To market, to market....

I have a finish, a new toy, November will be early, and I'm going to Quilt Market for the first time this week!  

All is right with the world.

First, the finish...

I am not a grandma yet, which Mr. SFO keeps reminding me is a good thing because neither of our kids is married--hee, hee. But I do have my first grand-nephew! You can tell by the date on the quilt, I'm a little late on this, but it's done. Many thanks to Sara Velder of Acorn Ridge Quilting for dragging it over the finish line!

This is my own design-- the boots were easy, but the guitar took forever! The fact that it's on a angle shook up all my math. 

Sara quilted it in an all over stars and swirls pattern. Perfect!

The backing fabric is cowboy bandanna. 

I tried to get cowhide minky, but it just seemed like it was going to weigh as much as a cow, so bandanna it is.

You can probably tell where this little boy lives... some months ago, I had the foresight to see that I could both deliver the quilt AND go to Quilt Market for one airplane fare this year! I signed up for a new program at market--- it is called "Threads of Success" and the point is to develop your business potential. Even more exciting, I won a free business consultation!

I am not overly good at winning things, and this just hits the whole trip out of the park. Do you think they will advise me to add customer accounts to the website? LOL. I'm betting so, and I'm hoping to come home with a lot of new ideas. 

And now for the new toy!

Yup-- to help in finishing up the stack of unfinished embroidered quilts, I took the leap! It's a 22" Innova-- I tried absolutely every longarm on display at the MQX East show last April, and hands down, I loved it. The action on in it is just amazing-- you can move it with one pinky.

Practice has not been perfect, but it has been perfectly enjoyable. I love this thing-- the beginning of a beautiful friendship and many more finished pieces. I'm also hoping to do more charity quilts in my spare time. My quilt guild has a group of women who piece them, but there always seems to be a need to quilt them. 

I'm hopeful I can fill a need.

And so, because I will be away for a few days, NOVEMBER is early-- look for it midweek. It is SO HARD TO BELIEVE there is only one left in this series!! We loved our year of cross stitch, and are hoping to continue next year with cross stitch teacups of the month(?) or some other series, in addition to a regular embroidery series (a creatures of the sea monthly pattern instead of birds?) Be sure to weigh in below if you have a monthly series idea for us.

Happy week! 

We are going to take a ton of pictures at Quilt Market and 

get you the inside scoop on what it was like-- Sample Spree, Schoolhouse, and all!

xox 

Carol

Mug Rug Maker

We just released a brand new set and we're more excited than usual!

This one is very different then others-- instead of being a new project to START, it's one geared to help FINISHING projects!

It all started when we got behind on finishing our 

Cross-Stitches-of-the-Month. How easy would it be to just digitize that quilting and do it in the hoop?

Yes, it was SEW EASY! We're kind of committed to hand binding this series, but for those of you who aren't, we expanded the file to include a backing that is stitched on, so you can just turn it right side out for PERFECT edges.

This was the first mug rug we completed with this idea-- 

made with a 6" Lori Holt Vintage Farm Girl Block for a Farm Girl Quilt that we may or may not ever finish. Well, the Mug Rug was done in five minutes!

Then, we checked out a bin we keep in the corner with test stitch outs. That bin is overflowing like Niagara Falls. It wasn't long before we found a "Lovely Letter" from last year that was too pretty to throw out....

And another five minutes later...

We were now pretty addicted... a couple of months ago, I found this towel in the clearance bin at Anthropologie (love that store.)

It's frankly a bit dainty for my house...  like, you'd use it to polish up your champagne glasses when your girlfriends are over.

Well, my entertaining lately has been a bunch of hungry 20-somethings licking up BBQ sauce. 

No, the dainty cloth wasn't really useful here.

So this happened...

And then this!

And finally this...

All within an hour!

Eventually, we had six different quilting patterns and four different sizes to fit every hoop and finish most smaller UFOs... LOL.

So check it out...

Gift giving season is on it's way,  and you'll have SEW much fun finding ways to use this kit... and it will never go out of style, either!

Sew Easy Mug Rug Maker

Next, we are going to design the "Postcard Maker."

If you remember from the last post, we stitched our Halloween Cross Stitch as a postcard.

The next step is, I'm taking it to the post office to see if 

#1 they will take it and  

#2 it gets back to me!

If not, it's probably just a matter of sticking it in a envelope, because it's just too cute to not make the set.

Stay tuned.

In other exciting news, we've decided to start our own YouTube show! Yes-- the set is almost ready-- (it is recommended to be in a corner for some reason.) As soon as I get confident, The SFO team will get into production and show how to make some of these wonderful things, and also get to know you all better. We even have a couple of guest stars in mind! 

Finally, because some of you have been so kind to ask how my cross stitch stocking is coming, I have to admit I don't think it's going to be ready this year! It's not that I put it away again, but the back stitching is FOREVER. I'm totally at peace with it-- I still think it will be finished this winter.

But as I have been cleaning out the office for the movie set, 

look what I found!

 I knew I had this somewhere-- it was rolled up in a plastic scrap booking box. Completely finished, by me, in 1996!!

To decorate the new studio, I decided to finally take it to Michaels for framing. It was pretty incredible-- they scanned it and were able to show me on a computer screen exactly what it would look like with the frame and mats I chose.

And here it is!!

It just makes me sew happy...

but even with 70% off, I guess you can imagine it still cost a fortune.

But don't worry, as I told Mr. SFO...

I saved $450!!!

xox

Carol