The Take a Stand Bag

I had an entire blog post written this morning, but before I could hit “publish,” it disappeared. That’s why I am late posting today.

I finished the byAnnie Take a Stand bag sample for the store. They are selling this as a kit with the Glacier batik fabric:

I wish I had positioned the motifs a bit differently, but this is a directional fabric and I was limited to the fabric that was in the kit. I do like that fabric, though. I have some yardage in the light blue colorway. Now that I have made one of these, it would be fairly simple to make another one. I still have quilted fabric left from the Place for Everything tote project.

I teach a machine mastery class at the store on the first Monday of every month, so that’s where I was yesterday. I had five students. We spent the morning on machine basics and did embroidery after lunch. I am learning along with the students. We embroidered an ice cream cone using one of the built-in machine motifs:

I really need to get my embroidery machine up and running. I have some non-sewing work to do this morning, but perhaps I can play with it after lunch. Or I may finish the Amanda Murphy table runner. I bought more thread yesterday when I was in the store. I also got binding fabric.

I think the universe heard my comment about editing sewing patterns . Marianne designed a quilt with a line of fabric that is coming out in a few months and it’s hanging at the store. I offered to write up the pattern for it. I enjoy writing patterns. I actually enjoy writing up class handouts, too. Writing up this quilt pattern has given me a reason to get back to playing with Electric Quilt 8.

I feel like I have finally wrested control of my schedule back from other people. My days going forward will be mostly filled with Schuster-Szabo empire management (LOL) and sewing. Making the first batch of spaghetti sauce is on the schedule for tomorrow.

The days are still up in the 70s but it was 40F when I woke up this morning. Some of the squash vines look like they may have been kissed by frost. The squash are in a low spot in the garden, so I won’t be surprised if they call it quits soon. I am going to try very hard to get as much garden cleanup done this fall as I can. Future me will be very thankful next spring if there is less to do.

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DSIL finally got his exit orders from the Coast Guard, so he and DD#1 will be moving back to the lower 48 at the end of the month. I am excited, because this means that when I go to Washington state, I get to see all the kids. The two of them are looking for a house to buy, but inventory is tight where they plan to live. It may take a few months to find something. They’ll live with his parents in the meantime.

Green Melons

This time of year is all about bringing in the harvest. After dinner Friday night, I cleaned the apples off the Red Wealthy tree. I am a bit concerned about bears raiding the orchard, and the trees are small enough yet that a very determined bear could push one over, or at least pull down several branches. We have two loaded Honeycrisp trees, but those apples need another week or two to ripen.

Yesterday morning, I hauled in a wagon load of tomatoes:

That Little Tykes wagon has really come in handy, LOL.

I take the tomatoes off the vines as soon as I see any red and bring them inside to finish ripening. Too many animals like to take a bite out of one and leave it to rot. (I am looking at you, turkeys.) I’ve already put about 10 bags of ripe tomatoes in the freezer.

Note to self: Aunt Gladys and Cherokee Chocolate tomatoes are going into permanent rotation.

I spotted two ripe cantaloupes, so I brought those in, too. I always grow Minnesota Midget melons. They are the only ones that ripen reliably. I had a bit of a surprise when I cut into the first one, though. It wasn’t orange inside:

At first I thought it wasn’t ripe, but I tasted it and it was delicious. And the weird thing is that is tasted like cantaloupe, not muskmelon.

I have noticed, over the past couple of seasons, that seeds aren’t always breeding true to what is on the package. Peppers were a huge problem two years ago. I planted what I thought were green bell peppers—according to the label—and got hot yellow banana peppers instead. I’m not sure what is going on. I’d keep the seeds from these, but squash and melons are notorious for cross-pollinating and who knows what would grow out of them.

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I’ve been running out of supplies in the middle of projects lately and it’s very annoying. I had an hour yesterday to work on something, so I started quilting the background of the table runner. I have to say, this is the nicest swirl quilting I’ve ever done:

However, I ran out of bobbin thread and discovered that I must have used up my spool of light gray thread on another project. I have a lot of thread, but do you think I could find another spool of light gray thread? Nope. So this project also has stalled until I can get to the store. I probably could have finished the quilting yesterday and gotten the binding attached if I had had more gray thread.

And this is why I keep a lot of supplies on hand. I like projects to roll smoothly through the pipeline.

I think I may start working on the Upton dress from Cashmerette. I’ll at least make a muslin of the bodice to see if I have to make any adjustments. I shouldn’t have to, because the full bust adjustment is baked into the pattern, but we’ll find out.

A Forest of Serger Trees

The husband is home and I am officially off pig duty. It was breezy yesterday but we did not lose power and no trees came down. Temps have cooled off, too, which is lovely. Yesterday’s National Weather Service briefing from the Missoula office predicts thunderstorms and potential drenching rain for Monday and Tuesday. We’ll see what the Sunday briefing says.

I hit a minor impasse with the Glacier batik fabric project so I went as far as I could yesterday and set it aside. That gave me a chance to finish the Amanda Murphy table runner project. This is the pattern I thought might make a good class until I started working on the decorative chainstitching on the trees.

For all that the chainstitching was so tedious, the finished runner is gorgeous. This is one of those projects that I keep going back to look at because I think it’s so lovely. The runner still has to be basted with a backing and batting and the background quilted. Here is a closeup of one of the trees:

The chainstitching on the trees was done with metallic Glamore thread on my L890 serger. The trees and the background triangles were stitched together—wrong sides together—with a three-thread wide overlock stitch with silver Glamore thread in the upper looper, creating the decorative seam along the side of the tree. The seam was pressed to the side to show off the stitching and the thread.

The background fabric came out of the stash and I think it worked perfectly.

