Last Day of the Year!

      It's naturally a time to reflect on 2021... I don't have grandkids, so my camera roll is full of projects! It is sew fun to scroll through the year and see all that was accomplished. I fully intend to be kind to myself and let a few things roll into next year-- be kind to yourself, too!

   Here's how I stacked up... my goal was to complete twelve table runners and four quilts. Here they are!

1) January-- Fig Tree "Burgoyne Surrounded Tablerunner"-- check! On my dining room sideboard, as we speak!

2) February--Double Wide Dresdens-- these were sew fun to stitch together, and hand stitch down into blocks-- unfortunately, the fun of final assembly has yet to happen, so I'll move it to my January wish list.

3) March-- Cider Table runner-- this was from a Sew Sampler Box, and was my favorite ever project! Check! Done, with two matching pillows on my couch. I have since cancelled my boxes, and started the new Ribbon Runs Through It BOM-- the first month will ship soon and I can't wait! My neighbor will stitch with me-- sew fun!

4) April--Pears-- this was a Christmas gift-- heehee, and I was so excited in April to "finish it" so early, plus three cute accessory pears. It was never quilted and I regret is still languishing on a shelf. January, please help me!

5) May--Scrappy Carrot Table Runner-- my original goal was NOT to include things stitched for the business-- I lowered the bar for myself-- but this finish was too good not to pass up.

6) June was the birthday/Christmas gifted QOV-- CHECK!

7) July--Kitty Cat tablerunner-- gifted and gone-- CHECK-a-roni!

8) August-- Summer Twist-- still needs quilting-- but actually all my TWIST series does! I'm planning to do Winter Twist in the next couple of months-- probably not as a free giveaway, but as a complete, finished set. I just don't want it to drag on for five or six weeks.

9) September Snickerdoodle-- needs quilting-- seems like January I should just cement myself in front of the longarm. After I posted this pic on Facebook, someone saw A MISTAKE-- at the time, I was ready to kill-- I do have the patience to fix it, all these months later.

10) October-- Bats n Boos-- needs QUILTING!! I really love how this came out and will be on the lookout for more Fat Quartershop Free stitchalongs this coming year.

11) November-- Scrappy Oaks Table runner-- CHECK!

12) December-- I could say, all plans totally broke down this month, or I could count this cute pillow, or even the St. Petersburg table runner, which will be done momentarily! 

So that's seven out of twelve Fully Finished Objects-- and I'll give myself a pat on the back, especially since my stroll through the camera roll revealed other beautiful things I'm not even counting.

And Now for the Quilts-- I had hoped for four:

Alaska...

Cottage of the Month...

Coriander Christmas...

and Chickens!!

None are quilted, but I am really sew very proud of what I did get done this year. Yes, a lot of residual work to do, but all this was in addition to running a full time embroidery company! Looking ahead, I'm going to concentrate on quilting the beginning of the year, and instead of trying for a certain "number" of finishes, my resolution is more about focusing on ONE (or two!) things at at time and good use of time for 2022! Also, I have a lot of UFOs with a tremendous head start on them that I'd like to finish. Do you make sewing goals? It's a lot more fun than LOSING WEIGHT!!

Hope you get some joy out of looking through your own camera roll today-- thank you so much for being a part of my world this past year. I can honestly say that seeing your finished projects means more to me than any finish of my own.

Happy New Year!

My Favorite Week of the Year!

     Between Christmas and New Year's is always my favorite week of the year! All the hustle and bustle is over and it's time to relax and enjoy the holidays. New Year's Eve is always low key for us (read: I might even be in bed asleep to celebrate it) and no next day dinner is planned. So I'm having the time of my life and doing whatever I want! I did decide to just take a break for an hour to write and let you know how my gift giving went in case you are on the edge of your seat after my last post.

So here's a quick run down of the Crunch Time list!

1) Chicken Quilt-- I wasn't able to get the starry borders on, so it was gifted as it was on the last post. The reaction? I'm not really sure! My son went all out buying fabulous, well thought out gifts for everyone in the family-- he gave me an "Aerogarden" which is a cute little kitchen garden with a light-- I loved it! So I think he was just so excited to be a GIVER, not a RECEIVER this year? The floral fabrics may have thrown him a bit-- and he was also disappointed to not take it home. So I think I need to rethink my strategy of "flimsies" as gifts. I am now going to throw it on the longarm and quilt it with abandon-- what better practice piece than one that went together this fast?

The Matchbox display got a little more enthusiasm-- it really came out nice, even without sexy muscle cars.

2) The QOV binding was finished on time-- also the label was installed on the back-- I had to sneak back Christmas night and do the monogram. 

