Happy 2022!

I made one last run to town in 2021 yesterday. The quilt store north of town had exactly the fabric I needed to finish a project, and when I stopped in at the quilt store south of town, I discovered I have eight students signed up for the Serger 101 class this coming Tuesday. Yay! I am so excited about that. The Serger 101 class is a prerequisite to the T-shirt class later this month, hopefully to avoid the issue of students coming in not knowing how to use the machine.

I’ll spend some time this weekend getting my class stuff organized. I’ve also been watching Gail Yellen’s YouTube channel, because she has a lot of great serger technique and project videos. I have lots of ideas for classes for this year.

“Begin as you mean to go on.” Apparently, 2022 is going to begin with quilting, sewing, and serging. I can think of worse things.

I also picked up a set of rulers I ordered at the quilt store where I am teaching:

I want to use these in the border of a quilt. I’d like to get that quilt done, as I have four more in the queue behind it.

I’d also very much like to get started on a special project for my college roommate. She sent me the Sunbonnet Sue quilt blocks that her grandmother appliquéd and asked if I could make a quilt out of them. I want to get that top made and quilted before gardening season starts.

The new lettuce growing supplies are supposed to show up here this week. I will start another batch of seeds today so they are ready when the new system gets set up. We had salad with dinner again last night, and the lettuce I cut earlier in the week has already started growing back. The husband wondered if I should just grow lettuce inside all year and skip growing it in the garden. It does seem easier to grow it inside, but I’ll probably put a patch in the garden anyway.

**************************************************

In weather news, it’s -1 this morning. (That’s the air temp.) We’ve been having a cold snap. The husband put the heat lamps on in the chicken coop so that Dave doesn’t get frostbite on his comb. He only puts the heat lamps on if it goes down into the teens. I know he worries about the heat lamps setting the coop on fire, although in true husband fashion, those heat lamps are bolted and clamped in place so they can’t fall.

I’ve been watching the weather all over the Pacific Northwest. Seattle is having a weird winter, for sure. They don’t usually get snow and they’ve had quite a bit recently. “Quite a bit” is only a couple of inches, but that’s enough to snarl things there. I-90 is intermittently open and closed going over Snoqualmie Pass because people do not understand that “all wheel drive” does not mean “all wheel stop.” I’ve driven that route dozens of times in all kinds of weather—once during a snowstorm—but right now, you couldn’t pay me enough money to make that trip. There are too many stupid drivers on the road. I think a lack of plow drivers is also contributing to the problem.

If there is one lesson I take from 2021, it’s that reality has shifted. I still think we’re in a downward decline, helped along by the events of the past two years. Systems that worked on 2019 don’t work as efficiently now, and in some cases, don’t work at all. Some of them may never recover. Some of them shouldn’t recover. That’s sobering, yes, but it also paves the way for new opportunities, and it seems to me that a bit of restructuring and re-prioritizing would not go amiss in the new year.