Sunbonnet Sue Safe and Sound

My college roommate messaged me on Friday afternoon that the quilt had made it to her house in Maryland:

It fits the bed perfectly. That was a happy accident, LOL.

I had a worship team meeting at church yesterday morning. Afterward, I headed into town to run a few errands. The husband was at a concrete cutting job with his crew and planned to work most of the day.

I remembered why I don’t go to town on Saturdays. Ugh. I stopped at Joann Fabrics to pick up a few items, then headed to Hobby Lobby. I am still working on class samples and I also needed to do some research. I get tons of ideas just walking around the store.

After leaving Hobby Lobby, I went to the quilt store south of town to pick up some thread. I need some 50wt thread in a baby pink color for one of the bear paw quilts. The quilt store north of town did not have the correct shade of Aurifil. I found some Wonderfil at the quilt store south of town. The store was quite busy. While waiting to check out, I visited with one of the students from my January serger class on presser feet. She has a Bernina L460 and brought it in to the store for some warranty work. She also thought some presser feet had been ordered for her after the class, but they hadn’t come in yet and there was some confusion about the correct feet for her model. The owner’s son—who is the sewing machine tech—came out to the floor and the three of us figured out what feet she needed and got them onto the list for the next order.

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and was delighted to find that ground beef was on sale for $1.98 a pound. (It’s been running $4.98 a pound.) I offered to make some of the chili for our spring pie social in May, so I bought everything I needed yesterday. I’ll make up a roaster pan of chili today and put it in ice cream buckets in the freezer.

It was 2:00 pm by the time I got home. I checked on chicks, fed the big chickens, fed the deer, sorted through a bag of potatoes that was starting to go south, and finished binding the second bear paw quilt. The third one is on the Q20 right now and I’ve been working on it here and there.

I’m hoping to put some time in on my bodice fitting issues again today. I ran across this fantastic Threads article about comparing a bodice sloper to commercial pattern and it has been very helpful. I’m comparing my bodice sloper to the Butterick 6754 basic shell pattern. I did widen the back bodice piece slightly and now I am tweaking the front bodice piece. After watching this Minvera YouTube video, I dropped the darts another 1/2”. I also dropped the waistline. I wasn’t kidding when I said I had a long torso. When I compared my bodice sloper from the Sew Expo class to the Butterick pattern, I realized I had to drop the waistline by almost 2”. This is why I never buy ready-to-wear clothing with waist ties or belts.

[I hate that it has taken me so long, and so much work, to solve my clothing-fitting issues, but it’s nice to know that I might be able to make some of the things I see in stores that have never fit me properly. I’m also starting to feel more prepared to tackle an Upton Dress.]

Once I get all these tweaks done, I’ll make up one more—hopefully the last?—muslin and see how close I am.

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We are supposed to get close to 50 degrees today. It has been warm and sunny lately and the snow is starting to melt, but at our house, at least, the snow will be here for a while. I’m always happy when the day comes that the driveway is clear and I don’t need my ice cleats to get back and forth to the garage.

I have WS with me tomorrow—his mom is working and he doesn’t have school. I think it will be a good day for the two of us to go out to the greenhouse and assess the situation. It is time to get tomatoes and peppers started.