Noisy Baby Robins

The nest outside the kitchen window has at least two baby robins in it. I watch the parents go back and forth getting worms and bugs to feed the noisy little babies.

One of the robins found the birdbath in the herb garden. I see lots of birds in the herb garden but that robin is the only one I’ve seen in the birdbath.

I spent about three hours yesterday morning transplanting plants in the greenhouse. The plant sale is May 23 and we need to have everything labeled and ready to go. I’m hoping to get the grass cut in the garden this morning. It might rain tomorrow (who knows?) and I want to stay ahead of it.

After lunch yesterday, I worked on a Scout Tee out of another chunk of Brussels Washer Linen. This is a dark denim blue color and I think it will get worn a lot. I got as far as pinning in the second sleeve.

I’m setting these sleeves in flat. I have nothing against setting in sleeves the conventional way, but if I can set them in flat, I’ll do it that way. The only issue I am having with the fabric is that it frays like nobody’s business. I staystitched everything and am serging all the exposed edges.

I’ll finish this one and cut out another one. I might as well make four or five while I’m at it. I bought the Sleeve Expansion Pack, too, just to mix it up a bit.

One of my later-in-the-summer project ideas—after our summer guests return home—is to set up a space in the rental house where I can do some filming. I feel myself sliding inexorably toward a YouTube channel of some kind. The podcast already has one, but it exists only so I can park the audio recordings there.

I am still cogitating on this plan. There may be pitfalls I haven’t uncovered yet. 🧐

Pants and Tops

I spent the past two days at the store helping “the other Janet” make herself a Tamarack Jacket. The Other Janet used to be the class coordinator for the store. She just got back from a few months wintering in southern Utah and it was fun to catch up with her. Of course, I forgot to take photos, but she promised to send me some of her finished jacket. She still has to sew down the rest of the binding and sew on the snaps.

I will not be going to Bernina University in June after all. I am so disappointed because I have been looking forward to this year’s BU since we got back from Salt Lake City. However, some situations are beyond my control and this was one of them. My consolation prize—sorry, but that’s how I am thinking about it because I am so sad about BU—is that I will be going to our denomination’s annual meeting in Albany, OR, instead. (JC, we should talk.) Our congregation needs a delegate and I usually attend as one. The one bright spot is that my friends, Mike and Kathy, who live in Tacoma, will also be there. Mike is giving a presentation on his work with the Tacoma Refugee Choir.

It is what it is. I will have a good time at annual meeting; there just won’t be any sewing.

*****

I bought another pants pattern just because. These are the Rose Pants from Made by Rae:

I like the elasticated back on these. One of these days, I will make a pair of fly-front pants, but for now, I am liking the ease of pull-on pants. Also, these are high-waisted pants, and I feel the need to maintain a pattern library of high-waisted pants for the day when low-rise pants come back into style. 😩

******

The grass is about 6" tall so I will be mowing this afternoon. We are back down to one Bunny, which has led to a lot of speculation about what happened to the other two. I think they may be living across the street and came over for a playdate.

The robin has two babies in the nest (that I have seen) and is busy keeping them fed. No birds have yet visited the birdbath. We had a deer jump the fence to the big garden and nibble on the apple trees, so the husband put rope across the top of the fence to make it taller.

Charlotte really needs to get moved out to the greenhouse. This week.

We thought we might get piglets this weekend, but our supplier ran out so it looks like they will arrive in June. I just need to call the processor tomorrow and make sure we are on the calendar.

The next two weeks will be full of gardening and sewing.

A Study of Raglan Bust Darts

I have a large library of patterns. That library was easy to build when Joanns put the Big 4/Big 7 on sale every week. I’ve cut back a bit because patterns are more expensive now. Also, indie patterns usually come in the form of PDFs that have to be printed, and all those large-format pages add up. Still, comparing patterns has helped me to better understand fitting—and by extension, pattern drafting—even if I never make the actual garment.

I’ve been looking at and comparing lots of raglan patterns this week. I think I really lucked out with the fit of the Simplicity 8909 raglan. I haven’t had to change anything about the raglan lines or the fit of the upper bodice. Once I took out that center back seam and figured out what size I needed for the front, the pattern was pretty much dialed in. I am still playing with the level of the bust dart but that’s just me being persnickety.

As I mentioned, we traced and sewed the Avid Seamstress Raglan Dress pattern in serger class on Wednesday, and now I’m going to talk about Why Making Garments That Fit Is So Hard.

Size range expansion has been a big topic in the indie sewing pattern world for several years now, with most companies drafting for a wider range of sizes in response to customer requests. In most cases, this is not a small undertaking. It is not a matter of just making the smallest size proportionally bigger. Pattern grading doesn’t work that way. Certain parts of a pattern will change at a different rate than other parts. And when it comes to larger sizes, patternmakers often use a completely different “block” or basic shape than they use for smaller sizes.

Most garment sewists are aware that the size you choose from the pattern does not correspond to the size you wear in off-the-rack clothing. Pattern sizes are almost always larger, so someone who wears a size 12 in RTW may have to make a size 16 from the pattern. This causes a bit of angst for some people, although my advice is to take the emotion and judgment out of the equation and just treat the numbers as data. Some indie designers have gone to alphabet sizing or other systems to get around this issue.

Here is where it gets tricky. Not all indie designers will remember to tell sewists what kind of body the pattern block is designed for. Seamwork is one company that does a fabulous job in this area. Their patterns always include something like the following description:

DRAFTING NOTE: Sizes 00-18 (Misses) are drafted for a C cup. Our size 8 fit model is 5’8”. Sizes 12-30 (Curvy) are drafted for a DD cup. Our size 20 fit model is 5’9”.

That drafting note tells you what bra cup size the pattern is drafted for, which is important information. Most commercial patterns are drafted for a 5'5" fit model with a B-cup bra size. In my years of teaching sewing classes, I have had exactly ONE student who fit that description and who didn’t have to make any adjustments to the pattern before sewing it. And the garment fit her perfectly. She is a unicorn, at least in my classes.

I have noticed that many—most?—owners of indie pattern companies are svelte young women on whom a potato sack would be flattering. Jenny at Cashmerette is one exception, and she has built her entire (very successful) pattern company around patterns for larger-sized and curvy women. Sarai, at Seamwork, is another, but she is taller than average.

I don’t want anyone to think I am picking on The Avid Seamstress patterns here. I like their designs and I think the drafting and instructions are well done. I am using their Raglan Dress pattern to show differences in drafting results, not as an indictment of a bad pattern.

