This is traditionally a very tough time of year for me, and this year, having had snow cover for three plus months now with temps often in the negatives, it’s even worse! Usually, all it takes is a visit to the chicken coop to cheer me up, but I’m seeing it on all the girls’ faces now– so cranky with each other, and Poppy, our rooster, is particularly out of sorts, not even wanting to come out of the coop on most days. The look on his face!

This beavering away at projects is getting old, too! I’m going for a nice walk outside today as it’s going to be in the fifties. The sap is starting to run. We’re getting there, right? Here is a progress /shot of our snow boulder, being gently lowered back down to the ground and shaped into a stalagmite by a torrential rain we had. It looks kinda sad, too, in its own way.

I threw myself into Harlow’s birthday quilt this week– one thing at a time is the current mantra! Cake has been assembled, frosted, and plated.

The original quilt had a heart at the top– I’m substituting a #1 for the big birthday! It isn’t black, that’s just a printout I made for the applique shape.

I needed 36 pieced 2″ finished hearts and kept all my parts chain-pieced together to avoid losing them. Each heart has eight pieces. I was still four hearts short. A metaphor for the week– I lost heart!

My points look great, but the outside edges of the blocks are a bit irregular. I would never try to square up something small like this– they’re gonna need every little bit of seam allowance they can get.

I’m a bit disappointed at how little this quilt is coming out for the effort– even with my added border, it’s still a wall hanging size. No matter how I remind myself to check out the pattern size before I make a quilt, it’s always a surprise!

The last bit of handstitching is finished on my first Sweet Land applique. I added an extra piece to make it mine! Can you spot it? The missing corner I cut out is a clue.

Then, for the daily hand stitching hour, I launched right back into the Christmas stocking and the birch trees are almost finished on the left.

It’s like this designer knows the meadow– same birch trees!

I made a fantastic discovery with my iPad! So, I have been scanning the cross-stitch pattern and printing it out very large, but invariably my printout is too light, some stitches have been cut off, etc. etc. There are now sheaves of printouts all over the coffee table. In an instance where I just needed to see a couple of symbols that were a little blurry, I decided to use my iPad camera as a magnifying glass. Doubtless, many of you, my followers, do this to read the fine print on medicine bottles!

In a moment of inspiration (or maybe I’ve seen people doing this a thousand times, but it just sank in) I realized I could just take a picture of the whole pattern and then zoom in where I’m working. Is this big enough for you? 🤣 In Procreate, I can save it and then even cross off parts that are finished or make note of a color I ran out of.

It was a moment of happiness for me this week, when I realized I have now extended my cross-stitch career well into my nineties while also clearing papers off Mr. SFO’s side of the coffee table. He was excited. The iPad does come with its own set of problems though– making sure it’s charged, finding out how to stop it from shutting off every two minutes, and not checking eBay every five minutes for “quilt kit.”

Another bright spot this week– I went into my favorite LQS and they were setting up a whole display of cross stitch floss! I’m a little shy about taking pictures in shops since I once got kicked out, so I’ll have to describe it. It was about seven feet tall and round, a rotating display with dozens of skeins hanging in all 500 colors. I know the people at the shop pretty well now, and the shop owner’s husband was setting it up- all the colors were loose in a huge box and had to be sorted and placed on little hooks. When he saw my enthusiasm, he jokingly offered to let me help set it up! Talk about asking the right person, because I would have stood there for two hours ogling and hanging gorgeous colors for no pay. Unfortunately, my daughter was with me, so I couldn’t do it. But now I have a source for ALL the colors I need, at least until the display gets picked over right? I really hope this ends up being a good money maker for them– I’ll make it so. They also had a new section of patterns, so I bought this one, which I would love to make someday, but mostly I just wanted to be the first cross stitch customer. 😊

The Patriotic Village is coming along. So cute! Look for Betsy Ross, Uncle Sam, and the Liberty Bell more towards the end of next week– flat and stuffed for tiny bowl fillers as I’ve been making for this series.

I’m finally made progress on the display board for this series– we’re deciding between fancy or plain edges, and saying or no saying? What would the saying be? Home Sweet Home? Weigh in below, if you have an opinion. I’m making little legs so it can stand up.

So that’s about it! A little warmth, a little grass, a few snowdrops popping from the ground would work wonders in restoring my enthusiasm. I intend to take two or three days off next week to take care of some family things and honestly, it will be nice to put my needle down and just take a break. Hope wherever you are, the weather is being kind.

xox
Carol