Half Year Review - 2015

Well, howdy, Internet friends!  Seems that I sort of disappeared from blogging the last half of 2015.  So, it may take awhile to catch you all up; I’ll resist my initial inclination to do it all at once!

I started a new job last year, in May, which coincides with when my blogging dropped off the map.  I’d been at my previous employer for almost 10 years, so it’s been a bit of a transition.  I’m still in the same tech field, though it’s a much smaller department, and even get to travel and go to conferences.  I think I’m finally getting comfortable and I really like the people I work with.

I also started a small quilt group.  It wasn’t an intentional decision, just a group of my friends who I wanted to spend time with and, well, it just sort of blossomed.  This photo is from one of those sessions where they helped me with a collection of scraps; what happens at sew day, stays at sew day!

Interestingly enough, the majority of the group are teachers, whether by formal training or natural ability.  We call ourselves the Grateful Threads and we meet once a month, working on both personal and group projects.  There’s so much laughter, fun, and learning that goes on, I can’t believe how lucky I am to know each and every one of them.

I bought a Pfaff 7570 sewing machine this summer because not only do I love my Pfaff machines, this one is capable of embroidering and came with the original cable that will allow connection to an (older) computer and a TON of embroidery cards.  I’ve had some challenges getting it connected so I can make up the embroidered quilt labels as I intended, but that’s an ongoing process.  I’ll keep you posted!



Fast forward to the recent holiday season, and I had several customer quilts I had promised for Christmas.  I finished by the 12th of December, so I helped a friend with her first quilt, which was made up of a variety of 5” blocks sewn together and a dark blue minky back.  She wanted to give it as a gift for Christmas and it was so much fun watching her gain confidence in the process.  I didn’t get any photos of the quilt, but I’m sure she did so I’ll post them later.


I also made 4 hats on my bulky knitting machine, 3 of them using this EASY pattern:

http://knittsings.com/how-to-machine-knit-a-basic-easy-stocking-hat

For the 4th one I adapted a hand knitting pattern that allows for a ponytail at the top so that my long-haired niece could wear it:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/holey-hat-2


It was fussy to do because I don't have a garter bar for the bulky, much less know what I'm doing with adapting patterns or moving stitches around!  LOL!
I'm planning on getting my ribber set up in the next couple of weeks because I really want to start making a sweater that uses ribbing and I REALLY don't want to hand knit it.

I’m also looking forward to trying a  new pattern for a Quarter Crown hat pattern that not only is it a new technique to learn but I'd like to contribute some chemo hats to a gal who only takes hand knitted hats made in the round because a seam is too rough on the chemo head.

http://slisen.blogspot.com/2016/01/quarter-crown-for-hats.html

I’m definitely looking forward to this coming year.  There will be many challenges but I’m going to embrace them all the best I can.


Happy New Year!

What’s New?

I have been thinking of several topics for blog posts over the last 2 months, I’ve even taken photos!  However, life has simply gotten in the way of posting.  Seriously, maybe I need to re-think how I post; Mary from MaryQuilts.com posts something almost every day!

 

I, however, try to post on both Wordpress, Blogspot and my own website and that means keeping them all updated at the same time.  Simplify?  Yes, I need to do that!  But I also want to reach the widest audience possible.  Why?   It’s my social side; I’m also planning a podcast!  I like to talk to people and share what I know.  The problem is trying to figure out the technology and schedule.  I know I love being able to share my ideas and conversations. And then I also think about the need to update my website…aarrgh!

 

What’s new?  I started a new job!  That is, I left my employer of 10 years to start providing tech support at a new place.  So, in some ways I feel like I’m starting a new career.  It just happens that I am still providing tech support, which I love, ‘cuz I love helping people.  It’s just who I am.

I’m also going to be teaching another beginning quilt class in June; the first one was in  March at Jones Sew and Vac.  I made the quilt that is shown to illustrate how a rail fence pattern looks without a sashing in between each block.  I love the design and it’s great for a beginner.   I really enjoyed the last class and learned a lot.  I think everyone had fun and I even made new friends.

 

Now, I’m back to quilting customer quilts and my June is totally booked!  No surprise there!  I will be teaching new quilters in June and I’m hoping to attend a family reunion.  My step child is also graduating from college but because of the new job I won’t be able to attend; I have no time off now!

