A History of our BOMs Part 2

      Good news... We didn't miss our tenth anniversary of BOMs as I thought! (Not to be confused with the company anniversary-- we are 21 years old this year-- started on eBay in 2003!) One of my long time customers corrected me-- her Series One Mug Rugs were filed in a "2014" folder-- she was right. I looked up the first mug rug, the snowflake, and it was designed in December of 2013-- that's what mixed me up. I have to admit I'm one of those people who never likes to be wrong-- but this time, it is wonderful! Thank you, Pam.

     And thank you, ALL, for your nice comments on Part One of this blog post! Although I hate to be wrong, I don't like to toot my own horn very much, and had some uncomfortable moments last time, pontificating on my sets. Well, I had to chuckle when one person said they couldn't wait for Part Two. I'm sure my family would not like to find out you all encouraged this behavior!

    So, let's go-- more about ME! (Machine Embroidery) When we left off, I had taken a slight breather when I moved from "thread painted sets" like the Cloud Club birds in 2018, and digitized something a little easier like the Cross Stitch of the Month designs in 2019. The fateful year of 2020 had begun-- we were all totally unaware. What to digitize next? Well, I decided to do BOTH a cross stitch and a thread painting set. And to make it further crazy, around this time I started going through the cross stitch states, because one of you thought I could do it over a period of two years. (They were right! :-)

    SERIES 7-- Cottage of the Month

Who doesn't love a cross stitch cottage? Cross stitch was back in high favor by the masses at this point. I must admit I had "Cottage Envy" looking at hand stitch designer "Cottages of the Month." I knew I had to machine embroider a set. What is the difference between hand and machine cross stitch? For one, the hand cross stitchers of today really don't want to back stitch-- on the machine, backstitch can abound! So I am not saying that one is better than the other-- no backstitching certainly gives a folksy look-- but with backstitch, you can add detail, detail, detail. I am a lover of detail, in case you hadn't noticed. I have tried to convert my designs for hand stitchers-- and I'm still trying, but who in the world would want to backstitch this? 

Would you want to backstitch this by hand? Heehee.

Anyway, in addition to a ton of back stitch, each of my cottages had a "virtue."  I made postcard versions, mug rugs, and quilt blocks of each design. I was happily writing a little note to myself on the back of the postcard versions as a kind of scrapbook of the year. Then, all of the sudden the pandemic hit...  in April, when I tried to write a note to my future self-- events just welled up in me and I unexpectedly started to cry.

Even, though I stopped writing postcards to myself that year, you have no idea how designing those cottages with all of their virtues got me through all those dark months. It's hard now to even want to recall the details of it, isn't it?

I was finally able to circle back to JOY by the end of the year. xox.

I am happy to say, this quilt is fully assembled, not finished, but fully ready for quilting-- it really speaks to my heart. When things become precious, it is sometimes had to work on them, as you are afraid to "ruin" them-- do you relate? So I'm not quite sure how to quilt it-- I don't like going on top of cross stitch. But this one I am confident will be a finish in a couple of years or so. And I will definitely be writing something about 2020 on the label.

Also Running concurrently for my non-cross stitch customers:

SERIES 8: Stitches of the Sea!

I guess I had some sort of foreknowledge we'd need a lot to work on in 2020! I always loved the shore, the sea, boats-- this series  was pure joy.

I worked both sets along each month. The Cottages were somewhat geared to the time of year, but for my watery world, it was pure whim-- whatever inspired me.

I got right through with both sets to September-- then, I became fixated on doing an OCTOPUS in OCTOBER!!! Haha-- that one really beat me up. There's nothing that makes me crazier than to see a digitized snowflake that doesn't have SIX points-- my octopus must have EIGHT arms! Okay, so one of them is mostly behind his head...

It took me until January of 2021 to release the Octopus. So that was it-- there was no "official" BOM in 2021-- I finished up the Stitches of the Sea. I'm always full of excuses-- I was initially beset with all kinds of problems-- I ran out of the backing fabric and couldn't order more during the pandemic-- wasn't able to get my preferred stabilizer, etc. etc. Of all my incomplete work, this one is the least complete. Well, let's frame it in a positive light-- it is the MOST PHOTOSHOPPED. :-) I do have little mini-quilt finished with four of the best stitch-outs I had at the end. Would I like to go back and finish it? Yes, I would. Will I? Probably not. It deserves to be.

Next up, also started in 2020, completed in 2022:

CAREFREE HIGHWAYS

I just LOVED doing these-- I always loved the states as a kid. I did one every couple of weeks for two years... that's dedication-- and I can still impress people with my knowledge of state capitals, birds, flowers,  AND mottos!

I intended to go through alphabetically, but a customer from Wyoming objected. So instead, I came up with groups of five themed states-- like "Eastern Seaboard ," "Heartland Home," and "Southern Charm. These were the last five. Turning Mount Rushmore into a 14ct Aida design was really fun. 

My finished quilt? Highly, highly confident of a finish on this one. I have all the state blocks, the fabric, and flying geese paper ready to go... AND, I even know where it is! On my bucket list for this year.

So that brings us all the way to 2022-- turning away from cross stitch and back to regular embroidery.

SERIES NINE: Birth Month Mug Rugs

I really enjoyed making these-- I found a random person I knew with a birthday for each month and sent them out. They were all received very well. I do have a set for myself-- I like to change them out each month.

My quilt blocks, however, never panned out-- we decided to move! I would have loved a scrap quilt of these-- but there are others I'd like to finish more. I'm very proud of this set--  the gems were fun to do, I had a nice format to just follow along each month, and they weren't as technically challenging as some of the other sets I had done in the past. This was one of the few sets I did a "subscription" for-- I'm not sure I would do that again, unless I got really ahead one year-- it just creates a monthly to do and a deadline that is always a creativity crusher!

SERIES TEN: Bowl Fillers

Last year was back to cross stitch-- settling in to a new home and just making a set of fun designs for décor each month. You all received this very well-- thank you so much! I intend to keep it going this year with holiday themes instead of the month, as far as I can. This month, I'm working on Sewing bowl fillers and next month will be a Valentine theme. I do need to get a picture of all of them together-- it is quite a barrel full at this point, and I know many of you kept up! I need to get my January set back out.

So here we are, ready for Series 11! It's really hard to believe. I did have fun digitizing the Winterland Village, and I do hope to have some lovely, LARGE, winter themed quilt blocks early this year. Beyond that, we will see what comes-- I'm freewheeling it a bit more than I have in the past, I guess.

Some one wrote me last year, saying that I should tell "which designers do which sets"... well, I had a moment of pride to say it is all me! I did train as a graphic designer and I did do some illustration back in the day-- it is really fun to look back and see all the different roads I travelled on-- it may seem random, but one series definitely suggests the next one, and I hope to be blessed to do this for a good long time yet.

As in any journey-- it is best shared! Seeing my customer finishes is always best and it's surprising to see the direction you take-- I am amazed when I see finishes more creative than the ones I imagined. Thank you so much for reading the history of ME and San Francisco Stitch Co., currently situated in the Western Mountains of Maine awaiting a snowstorm.   

xoxo

Carol