This, that, and the other thing...

      Don't ever congratulate yourself for getting a lot done-- pride comes before the fall! So you can guess, I really don't have too much to show for the last ten days. The reason? One idea might be our fabulous new water filter system in the house. It turns out our water had uranium in it-- I wasn't worried, privately thinking it could be the source of my sewing super powers. (Say you're a Marvel Universe fan without saying it.) Mr. SFO has now "fixed" it... so no more uranium boosts for me. The other thing could be-- I got a ton of stuff over the finish line, without really queuing up the next things-- and as usual, there are too many of them.

     Let's start with fun sewing-- working on one thing at a time is a strategy that works-- but the trick is, you have to work on the one thing! I've been faithful to the January Sew Sampler Lori Holt hat quilt, but not faithful at working on it. It's adorable. When I saw the picture of the quilt, I thought the little flowers in the hats might have been appliqued. 

     No worries, people! They are made of a zillion little tiny pieces-- haha-- all of them requiring you to draw a diagonal line across the back.

     Awhile ago, I bought this Lori Holt accessory-- the woman is a marketing genius-- which you tape to your sewing machine base and simply hold the points of your squares on a line, then just sew across, instead of drawing a line. This has been taped to my machine for months-- it's cute-- I finally tried it.

     It worked well enough, was a time save-- I'd recommend it. So would the drawn lines work better? As always, in the quilting math, time equals better results. But I'm trying to differentiate between "perfect" and "good enough" for these types of projects which are meant to be loved, and will never see the white glove of a judges hand.

    All of the flowers are now done-- that's what I have to show for my week. And they look great. The rest of the quilt should FLY now. Should. These are big hats as you might guess, from the big flower. 

     In other Lori Holt news, I am moving, albeit at a snail's pace, on prepping #11 Prairie Meadow quilt block. This week I got four more pieces prepped and some flower centers stitched down. It was a nice change from doing cross stitch. These blocks take a tremendous amount of time to prep. That's part of what I got hung up on. After all the parts are ready, the backgrounds are all stitched out of 16 pieces as well. But I've really committed to working on this again over the course of the winter-- and I'm still enthusiastic about making four extra blocks and appliqued borders so let's see what happens!

     No progress on the Lori Holt sewing themed cross stitch. Wow! I really do like Lori Holt. I think it's because I'm so nostalgic all the time.

      My three quilts came back from the longarmer-- I love them! So quite a bit of binding to do as well.  Fortunately, you can see by the themes of the quilts-- there's no rush on two of them!

     I especially love the way this one came out-- there is every type of longarm pattern in the world-- multiples of each, even-- when I said "snowflakes with swirls," I was offered about 8 different ones. 

    And I'm sure I'm going to have a chance to try them all, by the time my own longarm gets set back up!

    Now, for an embarrassing photo.

    This is the current state of the countertop behind my desk. It's so tragic-- after 225 years of service in the Navy, the U.S.S. Constitution has sunk in a sea of fabric.

    I have spent some time over the past week cleaning up, and there's plenty more to be done. I went on a slew of ordering around Christmas, and the binding fabrics for the aforementioned quilts are in this pile somewhere, which even if I found them, I'm not sure I'd remember what they were for. My DD was in London for her honeymoon and she came back with a new favorite saying at our house. "We'll get it sorted." Best said in a British accent.

     On the digitizing front, I've had trouble picking one thing to work on, so nothing is coming along. I really want to make a bigger "Winter Twist" piece as I've said before, now that I live in Winterland. I'd love to have an original piece in the Maine quilt show this year-- it's so appropriate. So if I add more detail to the Winter Twist blocks and make them 7x12, I'd have about a 19" x 19" inch piece, with borders, could make 30x30, which is what you need at a minimum for a respectable quilt show quilt.

       What's holding me back? First of all, I have no idea how this would even come out-- if I'm going to offer something for sale, I'd like to know it's going to be beautiful! 

     Next, I'm already getting late-- by the time I finished it, it could be summer. Who's down for sewing a winter piece then? LOL. 