When I began tracing the pattern on Wednesday, I knew right away that I was going to have to make some adjustments to the pattern. For purposes of class, though, I traced it as presented. These are the bust darts:

Although it isn’t spelled out on the pattern, in the instructions, or on the website, I suspect this dress has been drafted for that mythical 5'5" woman wearing a B-cup bra. I chose the dress size to trace based on the finished bust measurements of the pattern (body measurement plus wearing ease). No high bust measurements were given. The bodice does fit around my chest, but it doesn’t fit well, and I wasn’t surprised at the fit when I popped on the dress.

In contrast, here are the bust darts for the Simplicity 8909 raglan. I can tell you that this dart intake is about twice that of the dart on the AS Raglan Dress pattern, meaning that the dart is almost twice as deep and provides more room in the bust.

Interestingly, the Simplicity.com website states that “Misses patterns are made for a B cup with 2" (5cm) difference between bust and high bust measurement.” Simplicity says they are using the same drafting yardstick—no pun intended—but the final pattern looks completely different.

If I want to use the Avid Seamstress Raglan Dress pattern, and I probably will, I am going to have to increase the size of the dart. Or use the bodice from the Simplicity 8909 pattern and lengthen it into the same kind of dress. This is why I frankenpattern so much. When I find something that works, I just move it around to different patterns.

I spend a lot of time wondering how to get around these conundrums. I know enough to be able to recognize when a pattern is going to need adjustments even before I make the muslin but I also spend a lot more time looking at an analyzing patterns than the average sewist does. I wonder that anyone is actually able to make garments that fit given all of these variables. If I am missing something obvious, please let me know!

From Theory to Practice

The student in my serger mastery class yesterday was one of the regulars at the store. She has taken several classes from me before but doesn’t use her serger enough to be comfortable with it. I hear that from many people. Unless you’re using your serger a couple of times a week, it’s easy to forget things from class to class.

Because it was just the two of us, she asked if I could walk her through a project that would help her to know what features of the serger she needed to use and when. She mentioned that she is planning to make a dress for her granddaughter that can be used as a costume. (Granddaughter is in musical theater.) We didn’t have to start from ground zero because she knows basic dressmaking. I thought for a bit and came up with an idea.

As it happened, I had stopped at the blueprint shop on my way to class to get a large-format printout of The Avid Seamstress Raglan Dress pattern. I suggested that we make a muslin of the pattern—which I needed to do anyway to check the sizing—and that would give us the opportunity to try a few different serger techniques on the seams. I bought three yards of muslin and quickly traced off the pattern and cut it out. We spent the rest of the class making the muslin. The store keeps a sewing machine in the classroom so we were able to use that for some of the assembly.

[I have some thoughts about that pattern, but I’ll save them for tomorrow’s post.]

Her request was a good one. Until she asked, I had forgotten that I wondered the same thing when I got my first serger. What serger stitches are appropriate in what situations? In my mastery class last week in Missoula, one of the students mentioned that she thought that stitch #2—which on the Bernina L860 is the super stretch stitch—was meant to be used on knits. It’s actually meant for elastic insertions, but unless she went digging for that information, how was she to know? That machine has something like 16 regular serger stitch options.

Maybe this needs to be a class or a podcast episode.

******

I ran errands after class. I can tell it is summer in the Flathead. Running errands now takes me three times as long as it does during the winter. I decided to postpone my trips to Costco and Walmart for another day. I stopped at Lowes, though, to get a sprayer to spray my weed killer in the herb garden and ended up buying a birdbath, too. I liked this one because it is some kind of rubberized plastic and while it’s not light, it isn’t so heavy that I can’t move it around:

I put a solar bubbler in it. And you can see why I need the weed killer. I need to mix that up soon and get on it, although I might pull some of the larger weeds, first.

******

I continue to be surprised by the weather. In the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of thunder and the patter of rain on the roof. I hadn’t seen storms in the forecast. My phone was in the bedroom instead of downstairs, where I usually leave it overnight, and the NBC Montana weather app kept helpfully announcing, “Lightning has been detected near your location” every few minutes. That’s the same NBC Montana weather app that has completely botched the forecasts this week.

We need the rain. The long-range forecasts are not looking good. And I am very, very tempted to get a Tempest weather station and have the husband mount it on the roof of the old garage. The Tempest weather information can be fed to the National Weather Service and it’s obvious that they need my help. 🧐

Sewing Fabrics Into Tops

I have organized my sewing projects for the next couple of months. Yes, it’s an ambitious list. This is the pile of fabric I want to turn into tops for the summer:

It remains to be seen how far I get. There are 14 fabrics in this pile, as well as 3-4 Kaffe widebacks still in the stash. I started with the grass green fabric on the bottom, which I think (?) is Brussels Washer Linen. That’s a rayon/linen blend.

Our community homestead foundation had its Spring Pie Social on Saturday and I wore a Scout Tee made from some gray Brussels Washer Linen, so I pulled out that pattern to use it again. My only quibble with that pattern—with all of the Grainline patterns, in general—is that the upper back is too narrow. I’ve run into the same issue with the Tamarack Jacket. I adjusted the pattern before I made the green version, but I may tinker with it a bit more.

For some reason, I had a lot of trouble making this top. I felt like a rank beginner again, and it’s not a complicated pattern. Part of the issue was the thread. I have a lot of thread, but I did not have a green that was a good match. I went to my vintage thread stash—which I save for basting and other non-critical uses—and found a matching Molnlycke polyester thread, still in the plastic wrapper. Molnlycke thread was made in the Swedish town of the same name. I don’t think it’s manufactured any longer.

My machine did not like this thread. I tried several different feeding arrangements and the thread would not feed smoothly no matter which way I set it up. Backlashing was a frequent problem. I tried both universal and Microtex needles. I was able to power through, but not without having to stop and rethread the machine several times.

I also managed to sew the right side of the front to the wrong side of the back, so the bust darts were on the wrong side. 🙄 This fabric doesn’t have a clear right or wrong side, but that was a dumb mistake that happened because I just wasn’t paying attention. I did not discover that fact until the entire garment was assembled. Thankfully, all I had to do was take out part of the side seams, undo the bust darts, flip them to the other side and re-sew, and reassemble the top.

What should have been a three-hour project took most of the day. Still, it fits and I am happy with it. (I should just pad out the dress form so it has the same bustline that I do. . . )

I plan to wear the top today to teach my serger class.

The neckline is bound. I am trying to decide if I want to change it to a facing as I prefer facings to binding. I will say that the binding instructions in this pattern are better than most and the neckline lies nice and flat. I used some matching Kona cotton (color Pesto) cut on the bias.

I am going to drill down until I get through the pile. Batch cutting and sewing may help speed up the process. After this weekend, the rest of May is fairly wide open except for the plant sale on the 23rd. I should be able to set aside a couple of days for sewing.

