So the day after my last blog post, when we were expecting 12″-18″, we got 20″! Time to clean off the cars again.
Fortunately, it was the lightest, fluffiest snow I have ever seen.
Not sure why I had the watering can out! Hope springs eternal.
Not sure why I had the watering can out! Hope springs eternal.
Here is a “Stonehenge” before and after– that biggest rock is about 4″ high.
Then, I got cheated out of my Easter– I woke up just not feeling well and spent the day on the couch! My family could tell I wasn’t faking it– I couldn’t even sew. We have rescheduled the festivities to Tuesday. Hope yours was better than mine. xox.
We’ll get Easter dinner done just in time for 1′-2′ more on Wednesday/Thursday– yeah, you’re reading it right– ” is for inches, ‘ is for feet. And while we’re on about the weather, we are getting the full solar eclipse, but my once-in-a-lifetime event looks Partly Cloudy. I’m hanging on every weather report these days. We’ll let you know what happens– at least it will get dark– that should be fun– I’m thinking of doing a time-lapse with my phone and I will post it on YouTube if I do. Celestial events are written in stone– time is on my side, and eventually it has to warm up!
To soothe our souls, Caroline has started seedlings, and I made Gardening Bowl fillers. We both had fun with this collaborative photo. I didn’t take me long to decide what type of flower I would feature on the seed packet– but don’t worry, I had so much fun designing that, I’m planning another set of six, and maybe even a cute machine embroidered basket to store your “seed packs” in.
Last week was a machine embroidery intensive week– I really wanted to push this out before Easter.
This is the 8″ size– someone on Facebook said they wished we offered a 10″– I don’t have a hoop that big and I don’t sell what I can’t test! We had a really nice chat about embroidery– she said the trend has been to larger hoops. I don’t see it, for what I’m digitizing. At 10″, this is going to be a seriously long stitch out– 3 or 4 hours? I poked around, and most of what is available in a large size like that is quick, one color designs with quilting around them– the dreaded cute sayings, huge appliques and the like. I prefer my embroidery in as many colors as possible, with tons of tiny shapes, in short, as laborious as possible. I guess I should pause to thank all of you reading along here, who I know love that, too. 🙂
So no chance I will start designing for the popular trends, although as one customer pointed out, I did give in to red trucks! I countered–my son has a truck, and I haven’t done gnomes. If I’m not designing what I love, I’m out. But I am seriously thinking of getting a new embroidery machine with a really large hoop. The Janome CM17 has an incredible 11″ x 18.” Eventually I will get back to my show quilts, and the idea of being able to make a quilt block that big is extremely appealing. I do find that I prefer smaller stitch outs, though– 7×7 is my sweet spot– they are so precious! Is a Cloud Club bird really meant to be stitched life size? This is a question I’d love to have answered before spending $20,000. Your thoughts?
I didn’t think I got much sewing done this week, but when I checked my phone for pix, it was just because I was all over the place! I highly recommend taking pictures as you work along– it is very gratifying to see progress over weeks and months.
I finished Block #12 of Pressed Flowers.
This is the first time I’ve ever made the blocks that are included each month in the Sew Sampler boxes. I really LOVE the flowers– they are very unique and I was able to stitch them up in just about and hour and a half each month. I even took a chance and bought the kit after just seeing the first flower. Here is the finished quilt, which I hope to get done fairly quickly at this point– I just love it.
Fat Quarter Shop has revealed the first block of the next series–
they run from April to March. It’s a basket theme.
they run from April to March. It’s a basket theme.
Thank goodness I do not find this first block compelling– or the fabric, which is Camille Roskelley’s Shoreline. It’s a meh blue, with a meh green, done in meh roses– but trust me when I tell you I am the only person on the planet who feels that way. Everyone is going crazy over it– it’s a follow up to her first meh “Nantucket Summer” collection, and don’t worry if you miss out– there is bound to be a meh third collection now. So nothing to add to the bucket list with this quilt– PHEW! My opinion on this colorway reminds me of the old days with TV shows I liked– whatever I enjoyed, was bound to fail– maybe one, two seasons at most. I guess I just have really weird taste and I deeply apologize for my review of Shoreline!
I got ONE block done on the leaves this week. I have the sixteen large leaves, but I wanted some smaller ones sprinkled in.
Here it is– I’m appliqueing all the stems. I like my stems thin. I added a little square of “pollen,” too!
I need nine of them for my 5×5 layout. I did some sketching on how this is all going to fit together.
I love this Lori Holt Graph Paper notebook– the squares are small enough for cross stitch sketching, too. A creative quilter really needs graph paper– I’m giving a link– and I’m not getting a commission for saying this!
I’m finally getting around to sewing some backings together for finished tops. I have three that just need backs to be sent to the longarmer!
And I also started my first “original” applique block using Lori Holt’s Sew Simple Shapes. This is for my king size Prairie Meadow quilt. I thought this would be harder than it was, but I gave myself the theme “Winter” and really enjoyed it! I wonder how I got that theme in my head…
I actually finished an entire spool of 220 yds. of thread on hand stitching! I’m not exactly sure how long it took– probably a year and a half, but color 376 of Superior Threads silk is the one you want for applique with light fabrics, and binding, too! Pretty good accomplishment, huh?
Now I’m really starting to think I killed it last week. And since so many projects are underway, why not cut one more? This is the Cupid Box– I unwrapped the fabric– it’s Sandy Gervais, and I really liked it better than I thought it would.
Sandy Gervais was one of the first fat quarter collections I ever bought– she’s crushing it lately. I’m really tempted by FEED MY SOUL. Now that folks, is a fabric collection I can get behind!
But let’s hope I don’t– I’m already spreading myself thin again– Moonbeams quilt and cross stitch Release 2 is today– and the Kona stars are still waiting.
Better go… have yourself a great Spring week– I’m still waiting on it!
xox
Carol
Carol
One Stitch at a Time 
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