or a variety of chicks. When my number was called, I asked for 12 Cinnamon Queen chicks. We need a red breed this year—each year, I get a different color so we know how old each group of hens is—and my choices were either Cinnamon Queen or Rhode Island Red. I went with the new variety. The ChickenFans website has this description:

Cinnamon Queen is a recent sex-linked hybrid breed. It’s gaining popularity because of its attractive name, ease of maintenance, and hardiness. Cinnamons are a mix of two well-known chicken breeds, the Rhode Island Red and Silver Laced Wyandotte, where the RIR is the rooster and the Wyandotte a white hen with black lacing. The result is a reddish-brown female and a white male, so their sex can be told immediately after hatching. The name ‘Cinnamon Queen’ finds its origin in the cinnamon-colored hens. The breed is quite large and heavy, being a dual-purpose breed bred for meat and eggs. Roosters weigh approximately 7.5 pounds (3.5 kg), and hens are tipping the scale at 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg).

I paid for the chicks, sped home, and got them into the brooder box.

They seemed to be doing well for most of the day, but we lost two last evening so we’re down to 10. Honestly, I am not surprised. I noted that a couple of the chicks looked like they were a few days old, but the rest of them looked like they had been dispatched from the hatchery within hours of hatching, and being shipped thousands of miles in a cardboard box is stressful. The husband may run in to the farm store this morning to get replacements. I can’t go because I have a meeting.

I checked on them a few minutes ago* and the rest of the chicks seem to be doing fine. Even if we end up with just 10, I will be grateful for every single one of them. WS came over yesterday afternoon to get eggs for his farmstand and said he has eggs in the incubator. We might also be able to purchase a couple of chicks from him.

*One of our neighbors got photos of a grizzly at his place the other night just a mile south of us. I had to walk out to the garage to check on peeps, and it occurred to me that wandering around outside in my bathrobe at 4:30 am might be less than wise, but I didn’t see any bears.

*******

I took a few minutes to sew late yesterday afternoon and was able to assemble a couple of stars:

This is one of those projects where I don’t know exactly how much fabric I am going to need, and while I think I have plenty, I am trying to be very careful with cutting.

We have a workshop today at church, so I am going to be tied up with that all day.

I See Stars

The Tim Holtz fabric I ordered from Fat Quarter Shop came this week, but I was still dithering about what to use for the BU jacket. I pulled out my bin of Tim Holtz fabric—not an insubstantial amount—and laid it all out on my cutting table. I like to do that because that helps me to see which fabrics play well together. Of course, two fabrics I hadn’t considered decided they liked each other. Who am I to argue with fabric?

I am sticking with the Sawtooth Star block because I’ve already wandered far enough off script with this project. The Beachcomber Jacket pattern specifies 12" and 6" stars. I will make three 12" stars—one for the back and each front—but I am also adding in smaller stars because of that two-piece sleeve.

And rather than use the print fabric for the centers of the larger stars, I am going to use additional stars to give a “star in a star” look. (Anything worth doing is worth doing in excess.) That print, by the way, contains a tiny bit of the same teal that’s in the background fabric, which is why they coordinate well.

I’m using the Eleanor Burns Flying Geese rulers to make my stars. I used that same set of rulers a number of years ago to make a quilt comprised entirely of flying geese units. It’s a bit of a strange method and it does waste a small amount of fabric in the trimming, but I found it gives me an excellent result. And I think it will be a more accurate method when it comes to making tiny flying geese for the smallest stars. 🤯

So that’s where this project is at the moment. I make flying geese units whenever I have a moment or two to sit down at the machine. The ones that don’t make it into the jacket will get used for another project.

My friend Anna gave me the baking sheets that I use to lay out my blocks. They are too big for either of our ovens, but they make great design boards.

******

I lengthened the Free Range Slacks pattern into a pair of trousers. I want to make some black linen ones for summer.

The weather has improved considerably since last week, though, and I need to attend to outside tasks. I pruned apple trees yesterday afternoon. I have a hard time with pruning because I don’t feel like I do it well. I know the rules and follow them, but I always worry that I’m taking off too much. Of course, everything I prune always comes back with a vengeance, so I should just get over myself.

I’m going to run into the farm store this morning to see if I can get chicks, but this is the last attempt. If I can’t get any today, we aren’t going to do chicks this year.