*******

I took out the Remy Raglan to compare it to the Simplicity 8909 pattern because I thought I might add the bust darts to the Remy. I am putting that off. Adding the bust darts isn’t difficult, but the raglan shaping doesn’t match well and I don’t want to monkey with it right now. It’s probably going to be easier to use the S8909 pattern as the basis for any raglans and adjust it as needed.

Weather Report

I was awakened out of a deep sleep at 1:30 this morning by what sounded like a big branch hitting the roof of the house. I got up and went to see what was going on and discovered that we were getting strong northeast winds coming down off the mountains.

Had a back door cold front been in the forecast? No, it had not. No warnings, nothing. I guess I’ll wait a few hours until the actual weather forecasters get to work, look out the window, and decide to issue an accurate forecast. 🙄

This is why no one in Montana pays attention to winter storm warnings anymore. So much crying wolf, and then when something actually does happen, not a peep.

******

In other news, I spent yesterday afternoon making another muslin of the raglan top and I think I’ve mostly got it dialed in, at least enough to break out the “good” fabric. I moved the bust darts up and now they sit where they should. This is an odd pattern, though, in that I need a larger size for the back than for the front. I had to go down almost two sizes for the front, but the back hangs beautifully now that I have taken out the back shaping. The side seams are nicely vertical. One of the reviewers on the Sewing Pattern Review website noted that she also thought the back was too narrow.

The Avid Seamstress has this darted raglan dress pattern, which I really like:

Fitting is hard, mostly because you make something, put it on, then stand in front of the mirror trying to read the wrinkles to determine what to fix and how to fix it. At the same time, you’re attempting to quiet the voice in your head that is telling you something is wrong with your body. Books and YouTube videos are only so helpful; I found one page in my Sarah Veblen fitting book addressing darted raglans, and it didn’t have the answer I needed. I make a lot of changes intuitively—which for me is basically the same as “trial and error”—and if something works, I file that piece of information away for future use.

Everyone says, “Wrinkles point to the problem.” Well, yes, they do, but that doesn’t mean they tell you how to eliminate them. Kenneth D. King says that every fitting problem comes down to adding fabric, taking away fabric, or moving fabric. Simplistic as that sounds, it’s actually really good advice and I try to look at my fitting issues that way.

For what it’s worth, I am not attracted to tissue fitting AT ALL. That’s the Palmer-Pletsch method where you fit the tissue paper pattern to your body and cut, fold, and tape as needed, then use the pattern that has been adjusted to fit you. I know it works for some people, because the method has a lot of proponents, but it’s hard to tissue fit without a helper, and I just don’t “see” the pattern as well that way. And a muslin is still required. If I am going to make a muslin, then I’ll use that to see where I need to make changes.

My favorite patterns all seem to be mashups, and indeed, I am going to get out the Remy Raglan today to compare it to the Simplicity pattern. I think I may be able to combine the two to make the perfect raglan top pattern.

Machine mastery for tomorrow has been cancelled—no students—although I do have serger mastery on Wednesday. We only offer that class once a quarter, so I don’t like to cancel it. But I have a bonus day of sewing tomorrow that I wasn’t expecting. I am going to try to get this pattern finalized and then start working through the pile of fabric for summer tops.

Revisiting the Raglan

I am close to settling into my summer routine, which is to work in the garden in the morning and sew after lunch. Yesterday morning, I worked for a while in the greenhouse, pruned my lavenders and raked around the beds, and cleaned up the strawberry bed. After lunch, I sewed until the husband came around 3:00 pm. We went out and planted four 30' rows of potatoes, which should be plenty for us for next winter.

My sewing project yesterday was to make a muslin of this pattern:

I’ve got a couple of woven top patterns that fit me well, but I’m always looking for variations. I like raglans and I bought this pattern because it had bust darts, which seem to be rare in a raglan. Oftentimes in raglans, the darts get rotated into the neckline in the form of pleats or gathers, which make more of a peasant-style top.

This style has been niggling at me for a few days. How would this fit? The pattern was already traced—I must have traced it right after I bought it—so all I had to do was to find some fabric and test it. I made a top rather than a dress just to save a bit of fabric and work.

I LOVE IT. I need to make a few modifications. The bust darts fit perfectly but they are too low. Either they have to be moved up about 5/8" or I need to shorten the upper bodice. I need to take a good look at the top again in the fresh light of morning to determine which is the proper fix.

I also have to take out the curved back seam. Curved back seams and I don’t get along. They can add refinement to a garment, but on me, they inevitably hang up on my high hips. It’s far better if I just have a straight back seam that allows everything to flow nicely from my shoulders.

Other than those two issues, this is very flattering on me. The neck opening is high, finished with binding, and closes with a button. I am wondering if I can lower it enough to pull the top over my head and finish it with a facing. In a light linen or chambray, this would be a wardrobe staple for sure.

The sleeves are made in two pieces, which makes them fit very well. I’ve seen that in coat patterns but never in a top or dress. Often, the top of a woven raglan sleeve will have a dart.

Once I get the top dialed in, lengthening this pattern back into a dress should be relatively easy. I’m also going to revisit the Remy Raglan by Sew House Seven to see if I can add bust darts into that pattern.

******

Has anyone else noticed that thrift stores aren’t what they used to be? Our Salvation Army store has a list of what they will take and what they won’t, and the list of what they won’t take is longer than the list of what they will take. Sheets—which I sometimes use for making muslins—are virtually impossible to find anymore. I don’t even bother with Goodwill because their prices for pie plates are higher than what new ones cost at Target. I have better luck with the smaller, privately-run stores, although our local Flathead Industries store has had the same 1990s-era BabyLock serger priced at $100 for the past six months. It clearly needs to be cleaned and serviced before it could be used, which would basically double the price. I could clean and service it myself, but I still don’t want to shell out $100.

Get off my lawn. 🤨 I long for the olden days when thrift stores had great deals.

******

Next week is a busy week. I have two mastery classes scheduled—machine and serger—and I’m teaching the Tamarack Jacket class at the end of the week. But at least it’s all sewing.

Bodies are Different

One thing I learned early on in making clothing is that bodies are vastly different. I always use myself as an example in class because I deviate from the “norm”—whatever that happens to be—in several ways:

1. I am taller than average. I am 5'7" and average is 5'5".

2. I have a long torso.

3. My torso is not divided evenly. I am short-waisted but long from my waist to my crotch. I’ll often buy Tall pants and have to hem them, because I need the extra length in the rise, not in the inseam.

4. I have high hip curves. The widest part of my hips is only about 5" below my waist. The “average” (again, there is that word) is about 9".

As you can imagine, I have some fitting difficulties. Tops are always too short. Low-rise pants were a nightmare for me. Anything belted makes me look like a sausage tied in the middle. Over the years, I have learned which silhouettes are flattering and which are not. I like sewing because I can make the clothing I can’t find in stores. (We’re not even talking about color here, just fit.)

