Flummoxed...

 I think we've all been here! As June starts, I realize half the year is almost over, but NOT half of my quilting plans... I did stick with my cute sewing themed planner through about April, but not sure where May went! This will be a rambling post for sure... be forewarned!

  The big sewing room tidy up has continued... I gathered, washed, and organized ALL of my grunge fabrics, and was pretty pleased to see I have a bigger assortment than I realized. Problem is, I am not sure where to put them yet-- all my containers are bursting at the seams still yet. Pun intended.

   In the happy mail department, those bursting seams are not going to be helped by this!

   I must've ordered this American Gatherings fabric at the end of last year-- a stitch-a-long was supposed to start in January. So here it is, just in time for 4th of July-- but all chances of having a quilt for my patriotic son, born on the 5th, is lost. It's OK-- I probably wouldn't have had it anyway-- and I have now switched my thinking to a patriotic chicken quilt (he is a chickem dad), and there's always Christmas or next birthday. 

    I sold a bunch of charm packs, but traded in the $ for these-- I am completely HOOKED on Minick and Simpson's Mackinac collection from last year-- I have tried to like the upcoming collections, but there's just something about those roses... I also snagged a layer cake that is on the way. These do have a space available now on my precut shelf, but don't have any idea what I will make with them.

     The table runner of the month is: KITTIES! After posting the nostalgic photo of my grey cat, well, there is only one cure for nostalgia and that is Lori Holt's Farm Girl blocks. I was a big fan of Lori when you could buy her book for $25 and use your scraps... not such a big fan when she started applique quilts where the pattern was free, but you have to buy $200 of assorted templates, fabric, and tools to make the project. The projects are still very cute and I do understand a quilty girl's gotta make a living, just not in the budget.

   Lori always has the measurements for a 6" kitty block and a 12" kitty block-- that's great, unless you want a 9" kitty block (I always have to be different) but I discovered if you just take the measurement in between those sizes-- well, it worked out perfectly if you want to know!

   Even where I scribbled out "WRONG" I was actually RIGHT... I had just sewn together in the wrong order. It reminds me that Mr. SFO often says to me... "She thought she was WRONG, but she was MISTAKEN." And I am sure he means that as a compliment.

   It was 90 degrees outside this weekend, and guess what... our A/C is broken, so even hotter in the sewing room, but I soldiered on...

   There's also a great Chicken block in here for the Chicken quilt, but again, I don't want 6" or 12" or even 9"... I'd like 18" giant chickens, (this kid has a king size bed) but I'm not sure of the math on that. I don't believe you would add the 6" and 12" blocks sizes together, but I will let you know.

    In addition to the table runner a month, I also wanted to do four quilts this year. So I did finish the Laundry Basket's "Alaska" but I have all of the Farm Girl blocks from years past, just waiting to be assembled, but so far... nada. I still have June to do it. Let's see what happens!

    So here now, is the 600 pound gorilla of hand work this week:

I got really tired of all the white work on the House of Hardanger, and wanted to work on something super colorful. So in a moment of extremely bad judgement, I bought this vintage cross stitch kit off  Ebay...

    (No, this is not my completed piece, but the picture from the package.) And let's be honest, because I also bought SPRING, SUMMER, and WINTER. These are Sandy Orton's designs and I just love her work... do you remember them from the 90s? I have NO business starting this at my age... the little bit I got done in the photo above took HOURS. 

   When I check Instagram, I see that people have stitched these in 2-3 months??? There must be something wrong with me. It has crossed my mind to just throw it out NOW, to avoid the 20 years of work ahead, just on ONE of them. At the very least, I need to put it away NOW.

   What should I do?

   On the business side, Last week was the first week the new site was officially "Grand Opened," and I knew in my heart there was going to be some kinks to work out, so it was a bit of a loss in terms of new work. 

The biggest reason I moved the site was-- no customer accounts-- and the biggest question has been-- I can't log in to my account!! So in a bit of circular logic this week, I have wondered-- if everyone thought they had an account, why did we move? And where are these phantom passwords coming from, people, to login to the phantom accounts? You do know you're not supposed to use the same one for everything!!??

I did start the next five sets of Carefree Highways-- we're traveling to the Great Lakes!  It ninety degrees, so it nice and cool to me.

The FREE Summer Twist has begun-- are you stitching? And I hope to have the next one by Friday. I am just giving in to the whole beach theme-- a seahorse next? I tried to come up with summer themed animals and I can't honestly think of any.

Yes, the Stitches of the Sea finishing kit is on the drawing board-- this has been good inspiration for that.

Sew that's where I stand this first Monday in June-- I think I'll grab another cup of tea, get my planner out, and start making plans... FOCUS, people!

xox

Carol