Things 2022 Taught Me

It's December 31st, and I'm taking a look back through my camera roll for a trip down 2022's Memory Lane -- here are some lessons learned this past year-- both quilt-y and in real life!

  

January: Keep on keepin' on.

 

     Stitches of the Sea was the block of the month for the ill-fated 2020 year, complete with all its challenges. We ran out of stabilizer and thread as everything shut down, and the Octopus planned for October was a major mental battle to digitize eight legs with dozens of suckers on them. A full two years after beginning, I finally made it to the finishing kit just like I envisioned it so many months before. Lesson learned: Don't stop believing!

 February: Give yourself a head start on a finish.

    This was the month I realized that I had a couple of quilts that were 90% done. All that stood between me and a finish was 28 Ohio stars on this one. Once I made my mind up, I very quickly had my first finish of the year. Lesson learned: You're closer than you think!

 March: Family first.

    These two decided to go on the adventure of a lifetime-- the Appalachian Trail. Supporting them with drop-offs of food was a priority and a time suck. I was more than rewarded with breaks from the sewing room and new inspiration from nature as I got to visit quite a few states and parks.  Lesson learned: All sewing and no play makes for some dull quilts.

April: Try new things.

     This is a Halloween quilt I did on the longarm. Hey!... part of me says I have no business trying to longarm a quilt, but when I saw this photo-- Hey!... It looks pretty good. Lesson learned: No matter how hard a new technique "seems" to be, you'll never know until you try.

May: Little by little, finishes the quilt.

     This block of the month I signed up for finishes out at more than 10,000 pieces-- but divide that by 12 months, and you certainly have something very doable! Tonight, I'm just sewing up the very last seams of this quilt. Lesson learned: Don't overwhelm yourself with the "whole"-- baby steps, people!

June: Focus.

     I finally put the last stitches on this amazing Sandy Orton Autumn Sampler cross stitch almost a year to the day I started it-- my only hand project for the entire year. Yes, I loved and hated working on it, all year! Now that it's over, I realized how much it taught me about sticking with one project at a time. Lesson learned-- I tend to work on more and more until less and less gets finished-- next year, I'm going to work on less and less, to finish more and more! 

July: Evolve.

    This is a pattern from the late 1990s that I absolutely loved! I found it as we packed to move and was surprised how I would have ever considered making this-- my taste and skills have totally changed. I think we're meant to keep moving forward-- do the quilts you make look exactly like the ones you made five years ago? Maybe it's time to try something else. Lesson learned: Grow. 

August: Embrace your past.

   This is a bit of a counterpoint to the previous idea-- but take out those old quilts you made, look them over, and enjoy the lessons they have to teach you. As we packed, I pulled out many old art works, going all the way back to college. Are they all amazing? Far from it, but it is so satisfying and incredibly motivating to see your body of completed work, and how you have grown. Lesson learned: Never forget where you come from!

September: Move on.

     This month, we stepped out of our beautiful Plymouth home for the last time. Despite frantic efforts to find a home or a mover for my mom's piano she purchased in the early 1950s, no such opportunity came through. Our home buyers allowed us to just leave it there in the end, thank goodness. So many memories of this item, and just looking at this photo gives me pangs, so this was one of my toughest lessons this year. Sometimes you can't take it with you. Lesson learned: Get over it.

October: Tomorrow is only a day away.

     At this point, the hikers had been on the trail for 5+ months and almost 1800 miles when we got a call from the DD. Her foot pain was now unbearable, and she couldn't go on. The dream was over. We were happy to pick her up and bring her home to rest, see a podiatrist-- maybe rejoin her partner later. We all agreed she would just stay at a hostel for a couple of nights to make sure it was really over for her. In short, it was not. She felt significantly better on Monday and went on to have one of her best days on the trail, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Lesson learned: Tomorrow's a game changer! 

November: Neatness counts.

     As I am still faced with a dozens of sewing boxes to unpack and a sewing room that still is just stud walls, it strikes me as tragic that I didn't take care of the beautiful room I had in our former home. It was always just a mess! This is an area I am determined to do better with next year. Lesson learned: A quilt isn't finished until all the scraps are put away! 

December: Ask for help when you need it.

     A growing stack of "flimsies" and a longarm that's still not assembled convinced me to send out a couple of quilts for finishing. Does it take away from a finish that every stitch wasn't

of my doing? Absolutely not-- this quilt is gorgeous and will be loved. Lesson learned: Finished is always better.

