Our guest rooms are finally set up and friends have discovered–it’s nice here! So I am between rounds two and three of company. Oddly, I have had a little sewing time here and there and I even lured some unsuspecting visitors to visit local quilt shops– heehee!

Farmington is a little bit of a drive from us, but it’s a really cute, old time New England town with lots of unique shops. One of them is “Pins n Needles” quilt shop. I brought my New England Shop Hop magazine and collected a second stamp of 96 shops. Some people really do this! I figured I bought the “passport,” so I might as well use it. You only have to get to five stamps to qualify for a prize, but even this may be out of reach for me– the shop hop ends in October.

I’m a good sport– I buy something from every local shop I set foot in. Here’s my haul:

I bought four of these brightly colored textured prints– I love a texture, but it doesn’t say who the designer it. The selvage is blank. And a yard of the Christmas fabric on sale for a potential table runner backing.

When I checked out, I received my stamp– PLUS this very generous gift!

A tiny, sewn basket AND and a sewn scissors holder– TWO quilt patches (you’re supposed to make a commemorative quilt from all the shops you visit), a little charm pack coaster pattern and supplies, and even three pieces of candy. (Two seem to be missing…)

I was a bit taken aback– the shop hop gift was way more generous than my purchase deserved. So here I am returning the favor and I can definitely recommend the shop if you are ever in the mountains of Maine. Great selection of Tilda, kids fabrics, novelties, civil war– and gorgeous YARNs. Thank goodness I don’t knit, or my purchase would have more than deserved the gift!

Farmington is well worth this visit– after Pins ‘n Needles, have lunch at the Orange Cat Cafe, then it’s off to Reny’s! Reny’s is an old fashioned Maine department store which has, thank goodness, survived because the population up here just does not warrant a Walmart. I started my Christmas shopping! They had these great coiled centerpieces, and a huge themed sock selection for all those hard to buy for friends! My son loves pickles. It was my first experience at Reny’s and I will be back.

It’s always fun to have visitors for an excuse to do things you would never make time for on your own. So we also went apple picking. I found the biggest apple you could ever imagine. I’m calling it my “special apple” and warning everyone to keep their hands off, but at some point, it will be a very special BAKED apple which will make four servings, I bet.

Reminds me of the Magritte painting, sort of! 🙂

Then, when the visitors went down early at night, (I tired them out on purpose), I sometimes snuck up to Quiltopia– and once, I even convinced everyone to do crafts up there. It was really awesome to share my space and make some memories. And quilt– lol. So this is now an FFO.

The wedding is next week, so this is about the first time I had a gift on time! I wanted it to be washable, so I preshrunk all my fabric with starch. I did throw it in the dryer as well– it came out very crinkly!

Some people love this look– I’m just not sure. I’d love you all to weigh in with a comment below– do you wash your quilts? Does pre-washing the fabric help? Did the dryer do most of the damage, and if I just washed it and line dried it would it not be as crinkly? ‘m sure the couple will love it– but I’m asking for future finishes.

I also got this table runner from last year loaded on the longarm, but haven’t started it yet.

And Summer Memories is rapidly reaching a conclusion– I hung it here– then realized it fits on my longarm! I was either going to send it out, or do it in two pieces. I’m so glad I don’t have to figure out how to combine those pieces!

I spend a small fortune on fabric for the border and backing, and then found that I had already purchased borders and backing. This fabric line is from last year, but there are still dribs and drabs on Etsy. Etsy is such a great source if you need just a little bit more or want a matching fabric.

I find this really funny, but I picked different fabric for the border and backing each time. Apparently there is no consensus in my brain. So I have lots of choice now! 🙂

While I sewed, my friend made these adorable Christmas gift tags from my scrapbooking supplies– then left them for me! ❤

I also laid out all the pieces for the new Halloween quilt while everyone was busy.

The project is now to sew LONG diagonal rows– my favorite! NOT. It looks easy, because I assumed all the seams would nest, but they do not, so it’s pin, pin, pin. I got this far and I’ll just do one or two rows a day. It’s a bit hard to look at right now, but there’s a plain black border I’m hoping will give my eyes a rest! I’m keeping this one, for my couch.

I did have one complete day off between visits, to work on San Francisco Stitch Co. I’m going to restart the FREE village stitch along. I missed September and only a couple of people even noticed– it’s a bit discouraging! We had these two installments over the summer:

So I do get a bit frustrated this fall when only five people, usually the same people, like my Facebook posts– my following is over 10,000. New blog subscribing is off to a slow start. Then, as I said, almost no one even missed that the September free house didn’t come out. So a couple of people finally reached out and talked me back into it. The world needs free stitch-a-longs, so why be cheap about it? I will have a FREE tiny Haunted House over the weekend most likely.

Here is the link– bookmark it if you want to make a Village of twelve houses over the next year. If you missed the first two, they are now $1.49 each.

Lil Village Stitch-a-long

I did make a list of ways you can help my website without spending a dime, but I’m sure it will be universally ignored. And I sure don’t want to berate my readers here– because you are all not the problem! There’s a lot of grab ‘n go embroiderers out there. Why complain?

So what I’m going to do, is make “upgrade” kits for a low price to help support the work. This has been successful in the past. Here is the haunted house upgrade– a whole “BOOLEVARD” of houses!

The upgrade kit will also include files to make these separately as tiny bowl fillers.

I’m starting to test them today and I think they will be fun to make.

I’ve managed to hand cross stitch this far on my new project– no, I didn’t finish the 12 stitches it would take to wrap up Moonbeams first! If you follow me, you know I love hand stitching, sewing, machine embroidery– needles of any type. I picked 16ct fabric for this, and it’s getting easier as I go along. I’m trying a hoop this time.

That’s all folks! I’m off to wash the bedding and kill all the spiders in my bathroom for Guests #3. Mr. SFO wants lobster dinner this time–it’s a short visit. So I’m about two days away from a blissfully unscheduled November, December, January, February… let’s see how long I can make it last!

xox
Carol