Chickens and Slacks

I knocked out the Free Range Slacks yesterday and I can safely say that this pattern will get added to the tried-and-true collection. They don’t look like much on the hanger, but they fit very well:

The pattern includes some thoughtful details to keep these from looking frumpy. (I kept thinking while I was sewing them that I wasn’t yet ready to move from the Liz Claiborne department to the Alfred Dunner department at JC Penney.) There is a side panel with topstitching that would lend itself well to all sorts of fun fabric patterning. The pockets are nice and deep.

Many of the reviews I’ve seen complain that the rise on these is too high. Maybe for some people. I thought it was close to perfect—how often does that happen?—although I might raise the front another inch.

I might also grade down to the next smaller waist size. I made the regular version of the pattern, not the curvy version, and maybe I need the curvy version. The instructions have you measure the elastic for the waistband by wrapping it at your waist and adding 1/2". I did that and the pants wouldn’t stay up. I ended up taking 2-1/2" out of the elastic to get the pants to fit properly.

The only other adjustment I made was the “flat seat” adjustment. I didn’t want the pants to be baggy in the rear. The pattern includes an entire page devoted to fitting adjustments, including this one:

I shaved off about 1-1/2" from the crotch extension. Being able to compare this pattern to the StyleArc Linda pants was helpful.

I should have someone take a photo of me wearing the pants so I can check the fit on the back, but they feel good when I am wearing them.

The pattern also includes a version with a tapered leg. Honestly, I have had enough of tapered-leg pants over the past several years, which is why I made the wide leg version first, but all the tapered versions I’ve seen are very attractive. The wide leg version is capri length, but I want to make a full-length pair, too.

The fabric is the denim I bought at the quilt store on Monday. I thought the label said 100% cotton, but it feels to me like it has some rayon in it. Whatever the content, it was lovely to work with. I need to check the stash to see what other fabrics could work. A black linen pair would be very useful for summer. Or how about a pair from some Kaffe Fassett cotton sateen? I could go nuts with these.

The Tim Holtz fabric I ordered for my BU quilted jacket arrived Monday. I had some of it in the stash but needed a few more fat quarters and the background fabric. I’m going to start working on that project next.

Super Greens

I planted peas Sunday afternoon. I also started repotting tomato seedlings. I am very pleased with how things are looking in the greenhouse. Some time this week, I need to get out and prune fruit trees.

The husband bought this at the auction this past weekend:

I am so excited. He bought it because he thought it would be useful when we butcher chickens—which it will—but I asked him if I could have it in the garden for the summer. It will come in handy for cleaning and washing off produce.

Other women desire diamonds and pearls. A good stainless steel table makes my heart beat faster. 😂

I took a walk around the garden after I finished planting peas. I continue to be amazed at what survived the winter under the snow. More lettuce:

A few collard plants made it. This is a cold-hardy variety, but still—that doesn’t mean anything in Montana.

Collards are technically biennials, so I am not sure if I will be able to harvest the leaves off of them this season or if they will head straight for flowering and seed heads, but it will be interesting to find out. Maybe they will be like parsnips. I planted those once, about eight years ago, and every year I find them in odd places in the garden.

This is why I am not always in a rush to pull out plants at the end of the season. One never knows what might come up in the spring.

And the poppies are in a hurry to get going:

I need to move these over to the herb garden.

******

My mother got her robe yesterday, although it took from Wednesday to Monday to travel from Montana to Cleveland via Priority Mail. 😑 She said it fit “just right.”

I have the Free Range Slacks pattern and plan to start those today. The quilt store had a bolt of some really lovely denim in a lighter weight, so I’m making the store sample from that fabric. (I should have taken a photo of the end of the bolt.) Before I traced the slacks pattern, I laid the Linda pants pattern from Style Arc over the pieces to compare them. The two patterns were close enough in size and shape that I didn’t alter the Free Range Slacks pieces. I really need to know how the originally-drafted pattern was intended to fit so I know what changes the students might need. This is why garment classes aren’t just a matter of “Come in and learn how to sew this top (or pants)!” It does no good to learn how to sew a garment if the end result isn’t going to fit.

