Never. Buy. Anything. Ever. Again.

   It’s been a sobering week of “unpacking.” Well, I wish I was unpacking, but honestly all I have done is bring things upstairs that were all over the downstairs. Yup, I wish I was wearing my Fitbit that tracked stairs this past week. My back tells me it's over 1,000,000 flights.

    My 600sf of shelving is already bursting at the seams, and I haven’t even touched the attic yet.

     As I moved things upstairs, I created a list of in progress quilts-- great way to do it right? It is truly astonishing the mass of unfinished work I have collected. This is not even anything that's coming down from the attic. This is the closest I have come to canceling my Sew Sampler Subscription-- I do not need a new monthly stitch-- I could already give myself a monthly quilt to make for the next thirty years! Basically, I can never buy anything again.

     On the plus side, my bedrooms are now cleared out. To finally make them mine, I really want to change the paint color and then put up some quilts. (finally) All the furniture in the house is also getting moved into its final (I hope) position. For once, I have a before and after for you!

     There is so much to do here at the moment-- we also got a second hive and picked up our bees. They just give you 10,000 of them, and one queen, in a plastic box to drive them home in your car! Look how many there are on those frames. I hope we are going to get some honey this year, but if you are considering doing this, it's worth it just for your flowers and vegetable garden-- ours are super charged with pollinators. Oh-- that’s me on the right, looking like the Michelin Man. They make a bit of a mockery of me in my suit, but I haven't gotten stung yet!

     The garden is also starting to take off-- both veggies and weeds. We are now getting some produce-- the most delicious strawberries I have ever had, broccoli rabe, and the snap peas are really starting to come. I try to “shop” the garden before I buy anything at this point. We also took out the kayaks one night-- after the hot days, the lake is irresistible.

    It’s also the High Holidays of Cake and Ice Cream-- most everyone in our family was born in the last week of June or first week of July. Each one gets a special cake. The DD is first up-- she picked a recipe with all ingredients you have to ask for in the store. There were at least 20 steps, with Sifted Ingredients, Wet Ingredients, Creamed Ingredients, and Whipped Ingredients. She is actually the master baker in the house, but I really wanted to do it for her. I did end up asking for help, which was gladly given. 

     We have company coming to celebrate the SILs 30th. Shhhh.... It’s a surprise. So, it’s a good thing all the cleaning and organizing is happening. I think all that stuff in the attic is going to be waiting. Now that I have two bedrooms freed up, I'd love a big house party!

     On the sewing front, well, it is amazing anything is getting done at all! Fourth of July bowl fillers are out. Now, look for it-- but I am going to start a free village stitch-a-long soon. You need to either read this blog or join my email to get it-- I’m not going to advertise it widely. It’s just for you-- my biggest fans! Hope to have it before the 4th.

     The Sew Sampler Box for May is coming along-- June’s has mailed. I'd love to have one done before the other arrives. I wasn’t a huge fan of this fabric or the pattern, "Clover and Dot," but I tried a jelly roll pattern, "Quadrangle." I’m at the point where the blocks are together and it’s that exciting moment for quilters when you get a first look at how your finish is going to look. And the verdict is:

MEH! 

     I picked the bright teal and orange grunge sashings to try to brighten the thing up, but it’s not contrasty enough-- maybe I should have gone with a dark blue sashing. There is this pat saying in art school-- you need to have the whitest whites and the darkest darks in every drawing. I disagree-- I mean, if you were drawing the Golden Gate Bridge rising out of the fog, there might be some white, but you'd never see black in that painting. Try things. The minute a rule comes up, break it. I learned from this quilt.

     As of this morning's writing, it does have more of the teal and orange between each block, and I'm liking it better.  It has tons of blue in it-- this awesome family we met here is expecting their first grandchild in August-- it’s a boy, so I’m thinking I’ll gift it. They are longtime homesteaders and are so ready to help with all their years of wisdom and experience. I’d also like to just get the longarm going with some simple quilting myself next month; this quilt would be a perfect start.

    I complained about 3 out 5 Sew Sampler Boxes this year being jelly rolls-- there is no advantage to using a pre-cut, if you are constantly trimming up zagged edges.  Out of frustration, this time I bit the bullet and trimmed everything down to 4-1/4” instead of 4-1/2”. It took guts-- there are no 4-1/4” rulers-- but I did it. Occasionally, you get these free patterned "washi" tapes in subscription boxes, which I have never used. This time, I marked up a little corner on the ruler to line up my cut and made no mistakes!

