Patiently working away on all the things...

     So February reached a nice rhythm with the "things" all moving along at a nice pace-- I'll just accept it is never as fast as I'd like. Are there any "quick" hobbies out there? Gardening? Nope. Cooking? Nope. Fishing?  Nope, nope, nope. I really can't think of any, so I'll stick with sewing.

     So I had a finish-- it's a rarer occurrence here than I'd like to admit. And Mother Nature opened up the skies to celebrate!

     This is the Winterville pattern by Thimble Blossoms-- I'm naming mine "Christmasville" as the fabric was Tole Christmas. And since no quilt is really finished without machine embroidery, I'm going to embroider Santa and his sleigh over one of the houses.

     And make a fabulous embroidered label. 

     So I always questioned the sanity of people who take their quilts outside-- I guess I am now in that camp! You should always avoid criticizing what other people-- I've noticed it makes me much more likely to do something myself!

     So I did have a bit of a soggy quilt when I came in, but it dried nicely and just needs a good press.

     For Valentine's Day, my sweetheart gave me roses...

I heavily photographed them for machine embroidery designs!

 And then there were three-- I got a Ribbon Runs Through It block done this week. Finally, one came out to be 12-1/2"... third time IS the charm!

Every block is different, like a snowflake. So it would be hard to make all four at once, especially since the fabrics are somewhat similar. I'm just taking my time. I'm getting better at the double flying geese blocks, and since rows 1-3 are the same as rows 6-8, you can chain piece them at the same time.

I noticed my Winterville star points were pulling apart whenever I lifted the quilt-- fabric gets heavy! So this time, to keep my seams together, I'm going to baste around each block. This quilt is also HUGE!

I was hoping to get the fourth one done before the end of the month, but it's doubtful. The February shipment is late-- I don't know how late, but I really don't want Month 2 to arrive before these are done. It also might arrive on a day when Mr. SFO has to get the mail (I am leaving for a couple of days)-- never a good thing, when those Fat Quarter Shop packages are arriving frequently!

I got the March Birth Month Mug Rug done early-- these are so fun to do. So I wouldn't call myself a jewelry girl, but doing the birthstones in thread has been challenging and rewarding. 

Flowers are always my thing.

This is released early, because I just wanted to make sure my subscribers were able to access is before I leave for Daytona!

    I mentioned I'm lucky enough to be going to the AQS In Daytona for a couple of days next week! Don't be envious-- I'm going to attempt to make a movie of it for you when I get back. My videos at this stage of learning have elements of both comedy and tragedy, so it should be fun to make and watch. 

Here is my hand sewing, all ready for my flights!

    I was admonished for using a screwdriver as a turning tool in the last video-- (only in the nicest way, of course!) So I will have to admit to you, with all the sewing and embroidery skills I have, my project bag is still a Ziploc!!!

    Then my friend Tere made me this awesome bag-- I mean, this beats anything Kimberly Jolly has for all of her cross stitch projects, doesn't it!! It is beautiful... so organized!

 

I am still mostly "forcing" myself to work on the Autumn Sampler-- is that what it comes to for me to finish a project? Torture? So I'm making myself do two lengths of floss per day. I did finally pick up the red and wheat colors I was missing, so that is helping it flow better. Hope to have Witch Girl done after two three-hour flights.

  This time of year is really a mental battle for me to get through-- sewing, sewing, sewing helps, but a few days of warmth would help more. Here is my Florida haircut-- so the hair looks good, but you can probably see how washed up I am!

Hopefully when I come back, I'll be tall and tan and young and lovely once again! Have a great week.

xox

Carol

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Happy Valentine's Day! I hope to gift you all with this cute little cross stitch heart complete with video tomorrow-- it all depends on my quick mastery of Adobe Premier Pro!

     As I mentioned, I am losing my Gypsy Trails free video editing service to the trail-- my DD and her bestie begin their Appalachian Trail hike in a matter of weeks now. (By the way, they are well over 1,000 subscribers and killing it on view hours-- thanks to all who gave them their start!) So to keep the YouTube channel going, I need to take over the entire process. 

     So far it has gone well--- I can clip out whenever I say UMM, speed up the segment to make it look like I work really fast, and even rotate entire scenes that are filmed upside down. It is going to be released later than I wanted, but LOVE is a theme that works at any time of year. In my further defense, the Fat Quarter Shop CUPID BOX is also late.    