    Third negative-- the Maine quilt show has a deadline for entries of May, even though the show is in late July. You don't need pressure when you're trying to be creative-- at least, I hate working that way.      Finally, the instructions are always so daunting-- here we have four pieces to connect, and then a final middle stitch out to draw them all together-- then quilt instructions for borders? The idea is a creativity crusher! 

     I think what I will do, is just schedule in a half a day this week and see what happens. In spite of all the negativity-- I really want to do it. That's what counts, right?

     

     Then here's an easy fun thing I wish I had started sooner-- making the Zen of Thread into a tablerunner. I'm tempted to make a pillow this time too-- "Sewtopia," whenever it gets built, has room for a couch! Thank goodness there's no kitchen up there or I'd never be seen again.

    All the measurements on this have already been figured out on past projects I did this to-- so all I have do is just write over the squirrel borders with sewing machine things I can just lift from the mug rug.     And of course, make it, which will take some time. I have my Strawberry Lemonade Charm Packs and some background possibilities ready to go. Pink and I are the best buddies we have ever been-- but I'm taking a break from it! Yellow, anyone?

    And the last thing I'm digitizing is a "Winter Alphabet"-- it's high time to do another alphabet, San Fran Stitch style!

Don't laugh, but I started this a couple of years ago, and got stuck on the "S." If you know typography, an S has shapes that cannot easily be copied from other letters in the alphabet, which is how I got that far in the first place! But we now have an S. This is a ton of testing-- can you guess it-- 26 stitch outs to be exact, -- so I may hold it till the late fall.

     So that is this, that, and everything! I've also embraced winter and have not been stuck in front of computer screen all day, as I used to be, before I realized how beautiful it all is. Here's another embarrassing, but cute photo:

     This is me and Mr. SFO walking on our frozen lake when I thought I was taking a picture of the mountains, but the camera had flipped... Mr. SFO the Eagle Scout looks like he is forging ahead there ahead of me, and I look, well...

HAPPY!

So let's just say 2024 has straightened out a bit, or maybe my attitude has, and let's forge ahead into a new week... whatever comes, we'll sort it!

xox

Carol

  

     

     

     

Create, create, create!

     It's been almost ten days since my last post... I thought, the way I left things, you might be getting concerned-- but I am still here, CRUSHING IT, with my schedules!

     What is the difference between really having the "sewjo" versus other times when you just don't seem to have the enthusiasm? I honestly wish I knew. I'm not sure how long this pace can keep up, but just getting a little more organized and making a punch list each day has really helped keep things moving.

    Besides tiling all four walls and a bathroom floor, I was able to complete six new sets this month! (I will be showing cabin renovation pictures one of these times, since some of you are interested.) 

     The "Villages of the Month" are off to a great start-- I'll probably have to do them monthly now, heehee. Thank you to all those joining me.

    There's always a little spillover of people from social media who think these are hand cross stitch-- well, good news for them, I'm going to make these into charts this weekend. It can be done with a click of the button, you know! But not all machine embroidery cross stitch translates well into hand patterns-- what you can do in terms of quarter stitches, 3/4 stitches, and back stitch by machine is incredible. I'm using as many whole cross stitches as possible in these, and cutting back on the backstitch, so they would be fun to do by hand-- I may even try myself.

     Then the "Zen of Thread" was super well received-- the most popular thing I have done in awhile! Anything sewing related always does well. It just struck me-- there should definitely be a SEWING VILLAGE this year-- WOW! Who could resist!!

    I'll probably convert this into the matching table runner design of these types of mug rugs-- grab a couple of "Strawberry Lemonade" charm packs if you're interested-- the colors are perfect for this endeavor!

    Then, to continue the sewing theme, Stitch-y Bowl Fillers were born and here's my display. Michaels had a whole bunch of all types of little battery operated string lights last Christmas-- did you see them? I have become addicted to them. There is something so warm about them over the winter. I turn them on when I sit down in my living room and then I turn them off when I leave. It's kind of a cheap equivalent of a watching a gas powered fireplace in my mind-- lol. Reminder-- be on the lookout for Valentine's day string lights at Michaels this month.

