Sew, she's at it again!

      We are over two weeks into the New Year, and I am pleased to say, the sew-jo is going strong! Lots of ideas AND progress-- as any quilter knows, ideas are plentiful-- actual sewing time, not so much. My biggest problem has been just picking one thing and working on it, instead of going in every direction.

     Let's start with embroidery... "Winterland" is a hit-- as a typical artist, my self-confidence is lacking at times. You loved it-- thank you. So I had intended to make a set of 12 (or 4 seasons, if it was a fail), so now I'm committing to twelve, and I will try my best to get them out by the first of each month. What I have in my mind is complicated little scenes-- so be patient with me! I see lots of cross stitch cottages of the month, and cottages stitched together into a village, but no villages in a small stitch area-- I think I'm a ground breaker there!

     I am still trying to find a background color that will work as well for all 12 designs and will give you a cohesive look if you stitch all twelve together in one piece. Yes, the one in the picture looks great, but it is just a "virtual" fabric, not a real one. I may just go with whatever works for that month and add some sort of border treatment to unite them. Let's see what happens.

     Sewing bowl fillers are next-- I'm taking my favorite digitized sewing machine and converting it to cross stitch which is going well. No bird for this. 

"Thread Zen" is also coming along, for my non-cross stitch customers. I'm using the acorn piece as a template--no, no squirrels on "Thread Zen." I'm really looking forward to redoing the border with a tiny sewing machine, scissors, buttons, and ribbons!

    I also finished a top using the four Chris-Mystery ornament set-- this was really fun to stitch togehter! Do you like puzzles? I'd love to hand quilt this, with just little x's in the squares.

   The center design is new-- it exactly fit a 5x7 hoop size, so I made an extra mug rug design. This is just $1.99 on the site right now-- obviously we are way out of season.

     Every year, I try to "stock up" on Christmas designs for November and December. So I have had my first Christmas finish of 2024! It's a smaller Christmas ABCs piece, for the 5x7 hoop-- the one that is available now is four 5x7 hoopings. When this releases, I will have my set of twelve 5x7 ABC cross stitches! Sets of twelve are my thing, so I snuck this in as another Block-of-the-Month over about three years. I loved doing these, but you'll have to wait till the fall-- I'm just sneak peeking it! 

    I stitched it on *YIKES* pink! I'm trying to make friends with this color-- it's one that is in the Fat Quarter Shop Sew Sampler boxes again and again, because Kimberley Jolly loves it. So I was kind of desensitized to it. I even used the dreaded Magnifico 2008 color-- "Pink Pink Pink" as you can see. I love it!

    On to the Sew Sampler Challenge 2023-- it was EPIC. 

     I'm really going out a winner-- the original idea was just to complete the 12 monthly boxes-- I'm up to 11 of those, and I also did three of the holiday boxes. The boxes come out at the end of each month, so technically I have till the end of January to finish the December box.

     I had this "meh" finish for November-- I tried to get away from the usual white backgrounds-- well, there's a reason for the white background-- it is no fail. But I congratulate myself for trying something new. I think I'm going to donate it. Donate it to someone who never knew white backgrounds were a thing, and will love it. It is one mis-rotated corner and one upside down background piece away from the longarmer.

    I have to give you a quick tip-- I hate piecing backings-- I have at least three finishes stuck at this step for months now. So I bought a matching Tula Pink 108" wide fabric for this-- no piecing, right? So my bad, I assumed it was cotton-- it is cotton SATEEN. It's soft but thin-- I honestly prefer my heavy cottons. I'm not sure if all 108s are sateen, but beware. 

     Pre-washing fabric was a trend for me last year as you can see my 108 below--  but ironing is also a pain, so I think that is not a trend in 2024. lol.

    So here I am with one last box to finish for 2023-- I'm not greatly fond of it. I thought I might just skip it. And frankly, 2024 hasn't been the fresh start I'd hoped for-- all my baggage from 2023 has found its way past January 1st. Can you relate? Why do we expect magic to happen when the ball drops? At least the sewing area of my life can begin anew, right?

     And so, I was feeling sorry for myself and lay down and scrolled Facebook-- what do you know, my name came up on the Sew Sampler Member Only page! This nicest lady had seen my montage of finishes above, and credited me with inspiring her to do her 2024 boxes! So that is way too much credit she's giving me-- but she had finished her Dulce quilt and it looked nice. So I sprang up and got started. I think I can have it by the end of January after all-- and it would make a perfect baby quilt, I'm sure. This quilt uses those fiddly foundation papers to make flying geese-- I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. A lot of flipping back and forth, people.

   

 I don't talk about this WIP much, but I have totally kept up with the monthly blocks included in the boxes as well. They are pretty on point flowers-- very different from what you usually see. That's why I ordered the kit for this.

     I'm going to add these to my Sew Sampler "montage." Only three to go.

    It made me realize how easy it is to do one block a month-- so, I may just get my Kona calendar out and begin that stitch-a-long! I did figure out that you don't need the calendar to do it-- all the patterns are free on the Robert Kaufmann website. The charm packs, of course, were wicked expensive. This is the first month's colors-- "Tropical":

     So the only detriment is that these aren't really the colors I'm channeling right now, as you can seen by the background! 

    And that brings me to two more FAILs of the month. My fabric diet didn't work. I succumbed to the Fat Quarter Shop Cupid Box after about a day of resisting. I'm glad I did, because it is now sold out. I never met a holiday I didn't like!

    And my word of the year-- SELFISH-- I have not followed that path at all. In fact, I gave most of the last two weeks to-- TILING A BATHROOM! All four walls, and a floor. Here's me, hard at work. 

     We are hardcore DIY here-- yes, I know my way around a tile saw. It's actually much easier than an embroidery machine, so you can do it, too! We have a cabin on the property-- it was actually the original structure here, down by the lake, before the main house was built. They call them "camps" up here. No water, no electric. We want a "house." For now, our DD and SIL will live there, as long as they fit in it! I'm doing it for them. 

     So I commented to the plumber, "I bet they would say we're ruining this camp." 

      And he, in his abrupt Maine accent said simply, "No one wants that anymore."

  And until the bathroom is fully finished, this is what I had to deal with for all those days,
tile after tile, out back of the cabin!

   So I think you would agree, my new word of the year that I have truly earned is:

SELFLESS!

Have a wonderful week.

xox
Carol