Yes, WE can!

      I have been busy, busy, busy and almost forgot my weekly blog post-- unfortunately, there's not a lot of sewing or digitizing going on. It's the time of year when those outdoor painting projects need to get finished up-- especially since they haven't even been started yet! For the past two years, I felt that my natural habitat has been in front of a sewing machine or computer screen, but this past week, it has been on a ladder!

     On the plus side-- I am still BUYING things, so we can always have a chat about that! I discovered, in my new closet, if I push back the plastic bins of fabric, I can fit another row of fat quarters in front. Also, there's a certain amount of square inches on top of the bins that is not fully utilized yet, that I bet I can fill, as you can see below!

      First up, the New England Shop Hop has begun! The shop hop  is a concept that has now fully involved into a giant nationwide machine called "Shop Hop, Inc.," complete with celebratory fabrics, magazines, and major awards. So you would have to be nuts to actually drive New England for days, stay at hotels, buy something at each shop (because you HAVE to if you go in, right?) collect all your stamps and be eligible for a drawing for a grand prize. I bet you could just BUY the grand prize, with all the money you spent hopping! But here in the USA, we're a competitive bunch, so I have no doubt multiple people will accomplish the goal.

    I'm happy with just supporting my local shop, so I sallied forth, and had to BUY something, of course, which isn't really a chore. This is what I got:

    It's a great little I Love Maine wall hanging with a set of extremely meaningful jelly roll strips with all the Maine things-- Lobster buoys, chickadees, blueberries, etc., etc. This would be great in my new studio-- or there's endless gifting opportunities for new Maine friends-- or family you are trying to get to move here.

    I also snagged this panel. If you've been paying attention, one of the fabric companies is going through all 50 states over the past few years. I've picked up ones that have people I know living in them, but so far, none of them has made it to my longarm! Couldn't you see it with a pretty blue and white flying geese border?

    I tried to familiarize myself with all of the things on the panel since I now live here and I don't want to go around like an ignorant fool. So there's blueberries, a chickadee, and a pine cone-- those are the easy ones. The blue ox has me puzzled-- is it BABE the blue ox with Paul Bunyan? I didn't know he was from Maine.

     Then here's the famous light house-- I should learn it's name-- a boot for L.L. Bean, I bet, the loons, and, of course, the Whoopie Pie. One of the first things I learn about an area new to me is it's associated food. Teehee.

    Finally there's the moose, the lupines, but I confess myself stumped about those three brown, hairy, ombre beans under the moose. Does anyone have any insights for me? Potatoes are from Idaho. Maybe I'll ask a neighbor.

     I didn't find the Shop Hop "official" fabrics there yet- I'm still on the lookout for those and I would definitely like to OWN them to add to my collection-- I have last year's somewhere in those plastic bins.

 Then, in internet shopping, I also succumbed to the FLOWER CART!

    So, for someone who initially was not impressed with this designer's first collection (too pastel), I am in deep! It is Heather Briggs from My Sew Quilty Life-- the fabric collection is "Flower Girl." First, I received some in a Sew Sampler Box and I made this:

    The Flower Cart is just too cute-- I'm still not best friends with pink or pastels, but there's someone in my extended family who would flip over this. I have to say, Heather Briggs put a fantastic package together. Each month, you not only get the pattern, but she printed up a chart to check off progress, little alphabet squares to label your pieces, and a give away each month. It's already well into the sew along, so I may just save it for the winter and do it all at once. I got this kit from Bella Rose fabrics on line-- it's almost sold out everywhere else.

    Then, my last purchase for the week-- as if this weren't enough-- I also succumbed to the Hey Boo fat quarters. One of my online friends just kept putting it before my eyes!

    I'm sure it's going to be gone soon-- I had to search on Etsy. So I still want to buy the matching fabric panel which I am going to do next before it's too late. All this cuteness and all this pink-- my goodness! More stuff!