 

I hope you are all working on projects and enjoying yourself; life is just too short.

 

Happy quilting!

Growing, not shrinking, stash!

I wanted to try to show an alternative block size and layout to the pink and white Odd Girl Out Rail Fence pattern I’ll be using when I teach my beginning quilting class at the new sewing machine shop in town, Jones Sew n Vac.

So, what did I do?  I shopped my stash, of course!  And I found some great fabrics that work well with the colors in my living room, the colors that my DH is most comfortable with.  This will be easy, right?

I ended up with 24 blocks and I decided I liked the traditional Rail Fence layout but I wanted a larger quilt.  I like scrappy so I started adding fabric.  And then I needed just one more color, maybe two.    But I needed more than just a fat quarter.   Oh, and how about this other color, I need that one, too.  Oh, but that green is too dark, I’ll need to replace that one, and that print is distracting, so take those blocks out.

Seriously, see the orange print?  It’s distracting and I hadn’t noticed it before I took this photo!  So, those are going into a different project.

All in all I spent my allowance for this on fabric that I didn’t intend to purchase and my stash has grown, not shrunk!  Aargh!

But I’m happy to report that the blocks are sewn into rows and I’ve started sewing the rows together.  It seems that I’m a lot less tolerant than I used to be for those seams that shift when I sew them together.  Either that, or I’ve gotten sloppier in my technique.  Oh yeah, THAT’S why I don’t use this layout in my beginning class!

I should have the top done by Saturday, but I may not have borders on.  That’s OK because then I can use this top as an example to show my class, which is exactly what my intent what in the beginning, anyway.

Happy Trails

As promised, I’m sharing the last customer quilt I completed, which was in November 2014.

 

This is Nani’s quilt, one she made for herself out of some vintage cowboy fabrics.  I did an overall looping meander to simulate the look of a cowboy’s rope.  It was really fun to quilt and Nani loves it.  Best of all, I’ve made a new friend!

 

During the holiday break I had a chance to work on the 9 patch medley and it’s all quilted.  I love how it’s turning out!  The binding is already made and once the I finish the label I’ll catch 2 sides of it into the binding seam so all I have to do is stitch down 2 sides.  Once I finish it I’ll post photos.

 

I also went shop hopping with a couple of friends and while I don’t need more fabric, I did make a few purchases.  Uh, some of them might even be fabric.    

I’ll highlight them in some upcoming posts but for now I’ll just say “Happy New Year”!

November projects

I don’t know how I managed this, but today is EXACTLY one month since my last blog post;  I’ve been keeping myself pretty busy during this past month, too!

In the first part of November we had a snowfall of 7”-10”, leaving a bunch of ice on the streets and sidewalks and an inversion that caused some VERY cold weather!

I pulled out the hat I’d started making my husband last winter and sewed up the side seam, finally completing the project.  Nothing like a sudden weather change to prompt finishing UFOs!

Participants in my online vintage sewing machine group decided to make a quilt for a friend of the group who was recently diagnosed with cancer and  I made this 54/40 or Fight block.  It’s one of my favorites!  The participants in the group are far and wide and most of us haven’t met in person.  However, we got a lot of satisfaction making this quilt and it turned out great so we’re going to continue this group.

I’ve also been working diligently on a quilt for a special veteran.  This vet is a new friend of my mom’s so I thought I’d take some blocks that I had left over from the first American Hero Quilts I made to make this second quilt.  I figured I’d get it finished in time for Christmas.

Well, I got an email from my mom in early November telling me that my brother, who lives in New Hampshire, was bringing his 15 year old son to visit my mom, who lives in Montana.  He’s a Montana State University alumni and my mom is a University of  Montana alumni and they planned on attending the cross-state rivalry Cat-Griz football game.  Of course that changed all my plans!

Try as I might, I didn’t get the quilt finished in time for the trip so I’m putting the borders on it and piecing the back this weekend.  It’ll have to be a Christmas gift instead, especially if I decide that it’s not long enough; he’s a tall guy!

I already know how I want to quilt the interior and which thread I’ll use, so now I need to figure out how to do the borders.  I’m pretty pleased with how this one is turning out!

I’d better get moving if I want to get any sewing done today.  I’ll post an update on the last customer quilt I did for this year next time.

Cute Baby Quilt!

This is the latest customer quilt I finished.  Isn’t it cute?!?!