I might still decide to do this as a class. One change I would make is to enlarge the squares from which the trees are cut. If a person is going to go to all the trouble of chainstitching a square and then cutting it down into a triangle, why not make it big enough to cut TWO triangles out of it? That seems to me to be a bit more efficient, especially if making the table runner and the matching placemats.

Once the chainstitching was done and all the pieces were cut out, the assembly didn’t take that long. I doubt I’ll use this as a table runner, though. I think I am going to hang it up instead.

While I worked on this, I listened to the latest Threads Magazine podcast episode, which featured an interview with Kenneth D. King. I had the great fortune to take a trouser drafting class last October with Kenneth at the Sewing and Design School in Tacoma. (I still need to make some pants off that pattern . . .) I’m going to listen to this episode again because it was so full of wisdom. At one point, Kenneth said something along the lines of, “You have to burn through acres of fabric to acquire a base of knowledge”—I am paraphrasing—and that really resonated. It’s why I sew so much. I am trying to acquire that knowledge and build a broad base of sewing (and serging and quilting) techniques.

After I finished the table runner, I spent an hour cleaning and organizing. I am very organized in most areas of my life, but my sewing space always looks like a tornado went through it. I can’t work in a sterile, minimalist environment. I need a certain level of chaos to be creative. (Weird, huh?) Every so often, though, the chaos gets a bit out of control and has to be reined in. The decks have been cleared and I am ready to make some lists and prioritize my fall sewing projects.

Homesteading Works Better With Two People

The husband has been in Colorado for the past several days. His father passed away a few months ago and the house needs to be sold. We got the go-ahead from the lawyer to list it, so he drove down there to fix a few things and meet with the realtor. He should be home this afternoon.

Solo homesteading is doable, but it’s much easier with two people. He feels the same way when I am traveling. And I haven’t been handling it with as much grace and humor as I ought, mostly because I am tired of the hot weather. The pigs were supposed to go to the processor at the end of August, but both the husband and the processor wanted to push that date back, so the pigs are here for another week yet. We’re buying bags of feed for them instead of 1000-pound totes so that we don’t have feed left over. They ate through all the bags of feed I bought before the husband left. (We thought it would be enough.) I went to the supplier to get more, but the supplier is out of bags of pig finisher and is only selling pig finisher in bulk. I could take the tote up there in the plow truck and have it filled, but I have no way to get a tote of feed off the back of the truck and over to the pasture. The husband does it with the forklift, and my forklift skills are not up to that task. Instead of pig finisher, the pigs are getting ground barley, which is the only feed the supplier has left in bags.

So I am hauling 40-pound bags of ground barley over to the pasture in the golf cart and emptying them, scoop by scoop, into the feeders until the bags are light enough for me to lift up and dump the rest in. It’s hot. And smelly. And there are flies. Thankfully, I don’t have to go into the pasture with 1200 pounds of pig, which is good. The feeders can be filled from outside the Piggy Palace.

Whine, whine, whine. As I used to tell my girls, “This builds character.” The worst part is that I have to keep changing my clothes, because I don’t want to do chores in good clothes and I can’t go to town (or sew) in my chore clothes, not when they smell like pig.

We’re under a wind advisory for today, too, because of a back-door cold front. The winds from the northeast just started picking up when I woke up this morning. I am hoping no trees come down. I can start the generator if the power goes out, but if a tree takes out the fence to the pig pasture, we may have pigs wandering the neighborhood. 😮 I am stocked up on marshmallows just in case. Pigs love marshmallows.

And while I’m grousing, I am going to complain about the US Postal Service. “Service” is a misnomer. We were expecting an Express Mail envelope last Friday. It contained some things the husband needed before he left for Colorado on Saturday. The envelope arrived on Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, the husband had a contingency plan and he managed without them.

I was also expecting an accessory for my new Bernina 700 PRO embroidery machine. The tracking info indicated that it, too, was supposed to be delivered Friday. I was hoping to get it so I could work on a project while the husband was away. The package never showed up. It didn’t come on Saturday. Sunday has no mail delivery. I got an e-mail saying it would be delivered on Monday—odd, because that was a holiday, but we do occasionally get packages on Sundays and holidays. About fifteen minutes after I saw the USPS mail van drive past my house on Monday, I got another e-mail saying the package couldn’t be delivered because “the driver couldn’t access the delivery location.” Huh. As far as I know, nothing was blocking our driveway.

We got no mail at all on Tuesday. Apparently, our regular mail lady was on vacation and her substitute didn’t deliver the mail. I had given up hoping the machine part would arrive because all the tracking information showed was that it was stuck at the post office in Kalispell. As of 5 pm yesterday, we still had no mail. Amazingly, though, the package finally arrived around 7 pm, delivered not by the mail lady but by someone helping her:

It looks like they slowed down and tossed it out like a newspaper. Fortunately, it was packaged well.

I do have to give props to our mail lady, who finally delivered Tuesday and Wednesday’s mail at 9 pm last night. None of this is her fault, and I am sure she stayed out late last night so she wouldn’t have three days’ worth of mail to deliver today.

Somehow, in 2025, I didn’t think we’d have so much friction in our lives. Progress is supposed to mean that things get easier, not more difficult. The US Postal Service seems to be a metaphor for much of what is wrong these days.

If you made it this far, thank you for listening to me whine. I will leave you with a photo of a new project, but you’ll have to wait to find out what it is:

Isn’t that fabric pretty?

Guicy Guice and Annie Unrein

Every year, the Quilt Gallery likes to offer something back to the community of quilters that supports the store. This year, they brought in Guiseppe Ribaudo—who designs under the name Guicy Guice—and Annie Unrein, owner of byAnnie. Each of these sewing rock stars presented a three-hour lecture. I attended both.

Guiseppe gave a presentation on color theory.