Now, I automatically lengthen any top pattern by 2-3". I measure the rise on all pants patterns and usually have to increase it by at least an inch on both front and back. I sometimes have to grade tops out to a larger size at the hips even if I don’t need the extra room because if I don’t, the tops may hang up on my high hip curves.

[I often wonder how many people think they need a swayback adjustment when what they really have are high hip curves . . . ]

Here are the McCall’s 7131 culottes.

They don’t look like much hanging on the hanger, but I like them a lot. This pattern is going into the tried-and-true pile, with some minor modifications.

I was going to make a muslin out of Walmart remnant fabric, but I didn’t have enough of anything. The width of the legs—about 15" at the hem—makes this a very fabric-intensive pattern. I ended up using a yard and a half of a Kaffe Fassett wideback (108"). When Kaffe and Brandon Mably were at the store last fall, Brandon pulled this bolt off the shelf and told me that he had designed this print for the Collective and thought it would make a great dress. I didn’t make a dress, but I think he’d be happy to know it did end up in a garment.

I love the Kaffe widebacks. They are printed on a cotton sateen substrate and are perfect for garments. I am noticing that more designers, like Tula Pink, are starting to use the same substrate for their widebacks. The Burnside Bibs I made for Sammy were out of a similar cotton sateen. The sateen does like to fray, though, so serging the seams is a must.

I measured the rise on the McCall’s pattern before I started and compared it to the Style Arc Linda pants, which is one of my favorite pants patterns. The lengths were similar, so I thought the McCall’s pattern was going to be okay, and it is—mostly.

Making pants for women’s bodies is hard, which is why most women don’t like to make pants. The measurements don’t tell the whole story. Two women could have the same waist and hip measurements but have entirely different body shapes. One might have a flat butt and one might have a more shapely derrière. The crotch length might be the same, but the shape could be different.

When I tried on the culottes, I noticed that the front pleats were not hanging nicely; the entire front of the pants seemed to be pulling to the back through the crotch. I’ve run into this problem before. Sometimes, the fix is as easy as cutting a wedge off the back crotch hook, flipping it over, and attaching it to the front crotch hook to move the inseam toward the back, which I did on the Free Range Slacks pattern. I did a quick check of my theory by putting the culottes on backwards, and they fit much better.

[I would love to have illustrations to accompany this but my drawing skills are sadly lacking. Handmade PhD has a good explanation of this fix here.]

That adjustment has to be made at the patterning stage, so it wasn’t an option for the finished culottes. Fortunately, these pants have a lot of fabric in them. I ended up sewing a deeper crotch seam—by about half an inch—and that alleviated the problem. And then I went back and changed the crotch shaping of the McCall’s pattern so that it matches that of the Free Range Slacks.

I need to make a simple black cotton top to wear with these culottes.

******

I cleaned up the herb garden yesterday afternoon. Today, I’m going to plant a few things out there that I purchased in Washington state last month, including two white lavender varieties and a bee balm variety I haven’t seen before. I’ve also got to address the weed problem in the gravel around the beds. We put down a heavy weed barrier at the beginning of that project, but we did not get washed rock and we should have. The rock we did get came with enough dirt attached to it that weeds stubbornly pop up in the paths around the beds. I pull them when I can, but last year they got away from me. This year, I want to spray them with a vinegar/salt/Dawn dishwashing detergent mix.

It’s time to plant peas, and I am going to lay out black plastic and weed barrier in the big garden before the weed seeds sprout. If only the vegetables were as tenacious as the weeds. 🫤

Bunnies, Anyone?

The husband came home yesterday and asked me how my day went and I said it was fabulous. I didn’t see anyone or talk to anyone and I made a pair of culottes from the McCall’s 7131 pattern. I know I said I was going to make tops, but I changed my mind. You’ll see the culottes in tomorrow’s post because I need to give them a good final press. In the meantime, we’ll look at other stuff that is happening around here.

We now have two bunnies!

We used to have two bunnies but one disappeared. Bunny has been alone for over a year. I suspect that soon, we will have Even More Bunnies.

ETA: Right after I posted this blog entry, the husband came in from outside and said, “There are three bunnies out there.”

I did not expect them to muliply that quickly.

The morels are up, right on schedule:

I need to walk around the property to see if we have other patches.

I am trying cowpeas again this year. So far, things look promising:

This is a variety called Sage’s Cowpeas that I got from Triple Divide Seeds. Cowpeas are a southern crop and I have not had good luck with them here in Montana. Triple Divide varieties are selected for our climate so I am optimistic. I am starting all the beans inside and transplanting them once it warms up.

Hopefully, we are done with the 20F overnight temps. The forecast, at least through the first 10 days of May, is for temps in the 60s and 70s and lows in the 40s. Unfortunately, the forecast doesn’t include rain and that’s not good. May and June are our rainy months and if we don’t get rain then, the odds for a bad fire season increase exponentially.

I expect that everything in the greenhouse will take off this week and grow like crazy. I still have not moved Charlotte out there. The husband asked me yesterday if she was going to become a permanent fixture in the kitchen and I said that no, she really needs to go back out into the wild. I don’t mind catching flies for her but they are hard to come by in January and February.

We need to plant potatoes this weekend.

Still No Sewing, But Getting Closer

I was at the dentist’s office at 7:00 am yesterday morning and he saw me right away. The crown that has been on my molar since 2014 had some issues—the bottom edge was chipped and deteriorating—so after some discussion, we decided the best course of action was a new crown. He wanted to do some work around the stump of the tooth and that required anesthetic. After about two hours, I left the office with a new temporary crown and an appointment for later in May to get the new permanent crown affixed.

I came home and edited this week’s podcast episode, had a phone meeting with DD#2 and her wedding coordinator—this is the same gal we had for DD#1’s wedding and she’s wonderful—and finally made it to the sewing room.

[Hiring a wedding coordinator is absolutely worth the money. When DD#1 got married, I wanted to be able to enjoy the day and not have to worry about putting out fires. As it turned out, the pandemic threw a huge wrench into the plans and Sarah was a great help with getting everything sorted, so she was one of the first people we contacted after DD#2 set a date.]

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the sewing room and organizing fabric. I moved the bins of summer fabric where I could reach them more easily and put the bins of sweater knits and wools at the back of the closet. I pulled out the patterns I want to use and located some Walmart remnants for making muslins.

I told the husband the other day that I desperately need an entire day at home (several days would be better) with no interruptions. I am hoping today will be that day. I can work in short bursts of time here and there, but that schedule is not ideal. I much prefer days when I can really dig in and get a lot done, and those days have been in short supply recently.

