Squash, Spuds, and Apples

I’m posting today because I may not have time to get posts up this week. Yesterday, while the husband was working in the morning, I brought in the squash:

This is the wagon from my John Deere tractor. The golf cart has a hitch on the back so I can pull the wagon with it because the golf cart is easier to maneuver around the garden than the tractor. As I was coming back to the house with this haul, however, the golf cart started malfunctioning. I was barely able to get it back over to the garage. When the husband got home, he looked at it and said it needs a new choke cable. Being the wizard that he is, he was able to rig it to work again, at least for the rest of the afternoon.

The squash are now curing in the garage. Anna, our neighbor, asked for the Georgia Roasters for her catering business. She may also take some of the butternut squash. Those were the Burpee’s Butterbush that were supposed to ripen in 75 days—eh. I may go back to Waltham. The Red Kuri are a variety that Sarah likes, which did well. I am trying the buttercup this year although I am also underwhelmed with that one. Hopefully, they taste good. I got three lovely Winter Luxury pumpkins that will be perfect for pie filling.

After lunch, we went out to the garden and pulled up the black plastic where the squash had been. That was where the potatoes were last year and we had quite a few volunteer plants come up through some of the holes. (Someone doesn’t like to dig potatoes and tends to leave a few behind.) I had to relocate a confused little garter snake. We dug all of that bonus crop and put the black plastic back in place for the winter. That part of the garden cleanup is done.

We moved over to the main potato bed and started digging that one. This was a good potato year:

There are a lot of Red Pontiacs on the bottom because we dug those first. Some of these potatoes are huge. One would make a meal for the two of us. We’ll let them dry out for a few days and then I’ll sort them into burlap bags to go into the root cellar. The bucket is full of fingerlings that were another bonus crop from a volunteer elsewhere in the garden. (Elysian, I think that’s your bucket—send WS over for it some time.)

I need to cut a few cabbages and then we’ll pull a billboard tarp over that half of the garden. The only plants left are the tomatoes. I won’t pull out that patch until after a killing frost, in case anyone else still wants some.

I also cleaned off the two Honeycrisp trees. Such beautiful apples with very little insect damage. Honeycrisps aren’t my favorite variety—too sweet for me—but I ate one just because it looked so good. It was tasty.

I’m calling an end to the 2025 growing season. I’m also glad we got most of it done yesterday because rain is in the forecast for today. Some dirt work still needs to happen with the track loader, but that may be better done in the spring.

Tomorrow is the Kaffe Fassett lecture! I dug out my Glorious Knits book to have him autograph. I know he’s here to do a quilt workshop, but I’ve had that book since I was in college and I’d like him to sign that one.

Friday Afternoon at the Show

I went to the Flathead Quilters’ Guild show yesterday afternoon. So inspiring! So many quilts, so many ideas, so much visiting. I ran into Karla, Barb, Dawn, Arlene, Carol B, Carol E, Genia, Jenny, Ashlee, Marianne, Sammie, and probably a few other people I’m forgetting.

Becky, who works at the store and went to Bernina University with us, had this beautiful quilt in the show:

The pattern is Halo by Jen Kingwell. The quilt was so calm and peaceful. (Sorry about the lighting—we were in the very hot and stuffy Expo Building at the fairgrounds.) Becky has a wonderful eye for color and has helped me in the past with choosing fabrics for class samples.

Marianne did a presentation at 1 pm on rulers for cutting and how she uses them with striped fabrics to create interesting patterns. She showed us one of the the new Glow Rulers from Carolina Moore and a collective gasp went up from the audience.

These are rulers with internal lights that can be recharged using a USB-C cord. Wonderful for older eyes! Marianne said they sell out as soon as they store gets a new shipment.

After I got home and did chicken chores, I worked on the Sling Bag a bit. The back of the bag is complete and I have almost finished making the strap:

I had to move over to the Juki. I am so glad I have that machine, beast that it is.

I don’t think there will be any sewing happening for the foreseeable future. We are cleaning up the garden this weekend and next week is Kaffe Fassett’s visit to the store as well as the co-op sale. I told the husband he’ll probably be eating frozen pizzas for dinner. I have to order grosgrain binding from Sailrite for the inside of the sling bag, so I wouldn’t be able to finish it even if I had time to sew.

