"Too Many Notes"

     The past week just sort of got away from me... is it Spring Fever? Is it too many projects? I really wanted to get both the Once Upon A Time charm size finishing kit AND another set of five Carefree Highway designs out this month-- by working on both, I've pretty much assured neither will happen.

     I really missed sending out subscriptions on Friday-- just spend the time finishing your Once Upon A Time stitch outs. The charm size finish is well on its way, and honestly I think it will be ready early next week. Finishing kits always require a bit of marination time-- the 5x5 will take a little longer-- it's BIGGER obviously! 

    I raised a figure skating daughter, so there's no lack of winter and snowflaked themed projects in my stash. I picked a light for the center and a darker print for the border of my charm piece to get a little bit of an ombre effect. My intention is to make a pillow with the charm size designs and a table topper with the larger size to get a nice decor set for my winter living room.

    Trim your charm size blocks to 4-1/2" if you want to get a head start... sew cute! I was able to put them in order from memory-- I'm always giving myself a little memory test, hee, hee.... but we did try to tell a little story as we went along, so that was a good memory jogger. Now that I think about it though, I think the animal band was playing BEFORE the dancers.... hmmmm.....

     I wanted to pick up some of the flowers from the Forest Floor design for a central floral "snowflake," and this is what I came up with...

I also repeated the blue lacework in the background for continuity...
I love it so far!

Today's job is to add a bird and snowflake border. We will end up with a square piece of about 20" x 20" which you can either make a large, comfy pillow or a flat table topper or even a little festive winter wallhanging.

For Carefree Highways,
New Jersey is crossed off our list of the nifty fifty!

If you're a San Fran fanatic, you know I'm from this state and it's still very close to my heart! The town of Clinton should be on every world travelers bucket list-- LOL.

This one had a TON of color changes.

And I had a customer complain this week-- too many color changes...

I was reminded of the conversation between Mozart and the Emperor Joseph, who commented the new symphony had "too many notes."

So no, I only use the precise number of threads that are required for each design. That being said, any artist struggles with self doubt, so I was able to eliminate 5 colors without ill effect.

For the hobby sewing part of my week, I completed finished and gifted one of my Frivols kits...

The fabric is Little Miss Sunshine from Lella Boutique... one of my favorite past collections. I had bought the fat quarters years ago, in a happy coincidence, and made a scrappy border.

 

This one was on the longarm for longer than I'd like to admit. They always tell you that tension is an issue on these things, and I have found that to be TRUTH.

So once it was off the longarm, I loaded a practice muslin. Most of my problem is the fear I have of turning those knobs-- like, "Will I make it worse and never be able to get it back where it was?"

(On a side note, my son is a fan of jumping out of planes-- I am frequently invited to come along-- would a near death experience help me confront my fear of knobs? I'm betting it would, but so far, no go.)

So on the practice piece, I tightened, loosened, made better, made worse, went back and forth. My biggest discovery is-- if the knob doesn't feel like you are tightening it, it's not gettting tighter. Seems obvious, but no one told me that. I needed to make more bold moves. I think I now have the "feel" of it.

I also discovered...

PRACTICE IS FUN!

So now I hope to have a rapid succession of completed tablerunners-- perhaps a quilt isn't finished when it is pieced but when it is on your coffee table? I look forward to exploring this idea further.

This is my Cider Sew Sampler project (Fat Quartershop)... just simple straight line quilting-- a few of you encouraged me to put some embroidery in that dark center, but I really don't have time to get sidetracked so I'm just going to try some fabulous feathers. The contrast of straight and curvy always works.

In a moment of family camaraderie this week, my husband came up to see what I was doing last night and discovered this on my desk...

I'm not sure how that happened, but in retrospect,

WHAT IF I HAD ACCIDENTALLY SIPPED THAT TOP ONE!

He and my daughter went to work,
and in less than ten minutes did this...

My heart swelled with love for both of them... isn't it amazing how much better everything looks when simply placed at right angles?

(Mr. SFO is an architect)

They assured me they are open to phone calls all week
when I can't find anything.

Family is forever.

xox

Carol

Happy National Sewing Day!

   If you poke around social media, you'll know that's what last Saturday was...  I didn't find out until Sunday. You may be surprised to find out that I did not sew a stitch that day, but the rest of the 364 days I did thousands, which only proves it has always got to be against the grain with me!

    Last week (before Saturday) Alaska became a finished top. I may add borders, but I am counting this as one of my four quilt finished for the year. (Does not have to be quilted, in my book.)

There it is, on my design bannister-- I wonder, does anyone going up and down those steps notice that it has grown? I doubt it, and it's my own fault as they have all become habitualized to quilt parts laying anywhere and everywhere.

