Finally!

The encoder arrived yesterday while we were out and about with mom in West Branch. Boy did we see some beautiful colors in our travels. I think we're at peak right now and it's breathtaking with our cloudy, overcast day.

While installing the encoder this morning we ran into this...

Huh?

The plug was the same size as the prong receiver. A call to Gall and after eventually talking to Jason, we figured it out (the plug casing came off the old encoder and had to be removed). After a test run with DW to see if the encoder was indeed the problem, showed us that IT WAS! He's stitching beautifully now!

Jim is loading Cindy's backing right now to start getting it frame ironed.

Meanwhile, after getting home from our birthday fun, I finished my BOM block for month four...

Not my usual color scheme, but pretty nonetheless

That didn't take too long and so cut and pieced my next BOW resulting in this...

I love the mitten!

I'm writing late today because we were technicians first thing while a storm rolled through on DW, and we had planned on heading to an estate sale in Cadillac. But with the poopy weather and all, we decided to just stay home today and putter around here.

We were gone all day yesterday, and frankly, I need to start pulling together stuff for my retreat starting tomorrow night. 

I may work on my strip top or maybe another BOM, or, or, or we'll see where the wind takes me today in the studio. I should probably long arm a little bit on customer stuff since I did pretty much take yesterday off, so there's that. 

Still Nothing

No encoder yet. I probably could have walked to Lansing and back in the time it's taking to get up here. Meanwhile, I had one customer visit with three drop-offs yesterday. Jim had family stop by in the late afternoon for a visit and then I received a call from the kids in Germany to ask about baby movements and lack thereof. 

Needless to say, not much quilting happened and after Aunt June and Deb left, I was way out of a long arming state of mind. I started to work on month five of my BOM and I also prepped as much as I could of my BOW for today. Some of the pieces in the log cabin can be assembled prior to getting the block.

Here's some of the quilting going into the quilt on Bernie...

Can you see the broom and the pumpkin?

I forgot to snag pics yesterday while I was working. 

Today is a half day as we are going out to lunch with mom and then doing some grocery shopping after. And, I didn't get up until 9:09 this morning because Mr. Mouse decided to serenade me with some chewing in my bedroom wall until after 4:00 this morning. Jim want down and set several traps this morning. It's that time of the year.  

I'm hoping to get a little long arming in before we leave but I'm not counting on it as I am working with Jim again this morning on loading a quilt top, measuring for the batting, and basting in. 

USPS Is Stupid

The encoder for DW was sent from Lansing last Tuesday. The previous day I sent Lia a birthday card to Germany. She's already gotten her card. I still haven't gotten the encoder. See, USPS is stupid!

Joyces quilt was finished on Bernie in the morning. The Labrador was started yesterday afternoon and last night, while Jim was talking Ben through raising the corner of his garage, I finished the lab up. I thought I took a pic of the quilting going in but apparently not.

Here's something I encountered yesterday though...

Oops. 

I fixed it as best as I could. Today I'll be working on this Halloween top that came in earlier this week...

A rush job for the holiday

Jim is loading another Wensleydale onto Marty. This next one is an E2E, which I sketched out on my iPad last night. Since DW can't 'drive' the motif, I'm going to kind of E2E and kind of custom do it. But first, the one on Bernie needs to be tackled. 

A lawyer has been hired to work on Jims work comp denial. He's furious with Jims company and what they are trying to get away with. Meanwhile, since the denial arrived, Jim's boss won't return his phone calls. According to the attorney, Jim should have been on disability after his ankle was pinned four years ago, and Jim is now, unofficially, retired. He's going to be assisting in the studio with all the time consuming steps to getting a quilt on and off the frame, while I concentrate on the actual quilting. 

Getting the Rhythm

Oft times it takes me a while, when working a quilt, to find my quilting rhythm. How to travel from here to there with minimal thread breaks. Or, as in yesterday, getting all the motifs stitched in so having to go back and fill what I missed is minimized. 

This is one of those spots where I finally got my rhythm...

Getting ready to put in the 1/4" echo

I missed this repeatedly when I first started. Probably because I was worried about ditching the area around the rectangle, which is also needed.

I timed myself to see how long it takes just to do one colored section of this quilt...