Hanging Out in Bagland

I finally settled on a sewing project. I can’t seem to get out of Bagland, so I have decided to make the Kandou Patterns Retro Sling Bag. This one has been on my list for a while. I’ve watched the OklaRoots YT video about five times already.

I’m making mine out of a rich red waxed canvas with a black bonded nylon lining. I have not seen bonded nylon used for a lining anywhere, but I think it will work well. Hardware will be antique gold.

Yesterday, I cut out all the pieces:

And I got as far as making the zipper opening on the back piece:

(Yes, my work area is kind of messy.)

I will sew as much as I can using the industrial Necchi, then switch to the Juki 1541. The Necchi does a good job sewing waxed canvas but it doesn’t like bulky seams. This waxed canvas is from Sailrite. I like it a lot. Sailrite has really upped its game over the past year and is carrying a wider range of tools and materials. They also have a YouTube channel with some really good tutorials.

I made another embroidery project incorporating some of Marianne’s suggestions, with definite improvements. I also subscribed to OESD’s YouTube channel. They have some good videos explaining the use of many of their stabilizers. I’m still experimenting with needle types and sizes. And the Bernina embroidery book has been helpful. I just have to remember that I cannot become an expert overnight. (Part of my brain is saying, “Why not?”)

Garment sewing has been postponed until the weather changes—which it looks like it will, soon—but I did copy and alter my StyleArc Linda pants pattern into a pair of wide-leg culottes or gauchos or whatever they are calling them these days. I have been taking a good look at my closet and what I’ve been wearing and I feel like those would be useful for the fall and winter.

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Garden cleanup has to happen this weekend. We may get a frost Monday morning, and all the regional forecasters are predicting the arrival of a strong storm system at the end of September. Next week’s schedule is jam packed, so I want to get as much done now as possible. The husband is working Saturday morning but has promised to help me dig potatoes in the afternoon. Once the garden is put to bed and the canning is done, I can sew with abandon. Yay, winter!

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Part of what makes learning a new skill so frustrating is that sometimes, the information given is either incomplete or inaccurate. And if you don’t know what questions to ask—because why would you? you’re new to this—you bob along thinking that you’ve been told what you need to know.

[I once took a class at a quilt store (not local to me) where the instructor specified “needles” on the supply list. The class was a hand embroidery class. There are probably half a dozen different kinds of hand embroidery needles—sharps, milliners, chenille, etc.—in different sizes. I asked an employee at the store which needles I should get and she said, “The teacher will tell you in class.” The teacher did not, in fact, tell us in class. And why put that on a supply list to get ahead of class if you’re going to tell students in class? Given the choice, I would rather provide a kit of needed supplies to students when I teach. That cuts down frustration for everyone.]

I got an embroidery machine and everything I’ve seen—from the documentation to online projects—indicated that I should use an embroidery needle. The machine came with embroidery needles. The first two projects I did specified to use an embroidery needle. (Do you see where I am going with this?) I dutifully used an embroidery needle, but I wasn’t happy with the sounds I was hearing from the machine. I probably have keener ears than most when it comes to machines. I know when my machine needs oil, needs a new needle, or is about to run out of bobbin thread. What I was hearing sounded like a dull needle punching fabric.

Embroidery needles have a slightly rounded point, although it is not as rounded as a ball point or jersey needle. That makes sense, because a lot of embroidery is done on knit fabrics. Some of the stabilizers are also non-woven substrates. However, I was not embroidering on knit fabrics. I was embroidering on quilting cotton. Out of curiosity, I changed to a Microtex needle, which has a very sharp point. Hmmm. The stitch quality was better and the dull punching sound went away.

I taught a class yesterday, so while I was at the store, I asked Marianne for some advice. She had lots of it, most of which I have not yet heard. And some of it conflicted with what I have been hearing and seeing online, but she does beautiful machine embroidery. I am inclined to follow her lead. She said that yes, sometimes she uses Microtex needles. Have I seen Microtex needles recommended for embroidery? No, I have not.

[I even saw an embroidery needle recommended in an online tutorial for embroidering on waxed canvas. That makes zero sense to me—that seems to be the perfect place to use a Microtex needle.]

I came home with this:

Bernina puts out several of these books on various topics. They are comprehensive guides containing a ton of information. I like that much of the information is presented in table form, which saves me from having to hunt though several paragraphs to find what I need.