     I did somewhat finance these purchases with selling off some of my older kits. If there's one thing that galls me more than leaving a bunch of UFOs for my kids, it's having them sitting on a gold mine of fabric that they don't understand the value of! I divested myself of some 2020-2021 Halloween boxes and like fine wine, they did increase in value. Of course, I then signed up for the 2024 "Spooky Box" from Fat Quarter Shop, so let's hope it was a good trade. This area of my closet has thinned out a tad, even though it doesn't look like it. The closet is going to have sliding barn doors over the winter, so all this work waiting to be finished won't be in my face as much.

     In the very little time I did sit before a computer screen, I designed a fall quilted in the hoop table runner. I'm just going to use the leaves from the new fall wreath-- they came out so pretty and deserve it. Are you into it?

And the Village of the Month is an apple farm!

    In the finished column-- it's "Star of Wonder," off the longarm! Since I have, at most, one hour a night to sew, I decided to pick just one thing and finish it up. I am so pleased with the way it came out. This is my second longarm finish since getting it set back up in the new space.

     I don't like to practice, so I just went for it. Now, don't get intimidated, because if you look up close there is much to be desired. I drew every feather in with a blue marking pen and badly, badly sewed over it-- it doesn't bear close inspection. But I left it on the floor in the guest bedroom, flat as a pancake if you notice,  and Mr. SFO said-- "What is that?" I hesitated to answer-- like, obviously, IT IS A QUILT! Then, since I didn't say anything, he continued-- "That is really beautiful, sweetheart!" 

   

 xox

   That amounts to an extreme, ultimate compliment from Mr. SFO. He always gives a totally honest critique of whatever I'm working on, which is what any artist really needs. Just remember-- if I can do it, you can, too, so consider dropping those feed dogs and just try!

    I started thinking very positively this week-- and I just want to leave you with a thought-- nothing is impossible. We can do it! Finish all the UFOs, get those bindings on, start new stuff-- you bet! Just stop thinking about it, and DO IT! 

     And now that it's about time I got back up on that ladder-- here's a final picture. We really wanted to clean up our cabin siding since moving in two years ago. A lot of elbow grease, right? We've been thinking about it all this time and finally made up our minds to do it. Just take a look-- if you would have told me that we would get 30 year old siding back to looking brand new, I never would have believed it! Just look at the difference between the top and bottom.

    In just one day, two sides are done already.

Yes, we can!

xox
Carol

Laboring away for Labor Day!

      The summer always ends with my birthday-- appropriate since I love this time of year, when my two favorite seasons blend together. We've been having crisp, foggy mornings, then blazing hot afternoons with the bluest of skies, followed by incredibly clear nights with all the stars out over the meadow.

     For my birthday, I got this-- exactly what I wanted!

     Yes-- the entire family brought ALL of the remaining boxes out of the attic, and my DD helped me empty them, all day. There is something to be said for dibble-dabbling away at a project, but at some point, you really need to just git 'er done. So there's still a lot of putting away to do-- good news, if I move all my books downstairs, we are mostly fitting. And this is just putting stuff away right now-- at some point, I want to do the UBER-SORT-- where all the like things are together in their most logical spot. I'll dibble dabble away at that over the winter!

     Instead of a cake, I asked for birthday ice cream lunch. We drove just down the road to our nearest ice cream stand. They love ice cream in Maine-- GIFFORD's is the brand-- it's always nearby, however remote you may be. My thing is the Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard. It only comes in one size-- gigantic-- so there's no guilt in ordering.

     I uncovered some really fun attic treasures you will get a laugh at-- here are my three oldest UFOs. It's like visiting with the me of 20 years ago. xox.

     First up, my Craftsy Block-of-the-Month from 2013. Many of you remember Craftsy-- the craft video site that offered classes of all types of sewing, baking, knitting, and everything else content that would be OURS TO KEEP AND VIEW FOREVER!! heehee. Well, there's a sucker born every minute, and I was one of them-- they went bust after a very short time. I think YouTube did them in. Somewhere, our paid for content is still out there, but not without signing up again and giving a credit card. No, thanks. Anyway, every year for a couple of years, they did a block of the month for free-- I SO looked forward to this one each month-- I even finished it!

