Congratulations to Hap Purcey in SW Florida who won a blue ribbon earlier this year with her gorgeous “Flowers of the Month” quilt!

After hearing her machine embroidery work being compared to “just pushing a button” at an earlier show, she persisted. We salute you, Hap, and assure you, your friends here know just how much heart and soul went into this.

I’m sure many of you machine embroidery fans come across this “push a button” attitude if you’ve ever entered a quilt in a show. We’ve all been hearing about AI so much lately, I’ve wonder if quilting will eventually come down to just pushing a button for all of us. This past week, I saw the “Optimus” robot vacuuming– it looks just like a human. Well, sorry, but I already have a ROOMBA that does the same thing. Next I saw the robot flipping a pancake which was a bit more impressive. But all I saw was a short clip– did it first FIND the pancake mix in the cabinet, then crack the eggs(??), get out the milk and then PUT IT AWAY prior to the flip? I doubt it. I’ll bet the dishes didn’t make it to the sink, either!

When you think about quilting– will a robot ever have the dexterity to sort through a pack of mini-charm squares? Could it pick out two squares that “pleased” it and sew them together? Press the seams to the dark side– haha!? Repeat multiple times to make a quilt? I am sorry, but I just don’t see it. We are never going to be replaced!

In that spirit, I’ll show you all the things that I “pressed a button” for this week.

First up, the Year on Sugar Meadow block got done. I promised myself I would get it out earlier in the month this time, and I did– it was on the 30th, not the 31st if you noticed. 🙂

I’m promising myself the same thing this month, but it’s going to be a busy one! I’m questioning right now why I am taking time to write the blog right now. I have a trip to Georgia and one to South Carolina this month– that leaves me two weeks.

Back to AI– There is a “push a button” function in my digitizing software to automatically produce a design from a photograph. One problem– this wasn’t a photo! Unless the software can reach into my mind, there’s no button for this…

…never mind stitching it out and then make decisions about stitch angles, blending, colors. Thank you to all who are stitching with me– it’s coming from out hearts!

First up this week, I trimmed 48 state blocks up for Carefree Highways. Two are missing, boohoo. Alaska and Maine. I vaguely remember making a gift from the Maine block, but no clue where Alaska went. There’s a chart to check off all of your states currently on the SALE page here. That’s how I knew what was missing!

Here’s a little machine embroidery tip for you. Machine embroidery wastes more fabric than foundation paper piecing, in my experience. All that extra fabric to hoop things. Instead of making your hooped fabric as small as possible, make it larger. That way, after you trim your piece out, you have a generous enough piece to use for something else. If you look in the upper right of the photograph, I got all those squares ready to make flying geese for the next step, out of fabric I trimmed from my state blocks. That’s my next step– 200 flying geese. I sure wish there was a button for that! I’m hoping to progress that this month– somehow.

Another button pushed and I finished custom quilting the blocks on Moonbeams. I’ve now re-rolled back to the top to do the background quilting. I’m hoping I can get all my swirl and hooks done in 3-4 days. Lets hope they don’t start to get bigger as I go along! So proud of this work, but I’m ready for it to be over. Besides the start button on my longarm, no buttons have been pushed in the creation of this product.

But I wish there was– I need my longarm freed up! The first trip I’m taking is to Georgia, to visit my sister-in-law and my niece. They have had a hard time of it since our brother-in-law died– apparently, my SIL didn’t take care of herself while she was taking care of her dear husband and is now battling health problems of her own. I’d love to give both of them a “HUG” with a nice quilt-y gift.

My niece and I have a big thing in common– we both love Halloween! I want to just get the binding on my Jeepers Creepers throw quilted last year, and get it out of the closet and into some appreciative arms.

For my sister-in-law, I picked out this Robin Picken’s table runner also sitting around since last year– this one still has to be quilted, but once I have my longarm back, I’ll just press the button for straight line quilting and quickly finish it. I think if I bind on the plane, I could do it! have you noticed the “Binding” button to press on the back of the airline seats? But seriously, have you ever had to sit next to a stitcher on a plane– I’m sure the arm bumping is worse than a baby crying. Fortunately, Mr. SFO has been assigned the seat next to mine, so no viral TikTok videos of angry passengers will result.

I love that Robin Picken’s table runner pattern, and I have this wonderful kit like it on my bucket list for this year– just press the button! You can tell I don’t have a robot– look at those socks!

Finally it’s the Holly Horse! I pushed a button, and page one is complete!

This thing is so beautiful, I’ve had trouble taking my eyes off of it. I think it’s because I haven’t done any of this large blended cross stitch work in a long time. The back stitch went quickly– just four days– see how the design really crisped up from where I was last time? It’s almost like it comes into focus. People who complain about backstitching are usually quite content to stitch large areas of the same color– that’s a hard NO! for me. Give me a complicated chart any day.

Here is the back. Unlike my house, I like my cross stitch backs to be neat.

Well, you say– I got my metallic thread from the Etsy shop! No such luck. They cancelled my order but didn’t cancel the payment– that’s one button I did push with my credit card– STOP PAYMENT! Because of my teen fantasy of becoming a defense attorney I always protect the guilty, so I won’t name them. Besides, I am not one to criticize anyone else’s business plan when my own needs work– they probably just forgot.

So where do you think the gold thread came from? It was hiding in plain sight. I’ve been thinking about using what I have lately, and the lightbulb went off– I had no less than three choices of gold embroidery thread stuffed away in my random thread color drawer while I waited three weeks for an unreliable Etsy seller. Duh!

I did a respectable job on the lazy daisies in the medallions– no, LAZY DAISY button to push there, either. Every time I make one, I have to figure out how to do it all over again!

Next up, is page 2– I’ll start the rest of horsey’s nose and the toe end of the stocking which has more holly in it. There’s 4 pages in all– at this rate, five weeks per page, I could be done by the end of September. The “ornement gratuit”– no thanks.

I now have a full week with no appointment or responsibilities– let’s get pushing all the buttons and making all the things!

xox
Carol