    I still need to learn how to add my cute animated intro, and music to help hide the boring parts, and finally, how to post it! It's all very mysterious to me. What is a Ripple Edit? I have the advantage of being proficient in other Adobe programs, and they all somewhat work the same. But my art is lives in 2D, and now we're dealing with the fourth dimension of time. I am really enjoying this more than I thought I would-- maybe my best art is still ahead of me in the film-making category?  I do love to tell a story!

     It was an extremely productive week here-- I released a set of Winter Bowl Fillers-- this is clearly the inspiration for the free Valentine piece. A new monthly series? Maybe. I need the perfect bowl to put them in. Did you try them?

Then, I had no idea when I got up last Tuesday morning, it would be the day the Stitches of the Sea finishing kit would be released! I took a look at it, and it was ready... I'm not sure why I didn't just put it up a month ago-- fear of success maybe.

This is the Quilt-as-you-go piece--the instructions are hugely thorough, and I have a way of including stitched guidelines, so the hooping will be a breeze-- you got this! You could even take one favorite design and add the corner pieces to it, for a smashing pillow. I'm trying to pick a favorite to make one, but I just can't! 

     

It's just a matter of reformatting for the all-in-the-hoop version, and I'll be making my way through that next.

Valentine's Day is also Mr. SFO's birthday- so we had a wonderful party on Saturday, featuring one of the artist-in-residence's creations-- dark, dark, chocolate-- Mr. SFO's favorite!

So now that that is over, the high holy days of winter are over for us-- the next few weeks are extremely difficult for me weather-wise. It just seems so gloomy and cold. We had a coating of snow for awhile, but then we had a couple of days in the fifties-- I took the opportunity to walk our Cape Cod Canal--it is a fabulous walking path along the canal that separates Cape Cod from the mainland. 

Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine and it was really nice to get some exercise and NOT look at a screen of any type-- inspiration was not lacking-- doesn't that cute little building look like it wants to be in a cross stitch sampler?

Then this handsome fellow visited me on the roof gable I can see from my desk. Birds love to perch here-- they can be KING of the entire yard-- it's all visible from there. This little guy was less interest in owning the yard and had more of an itch to scratch. 

I have to remember to open up the blinds in the morning to get better photos-- but isn't he just perfect! I think he was posing for me.

So those are a couple of the little joys I count on each day to get me through the last of winter. I was so hoping to get a photo of the completed Winterville quilt out in the snow-- it looks like I will get my chance-- we have 3-6" coming in today, and it's already started as I write.

YES-- I have a finish-- but I will make you wait until I get my curated snow photos!

Winterville is a medallion quilt, and this photo sums up the part of quilting I hate-- sewing long pieces together. Because it's a medallion, you can't even do rows-- the whole thing has to go under the machine every time. As it turns out, Winterville is QUEEN sized-- reminding me to pay more attention to the finished measurements on these patterns when I consider buying them!

So that got done this week, but my weekly Ribbon Runs Through It block was not even touched. There's a rumor that this month's shipment will be late-- works for me! I think the Fat Quarter Shop MUST have all the fabric for this, but I've watched enough of their YouTube to know that cutting it is the problem. I'm hoping I can spend the better part of a day in late February to finish my last two blocks.

So this is my morning stitch which continues to languish. I can't get that lovin' feeling back. All I got done this week was part of Witch Girl's skirt and a pumpkin leaf. 

I think the problem may be my floss has turned into a hot mess-- I keep running out of colors and my cardboard floss drops keep breaking at the hole and falling off the rings. So I sat down to organize it this morning. Duct tape-- ah, duct tape. That and a glue gun is all you really need to fix all of life's difficulties. Broken holes- repaired.

Resorted by color-- this project requires thirty-seven of them. Even in my digitizing, 30 is like a red light for me in terms of color changes. 

Instead of running to Michael's each time I run out of one color, (because why would I waste 26 cents on a skein that I might have enough of?) I made a list of five that are getting pretty low.

Everything looks good again and hopefully I can get a Michael's run early this week. Wondering if it's still Christmas in the shop!

    So that's the week that was. This coming week I have some non-sewing things to get done- the entire house needs a makeover, TAXES--always such a withering moment, isn't it? But we may get a refund for the first time in years... and then I need the March Birth Month mug rug done. So going to try to focus getting those three things done... because...