I know the basics, but he did an even deeper dive and applied it to quilt design. I learned so much. One of the points he made was that “low volume” is a bit of a misnomer. Low volume fabrics—as the term is currently used—are subtle, light-colored fabrics featuring delicate prints. He said that they should more properly be called “low value” fabrics. I understand his point completely. Good luck getting quilters to change. 🫤

At the end of the lecture, he split attendees into seven groups and sent them out into the store to gather bolts of fabric. Each group was given a specific color:

He then showed us how to mix and match those bolts of fabric to create different quilt combinations.

Guiseppe was a designer for Andover Fabrics but recently moved over to Free Spirit. During his presentation, he also gave us a bit of a glimpse into what it’s like to be a fabric designer.

The store offered a light lunch, and at 12:30, Annie Unrein began her presentation.

Annie is a bag designer whose company, byAnnie, has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 10 years or so. I’ve made half a dozen of her designs, including the Place for Everything Tote pattern I just finished. The story of how she started and grew the company was fascinating and she filled her presentation with lots of tips and tricks for making her bags.

I also got to meet one of my podcast listeners. I was at the back of the room during Annie’s presentation when one of the store staff came back and whispered in my ear that one of my podcast listeners was up at the front of the store. I ducked out and went to meet her—she didn’t know I was at the store. Her name is Cindy and she and her husband were driving across the country from Michigan to Seattle. I should have taken a photo with her but I wasn’t thinking fast enough.

She’s the third or fourth not-local podcast listener who has come to the store this summer.

One of the lecture attendees was Cassandra Zaniboni, who recently moved from Oregon to Kalispell. She is a young mother of three who designs for Windham Fabrics. The store is carrying her new line, Willow Bend. I chatted with her for a couple of minutes, too.

It was such an amazing day.

Getting home was not so amazing; I left the store, stopped at the bank to deposit a check, then went to Walmart to pick up a few items. It took me 52 minutes to get home. The traffic was absolutely insane. I used to be able to get to town or from town to home in 25 minutes, tops.

Today looks like the last hot day on the schedule; after this, we drop back down into the 70s. I’m ready for it.

Let's Celebrate!

Happy National Sewing Month! (I’m glad we get a whole month, not just a day or a week. 😊 ) I have lots of sewing-related events on the calendar this month, so it’s a good time to celebrate.

We’re looking at two more days of 90-degree temperatures and then I think summer is going to give it up for fall. This heat is making the tomatoes happy, but I wilt when it gets above 80F. I stayed inside and sewed. The Roundabout Bag is done:

I think I’ve about gotten bagmaking out of my system. This one was not a difficult sew—certainly no more difficult than a byAnnie bag—but I am ready to get back to garment sewing. This is some of the only Tula Pink fabric in my stash. I am not a big Tula fan, but this is a sewing-themed print so I bought it.

The instructions were good, although I do wonder if I could set myself up as a sewing pattern editor. (Like I need another job.) I have enough trouble with spatial stuff that I am the perfect person to tell you if your instructions make no sense. In terms of design, if I made this bag again, I would interface the lining fabric with something like SF101 instead of foam. Two layers of foam makes for a lot of bulk. It’s a cute bag, though, and it was fun to see it all come together.

I submitted my formal class proposals for Sew Expo yesterday and finalized the layout of the postcard for the craft co-op market. That goes to the printer this week. I also updated the craft co-op website with new photos. The only big project left on my list is updating the homestead foundation website, and that’s on the schedule for tomorrow.

This is going to be a short post. I should have more to write about tomorrow.

It's a Small Suitcase

I’ve got three fairly large not-sewing projects going at the moment. In an attempt to be disciplined, I am not allowing myself to sew until I spend a few hours moving them along the pipeline. The project I worked on yesterday morning was the digital layout of the marketing postcard for the craft co-op sale. The first draft is done and has been sent to the rest of the committee members for their input.

After lunch, I finished the Place for Everything Tote:

This bag really does have a place for everything. There are pockets galore on the removable inside pages:

What a great bag to take to classes and retreats. I included the D-rings for the strap but I haven’t made the strap, nor do I think I will add one. The Bernina 880 had no trouble with the thicker layers, although that outside binding took me a solid couple of hours. Each of those outside seams has to be sewn three times: once to assemble the bag, the second time to attach the binding, and the third time to sew down the binding. Oof. I sewed slowly using a denim needle and the #8D jeans foot with the dual feed engaged.

Speaking of retreats, one is happening this weekend here in Kalispell. Pink Door Fabrics, a store in Frederick, CO, hosts what they call the Sew Fancy Retreat every year. From what I can tell, it moves around the country. This year, they chose to have it at Snowline Acres, which just happens to be the venue where DD#1 had her wedding reception in 2020. The husband also did some concrete work there. Click on that link and go look at the photos. The teachers for this year’s retreat are Guiseppe Ribaudo and Annie Unrein, which is why they are coming to the store on Tuesday to present lectures.

Rather than start the Running With Scissors pattern, I took a small detour. I picked up this pattern at the store last week. Would I use a purse like this? Probably not, but sometimes I make things because they are fun to sew.

This is the Roundabout Bag by Cotton Street Commons. I thought I might make one in some of my Tim Holtz fabric, but I couldn’t find a combination I liked. Instead, I pulled out some Tula Pink fabric and am using that. I got as far as quilting the main bag pieces—fabric and foam stabilizer—before I stopped for dinner.

Sewing and Spiders

The Place for Everything Tote is so close to being finished. I clipped the zipper loop to the front piece yesterday morning but had to set the project aside to deal with more pressing issues:

I’m hoping to sew and bind the last two seams this morning so I can cross this one off the list.