Someone on one of my Facebook groups posted the question: "What is your LEAST favorite part of quilting?" and I really enjoyed discovering that each and every part of this process is HATED by at least one person. Squaring up blocks, binding, starching, you name it-- for me, it is definitely sewing rows together but I powered through. So many points! There were 72 pins in every seam.

I also pulled this out last week-- I haven't updated you on the Very Coriander Christmas BOM, because it sat idle for two months. 

My February block got stuck at Fat Quartershop in Texas, right before that big freeze... it has now shown up, and the March block is right on its heels. I fully intend to keep up with this and it could easily be my second quilt of the year, unless the finishing kit is overwhelming. To that end, I peeked ahead in the book. (As part of my "against the stream" nature--I do read endings first.)\

I noticed each block starts with a small red triangle in each corner-- it cleverly works with these arrow sashing shapes to make a star in each cornerstone. So part of the work is done already-- I'm good with that! Should be do-able.

   This pattern would work with any fabric collection, not just Christmas. Corey Yoder, the designer, is making another one in her Apricot and Ash fabrics. It's just the right amount of work each month, and I highly recommend it.

    Carefree Highways is rolling again... Set Four is going to be called "New and North" (clever, huh!) and includes New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, and North Dakota. Two down, three to go.

The enthusiasm for this series has been tremendous-- it's a joy for me to know so many of you love cross stitch and love learning about our states like I do. I am going to make more that one Christmas present out of these-- using just a single design to make a nice present-- I have connections in New Jersey, Georgia, California, Texas, Minnesota, and Florida just to name a few. Stay tuned to see what I come up with! Click below to see if you state is ready... and if you have a cool theme for a set of five, let me know... I was thinking of a "Land O' Lakes" idea  next for states with many of them?

Carefree Highways

I bought this beautiful box from Joann Fabrics to store my stitchouts.

Once we get to 25 states, we're going to start setting these into blue sawtooth stars... then for the border, we're thinking of red and white stripes? I honestly think if we put the petal to the metal we could have these all digitized by the end of the year. 

A BIG Christmas present? I think not. :-)

And finally, here is something that IS a complete set...

Finishing kits are a high priority this week-- SEW FUN to try to envision what beautiful piece will come out of this. If you fell by the wayside, you can pick up your missing blocks at a discount this week-- the charm size will appear in your cart as 99 cents each, and the 5x5 set will be $1.99 each. There's time to stitch them and catch up, because the finishing kits will take a couple of weeks.

Once Upon A Time, Winter

This is probably the only thing about last winter I'm sad to say goodbye to!

Now get out there and get your stitching week started!

xoxo

Carol

Daylight Spendings Time...

 Last night was Daylight Savings-- spring forward-- does anyone? I will be spending the next two weeks dazed and confused about what time it is.

I got up this morning at the usual time--7:00am for me-- the clock said 8:00am-- did I change that clock? And so it goes. I sat down for my handstitching feeling grumpy, and was surprised by this pretty sight--

This morning's task was to handstitch the binding down on my new carrot mug rug-- there is nothing on earth so gorgeous as quilting at sunrise. This inspired me to change my attitude-- so I immediate started pondering how nice it was to get up earlier and greet the sun-- before realizing I was up at the same time as always, 7:00? 8:00? (sigh)

     Most of my week was spent getting my spring tablerunner out. If you haven't seen it--

Fig Tree Quilts graciously allowed me to post it on their Facebook page because it is made mostly of Joanna's fabrics-- and it got 512 likes! (The fact that we only got 14 likes on our own page just further confirms my theory that, while Fig Tree customers are foolin' around on the web, mine are sewing, sewing, sewing! :-)

Then, a customer complained that she would have to go out and buy orange fabric. I looked it up, and orange is going to be hot this summer, so I wrote her back to buy a couple yards of it and make a skirt! But for all of you who are lacking in orange fabric--and time-- I have a thread version coming out this week for a 5x7 hoop.

It's ready, but I'll probably post it on Tuesday. I have learned over the years that Monday mornings are where machine embroidery releases go to die-- a Monday after Daylight Savings? Yikes.

Now I'll take you back two weeks to what inspired this collection--

My DD came with me to the grocery store, and upon spying these said, "I would definitely eat carrots if we got those." 

So the bag of "Carrotes Mulitcolores" came home with us-- and this picture was taken this morning, so you can see they still haven't been touched. (This also, BTW, squashes the theory that you need orange fabric to make the tablerunner.)

