Overly Ambitious Class Plans

Today will be a day of sewing. I have to get my decorative coverstitch store samples done so they can be put up on display. Some students will sign up just because it’s a serger/coverstitch class—even without knowing what they are going to learn—but others want to be able to see and touch an example of what we’ll be doing in class.

It’s a three-hour evening class, so there won’t be a ton of time. I sketched out a class plan with ambitious goals, but soon realized that if I want to teach everything on my list, we would be having a sleepover at the quilt store. Fun, but probably not what the owner imagined.

I’ll see where I am at the end of today. We might have to have an advanced coverstitch class after the holidays. It’s about time to be planning spring classes anyway. I have two students who want a Harper Cardigan class—they couldn’t take the one I did last month—and I talked to another woman yesterday who also would take it if I offer it again.

Quilting on the cream-and-white Scrapper’s Delight top has reached the halfway point:

I worked on it yesterday afternoon. I need to can up a few more items for the pantry for winter, so I ran 15 pints of red beans through the canner while I quilted. Beans take 90 minutes to process at 15 pounds of pressure:

I still need to do some white beans and pintos. The beans that have been drying in the greenhouse also have to be brought back to the house so I can shell them in the evenings. And we need more chicken stock.

It is slow going on that quilt top. It’s a king-sized top, and the table is 6' wide when the extensions are up, but quilts are surprisingly heavy. Moving the quilt around to quilt the pattern I’ve chosen—circles with a ruler—takes a bit of effort. I have to roll the quilt and make sure the edges aren’t hanging off the sides of the table. I do have the Horn table with the hydraulic lift, which has been a godsend. I brought in one of the tall chairs from our kitchen table and raised the table so the quilt won’t drag on the floor.

Slow and steady wins the race. Two hours here and two hours there and it’ll get done eventually. Loops would have been faster and easier. Ruler work always takes longer than free motion quilting. I’m trying to expand my horizons, though, and I do like the way this pattern looks.

If I get the coverstitch samples done today, I will move on to the Linda pants from Style Arc. (So far, we’ve had the Linda Top by Sinclair Patterns and now the Linda Pants by Style Arc, which is not confusing at all.)

I also picked up this New Look pattern on my travels last week:

I have no idea when I will get to it, but I like both the top and the pants. Both would lend themselves well to some decorative coverstitching on the seamlines.

Next week is ridiculously busy. I really need to have a talk with the person who manages my schedule. The Diva goes in Monday morning for body work on the damage from the accident last spring. (Yes, it took this long to get an appointment.) I will be driving DD#1’s Acura for at least a week. Monday afternoon is a dental appointment for a cleaning. I am scheduled to teach a class at the quilt store north of town on Tuesday, and I have the Socks on the Serger class Wednesday evening at the quilt store south of town. Thursday is open—for the moment, at least—and then it’s a day trip to Missoula on Friday to teach a serger mastery class. November is going to be a marathon, too. I had to let the music teacher know that I wouldn’t be available to play piano for her concert this year, much as I would love to, because I know better than to try and shoehorn anything else into the schedule.