My biggest assignment last week was to finish painting our little tractor barn— check! Each day I set myself a goal— twelve boards, the piece around the stove pipe, half of the back, etc. etc., and every day I failed. But at the last minute, Mr. SFO jumped in to help me finish the front, in the blazing heat no less. So, I lost the daily battle, but I won the war!

I sometimes wonder if I am making my goals too hard— what is the point of a goal if it’s easy? I’ll have to do some more overthinking on that– very applicable to quilting as well.

I did make quilty progress at night as I went up to Craftopia for at least an hour every day.

The star baby quilt is a flimsy…

This was Frivol Kit #11 from 2016 and it is lovely. I used all of the small floral on white prints for the border, so the stars would be more solid and I think it works. Super easy to make and BIG. It’s a BIG baby quilt!

And Single Scoop is off the longarm!

It’s another imperfect finish— one of my ice cream bottoms was flipped, and the tension on the back left a little to be desired. I think it’s a function of just cleaning my poor machine– I don’t have time right now.

I did swirls for the ice cream, a grid for the cones, and then a double wavy line for the background. I saw some background quilting like this at the Maine Quilt Show and it seemed easier than the straight line quilting I had planned— after the cones, more ruler work wasn’t in my future. So here it is— it is FINE, if not perfect right? Trust me, this will be the only custom, personalized ice cream quilt that the bride receives. I am going to (machine bind)– oh, the horror! I’m hoping to get it in the mail this week.

Most of my quilts this year have been HUGE— I just can’t ask the residents of Sugar Meadow Farm to get the ladders out again for photography. So my tall friend, Mr. Frostee, helped me when I stopped by his place one day. I told you I was making a lot of new friends up here!

This week was the annual Skowhegan Fair— I love a county fair and would never miss one, though it was somewhat disappointing this year. The crafts were very sparse, especially!

Are we so short of money and free time in life that this is what it’s coming to? I’m not allowed to enter a quilt, because I’m professional, but I could dig up a scrapbook page, felted ornaments, or my real goal— a pie of some sort and contribute to the cause next year. It requires you to drop off and pickup which is a driving commitment. I will keep it in mind. Maybe someday I could make a quilt like this, if my pies were good enough!

The Skowhegan Fair requires chicken entries to be there for the full ten days of the show. The staff is notorious for not keeping their water filled– granted, I know from experience they probably spill it every five minutes. But it’s hard to look at a poor bird panting in the heat and I was as close as I ever was to saying something! That little girl on the extreme right had HAD IT.

I do enjoy seeing the animals, though, but Mr. SFO is not that interested to go to the fair next year. Big news– we just put a deposit down on two baby goats! So I’ll have my own little darlings and will make sure they have water and treats all day. ❤️

Finally, the Summer Sampler saw a good deal of progress on CAMP. I figured out the solid coverage background is trying to look like a piece of parchment— if you can’t tell how far I got, well, neither can I.

And I finally figured out this is a tiny flag that fits in six stitches within the oval…

I love this cross stitch for all the fun little things within it, but “Camp” isn’t easy. Occasionally, Mr. SFO will ask me how my stitching is going at night. Last week, and I had to tell him it was awful! What we have is three very like colors randomly stitched on a background of a very like color.

He said, “What about the Yellow Peril?”

I instantly knew what he was talking about, and wow!, he really pulled that out of the hat! The Yellow Peril was a puzzle I was working on about the time we started dating— it was circular, and all YELLOW! I always loved a challenge, so yes, I was crazy enough to buy this thing at a local hobby shop in the late 70s.

Wondering if he had recalled the name correctly, I immediately searched eBay and there it was! Three cheers for the amazing memory of Mr. SFO!

I never finished The Yellow Peril— college, coming of age, a new boyfriend! all got in the way. Whatever I had done was disassembled and most like sold at a garage sale. I am not likely to pay $35 for it on eBay— it was too hard and it was boring, to be honest. Despite not meeting another goal, what a fun memory to relive all these years later.

I am just about a week off of surgery at this point— as if you didn’t know, as if everyone in my circle didn’t know at this point! It’s very present in my mind. This week is all about getting meals frozen, prepping things to do— a book, TV shows to catch up on– but maybe I’ll just pull out a puzzle!

xox
Carol