     Then, a sneak peek for later this year-- I completed a 5x7 version of Christmas ABCs. There are now twelve in the ABC series-- but I'm making you wait for this one until the fall. The ABCs would be fun stitch by hand-- even though the words are all backstitch. Why the aversion to backstitch these days? It's just a cross stitch that's horizontal or vertical with one thread? I am right about this people. Backstitch, why dontcha?

   Can you tell what a gloomy, chilly day it is here from the color of that photo-- I for one am glad January is over! 

   I also completed the Chris-Mystery tablerunner-- well, it is not quilted yet, but it was a good accomplishment, and I even got a matching mug rug out of the deal!

    SEW-- here I am, still working on Christmas! It is a wonder I have any readers left-- I promise you, one more Christmas finish below and I am over it, till the fall. This quilt I really put PRESSURE on myself to finish by January 31st. It was the only thing standing in my way of saying I made a quilt from all 12 monthly Sew Sampler boxes and all four holiday boxes in a year.

    I had mentally kind of given up on it-- I was extremely late finishing the December box, if you recall. But I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and made it happen! I will give you a tip-- if we all just stop thinking about doing things, and actually work on them, it takes a lot less time than you would think. I ended up just putting about a 1/2 hour in the morning pressing and an hour at night sewing, and did it in a week. I just drew it up on graph paper-- super quick to put together. If you have large scale Christmas prints-- they are perfect for "wrapping papers." My friend said she is making one out of those gorgeous Hoffman metallics. This is a large quilt too-- it is 63" x 81" and I might just add some thin pink border strips to make it a bed size in Sew Sampler overtime! So snuggly-- well, for next Christmas!

Here are all the box finishes for 2023.
 I'm beaming with pride. And if I can do it, believe me, 
you can, too! 

        I wasn't intending to keep going full out on these boxes again this year-- but I already like the January 2024 box AND the Cupid Box and have started them. 

    It is major "guilty pleasure" for me-- shouldn't an artist like myself be working on my own quilt designs? But all day it is create, create, create, here-- such a relief at night to rest the brain and just work on something with instructions not written by me. Also, most of my original projects are still boxed, waiting on the "Sewtopia" space upstairs to be born. So for now, I will have to forgive myself for being a mindless stitcher. 

     Sewtopia is the next DIY-- all we need are a ceiling, walls, and a floor. You might laugh when I'm saying that, but really, just sheetrock and flooring are all that's left-- framing, electric-- all done! I will definitely show pictures of it, or maybe even make a video of the transformation. There has been a lot of construction going on around here-- is it any wonder I am tired at night?!

     So the January box is cut-- in one of those boxes, still packed, is my grandmother's scrapbook, which contains a picture of her in that exact hat-- how could I resist?

     The Cupid Box isn't started-- I may replace the birdies with a novelty Valentine print, but other that that, I'm sticking with the patterns on these first two boxes of the year.

    SO "novelty prints"  actually brings me to MARDEN'S-- after the last blog post, Mr. SFO and I headed out for a "date" in the big city of Waterville. If you never heard from me again, I would have been found, years later, still wandering the aisles. Wow, oh just WOW! It's one of these surplus and salvage outlets-- everyone kept telling me they have fabric. I assumed it was leftover Walmart or Joanne's type stuff...

    Noooooo-- it was Moda, Robert Kaufmann, Riley Blake--- all priced at $2.99-$6.99 a yard! I was wandering around in a daze, thinking, "Well, I'm sure they don't have Tula Pink fabric," and there it was, and then "I'm sure they don't have any Lori Holt," and there it was! So this was my first haul:

    Mr. SFO was very encouraging of me, but I controlled myself, only buying what I "needed." So the Valentine prints are options for the Cupid Box and the fabric shapes are potential Christmas stockings. (No worries, you won't have to hear about that until the fall.) The cheese fabric is for a cabin tablecloth-- my son-in-law LOVES cheese. Then I got a pack of five 45mm rotary blades for $5.98. This I am entirely skeptical of-- I can see you are thinking what a greenhorn I am, to fall for that. It says "finest Japanese steel," but as Mr. SFO pointed out, they might stink at cutting, and that could still be true. I have to know.  And I will let you know. Then the needles were $2.98. 

