These times they are a changin'...

      After having a full house for the week, my gypsies have left for the trail and Mr. SFO is at another conference in Vegas. I should have gone with him again, but someone had to be here to wish the gypsies a fond farewell. So I've had a few quiet days to myself.  

    Here are the Gypsies leaving-- it took about 20 minutes to say goodbye, as everything now has to be made into a video. In the opening scene, the actors climb into the SUV, the car drives over the GoPro, barely clearing it, and then goes around the circle. Then the distraught mom runs down the driveway, waving. (I cleverly wrote myself into the script.) It will take about a week to get that up on YouTube, but don't miss it... the adventure begins!

     We had a little party for them-- it is next to impossible to get my family to all agree on a time to come over-- does anyone else have this problem? So I ended up with people popping in and out all day-- I was tired after it. Here are the gypsies with their homemade cake:

     I think I have been watching too much British Baking Show-- but my "Showstopper" would have been a winner! The entire Appalachian Trail is rendered in sugar, complete with snow peaks, evergreens, and boulders.

      I am going to buy Chocolate melts in all colors the next time I visit Michaels-- it was so fun to pipe out those evergreen trees-- I highly recommend the technique. It's also fun to visit the candy aisle at the grocery store-- I came up with Whoppers and chocolate chunks for the boulders, crushed Oreos for the trail, and sprinkles for my snow capped peak. We even have our Gypsies as sour patch kids with Reese's piece backpacks.

       Every moment in life is better with baking, but is not complete without a bit of machine embroidery. So I made them each a GYPSY TRAILS patch for their back packs. If you happen to go on a little walk on the Appalachian Trail this summer and see these patches-- by all means, say HELLO!

   So that was the send off-- it did get a bit emotional. It's not that easy to shut down your entire life for five or six months. I have no doubt they will make it-- 2200 miles-- we are a very determined bunch of people. Every characteristic has a good and bad aspect though. So yes, determination is good, but what if they end up not enjoying it? Will they hang on for week after week, wet and cold, miserable? We have watched other hikers on YouTube who are a few weeks ahead on the trail, and one thing I have quietly noted is how tired they all look. So more than anything, I just want them to have a good experience. This DNA does not come from me.

     Here is Mr. SFO at his conference-- I would have loved to join him again, but someone had to be here to see the gypsies off. He's the one on the left.

    Alone at the house is always a concept that sounds better than it really is. I made a list of ME things to do after my busy week-- my St. Patrick's table runner and pillow, my A Ribbon Runs Through It blocks. My flower quilt. My longarm. So some of it happened, but most not. The house is in serious need of restoring order and the dreaded taxes are looming-- why, oh why couldn't one of us be a dental hygienist or office worker with a simple W-2! We're all a bunch of artists with boxes full of receipts. So this post is a bit light on sewing-- be warned.

   I did finish Month 2's installment of four blocks for A Ribbon Runs Through It. One block a week has been just right for me. And I just got my notice that Month 3 has shipped-- perfect! I am halfway through these blocks, but then there's more setting blocks and also the ribbons that run through it. I get my Fat Quarter Shop deliveries in two days-- not sure how this is possible. But the supply chain issues still seem to drag on. This project has been a nice constant through all the upheaval right now.

Then, I finally loaded something to the longarm-- my Bats N Boos table topper! Do you think I will have it by Halloween-- heehee!

     I probably have between 20-25 table runners and 4 or 5 quilts just waiting to be quilted-- let's get busy!  I promised myself I am not going to worry about "ruining" anything-- just accept and enjoy the results. I'm keeping it simple. 

 

          So one thing I learned is to use a blend-y thread and a very busy backing-- apparently it works! You would not even know this piece is quilted on the back, let alone see "mistakes."

   I'm going to try to have something on the longarm at all times over the spring and summer. I really enjoy doing it-- an hour a day would definitely get me far.

     So that's it, that's all I have to say for myself. A season of my life has ended-- the nest has emptied again and I do not believe the artist-in-residence will be in residence for long after she returns. I'm trying to see it as a fresh start. I am really looking forward to my spring and summer on the pond here... getting out to my garden-- taking early morning walks on the Cape Cod canal, making great works of art on my embroidery machine. But just like this week, plans have a way of escaping me. I guess I will just take a day at a time for now. 

xoxo

Carol

Losing heart a bit...

    Happy Spring and believe me, it couldn't come fast enough! In addition to the world being in flames, the situation on the SFO ranch is not much better. So life has definitely gotten in the way of sewing, but after two weeks of not posting, I hope I have enough progress to share.

