A History of BOMs at SFO Part One...

      I'm a hardcore nostalgia lover-- circling through all the sales in December certainly brought back years of memories! I have been doing "designs of the month" since 2013-- I guess we just missed my tenth anniversary year! Anyway, we are going to go through all ten of them (and there's even more, that weren't "official" :-) on the sale page this year-- the first of every month, each "January," "February," and so on block will be discounted-- so if you missed one, you can catch up this year-- or maybe complete your set of a past stitch-a-long-- it's a given that people drop off as the year progresses! So I thought a "guide" to what the Block of the Months are and how they developed would be fun to write.

      So this all started eleven years ago, when January rolled around and I asked for suggestions about what people wanted to stitch. One person responded simply "Mug Rugs!" I wish I could go back in time and find and give that genius a hug-- that's where it all started. 

     I had no idea what a mug rug was-- I didn't use one, still don't-- I display mine! But I figured it out and behold! a 5x7 hoop was perfect-- that's what most of us had then-- and made this little beauty for January.

Some combination of the day it was introduced, the fact that we had just completed a free stitch-a-long, and  providence- well, let me just say I uploaded it at night and when I got up in the morning, to see the sales figures, my eyes popped out of my head! I'd have to say, this was definitely the moment when I saw I was going to be able to quit my day job--- I had real business!

Of course, it then became a monthly project. In my folders, they are filed as simply January Mug Rug, February Mug Rug and so on. I had no clue that I would continue into a second year, then ten years, or that these would now be known as "Series One Mug Rugs."

SERIES ONE MUG RUGS

I still love them and have most of them- except for the lily pads, which quickly absorbed water and then sank into Triangle Pond near my house as I snapped a glamour shot-- it was either the mug rug or the camera that could be saved, that afternoon. 

I couldn't make another one-- no more of that glorious batik fabric-- and I sometimes do wonder if I made the right choice that day. The camera was replaceable-- I should have respected my artwork more than I did!

A couple of these I went on to embellish and turn into little art pieces. No, no cups of coffee on mine.

This one even won a ribbon at the Bayberry Quilter's of Cape Cod annual show:

And, you've probably seen the Featherweight Mug Rug, formerly known as the December Mug Rug, gets updated every year with a new date. To shake it up next year, I might do one with a more modern machine?

There's a story behind all of them, but let's move on-- now that my hobby business was flourishing, could Series Two be far behind? 

SERIES TWO MUG RUGS

All of the mug rugs were quilted in the hoop, but they were hand-bound. Now I know you machine embroiderers love your ITH projects, but really, there's nothing more beautiful than a fabric binding. (To advance my cause, I have a tutorial on how to do it on YouTube-- my skills were certainly perfected doing these mug rugs each month!) Anyway, somehow, part of the way through Series Two, I realized the satin stitch I was using as a design element could also be a finished edge. So by the time the "Peace" mug rug rolled around, there were two versions. And I am sorry to say, the all-in-the-hoop satin stitched edging is still far outperforming the hand bound version. But I won't judge you. xox

The time to fully finish these into art pieces evaporated with the burgeoning business model-- but I still love them all-- the July Mug Rug really speaks to my heart-- I even sketched it out as a 30" x 40" wall quilt, but have gotten no further. It will have to wait until I retire, and if I keep having this much fun with new designs, that will be never.

SERIES THREE- Baltimore Album Blocks

Heck with mug rugs- I was over it. I guess I saw that you could make them square, combine blocks, and make a quilt! The machine embroidered Baltimore Album quilt was born. I did it all for this series-- mug rugs, ITH, hand bound, quilt blocks and I was rewarded! It took a year to design the blocks, and then another few good months to set them with machine embroidered sashing and outer borders, but I won a Second Place Overall ribbon at one of the big AQS Paducah shows!

A fancy machine embroidered label for the back, of course!

(It is made with a Series Two mug rug design-- lol)

The sashing and borders:

All crystalled and ready for the show!