Normally, I would go out and buy colorful candy for a photoshoot-- but if ever the time was for veggies, it is NOW.

I got out my peeler, and was instantly reminded of the trimmings when squaring up a bunch of half square triangles. As you can probably guess, the rotary cutter gets more action than a vegetable peeler in this establishment.

There! Don't they look like M&M's? I am quite sure the whites taste like pineapple, the purples taste like black cherry, and the oranges taste like... well, orange. To add to my list of delights this morning-- cutting open the purple carrot was a really great surprise.

I will have to get back to you on how they taste. Whatever time it is, it is still too early for carrots. They are packed up in a snack bag for "later."

For my hobby sewing last week, I did get the rows together on "Alaska." It should be super easy to finish this top. My goal is a table runner a month and four quilts this year-- wow, I'm actually doing something I said! I'll be glad to finish this snowflake now that spring is here... I really want to start working on Halloween next-- yup, I'm a contrarion when it comes to seasonal projects.

All the carrot-ty fun this morning now has me in a high good humor-- wishing you all the same-- have a great rest of the week, clocks aside!

xox

Carol

Scrappy Carrots Tablerunner

An unfortunate anniversary....

 I was listening to TV this weekend, and a commentator pointed out that this was our last normal weekend in 2020... before the lockdowns began. So I looked back on my Instagram posts-- I was doing the daily March IGQuiltFest postings, and sure enough, March 11th was the last day I could mentally handle it. At that point, I remember fatalistically thinking-- "We probably all have it by now!"... while at the same time, we were optimistically thinking "Fifteen days to slow the spread," remember?

This past year, my thoughts have continued to roll between the dark and the hopeful-- but I always try to be optimistic when dealing with others-- FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT-- it's gotten me through. All the sewing projects are the constant that keeps me moving forward-- I do love to sew. I never hesitate to recommend an obssesive hobby to those who are floundering!

I'm a little late on my post-- you probably didn't notice, but I usually try to do it on the weekend. So last week, I really made it happen again, and just didn't take the time to write about it!

First of all, the last Stitches of the Sea design posted-- what a sense of accomplishment that is! I am going to photoshop all the designs together and start sketching the finishing kit-- some one asked what that was, and it's basically the border. Once I have some sketches, I am going to post them here, and you can all give me your input-- I really value it. There have been some fabulous posts on the Facebook group of your blocks and some have even gone ahead and finished-- keep them coming-- it is honestly the very best part of what I do-- to see what YOU do!

After the finishing kit, well, I always have trouble saying goodbye to a good series, so I may do three or four more designs-- there are still some on my list that you were interested in.

I finished my hand stitching project-- the dresden quilt blocks, and I won't show that again until they are stitched together with the borders. So I pulled out yet another 1990s cross stitch project... you may think this box of old cross stitch is bottomless, but it isn't. There are only two left, and one of them was hardly started at all!

This one is called "The House of Hardanger." Hardanger is an embroidery technique where you pull out threads of linen and weave what is left... it's terrifying! You can see I did the one set of windows over the door-- but that isn't why I stopped working on it-- it was the interminable, repetitive border. Just BORING! So I am starting to work on the border again-- I'm almost half way, and then I will have to learn all over again how to pull the threads, and there are also a ton of fancy stitches in this, too.

That's always the problem when we put projects away, isn't it?

Remembering what you were doing!

It's lovely, I'm committed now,
and I'll give it a go till June maybe. 

Maybe. 

Next up, I finished the February Table Runner of the Month.

This was from the Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Sampler Box. I love the fabric and the pattern, but I decided to use scraps from my stash instead of the white background in the pattern- you always have to spend extra to buy that.

So I'm really not sure about this one-- it's kind of modern for me-- and yes, I know that brown in the middle is too dark-- the room I wanted it for is dark though, so I am rationalizing it makes sense. What do you think? I probably have enough left over to make another one for a gift.

And here's one I hope you all will love!

"Scrappy Carrots" is on the site today-- this was made with an old charm pack of Fig Tree fabric-- I'm really looking forward to see how YOU make it your own!

The bunny borders came out really cute.

Last week, I said projects made for the website don't count for my tablerunner of the month challenge, but this week, I say, HECK YEA, they do! So this is March's tablerunner of the Month-- done in the first week, but I'm gonna need the time because...

I'm stitching together my Alaska blocks! So here's my first row hanging on my "Design Bannister..." Yes, with all this stitching, "craft creep" is starting to take over the house... again.

So that's the first week of March in... I'm off my posting schedule now, but I'm still hoping to have tons of progress to show you again this weekend. Until then, FAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT-- have a great week!

xoxo

Carol