What Color is a Chicken's Beak?

     Between my cross stitch turkey and my son's Patriotic Chicken quilt, it is beginning to look like a poultry yard around here. Do I have a "thing" for chickens? It wasn't until my daughter painted a penguin at a ceramic place with a penguin sweater on that the shop owner pointed out she must like penguins-- and we realized it was a "thing."

I did finish the turkey by Thanksgiving and have since then completed the full backstitch on it.

And the chicken blocks are done! I secretly asked my son what color a chicken's beak was before doing that part-- he looked puzzled why I would ask-- but apparently, it depends on the breed.

I have to say, I really shocked myself at how quickly these went together, just by making all twelve simultaneously instead of one at a time. But, as a concession to those who make slow progress, important decisions of what wing would go with what bird really went out the window. The light blue chickens are also a bit of a fail-- they blend in with the background too much. I've dubbed this the "no overthinking quilt" or I guess I am overthinking just not "fixing" it!

Each chicken now has a thin strip of border all around it, then a sashing (I picked a clever black chickenwire fabric), and the two more borders. So it's a bit early to marvel at how quickly it went. By Christmas? DO OR DIE!!!!

So to just bore you with cross stitch for another moment-- I know a lot of quilters resent the space now give on Fat Quarter Shop to this-- I'm going to wrap up work on this by the end of the year. I got totally behind on backstitching as I went along, and there's enough in Apple Lady alone to keep me busy for quite some time.

On December 31st, it's doing a disappearing act until May 1st. Then I would have enough time over the summer to finish it by Autumn. What have I learned from this incredible expenditure of time? Well-- it just goes to show you if you make a commitment to work on something, you can make it happen!

 But I watched Kimberly Jolly's Wednesday cross stitch livestream last week, and it came out that she spent 33 full 40-hour weeks cross stitching so far this year. This was all totally documented on an Excel Spreadsheet, which I'm sure took up part of that time! LOL

???

So it's obviously up to her how she spends her time, and I do think she's an amazing person, an incredible business woman, and a great mom. But I had to ask myself if I want to be the queen of completed cross stitch kits... I did the math, (not in Excel, just guessing!) and the time in this piece is going to be about 240 hours, or six weeks of my life!

So then you get to thinking, what if I had put that time into unfinished quilts, or better yet, the longarm, or even better still, finishing up some of my art quilts? 

So 2022 is going to be the year of original work for me-- that being said, you can't be "working" every minute of your life-- you do need some relaxation, and it's good to know I had six weeks off this year!

Balance is something that is really hard to find, isn't it?

Last week I got a new phone-- or, camera that is! I am taking pictures much more often than I am ever making phone calls! It's the iPhone Pro Max 13-- and it has three eyes-- as a Halloween lover-- well, I'm in love! The point was to be able to make the YouTube videos on it. We recorded another one recently, and I had to keep dumping older things to have space. The new one is again, cross stitch-- I'm showing all of my 1990's unstarted kits-- hee,hee. I think I'm more authentic than these ladies with dozens of finished projects each week, don't you? Anyway, I think you will enjoy it-- many of you in my age group will recognize these-- just like old friends. 

This is my ONE finish of 2021!

And by the way-- after the last post, I really dedicated myself to finding my Twelve Days of Christmas UFO, and I did! 

It was in a box that I assumed had photographs in, and had passed over while looking many times. Something unusual happened...

I discovered it is further along than I thought!!

How often can you say that!!

So now I've segued into original work, and this is where my heart lies in 2022.

Wait for it, wait for it...

I'm starting early, and guess who had the courage to press that START button on my Stitches of the Sea sashing! I did it, and it is exquisite! And here is the beautiful shell, on the back as well, just as I have imagined it all these months.

This is the project of the week, so I hope to get the side and corner designs wrapped up as well. It does take time for instructions, and I have two volunteer testers I will need to hear from before we release.

I also finished St. Petersburg Christmas Block Two, and Carefree Highways Set Seven is out.

St. Petersburg Christmas is FREE-- so please tell your embroidery friends. We need to expand our customer base to grow at this point, and we've hired an SEO company to help. Did you know if you Google, BIRD EMBROIDERY DESIGNS, the Cloud Club doesn't even come up? I've also had super fans who have asked their friends if they know about us-- and NO, they don't!

You can find both of these on the NEW tab on our home website page...

HERE

On the home front, we got our tree up earlier than I would have believed possible. We rushed out the day after Thanksgiving, due to supply chain fears. So there were plenty, but there were smaller than usual. It was a real struggle getting EVERY ornament of my three plastic tubs up, but with help, we did it!

All of that big mix of plastic, glass, salt dough, Hallmark, metal lives so happily together....

isn't it BEAUTIFUL!

And here we are goofing off while testing the new "portrait" feature on my phone! I do think the new feature made me look my best in my red bathrobe.

I admit I have had quite a few moments of pride this past week--

But don't worry, like a true artist, the feeling that everything I do sucks will always be the foundation of my endeavors--

and I'll always be there for you, in that way.

Have a wonderful week!

xox
Carol