    The June box arrives Tuesday-- hoping to have my "Quadrangle" finish by then. Oh-- and I told you I complained about getting so many jelly rolls-- I looked at a spoiler for the new box and my punishment is now to get a “honeybun”-- 1-1/2” strips with ziggy edges. Dear God-- do I just trim the to 1-1/4" before even starting?  It’s too bad because the fabric is Fig Tree "Jelly and Jam" which is beautifully detailed with large prints that don't deserve to be cut into 1-1/2” strips. The pattern is sort of cool though. I may just do it.

     

     I swiped this from the "Crystal Heart" You Tube Channel. Crystal must live right next to the Fat Quarter Shop warehouse-- she always gets it first! I love watching her unboxing each month. She is so genuine with her opinions, and has two adorable daughters who make an appearance from time to time.

     The Valentine Quaker is a finish! If you remember, I was just about to run out of the Shrimp colored floss-- I solved this by using just two strands for a couple of the last motifs. No one will ever notice. I even had enough to sign my name. So happy I didn’t have to spend 25 cents for a new hank of floss-- it’s not so much the money-- I would have had a lot left over looking like it wanted to be used in another project of some sort!

    I've really started to enjoy the summer. It's my favorite season, even though there's more to do each day than I can even touch. There's something about just dropping into bed at night, sore, and falling into a deep sleep right away. Hope this finds you exhausted and happy as well!

xox

Carol

Overwhelmed...

...is my word for the week, but only in the happiest way! Very little sewing took place, but some more major milestones for the new studio. Moving continues at a snail’s pace-- picture if you will, the journey of a thousand miles!

     The long-arm is setup and ready to go! This was my biggest fear about the whole move-- that after sitting around for two years, I would never be able to get this thing back together and working. Never underestimate the power of Mr. SFO with an oversized Erector set and a wrench. But let’s not forget my powers of photography and writing! Yup, all we had to do was scroll and read backwards through my handwritten instructions. Okay, I forgot that center leg step, but it was too big of a leftover piece to be forgotten long.
     

     She fired right up... unfortunately, the needle was aimed directly at the sole plate. A terrible blow to the sewing head in transit that bent the mechanism beyond the point of no return and rendered this costly machine worthless? No-- all I had to do is loosen a hex nut and reposition the head. Good grief-- this negative thinking has got to stop. And by the way, if you ever find yourself in the trap of thinking that women are not good mechanics, join the Innova Facebook group page and you will soon learn differently. These women are amazing and very quick to know exactly what your problem is and how to fix it.

    Then the dreaded tension adjustment, always such a joy killer. Watched a few videos, made a few tweaks with a tiny screwdriver and she’s ready to go! Of course, I'm currently limited by the small amount of bobbin thread left form before the move which will soon be gone. Gonna have to start the unpacking and find the bobbin winder. My goal is three boxes a day.
     There's no time to quilt right now anyway. There is a ton of stuff that needs to find it's place before I’m ready to start bringing more things down from the attic. I now have 600sf of shelving(!) and my black bookcases are all set up and waiting. I had to have a talk with myself-- I do love puzzles, so this jigsaw of a space will eventually get put together!

     I did not get the last two borders on my Bobbin Blooms quilt. The partially assembled reindeer are still partially assembled. I didn’t even have a sewing machine set up for most of the week. Horrors! But I did cut the jelly roll strips in half, and then finally randomly sewed them together, recut, and sewed some four patches together for a project of my own imagination. This is the May Sew Sampler box, to be finished by the end of June.

    LIBERTY BOX SPOILER ALERT! I watched a video unboxing-- it has a patriotic panel by Lella Boutique. So, very nice fabric, but I’m not a super fan of “panels’”-- we called them “cheater cloths” back in the day. But it occurred to me that it would make a fantastic practice panel for the longarm. I don't have my box yet-- this picture is from the Fat Quarter Shop's website-- it is BIG.

    I will need a trip to Marden’s to pick up some $6.99 backing fabric. Maybe I’ll do something fun like that next weekend.
    To keep everything else on this homestead rolling along, I did get out to try some gardening. This is an accent garden in the front of the house, just beyond the deck-- the meadow has just taken over. I’m going to get some sort of plant identification app and try to discover what should stay here and what shouldn’t. Just to get rid of the grass would be huge step forward. So this is my efforts after four hours of heavy labor, digging out grass and shaking out the good soil from the roots. I even "found" a stone edging buried under 3" of dirt-- see it?

    Mr. SFO was so cute-- when he first saw the stone, he said, "Did you do something different here?" I wanted to say, "YES! I pulled out the 100 lb. bricks I purchased at Home Depot garden center and I'm going to set them in arc around the deck!" 