    What I didn't buy, was entire bolts of Tula Pink for $5.99 a yard-- the kind that is now out of print-- I could double, triple my money on many Facebook groups with that purchase! But then the shipping and packaging would have to start. So it's nice to know that if machine embroidery, egg farming, and tiling don't end up working out, I still have fabric reseller in my pocket.

     So here's the results of my fabric diet for January:

   

    And February's not looking so hot either-- as soon as I sign off here, I'm heading off to get the Strawberry Lemonade charm square packs.

    Lastly-- Hand stitching-- coming along! Prairie Meadow has been pulled back out...

 

and the sewing cross stitch is almost done:

So that's where we stand, this first day of February, 2024.
Thank so much for stopping by my little corner of Maine--

now let's all get back to CREATE, CREATE, CREATE!

xox

Carol

     

Stressing Myself Out!

      Now that I have completed my tiling job, I have launched myself into the 2024 sewing year complete with massive lists, a daily schedule, and competing ideas. By Day Three, I was really started to feel stressed! Back in the day, I used to work in a New York City ad agency-- creative deadlines, a hellish boss I nicknamed  "The Son of Satan," shark clients, late nights-- my most recurring dream (nightmare) is still that I'm missing the train to get home. I don't even know how I survived that life--  I am just a fragile little leaf now, by comparison!

     Stress or no stress, I did crush it this past week. Stitching Bowl Fillers were born.

   

  Zen of Thread is well on its way...

     And Heartland, the second in the Village of the Month" Set,  is coming along!

The "schedule" says these will all be out by the end of the month--

let's see if that happens, or I crack first!

    On to my guilty pleasure-- the Sew Sampler projects! As soon as I said in the last post, THE JOLLY BOX WILL NOT BE FINISHED BY THE END OF THE MONTH, I tartly replied to myself, "Well, why not?" (It has occurred to me that my present boss, myself, is the new Son of Satan.)

     So I totally threw myself into the December box that needs to get done first. Thank goodness I have stayed on script with this one-- it's sew much faster than the rabbit holes I frequently jump down. Probably just the second time this year I am actually using the Fat Quarter Shop provided pattern.

     I wasn't a big fan of this fabric or pattern-- that green!-- but I saw some finished ones on the Sew Sampler Members Only Facebook Group and they were very pretty. Photography really doesn't do things justice at times. These did come our pretty. I tried to spend about an hour at night on this and then just a half a  hour in the morning. I was working quickly, so I had some oops!

Currently, I have myself this far. Nothing quite like trying to match those star to star points is there? Just three thin borders to add, and they are already cut. 

So that will definitely be "on schedule!" It's amazing how quickly quilts come along, when you actually work on them, isn't it?

So that being almost done, I dove into the Jolly Box-- the last one for me to have the bragging rights to say I finished all the boxes in one year. I'm still in the Christmas spirit, but the clock is ticking-- I took our tree down finally. I'm pretty OCD about how I store my ornaments, so you can't blame anyone for not helping. Next year I hope to have TWO trees-- one in my new studio?? :-)

     While test stitching the bowl fillers, I cut out the entire Jolly box quilt-- it's not the provided pattern--heehee. The large scale prints in this collection lent themselves to be "wrapping paper" in one of those gift box quilts you see all the time at Christmas. I absolutely LOVE the light green print with the cookies on it. I could look up the designer of these fabrics to let you know who it is-- but the "schedule" says I have to be done with this blog post in fifteen minutes, so, sorry about that!

     Here's my "stack of gifts" all ready to go-- see the red and green ribbons in them? Next up, I need 32 bows, and sashing-- no borders on this quilt--yay. So thirty-one days hath January, right? Could I finish it in a week? Or will I crack? Quilting is such an exciting sport!

To add to the pressure, the January box came in yesterday-- and unfortunately, I love it!

