Crushin' It!

 At the risk of boasting, I have to say I am crushin' it so far this year. But last post, you all told me I was too hard on myself-- and as we say in my family-- it ain't braggin' if it's true!

This week we have another set of Carefree Highways states for a total of fifteen...

Carefree Highways

These are really fun and easy to digitize-- I loved the states as a kid and enjoy reading all the fun facts about each one!

And Once Upon a Time, Winter, is still ON TIME...

Once Upon A Time, Winter

My talented daughter is drawing these up.. it's been challenging to digitize characters for a change. I feel like I am ready to spring off in a new direction-- what is it?  Applique? More illustrative? Embroidering fabric designs, then assembling them into larger pieces? I am just not sure yet. I feel unsettled about it, but excited. Think of when Picasso was in his Blue Period-- one morning, did he just wake up and think, "I'm going use Rose today..."?

 I had another morning handwork finish yesterday...

I started this cross stitch in 1997-- it is "Winter Circle" from Sudberry House and it's still for sale on their website... all those little outfits were really fun to stitch, and it didn't have a ton of backstitching. But all this awesomeness of late had me feeling a bit tired in the morning when I would usually work on it, so it took a bit of doing to finally drag it across the finish line. Isn't that always the way when you get something 99% of the way done?

Now I'm in need of a new handstitching project, so I dragged this out...

Remember on Halloween night, when I sewed a charm pack together and then sliced and diced it into a million pieces like Jack the Ripper? 

This how you start the Double Wide Dresden pattern from "Me and My Sister" designs.. it's always interesting to me, as someone who writes instructions, how many finicky steps a designer is willing to subject you to while still expecting to stay in business.

So after all the sewing and the cutting, you then fold the pieces right sides together and sew the top and bottom. Then, Step 36b,  you get to stand over a hot iron with forty persnickity pieces to turn inside out while getting sharp points and making sure they are symmetrical. I offer this as no criticism to the designer, as clearly, you are my people and think nothing of all of this-- it could as well have been 1,000 pieces to a quilter. 

Then you use ten of the bits to make a dresden with a star in the middle. It is called the Double Wide Dresden, because you only need HALF the number of pieces of a regular dresden-- what an incredible savings in time! LOL

But once I got here-- I am totally over the moon with it-- that is SEW worth it! The fabric is Rosewood by "3 Sisters." I always recommend buying TWO charm packs when you buy them (it's like getting kittens), so I have enough for four of these, and plenty of extra for a border. Unfortunately, I didn't follow my advice to get a yard or two of my favorite print from this collection for a backing-- you can sometimes still find yardage on Etsy, so I'll head there next.

So that is ready to be handstitched down, and I'll be starting that tomorrow morning-- if I'm not too tired!!

My Febuary Tablerunner of the Month is underway-- the Cider fabric is a bit washed out when I got it in person-- I'm second guessing myself and wishing I had taken some of the white pieces out. 

My honeybun was 1-5/8" wide, which was generous of them since the pattern called for 1-1/2." (Should I have trimmed, and what is the point of the honeybun if you need to trim? These are all rhetoricals.) Hence the note, and thank goodness I checked.

Instead of a white background, I'm going to mix in some of my stash grunges for more color. Those squares with the four bars now get a 2" flip 'n stitch triangle in each corner-- so this project has a few "steps" too. It's not looking like it will be done by the end of the month.

If I can finish both of the pieces by the end of March, that would be my next two table runners done and I would be fine with that. Instead of one a month, it's two, in two months. It reminds me of an conversation years ago, when I complained to my chiropractor about how many visits I was having to make. He told me instead of eight visits a month I could go down to two a week. I remember saying that worked better for me.

Enjoy your weekend... CRUSH IT!

xox

Carol