E-I-E-I-O

This is a long post, but yesterday was an eventful day.

Accuquilt offers a new Die to Try on the first Tuesday of every month. The die is a limited-edition release, but if it’s popular enough, they will make it a permanent part of their line.

The Die to Try for February was the Farm Animals Medley:

Their marketing department saw me coming from a mile away. I ordered this one and it arrived yesterday. I am positively giddy thinking about appliquéing little pink pigs all over everything, LOL. I wish they had included a sheep, too, but oh, well. I am sure I can get into enough trouble with just chickens, pigs, and cows.

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My friend, Scott, posted a funny follow-up story about his Singer 128 on his blog. I got a laugh out of it. I feel partly responsible for leading him down the vintage sewing machine garden path, but it has provided a lot of entertainment.

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The owner of the Quilt Gallery, the store here in Kalispell where I am teaching serger classes, said some very lovely things about me in yesterday’s Facebook Live video. I watch their Tuesday morning videos to find out what’s new in the store, not to go fishing for compliments about my teaching abilities, but she just happened to be talking about the serger classes I’m teaching there. I said to the husband last night—after I made him watch the video—that it is gratifying to be able to use so many of my knitwear design skills in teaching these classes. Knit fabric, after all, is knit fabric whether it’s tiny stitches knit on a machine or larger knit stitches made with two needles.

The Quilt Gallery is hosting a Bernina Academy Mystery Make—Overlocker Edition at the end of April. This is a two-day class taught by a Bernina educator. On the first day, students learn how to make a variety of different stitches using the Bernina L850 and L890 air-threading sergers. On the second day, they use their stitch sampler to make a project. I signed up immediately. Besides the fact that I get to be a student, not a teacher, the class will give me some hands-on practice with the Bernina sergers. I let Tera know about it in case she wanted to join me, but she’s taking a longarm class that same weekend.

The Sew Expo, hosted by Washington State University, traditionally has been held in early March in Puyallup, Washington. That’s only a few miles from Pacific Lutheran, where DD#1 went to college. This year, it’s a virtual event. Gail Yellen announced her classes on her YouTube channel right after tickets went on sale. I really wanted to take her coverstitch class, but it was already sold out. (I am not sure why they put a limit on virtual classes, but whatever.) Perhaps next year, they will have it in person again and I can make a trip over and take some classes.

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The Churn Dash blocks went up on the design wall yesterday:

I miscounted the first time and missed a block. There were 25 blocks in the bag, so I have just enough for this layout. I don’t need to make any. I also made the sashing strips but still have to cut them to length.

While I was pressing the blocks, I noticed a piece of paper taped to the back of one of them. It had “Ree Nancarrow” written on it and nothing else. Curious, I went to my computer and Googled the name and this website popped up. Ree Nancarrow is a quilt artist who spent many years in Alaska. Why was her name taped to one of these blocks? They don’t seem to match her quilting aesthetic. She does mostly landscape and wildlife art quilts.

It’s a mystery.

I have an evil plan to get my friend Sunnie—who is a supremely talented painter—to make an art quilt when she is here in Montana this summer. It doesn’t have to be big; even something the size of a placemat would be do-able and not overwhelming. I think I can enlist Robin and the other ladies in the craft co-op to help me. Sunnie, you’ve been warned. :)

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Cathy and I are taking a road trip tomorrow to Eureka. There used to be a processor up there that both of us liked, but he had his building sold out from under him early in 2021. That left me scrambling to find a place to take the pigs last fall. A new processor has opened up in that same building, so we’re going on a recon mission to scope out the place and ask questions. The processor we used this year was okay, but I’d like to see what services this new processor offers. And I am excited about getting to spend time with Cathy. I realized the other day that she and I literally have not seen each other for more than a few minutes at a time in almost two years.

The minister from the Lutheran church where I play for Lenten midweek services called yesterday. We talked for about 20 minutes. I get his weekly e-mails, so even though I haven’t played there since the pandemic started, I’m more or less aware of what’s happening with their congregation. Our discussion was sobering, though. These lockdowns damaged our communities in so many ways, large and small, and that includes churches. He’s not sure they will have the numbers to be able to have Lenten services, although I put the dates on my calendar anyway.