A Baby Shower and Another Sunbonnet Sue

One of the young families in our church is about to welcome their second child. We had a baby shower for them yesterday. Jessica, who organized the event, had the Sunbonnet Sue quilt made by her grandmother on display:

This is a different setting than the one I used; each block is bordered by one of the fabrics that is in the appliqué, and each Sunbonnet Sue is outlined in blanket stitch in black thread. I love the two off-kilter blocks at the bottom.

The shower was lovely. We haven’t had families with kids in our congregation for a long time, and now we have almost a dozen littles running around. I love the chaos. It reminds me of growing up with all of my cousins.

My shower gift was one of the bear paw quilts.

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After several days of sunny weather and temps in the high 40s, we got 4” of heavy, wet snow on Friday and flurries again yesterday. The new snow melted quickly, but I haven’t been back out to the greenhouse. I’m going to try again this afternoon. I’m not panicking yet, but I do need to get the rest of the tomatoes and peppers planted this week. Everything else can wait until after the fire department auction.

The chicks are starting to get their big chicken feathers and are eating like there is no tomorrow. For the first week, they were on a probiotic solution—which helps considerably—but it has a lot of sugar in it. I’ve been cutting back the concentration and they’ll be on plain water starting today.

I worked on class samples all day Friday and ran up three tops yesterday. I made two Laundry Day Tees and another Lark Tee. Before I cut them out, I compared my bodice sloper to each and re-traced the front pieces so I could adjust the position of the boob bump slightly. I’ll post pictures of the tops tomorrow.

Itch to Stitch released a new pattern this week, the Zakopane Top:

This is a knot-front top, one of my favorite styles, but I am undecided about buying the pattern. I’ve got three knot-front top patterns, two of which I reverse engineered from favorite Liz Claiborne tops. I don’t know that this pattern is going to provide anything I don’t already have. I’d also have to lengthen it right off the bat as it is drafted for a shorter person.

Karina, at Lifting Pins and Needles, did a nice video recap of the two tops she made from the Zakopane pattern.

I may have solved the industrial sewing machine dilemma. The sew & vac store in Kalispell—which I do not frequent for a variety of reasons—has a used Consew 118 for sale. (I was in there last week to get binding fabric for one of the bear paw quilts.) The 118 is a walking foot machine and will handle the heavier UV-coated fabric that the husband likes for generator covers. I did some research to determine a reasonable asking price, because I know from previous dealings with this store that I will have to bargain hard. This store tends to overprice used machines and push customers toward buying new, but I am trying to avoid spending lots of money on a machine I likely won’t use that often.

As the husband says, the key to successful negotiation is being willing to walk away.