July in Montana
I popped over to Elysian’s yesterday morning to check on the egg supply in the market fridge. The view from the corner down our road was just stunning, so I snapped a pic:
Our house and property are on the right. Straight ahead, up in those mountains, is the Jewel Basin hiking area.
These are the days that make snowstorms and subzero temperatures worth it. Unfortunately, a lot of people come here and think it is like this all year round. Some of them have very rude awakenings come January. (This view is still beautiful in January, just in a different way.)
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The husband spent the weekend practicing with the backhoe, which is all tuned up and purring nicely:
He dug up a bunch of stumps from the trees that came down in March, then filed the holes with dirt. The stumps got added to burn piles to burn in the fall. I spent a fair bit of time just standing out there watching him. I find it fascinating. He said he would teach me how to operate the backhoe, but I don’t know that this is a skill I need to add to my arsenal right now. Maybe.
That area where he’s working is much more open and sunny now with the evergreens gone. It might be a good spot to put more fruit trees.
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We have a second batch of four baby robins in the nest in the corner porch rafter. I can’t tell if this is the same couple that had the first batch or if they sub-let the nest to another couple. That corner rafter is prime real estate for sure.
The mama turkeys are still here with their babies, and we have a mama deer with a tiny little fawn. Lots of babies this year.
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Sewing items of note:
I got the second edition copy of the Block Genius book. This edition adds the math/measurements for 4-1/2” blocks (yikes! tiny!) as well as 5x5, 7x7, and 8x8 grid quilt blocks, many of which were designed by the author. I see lots of opportunity for fun and experimentation.
Yesterday was my day to run errands in town. I stopped at the Salvation Army thrift store, which usually has a good sewing section. The only thing I bought, though, was a bag made of some nylon material with the Similac baby formula logo on the inside—not something I would carry as is, but the size, style, and design is exactly what I am looking for in a cross-body bag. I have this wild idea that I will recreate it in a different material.
I noticed that Joanns is now carrying Dritz hardware in bulk—they have large bags of D-rings, gate hooks, even 10-packs of fabric marking pens. (I go through those pens at a ridiculous rate, probably because they dry out so fast here.) I have had mixed success with Dritz hardware, but sometimes it’s the only product readily available.
I have the pieces cut out for a Mini Poppins bag:
A few weeks ago, I was at one of the quilt stores in Kalispell buying some fabric, and a finished Mini Poppins bag was sitting on the counter. I asked about it and the salesperson went over and took what I assumed was the pattern off a display. When I got it home, though, I realized that I had purchased the metal stays for the pattern but not the pattern itself. (Perhaps the “stays-only” package should have a different label on it than the one that is on the pattern; they are identical except for the small type at the bottom that indicates no pattern is included.) The quilt store didn’t have any more copies of the pattern for sale and it’s not available as a digital download. I saw the pattern at the quilt store in Spokane, so I bought it there. Now I have two sets of stays and one pattern. I am going to make the larger Mini Poppins bag first.
This same designer, Aunties Two, has a pattern for the full-size Poppins bag, one that is large enough to carry a sewing machine. The quilt store here is having a class on making it, but I didn’t find out about the class until Sunday and the first of two classes was held yesterday. The store is offering the class again in September. Perhaps I’ll do it then, although one of the women who works at the other quilt store in town made the large Poppins bag and told me that it’s a lot to wrangle through a domestic machine. If I were going to make it, I think I’d want to use the Necchi industrial.
I think it’s going to be a stay inside and sew day today as we’ve already had one big thunderstorm move through here. The pager went off just before 4 a.m. for a wildfire on the mountain up above our house. We got dressed and went out to see what was happening. There was a small fire visible, but it’s out of our fire district, on state forest land, and inaccessible by any of our trucks. The rain may have put it out, but those fires have been known to smolder and flare up weeks later when it’s hot, dry, and windy. The Department of Natural Resources will have to get up there today and see what’s going on with it.