     Can't get enough of me? I did get another YouTube video up with this free Lucky Spot Placemat design-- don't miss out, even if you have to fast forward through my slow drawl of instructions. 

     I have now finally mastered the sound track lessons of video production-- music, cutting out the words, UM and LIKE and SO, which comprise a bigger part of my vocabulary than I realized. And not a moment too soon-- I am losing my gypsies in less than a week!

   This is one of the things that is making me really sad, but I'm trying to remember if COVID had not intervened, the artist-in-residence would never have come home, never discovered that she loved the mountain, and never found the great love of her life. 

     So off they go to walk from Georgia to Maine. You can always count on me for overthinking, and in my heart I know they will come back completely different people than when they left. 

    So you all gave them their start on YouTube-- "GYPSY TRAILS." And thanks to YOU-- you gave them over 1,000 subscribers on their channel throughout the course of the Christmas stitch-a-long.  But now they have over 2,000 subscriber and WAY MORE watch hours than me-- heehee. So there's some catching up to do. If you want to start watching the hike, check their channel in about two weeks. It's as good as reality TV gets! I'm also watching a channel called "Jay Wanders Out" and he's a couple of months ahead of them. It's fun to just let YouTube videos roll while you sew, even when the embroidery machine is running at full tilt!

    To console myself in the past couple of week, I took a virtual trip to Hawaii:

via Kentucky and Oklahoma...

and I am currently in Mississippi, so the next set of Carefree Highways designs (#9!) will make an appearance soon and then there are only five to go! This is a quilt I hope to have completed early summer- instead of dib-dabbling it along, I'm going to spend entire days with assembly until it's finished. Thank goodness I wrote instructions a few months ago that I can now follow, since I don't have a clue what I was doing on this and right now it's pretty much a box of untrimmed embroideries--LOL!

I have been able to keep up with "A Ribbon Runs Through It" and almost have my next installment of four blocks done. The next installment shows no signs of shipping, and I think the Fat Quarter Shop has pretty much given up on updates for now.

Block #7 is almost done-- they are all colored differently and this one was not one of my favorites-- too much pink, and not very colorful. I caught myself thinking about how it could be improved with a little of the green or purple. God help me if I try to think up my own colorations! This is supposed to be my "mindless" activity.

The St. Patrick's table runner fell by the wayside and has ended up in the dreaded ziploc. Mr. SFO is out of town next week, and my gypsies will be on the trail, so I may take a day of sewing and try to catch a few things up. I still want to make this, and as we say-- I'm now a year ahead of schedule.

The April Birth Month mug rug is out in time for those April 1st birthdays! These have really been fun to digitize, AND a commercial success-- those two things don't always go hand in hand, so I am grateful.

I've been cutting the squares for the quilt block as I go along, but FEB-MAR-APR- still need to be assembled. So I may just make a list of an all sewing day for early next week.

Morning sewing is fully rolling again! Can I finish this by it's anniversary of when I started in late June? I believe I can. So the Halloween corner is finished and just needs a bunch of backstitching. I notice all these new designer eschew backstitching-- I've always found it easy to do-- mostly you are just outlining shapes and you don't even have to refer to a chart.

Look at the difference just a couple of hours of backstitch made in this banner area!

Backstitch was made for typography, but look how even the pumpkin is crisp and brought to life.

So now comes the saddest part-- there's always a question of how much personal information you want to put out there, but this is really my diary, too, and I want to write about my life. I'm sure only my best online buddies will make it this far anyway.

My mom is 89, and just a couple of weeks ago she said
(in the dry sense of humor we all share):

 "I am feeling so good lately-- I'm probably full of cancer."

So this week, we were in the ER for a sharp hip pain, which we assumed was just a muscle strain, and that is not what it turned out to be as you can probably guess. We will know more tomorrow.

I have recently been thinking of the old hymn:

"Through many toils, trials, and snares,

I have already come.

'Twas grace that brought me safe thus far,

and grace will lead me home."

Just hoping we can all make it through this with
grace, strength, and dignity. We've all gotten this far-- we can get a little further.

xox

Carol

Distractions...

“If I must choose between Despair and Energy-- I choose the latter.” ― John Keats

So this week has been a struggle for me, but I am trying to choose action over hiding under a rock. It does no good to the people of my little world if I'm not present. I really appreciated the prattle of my favorite YouTube sewists, even though I did wonder frequently if they would mention "the thing." So here's my current action list-- and I sincerely hope it makes a little distraction for you.

AQS Daytona-- I'm still hoping to sort through my photos and post some of my favorite non-winners when I can. AQS always posts the winners. The show was notable for being the first in-person one for AQS in two years-- and the quality of work was stunning.