     Yup, it's my idol, Lori Holt-- you don't see her cracking under the pressure of all those stitch-a-longs! That hat quilt reminds me of my grandmother-- I ordered the finishing kit which I now have to wait for-- thank heaven-- it did buy me time! One of my YouTube channels I like-- the comments were not favorable to those red X's-- everyone wanted an appliqued red flower. Well, there would be an uprising if the Sew Sampler boxes sent out an applique project-- think of that! But the graphic designer in me really loves those red x's-- they are perfect.

     It's the dreaded jelly roll, and those x's are a lot of pieces-- but I think I have a picture of my grandmother in this exact hat-- so I'd love to make it in her honor.

    Speaking of Lori Holt, and in the spirit of being productive every minute of every day, I got back to cross stitching (a little) at night. It is so hard to cross stitch with a glass of wine in one hand-- and after a day of tiling, I was deceased!

I have to admit I've lost heart for cross stitch for now-- I remember once I gave it up for 20 years. I really want to get back to those big Prairie Meadow applique blocks-- that project has been on vacation for too long. I only have two to go. Ugh-- this is the last picture I took the first week of September-- has it been that long, really?

Tonight, Mr SFO and I are going on a date-- it's on the schedule! There is a beloved chain store here in Maine, called "Marden's." It's a surplus/salvage thing with incredible prices-- we have never been. Well, the DD finally went-- and she sent me pictures...

THEY HAVE A FABRIC SECTION!

     So dear Mr. SFO is taking me out tonight-- this is just one of the simple pleasures in life that Maine has so very many of-- going out for a big night at Marden's. I will definitely share my experience, so stay tuned! Will she get lost in the fabric aisle? Will the pressure of infinite craft projects cause a breakdown? Will the Jolly box come to a jolly end? Thanks for reading and I'll let you know next time!

xox

Carol

Sew, she's at it again!

      We are over two weeks into the New Year, and I am pleased to say, the sew-jo is going strong! Lots of ideas AND progress-- as any quilter knows, ideas are plentiful-- actual sewing time, not so much. My biggest problem has been just picking one thing and working on it, instead of going in every direction.

     Let's start with embroidery... "Winterland" is a hit-- as a typical artist, my self-confidence is lacking at times. You loved it-- thank you. So I had intended to make a set of 12 (or 4 seasons, if it was a fail), so now I'm committing to twelve, and I will try my best to get them out by the first of each month. What I have in my mind is complicated little scenes-- so be patient with me! I see lots of cross stitch cottages of the month, and cottages stitched together into a village, but no villages in a small stitch area-- I think I'm a ground breaker there!

     I am still trying to find a background color that will work as well for all 12 designs and will give you a cohesive look if you stitch all twelve together in one piece. Yes, the one in the picture looks great, but it is just a "virtual" fabric, not a real one. I may just go with whatever works for that month and add some sort of border treatment to unite them. Let's see what happens.

     Sewing bowl fillers are next-- I'm taking my favorite digitized sewing machine and converting it to cross stitch which is going well. No bird for this. 

"Thread Zen" is also coming along, for my non-cross stitch customers. I'm using the acorn piece as a template--no, no squirrels on "Thread Zen." I'm really looking forward to redoing the border with a tiny sewing machine, scissors, buttons, and ribbons!

    I also finished a top using the four Chris-Mystery ornament set-- this was really fun to stitch togehter! Do you like puzzles? I'd love to hand quilt this, with just little x's in the squares.

   The center design is new-- it exactly fit a 5x7 hoop size, so I made an extra mug rug design. This is just $1.99 on the site right now-- obviously we are way out of season.

     Every year, I try to "stock up" on Christmas designs for November and December. So I have had my first Christmas finish of 2024! It's a smaller Christmas ABCs piece, for the 5x7 hoop-- the one that is available now is four 5x7 hoopings. When this releases, I will have my set of twelve 5x7 ABC cross stitches! Sets of twelve are my thing, so I snuck this in as another Block-of-the-Month over about three years. I loved doing these, but you'll have to wait till the fall-- I'm just sneak peeking it! 