    It's such a battle in my mind between the person who's saying, "You're too old for this," and the one that just LOVES the way this garden came out. Who will win? There's a third party candidate-- she's saying, "This is a waste of time." I'll never vote for her.

    I am determined to get this one garden back in shape this summer if nothing else-- follow along this summer and cheer me on. I did get my little lupine nursery established! They kind of reached the limits of how big they were willing to grow in the little peat pots and I so hope I can get them to flourish and maybe even get some small flowers this year. I read up on it-- I did not at all realize the LUPINE of Maine is also the BLUEBONNET and state flower of Texas! My brother and sister in law, two kids, and three grandkids live in Houston-- so that makes me feel really happy about it. They have yet to make the trek to Maine-- if I have a field of bluebonnets, I think they might!
    Finally, my nightly hand stitch-- the Valentine’s Quaker has really come along. I stitch with three strands, not two as called for, so I'm almost out of floss-- if I have to spend 28 more cents for another skein, I will be traumatized, so I'm stitching to the very last possible inch of each piece! I was even thinking of outlining some of the remaining shapes instead of filling them in-- isn't that ridiculous-- to save 25 cents! But it would also serve my need to do everything differently, so let's see what happens.

    We all know there is no quilting police, but let me tell you, the cross stitch police should definitely be making some arrests when I see new stitchers using two strands on 14ct fabric, especially on black Aida-- it shows right through. No one seems to notice, and the trend is just rolling on. Then again, they would never be forced to spend 25 cents for extra floss.

   I also have Moonbeams just about there, but just about there is not finished, and no further process was made this past week.

     Then there’s a Lori Holt sewing themed stitch card set that has been at the 99% finished point for months now. 

    What is the best way to not finish these up? Oh, I know! Start a fourth project and put them away, right?

     Yes, I'm in! I did “sign up” (there's no sign up, so I guess I just refer to a mental commitment here) for the Fat Quarter shop’s yearly free Christmas cross stitch. By all accounts, it’s going to be a star-- I love a star! So that starts in July and I'd really love to keep up with it. The floss requirements are here. (Remember, you might have to spend more for three strands!)
    For poor old San Francisco Stitch Co, it's been really hard to see business dry up this month as I am spread out in every other place. Thank you so much to the customers that haven't forgotten me. I am working on Patriotic Bowl Fillers which I hope to have out shortly. It's the word "FREEDOM," a firework, and a house-- actually a bigger house than the one shown below, but I'm considering just making that little house anyway for a freebie, or maybe even a free little house each month this summer, because we haven't had a free stitch a long in a while.

    The Village of the Month is a lake theme, and I am panicking about getting it done before the end of the month. Why should this be hard when I live on a lake every day of my life? And I’m working a few Christmas items along. I sometimes feel like I should just pick ONE thing and git 'er done-- but all the life situations are clamoring for attention, so it’s dibble dabble for now.

    Hope you are enjoying the summer-- we are expecting a warmer than usual one-- we have a couple days in the high 90s coming up this week! There’s no A/C in the house-- so let’s hope the snail’s pace doesn’t come to a complete halt.

xox

Carol

Quiltopia is open for business!

     Summer is now in full swing here, and swing is definitely the word since we blasted out of the 50s and into the 80s in a matter of a week. I was born in August and was surely made for heat and humidity. It is wonderful. I’ve been out enjoying everything then meadow has to offer.

     The veggies are finally starting to get established. We may even have some early peas soon. 

     It’s a happy surprise to see flowers come up. The former owner must have been somewhat of a gardener and you can see little focus areas here and there in the meadow, before the enormity of the project caught up with them! I will try to get some of these weeded and sorted this year, especially the one right off the deck.

     Lupines are the Maine state flower. We have a few of them here and there, but they don’t seem to flourish. So I bought some seeds and will start a little lupine nursery somewhere near the house to try to get them more established. The full grown plants at our local nursery are $19.99! At that price, I just want to make sure I am not providing Bambi with a five star lunch.

     I’m spread super thin right now-- everything needs elbow grease here in the spring. As little as it seems I accomplish each day nature moves forward without my help as if to say “Don’t’ worry-- we got this!” One rainy day, the DD almost walked over these as she came up from the cabin.

     I had a bit of nostalgia as we had this happen in our last house. Snapper turtles always prefer freshly seeded lawm or mulched gardens for their nests. Mr. SFO has already been told his meadow restoration project is now on hold and I marked my calendar out 80 days when the little ones will arrive. The last time, I spend two days making sure baby turtles didn’t get run over in our cul--de-sac (I lost one!) At least this time, that isn’t a worry, which is a fortunate because we had no fewer than five come up to lay that day!