Two sewing celebrities will be visiting the quilt store this week to give lectures. The store is hosting Annie Unrein, owner of byAnnie and designer of the Place for Everything Tote. Also visiting is Guiseppe Ribaudo—known as Guicy Guice—who is a fabric and quilt designer. I’ve got tickets to both lectures and am very excited. And, of course, we are T-minus three weeks until Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably’s visit. September is National Sewing Month, so all of this feels very appropriate.

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Warning: If you don’t like spiders, stop reading. I don’t mind them. They eat the bugs I don’t like.

Yesterday morning, I opened the kitchen door and was dazzled by a huge web in the corner of the door opening. Sitting in the middle of the huge web was a huge spider—about the size of a quarter. I think it was feasting on the moths flocking to the porch light. I wished the spider a good morning. I also took a picture. I have been debating about whether or not to share the photo but I don’t want people to run screaming from the blog so I’ll let you use your imagination.

Just before the husband left for work, we noticed that the spider had vacated the web to hide in the top of the screen door track, so the husband removed the web with a broom. I looked for the spider later in the day but didn’t see it. I didn’t use the screen door yesterday.

This morning, I came down and opened the kitchen door expecting to see the web and the spider again. Nope. Hmmm. Then I happened to look up. The spider had spun a web above the kitchen cabinet next to the door—inside the house. I have no idea how it got in. I won’t disturb it. It can stay there and dispatch the stupid flies that always seem to be buzzing around this time of year.

Note: It does not look like a dangerous spider, at least not to humans. We’ve lived in this patch of forest for 32 years and made our peace (mostly) with the other residents. Some days I think we might as well just live outside with the rest of them.

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I’m going to take some time today and assess the sewing to-do list. Unless I figure out a way to expand the space-time continuum, I can’t make everything I want to make. It’s time to prioritize. And we’re in that weird transition time between summer and fall. I have to check the forecast before I get dressed to make sure I am garbed appropriately. Should I make any more warm-weather tops or go with what I have and begin sewing with sweater knits? Or should I just make bags and other items until we’ve settled into colder weather? 🧐

What Makes a Good Class?

I will say one thing: Getting up at 3:30 am and having the husband out of here an hour later leads to a very productive day.

[I actually woke up at 2:30 am because the pager went off for a medical call. Once I’m awake, I can’t get back to sleep. And we had a worship team meeting at 6:00 pm last evening, so yesterday was a Very Long Day.]

I started working on this pattern after he left, thinking it might make a good class:

I love Amanda Murphy—I have every single one of her quilting rulers and use them frequently. This is a wonderful design. I am just not sure it would make a good class. There are a lot of steps and I found them a bit tedious. The trees feature decorative chainstitching using Glamore metallic thread. The chainstitching has to be done before the tree gets cut out. And chainstitching has to be done from the back side of the fabric, so the design has to be drawn out ahead of time on interfaced fabric:

(In case you were wondering, all of my machines are set up as flatbed machines. I hardly ever use the free arm.)

The result is very attractive, but it’s not quick:

I soldiered on until lunchtime, then put the project away. I still have to chainstitch two more trees.

My rule is to multiply how long it takes me to make something by three to determine the length of the class. At this point, we’re already at a 12-hour class. 🫤 The pattern includes instructions for placemats, too, so those might be a better choice.

I heard from the Sew Expo class coordinator yesterday. She has chosen four of my classes—only one of which is a knitting class!—and said she may add one or two more as she rounds out the schedule. I am delighted. I taught six classes last year and that was a lot, so even if I only teach four, it will be worth the trip. I have to complete my formal proposals now for the chosen classes and submit them to her.

After lunch, I worked on the Place For Everything Tote. I can see the finish line:

All that is left to do is to assemble all the parts. I had a moment of panic when I couldn’t find the pieces to make the zipper gusset, but I located them hiding under another piece of fabric. Whew. I am hoping to have this done by the end of the weekend. The inside seams have to be bound and I expect that to take some time.

I had enough of this pink quilted fabric left over to cut out the byAnnie Running With Scissors pattern, so that one will be next up in the queue.

Early Morning Concrete Pours

We are up early again this morning because the husband is pouring at 6:00 am. This is a hard time of year for him; all the contractors are calling because they want their foundations in before the weather turns. He is not a morning person. These kinds of days require copious amounts of coffee.

I spent yesterday morning on (never-ending) paperwork and phone calls. Our insurance agent is working hard to find us—and probably several other businesses—another carrier.

After lunch, I finished the Kaland Weekender Tote. It came together quite nicely. I really liked the way the inside pockets were made. They have little pleats at the bottom:

I would give this design and pattern a solid A. The only change I made—and it was a minor one—was in the zipper casings at the top of the bag.

I compared this bag to my travel tote to see what kinds of mods I might need to make. My travel tote is much deeper, but the sizes are otherwise comparable. Re-creating that travel tote is going to be a winter project for sure.

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I’ve been overdosing on zucchini bakes for the past week:

This is just zucchini, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning. It makes a great breakfast food.

Here is the tomato report thus far: The Oregon Star and Northern Ruby paste tomatoes are coming on strong. Northern Ruby has become a very close second favorite to Oregon Star. The tomatoes aren’t as large but there are tons of them.

Cherokee Chocolate may have taken over from Cherokee Purple as another favorite. These are huge! I’ve had several that are over a pound each. I got a variety called Earl from Sarah, which is also producing enormous and very tasty tomatoes.

I cannot find my green tomato varieties. I know I have Cherokee Green and I may also have Aunt Ruby’s. I have been squeezing the green tomatoes on all the vines—which is the best way to find the ripe green ones—with no luck. They may not be ready yet.

