February Review

      Since I lost ten days gallivanting the East Coast, I gave myself a couple extra to close out February projects. Let's see how I did! 

On the business side, I finished three projects for the month

    Winter Twist got its fabulous swirly finishing kit! It is a thrill to look over your customer projects posted in the San Francisco Stitch Co. Facebook Group. The variety of colors chosen is amazing-- from misty winter mornings, to vibrant sun downs, and the blackest of nights. Thanks to all who made this project such fun to share. You got me through the hardest part of winter! My own project still needs a tad of quilting and then binding before it goes in the fully finished tab above. This will get done this weekend, I hope.

    Stitched with love is a new series of heart designs-- I always wanted to make 12 blocks in to heart quilt. This is the first installment, "Love to Stitch":

     I'd love to make an individual project with each design as well-- this design I made into my first project bag complete with a zipper-- something I have not done since 7th grade home economics class!

     Finally, I've always wanted to design a set of quilt labels, long after being convinced that we need to label our quilts, people! Expect more of these. The first set is themed "Love in every stitch." I want to do a "friendship" themed set this month.

     On the quilty side, I expected to have my Happy Mail quilt back by now. I turned it over to a local longarmer in January and I'm just paying her to completely finish it, including binding. When I explained I was away in Florida starting the 18th, she told me it would be done long before then. I'm back, it's March 4th, and she's not returning my emails. I'm a bit aggravated, but as my dear artist-in-residence mentioned, she could have gotten sick or anything! We don't know what is going on in people's lives. I'll probably just drop in the shop on my way to the grocery store next week and find out what's up. Little Zela is waiting for her quilt!

    My January Sew Sampler project is a fully finished object- yay! It's amazing how quickly things come together when you stop thinking about them and start actually working on them. It is happily residing on my dinner room sideboard and it looks very content there, but I may decide to gift it as Sew Sampler box finishes pile up, month by month. How is that for confidence?

    It ain't braggin' if it's true, so lookee here! I came back to find the February box waiting for me, and in just three nights, stitched it right up. If you get the boxes, I'm sure you could make the quilt in three or four nights-- the "Al Fresco" pattern is beautiful.

   I am trying to complete all of the boxes with just the included fabric and obviously I will have to go to my stash for backing. I now have three weeks to quilt and bind. I'm not really tempted to send things out now based on my Happy Mail experience. But I'd love to practice my free motion skills from the Daytona class anyway! I'm hoping to get the Cupid box project started this month and I am going to keep my promise to myself-- no buying the special Fourth of July box unless Cupid is done.

     Prairie Meadow-- last we talked about this, I was rushing to get two blocks pinned up to work on in Daytona, and yes, I did it! So I made great progress on one of them during various flight delays and evenings on the balcony for the first half of the trip. But the second half, after being at the Daytona show all day, I was way too tired for anything!

   I am one tulip and one yellow flower away from finishing my fifth block, shown here on my first flight delay en route.

    And thanks to my very special friend who neglected to bring her own hand stitching project, (she's always up-to-date on things! )"I" have the center portion of the sixth block done.

     I was burnt out on this project when I left, and I'm afraid I still am. The next six blocks seem like they will be a slog. I'm giving up on Lori's stitch to stabilizer and turn method and just using Appliquik. The reason-- I've just been somewhat unhappy with the way my inside corners are coming out and the pieces come out very heavy with the stabilizer sewn in. It's super fussy to turn these things right side out and I'm getting "dents." I'm trying hard to keep on with this-- trying to remember how much I was looking forward to doing it. Maybe just one block a month instead of every three weeks is the ticket? Why do we consign so many quilty starts to a closet? I also noticed I have too many balls up in the air right now. Read my lips!!! No. New. Projects. 

   AARTI-- the thin pink borders are on. The teal borders are left. I may even have this to show you next week. The job boss is pleased.

   I had a cross stitch finish! Lori Holt's Stitch Cards O are done. I really enjoyed making these with all of my cute Fat Quarter Shop accessories. Next time I go to Michaels, I'm going to just treat myself to a rustic framing job, no mat. It really feels like it belongs in this house with the colors, and we are still in bad need of a few things on the walls after six months of living here.

     The free Fat Quarter Shop Love Note pattern is coming along-- I'll show you Feb 1st and March 1st. 

     I took this cross stitch on vacation as well. It has ALOT of filling in. So I thought this would be a good hand stitch project for when I'm tired-- it requires no concentration, but it's a conundrum, because once I'm too tired to concentrate on stitching, I'm pretty much too tired for anything. I'm going to continue along-- it's the only cross stitch I'm allowing myself for now. Once it's done, I have a fabulous Christmas house I started in the 90s that I'd love, love, love to have on my wall this Christmas. (If you're interested, just look up the March 9, 2021 post and you can see it-- I'm happy to see I finished the border since then.) NO. NEW. CROSS STITCH. for now.

     Looking back on my January review post a month ago-- I did not complete any of the four things I wanted to get done-- 

1. A Barn Star Sampler block

2) A Ribbon Runs Through It Quilt

3) Winter Twist 

4) Two cross stitches

But why be negative? Everything has moved along beautifully! Let's just try again in March, a month with 31 glorious days! 

xoxo

Carol