I am going to start by making some tops as I need those more than anything else. I’ll also knock out some Free Range Slacks and maybe some culottes or wide-leg pants. If I batch sew, I might be able to do two or three tops in a day but probably only one pair of pants.

This is a pattern I got from Ryliss Bod when I was at the Sewing and Design School in November.

It’s in the pile of patterns to make. I need to compare it to the Free Range Slacks to make sure the rise is similar.

******

The plants in the greenhouse are looking good. The garden also looks good now that it is all tilled and ready to go. It is very fragrant because of all the pig and chicken manure. I hope this will be a good gardening year. The husband has done a lot of work out there to streamline things for me and make my job easier. The weather is supposed to clear up and warm up this week. I’m hoping to clean out the strawberry bed and start cleaning up the herb garden.

And the hummingbirds have come back! I saw one at the feeder last night. This seems so late—I think they almost always have been here by the first of April. There are also two robins sitting on eggs in nests in the porch rafters. I will try to get out and get more photos this week because a lot is happening.

The apple trees in the garden are doing very well. Two trees that we planted a couple of years ago have really taken off. One is a Wolf River from Costco and it looks healthy and vigorous. The other is a Spokane Beauty that Susan grafted for the plant sale. I bought it because I liked the name and the description. I think it doubled in size last year. Susan puts all of her grafts on Budagovsky 118 (Bud 118) rootstock and her trees always do very well for me.

Did I Sew?

No, I did not. The universe is conspiring against me. After breakfast, I went out to work in the greenhouse for a while. The husband was getting ready to till the garden and had to roll up the billboard tarps and black plastic that we had down over the winter, so I helped him with that. I had decided that I would work in the greenhouse until lunchtime, then spend the afternoon sewing.

Around 11:30, I went in to make lunch. Our weekend lunches are almost always sausage and potatoes—some friends of ours own a local processing company that makes a brand called Redneck Sausage and we eat a lot of it. We were almost done with lunch when I bit down on something hard and realized that the crown on my molar had popped off. This has happened before, also on a weekend. 🫤

I called the dentist’s office and left a message. We have a new dentist, although not by choice. We have been seeing a wonderful woman dentist for over 30 years. She is about my age. Everyone in her office was great and she never had a problem with my aversion to x-rays. She had a stroke last June and can no longer practice, although she still comes in a few days a week to manage the office. She had already hired this new dentist before her stroke because she was planning on retiring at some point.

[Each exam room has a TV and patients can request to have it on during procedures. One day I went in for a cleaning and the receptionist couldn’t wait to tell me that one of their patients had been watching HGTV during her dental procedure and my episode of “Knitty Gritty” came on, LOL.]

The new dentist texted me back right away and said he wasn’t available but he would figure out a way to get me in to have the crown put back on temporarily. One of his assistants called a few minutes later and said she would meet me at the office to do the procedure, so I drove into town. It took her about 30 minutes to clean the crown and re-cement it. I have another appointment at 7:00 am tomorrow for the dentist to decide how to proceed. The crown has a chip at the base so it may have to be replaced.

By the time I got home and fed chickens, it was after 3:00 pm and I didn’t feel like doing anything. I am getting a bit tired of having my schedule upended every day.

*****

The husband put up the fence in the chicken yard so the little chickens could go out without getting beaten up by the big chickens. No one wants to be the first one out the door:

Eventually, though, one brave one goes out. The big chickens all gather around to watch:

We noticed that one of the little chickens is very curious. Every time one of us goes into the coop to fill the feeders and gather eggs, most of the little chickens huddle in the corner away from us. One of them, though, always scoots right up to the fencing of their little room and gives us the side eye. She doesn’t seem the least bit afraid.

The big and little chickens will stay separated until the middle of the summer. By then, the little chickens will be big enough to hold their own against the other chickens. Light Brahmas (the chicks) are one of the larger breeds.

Roo has grown into his role as the king of the coop. He very much reminds me of Dave, his father. I wish I could find a home for the smaller white rooster. He has the potential to be a good rooster, too, but he needs his own harem.

The husband tilled the entire garden yesterday, so now I can put the black plastic and weed barriers down in preparation for planting in a few weeks. I wonder how many people got faked out by the nice weather and put plants out, only to have them succumb to three nights of 20F temperatures.

Will I Sew Today?

Yesterday was marginally more productive than the day before. I had an interview with Katrina Walker in the morning, which was a great deal of fun. I knew of Katrina—I own her serger book and we have been at many of the same events, such as Sew Expo—but we’ve never had a chance to sit down and visit. She is a Washington state native and lives on a sheep farm outside of Spokane. We had such a good time recording yesterday and laughed over the fact that people tell us they want to be us because they think our lives are so glamorous. 🤪 Katrina hosts a fiber festival at her sheep farm in September and I think I might try to get over there this year.

I got in touch with our pig supplier. She will have piglets after May 7 so I asked her to hold four for us. (Pigs are glamorous, yes?)

After lunch, I ran errands in town. The weather couldn’t make up its mind. I was treated to snow, sun, wind, and rain, all in the space of a couple of hours.

Still no sewing. The closest I got was pressing some fabric. While I was at my ironing board, I selected a YouTube video by a sewist who specializes in patternmaking. (I watch YouTube on a TV through Roku.) The title of the video was “I Wish I Started Using this Patternmaking Software Years Ago.” Of course, I wanted to know the name of the software in case I wanted to buy it. She went through her entire intro and straight into showing screenshots without ever saying the name of the software package. I had to go to my computer, pull up the video on the YouTube, and look at the description of the video to find out what she was using.

Content creators!—WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, and HOW!

The software she’s using is an open source program called Seamly. I downloaded it and took a quick look. It has potential, but it is going to take me some time to learn it.

I am still pondering my mother-of-the-bride dress. DD#2 wants cocktail, not formal. Vogue just released its summer pattern line and I love this one:

I adore that color green although I will have to select a shade of green that is a bit more sedate. This is not a wedding for parrots.

I have to get out to the greenhouse this morning and get a few trays of corn and beans planted. After that, though, I plan to spend the rest of the day in the sewing room or the shoemaker won’t have any shoes when the weather warms up next week. You know what I mean.

Zero Traction

I have days where nothing gets done. Yesterday was one of those days. I had a long list of items I wanted to tackle, but our Starlink dish and router chose to pitch a fit and refused to load certain websites—including this one—all of which I needed to visit. I could access other websites without any issues. The Starlink phone app insisted the dish was encountering obstructions. The dish is mounted on the roof of our house with an absolutely clear line of sight to the sky, in the same spot it has been for the past several years. Something was going on; I just don’t know what. I hope the problem does not persist. I was able to figure out a workaround, but it took a couple of hours and didn’t completely solve the problem.