Hope you have a chance to ponder your 2022 camera roll tonight and think about where you came from, and where you're going... with every ending there is a new beginning, isn't that true?

Happy New Year!

xox

Carol

A Very Merry Christmas to all!

    Two days to go! I'm posting this Christmas greeting early to make sure we can send our best wishes to you-- we are in the cross hairs of winter storm Elliot and are bound to lose power today. Not to mention that I have a whole roomful of Christmas gifts to wrap, and a dinner to plan, and a guest bedroom to prepare!

    Thank you SEW much for your business this past year-- 2022 has been another doozy, hasn't it! We are especially grateful for the huge response to our Christmas sales which very much made up for time lost this year with the move and in caring for my mom. We had also asked everyone to FOLLOW our blog when Winter Twist 1 released, and you can see the benefits of that to the right-- over 400 new followers, and about half also subscribed to emails as well-- THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

    So without further ado, we'd just like to say the entire Winter Twist series will be free until the end of January-- including the finishing kit! Tell your embroidery friends. Block 2 is ready for download-- it's "The Snow Baron!" a gorgeous Snowy Owl looking over Sugar Meadow while the snow falls. The link is below-- you can bookmark the web page to quickly check back for Blocks 3 and 4 in January. We hope Santa brings you a brand new embroidery machine to stitch the owl on!-- or at least that you have a few peaceful moments over the next week for some sewing time.

Read on for some clues about the next block.... 

We had said that all of the creatures in this series will be white, and we had a volunteer! In the meadow yesterday, we had an ERMINE! I had to look it up-- I've honestly never seen one before-- it's also called a STOAT. I don't know which they call it in Maine. 

Sorry for the blurry photo-- the little guy was moving so fast, all I could do was click and hope I caught something! So cute!

This was my best action shot...

This was Mr. SFO's shot... :-)

(Words cannot express how I love that man... standing at the window for twenty minutes trying to take a picture of an ermine with me. I am so blessed. xoxo)

So you can be sure to see an Ermine in Block Three-- if you have an idea for a white winter animal for Block Four, just pop it in below in the comments... unless we get more volunteers in the meadow, I'm not sure what it will be yet.

If you are in this stitch-a-long for more than a free design, please join our private Facebook group for some friendship, to meet fellow stitchers, chat, and post pictures of your blocks! We have had quite a few polar bears last week that are all completely different-- it's fun to see all the different fabrics that were chosen. That is here:

San Francisco Stitch Co. Private Facebook Group

Pick up your FREE Snowy Owl here

So that's a wrap for our 2022 Christmas season...

Thank you so much for joining us in 2022, and we look forward to stitching with you in 2023.

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

xoxo

Carol

7 Days to Go!

Here we are-- Christmas is just a week away!

Things are very hectic here, and always, always a bit behind-- but  just to emphasize the severity of the situation this year, even my advent calendar is behind!

I'm hoping to catch it up tonight. 

(As you can see by the cutting mat, I hide it in my sewing studio.)

     Before we discuss all the projects that aren't coming along, a word of thanks... Our December Deals sales this year have been off the charts-- thank you, thank you all, sew very much! xoxo This is a small family business, and the move this year really affected the number of new sets we were able to produce... you all swooped in and saved our year, literally. Extra thanks for those who took the time to "Follow" this blog-- now that I have over 500 followers, it certainly increases my "social capital" when the time comes to write a book, or design that fabric line. Honestly, I really cannot thank you enough!

So the Winter Twist Finishing Kit will be definitely be free this year and I'm really excited to see how this project develops... some of you commented that this will be your winter project-- again-- food for the creative soul-- it means so much to me to know we will spend the winter together. xox

      I'm still hoping to get Block 2 out this week-- the snowy owl--what a beautiful bird-- did you know it is among the largest of owls? They are a bit terrifying, actually! It's sew fun to do a bit of research for embroidery.

     So here's everything that has not happened this past week-- it's really been two weeks since my last "chatty" post. No progress on A Ribbon Runs Through It, not a stitch. Or Let's Pop Some Corn. I'm hoping to take a couple of entire days next week just to completely assemble both of them. Working little by little has its benefits, but there's a lot to be said for BIG. CHUNKS. OF. TIME. The week between Christmas and New Year's is my favorite week of the year... all the stress of the business and wrapping and food and décor is over, but the cheer remains! Do you have plans for the week after?

Here's another reason less got done-- Mr. SFO had his company Christmas party in Boston-- we got to spend two glorious nights in the city. It was nice to get out of the boonies for a little while. I had two afternoons to myself, and just wandered around.