The Blue Boar Berry plant is loaded and those are just beginning to ripen, as are the Red Pear. I think I also have Yellow Pear but haven’t seen any ripe ones yet. I’ve gotten a ton of yellow tomatillos but the other tomatillos, the ground cherries, and the cape gooseberries are a bit further behind.

The weather looks to remain hot and dry for another week, at least, so I won’t have to worry about an early frost. Unfortunately, I don’t think the monsoon moisture coming up from the southwest is going to make it this far north.

Our Local Treasure

I may be biased because I teach there, but the Quilt Gallery truly is a wonderful store, and much of that is due to the owner, Marianne Buller. She is my special guest on today’s podcast episode. It took us a few months to coordinate our schedules, but we sat down last week for a conversation and talked for almost an hour. You can download the episode at Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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We received a notice in the mail yesterday that the company that underwrites our commercial liability policy for the construction company is not going to renew it. They claim that insuring concrete work is no longer “within their appetite.” The fact that we have never filed a claim with them seems to be immaterial. I will call our insurance agent today to see if we can get coverage with another company.

That’s just one example in the pile of stuff on my desk at the moment. I’ll be tied to my office chair for most of the day.

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I ran errands yesterday morning and that always takes longer than I think it will. The only sewing that happened was making part of the tote lining:

I worked a bit on the zipper facings for the top of the bag, but I think I am going to do them slightly differently than instructed.

I harvested all the apples from the State Fair tree last night after dinner. Our trees are not huge; they are only about 15 years old and are on semi-dwarf root stock. Unfortunately, that means that the deer can get the low-hanging fruit, and we have had a couple of determined young bucks stripping the lower branches. I was able to get a big box full of beautiful apples. I don’t spray my trees—more out of laziness than anything else because I barely get them pruned in the spring—and I have very few problems with insect damage. I am of the opinion that spraying trees selects for resistant pests and lowers the ability of the tree to fight them off. People have told me the bugs just haven’t found the orchard yet, but if they haven’t found it after 15 years, they must be very stupid bugs.

The Honeycrisps and Red Wealthy apples need another couple of weeks yet. My Lodi tree did not produce this year. Susan offered me a box of Duchess of Oldenburg apples for pie filling, so I’ll can those up this week. The husband will eat the State Fair apples.

3D Printing is Amazing

I think 3D printing is the coolest thing ever because it provides solutions for all sorts of problems. I have many presser feet for my Bernina 880. That machine came with a storage case for accessories, but it only has room for about a third of the presser feet I own. Bernina also used to make a storage tower for its feet, but for some reason, it is no longer available. Enter Utah3D. Utah3D’s Etsy store offers all sorts of cool 3D-printed accessories, including this storage tower:

This rotating storage tower can be customized with lots of different foot holders, trays, and other nifty add-ons. My regular feet fit in one holder (top) and the coded feet fit in a different holder (bottom). I love it. A specific foot is easy to find when I need it and they aren’t rattling around in a drawer.

Last week, while transporting my Sterilite tote full of serger class samples to my class in Missoula, one of the handles broke off. Arrrgggghhh. How annoying. I came home and googled for replacement handles and DesignCraft3D’s Etsy store popped up. I ordered a set of handles and they came within a few days:

They are much sturdier than the original handles, and they have a screw where they fit into the tote instead of the cheap plastic piece that is prone to breaking.

I have no desire to get a 3D printer. I will happily give money to the geniuses who come up with these useful solutions.

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The Kaland Tote is coming together surprisingly quickly. I finished the exterior yesterday afternoon:

The zipper tape is from Sallie Tomato. It’s black #5 zipper tape with gold nylon teeth. I have to say, the zipper pulls went on SO MUCH MORE EASILY than the byAnnie zipper pulls. I’m using beefier 1-1/2" wide webbing for handles because I think they are appropriate for the size of the tote and because I had that size in my stash. The waxed canvas that Quilt Gallery is carrying now is lovely to sew. I did most of the assembly on my Necchi BV industrial. The 880 would have handled it, but I wanted to sew on the BV.

I need to pick up a few things in town today and then I can finish this tote. I’ll keep plugging away on the Place for Everything project, too, because I know I am about two-thirds of the way there.

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I felt sorry for the poor woman working dispatch yesterday. I was listening to the scanner while I sewed on the Necchi BV. She was fielding an insane number of accident and fire calls, some of them really bizarre. South of us, in Lake County, highway patrol had to chase some idiot in a pickup truck who was screaming down the highway; he eventually crashed, but not until after they closed the highway and put down spike strips. Thankfully, he didn’t kill anyone. I know I sound like an old fart, but this is not the valley it used to be. And it’s why I try not to go anywhere on the weekends, because weekends seem to be the time when the crazies are out on the roads.

Puttering on a Saturday

I finished the crazy quilt pillow Friday afternoon. I am quite pleased with it:

If it doesn’t go to the store for display, I will use it as a class sample. The backing is Grunge in a color that matches the thread in the quilting.

I was a bit at loose ends yesterday. Some of that was because the husband’s schedule got messed up, and what I do occasionally depends on what he is doing. He was here when I thought he was going to be out cutting concrete, so he went out to his shop while I recorded the rest of Tuesday’s podcast episode. (That was no hardship for him.) After that, I attached the embroidery module to the 700 and was going to play around with some simple designs, but I need to watch a few more videos.

I spent the rest of the day puttering around on a few projects. I’d like to finish my byAnnie Place for Everything Tote especially because Annie Unrein is coming to give a lecture at the store on September 2. My PFE tote stalled weeks ago at the point of making straps. I don’t like to make straps, but the project can’t move on without them. I sucked it up and made the straps. The next step is to make front and back pockets. I could have started those yesterday, but I need one more zipper. A pile of cut bias strips was staring me in the face so I sewed them together instead.