I may be in a position, eventually, to have to teach this stuff in class. The machine settings are easy—I can figure out how to edit designs, use pinpoint placement, etc. What is harder to get a handle on is the information that comes with experience, such as what stabilizers or combination of stabilizers will give the best result. I don’t mind practicing, but having a place to start is helpful.

Writing documentation, patterns, and guides is not easy. The person doing the writing often assumes or takes for granted a certain level of knowledge or expertise. As Jean Lampe. my TKGA mentor, used to tell me, “Try writing directions, without using any illustrations or photos, on how to tie your shoes.” I don’t allows follow my own rules—someone asked me in a beginning serger class what a looper was and I realized that I was guilty, in that moment, of using terminology without defining it—but as much as I can, I try to put myself in the shoes of someone encountering a new skill for the first time. I ask a lot of questions at the beginning of my classes because I need to know where students are in their journeys.

/sermon

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We are T-minus five days until Kaffe Fassett’s lecture on Monday evening. My Kaffe tops are ready. Sammie, one of the store staff, made Kaffe fabric hair scrunchies for all of us. (My hair is long enough to put in a ponytail, albeit a small one.) I will be helping with the setup for the lecture. Can you tell I am excited? 🤩🤩🤩

Too Much Excitement For One Afternoon

Yesterday was interesting. After Mike and Kathy left, I headed to town to run errands. About halfway there, however, I had this niggling feeling that I should turn around and go home.

I do not ever ignore my gut instinct about something. I may not have an explanation for why it’s happening, but I’ve learned to pay attention. I circled around and went home.

I was working on some sewing projects and stopped to check Facebook around 2 pm. Someone further up our road had just posted on the Kalispell 411 group that the cops were chasing someone and had deployed spike strips in front of her house. (I did not know the exact location.) A few minutes later, three sheriff’s deputies sped past our house.

Five minutes after that, one of our neighbors texted me and asked me if I knew what was happening because the helicopter was circling over our houses. I told him what I knew. A few minutes later, he called and said that he had found out that the cops had surrounded a house about a mile south of us and closed the road. The helicopter was still circling.

He and I started calling around to make sure everyone knew something was happening and to stay inside. We have a solid communication network in our neighborhood because of wildfire risk. I was listening to the police channel on the scanner. It got a bit tense because we were hearing that someone was on the loose and another neighbor came home to find a door open. That turned out not to be the problem—the suspect was still barricaded in the house. The police brought the SWAT vehicles out. The husband had to come home from work the long way around because the road was still closed.

We finally heard, around 6 pm, that the suspect had been taken into custody. Apparently, it was someone from elsewhere in Montana who had violated probation and panicked when the cops tried to stop him for a traffic violation.

Whew. I am not sure why I felt like I needed to be home while all of this was happening, but I am glad I was there.

*******

I sewed, but not on anything that required great focus. I made another star patch:

I still don’t have my color selection and placement quite right. I am using scraps and perhaps need to be more thoughtful about my choices instead of grabbing what is handy. I am learning more about the machine, though.

I also finished one of my Kaffe tops that needed hemming. I want to wear it next week.

I’m still at loose ends about the next big sewing project, which tells me I need to wait for things to settle down a bit. These are the times when I focus on finishing and organizing.

Prepping for Fall Sewing

I attacked a mountain of scraps and leftovers on Saturday afternoon. I keep a bin under my cutting table and everything gets chucked in there. That bin was overflowing.

My scrap management system is fairly simple. Anything less than a fat quarter or quarter yard goes into the bin. I cut 5" squares out of the larger pieces using my Accuquilt cutter. The squares will be pieced into comforter tops to be tied and donated to Mennonite Central Committee. Sometimes, depending on the size of the leftovers, I might cut them into tumbler blocks. Strips get sorted into bags by color. Right now, I have overflowing bags of white/gray/cream and red/pink/orange/purple. I will package those into smaller zip bags to take to the Mennonite relief sale on the first weekend in October. They have a “yard sale” of craft items and those can be donated there. The trick is to take things and not come home with other things . . .

I’ve been going through my fabric stash, too, and dealing with the pile of fabric I bought when Joanns was going out of business—mostly bottom-weight fabrics for pants and skirts.