This is the Seaport area--
big city waterfronts are such a favorite of mine.

This is the Boston Public Garden-- the famous little boat ride goes through this pond. It was very "fallish" looking for December-- in terms of the trees? Raking leaves is a Thanksgiving activity-- not Christmas!

Only in New England-- a lobster carousel. I've always wanted to ride a LOBSTAH! Haven't you? Had to do a selfie for that one.

This is Frog Pond, the famous ice rink. It really wasn't cold enough for it-- they must have some sort of cooling system. Anyway-- this is kind of special-- my DD, the artist in residence, was a figure skater, and we would always go to the Christmas shows here. We always laugh-- because just about every Hallmark movie has a skating rink scene-- did you notice?

And of course, Faneuil Hall-- this is a famous shopping area which seems to have stood the test of time. Back in the day in early Boston, you would go here to buy your food-- butcher, fish monger, baker. Then it was renovated years ago, in the late 1970s.  Back then, Steve's Ice Cream was across the hall from Carol Ann's Bake Shop-- (yes, this is Mr. SFO and my names :-). Then Steve's Ice Cream went under and left Carol Ann all alone for years... I was devastated to see Carol Ann's Bake Shop was out of business now, too. It took me quite a few seconds to get over that, until I found the "Boston Bakery" and bought a blondie.

At night, the decorations really came to life!

So there's a little tour of Boston for you--I was so proud of myself-- I refused to bring a handwork project with me! I am enjoying this Lori Holt applique quilt so much, there was danger I would have spent the entire time in the hotel room, sewing!

    So this did get some attention when we returned-- I finished this block, and I already have my second one pinned up. I'm going in the order that I like them-- I've made the decision to change up some of the colors in the blocks that seem less colorful to me. "You are the boss of your own quilt." That's what Lori says. Good advice. Parallel theory-- "You are the boss of your own life." A discussion for another time.

So that's the update on everything that hasn't happened in two weeks. It is now Monday morning, the last week before Christmas. Time to put on our capes! Wishing you a wonderful week of less stress, more peace.

xox

Carol

Machine Embroidery More Quickly

 It's crunch time! With Christmas a little under two weeks away, this elf could use a little help! Here ten ideas for your consideration to help get those machine embroidered gifts done. I'm interspersing them with a little trip through our Series Two Mug Rugs for eye candy. Let's go!

1. Set yourself up for success

Pick your thread colors and line them up! Thread choice takes time... get all those decisions made up front and just line them all up next to your machine. There's a lot of value in seeing them all play together in one place, as opposed to stopping and picking one at a time. Each time the machine stops, just load the next color. If a color is used more than once, use an empty spool to mark its place. Watch out for thread breaks-- check that each color change is fully finished before automatically loading your next color.

2. Check your bobbin in the beginning

Do you have enough thread for the entire project? If not, take any partially used spools out and save them for a smaller stitch out. Yes, your machine is supposed to warn you when your bobbin is low, but we've all been in this situation, where the machine just runs on without it, and you have pre-punched fabric, a mess to pull out, as well as spending time trying to go back to where the bobbin left out. (Did you know...? when your bobbin alert is not working, it's a sure sign you need to clean lint out of the bobbin area.) 

3. Winding it up!

Wind extra bobbins on another sewing machine while you stitch. (I've never used my embroidery machine bobbin winder-- it would take too much time away from stitching!) Using pre-wounds? They're a big time saver. 

4. Multi-task

Now that you're up and running, work on other parts of your project while the design is running. Need a border for your design? Select fabric and trim it while you're waiting. Have more embroidery to do? Prepare stabilizer. That being said...

5. LISTEN!

When your embroidery machine stops, you need to load the next thread change right away! It's easy to get so engrossed in other projects while you are stitching, that all of the sudden an hour has passed and you've totally forgotten you were embroidering! Keep that machine humming along!

6. Lessons from the tortoise

Did you learn yet that slow and steady wins the race? This next tip is totally counter-intuitive, but slowing your machine down can help you finish faster. How? Well, if you are struggling with frequent thread breaks, the answer is obvious. Plus, there's no bigger joy killer than a machine that needs to be re-threaded every two minutes. Not having fun? That is sure to slow you down... perhaps you'll never finish if the process becomes too painful.