    We’ve also had some pretty moths. Isn’t this pink one so girly and fluffy looking? I bet it has a nasty sting or something! Fortunately, that's not my thumb.

    In the sewing realm, things have moved along-- I am very proud I made any progress at all with everything going on right now.

   Bobbin blooms is a finished top, except for two side borders. Some nights I was just too tired, but some nights I forced myself to put in a hour. I really enjoyed making this pale pink thing, even though I was initially a doubter of this fabric line, “Flower Girl.” It was just all so... pastel. 

    If you belong to the Sew Sampler Members Only Facebook group (I doubt you really have to be a subscriber) people have added extra borders to the quilt. They look fantastic, but I really don’t want the extra spend right now. $$. 

     This is the first time I’ve ever made that dotted, stitch-looking sashing-- thankfully it came out the right length (better check your 1/4" seam!) and it's a great look for a sewing themed quilt.  I may be a fan of "Flower Girl" now-- there’s a current stitch along for a flower cart and an upcoming flower shop quilt-- I may revisit both of those when the next line comes out from this designer-- my son’s girlfriend would love it. 

     I do have enough extra fabric to make another four flowers. It’s on the back burner for now, but I’d love to make two pillows to make a matching quilt/pillow set for my living room couch. You may recall my Corn Pop set of pillows-- they are the perfect size to just reuse the same pillow forms and I’d have a fall and a spring set for my living room. Can winter and summer sets be far behind? Lol. I hope not.

     I also noticed if I could make yet another four flowers, I'd have a table runner the perfect size for my coffee table.

     Matching quilt/table runner/ pillows? That actually sounds revolting to me-- I much prefer a more eclectic mix of pillows. Doesn't this combination look adorable?

     For the next sewing project, I’m going to tear into the May Sew Sampler Box. I give myself the entire month after getting the box to finish the project, so I'm only ten days behind.  I’m not a huge fan of the quilt, although someone, also on that Facebook group, posted a picture of a real cutie with just a couple of red and white leaves mixed in with the rest blue.

 (photo credit: Jolly Jabber Blog)

 Instead, I found a free jelly roll pattern that I like, and that I also think will stitch up quick.

   At some point, I need to find the EXIT ramp for stitching up these boxes. It's been a highly addictive guilty pleasure for a year and half now. But I won’t stop my subscription because they are affordable and fun to get. I’ll just enjoy collecting those beautiful teal boxes on my shelves again!

     My nightly hand stitch is also moving along well. 

     This pattern is relaxing to work on-- obviously it’s just one color, and there’s a ton of repetition so you aren’t a slave to looking back and forth at a pattern. It's Primrose Cottage "Valentine Quaker"-- I Googled this cross stitch "Quaker" style, and didn't find anything. The are all done in one color and seem to always feature geometric designs. Some of them are amazingly large and detailed.

     I’m within striking distance of finishing Moonbeams as well-- Release Four is out! I stitched ahead, and could see that Release 5 was the same as 2. So potentially I’m way ahead on finishing this- how can that even be!

     I’m pretty proud of myself lately-- because then there is...

THIS! 

   Yes, I spackled and sanded my three times, got ‘er painted, and even threw down a LIFEPROOF (let’s hope so) floor. Thank God for kneepads-- did you know Fiskars makes a set?
   The new studio, "Quiltopia," is ready to move in, after eighteen months of waiting. I’m not going to be a stickler for finishing the trim-- "whenever" is good enough for me. So I have this development to thank for my high good humor and flourishing creativity these days-- I’m off the corner of the kitchen table and ready to spread out! No wonder I didn’t want to sew long seams, crushed as I was, into a corner.

    The sobering part is that the whole house is being upended again-- two bedrooms full of “stuff” is going upstairs, and a garage also full of stuff... did I mention an attic full of stuff? My beautiful pristine new space is now a mess as well-- there's a lot of "sorting" to do! I've had to remind myself this is a working studio, not the movie set I had in my mind. 

     Although Mr. SFO gets a pass on trim work for now, I really do need my closets finished with shelves, so I can get everything put away at last. So cleaning and organizing is not my favorite task-- EXCEPT-- when it involves going through and patting fabric, scrapbook supplies, kits... this is a chore I cannot wait to take on. I haven’t seen the bulk of my STUFF for a year and a half-- it is going to be Christmas on steroids to go through all of it. I promise we will do some unboxings together, in future posts!

     Thank you all so much for caring about my dull little life-- I read and  appreciate all of  your comments and I'm sorry I haven't had time to respond to all of them lately. Have yourself a wonderful week-- enjoy the outdoors, but don't forget to come home to your sewing space, now and then.

xox

Carol