This, that, and the other thing...

      Don't ever congratulate yourself for getting a lot done-- pride comes before the fall! So you can guess, I really don't have too much to show for the last ten days. The reason? One idea might be our fabulous new water filter system in the house. It turns out our water had uranium in it-- I wasn't worried, privately thinking it could be the source of my sewing super powers. (Say you're a Marvel Universe fan without saying it.) Mr. SFO has now "fixed" it... so no more uranium boosts for me. The other thing could be-- I got a ton of stuff over the finish line, without really queuing up the next things-- and as usual, there are too many of them.

     Let's start with fun sewing-- working on one thing at a time is a strategy that works-- but the trick is, you have to work on the one thing! I've been faithful to the January Sew Sampler Lori Holt hat quilt, but not faithful at working on it. It's adorable. When I saw the picture of the quilt, I thought the little flowers in the hats might have been appliqued. 

     No worries, people! They are made of a zillion little tiny pieces-- haha-- all of them requiring you to draw a diagonal line across the back.

     Awhile ago, I bought this Lori Holt accessory-- the woman is a marketing genius-- which you tape to your sewing machine base and simply hold the points of your squares on a line, then just sew across, instead of drawing a line. This has been taped to my machine for months-- it's cute-- I finally tried it.

     It worked well enough, was a time save-- I'd recommend it. So would the drawn lines work better? As always, in the quilting math, time equals better results. But I'm trying to differentiate between "perfect" and "good enough" for these types of projects which are meant to be loved, and will never see the white glove of a judges hand.

    All of the flowers are now done-- that's what I have to show for my week. And they look great. The rest of the quilt should FLY now. Should. These are big hats as you might guess, from the big flower. 

     In other Lori Holt news, I am moving, albeit at a snail's pace, on prepping #11 Prairie Meadow quilt block. This week I got four more pieces prepped and some flower centers stitched down. It was a nice change from doing cross stitch. These blocks take a tremendous amount of time to prep. That's part of what I got hung up on. After all the parts are ready, the backgrounds are all stitched out of 16 pieces as well. But I've really committed to working on this again over the course of the winter-- and I'm still enthusiastic about making four extra blocks and appliqued borders so let's see what happens!

     No progress on the Lori Holt sewing themed cross stitch. Wow! I really do like Lori Holt. I think it's because I'm so nostalgic all the time.

      My three quilts came back from the longarmer-- I love them! So quite a bit of binding to do as well.  Fortunately, you can see by the themes of the quilts-- there's no rush on two of them!

     I especially love the way this one came out-- there is every type of longarm pattern in the world-- multiples of each, even-- when I said "snowflakes with swirls," I was offered about 8 different ones. 

    And I'm sure I'm going to have a chance to try them all, by the time my own longarm gets set back up!

    Now, for an embarrassing photo.

    This is the current state of the countertop behind my desk. It's so tragic-- after 225 years of service in the Navy, the U.S.S. Constitution has sunk in a sea of fabric.

    I have spent some time over the past week cleaning up, and there's plenty more to be done. I went on a slew of ordering around Christmas, and the binding fabrics for the aforementioned quilts are in this pile somewhere, which even if I found them, I'm not sure I'd remember what they were for. My DD was in London for her honeymoon and she came back with a new favorite saying at our house. "We'll get it sorted." Best said in a British accent.

     On the digitizing front, I've had trouble picking one thing to work on, so nothing is coming along. I really want to make a bigger "Winter Twist" piece as I've said before, now that I live in Winterland. I'd love to have an original piece in the Maine quilt show this year-- it's so appropriate. So if I add more detail to the Winter Twist blocks and make them 7x12, I'd have about a 19" x 19" inch piece, with borders, could make 30x30, which is what you need at a minimum for a respectable quilt show quilt.

       What's holding me back? First of all, I have no idea how this would even come out-- if I'm going to offer something for sale, I'd like to know it's going to be beautiful! 

     Next, I'm already getting late-- by the time I finished it, it could be summer. Who's down for sewing a winter piece then? LOL. 

    Third negative-- the Maine quilt show has a deadline for entries of May, even though the show is in late July. You don't need pressure when you're trying to be creative-- at least, I hate working that way.      Finally, the instructions are always so daunting-- here we have four pieces to connect, and then a final middle stitch out to draw them all together-- then quilt instructions for borders? The idea is a creativity crusher! 

     I think what I will do, is just schedule in a half a day this week and see what happens. In spite of all the negativity-- I really want to do it. That's what counts, right?

     

     Then here's an easy fun thing I wish I had started sooner-- making the Zen of Thread into a tablerunner. I'm tempted to make a pillow this time too-- "Sewtopia," whenever it gets built, has room for a couch! Thank goodness there's no kitchen up there or I'd never be seen again.

    All the measurements on this have already been figured out on past projects I did this to-- so all I have do is just write over the squirrel borders with sewing machine things I can just lift from the mug rug.     And of course, make it, which will take some time. I have my Strawberry Lemonade Charm Packs and some background possibilities ready to go. Pink and I are the best buddies we have ever been-- but I'm taking a break from it! Yellow, anyone?

    And the last thing I'm digitizing is a "Winter Alphabet"-- it's high time to do another alphabet, San Fran Stitch style!

Don't laugh, but I started this a couple of years ago, and got stuck on the "S." If you know typography, an S has shapes that cannot easily be copied from other letters in the alphabet, which is how I got that far in the first place! But we now have an S. This is a ton of testing-- can you guess it-- 26 stitch outs to be exact, -- so I may hold it till the late fall.

     So that is this, that, and everything! I've also embraced winter and have not been stuck in front of computer screen all day, as I used to be, before I realized how beautiful it all is. Here's another embarrassing, but cute photo:

     This is me and Mr. SFO walking on our frozen lake when I thought I was taking a picture of the mountains, but the camera had flipped... Mr. SFO the Eagle Scout looks like he is forging ahead there ahead of me, and I look, well...

HAPPY!

So let's just say 2024 has straightened out a bit, or maybe my attitude has, and let's forge ahead into a new week... whatever comes, we'll sort it!

xox

Carol