Missing That Critical Piece of Information

I played around with patterns on Friday but don’t really have anything to show for it; the process was more about fitting refinements than anything else. After lunch, I made the second of the two waxed canvas zipper pouches for the gift basket project. I’ll hand those off at the next Homestead Foundation board meeting.

Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours at the fire department auction in the morning, made a quick trip to Joann Fabrics, then came home. Unless our Joanns gets a big shipment of merchandise in the next week or so, nothing else remains that I need, and seeing the store prepare to close is like watching a dear friend die of cancer. I can’t imagine the mental fortitude it must take for the employees to get up and come to work every morning.

After lunch, I decided to revisit the byAnnie “A Place for Everything” pattern. That project has been languishing because the zippers were such a hassle. I bought the zipper tape by the yard and could not for the life of me get the zipper pulls attached. I watched the byAnnie videos. I tried the fork method. I cut down one side of the zipper tape. I removed part of the zipper coils on one side. Nothing worked. Yesterday, in desperation, I pulled up one more video on YouTube. The woman in the video said, “Here is the secret to getting the zipper pulls onto the tape,” and then she calmly demonstrated how to insert each side of the zipper tape at a 45-degree angle on each side of the pull until it clicks, grasp the tape, and pull down.

I tried her method and the zipper pull slid down the tape like kids at a playground. HALLELUJAH! It took me 20 minutes to attach all my zipper pulls and clip the zippers to the corresponding pieces of vinyl:

I watched the byAnnie videos and read the instructions and I cannot recall seeing or reading these specific instructions to insert the zipper tape into the pull at a 45-degree angle. Why not? It would make the process so much simpler! Certainly, it would have saved me a couple of hours of frustration.

I am now ready to move forward with this project. So many zippers, though. 😵‍💫

******

We have had many requests for a pants class at the quilt store. Now that I’ve had the Kenneth King pants drafting class, I feel a bit more capable of dealing with some of the more common pants fitting issues, although I am by no means an expert. I just know more than the students will know.

The store owner’s daughter suggested the Sew House Seven Free Range Slacks for the class:

I think this is a great choice. You all know how much I love my Toaster Sweaters. And Sew House Seven has some of the best sizing and fit guidelines on their website of any of the indie pattern designers. I think this will be fun.

******

I have got to get the peas planted this afternoon. Today is supposed to be sunny and close to 60F, but rain is predicted for most of this week. Today is the day to do it.

Coming to a Quilt Store Near Me

I happened to check my computer yesterday just as our local quilt store was beginning a special Facebook Live post. The big announcement? Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably are coming to the store for three days in September to do a lecture and two workshops.

Kaffe Fassett! I immediately went to the workshop page and signed up for the lecture and the Economy Block quilt workshop. (As of last night, that workshop had sold out.) I think it was pure serendipity that I happened to catch the Facebook Live—the universe was being especially kind to me yesterday.

I love Kaffe Fassett fabric—I have three Kaffe cotton sateens in my pile of wovens waiting to be turned into tops—but he was a knitter long before he was a quilter and a fabric designer. I have been seeing his work since the 80s and 90s. I am so excited about this, I can hardly stand it.

The lecture will be held at the Flathead High School auditorium, so there are plenty of tickets available for that event if you’re local and want to attend. Check the Quilt Gallery website for more information.

*******

Yesterday was crummy. The back door cold front coming down from Canada brought wind with it for most of the day, in addition to snow and rain. I stayed inside and made the muslin for McCall’s 8560. This is the pattern I will use for my Bernina University quilted jacket because there is much to like about it.

I might be able to go down one size, but I am going to stick with the size I made. The length is perfect. The sleeves are made using two pieces, with an elbow dart in the back piece. They fit extremely well and avoid that “tubes sticking out of the body” look that comes with a lot of these kinds of jackets. I am not a fan of the curved hems at the sides, so I will make the side hems straight on my BU jacket.

I’m not crazy about the dropped shoulder sleeves, either—I never have been, in sweaters or in sewn garments, because they make me look like a linebacker—but I am not sure I want to do the work of making them fit more like set-in sleeves. I have to think on that a bit more. I also need to experiment with battings. I want the jacket to have some drape, as much as it can have being quilted. I have some silk batting and I wonder how that would work. I will report back.

I’m sewing while I have the time because the weather is supposed to improve and I will need to be outside. I’m going to try making a Kashi dress today to test out that pattern.