Carefree Highways is a pieced top!

After all of the moaning last time (thank you for your patience), I had a really wonderful week! Both top and bottom ribbons were appliqued onto the borders, and all four borders got sewn on. It was a bit like cow wrangling, but I pressed on.

A few fun statistics– I started digitizing these blocks in July of 2020 with Alabama– what else was I going to do with my lockdown time? I intended to go through alphabetically through the states, one every two weeks. Someone from Wyoming immediately complained– haha. So I then started doing random, fun groups of five– states beginning with “New” and “North”, heartland states, states with a national park in them– which ending up being a lot more fun anyway. I ended with Iowa in May of 2022. No offense, Iowans.

I did write the quilt pattern very shortly after that, but I’ve only seen one amazing person’s finish. After the first hand look at the assembly process, I should’ve given that person heartier congratulations than I did! Anyway, my personal blocks sat in a box until earlier this year, when I realized next year is our nation’s big 250th anniversary. What better time to have it completed?

So it was quite a high to see it– bigger ‘n a barn door– in one piece. The DD said, “The founding fathers would be tickled.” I’m tickled.

I went right into loading it to the longarm. I’m crediting the cooling breezes of fall for making this chore seem easier than it was. If you ever complain about what your longarmer charges, believe me when I say it is not half enough!

My goal was to have it loaded by September 1st, but the ribbon borders were a little bit of that “raising of the bar” I love to do to myself. So I’m a week late, but instead of adding pressure to myself, I’m taking a try my best approach. At best, I’ll end with something show-worthy– at worst, my family will have an amazing quilt to pull out in 2076 for the 300th anniversary.

At this writing, I do have a little bit of stabilization done on the longarm. My first step is just to go back and forth along the rows. I double-batted this quilt– cotton and wool– and you can see there’s tremendous POOF. That isn’t helping me stitch carefully in the ditch. I’m hoping to get that done this week. Then I have vague plans in my head for three more passes of star points, blue areas, and finally the red and white striped blocks, one each week. That will bring us to October to start the machine embroidery border quilting. I’ve already started sketching it, and it’s fabulous and monumental. I’ll show you next week. It still seems like a push for the November 6th AQS deadline, but I’ve already made peace with both of these ideas– it might not come out good enough and it might not even be done. xox

After all that work, I took a day off. I had a funny dream a few days ago– Mr. SFO, the DD, and I were sitting on a park bench, just people watching and chatting. I finally said, “I hate to tell you, but I think this is a dream! We are always working and would NEVER just sit around and enjoy ourselves like this!”

They both rolled their eyes, so I said, “Fine. You two just go and do whatever you want. I’m going back to sleep!” 🙂

We didn’t exactly sit around– it’s apple picking season! But it was a badly needed day off for all of us.

The drought didn’t seem to affect apple production at all! The orchard had a program where you could adopt a tree– for $60, you could have a tree for the season with all of its apples. That’s a lot of apples!

They had neat rows of McIntosh, Cortland, Macoun, and my favorite– Honeycrisp!

I’ll never willingly pass by a sign with a cutout in it.

Best of all, there was a BAKERY right next door! Mine was the Pistachio cream filled croissant. I’d definitely say I worked off the calories though.

Back on the Meadow, all my “embroiderer’s block” I was having just disappeared! We’re going to do a little “Halloween Twist” project this year, and I have at least one other blockbuster, never done before project in mind.

Unfortunately, I can’t make Halloween Twist be a free stitch-a-long this year. I’m releasing it all at once. To get a feel for how much exposure I would get for a free project, I put up a Facebook post asking who was interested. As of this writing, I got 15 likes, even with paying to have it advertised. I have never understood why my group does not get the engagement that other small embroidery websites get on social media, but I just have to live with it– of course, you are all too busy in your sewing rooms sewing, and not wasting time scrolling, right? 🙂

Now that Carefree Highways is loaded, my sewing machine is freed up to get back to a little fun sewing! I can’t stand behind the long arm for hour after hour, as dictated by my shoulders. So first up, I’m going to try to finish the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine pattern I was making with my Pioneer Woman fabric. Only one more block to go– it should really stitch up fast. I had planned this as a Christmas gift– are you planning Christmas gift sewing yet? It’s time!

I also signed up for a class! It’s in October at a local quilt shop. I’m sure you’ve seen this Posh Penelope quilt on social media. I’ve had my eye on it for quite awhile and my family suggested I take the class to get out of the house the week I was crabby! Maybe I should be crabby more often. But it’s time to do something else beside cute stitch and flip blocks, and this is curves.

I’m not planning something huge– maybe just three blocks would make a nice table runner. Again, I’m thinking Christmas gift.

Something else I pre-ordered– just in trying to get better longarm skills, I’ve been watching a lot of Angela Walters videos– she’s a treasure trove. So I noticed some are keyed into completing panels that she sells. This is a brand new one, with free videos upcoming to show how to free-motion it. (Aha– I just realized how much I’m into Christmas right now!)

And then, because I’m sure I’m going to want to make this into a bigger project, I bought Angela’s coordinating prints that she was selling. They are bright and modern.

Don’t worry– this project is planned for Christmas of 2026! Obviously, I can’t put it on the longarm until Carefree Highways is OFF!

Finally, I got one last package this week!

Yes, more chickens! Did you know they can be sent in the mail? Apparently, for about three days after they hatch, they still have yolk being absorbed into their bodies as food. So these little cuties started off in Ohio, before arriving at Sugar Meadow a couple of days later! We ordered these “fancy” chicks in April, then promptly forgot about it– SURPRISE! We wanted to add a few breeds that you can’t find at Tractor Supply. A friend with too much salty humor asked me if I’m trying to get one of each kind. No. No, I am not.

So that’s all the goings on ongoing at Sugar Meadow Farm. Fall has me in a high good humor– hope you are, too.

xox
Carol