I am going to the AQS Daytona show next week-- yippee!--first one in two and half years? That should really help get one week of winter in, and I promise I will take you with me, virtually, anyway.

Happy Valentine's Day to you again-- hugs and kisses-- thanks for being a part of my world. 

xoxo

Carol

Settling in to 2022...

     Re-reading my blog posts for January made me realize how obsessive I am about time and productivity. I'm sure that's excusable when a new year starts! I've now relaxed a bit, found my rhythm and accepted it as a slow one.

     I mentioned a show I am really enjoying on the Discovery Channel. It's British and it's called "The Repair Shop." Apparently this is a real place, where people bring their broken heirlooms, from stuffed animals, to mechanical toys, and smashed ceramics of all sizes and shapes. All the crafts people sit and work patiently at restoration for many hours and voila! The thing always ends up as good as new. Mention of the time spent, or the cost to repair, is just not a part of the show. Oh, what a wonderful world, beyond the constraints of money and time! So I've taken that to heart and have vowed to work as patiently and slowly as needed to get a thing done. 

     In that spirit, I slowly dissected the flower houses of Winterville and replaced the gigantic poinsettias with more architectural fabrics. And I got the oversized roof to fit.

     I am so happy I took the two or three hour U-turn-- I really like the way this is looking now. I got the rows of houses sewn together, now all that is missing is the corner Ohio stars, to be done in blue and white. I had to order more of the teal grunge-- how, oh how, do I remember the color was called "Dynasty" after three years, but I can't remember where I just put my phone. 

    Fortunately, an Etsy seller still had a yard of Dynasty-- it needs outer borders, too, and that's at the top of my list to finish this week.

     While waiting, I got my second Ribbon Runs Through It block done. I think it took even longer, but I used my dibble dabble technique-- just doing a portion here and there. I'm going to make this my Thursday project-- Thursdays are usually a home day for me. I'm doing this with my neighbor-- she's already ahead! One star a month for sixteen weeks is the first hurdle to jump. It's great to have a friend stitch along for motivation.

The Eastern Seaboard Carefree Highways set released! That leaves only ten more states. When Winterville is done, I'm going to start assembling. I'm sewing them together in the order they were added to the Union, so there's got to be huge chunks I could already join, especially since most (all?) of these were in the original thirteen.

Then, I've had this on my WANT TO DO, list for a long time-- some one color, easy machine cross stitch! I've been watching too many YouTube Flosstube videos, and I really love these small stuffed ones that are called bowl fillers. So don't tell any hand cross stitchers, but I made this in less than an hour-- in the hoop!

I'm hoping to come up with a little winter set of three this week. I now need a "bowl" to fill... you'd be surprised, but I am not a great home decorator for all of the artistic genes. There's a common theme-- all these cross stitchers find things at Hobby Lobby-- sometimes, if they're on sale, they just paint right over the saying on an item and plaster their cross stitch right over it! 

    For the bowls, they use these antique looking "trencher bowls"-- I did not find anything remotely like that at my Hobby Lobby. We have a HUGE one, though-- I doubt if I made it through 25% of the aisles.

    I did find this wooden plaque in the wood aisle--

     It looks great behind my Birth Month Mug Rug. So what you do next is kind of decorate it with a bow and greenery. I'm not sure about this part and I don't have a lot of silk flowers laying around the house. But once it's decorated, you can put a magnet behind your  piece, hang it, and just change it out every month. I'd love to do that. Let's see what happens! I'm sure Mr. SFO will be delighted to see more home decor items coming into the house.

    I fully embraced the Autumn Sampler as my morning stitch again, but it's been hard to get it rolling, too. Lesson-- just do one thing at a time! So here I am, stitching my black cat and broom in the middle of winter. What a nut! Thank you, oh, thank you, for caring about my blog!

     On Flosstube, they are obsessed with showing the backs of things, so here it is...

...and you can see that my back is a lot neater
than my kitchen is right now.

It's all about priorities, people!

And finally, the Aerogarden:

   My dill plant quickly outgrew the little toothpick stake. Mr. SFO loves salmon, so I'll trim it and make little Dill Sauce. And just look at that basil! I think a Spaghetti and Meatballs is in MY future as well!

   Have a patient, slow, and lovely little week!

xox

Carol