A Stitcher's Life... months of boredom, moments of sheer terror

A little late on my weekend post-- I've been struggling with allergies lately and had to spend a half a day in bed on Saturday. Nausea and a headache-- that's a combination where my trusty high threshold of pain fails me. I'm also feeling a bit overwhelmed-- more on that later.

So let's prattle on about my sewing for a few minutes-- it's always such a happy constant in our lives. First, up my morning hand sewing project. Haven't been feeling it much lately-- sipping tea and staring at a blank wall is my new thing. But anyway, here's the progress on the "House of Hardanger."

March 1st

April 13

When you pull out these old UFOs, you are quickly reminded why they ended up in a drawer in the first place-- that repetitive border was just killing me. Now, that's actually in the PLUS column-- I don't have to keep referring to a chart. And when I rounded the last corner, it actually met up with the other side I started years ago-- hurray!

Now, after months of boredom, we come to the moment of terror-- cutting and pulling out the threads. THIS IS HARDANGER.

When you feel overwhelmed by life, it comes with a bit of a euphoria-- like, there is nothing left to lose! And it's a freeing moment artistically, so out those scissors came and snip, snip, snip... And you can see it went well-- I actually cut and pulled out the CORRECT threads! Now I have a bit of finishing up to do-- the same technique is in the big window, and then there are beautiful, fancy stitches in the chimneys and gable area still to be done. And then the underlay part which is regular cross stitch and there's a Christmas tree and an attic that show through the holes. Dontcha love all these steps! Still a lot, so I'm going to see where I am at the end of the month, and then I may continue or swap out for a bit of hand applique again.

Next up-- my "Mini Canned Pears." Last week, I was lamenting how tiny they were, so I made MORE of them and as usual the math in my head forgot that each pear is separated by a sashing, and there's a huge complex border of checkers surrounded by more plain borders.

So my dainty little pear piece is now the mother of all tablerunners-- a hefty 24" x 36." I love it!

I still intend to gift it, and somehow I remembered that years ago I bought this pincushion pattern--

I think it would be a nice upgrade to make some stuffed pears (sounds delicious!) to go along with the table runner. Then I started thinking a cute fabric bowl would be amazing-- I have enough fabric to make six of these sets! Will someone please stop me?

I was using a layer cake of cream fabric for the background-- but now I need longer strips, so I'm waiting for that to ship. I also scored a yard of Fig Tree Chantilly fabric in peach on Etsy-- what a great website-- if you need to add fabric to an older collection, you have a great chance of finding it on there. I always try to get a backing fabric of a larger scale print of the collection I'm using.

And here's another photo of years of boredom... this is the flower block of the month that my customers finished in 2018. But I decided to embroider sashings-- dozens of sashings, and that has been going on for three years now. I got four done last week! Only four to go-- let's hope it doesn't take four more years to do them.

After that, it's another moment of terror when I have to trim the edges down to 1/4" for binding. I hope to still have the "nothing left to lose" impulse when that day comes.

Now, from the tedious,  to the overwhelming in my life. 

So most of you, who have stuck with me this far into the post, my wonderful friends and longtime customers, know that our website sucks. I'm a Virgo, and though I have 0% percent belief in horoscopes, the one characteristic of Virgo that I cannot deny, is that I am loyal to a fault. That is, until the straw breaks the camel's back-- then it is OVER.

My website and I came to that moment this weekend-- I finished up the Carefree Highways Set Four, so proud, and spent the hours it takes to redo the website and upload the designs, pricing, downloads etc. etc. 

Then, I couldn't publish. 

It's not like this doesn't happen six times a year, and what comes next is a two hour phone call to India to get it straightened out. Yes, they are very pleasant. And yes, you can call anytime.

But I just can't do it anymore, Yahoo.

I had been toying with the idea of opening an Etsy website just to destash a bit, and maybe even sell some of my samples, so I went in, and in a half an hour I had a store opened and ready to go-- with customer accounts that you can download from as many times as you want!

So am I saying we're moving to Etsy?

NO!

It just convinced me that there's a better world out there. I have gone down this road many times before, and I have been told none of photos or products can be transferred, tried to find a webdesigner, and lost heart and turned back, but THIS IS IT.

It's getting into our slow season and there's no better time to do it. I have been quoted TWO WEEKS to a brand new website, but I really want to take my time and do it right, and explore more than one option. So all new sets will be posted on Etsy for the time being, and I am leaving the dinosaur, the Titanic of an old website up for now (it's still functional) until we catch up with the future.

Thank you to everyone who was willing to go to my Etsy shop this weekend and give it a try-- I recognize all of your names and you even FAVORITED my shop and you are seriously what gets me up in the morning. 

So here are some links for now:

Buy Existing Sets Here

Buy New Sets Here

Join the Constant Contact Mailing List Here

I'm adding that last one, because I may even start up a new domain with a shorter name like SFOXCO.COM-- so tired of spelling out San Francisco, aren't we? and I don't want to lose you along the way.

So thanks for sharing this journey with me--
as one of my favorite songs states--

"You'll never see the end of the road
while you're traveling with me."

Don't dream it's over--
we have millions of stitches still left to sew together-- 
we have barely even begun.

xoxo

Carol