Although I miss the convenience of having a Joanns, I am grateful for the fact that temptation has been removed from my life. I have to work a lot harder now to find good garment fabric, so I am more selective about what I get. I could sew entirely from my stash for the rest of my life and be happy. I did find out, though, that Mood Fabrics is going to have a booth at Sew Expo in February! I fairly swooned when I heard that. I doubt that I would ever get to New York City to shop at their store in person, so this is the next best thing.

This also makes me optimistic that garment sewing is going to get more emphasis at Sew Expo in the coming years. It’s not that I dislike quilting—I don’t! Quilting has been a bit of a juggernaut, though, and has rolled over all other kinds of sewing for many years.

Scrap sorting was about the only thing I accomplished this weekend because I had friends, Mike and Kathy, visiting from Tacoma. Mike gave the sermon at church yesterday morning and we had about a dozen people come over for dinner and visiting last night.

I still haven’t settled on a sewing project. The contenders include bags and dresses. I am not much of a backpack person—although I love my Slabtown Backpack—but I am intrigued by the Chickadee Backpack by Sew Sweetness:

I’m wondering if this might make a good alternative to my travel tote. I like that it has an internal frame at the top so that it opens and stays open.

A friend of mine stopped over last evening and asked if I would look at her Pfaff serger. I’ll get it cleaned up and threaded for her this week. Hopefully, whatever is wrong with it is minor.

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A line of thunderstorms came through while we were having dinner. I think we’re supposed to have lingering showers this morning. I am surprised that we haven’t yet had a frost. The husband had to repair part of the garden fence yesterday because a couple of deer got over it and snacked on some little apple trees I planted in the back. The forest animals all seem to believe the garden exists for their benefit.

Stitching a Star

There was a full moon last Sunday. I have learned to minimize my social media use during full moons because it seems like the online world loses its collective mind for a few days. And then we had the tragic events of Wednesday afternoon. All I am going to say here is that these types of events bring out both the best and the worst in people, and I’ve seen both in the past couple of days. If you have the chance to spread love or hate in the world, I hope you will choose love. We have enough hate.

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I tried out the Sawtooth Star quilt patch embroidery project. It was a lot of fun:

I grabbed scraps that were handy to my cutting table. These are from the crazy quilt pillow project. I think I need to be a bit more deliberate in choosing fabrics with better contrast, but I like this a lot. The finished patch is about 3" square.

I did no sewing Thursday or yesterday. Thursday involved a whole bunch of running around and a lot of paperwork. I dropped in to sewing group for about 30 minutes to attend a planning meeting for the sale that is happening in two weeks. Yesterday, we took the pigs to the processor. That took most of the day—it’s 91 miles one way, but we were driving conservatively with the trailer hooked up to the truck. When we got to the processor, we visited with the owner for about 45 minutes. He’s a great guy but he’s retiring in November. Fortunately, he was able to sell the business to someone who plans to keep it going, so we will be able to raise pigs again next year.

I enjoy our trip to the processor every fall because I get the husband to myself in the truck for five hours and we have time to catch up and do some long-range planning. The weather was stellar and driving through Montana is never a hardship. However, I am getting really itchy for an actual road trip—one where I am driving—so I may have to come up with something.

The husband is working today on a big concrete cutting job. I was thinking I might start cleaning up the garden, but we got rain last night. I won’t work out there if it’s too soggy. We’ll see. Now that the pigs are gone, I can open the gate between the garden and the pig pasture now and make a pile in the pasture for burning next month. At the very least, I could cut back the lavenders and start putting hoses away.

As for what to sew next, I have lots of projects in the queue. The stash needs a good reorganization, though. I’ll probably start there.

Produce and Pincushions

I hauled in another wagon load of produce yesterday morning:

I think I am close to what I need to make sauce and salsa. I’ve put about 20 gallon bags of tomatoes in the freezer, and what is here in the wagon will add another 6-8 bags. If any of my Kalispell peeps are in need of tomatoes, please come and help yourself to the bounty in my garden.

And still no frost on the horizon . . .

Some of these tomatoes—the Aunt Gladys and Mortgage Lifters, in particular—are well over a pound apiece.

The zucchini plants are just about spent. I think I am going to bring in the Georgia Roasters, the butttercups, and the Red Kuri squash this weekend. I might leave the butternuts out there until an actual frost. I have one very large, ripe Winter Luxury pumpkin, which is all I need for pie filling this year. In any case, garden work is on the schedule for Saturday.

