Goodbye 2020, hello 2021!

Our Christmas festivities were very low key in keeping with the year just gone…

It was lovely to have Julia’s family with us. The bathroom is fully refreshed (pending four screws…). We didn’t take a whole lot of pictures but here’s the work crew relaxing on Christmas Eve, complete with Ruby’s new tiger!Our family picture sums it up…Everybody made it to the Christmas afternoon Zoom call but not everyone was happy to be there? 😀

We had to record the knitted hats after a neighborhood stroll when we realized I had made them all… let’s not try and decide who wore it best…I think Ruby is the clear winner. Some people could have done with a little styling advice?

I did manage some Christmas stitching. Two more butterflies.

I have an idea for a project which will include all my latest Folk Art/Sashiko style embroideries but I’m still working out the details.

Meanwhile, with the Kindlers returned to Rockford and the laundry underway, it was time to cut up some fabric and stitch it back together again. Where better to start than with a fat quarter stack of Leslie Tucker Jenison’s Warehouse District fabrics? They had been sitting on the side in my sewing room since I bought them a few months back.

Let’s begin by opening and pressing them all with my birthday/Christmas present!
My new Laurastar iron certainly gets everything good and flat!

I drew up a quick and easy block, cut out my pieces and got to stitching. Each block is 10″ square so 16 blocks makes a 40″ square little quilt. This is how far I got the first day. Just not quite enough time to get the last few seams sewn together.I came back to them the next day and finished stitching.Do you like my design floor? I need to work on something to be able to have a wall for design work…

Time to layer and baste. Just over 200 pins later…
I am just about out of cotton batting. It’s time to order some more but I have lots of wool. It makes for a lovely light and lofty finish. I went with a simple straight line grid, 1/4″ either side of the seam lines. I had pressed all my seams open so the quilting will keep everything super stable when the quilt gets washed.But what to do for a binding? I had pressed some solid fat quarters when I was getting ready to design my quilt but had gone with the cream solid yardage in my stash instead. How about the rusty orange? the fat quarter cut into 2 1/4″ strips was just enough!Carrie Bloomston’s newsprint fabric makes a beautiful backing. All done!I think some hand stitching would look good but not this week. My calendar is full for January and I have things to do…

I got myself organized back in November and ordered custom thread packs for my basic embroidery classes from House of Embroidery. Time to stitch new samples.

This is my Introduction to Folk Art Embroidery sampler. I have a mix of sampler colors. The threads will go with any of them. Each student will get the pre-printed sampler, threads, needles, embellishments and a copy of my new stitch guide booklet.I am very happy with the way everything works together.I ordered a mix of perle cotton weights for my Dimensional Embroidery class kits. There is 8 weight for most of the stitching and a 5 weight variegated thread for stitching the trellis stitch. Those drizzle stitches always make me smile 😀There’s only a couple of days left to sign up for classes at CREATE DIY so that I can get the kits out in time. The link is at the side if you are interested. If you miss it this time I’m sure there will be another opportunity to take either class in 2021. I’ll keep you posted.

2020 wasn’t quite what I had planned, I had a full schedule on my calendar and we know what happened to that. At the start of 2021 I have a fair number of bookings but who knows? I get inquiries for a few weeks out these days, rather than months ahead. I am still taking advance in person bookings for late 2021 and into 2022. I think those will happen. I have booked my hotel room for Houston in October. I’m going to keep Zooming as long as people want me and try to keep making so that I will have new classes to offer. I had an idea for a fun improv class while I was showering this morning…

My butterfly book was published back in September. I had lots of plans to celebrate. I’m a bit behind with those! If you have purchased Butterfly Stitches, thank you! If you have stitched any of the designs I would love it if you would share them with me via email so that I can show the world. It’s always great to see what other people have stitched using the designs.

Thanks for sticking with me in 2020. Let’s just wait and see what 2021 brings…

Happy Stitching!