If YOU didn't produce a quantity of stunning work over the pandemic, no worries-- I did notice a few quilts from my favorite artists that were from the 2019 MQX show here in the Northeast? Oldies, but goodies, to be sure, but is it because they also suffered a dry spell? Also of note-- machine embroidery is a trend-- YAY!-- but not one I saw in the winner's circle-- oh, how I would love to change that.

For now, I just give you this photo-- the weather was as warm the quilts for me, coming out of this snowy winter. My room looked straight over to France. It was glorious.

Back at home, I did release the Lucky ABCs which was ready before I left. This is my sleeper series of monthly cross stitch designs-- I love a word puzzle, and they've been really fun to think up. I know they have a few diehard fans out there-- it's good enough for me.

I really want to make some of them into a larger project like a pillow or a table runner-- my mug rug drawing in the kitchen is completely stuffed.

And, if you notice trends, a quilt design can be made into a cross stitch design as we've watched Lori Holt's Vintage Farm Girl blocks slowly turn into "Stitch Cards." But did you know a cross stitch design can also become a quilt? I sketched out these tiny shamrocks in the above design...

...and I realized the design would make an adorable 3" quilt block to add to my cross stitch for a little March pillow. They came out great!

Unfortunately, I thought I was making them in the same fabric as the embroidery-- OOPS! Once I unhooped, I saw my mistake. (San Francisco Stitch Co. is a business founded upon a pile of mishaps, in case you wondered.) So the pillow idea was abandoned-- what, remake them in the right fabric? Never.

Then I decided to make a all-pieced, no embroidery table runner. Writing more quilt patterns is something I've been considering for a long time-- I'm also considering turning my cross stitch designs into hand cross stitch patterns, since the number of refunds I've had to make to people who thought they were buying a chart is growing. I'd love to hear your opinion on this-- should I expand from machine embroidery? Quilt patterns? Cross Stitch charts?

But anyway, here is my table runner sketch-- the little squares are the shamrock blocks pointing this way and that, and it will be shaped as an oval. Many of the quilt patterns I'm seeing lately have a "sameness" about them-- lots of stars, etc. etc. and I think this is a little different and MIGHT sell well, but honestly I have no idea. And then there's the undisputable fact that the center would be PERFECT for an embroidered shamrock design-- that's what that sketchy cloud in the middle is- heehee. So I'm back where I started-- digitizing! I really want to make this, but I also really need to get moving for a timely release-- let's see what happens. At the same time, we are of Irish heritage-- so it's always St. Patrick's Day here.

Here's just another example of a tiny cross stitch reindeer I took off my "Merry Christmas" mug rug-- wouldn't that make a fabulous big quilt! But this sketch has been sitting around for more than a year now, so we may never know! If only I could keep up with my imagination.

The second installment of A Ribbon Runs Through It arrived-- sew happy to get this-- it's extremely relaxing to work on. Now I have five blocks. If I make one a week, I'm keeping up. They seem to be taking longer and longer, and my friend who is doing it with me may quit. I keep trying to figure out the number of pieces in these blocks, but I can't count that high. For now, I'm committed.

I have no doubt this is going to be a gorgeous quilt-- one that is totally out of my bandwidth, too. My father-in-law was a Civil War buff, and I have mused through the hours how I would have loved to  gift him this beauty. Don't postpone those gift quilts! 

I'm stitching around the edges as I finish each one so the seams don't split and it also occurred to me to number them as they all look kind of similar. I'm not changing the layout on this at all-- it's a KIT and exists solely for relaxing my overactive brain!

Then my friend Laurel sent me this email from Brother-- she said at first she looked with indignation that they STOLE my design, but then realized they were featuring it! I so love getting your emails and this really made my day. So the person who made it didn't quite make my fully fleshed version-- it's more of a pineapple block and I love it. Seeing your projects is my best medicine, I cannot say that enough!

And here's the last photo of the blog-- someone stuck these into my mailbox. The artist-in-residence brought them upstairs and said, "At least one person in the neighborhood likes you."

Oh, how I am going to miss that dry humor when my gypsy leaves for the Appalachian trail in less than a month from now!

Hoping you can have some peace and some sewing today, and learn to exist in this world that simultaneously showers sunshine in one place, and darkness in another. 

xoxo

Carol

Sunflowers for Ukraine

 I'm safely back from Daytona AQS,
and had hoped I could happily chat away about quilts...

instead I have no words. 

I'm taking a break from social media for awhile.

Our Sunflower design is currently free in honor of the brave people of Ukraine.

Praying and watching.