Too Slow

I was so focused on getting paperwork done yesterday morning that when I finally cleared off my desk and looked at my watch, I was surprised to see it was already noon. I got class information prepared and sent off to the quilt store north of town—now I need to make class samples—and I touched base with the owner of the small quilt store in Spokane. I apologized for being so busy with everything this spring that I didn’t have time to follow up on a class at her store. She said that was fine because she hadn’t had time to follow up, either, due to some health issues. We are trying to put something on the calendar for late August.

I need to get a head shot for some of these class submissions. I dread photos. I tried taking some selfies yesterday in front of my sewing machines. In a couple of them, I looked like I had had a stroke. My left eye does something weird when I smile. The husband said I may just have to suck it up and go have a professional portrait session like I did 20 years ago for my knitting head shot.

After lunch, I made a Petunia Pouch:

I think I can confidently say that no sewing factory is going to hire me to sew on an industrial machine. I am too slow. The husband and I had this discussion over dinner. He finds it amusing that I have no patience with myself when I am learning new skills. (One of the things my serger students tell me is that I have endless patience as a teacher. Oh, the irony.) I’ll get it eventually. The fact that this pouch took me three hours to make had nothing to do with the pattern. It is very well done. It had more to do with the fact that a) I am not good at bag bindings despite being a quilter and b) I am still figuring out the finer points of sewing on that 1541. I had to change out the regular foot for the right and left zipper feet, which took some doing. The feet come in two pieces. One part works in concert with the feed dogs and the other part moves with the needle.

After all that tinkering, though, I was able to install the new needle plate and narrow foot.

I’m not sure this narrow foot would work if I were sewing heavy leather or vinyl, but for the fabrics I’m using, I like it better.

Just before dinner, I popped out to the garden to check on my plants and discovered a ground squirrel standing up at the entrance to its tunnel. Of course, my .22 was back at the house because I am not Annie Oakley and I do not carry it on my person. When the husband got home, I asked him to take the shotgun out and dispatch the little pest. As we walked out and approached the garden, we spotted said ground squirrel standing up in the middle of the cabbage patch. The husband sneaked quietly into the garden and waited for a few minutes for a good shot.

I think that was #12. These things are worse than roaches. If they didn’t start to smell and attract carrion, I would hang the bodies up as a warning to others.

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I have a tomato! It’s only June!

This is the Dwarf Mocha tomato plant. I grew this variety last year and gave a plant to Sarah. She saved seed and started plants in February and gave me one. The plant in her garden has even more tomatoes on it than mine.

The zucchini tsunami should arrive in another week or two. And it looks like our weather will be getting back to something more seasonable by the end of the week.