   So this was very well received, but I want it to be USED, and I'm not sure it's gonna be too special and end up in a drawer-- people want SOFT minky blankets these days? This is one of the conversations I always have with my friends-- what happens to a quilt after being gifted is totally out of your hands!

I did get two of these cuties totally finished and gifted-- they were really loved! I'd like to make a set of three FOR MYSELF-- the snow globe, a gingerbread man, and a snowman that are all in the Lori Holt Christmas book, but I have so many other projects in my head I don't think this will happen. Most of my Christmas pillows are starting to look a bit weary, but they'll have to do for another year!

    Here is the secret hoodie-- I usually keep this part of my life private, but every Wednesday, for years, I treat myself to a guitar lesson! Yes, all I ever really wanted to be was a rock star. So this "kid" (read: "man", but he's a lot younger than me!) has patiently worked with me all these years, and I have made a little progress. 

    

Of course, we have gotten to know each other-- his mom actually quilts-- and he requested a San Francisco Stitch shirt--LOL! A real rock star asked for my logo! So I was so proud of  getting this centered on the shirt ( it made me realize how little I have embroidered "items" lately-- it's all been just on fabric) THAT I FORGOT TO MOVE IT UP, so it's sort of low on the shirt! In addition, the fit wasn't the best- the men in my family are just not this tall. Nevertheless, this was most graciously received... I'm planning a redo and looking for a longer shirt-- this time, we try the shirt on first!

Then I made a skate bag for my daughter's coach-- she's like mom and is treating herself to a lesson each week. It's good to do something besides work once a week! I'm not ashamed to admit I occasionally buy from embroidery library if it's something I'm not interested to digitize myself-- and why would I? This design is really beautiful and thankfully embroidered in the right place--haha!

If you, as a new embroiderer, are ever afraid of putting a hole in something, buy one of these L.L. Bean bags-- you will NEVER be able to destroy it!

So that's the rundown-- my takeaways? FINISHED gifts, next year please! I also think I'll stick to just smaller items than big quilts-- you really need to know what someone wants before investing the time and money in that.

    I'd love to hear about your sewn gifts-- hits and misses!  Christmas would really be the best time to have an embroidery machine, if it weren't a fact that having one is really a gift every day of the year.

xox

Carol

It's CRUNCH Time!

Time to stop thinking about finishing all those fabulous hand made Christmas quilts and gifts and actually finish them! Here's what's on my plate this week.

1) Chicken Quilt
In good shape here... or what I consider to be good shape! I sewed the rows together and added the first of two borders. This is the part of quilting I hate most as it involves a lot of scrambling around the floor, pinning, and keel hauling tons of fabric under a needle. Fabric for the final border should be in the mail Tuesday and I'm hoping I can get that on.

This one's for my son-- he started raising chickens this year. I really can't wait to see the look on his face-- delight-- or a big question mark over his head as to why mom would make him a quilt when he sleeps with a dog? We'll see what happens! May I say, the Lori Holt books-- Farm Girl Vintage, Farm Girl Vintage 2, and the Christmas books all have settings for  6" and 12" blocks at the back and it has been tremendously helpful in assembling this piece. TBQ in January. (to be quilted, lol)

2. A Binding

So here's one that was only pieced when I gifted it on Fourth of July-- I did tell the person they would be seeing it again at Christmas as a joke-- Whoops! Christmas is a week away, and I'm struggling now to even make the "joke" goal!!

I really want to hand stitch it down on the back-- it adds extra love. That'll replace cross stitch as my morning job.

This one also gets a Thank You for your Service label on the back, and I'm hoping to do a monogram... details, details.

3. Lori Holt Snowglobe pillows
I have a couple of brand new people in my life this year-- wonderful people-- and I'd love to gift them a little quilty present. So in browsing through the Lori Holt Christmas book, I found some cute snowglobe pillows. I'm feeling over confident after getting the Chicken quilt done in a month-- let's see what happens today.

I was really having trouble cutting sizes when I started-- one is big and one is little. Let's hope that's not a trend that continues into 2022, and thank God these are just for pillows. I do need a couple of inserts from JoAnn-- here's hoping the supply chain cooperates. These are supposed to have buttons sewn on the trees, and I also have some little snowflake charms I could sew on. Let's see how far I get.

4. The Matchbox display rack
So this isn't a quilt obviously, but this needs some assembly. I've been exercised to start passing some of our "stuff" down to future generations, and it's my desire to make sure it doesn't end up in a garbage dump! 

I reasoned that you do this by turning your collectibles into something nice. We've had Mr. SFOs box of matchbook cars in the family for years-- they are very special to him. It occurred to me a nice display rack with all the cars would be perfect for our son's office in his car repair shop. SO.....

