The ice age has shown signs of retreating from the meadow despite a few flurries this morning, but what do I care… tomorrow I’m driving down to the balmy breezes of Hartford, Connecticut, for the AQS quilt show! You probably guessed I left all my packing till the last minute, but there’s always time to procrastinate further and chat here, right?

To catch you up on the week’s progress, I’m pretty close to finishing the mushroom baby quilt. This is badly needed for a decoration for our big, beautiful barn baby shower in May. I wish I had gotten it on the longarm before I left, but I still think I have plenty of time to finish it AND make a cute Lori Holt type banner for a centerpiece.

It’s been amusing to try to explain to the men of Sugar Meadow what a diaper cake is. Here’s a visual:

But the real question– does that count as productive work this week? I did sew the bows.

I also took an important step forward in assembling the Year on Sugar Meadow quilt– if you get my emails, you’ve already seen it.

Much math later, the block trimming instructions are written up and added to your Sugar Meadow downloads, if you ever purchased even as much as one block. Sign in and “Access Downloads”– then click on any block in the series and you will see it under the block download. I’ve also gathered a bunch of lightly toned stash fabrics for the center star. Keep whatever you pick subtle enough to show off some fancy quilting on top of it! Stay tuned over the spring and summer.

Back to hand cross stitch! I am almost done with page one of this Christmas stocking beauty and it’s about halfway.

I finished most of the top banner, the deer’s horns, and found some missing fluffs of tree I had to go back and fill in, two or three stitches at a time.

My floss management has really gone to the dogs– there are 50 colors, so I’m not sure anyone could manage them! The cardinals in the tree have 10 or 15 colors in them, so you stitch five crosses, tie off and go to the next color. It slowed me down a bit– I was going to force myself to backstitch this part before starting page two, but now I think I’ll just go back and forth between the two tasks. When I get back, I’m definitely prepping my next Sweet Land block for more applique. If that project gets put down for any length of time, it’s in danger of stopping!

Of course, I need a little TO GO project for my trip. I don’t want to take the stocking at this point, for fear of losing it or spilling something, etc., etc. So, I picked this HO HO HO free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop that matches their free quilt I made. Click on the picture if you’re interested!

I’ve had it kitted up since it came out last summer. Every time I stitch on black, I swear I won’t do it again, but the moth must ever return to the flame!

I probably won’t get much done on it– I’ll be exhausted by the end of the day!

So that’s it for the Sugar Meadow Show– I leave at 8am tomorrow and should be in Hartford by 2-ish. I’m meeting my friend at the hotel, and we’re launching right into a side trip to Colchester Mills Fabric shop about a half hour outside of the city– it came highly recommended from one of my Facebook groups. (A little shop hopping is on the agenda.) I’ll commit to posting one picture of myself in front of Carefree Highways on Facebook and Instagram this week– then give you the full report on the blog, next time! I’ve given up on prize-winning–ridiculous– there are 700 quilts at the show. My family still thinks I’ll be a winner. It’s very sweet of them. I always wear a jean jacket with San Francisco Stitch Co. on the back– give me a hug if you see me!

xox
Carol