This is Thalia’s first quilt.  Well, she helped on a bunch of them with her mother-in-law on all the previous family quilts, but unfortunately, her mother in law has passed away, and now she’s expecting another grand child….THIS week!

If you zoom in on the picture you can see bicycles in the dark fabric.  She wanted to create a pathway for them so I quilted some close, wavy lines in that area, with wider wavy lines in the squares.

We chose Warm and Safe batting with King Tut Heather thread on the top, which matched perfectly.

I did the binding by machine because it’s going to get washed … a LOT!

Thalia was so thrilled to complete the quilt, and I was thrilled for her.  We’ll be sitting down, creating more of them together, soon!

Slide Show Quilt

This is a customer’s quilt that I recently completed called Slide Show by Atkinson Designs.  It was made for my customer’s son’s wedding.

Once I completed the quilting she had a week to spare to get the binding on before she was heading to the wedding.  I haven’t heard if that got completed before she left; you know how stressful and busy the week before a wedding can be!

If you’re old enough to remember actual film that was loaded into a camera then you’ll understand the reference for Slide Show’s design.  This is NOT a Microsoft PowerPoint reference!

For those who only vaguely remember, here’s a reminder:  the film was advanced on a roller that had pegs on either side.  The 2” squares located around the large square depict the holes at the edge of the film that went over those pegs.

I used a King Tut variegated thread in both the top an bobbin with this overall meander design.  The back was also all black so the variegated thread was a great choice there.

I think my customer did a great job.  The use of batiks against black is always stunning and I love the geometric design.

Wandering Spiral Block

Last weekend was the Boise Basin Quilters annual quilt show.  I went on Saturday with a fellow Innova owner and long arm quilter, Linda V. and we had a great time.  I entered Odd Girl Out in the Exhibition Only category and had lots of compliments.  It was a super busy day and the quilts were great.  I even purchased a couple of tools I’d seen earlier this summer.  You’ll be hearing about those over the next few months as I get those projects started.

On Sunday I took the Wandering Spirals class from ReNae Merrill.  Of course, I had to get a photo in front of the class sample!  If you look closely you’ll see “shadow” blocks in the quilting.  That would be the outline of the quilt blocks on the other side.  Yep, it’s a reversible quilt!  Unfortunately I neglected to get a photo of the other side.

ReNae developed this block specifically for our guild and debuted the pattern at our show.  She specializes in a unique paper piecing technique.  I’ve done very little paper piecing but found it easy to follow and really enjoyed the class, learned a lot and made a new friend, Vicki.

Notice that in the photo my shoes don’t match.  That’s because I can’t sew with my shoe on so I was wearing the felted slipper that I made earlier this year.

Vicki and I didn’t finish our blocks during the class so we got together last night and worked on the block for about an hour.  After dinner I completed mine.

Nxt up: print the additional foundations and get them assembled (this block requires 4 foundation pieces), cut the fabric, and find time to piece the rest of the blocks!

Unintended Break

I’ve been unintentionally absent from my blog since the end of July.  Boy, does it feel like a lot longer than that!  I’m renewing my efforts to re-establish some habits I enjoy, working out and blogging among them.  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drop off the face of the planet!

It wasn’t a planned break.  It started out that I finished up my customer quilts and had a little bit of time off.  As it turned out, I haven’t quilted for a customer since July, at the latest, and that’s when my last blog post was.  I’ve been busy, though, and really needed the break.

I’ve really been enjoying the time off and actually finished one of my own quilts!  Do you remember this hot pink and white quilt from Sept 2011?  I’ve called her Odd Girl Out because of the one block that is different, created in a unique way at the very end of the process because I started this quilt without a plan and ended up improvising on the last block of the quilt.

I ended up not using any of the border ideas I’d plotted out and posted back in 2011.  Instead, I used a Kaffe Fassett fabric that turned out to be the EXACT same colors as the interior strips!  That just NEVER happens!  I had quite a dilemma choosing the fabrics because I found quite a few strong contenders.  I think I spent an entire afternoon in the quilt store taking photographs, comparing, and trying to decide.

I only chose the back about a month ago.  I got a wide back fabric from Craft Warehouse, a local chain here in Boise.  I don’t remember the name of the fabric line itself, but it’s a nice quality fabric.  I really like the light gray on the back, it gives it a nice, fresh feel.  I used Hobbs Tuscany 100% washable wool for the batting and I like the texture and how light the quilt feels.  I’m still experimenting to find my absolute favorite wool batting, but in general I really like wool.

