Which Waxed Canvas?

I did not mean to sound so grumpy in yesterday’s blog post—and on my birthday, to boot—but I am not going to be one of those people who posts only rainbows and unicorns. Life is what it is, and I am definitely grateful for another trip around the sun. I just find it wearying to share this planet with other people sometimes.

I sewed all day yesterday, on a project with some waxed canvas. This is the waxed canvas I bought from Klum House, in Portland. My previous waxed canvas projects have been with the material from AL Frances Textiles, on Etsy. The AL Frances waxed canvas is incredibly easy to work with; the Klum House waxed canvas, not so much. Klum House uses a vegan wax blend on their canvas which is comprised of petroleum jelly, mineral oil, and paraffin. The saturation is good, and the weave of the canvas is tighter, but I found myself fighting the Klum House canvas every step of the way. When I crease the AL Frances canvas, it stays creased, which makes sewing it a breeze. The Klum House canvas would not stay creased, no matter how hard I went over it with my Hera marker (a plastic blade used to mark and shape fabric without pins). And my Necchi industrial didn’t seem to like sewing it.

I prevailed, however, and the project is almost done. It looks good and I am happy with it. I need one item to finish it, which I’ll pick up in town. I can’t show you a picture, though, because it’s a gift for someone. I’m glad I did a simpler project with the Klum House canvas before embarking on that Slabtown Backpack, because now I know what I am dealing with. I don’t dislike the Klum House canvas; it simply requires different handling.

I was laughing at myself yesterday morning, because I spent a couple of days cleaning and organizing my sewing area, and within 15 minutes of starting that waxed canvas project, it looked like a bomb had gone off again. I engage in a lot of creative destruction when I am working, apparently.

[“Creative destruction” is such a wonderful oxymoron.]

I pieced the backing for the Noon and Night quilt, too. I like to use 108” wide fabrics so I don’t have to piece backs, but I wanted a specific backing for this one and it only came in 44” wide yardage. As I was pressing it, though, I noticed a tear in the fabric:

So I turned it over and ironed a small piece of black interfacing over the hole to keep it from getting any bigger.

When it’s quilted, the flaw won’t be noticeable.

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The husband is still working, although not as many hours because there just isn’t enough daylight. The early snows caught a lot of people off guard and scrambling to get projects done. He poured some sidewalks yesterday at a duplex whose foundation he did in the summer of 2019.

I expect we’ll be picking up the pork orders some time next week. I’ll be glad to have that all done and wrapped up. We’ve already had people asking us about reserving some for next year. I am hoping we can use the same supplier for piglets.

I’m also going to order seeds a lot earlier this year. I saved a lot from last season—especially tomatoes—but I don’t want to get caught without other ones that I need.