    This was well before I had a fabric stash of any sort to speak of, and I bought a set of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters for next to nothing, on clearance from Fat Quarter Shop, of course, not really knowing what it was. How I enjoyed picking and cutting the fabric for each block every month! They also had a forum where you could post your project and it was wonderful to see what everyone was doing. I bet I have my progress shots on my hard drive somewhere. Yup-- here is one of them!

     This is the kookiest, craziest quilt I have ever made. It's quite the mix! My current day perception is, that yes, it's busy, but sew fun to look at. I think I need more of this wild spirit in me, again.

Around this time, I became enamored of free-motion quilting on a sit-down-- yup, Craftsy was full of content for that, too. So I got about half way through the quilting-- I was doing an aces's job-- I even see some specialty stitches from my sewing machine in there.

     It's now in my "TO BE QUILTED" box, and I'd love to finish it up soon. I could make short work of it on the longarm. I doubt I currently have BLACK quilting thread, though!

    Now, we're even further back in time, twenty years earlier-- this UFO from the early 90s. I saw the "Cardinal Feathered Star" quilt made up in my local quilt shop. The pattern came with two designs-- when I saw the "other" one, I was even more in love!

    "Country Threads Christmas" was for me. I got this far-- probably stopped dead in  my tracks when I realized I had to applique! I also had a big question in my mind-- why the heck did they have you piece these tiny 3" blocks only to cover most of 'em up! 

    When I look at it, I just want to hug myself. No OCD on star points, whatsoever.

    I loved it so much, I decided I wanted it for an all year wall hanging. So I drafted up some bluebirds on a peach tree instead of the Christmas tree. I ran across a big printout of this a couple of weeks during my unpacking, as well as a bluebird novelty print I bought, so many years ago, for the backing.  I'd love to finish it-- my applique skills are killer now, and hand quilt it. Look like it's gonna be a busy winter! 

    This piece makes me realize how fun it was to pick fabrics at random-- instead of using "collections" as a crutch all the time. It looks very original. So I've also made progress committing to selling off many of my kits-- with whatever time God grants me, I'd like to finish a few of the more meaningful pieces. This is one of them.

     And I saved the best for last! Now we are back to about the 1980s. I was working my NYC graphic design job and getting back to sewing after getting through college. I always liked the artist Escher-- he made these tessellating patterns that fascinated me. I'm sure you'll know in an instant to whom I refer.

That piece is called, "Day and Night." It's one of my favorites. Oh, yes, and "Three Worlds." 

   I decided to try my own tessellation-- I drew FISH going back and forth, and I did it!-- yes, these fish, in theory, would match right up to each other! This is the first these fish have been free of their plastic box in many years-- I have 28 of them.

    I picked the craziest fabrics I could find at Jo-Ann Fabrics at the time-- there were no fat quarter bundles, then, just a lot of dress fabrics. Out of each fabric, I made one left and one right facing fish. Then I made scallops for the scales and top stitched them down to muslin-- the eyes just make me laugh. Karen Kay Buckley perfect circles or Applipops weren't invented yet!

    You bet I would like to finish this, too-- what might happen to it when I'm gone? Who would ever, ever have the ambition or knowledge of how this was supposed to go together? And, I'd love to finally discover after these 37 years-- do those fish really fit together?

    Now back to the present-- I actually have had a couple of finishes. Occasionally, I decide to do some good in the world beyond drawing up crazy interlocking fish-- I finished up two baby quilts.

    And then I started a wedding gift. This is the "Moda Love" pattern-- it's free-- have you seen it?

    Basically, it's a Carpenter's Star, but the cool idea is that you can make it  with a layer cake, charm squares, or even mini charm squares. I'm going with the largest size and it should make a nice big quilt-- it says 72" x 72." I'm using the partial layer cake that came with the Sew Sampler box this month, but I'm having to add some. You only get 1/2 a layer cake with the boxes.

 

 Pretty, huh?

    So that's what I'm up to this weekend-- a little putting things away, a little sewing, a little outside time-- the weather is amazing. The official sewing season is about to begin, and it's a great time of year to reconnect with your old self and make plans for creating this fall. Hope you can follow along, and we'll do it together!

xox

Carol