I found this incredible handmade case on Etsy-- now it's time to put it together. So I took the cars out for the first time in probably 40 years-- and what did I discover? Not the shiny, sexy muscle cars I had imagined, but a bunch of rusty construction vehicles!!! (You know that Mr. SFO is an architect-- I mean, I should have known!!) 

It's too late to send the case back, and it's somewhat appropriate as he does service trucks and hydraulics. I snagged a Matchbox red 1993 Jeep Wrangler off of eBay for the display... the red Jeep Wrangler is one we owned back in the day and is part of the family lore of the young man's birth story-- I'll leave the rest to your imagination. But he actually looked for and bought a real 1993 Wrangler now. So another gift I'm really curious what the reaction is.

5. Hoodie

All of my quilts do involve machine embroidery-- even if it's only the label. But there's one special shirt that needs to be made that only needs embroidery. Can't show it till after Christmas!

So, the artist in residence goes up to NH every weekend-- she doesn't know I use her office as a design floor on weekends. We had all promised no spending on Christmas gifts this year-- just handmade stuff. I noticed her door was closed more than usual this week, but just figured MOM was getting a little too overwhelming for her lately.

When I went it, what to my wondering eye should appear?

Not only that, but word has gotten around that others in my family are breaking the "rule." So Mr. SFO and I have to go out today to do some shopping! Hope it isn't swamped out there.

Let me know about your Christmas finishes-- I imagine quite a few of us are scrambling this week!

xoxo

Carol

Santa's Workshop in Full Swing!

    It's high time to stop thinking and starting doing something about all those Christmas present ideas I have rattling around in my brain! What better time of year to have an embroidery machine with dozens of beautiful personalized gifts under the tree?

    Here's one that took me a whole day! 

If you're a blog fan, I'm sure you've heard me mention my daughter was a figure skater when she was growing up. No, she wasn't going to the Olympics-- we used to laugh because that was the first question out of any one's mouth when they learned she skated. What other sport would anyone put an impossible goal like that in front of a kid?

"I'm trying out for football!"

"Oh, are you going to the Superbowl?"

That just does not happen.

Anyway, I'm proud of her accomplishments, and it made me happy when she treated herself to a little lesson each week this year, after six years off the ice. So for her coach, we decided to make a nice bag for ice skates. Well, BUY a bag and embroider it! That is "making a bag" to machine embroiderers! 

L.L. Bean has the best bags-- a lot were sold out but we did manage to snag this red one. It was stiff as a board, and the embroidery area was a lot smaller than I imagined. I had to digitize the black outline to hold it to a hoop-- there was no way I was going to get that bag hooped-- and I had to open up the sides to even get it under my needle. Come to think of it, making a bag would have been a lot quicker.

It did come out really pretty and I just need to pick out that black outline and clean it up a bit. The design, if you wondered, I just picked up at Embroidery Library! It is super pretty, if a bit dense, and it would have taken another day for me to digitize my own.

While it stitched, I made good use of my time stitching chickens together!

This is almost at the point where I would gift it-- it still has two outer borders to go, and I have eleven days. This quilt proved to me how quickly you can whip up a decent size quilt with easy large blocks. These are 12" Lori Holt chicken blocks from the first Farm Girl Vintage book.

I picked red, white, and blue for a NO FAIL color scheme-- it's Minick and Simpson's latest Belle Isle collection. I lived in Michigan for three years growing up, so I have an affinity for their work, always named after something in that state. I tried to pick more manly prints-- this is for my son-- but who could resist making hens from the large florals-- that white one at the bottom is my favorite.

Anyway, I think it will be a nice down payment on the eggs I receive weekly from him!

The eggs are usually smaller than store ones-- but there's one hen who's an overachiever-- isn't there always ONE in life. Anyway, her egg in the dozen is huge, and you can't close the lid on the carton because of it. I'm not sure if he knows which hen it is, but I keep telling him-- 

FIND HER and BREED HER!

Then we have three weeks of our FREE St. Petersburg Christmas stitch-a-long in-- 

Now that is a street I would like to stroll along!

I am trying to get 1,000 viewers for my daughter's hiking YouTube channel-- that is what you need for monetization. She's hoping to hike the Appalachian Trail next year, and all proceeds from her channel will go towards that. It's appropriate because she's producing the San Francisco Stitch Co. channel!

We will offer the finishing kit for free this year if we can make it to 1,000-- unfortunately, less than 10% of people who downloaded Week Three for free were willing to take the time.

So THANK YOU to those who did-- I will figure out a way to individually get you a free kit whether or not we get to 1000-- we're currently at about 350, and I really don't want to keep harping on about this day after day. Everyone is just so beaten down right now, don't you find that?