7. More counter- intuition...

Does your machine trim jump stitches? Here's a bit of solace for those of you who don't have this feature. TURN IT OFF. If you've ever listened to your machine slowing down, stopping, trimming, and returning to fully speed, did you realize how much time it was taking to do that? In some cases, it is much faster to just take the hoop off at the end of a color change, snip your jumps, and return the hoop. True confessions-- when I'm on deadline, I never use the jump trim feature. It's also very comforting to know there are some things humans may still do more efficiently than a robot!

8. No picky, picky!!

As a machine embroiderer, I laugh when quilters complain about having to pick something out. What does it take? Twenty three stitches to pick out that wrongly placed patch? How about leaving the room for 90 seconds with a machine going 1,100 stitches a minute when things suddenly go awry? 

Yes, curse the gods-- but you have to make some quick decisions. Have a huge bird nest? I've quickly hacked it off the back with a craft knife, added a patch of stabilizer to reinforce the back and started the area over. Have a really, really huge birdnest?-- quickly get over it-- and just start over. Made a bad color choice? Did you know you have one chance to just pick a new color and stitch the color change out again, right over the other color? Or live with it. Will it bother you a month from now? Most likely not. Get the point? There's no picking out machine embroidery. Get over it. Move on.

9. Just do it!

If you have two hours, sew for two hours. If you have ten minutes, sew for ten minutes. Progress is progress. I learned during a power out, that my machine returns right to the very stitch when it is powered on again. This makes it very simple to start and stop and restart later. Especially if your thread is all laid out as we discussed earlier.  Another lesson from the tortoise-- little by little wins the race!

9. An embroiderer's got to know their limitations...

A final tip from Clint Eastwood's lips in "Magnum Force." I think we all gradually get to that point in the day when it's over-- usually we become all thumbs, two steps are forward, three back. Stop and take a break. This is great advice for the end of the day, but also for the end of the Christmas season as well. Do a gut check-- is the chance to finish something over? Maybe some family members won't mind a "raincheck" on their gift-- maybe they'd rather enjoy your company, happy and well rested instead of stressed and tired,  this holiday season. There's always a birthday or another occasion to finish up for-- it's okay!

So there are a few ideas for you about how to "git 'er done" with the embroidery machine. Maybe some will work for you, maybe not. Spend some time thinking about your own process and how to streamline it-- that may be the most productive embroidery time you spend of all! I think at this time of year we all have high hopes for next year-- follow our blog or sign up for email reminders above-- it's gonna be our best yet!

xox

Carol

Welcome to Winter Twist!

      It's the day we've all been waiting for! Please read the following important instructions to join our FREE Winter Twist stitch-a-long!

   Winter Twist is the last of our seasonal wall hanging series-- Spring, Summer, and Autumn are already finished. (Click the links at the end of this post if you're new and would like to see the other three-- they are 50% off!) 

     Winter Twist will be in the exact same format-- we'll be releasing four free blocks randomly over the course of December and January. Then there will be a finishing kit with borders and instructions on how to stitch your project together as always.

     This year, instead of charging for the finishing kit, we're asking you to help with our social media presence-- support us without spending a dime! For this week, we're asking you to click the blue FOLLOW button located on the right-- 

   You are NOT signing up for emails at all-- it is just a number that helps us shows how many people are interested in our blog and increases our social media profile. You might be surprised to know we have up to 2,000 readers-- our number of Followers and comments does not reflect that at all.  We're not setting a goal-- it stands at 123 this morning-- see if you can change that-- it helps the algorithms more than you know, and we'd love to do a free finishing kit this year! 

     Of course, a special thanks to our 123 original followers! If you would like to be notified of new posts, enter your email above. Or just bookmark this page and check back occasionally. The blog is full of sewing inspiration, quilt kits, tips, cross stitch, machine embroidery and reflections on our new life and studio in Sugar Meadow, in the foothills of the Western Maine mountains. We've come a long way from San Francisco!-- we'd love to hear from you as well.

     That's all we have to say about that! We all want to get stitching. So here's just a couple quick facts about our FREE stitch-a-long you'll want to know:

     The four blocks will release at random, but they will be free for an entire week. So if you just pick a day to check the website, say Monday, over the course of the next couple of months you won't miss anything. If you want to make sure not to miss one-- just join our mailing list at the bottom right of the website homepage. Or check this blog. After the free week is over, the design will be for sale on the website for $1.99.

     Pick a medium or darker color fabric for your background-- all of our creatures will be WHITE and won't show up on light fabrics. We chose a medium grunge gray. Blues, purples, pinks, or any neutral would also make good backgrounds.  You'll need four squares of 8" x 8" for the four blocks. Don't worry about sashing fabric for now. Trim your blocks to 6" x 6" and tear or cutaway extra stabilizer when finished.

