Merry Christmas!

     It is Christmas Eve morning-- I have my fabulous and cute customer thank you email all designed and scheduled-- the Chris-Mystery Ornament #4 is done-- just a little customer service and my job responsibilities are ended. But I really wanted to reach out to my blog friends with a little longer end-of-the year greeting-- love you guys!

     The Chris-Mystery series of four ornaments is complete! The annual stitch-a-long this month was definitely an afterthought this year. I was almost going to skip it, until a few people asked. I can’t do an all FREE stitch along anymore- yes, they create more customers as you would think-- they are a giant following of FREE people! And don't get me wrong-- that's fine, except when you have to pay bills. Shout out to a select few non-customers who were willing to do the unthinkable and pay $1.99 for the Christmas-Mystery this year! You are AWESOME!

     We had a bit of glitch as you may have seen-- we lost power for three days last week! (we are fine). A tremendous rain storm came up the coast. So it rained on top of the snow we already had- everything melted and ran off the mountains in one big whoosh. 

    When you picture Maine, picture those rocky rivers with men in waders fly fishing, water bubbling happily away. I wish I had been able to capture the pure, evil rage they turned into-- a ghastly olive colored water reaching for the sky, and spraying and spilling over the banks. We foolishly tried to go to the post office the next day. We witnessed flooded farm fields, roads undercut by the water and caved in, missing decks from houses, and cars full of pine needles swept and left in the middle of the road. It was apocalyptic to be sure. We had to turn back.

    I remember in California when there were mud slides--- the news people would always say, “This is in an area of million dollar homes,” to emphasize how tragic the situation was. But I’m sure those million dollar home owners had plenty of resources to help them. How much more tragic it was to see people who have very little to begin with then lose everything. 

     It really reset my flagging Christmas spirit to see everyone come together. It hasn't been a great year personally-- things happened that shouldn't have happened, and things that should have happened, didn't. The unthinkable even happened. This sign has become a bit of a running joke in this establishment-- at least we can still laugh.

It will just be four of us this year with a small meal-- I’m grateful.

    And now for the sewing news-- the sew jo has returned, but the time has evaporated. Never fear-- the week between Christmas and New Years is one of my favorites.  December 26th through Jan 1st-- all is finally calm and bright. All the stress of gift giving and meal making is over and everyone is on vacation. I'm really hoping to get a little down time, a little of sewing time, and at most just come up with a general direction for next year's designs.

    

    My goals for the past year were monthly and seemed to revolve around the Sew Sampler box subscriptions-- I think I crushed it, although there’s still plenty to finish up! This worked well for me-- I still don’t have a dedicated office and most of my unfinished work is still in boxes, patiently waiting-- it was perfectly acceptable to buy new fabric and start new projects. So here's what I have done in the past couple of weeks:

   I was hoping to have my Alfresco quilt done the first half of December, and the Christmas “Jolly Box” done the second half-- not even close, but I did make progress. Maybe one of the animals on Tula Pink’s Besties fabric should have been a sloth. The four large stars are done. I had a little unforced error, as we say in the quilting big leagues, that I’m making work for me-- do you see it? In my defense, it was incredibly hard to cut a cute animal face in half-- I cringed every time-- this may be why people who don't like Tula Pink fabrics don't like her fabrics.

     For the Jolly box, I have seen pictures on Facebook of the candy quilt finished with the provided pattern-- it is cute, but I am offended by the candy canes without stripes on them. 

     And the prints are all large scale-- so I thought one of those quilts made of gift boxes would be perfect for the fabrics. I have all my fabric prewashed and an unintelligible sketch. 

     I also balked at the navy blue background and came to the conclusion that the dreaded PINK is the perfect color for the fabric. I made the pink less objectionable by choosing a grunge-- I'm still not quite succeeding at liking the color.  I do have a really deserving friend who loves pink-- the idea of gifting it to her next year really makes me smile. Hoping to dig into it next week. I might go to an open sewing class at my LQS for dedicate time? Maybe 2024 is high time to get out there and show myself.

    The last box of the challenge has been revealed and is on it’s way-- The December box. So the way they work is that they come really late in the month, I’m giving myself till January 31st to finish all the 2023 boxes. The fabric line for December is okay, (yay! more pink!)  and the pattern is fine, so I’m doing something really different this time and making it the way it’s supposed to be! I even ordered the finishing kit from Fat Quarter Shop -- should be fun to not have to think (read: overthink) for a change. Fat Quarter Shop photo again:

   The box this month is CHOCK full of good stuff-- a ruler, a generous amount of fabric, notions-- I was thinking of stopping my membership next year. I don’t really intend to continue making something from every box next year. I'd rather pick things myself. But I think I will just continue on at least until April. I’m only going to make the ones which have fabric I really love-- the rest, I am going to quickly sell on the Sew Sampler Swap page instead of filling shelves. Don’t want those teal boxes collecting again! I am in the middle of the BOM, which ends in April-- and I've kept up! 

     In a weak moment, I also signed up for the Fig Tree Quilts quarterly box-- they’re more expensive, but Joanna Figueroa is popular, so if I don’t get something I love, I’m going to just list it on eBay. I do enjoy a subscription box.

    Did you see my funny meme on the San Francisco Stitch Co, page? I took my own advice-- twice! I bought the Kona calendar and the super expensive set of 12 charm packs to go with it from Fat Quarter Shop (their photo). The calendars are sold out-- you have to Google them at this point. 

    Then, I also had my eye on this cutest ever Tilda Christmas quilt for months. Would you believe the pattern is free-- but she can do that, because her fabrics are so cute, so it's hard to imagine this quilt made from my stale stash. 

    When in the world will I ever have time to make all these things? In 2024 I’m trying for one finished quilting a quarter-- just have to figure out which ones. I'm toying with the idea of finishing two, allowing myself to buy one. But I really need to stop adding to my quilt kit collection. Someone is going to have a field day at my estate sale in a future year.

    My silly Christmas crafts came along-- again, one of the designs should have been a sloth! I started with the heart ornament, and this is about three hours in:

    If that seems like a waste of time, consider that I also completed one and a half Hallmark Christmas movies while stitching it.

    My folded star garland is just about there-- I'm planning to have it at the absolute last minute. Think of me at precisely 11:59 tonight-- I will be standing on a chair in the kitchen hanging it. I just have to string these beads:

     You should have seen me trying to thread the bakery string through the beads-- but by the time I finished the last one, I could do everything perfectly. I never got back to my hot pads-- next year!

     So that's how everything stands at the end of 2023. Charles Dickens, for the Christmas win: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way." 

     Wishing you a Merry Little Christmas,
whatever your circumstance is this year.

xox

Carol