Stitch-Outs

We had fun with thread yesterday afternoon. Six students registered for the class. One was not feeling well and one didn’t show, but the remaining four students and I spent 3-1/2 hours testing out various combinations of thread and stitches. (One lady had even driven up from Missoula to take the class.) The experimentation was very educational, and not just for the students. I’ve done most of my work with decorative threads on my serger, so it was nice to see how they looked when stitched out on sewing machines. The selection of threads in the kits was great; they were chosen for me by Wonderfil’s teacher coordinator, Samantha. I got to meet her in person at Sew Expo. She is a smart cookie.

Thread class is on the short list to offer again, probably over the summer. I sent a list of class ideas to the store’s class coordinator so we could get them on the calendar. And I am hoping to spend at least part of today working on class samples.

I bought the Angela Walters FMQ book while I was at the store yesterday. I got one of the last copies—they sold out quickly considering the fact that there were half a dozen there on Friday.

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These two were sitting outside the kitchen door the other morning:

I see them hopping all over our yard. I expect babies in the not-too-distant future.

Even more seedlings have popped up since I took this photo on Monday:

I have to get past this fundraising auction this weekend and then I can plant the cucumbers and melons. We also get chicks next week. It’s raining as I write this blog post. We desperately need the moisture, so I hope it continues for a few days.

The husband brought the new (used) trailer home from Missoula. It’s a long gooseneck trailer and it took a bit of maneuvering to find a spot for it.

I just want to scream at the QuickBooks people. I logged in yesterday to do some paperwork and they have changed the home screen AGAIN to look completely different. I wish they would stop messing around with the layout. If someone hasn’t already done a PhD thesis on how disruptive this kind of stuff is to office productivity, it would make a great topic.

And I found out the other day that Affinity, the layout and graphics software I’ve been using because I don’t want to pay $60 a month to Adobe, has been sold to Canva. Affinity had a flat-fee pricing scheme—pay $169 once and use the software. Canva sent out an e-mail saying that they have no plans to change that, but I don’t believe them. They’ll change it to a “software as a service” subscription plan as soon as they think they can get away with it.