And finally, I gave in to temptation and cut the pieces for the Kaland Weekender Tote by SOTAK Handmade:

I know I am going to have to recreate my beloved traveling tote at some point, and this pattern is the closest to it in both design and size. (I still will have to make some mods but I’ll have the basic foundation.) I am using some Moda canvas for the upper portion and a chunk of black waxed canvas from the store for the base. The interior lining is a remnant of some Bonnie and Camille fabric from their Vintage Modern line, which tells you how old it is because Camille Roskelley hasn’t designed fabric with her mom for several years now.

I got all the pieces cut and labelled just before dinner. I made a HUGE bowl of potato salad for the husband because he loves potato salad and we needed something to go with the leftover meatloaf from Friday night.

I will tell you something about my workflow: I have what some people probably would call an insane amount of supplies, all in labelled bins. I am not a minimalist who buys only the supplies I need for a given project. I have a “deep pantry” of sewing supplies precisely because I can’t just run out and get what I need when I need it. That is even more true now that Joann Fabrics has closed. When I decided to make that Kaland Weekender Tote yesterday, I was able to pull literally every single item on the supply list from what I have on hand.

The husband is much the same way. He has a shop full of tools and a wall of bolt bins and everything else he needs because he can’t just run to Napa or the hardware store in the middle of a project.

The estate sale our kids hold after we’re gone is going to be a DIYer’s dream. 😂

Fun With Piping

I have most of the accessories for my Bernina serger, including the XL Piping Foot. Piping is easy to make on the serger and I prefer to do it that way because it keeps the fabric from fraying. Smaller piping is made using the small and large piping feet, but Bernina has an XL foot that allows for jumbo piping using 6, 8, or 10mm cord.

For fun—because I can—I decided to make some 10mm piping for the crazy quilt pillow. I cut black-and-white striped fabric on the bias using the Accuquilt cutter. Gail Yellen has a wonderful video demonstrating how to use the XL piping foot, so I followed her instructions to set it up.

It took just a few minutes to make enough piping for the pillow. I still have to make the pillow back, but I’ve got the piping clipped in place:

I am hoping to finish this pillow today. I need to get some projects crossed off the list before I start anything else. The problem is that I have so many ideas. 🤯

I set up the 700 PRO yesterday, too, although I didn’t have time to play with it. My next mastery class isn’t until September 8, which gives me some time to go up that learning curve. The Bernina We All Sew website features many free projects designed to help sewists—and teachers who have to teach these classes—learn new techniques. I think I might make some of the embroidered pincushion projects.

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It is very windy here this morning. The wind changed direction last night and is coming out of the east, back off the mountains. Hopefully, no trees will come down. We’ve been up since 3:30 am because the husband is pouring at 6:00 am and had to be at the jobsite bright and early. I’ve got a long list of tasks I want to tackle today, but I also have a podcast interview to record at 11:00 am.

I feel like I fell down on the gardening stuff this summer. Part of that was my schedule—I chaired the plant sale at the very end of May, then June was stuffed full of meetings and big events right when I should have been planting and tending to the garden. I want to get as much prepped this fall as possible so I don’t have to do it next spring. I need to prune out this year’s bearing canes from the raspberry patch. If the husband has time, I’d like to have him bring the track loader out to the garden to do some leveling and to plow under a couple of rotted stumps. The area where I am growing tomatoes this year needs to have the black plastic pulled up so we can amend the soil with rotted straw and pig manure.

Every year is different, and this year just wasn’t a big production year.

More Parrot Clothing

Sewing in bits and pieces is not my preferred way to work, but the schedule is going to be like this for at least another week. I’m just trying to keep things organized in my sewing room. That way, if I have some time, I can pick up a project and keep it moving forward. I’ve got the backing fabric for the crazy quilt pillow and the fabric for the piping. Making piping won’t take long and neither will making an envelope back for the pillow. I had an hour before dinner last night and was able to get close to finishing this latest Kaffe top:

All that left to do is the bottom hem and the elastic for the sleeves. I chose to make this one with the longer puff sleeves from the original Burda 6146 pattern.

I think this is my most favorite Kaffe print ever. Love love love.

DD#2 texted me a photo of a dress she bought to wear to a wedding next month. It’s a lovely turquoise blue with a large—but not loud—flower print. I told her how pretty she looked in that color and that she should wear it more often. She tends to dress in a lot of neutrals, but she looks lovely in beiges and browns, unlike her parrot of a mother.

I find it so interesting that I have Winter coloring but I ended up with one child who (we think) is a Spring and one who is a Fall.

I watched this YouTube video yesterday and was delighted to discover that the sewist had made herself a top using a Kaffe Fassett wideback in the blue Millefiore print. I also have a top in that print. When Kaffe visits the store next month, I may drop some not-so-subtle hints about adding apparel fabrics to his line. I suspect the fact that I will be wearing my Kaffe tops made from widebacks will be a not-so-subtle hint.

I asked the owner of the quilt store where I teach if she’d sit down for a podcast interview with me. She was more than willing, but it took a couple of months for us to get our schedules coordinated. We recorded it yesterday afternoon. I loved hearing more about her life and how she ended up owning a quilt store. That interview will be next week’s episode.

And I got my new Bernina 700 PRO embroidery machine on Tuesday but haven’t had time to unbox it. I bought one because I am going to be teaching the sewing and embroidery mastery classes. The 880 came with an embroidery module—which I can use on the 700, so I didn’t have to buy one—but I use the 880 so much for regular sewing that I didn’t want to tie it up on embroidery projects. I am hoping to get that machine set up this weekend to begin learning what I need to know.

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The squash and cucumbers are at the height of production. I am watering every day because we are in a spell of hot and dry weather that looks like it will last until the end of August. My friend Debbie stopped by yesterday morning to get some dill. It’s all over the place out in the garden. Some things I’ve only had to plant once.