Somewhere I read that Christ was born in a very turbulent time-- remember-- a paranoid King Herod was having all the infants in Bethlehem slaughtered when he heard the prophecy that a KING was born there. It lifted my spirits to think of that. So take heart everyone-- we have another new year coming-- and every day is a new one, isn't it?

So with that, Santa's gotta get more stuff to embroider today--
let's just do our best and make it count! 

Here's the link for the YouTube Channel, just in case you want a free finishing kit, LOL... it only takes a second to hit that red subscribe button, and you're making two people very happy! Thank you!

GYPSY TRAILS

xox

Carol

Through the years...

Today, we released the 15th annual installment of our year motif series! I thought it would be fun to take a look back-- yes, more nostalgia! Someone suggested I do a weekly post on an older set-- it's a great idea-- let me know in the comments if you would like to read about it.

I LOVE holidays-- can you guess? It's what I love to stitch and decorate for. In 2007, we had just completed the BIG move from San Francisco to Boston-- I was all settled in for winter, and it occurred to me New Year's Day was an occasion I'd really never designed for... and a new series was born!

It's amazing to me to go back and take a look at the first year-- so simple! Then, because designs always sell better with a great project idea, I tried all of these luscious accessories. Above we had a checkbook cover-- do any of you remember back in the day when you wrote paper checks-- heehee!

Then we had a large wall calendar-- the inspiration for this was those dish towel calendars? I haven't seen that in a while, either. 

Looks great doesn't it? This series proudly hung in my front hall for three or four years, before it's demise....

And then, this is the desk calendar-- so cute! I used some test stitch outs, and filled in with novelty fabrics to make the picture for each month-- clever, huh! I've never enjoyed turning a calendar page as much.

These three items were made every year, for quite a few years...

Every year I saw some way it could be improved-- this year, apparently I decided it needed VINES! haha. Looks hairy to me now.

 

The wall calendar always needed a new 4x4 design-- that was all the creativity that went into it-- the rest was a total drudge of creating all of the months, and the piece was rehooped fifteen times! I tried a different color on this and learned white always photographs best.

The second year, I added the journal cover. I always like the idea of keeping a journal-- I'm sad to say, I still have all of these, and not a page has been filled. I was probably sewing with that time, though.

So 2010 was a big design change when I added the ribbon through the numbers. This is the first design that now looks good to me, through the lens of time. Thank God I finally got it right--or, third time's the charm.

2011... did you know, that the same arrangement of dates-- that is, the year starts on a Tuesday and is a leap year... occurs again in 2036? So yes, I am holding on to all of my stitched calendars... so recyclable!

2012...

So the years rolled by, and finally it came time to admit as much as I loved making these things, they really weren't selling. Was it just too much work for all of you? Had we fully moved into calendars on the phone? Automatic payments instead of paper checks? Change is hard for me-- but 2012 was the last year for my beloved wall and desk calendars. 

I produced a lot more journals these years-- so fun to try different fabric combinations-- and truthfully it wasn't a big money maker for San Francisco Stitch Co.-- but I used them as lovely gifts at Christmas time! 

Another big design change for 2014-- the checkered bar!

The checkbook idea lingered for a couple more years-- they were easy to make-- but I finally realized I was the only one carrying one. Back in the day, whenever I had to write a check-- I certainly got some lovely comments from people I owed money to. 

I kept going... for one thing, I almost had the full set of digits-- at that point, I would only have to cut and paste them in each year! 2015 was a lovely year...

So nothing had changed for a while and as easy as it was to set this up each year, I was bored-- and you were bored! It wasn't even worth continuing. So in 2019, I totally redid the flowers to a shocking orange on a blue grunge...

Worst year ever! haha.

In 2020, I made the ITH mug rug-- who doesn't love a mug rug-- and changed the colors back-- finally a hit!

 I still persevere with my journal covers-- I do have a rock solid minimum of you who make this-- and who knows, maybe next year will be the year I write on a page or 2...

So now, it's 2022! Never before, have so many digits been able to be cut and pasted into a design!

This won't happen again until 2122, or 2222--  I hope to be blissfully resting in heaven by then-- my days of trying to figure out what sells, over!

But until then, the question remains... will you all collectively love my jean version-- or absolutely need an updated mug rug for next year? FLIP OR FLOP this year? It's time to find out-- 

2022 MUG RUG

2022 JOURNAL

But one thing is for sure-- this design is certainly my FOLLY, and I hope to create it for many years to come... thank you sew much for being here with me!

2022 Update: We're happy to say "2022" made a comeback last year in terms of sales... thank you all sew much for loving this design-- otherwise I would just have to continue making it for myself!

xox

Carol