I outlined the flowers in the border with Permacore  to give a very textured surface; that took about 4 hours alone!  I sewed a wavy line down the middle of each strip and a freehand circular motif in the sashing with the So Fine and the SID work..  Superior Omni thread was used on the back.  I finished it with a dark purple binding and think it’s the perfect finishing touch.  I even got to try out my new vintage Kenmore walking foot while sewing on the borders.

I’m entering it into the local quilt show which will run from September 27-28th at the Expo Idaho fairgrounds in Boise.  Because I had some tension issues in the border area it’s an exhibition only quilt, but I’m thrilled that I’ve actually finished one of my own!

During this time off I also rearranged my quilting studio to accommodate space for another quilter so now I have room to have a friend over to sew!  During that upheaval I located all of my UFO’s and I’ve committed to working on those projects to finally get them completed.

Well, that’s all the news I should share for now.  I always have a long post when I haven’t shared for awhile!  I hope you’re all happy, healthy, and enjoying your crafting adventures.

Happy Quilting!

How Much Do You Love YOUR Iron?

I made a blue and orange quilt for a customer, which she picked up this week.  I’ll post more about it later this week.  It turned out quite lovely, I must say!

Because this is a customer quilt I’d planned to hand sew the binding; you may have heard me say in the past that I absolutely detest hand sewing so you’ll understand when I tell you I wasn’t looking forward to the task.  A quilter friend of mine hates adding borders so I traded her hand sewing my binding for adding her borders.  All in all not a bad trade, but I’m glad it’s now finished so I can take a break and work on my own projects.  I think I’m even going to be able to enter a quilt into the BBQ Quilt Show in September!  I haven’t made a quilt of my own for about 3 years, so this is quite exciting!

As I was finishing up the borders on my friend’s quilt yesterday, my iron turned itself off.   That’s the nature of the automatic shut-off so no biggie, right?  I jiggled and nothing happened.  Then I moved the cord around and the light slowly, and dimly, came back on, then the iron started working again perfectly.  Then it shut off again.  More jiggling with no results.  More cord moving with results.  I remembered that the cord near the base had felt pretty warm, even hot, earlier, too.  Uh oh!  I have a fire hazard on my hands!

I’ve had my iron, a Shark Professional model GI490, for about 7 years and I love it!  You can see that the finish on the handle is even starting to wear off.  How am I ever going to replace it?  I’ve seen all of the online requests asking for recommendations for an iron which I’ve blissfully ignored. 

I knew, of course, that because of the amount of time since the manufacture of my unit that I wouldn’t be able to purchase the same model again so I started my search on ConsumerReports.com. The reviews I found on the next model after it are terrible!  I was shocked and truly disappointed.  Eventually, though, I narrowed down my choices and went shopping.  Nothing beats an in-person inspection.  And you know what I came home with?  Another Shark! 

The Shark Ultimate Professional model GI505 is the next model up from the model with the bad reviews.  It looks and feels very similar to my old model so I suspect I’m going to really like it, all except the size of the top button that selects the temperature.  That’s the main button in the use of this iron so maybe I’ll get used to it and the size won’t bother me.

None of the other irons felt quite right, probably because I’ve used the same iron for over 7 years and have truly enjoyed it.  ConsumerReports.com has this model highly rated, although there are no reviews on it yet, but time will tell.

Updating the Quilt Cave

Yesterday I was finally able to start the project I'd planned for the 4th of July weekend, which was rearranging and decluttering the quilting studio.

I'm embarrassed to show how bad it's gotten, but I'm proud of my progress.  I’d love to put recessed shelving in between the studs on this wall.  It’s a load bearing wall so I can’t just knock it down!

I love my cutting station!  But I needed to get this out of the way in order to move the green cabinet from the corner to the long wall.

Now, I’ve removed that white table underneath and I really like how open it is.  I have a bunch of stuff that might have to go back there, but I’m hoping no.

One of my goals is to create another workstation for when I have friends over.  I put my smallest Singer cabinet in that space, the one that holds the 401.  I have plans to refinish the cabinet that holds the Anker RZ to put into that space but it won’t fit right now when the top gets opened up so I will work on that for another time.