Squash Roundup

No matter how carefully I label plants, I always seem to end up with some mysteries in the garden. I have some squash I can’t identify.

Anna asked for Georgia Roasters again this year, so I have two of those plants:

I grew Winter Luxury Pumpkin again for pies:

I threw in a white pumpkin just for fun:

I have no idea what this is.

It sort of looks like a zucchini—both plant and product—but not really. These may end up going to the chickens. Sarah might know.

I’m also growing Burgess Buttercup and Butterbush Butternut. The plants are growing, but not as vigorously as in past summers when it was really hot. This year has been cooler and rainier. We’re supposed to have a week of hot weather, so perhaps they will catch up.

Every year is different.

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I had a whole day at home yesterday. I tackled all my paperwork in the morning, recorded today’s podcast episode, then spent the rest of the day in my sewing room. I am trying very hard to finish some existing projects because I have a terrible case of startitis. I traced off clean copies of my woven top patterns and the Amarena dress pattern. I have to make one final muslin of the dress to make sure it fits properly before I cut into the good fabric. I need a few more thrift store sheets.

As soon as I get some backing fabric, I will turn that crazy quilt serger project into a pillow.

I did cut out and start making another top from a Kaffe Fassett wideback, mostly because I had the correct color thread in my serger. I can rationalize anything. 😇

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DD#1 called in the late afternoon. She and her husband were in Washington state last week because he was interviewing for a job there. He has been the dentist at the Coast Guard station in Ketchikan, Alaska, for the past four years. He would have liked to stay in the CG, but the two of them wanted to come back to the lower 48. His only option, really, would have been to transfer to Cape May, New Jersey and no one wanted that. He has taken a job in Port Angeles, Washington. They are beginning the process of moving back and finding a place to live.

Some time in the next two months, all of the kids will be in Washington. That will make traveling a bit easier for all of us.

What Shall I Sew Next?

I finished the front of the crazy quilt pillow:

The pattern specified that SF101 or a similar medium-weight interfacing should be fused to the back of the piece. Amazingly, in my frenzy to stock up as Joanns was going out of business, I did not get a bolt of SF101, so I used fusible fleece instead.

I would have finished this yesterday, but I need a backing for it. I think I am also going to do some piping around the edge. I have the fabric for that.

This was a fun project, but I am not an improv person.

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I have a several patterns sitting on my cutting table. One is Butterick 6736 that I posted a couple of weeks ago:

I waited for it to go on sale at the Simplicity website. It arrived on Wednesday. I am itching to make this in one of the new cottons that came into the store. Those fabrics aren’t out on the floor yet, so in the meantime, I might make View B (left) in a floaty rayon.

Walmart carries a limited selection of patterns. I bought Simplicity 9376 the last time I was there:

Views A and B have a pintuck running down the front. View D has pleats and cuffed hems. These seem short to me, so I will have to check them against the StyleArc Linda Pants.

And lastly, Vogue 8977, long out of print. I found one on Etsy:

I like the pleats at the front neckline. I am hoping to mash this up with my perfect woven tee. I think the darts at the sides may be a bit redundant, but we’ll see. I probably won’t do that style of back, only because I don’t like my back to be cold. I will make the length of View C.

You might wonder why I am buying patterns when I could adapt the ones I have that fit me well. The short answer is that it is incredibly educational for me to look at and compare patterns. I laid my woven tee pattern on top of the Vogue pattern and was happy to see that the length of view C is the same as the length of my woven top. That is a good length for my height and proportions.

And that’s why I take fashion and styling advice with a grain of salt. If you look at the styling websites advising how to dress an “8” figure—sausage tied in the middle—many of them will tell you to wear belted dresses (ugh) or peplums (double ugh). I ran across one site last week that proclaimed tunics to be verboten. I’ve been looking at myself in the mirror long enough that I know what looks good on me and what doesn’t, and highlighting my short waist and high hip curve is not flattering.

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I cut the grass yesterday morning and then it did rain. I brought in zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The tomatoes went into the freezer for sauce. The extra zucchini and cukes may go to church with me this morning. I also dug up enough potatoes for potato salad to go with the spare ribs I made for dinner:

I think these are Red Pontiac (?). I didn’t label the potatoes this year. We will have a nice haul of potatoes to put in the root cellar.

Bring Back Common Sense

I went to Missoula yesterday to teach a serger mastery class. Only one student had signed up, but the store pays me to come and teach no matter what. I also had to register the husband’s new work truck. I can only do that at a place called MVD Express, because Flathead County will no longer process vehicle registrations for vehicles purchased by LLCs. You would think that there would thus be an MVD Express office in Flathead County, but you would be wrong. That would require using common sense. The closest one is in Missoula.

[I also found out the other day that local mail no longer stays here to be processed, like it used to. All mail now goes to Missoula to be processed before coming back to the Flathead to be delivered. Again, a complete lack of common sense, but that seems to be the theme these days. Never do anything efficiently that can be dragged out and made more complicated.]

My student had just purchased an L890 serger. We had great fun going over all the features and she went home excited to use her new machine.

I commented to the owner before class that every time I come to the store, they’ve added new items. She told me that they had to hire an additional staff person because their traffic has increased so much. I have no doubt that is a side effect of Joann Fabrics closing. I hope that continues for all the quilt stores.

After class, I stopped at Walmart; the store in Missoula is the only one left with a decent remnant rack. Our store still has a remnant rack but it’s usually empty or close to empty. I picked up a knit fabric for a future dress:

I still need to work on perfecting a good knit dress pattern for myself because I have a couple of lengths of knits like this in the stash.

