Friends Who Sew

Yesterday was a full day. I had an appointment in the morning, I ran errands, had a mid-afternoon meeting at church to plan the Christmas Eve service, then had another meeting after dinner for the homestead foundation.

One of my errands yesterday was to find and purchase the correct metric tap that would allow the husband to finish the repair on the BMW. I took the Acura to church Sunday morning so he could replace the emissions sensor that was causing the check engine light to be illuminated. When I got home, the BMW was still on the lift. Apparently, when he took the module with the old sensor out, a bolt sheared off (?) and he couldn’t put the module with the new sensor back in because he didn’t have a way to get the remnants of the bolt out. After my appointment, I stopped in at Fastenal, but they didn’t have the size he needed. I ended up at Harbor Freight, and after several minutes of searching and several phone conversations with the husband—accompanied by texted photos—I was able to find the tap and die set he needed.

[When I see a man in Joann Fabrics, I always ask if he needs help finding anything, because I know what it’s like to have to wander around in unfamiliar territory looking for some tool.]

The BMW is back together and running. The husband came in last night after finishing the repair and said, “Drive it and see if the check engine light comes back on. Something else is probably about to fail.”

Needless to say, there was no sewing yesterday. I did get some deliveries of fabric, though. This is the Minerva crushed velvet, in the colorway Celestial:

I may still make a Christmas dress from this, but not until I am 100% sure I have the pattern dialed in.

I also ordered some French terry from KnitFabric.com for a another Burda 6315 top:

I have to finish editing this week’s podcast so I can post it this morning. This one features an interview with Kerry Brown, who owns Strong Roots Resources and is also a member of Nicole Sauce’s Living Free in Tennessee community. Over the past several years, he has developed his interest in permaculture and edible landscaping into a thriving consulting business. At Nicole’s Spring Workshop last year, he and I chatted a bit about his grandmother, Nan, who taught him to sew and quilt on her Singer 99 machine. When I started the podcast, we made plans to have him be a guest and share that story.

I also got a text message yesterday from my friend Marcie’s daughter-in-law. Marcie’s DIL was with us in that deck collapse in 2017 and broke her back when she fell. She was able to recover and walk again, but she has a lot of pain as a result of the accident. She texted me yesterday to say she was taking a sewing class at the local city college in southern California. It was so good to hear from her and to know that she enjoyed her sewing class so much.

I’m not sure what’s on my schedule for the rest of this week. I need to do some brainstorming and organizing for 2024. I want to trace some patterns so they are ready to go when inspiration strikes. I’d like to get some quilt tops sandwiched with batting and backing. I think the next quilt top I make is going to be using the Creative Grids 8 inch Curvy Log Cabin ruler. I have no shortage of things to keep me busy.