I drove to Missoula on Wednesday to teach a serger mastery class for five students. That Bernina dealer has sold quite a few L890 machines since the beginning of the year. Students in the February serger mastery class asked for a class on advanced techniques and students in Wednesday’s class said they also would sign up if one were offered. We put one on the schedule for the middle of July. I am going to teach Gail Yellen’s Christmas stocking pattern, because it’s a great pattern and it will cover most of the advanced techniques.

After class, I went to The Confident Stitch downtown. This is a cute little store—Kate carries some quilting cottons but she focuses mostly on garment fabrics. (And she’s a winter, too, so she carries more than just neutrals and muddy earth tones!) She took over the Missoula Brother dealership last year when the previous dealer retired and will soon begin carrying Juki and BabyLock machines as well. I mentioned that I had come down from Kalispell to teach a serger class at A Clean Stitch and Kate asked if I would come teach serger classes at her store. I said I would love to.

I have another teaching opportunity in the works in Washington state, too. I just have to be careful not to overload my schedule. I was able to spend some time yesterday updating my class list and my teaching fee information, so the day wasn’t a complete waste even though it felt like it.

I bought some fabric while I was in Missoula. It is difficult to be in two fabric stores and not be tempted by anything. I got a red and black rayon print to make a top to wear at Bernina University. Each day has a different “spirit day” theme. Opening day is “Imagine More,” and attendees are supposed to wear their most imaginative outfits. Monday is “Fabulous Florals.” I have (or will have, when I get them made) lots of floral print tops. Tuesday is “Embroidery on Everything”—I will have to embroider something on a T-shirt or a hat—and Wednesday is “Show Your Bernina Spirit” where we wear something in Bernina colors (red, black, and white) or with Bernina printed on it.

Sarah brought some of her seedlings over to the greenhouse this week. The weather can’t make up its mind what it wants to do. We went from 70F on Tuesday to chilling cold again yesterday. It was 21F when I got up this morning and there is a skiff of snow on the ground. I hope the fruit trees will be okay as they have just started to bud out.

I need to start beans and corn soon (in the greenhouse, not outside). We were planning to work in the garden this weekend but I think it’s just going to be too raw. And I need to sew. I am going to spend all day tomorrow communing with fabric. I have no idea what I am going to work on; I’ll just choose something and start sewing. The weather doesn’t improve until the middle of next week.

DD#1 had this sign waiting for me when I got to her house last week:

Very appropriate as it’s the unofficial name of this blog.

Quilted Clothing

If you’ve been here for any length of time, you know that I have been slightly obsessed with quilted coat patterns for over a year. I am noticing a shift from coats to other kinds of quilted clothing, such as the Quilted Hoodie by Wellspring Designs:

Also from Wellspring Designs comes the Quilted Wrap Skirt, one of the patterns I bought at Pacific Fabrics last week:

This has the potential to be a great pattern for the winter months if done in one of the longer lengths.

And if that isn’t enough quilting for you, there is the Cozy Quilted Dress by Paula McKinlay for Riley Blake:

I purchased this pattern at Pacific Fabrics as well. This is by the same designer who did a quilted coat for Riley Blake a few years ago—the “one size fits all” pattern that had quite a few issues associated with it. I haven’t cracked open this pattern to look at it yet, but I am hoping that this one comes with a better size range and better pattern drafting.

These are all on the pile for next fall. I need to get cracking on some summer tops. I am going to make a pile of my summer fabrics and start working my way through it.

*****

Sammy sent me the Bernina University brochure over the weekend and I sat down yesterday to make my list of desired classes. Classes fill quickly, so I made a list of the classes I want to take and a list of alternatives if I can’t get into my first choice. It says a lot about their offerings that I would be quite happy with any of the classes, first choice or otherwise. I am hoping to get into the draping class with Joe Vechiarelli. Tera and I took a drafting class with him at Sew Expo in 2023 and this would be a fantastic opportunity to learn about draping on a dress form.

My class choices run the gamut from fashion sewing to serging to thread to patternmaking. It will be four intensive days of learning, but that’s why I am going.

*****

I have been keeping a close eye on the housing market recently; that’s something that the husband and I do anyway because our business is construction, but I dialed it in a bit further when the kids started looking for property last fall. DD#2 decided to rent for another year, which I think was a wise decision. Seattle’s housing market needs a big shakeout and nobody wants to try to catch a falling knife. Washington state, in general, has a lot of problems that have the potential to keep getting worse. On my ferry trip from Bainbridge Island to downtown last week, the very helpful cashier at the terminal warned me that the fare is jumping from $19 to $27 as of May 1. And yes, that is ONE WAY for one person. The price goes up for additional passengers.

The husband said he wasn’t going to be doing any big foundation jobs this year, which is fine with me. Typically, he hits the ground running in April and works 60 hours a week and I don’t see him again until the fall. I hope he’ll be able to keep a more normal schedule this year that will allow him to work around the property. He is going to till the west half of the garden this week and work all of the rotted hemp and animal manure into the ground. We are supposed to hit 75F today and then crash back to reality for the rest of the week. It is still to early to plant, but everything in the greenhouse is looking good.

In any case, I wouldn’t be averse to seeing some of the growth here slow down, and slow down considerably. I suspect that they’ve already overshot the mark and built more than is needed.

The Open Road

I went to Washington state last week. Having both kids living reasonably close is great, but it is also a huge temptation to pick up and take off to visit them. And having adult children means that visits have to be coordinated between their travel and work schedules (and mine) so I want to take advantage of times that we can all get together. I likely won’t see DD#2 again until the fall. I might see DD#1 again in July if I can get to Spokane when she is there for a weekend conference.

I went for a visit last week mostly to help DD#1 get her garden planted. Of course, the weather was lovely the week before I went and it’s going to be nice again this week, but last week was cold and rainy. We did not let that deter us. I left after church on the 12th and spent the night in Spokane, mostly because snow was forecast over Lookout Pass for Monday morning and I wanted to avoid it. I arrived at their house on the Olympic Peninsula just after lunch on Monday. We spent Tuesday shopping for plants and other garden supplies in the rain. Wednesday was clear but still cold. Fortunately, the house they purchased last fall came with a nice little greenhouse, so DD#1 and I spent time in there planting baskets and tomatoes in containers. Finally, on Thursday, it was sunny and warm(er). We put in lettuce, carrots, kale, chard, cabbage, herbs, and strawberries and called it good.

I left on Friday morning and headed back to Seattle. My route took me past Sherry’s Cozy Quilts in Poulsbo, so of course I stopped in. I was greeted so warmly when I walked in that I decided I would buy something just because. Store owners should never underestimate how important it is to acknowledge customers. I was in the yarn store next door to this quilt store on a previous trip and was completely ignored from the moment I set foot inside. I have no desire to go back.

