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