I happened to arrive at the MVD Express office during a lull. Normally, one has to make an appointment, but they also take walk-ins if they aren’t busy. The earliest appointment I could make online was August 26th, so I was happy they were able to fit me in yesterday. Twenty minutes later, I walked out with the completed paperwork and a set of plates for the new work truck. Yay.

I also popped in to The Confident Stitch downtown. They had some lovely Robert Kaufman lightweight cotton in three colors: black, white, and navy blue. I bought black to make myself a nice black top and now I am wishing I had also gotten the navy blue. Next time.

Traffic was steady, but not awful despite it being a Friday afternoon in August. I stopped at the Amish store for a scoop of ice cream (Strawberry Cheesecake) on my way home. So good.

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Speaking of making things complicated, I didn’t think I hated QuickBooks enough but they have added so much junk and made the user interface so busy that I want to cry every time I log in. Dialog boxes and windows pop up every 30 seconds or so, interrupting my workflow. The stupid AI Assistant constantly asks me if I need help. I don’t know who thought that adding all this useless stuff was a good idea, but it’s driving me nuts.

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Rain is in the forecast for this afternoon, so I am going to cut the grass this morning. Hopefully, this will be the last time this season. The husband reminded me that we don’t have an HOA where we live and no one is going to send us a letter if the lawn isn’t manicured, but I want to do it. Riding the John Deere around the property for an hour isn’t a hardship.

Crazy (Quilt) Serging

My cutting table is a mess at the moment. I have about eight different projects underway.

I drove the BMW up to the equipment consignor yesterday. I had two routes to choose from to get there, and a little voice inside my head said I should take the lesser-used one. I always listen to that little voice because good things happen when I do. That route just happens to go near Tera’s house, and as I drove down the road, I passed a young couple walking a baby in a stroller and a dog on a leash. I recognized the dog, so I stopped the car and asked if they were Tera’s son and daughter-in-law. They were! Tera and her husband are on their mission trip. Their son and his wife just moved back here from overseas and are living in Tera’s house.

[Welcome to Montana. Random people will stop you on the road to have a conversation.]

Tera’s DIL wants to learn how to quilt, so I am sure I will get to see her again. And their baby is adorable. 🥰

The husband picked me up from the consignor’s and brought me home. I had lunch, then went to Thursday sewing because we also had a craft co-op meeting at 1 pm. Sarah and Beth H and I had a fun conversation about painting.

When I got home (again), I started working on a pattern I bought in Spokane last week. This is a crazy-quilt style pillow made on the serger using the flatlock stitch:

The fabrics are five fat quarters, some Kaffe, one Marcia Derse, and something else. I am making a pillow, although the same technique could be used for a tote bag or other item.

But, oh my!—this pattern needs to make the acquaintance of a proofreader or technical editor. There are formatting errors, the supply list doesn’t match what is actually used, steps are out of order, etc. I thought this might make a good class at the store, but I would be hesitant to ask students to pay $15 for the pattern. I was scratching my head to make sense of it. Thankfully, the technique is not difficult.

I got close to making the entire 16" pillow front last night.

The only problem with techniques like this is that there is a lot of trimming and more fabric waste than I like. The process is rather like eating potato chips, though.

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We are supposed to get some rain tomorrow but then it looks like we’ll finally have summer. the rest of August is supposed to be hot and dry. I made six loaves of zucchini bread to freeze the other day. I really need to pay more attention to the garden because I slacked off this year. I will have to find a better balance next summer. And I never could get more lettuce to grow after the ground squirrel invaded the herb garden. Lettuce should be easy. No doubt, a bunch of it will pop up just before we get the first snow. 🫤

Making My Brain Hurt Again

Some people are adrenaline junkies and search out every new adventure. Some people spend all day on social media looking for that next dopamine hit. I have decided that I am addicted to making my brain hurt. I am forever looking for something challenging to try next. The husband often asks me why I spend so much time on frustrating activities like fitting and making my own clothing. I do it because it’s difficult.

I have no idea if there is a clinical diagnosis for this condition, but there you go. This is also why my bedtime reading material consists of trashy romance novels. By the end of the day, my brain just wants to relax with fluff, although I’m usually editing in my head as I read.

Yesterday was painting class. Four students met in Sunnie’s yard at 9 am. We set up our easels and decided what to paint. Last year, I did a landscape. This year, I chose the small cabin that serves as Sunnie’s painting studio:

Painting is hard, y’all. I am mostly happy with this, though. Lindalee, our teacher, told me I need to have more grace for myself. She’s right. I shouldn’t demand perfection from myself in a one-day painting class. I really need to do this more than once a year, too.

I found it fascinating that four different painters could have four different styles and yet all were beautiful. I am (slowly) recognizing what I like and just have to trust myself. I don’t know all the “rules” but that may be a good thing.

[Do you see that little whitish blip in the upper right-hand corner of the painting? I’m not sure what I was doing there, but I decided to leave it. I told the husband that was wildfire smoke. 😬]

What an enjoyable day, despite the 90+ degree heat. Cooler weather returns tomorrow. Seattle is getting a rare-for-August atmospheric river late this week and it looks like we may get the remnants of that.

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I fed chickens when I got home, then finished the blueberry top:

I may make one more woven top. The time is almost here, though, to begin thinking about making cool-weather clothes. I have a stack of patterns I am itching to try.

This has been a busy week and I haven’t been here much. The poor husband is getting whatever I can cobble together for dinner. Zucchini is waiting to get made into zucchini bread.

We are consigning to the BMW to the same equipment seller that has the husband’s 2022 work truck. The husband and I will drive it up there tomorrow. I am sad that The Diva is going away, but I haven’t driven it since I got the Jeep. As much as I loved that car, I feel safer in the Jeep with all the idiot drivers out there. If BMW ever resumed production of a diesel station wagon, though, I might change my mind.