[The Pacific Northwest Shop Hop is currently underway, but I’m not participating this time. Maybe next year.]

Sherry’s is not a large store but it is well stocked. I came out with some chicken fabric and a couple of yards of a Tim Holtz print.

Esther’s Fabrics is not far from the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal and I had a few minutes to spare, so I popped in to see what they had. This gorgeous rayon Figo fabric—Full Moon by Clara McAllister—is destined to be a top. (The photos were hastily snapped this morning, sorry.)

I need to start thinking about what I am going to make to wear to Bernina University.

Of course, no trip to Seattle would be complete without a visit to Pacific Fabrics, and it’s just a quick five-minute drive from the downtown ferry terminal. I am trying to curb my fabric purchases until I use some of my stash, so all I bought was a yard of this Cotton + Steel canvas.

Technically, these are blueberries, but we will pretend that they are actually huckleberries. 😊 I want to make a Noodlehead Oxbow Tote with this.

I also bought a couple of patterns. I think I will save those for tomorrow’s post.

DD#2 and her fiancé and I went out to dinner on Friday and discussed wedding plans. Her colors are going to be brown and cream with lots of greenery. She knows her mother cannot wear brown without looking like a corpse, so I got her approval to wear green. (I will be leaning toward some kind of deep emerald green.) Now I can start working on my mother-of-the-bride dress.

We made a trip to IKEA on Saturday morning because DD#2 was looking for a dresser and some other items. I bought more lint rollers. The IKEA lint rollers are my favorites and I use them constantly in my sewing room.

On Saturday afternoon, the kids and I went to a Mariners game. The Mariners played the Texans and won and we had a good time.

The one fly in the ointment on this trip was that the Airbnb where I usually stay was already booked, so I had to reserve a different one. It was billed as a “tiny house,” which didn’t set off any alarm bells as I have stayed in tiny house Airbnbs in the past. However, this was a literal 10' x 10' box with a small bathroom, only accessible from an alley behind a house. There was a Murphy bed that pulled down and took up most of the space. I had to keep my suitcase under the sink in the bathroom because that was the only place large enough for it.

Many places in Seattle are designed for no cars or only small cars, so I always have to be careful about getting an Airbnb with a parking spot large enough for my Jeep. I was able to park it but was concerned about getting in and out of there, so I relied on the kids to drive me around. It was not one of my better Airbnb experiences. I was planning to stay in Seattle all weekend and drive home today, but I ended up leaving a day early. Also, this is a busy week for me and having today at home is going to add some much-needed slack to the schedule.

According to Plan

The husband is working at our fire department’s annual fundraising auction this weekend. He is technically “retired” from the fire department but still helps out and would respond to any structure fires. Today is the general merchandise sale and tomorrow is the equipment sale. He loves the equipment sale. I think it’s mostly because he gets to schmooze with lots of guys out on the sale field. You can practically smell the testosterone out there.

I won’t be at the auction because I am teaching a class today. I am teaching the McCall’s 8636 men’s joggers pants. This should be a fun one.

I stopped by the store yesterday to drop off Sammy’s finished Burnside Bibs. She offered to model them for the blog:

They are so cute on her! She was bouncing around the store in them. Sammy has also started her project for the Bernina University fashion show. I’ve been watching her idea take shape and I think it is very cool. She is making a fashionable outfit but the construction technique is what is going to get the attention of the judges.

******

I unmasked the spare bedroom (AKA Deana’s Sewing Room) that I just repainted. I wiped down the baseboards and mopped the floor. It turned out well:

We’ll put everything back together soon. I also need to make some curtains. The husband and I discussed the bathroom renovation. He may come up with some kind of temporary solution until he has time to tear it apart and redo it correctly.

The other two bedrooms in the rental house really need to be repainted, too, but I don’t have the time or ambition to start them right now. I think they will have to wait for next winter.

******

I planted all the cucurbits—squash and cucumbers—this week. Things are looking good out in the greenhouse, although I am a bit disappointed in my tomato germination. Only about 60% of the seeds germinated. The peppers outperformed the tomatoes and that hardly ever happens. I have lots of pepper seedlings. The brassicas are up. In another week or two, I’ll start the beans and corn.

I am expecting a call from our piglet supplier soon. She usually has piglets by the end of April/beginning of May for the 4-H kids. The pasture is ready for them.

The chicks look less like chicks now and more like miniature Light Brahmas. The older hens have stepped up egg production again and I am wondering if a few of them are going broody. I am not opposed to getting chicks the natural way.

All in all, the farm stuff is right on schedule.

Quality Time With the Beast

The painting project is done, although I still have to unmask everything. I am glad to have that off the to-do list. The bathroom renovation is next. I have to discuss that timeline with the husband. He may want to wait until the fall. A lot of corners were cut when that house was built in the 1980s and the bathroom desperately needs an exhaust fan.

I reserved yesterday afternoon for working on some sewing projects on The Beast, my Juki 1541 industrial. A few weeks ago, my friend Twila brought a leather tote bag to church and asked if I could sew the handle because it had ripped where it connects to the bag. On Tuesday, one of our employees brought me a sling for his rifle and asked if I could make a modification to it. And I’ve had the Kandou Patterns Retro Sling waiting to be finished since last fall. All of those projects needed to be done on the Juki.

I did the sling modification first. It wasn’t difficult and didn’t take long, but it also wasn’t something I’d done before and I was making it up as I went along. I was happy with how it turned out and I think our employee will be, too.

The Retro Sling literally only needed three seams and it was done. It was a good reminder to me not to let projects languish when they are mere feet from the finish line. I had to bind the first inside seam, sew the back half of the bag to the gusset, then bind that seam. It took me a grand total of about 45 minutes. The exterior of the bag is waxed canvas and I had to heat up the bag with the hair dryer to turn it inside out, but I love it:

The perspective in this photo is way off for some reason. This looks like the size of a backpack on the dress form—and there is a similar pattern by this same company for a backpack just like this—but this is a smaller sling bag. I’ve been wanting something like this to carry to shows and other events. I would have used it last week at the quilt show in Spokane if it had been finished. 🫤

Unfortunately, I was not able to fix the bag Twila gave me. Every time I tried to put the needle down into the material, I tripped the safety on my machine. I think there is some kind of reinforcement around the top of the bag that the needle couldn’t pierce. I was very surprised, because that machine is designed to sew all kinds of thick materials, but I also know not to push my machines beyond their limits.

