Groceries are a bit frustrating. We've tried for cucumbers three times
recently and not gotten them. I haven't heard there is a cucumber
shortage. I am sure there will be cucumbers next week, but this week we
have to make salads without them. Things like that.
The Sacramento area is not great for fabric shops. I went to them all
soon after we moved. There are two Jo-Ann's, selling the usual. A small
quilting store, good for small cotton prints of quilting weight. A
cheesy discount store, mostly shiny polyester home-dec. And a glitzy,
but not high quality, store that sells fancy fabrics. Think polyester
bridal wear with big plastic sequins.
I already have a huge fabric stash. Since we moved I have kept telling
myself I will use the stash exclusively and not buy any more fabric
online. Now I'm trying to really buckle down to doing that.
There are a number of things I am glad I kept when we moved. Like the
three-baguette pan with holes in the bottom to let steam into the bread,
which my husband urged me to discard. (The steam is provided by a pan
of boiling water on the lower shelf of the oven.) I always wanted to
learn to make baguettes and didn't for years after I bought the pan.
It's hard to buy good, fresh baguettes right now, so I tried two
recipes. It turns out that baguettes are easy to make and they taste
great! I can put seeds on top, I can have whole wheat baguettes! I
should have tried making them years ago, but I am glad I at least kept
the pan till I got around to it.
I have downloaded several patterns from fabrics-store.com but have not
tried them. They often put significant, extra photos and instructional
material for the patterns on their blog, The Thread. If you want the
full details on a pattern, search the blog.
You might like Tessuti patterns:
https://www.tessuti-shop.com/collections/pattern-books. These are
similar in mood to the fabrics-store patterns. Tessuti is in Australia,
but they sell all their patterns in PDF as well as print format. And
they produce PDFs suitable for American printer paper. There are several
free patterns if you want to try them.
I am struggling with getting a historic look into my modern clothes as
much as possible. You can wear anything here because no one cares about
fashion. There is no reenactment except one group further out in the
suburbs. Not my usual time span but I considered them. Then I met a
woman who had recently joined the group and she made it sound so toxic I
thanked her for the warning.
Where did you move to?
Fran
Lavolta Press
www.lavoltapress.com
On 5/6/2020 5:00 AM, Megan McHugh wrote:
Well said, Fran. I think my biggest adjustment (other than that I retired from
my main job in January and moved, which was pretty big) has been that I cannot
simply run out and get something if I need it. So I’ve had to learn to plan
grocery trips/deliveries for the first time in many years. And I really want
to be able to go to a fabric shop. Since I also moved in January, I downsized
a bunch of stuff never dreaming I wouldn’t be able to run out and get more if I
needed it… Oh well. And I do not know which shops in my new area stock what I
want.
I always said I’d work from stash when I retired… it is time to do so now.
Especially since a lot of the travel I had planned in the next year or so
probably will not happen.
I know it is not historical, but I picked up a new pattern from www.Fabric-stores.com
<http://www.fabric-stores.com/> recently. Have any of you worked with any of
their patterns? I have a length of cotton that will become one of these tunics in
the not to distant future...
-Megan
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