 Nearly 4 1/2 minutes

Which doesn't seem like much, does it? There are 11 colored sections in every other row. Let's round up and say it takes me five minutes. Times 11. That's nearly an hour per colored row. Now I have to advance the quilt to do the next row and baste everything down before I can even get started. 

This is why custom quilting takes so long. This is why I'm still working on Joyces quilt today. But by lunch time it should be finished. 

Here's what I'll be working on this afternoon...

Going to make this come to life

This is for a Hale guild member and she's going to be putting it on the wall. I think it's actually for one of her kiddos. 

The phone was hopping yesterday with well wishes from family and friends for my birthday. But, we received some disturbing news just before lunch in that the work comp claim for Jims fall two weeks ago was denied. Our neighbor, who used to work in HR at GM, gave a little advice, and Jim is going to be trying to get to the bottom of this today. 

Meanwhile, and for the time being, I'm the sole income now for us and wow does that put a lot of weight on my shoulders. But, that's life. We deal with it. We move on. It's not the first time we've been in a pinch and I'm sure it won't be the last either. We are the DeGroots after all and seem to have our share of events not fall in our favor. 

Happy Birthday To Me

Yep, today's my birthday. 61 years young and counting. I have a few wishes from folks via text, FB, and WhatsApp. I'm not sure why people do that on FB since I don't generally get on there, but the thought is nice and sweet.

To brighten the day

The flowers are from my mom and the card/gift card are from the A family. Jim and I are going out to celebrate this weekend since I have to work today.

Back to quilting. I may have a customer coming over to drop off but that's tentative. I'll be continuing on with Joyces quilt today and if I hunker down, may be able to get it done. I had a (check this out) three and a half hour long conversation with a lady from Alaska while I was working yesterday afternoon.

Not only did we discuss quilting and some tops she is looking to have quilted, but life discussions were also at the forefront. It was like I knew her all my life. I love making new friends and this was a pleasurable conversation that not only opened my eyes to a few things, but passed the time while I was working. 

The evening was spent at campfire with Bellers. It was a gorgeous night; no wind, clear skies, and the temps hung in the low 60's, so nothing in the way of piecing or cutting was done. I'm hoping the new encoder will arrive today so we can get DW back up and running. 

I've just ordered a new Dream batting to try for customers. I have a few who will not (will not, will not) let me put wool in their quilts, but would like the same definition wool provides in the quilting work. It's called Dream Puff and has the same (if not a bit more) loft as wool, but is a fine spun denier poly that is very warm and easy to quilt. I'm going to try it in one of my own tops first and then see what customers think. Off to work I go. 

Even Small Things Matter

While we were indeed gone ALL DAY yesterday, not arriving back home until after 9:00 last night, I did manage to get some pieces cut before leaving (my quilt fix for the day).

A few pieces cut

The good thing about funerals is seeing family and friends not often seen and getting caught up on life. Four of our grand kiddos were there and I managed to snag a pic of two of them...

Hannah

Elijah with Andrew (my eldest) in the background

Andrew did not bring his kids; these are two of Bens four. Andrew is my business manager and we actually touched on a few things while we were visiting after the service.

More on Joyces quilt today. Yep, that's about my day ahead, other than a new chair being delivered for Jim 

Funeral Day

We are headed downstate here in a few minutes but thought I could blog before we left. Putting together sandwiches didn't take as long as I had anticipated. 

I got my BOW done...

Need to post yet on FB

After that was completed, I loaded the VW bus onto Marty and started quilting that...

Cute!

After lunch I quilted some more and actually got it done. I pulled it off the frame and Jim had a ball game to watch so started working on the back part of the pillow. I put a zipper closure in the back so the exterior could be washed.

Andrew called on his way to Michigan and while talking to him, got the back done and then bound it. I had JUST enough stuffing to get the inside form made and here's the finished pillow...

A Christmas gift for Jims sister

I hope she likes it. After I finished that in the late afternoon, I turned to designing the strip quilt top for the QAL with Natalia Bonner. I think I have everything worked out and it's a good thing I did lay it down on graph paper because I would have did it wrong as I was thinking about it in my head. The fabric for the background strips is ironed and waiting for me to cut out. 

DW's encoder won't make it tomorrow as it is Columbus Day which means no mail delivery. GRR!