Here’s a link to my online album, showing my progress.  There’s more to come!

https://plus.google.com/photos/100048539382016509935/albums/6033321651017292881?authkey=COmfxaP5sKOXlQE

June was a busy month!

What have I been up to?  There’s so much to tell!  While you haven’t been hearing from me I took lots of pictures and thinking “that would make a great post!”…and then not posting it.

All of the expensive things seem to have happened at the end of June.  We got our house painted and then both DH and I had dental work.  Of course, about that time is when his vehicle needed over $1500 worth of car repairs.  Oh boy.

As for the fun stuff, the first quilt you haven’t seen was absolutely darling.  I got a couple of photos of it while it was on the frame, but forgot to get photos of the entire quilt.  How does THAT happen?

I met a new friend, Maryon, at a Quilters’ Schoolhouse quilting class put on by Boise Basin Quilters and we made an awesome string quilt for donation.  We had a heck of a time deciding on which border to add, and we eventually chose the dark green one.

I was contacted by a new quilter, Katie, to quilt her first quilt.  She thought she was picking an easy project, and she did a GREAT job, but I told her that was NOT an easy project!  Do you see all those straight lines she had to keep in place?  And that color arrangement?

We picked a blue and yellow variegated thread, which looked awesome, but I hadn’t realized that it was a size 17.  Why would I have something different in my thread stash?  Let me just say that size 17 is about the size of a rope, when it comes to thread, and I ended up picking out an entire bobbin’s worth of quilting.  That took about 4 hours.  I ordered some King Tut thread from Superior and it turned out beautifully!

I also finished the spinning project I started while I was at Mom’s house over Memorial Day weekend.  It sure turned out differently than what I expected.  I’m really proud of myself because I actually finished a project!  Not only that, the yarn is balanced, which means it’s not twisting back on itself when it’s hanging on the hanger.  And this is only my third spinning project!  I’ve been asked “what are you going to make with this?” and the answer is “I have no idea.”  I just picked it because it was pretty. 

One aspect of finishing a yarn is to set it by soaking it in hot water.  This means the twist in the fiber won’t come out and the wool “blooms”.  It’s pretty cool!  I checked on mine this morning and it’s still a little damp where the cotton yarn is holding it together so I’ll be hanging it outside today.  Boise has been close to 100 degrees lately, that should do it.

And yesterday, I started Tour de Fleece 2014!  This is my first TdF, and I’m using Gritty Knits LeGrand Boucle merino, which arrived yesterday afternoon.  In case you’re unfamiliar with Tour de Fleece, it is an online spinning event that mirrors the Tour de France, including rest days.  They spin, we spin.  A real spinning-themed spin-along.

My goal is to spin at least 15 minutes a day.  Since I’m on vacation over the 4th of July weekend, and we were watching a movie, I spun for about an hour and a half yesterday!

I’m having trouble making a consistent single because I’d used my jumbo flyer to spin the singles on my previous project (I won’t do that again!) and have changed back to the traditional flyer, but after about an hour of spinning my normal technique is starting to come back to me.

This isn’t a colorway I’d normally pick. The red/orange is on either end of the braid and the brown/yellow is in the middle. I decided to alternate the strips of color in my spinning, we’ll see what happens!

Quilting & Programming

I’ve been pretty busy lately, but then, that’s nothing new!

I finally got over the crud that was going around, which, of course, started right when I began teaching my software training classes at work.  Thankfully I didn’t get the version that kept coming back 2 or 3 times  like some of my co-workers.  I give credit to my holistic medical approaches which included extensive use of the nasal rinse bottle and using almost an entire bottle of doTERRA’s OnGuard essential oil blend!

However, before I got sick I was able to finish a quilt for one of my fellow guild members, Melba.  She made it as a Christmas quilt for her granddaughter with the idea she could take it to college with her in the fall.  It’s going to be nice and snuggly with the flannel backing she picked.

I did an overall meander in the middle and a custom design in the border, adding SID (stitch-in-the-ditch on each side of the inner border.  It always amazes me how long SID takes!  I  used Superior’s King Tut on the front and Superior’s Omni on the back.  Melba provided the Quilter’s Dream cotton batting.

I signed up for a Python programming class on Coursera.com and of course it started the week I got sick and I missed the announcement that it started, so I’ve been busy trying to catch up on the homework.