     Post your blocks on our Facebook group or Instagram with the hashtag #wintertwistblock and we'll find you and cheer you on! Ask any questions here with a comment.

    Without further ado-- the King of the Ice!

Click HERE
to go to the download page-- and be sure to tell your machine embroidery friends where the winter fun is-- send them to this blog page to get started!

Thank you all, for joining us this year.

xox

Carol

Click here to view SPRING TWIST

Click here to view SUMMER TWIST

Click here to view AUTUMN TWIST

 

Things are getting serious around here!

      The Ribbon Runs Through It quilt is edging closer and closer to a finish! I remember how disgusted I was with myself when I finally succumbed to signing up. So many pieces made of fabric I didn't really like and colors that aren't my favorites. But there it was, hanging in a quilt shop, jeering, "Bet you can't make me!"

      I am so glad I did-- it is an eye popper, and proves that leaving your own box can be a satisfying experience.

       I have all the pieces made, but sewing together long rows and then stitching long rows together is my least favorite part of quilting. At one point, I was sewing end to end repeatedly, until I realized I made a circle. Nice Christmas sashing, huh!

     I'm trying to think of it now as an extra large block of 136 pieces-- that's all it is, right? Except a little longer seam on each piece than a 12" block. So I got the sashing strips all together with help from kitty-- now it's time to get my 12" blocks out and sew those rows. I am determined to finish by Christmas. I think this is the first BOM I've ever finished in a calendar year-- if I can, so can you!

     No progress on the corn table runner this week-- I bought extra backing fabric on Etsy, and it came in a completely ridiculous fast time, but I'm in the Christmas spirit now! I'm also promising myself to finish it and the two pillows by the end of the year. The week between Christmas and New Year is one of my favorites, for sewing.

    I am LOVING hand stitching the Lori Holt Prairie Meadow block. I haven't done any applique in quite some time. Initially, I wasn't too fond of the Prairie background prints. I was skeptical. Let's just say it-- they reminded me of hospital johnnies! 

    Now that I see the thing put together, I'm over the moon with it. I stitched about halfway 'round this week in my initial enthusiasm. I'm hoping to get one of these done every three weeks which is realistic. Finished by the end of July? Let's see what happens!

     For the business, I'm edging closer and closer to my first hand cross stitch release. 

     In studying the way other people photograph their finished cross stitch, some of it just seems WAY over decorated to me-- the focus needs to be on the piece, for heaven's sake! Maybe I'm just jealous-- none of my Christmas craft stuff has appeared out of the boxes yet, so I'm extremely limited in the decorating I can do right now. My family keeps reminding me-- just go outside and grab a pine branch! We do live in the woods! And I do think the above piece needs it. 

     This is the Etsy shop--

     My DD designed it... she is really knocking things out of the park since she got home from the Appalachian Trail.  Totally inspired. Remind me to show you some of her mountain drawings-- all done in Adobe Illustrator.  And here is the cross stitch PDF--

     I'm really happy with it, just not sure what goes on the back page yet. I put the color key on the inside next to the chart where it should be-- do I repeat the colors on the back so you can see what colors you need? Copyright info? Social media links? That's all that's really standing between me and getting six of these uploaded. They are based on the Kris Kringle's Carols stitch-a-long we did a couple of years ago, but with less backstitch... a lot less backstitch! Hoping to have my first six up this week.

     Winter Twist-- well, speaking of free stitch-a-longs, I wanted it out last weekend! Thanks for your patience-- the dreaded SWIRLS need to be drawn. Oh, do you know how hard it is to draw nice swirls? Ready for Tuesday, maybe? I will be advertising this all over the place, and it will be free for a week, so there's no chance you'll miss it.

     Christmas Redwork-- this I'd like to have done this year-- six are almost there. Everything always takes longer than you think-- a lot longer! All twelve of my Christmas Album designs are being reduced to one color, made bigger, and then a stitching path has to be created to minimize jump stitches. This process is somewhat like a 10,000 piece puzzle, and has taken hours for each one. The results are well worth it-- they absolutely sparkle-- and NO color changes!

     So here I am, very happy with what I was able to finish last week, and looking forward to this week, making all the things. It's amazing what can be done if you just sit down to something, a little each day. I hope you have a great week, making all YOUR things.

xoxo

Carol