After lunch, I played with the 700 PRO again. I made the pincushion project from Bernina’s We All Sew website. Bernina makes the embroidery files for these projects available for free. I have a USB drive that is traveling back and forth from my computer to the 700. I downloaded the files from the Bernina website, then inserted the USB drive into the 700. The machine read the embroidery file (.exp) from the USB drive. The designer of the embroidery file digitized the design and has broken it down into steps, so I stitched the first pass, removed the hoop as needed to add fabric, stitched the second step—wash, rinse, repeat.

Everything was done on the 700, including the final step of stitching the whole pincushion together with an opening for turning.

I would have finished this last night, but my container of crushed walnut shells has gone on walkabout. It isn’t where I had been keeping it, although I am sure I saw it about a week ago; I just can’t remember where. Hmmmm. It will resurface.

Right after I finished that project, Bernina posted a new one on the website:

Aren’t these Sawtooth Star patches adorable? And what a great use of little scraps. This one is next up in the embroidery queue.

The 700 is on a table in the room with my cutting table and my serger, so I can start a project and work on something else at the same time. Bernina also offers a phone stitchout app that works over wi-fi and allows you to keep an eye on a project remotely, but I am having trouble getting it to connect to the machine. The wi-fi signal in that room is a bit faint as it is at the opposite end of the house from the router.

Machine embroidery is fun, but I don’t think I am in danger of becoming obsessed with it. I like everything about sewing and want to continue to explore all of it.

Embroidery Experiments

My two goals yesterday were to finish the serger table runner and to experiment with embroidering on the 700 PRO. I finished quilting the table runner yesterday morning—after I tackled the mountain of paper on my desk—and made and attached the binding. I sat down at the 700 mid-afternoon. Right away, I ran into a problem. The machine and the embroidery module appeared unable to communicate with each other.

The embroidery module looks like this:

Those pins at the bottom attach to slots on the left side of the machine. The crossbar has a flange that holds the embroidery hoop. The crossbar moves the hoop in all directions underneath the needle as the machine stitches out the design. It is a very clever design but also a bit terrifying to see it in action, LOL.

I called the store to get some advice. Bernina issued firmware updates to all their machines in July and I had dutifully updated the 880. However, I had not had the embroidery module attached to the machine during the update. I’ve never actually used the embroidery module with the 880. (I have to completely re-jigger the cabinet setup in order to do so because I have the 880 set up as a flatbed machine and it sits down inside the cabinet.) The tech suggested I attach the embroidery module to the 880 to make sure that machine could communicate with it.

After re-jiggering the cabinet setup to accommodate the module, I attached the module to the 880 and turned on the machine. Immediately, a screen flashed up saying, “Embroidery module updating.” Apparently, the module needed a firmware update, too. I need to remember that because we sometimes do firmware updates in the mastery class. (I did wonder why the 700 didn’t apply the firmware update to the module when I attached it to that machine . . .)

After that, the module and the 700 had no trouble communicating. I got a piece of fabric and stabilizer that I had prepared for Monday’s mastery class and pulled out a spool of Isacord thread. Just for fun, I tried some alphabet letters:

Fun—but as I said, a bit terrifying. The module moves very quickly. We were told at Bernina University that the machines are designed and engineered to embroider at very high speeds and we shouldn’t be afraid to set the speed control to the highest setting. I’m not there yet.

I have some actual project instructions printed and may try one of them today. Bernina has lots of small project tutorials on their We All Sew website, including embroidered pincushions.

After dinner, I sewed down the binding on the table runner. It’s finished and will go to the store tomorrow. I love how it turned out:

The binding is a silver glittery Christmas fabric.

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I know there has been a lot of discussion around the topic of tariffs. I am not going to offer an opinion here. I am going to suggest that you all listen to the latest episode of the Stitching Tales podcast. Johanna Lundstrom and Malena Hjerpe live in Norway and Sweden, respectively. I give them mad props for doing a podcast in English, because I certainly couldn’t do a podcast in a foreign language. Johanna used to be a journalist and she did a wonderful job explaining tariffs and their impact on sewing from the standpoint of someone living in another country. I think it would do all of us good to get out of our US-centric headspaces and hear from people living elsewhere in the world. My takeaway, after listening to her commentary, is that rarely is there a situation when government intervention—on either side—makes something less costly or more efficient. 🫤

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.