If you’re unfamiliar with that site, you simply MUST go check it out!  They offer free online college level courses from all over the world!  I’m not going for the certificate track, which has a minimal charge, but I may do something like that in the future.

So today I’m loading another customer quilt.  Maybe I’ll get some homework done, too!

Busy Weekend!

Until I looked at the photos I took from the projects I worked on I didn't quite realize how much sewing I got done...yay me!

 

I made:

1. Nine QOV blocks for Kevin the Quilter's QOV block drive.   Check it out if you haven't seen what he's up to!
2. Pass the Bag Bento blocks
3. Loaded a customer quilt
4. Mailed off a care package to a friend
5. Watched some of my Craftsy short rows knitting video

I even walked the dog twice and did all the laundry!

 

Now, I just need to make one more QOV block and I can send that package off to Kevin and be entered into his drawing twice.

 

Oh, and I caught up on email just a bit and saw the email from the Curious Quilter that she's having a March PSQ charm swap...so, I need to get cutting!

 

Now it's back to work.  What have you been up to?

QOV Block Drive!

If you are looking for a quick, fun, and easy project in which to participate, check out the block drive that Kevin The Quilter is having!

For every 5 blocks you make he'll enter you into a drawing for a $100 gift card to the Missouri Star Quilt Company, too!  Can't beat that!

http://kevinthequilter.blogspot.com/2014/03/kevin-quilters-big-announcement.html

Pass The Bag

You’d think I’d learn, right?

I don’t need another project and I certainly don’t need another commitment (does anyone?)  So what did I do?  I signed up to participate in a Pass The Bag project with my small group from work!

It just looked so simple and like so much fun!  We narrowed down our choices between a Disappearing Nine Patch and a Bento Box pattern.  Both are really easy to make, and the base blocks are great blocks for new quilters, and we have a new quilter in our midst.  What better way to get started?

Have you seen either one of these patterns?  The Disappearing Nine patch uses a nine patch and the Bento Box uses a center square surrounded by 2 additional strips.  The Bento Block is typically made in pairs, with each block using the colors in the reverse areas of the other block.  For instance the dark center is surrounded by light, followed by the dark color on the outside.  The light color is used in the center on the next block, surrounded by dark, followed by light again.  Both blocks are then made by cutting the block into quarters and swapping two corners with the corners of another block.

I created a Bento Box board and a Disappearing Nine Patch board on Pinterest with examples that I really like, check them out if my description isn’t making sense!

You know how the makeover shows all promote blue and green as spa-like and calming?  Well, I decided to go with teal blue and green, inspiration from the calm colors in the ocean we saw during our trip.  I’m planning to make it into a king sized quilt, so DH and I had to agree on colors.  The photos of my blocks don’t quite reflect their true colors, so I’ll post additional blocks as I make them and hopefully I’ll have a better representation.

I’ve gotten the blocks made for the first bag and purchased fabric for the additional blocks I’ll need to make this quilt bigger.  Let’s get this party started!

White Chocolate Quilt

Now that the holiday fervor has passed, I’m finally posting the photos of the quilt I delivered the day after Christmas.

The moment I saw this quilt top I fell in love with it!  It is SO calming, warm and welcoming and I immediately knew it needed something special.

My customer, Evelyn, made this top, called McCall's Quilting Magazine, August 2007 (Volume 14, Number 4) for herself to go with the new décor of her recently remodeled bedroom.  The pattern itself calls for all neutrals, but she chose to spice it up with some warm tones that matched her headboard, and I think it couldn’t be lovelier.

Evelyn chose Superior Threads King Tut Sands of Time, a variegated oatmeal colored thread which worked pretty well with all of the different colors of the top.

I used So Fine thread in the bobbin that matched the backing and I love the secondary design it created.

Because we wanted some”poof” to show off the quilting I chose Legacy washable wool batting.

I didn’t get quite as much “poof” as I thought I would because it’s so heavily quilted, but when we laid it out on her bed the light from her window showed off all of the texture and I was really pleased to see it.

I used a matching thread color for the feathered border.

I have to say, I think this is my favorite quilt that I’ve done so far.  It’s certainly in the top 5, anyway!

If you’d like to buy the back issue from Amazon and help support my blog, use the provided link to purchase your copy.