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