    I stitched it on *YIKES* pink! I'm trying to make friends with this color-- it's one that is in the Fat Quarter Shop Sew Sampler boxes again and again, because Kimberley Jolly loves it. So I was kind of desensitized to it. I even used the dreaded Magnifico 2008 color-- "Pink Pink Pink" as you can see. I love it!

    On to the Sew Sampler Challenge 2023-- it was EPIC. 

     I'm really going out a winner-- the original idea was just to complete the 12 monthly boxes-- I'm up to 11 of those, and I also did three of the holiday boxes. The boxes come out at the end of each month, so technically I have till the end of January to finish the December box.

     I had this "meh" finish for November-- I tried to get away from the usual white backgrounds-- well, there's a reason for the white background-- it is no fail. But I congratulate myself for trying something new. I think I'm going to donate it. Donate it to someone who never knew white backgrounds were a thing, and will love it. It is one mis-rotated corner and one upside down background piece away from the longarmer.

    I have to give you a quick tip-- I hate piecing backings-- I have at least three finishes stuck at this step for months now. So I bought a matching Tula Pink 108" wide fabric for this-- no piecing, right? So my bad, I assumed it was cotton-- it is cotton SATEEN. It's soft but thin-- I honestly prefer my heavy cottons. I'm not sure if all 108s are sateen, but beware. 

     Pre-washing fabric was a trend for me last year as you can see my 108 below--  but ironing is also a pain, so I think that is not a trend in 2024. lol.

    So here I am with one last box to finish for 2023-- I'm not greatly fond of it. I thought I might just skip it. And frankly, 2024 hasn't been the fresh start I'd hoped for-- all my baggage from 2023 has found its way past January 1st. Can you relate? Why do we expect magic to happen when the ball drops? At least the sewing area of my life can begin anew, right?

     And so, I was feeling sorry for myself and lay down and scrolled Facebook-- what do you know, my name came up on the Sew Sampler Member Only page! This nicest lady had seen my montage of finishes above, and credited me with inspiring her to do her 2024 boxes! So that is way too much credit she's giving me-- but she had finished her Dulce quilt and it looked nice. So I sprang up and got started. I think I can have it by the end of January after all-- and it would make a perfect baby quilt, I'm sure. This quilt uses those fiddly foundation papers to make flying geese-- I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. A lot of flipping back and forth, people.

   

 I don't talk about this WIP much, but I have totally kept up with the monthly blocks included in the boxes as well. They are pretty on point flowers-- very different from what you usually see. That's why I ordered the kit for this.

     I'm going to add these to my Sew Sampler "montage." Only three to go.

    It made me realize how easy it is to do one block a month-- so, I may just get my Kona calendar out and begin that stitch-a-long! I did figure out that you don't need the calendar to do it-- all the patterns are free on the Robert Kaufmann website. The charm packs, of course, were wicked expensive. This is the first month's colors-- "Tropical":

     So the only detriment is that these aren't really the colors I'm channeling right now, as you can seen by the background! 

    And that brings me to two more FAILs of the month. My fabric diet didn't work. I succumbed to the Fat Quarter Shop Cupid Box after about a day of resisting. I'm glad I did, because it is now sold out. I never met a holiday I didn't like!

    And my word of the year-- SELFISH-- I have not followed that path at all. In fact, I gave most of the last two weeks to-- TILING A BATHROOM! All four walls, and a floor. Here's me, hard at work. 

     We are hardcore DIY here-- yes, I know my way around a tile saw. It's actually much easier than an embroidery machine, so you can do it, too! We have a cabin on the property-- it was actually the original structure here, down by the lake, before the main house was built. They call them "camps" up here. No water, no electric. We want a "house." For now, our DD and SIL will live there, as long as they fit in it! I'm doing it for them. 

     So I commented to the plumber, "I bet they would say we're ruining this camp." 

      And he, in his abrupt Maine accent said simply, "No one wants that anymore."

  And until the bathroom is fully finished, this is what I had to deal with for all those days,
tile after tile, out back of the cabin!

   So I think you would agree, my new word of the year that I have truly earned is:

SELFLESS!

Have a wonderful week.

xox
Carol