From the Newsroom

Many of you have heard me talk about Nicole Sauce and her “Living Free in Tennessee” podcast. I’ve been listening to her podcast since about episode #8—she’s up to episode number one thousand and something now—and have also been to the Spring Workshop she holds every April at her homestead in Tennessee. I will present the Member Webinar on April 21 at 6 pm Central time:

You can attend the webinar even if you are not an LFTN member. The cost is $35. I’ll be talking about clothing care, mending, basic sewing skills, and other topics that are relevant to homesteaders, but you’re welcome to join even if you aren’t one! See you then!

******

ABC News posted a very interesting article on its website the other day about the increasing need for skilled sewists. And the article included a mention about Nordstrom:

To address a worsening labor shortage, the fashion industry is looking to create a new generation of master tailors.

Nordstrom, North America’s largest employer of tailors and alteration specialists, teamed up with New York's Fashion Institute of Technology to launch a nine-week program in advanced sewing and alteration techniques.

“Customarily, tailoring has never been part of the American skill set,” said FIT instructor and Broadway costume builder Michael Harrell, who teaches the course.

The fashion institute received 200 applications for the inaugural cohort of 15 students, who started in October and received certificates of completion in February, said Jacqueline Jenkins, the executive director of the school's Center for Continuing and Professional Studies.

The hands-on training was designed to prepare participants to work at Nordstrom. The luxury department store chain employs 1,500 people to provide tailoring and alternations, from hemming jeans and repairing rips to fitting suits and reworking evening gowns.

Ten members of the first class were hired or are in the process of being hired, Marco Esquivel, Nordstrom’s director of alterations, said.

I mentioned this to DD#2, who is a buyer at Nordstrom, and she said that it sounds like it has been a very successful program. I hope it continues to grow.

******

I ended up not teaching my mastery class yesterday; one student had to cancel due to a funeral and the other one never showed up. I ran some errands and was home by noon. I could have worked on the rental house painting project but I didn’t want to change my clothes. (I know that sounds silly, but I have days when I have to change outfits a couple of times and it gets tiring.) I worked on some sewing projects. The second half of the Rosebud Quilt Coat collar is done:

Now I just need to finish the assembly.

The husband came home around 3:30 pm, so we went into town to pick up the Jeep. It is back to factory condition and the shop detailed the interior, too. I am glad to have it back and I hope that nothing else happens to it.

I have some paperwork to attend to first thing this morning and then I am going to finish the painting project.

When You're Having Fun

The days are getting away from me. On the one hand, that’s good, because it means I am busy and I like to be busy. On the other hand, I don’t want time to speed by. I am trying to savor the activity.

I had three projects I wanted to tackle yesterday. One was editing this week’s podcast episode, which is longer than usual because it was an interview with a friend of mine, Cristina Phaneuf. Cristina owns Bumbleroot Design and we “met” on one of the Necchi Facebook groups back in 2017 or so. Each of us has a beloved Necchi BV industrial machine. She uses hers to make wonderful bag designs. I edited the podcast right after breakfast but it took a couple of hours.

Mid-morning, I headed over to the rental house and got the first roller coat on the walls of the spare bedroom. I had wanted to do that Sunday afternoon, but the cutting in took longer than expected. The room is looking good. We’re using a Sherwin-Williams paint color called “Bagel,” which is a deep, warm beige. We’ve used it in several rooms in both houses because it’s such a great color. I’m hoping to do the second coat done tomorrow.

I have got to get better about taking photos. Here is another picture of some bee balm:

After lunch, I pruned the raspberry patch. I went at the edges pretty hard, which I have to do every couple of years to keep the suckers from taking over the garden. Hopefully, getting in there to harvest berries in July will be easier. I still have to trim the lavenders and thin out the strawberries. I didn’t get the fruit trees pruned but they can go a year without pruning.

The husband was home by 3 pm and decided to move the pile of aged chicken manure over to the garden with the track loader. We should have a bumper crop of everything this season.

And the body shop called at 4:45 to tell me that the Jeep was done if I wanted to come pick it up. Unfortunately, I had meatloaf in the oven and it’s a 30-minute drive to town. I need to call this morning to tell them it’s probably going to be late this afternoon when we come to pick up the car. The husband has a concrete pour at 8 am and I am teaching a machine mastery class today.

You’ve probably noticed that there was no sewing in there. I think sewing content is going to be thin for the next couple of weeks. I did make my flight and hotel reservations for Bernina University yesterday, so that’s something. The class catalog comes out in another week and we register for classes on the 22nd. I am excited to see what they are offering this year. I need to take a few more machine embroidery classes, for sure, but I hope they also have a few more garment-focused classes.

Things should calm down again by the end of May.

I still haven’t moved Charlotte. I said to the husband that I am going to miss her when she’s no longer hanging out in the corner of my kitchen so I am dragging my feet about moving her. After all, she’s been there for six months. That is not a good reason for forest animals to stay in my house, however.

Better Home and Garden

Happy Easter!

Yesterday morning, after breakfast, the husband and I went over to the rental house property. Painting the ceiling in the spare bedroom of the house was at the top of my to-do list. (Deana, your sewing room is getting a facelift!) The rental property is where the greenhouse and garden are located. While I painted, the husband went out to the garden to prep it for grading with the track loader. The western half of the garden had rotted stumps along the side and a couple of big herb plants I had put in some years ago. All of that was in the way of me getting in and out of there easily with the tractor and wagon.

The prep work took a few hours because he had to fold and stack plastic and move other items. We took a break for lunch. After lunch, I planted a half dozen trays of seeds in the greenhouse and he began moving dirt around. The end result is a huge improvement:

The stumps and herbs had been on that right side. Now it’s clear and smooth and I can get the tractor in and out if I need to. There used to be a bit of a swale in the middle and he filled that in. When he finished the grading, he moved a huge round bale of rotted hemp tow to the area and we spread that out. The black plastic will be put down on top of it.

He also planted my four new apple trees near the fence on the left side. I already have two back there, where the pink flagging tape is in the picture.

I will be all ready to plant next month.

Do we need a garden this big? (This is actually only half of it.) Probably not, but having the luxury of space means I can grow things like Georgia Roaster and butternut squash that need room to sprawl. I usually grow those on the far end of this half of the garden and they do well there.

I painted the second coat on the ceiling in the late afternoon and called it a day. I am planning to paint the first coat on the walls this afternoon.

It feels good to get out and move around and it was lovely to be out in the sunshine.

*******

Guess what finally arrived:

It’s the 2-1/2" Studio strip die that I ordered back in November. I am still waiting on the two dies I ordered in January but at least I have this one. All of the correspondence about this issue has come from some outfit named Qraftful. Apparently, Qraftful is a parent company set up to hold the various brands owned by the private equity firm that bought Accuquilt. Whatever group is in charge, they seem determined to drive Accuquilt into the ground.

I hope you all get out and get some vitamin D this week!