If you are crazy enough to want to make this, I'm sorry, you can't! The outer borders are not available for purchase-- you have no idea of the gnashing of teeth required to get them aligned-- resizing 1/2 percent, rotating 3 percent, etc. etc.

I sent it in for the show, hoping for maybe a third prize-- it is well know if you get a top prize, you get a call. I was driving at the time-- I glanced down and saw "PADUCAH, KY displayed on my phone while it rang-- I almost crashed the car! By the time I pulled over, all that was left was a message. But it was extremely gratifying to say the least-- most of all, because I think machine embroidery did not get the respect that other quilting techniques do, and I think I helped change that.

SERIES FOUR-- The Language of Flowers

Because the blocks I enjoyed most on the Baltimore quilt were flower baskets, a flower series was inevitable. I digitized from January's crocuses (that's a bit optimistic for Maine weather-- heehee) to December's crocuses. (Also a bit optimistic-- our daffodils appear in April, to be truthful.) 

So this is obviously photoshopped-- the center of the quilt exists as a fully bound finished item, (somewhere) and the outside borders are stitched (somewhere) and even the machine embroidered edging was started, and it is (somewhere.) This is a project that has just had too many interruptions for five years now, and currently, after the move, I could not really even put my hands on it. I do feel sad about this, but in my mind, I still think I will get back to it a future date-- don't we all have these precious things lurking in our closets? Then there is that gnawing feeling that our sewing days are finite. So that's all I have to say about that-- we all have these feelings, and we do all need to get our beloved projects out and we need complete them-- a New Year is a great time to plan this, isn't it?

SERIES FIVE-- The Cloud Club

On to Series Five-- just because I love birds! I got my confidence up with the realism of the flowers and decided to tackle it. I quilted little scenes in the backgrounds this time:

Everyone LOVED this series-- it actually spilled into overtime with an additional five birds-- eighteen in all.

And, the exquisite "Feather Block"-- some of my work is definitely more commercial, and some is more artistic-- but this is, in my mind, my "masterwork" design that I have ever produced in twenty years of doing this:

But, I am definitely looking at the Cloud Club with pangs-- it is not even as far along as the Flower piece, and exists as separate blocks in a box somewhere-- another photoshopped finish. I've seen many finished quilts with ribbons-- you, my customers are killing it! This year?

SERIES SIX:  Cross Stitch of the Month

So the birds spilled into a second year-- not much was ever really reaching the finished stage-- it was time for something a little easier. This was the year I knuckled down and learned a new software. Cross stitch is comparatively easy to design next to a Cloud Club bird! Off I went.

The pressure on machine embroidery prices is down, down, down-- have you noticed? And the popularity of cross stitch is up, up, up-- and these types of designs have really kept me open for business the past few years. They are basically "pixel" art-- easy to sketch, easy to digitize, and you can pretty much get them to work in one stitch out-- a Cloud Club bird can easily be three or four tries.

So there were the original monthly designs the first year, and then I went on to make the holiday "specials." There are 11 of those now, and as soon as I figure out what #12 is.. Happy Anniversary? I will offer them as a set as well. "Series 5-1/2!"

I have this photo in my files, "Marie" sent it to me-- that's all I know of Marie. Proof that mug rugs and quilt blocks are cousins! Marie-- if you are out there-- I'd love a better picture-- you are a scrap quilt GENIUS and I absolutely love what you did!

So, none of the quilts are coming along in my studio-- but yours are! So that brings me to my most favorite time of year... State Fair time-- at the end of every summer-- you send me pictures of YOUR finishes-- most of which always have ribbons. So I can lament my unfinished work, but it does not compare with seeing what YOU do with the designs-- it is honestly the best part of being here. 

So that's the first five years of Block of the Month-- I feel like I have tooted my horn too much in this post, but I hope I have inspired you to some finishing. Come back this weekend to see the last five, and find out about plans for 2024!

xox

Carol