Long Projects

The new studio is definitely a very long project. We're at 10 months already and still things to be done. He said, when he started the project, to give him a year. Looks like it'll be close to that. 

And then I have my long project. While the Mary, Mary quilt wasn't huge by any means, the amount of thread going in and the time- consuming motifs I selected to insert into the quilt took a long while to complete.  

Mary, Mary

See what I mean about a lot of thread?!

While DW was stitching on Martha's quilt I worked on this one. Then, I loaded Martha's quilt incorrectly and found myself having to unload it, cut a section of backing for the bottom, sewing that on, reloading, and then starting again. 

Marthas quilt is done. Because I had to frame iron for the next one on DW, I continued with Dianes quilt and that's how I got it finished. I'm just waiting for the marks to fade before calling her.

Meanwhile, this is on DW today...

Pat's embroidered braid

The white sections are all embroidered and the braids are done in batiks. However, look at the top border. I haven't basted in yet, but I can see already there's going to be an issue. Again with the borders waving at me. I love a good people wave; I do not love a good quilt top wave. Wish me luck. 

Short Week

This week is going to be a short one for Jim and I. We have a Masters hooding on Thursday (DIL) and a Military Commissioning ceremony (Son) on Friday. Saturday we have a birthday party (G-SON). All of these take place in Lansing/East Lansing in the mid-afternoon with luncheons and dinners prior to and after the activity. 

Because we know we have a short week coming, we worked most of yesterday morning and part of the afternoon. Jim attached the boards onto the porch/deck and I quilted Justin and Sabrinas baby quilt. 

I had to set up a temporary sewing station in the backroom and then attach the binding onto said quilt. After I located my walking foot which was MIA for a bit there. 

Cute set!

DW is currently empty but I'll be frame ironing the next backing while I'm working on Dianes quilt some more. It's nice to have a quilt on Bernie to fill in the gaps between DW quilts. 

Sunny Sunday

It's sunny out there, but not very warm. I finished Carla S.'s quilt yesterday, built the rest of Justin and Sabrinas baby quilt, removed Carlas quilt from DW and then loaded on Justin and Sabrinas quilt. I'll be letting DW stitch that out today while I work a little more on condensing/cleaning the [old] studio.

Done with a layette bag to match

Loaded and ready to go

Speaking of studio, Jim worked in the new studio yesterday. He has the closets framed in and now come the walls...

Ready to start "walling"

Today, since it's a little nicer outside, he'll be working on the porch for a bit. I don't know how far he'll get since he doesn't have all the supplies and our local lumber yard isn't open on Sunday but he'll do what he can I suppose. 

Just Another Day

When I used to work outside the home, most other folks looked forward to the weekends. Since I worked in the healthcare field (hospital setting), retail, and in the Army Reserves, we worked weekends and they just weren't as big a deal to me. While I was growing up, we had a farm. The animals need feeding every day, twice a day, and there is no time off at all. The same holds true for self-employment. We work when we can and oft times it's during the weekend.

Here's what I'm working on today...

Some of the quilting detail

This quilt is almost 2/3's of the way completed. I'm hoping to knock the rest of it out today. Jim is on-call this weekend so we can't wander too far. He's working some more on the beam in the new studio. 

This work weekend is needed since we have three days in a row we need to travel to Lansing next week. College graduations, Officer Commissioning, and a grandchild birthday party. I'll be working longer hours this upcoming week as well to make up for the loss. But the perks of being self-employed is that I can adjust accordingly which allows me to be able to attend such functions without having to grovel to some power tripping boss for time off. Happy Saturday. 

Minor Touch Ups

As the new studio is being finished, things hit the walls, or we find an area that needs a little bit of TLC. The drywall in the bathroom at the GFI plug needed to be fixed, which Jim did. I touched up the paint this morning and will replace the cover later when it's dry. Except for the pocket door handle and maybe some trim, the bathroom is pretty much done.

Jim is still working on the beam. He ran out of long screws last night and we don't want that thing coming down in the middle of the night. He did get another rough wall up on the closet though so progress is occurring. 

Meanwhile, in the old studio front, Tina's quilt is finished and already picked up. I had three other quilts picked up yesterday too, so now the waiting room is less populated. 

It says, "The Great Lake State" on the bottom

Here's what's on DW today...

Ring Around the Posies

This is basted in, ditched, and already started before I finally shut the machine off yesterday. While I was frame ironing, I of course, was working on Dianes Mary, Mary quilt. Those pebbles take for-e-ver! I'll continue on with DW work today though. 

Machine Shut Down

When we have severe lightning coming through, the big machines HAVE to be shut down. Unplugged. Removed from the outlet. I can NOT risk an electrical short in my investment. Yesterday afternoon proved to be one of those situations. 

I was working on this quilt for Tina...

For the Michigan Shop Hop

and it started getting really dark. I mean dark enough to fire up the solar lights on the deck. It was black in the south and I heard the wind start coming through the woods south of us. And then it hit. I immediately checked to see if there was a tornado warning and only a severe thunderstorm warning was issued.

Needless to say, there was lightning and lots of it. Shut down. Unplug. Remove from wall outlets. Do something else until it blows through. How about this quilt I'm making for Justin and Sabrina?

Baby quilt for their first baby

The storm only lasted about an hour and then I had the machines fired back up and was back on schedule.

I'll continue with Tina's quilt today. I have a new customer coming this morning to drop off and a previous customer coming this afternoon to pick up and a possible drop off. 

I had a nice conversation with a fellow long armer down in South Carolina. She's fairly new (under a year) and is going to be quilting the snowflake quilt I did for Linda M. about two years ago. But she's nervous about doing it as she is generally only an E2E quilter. That snowflake is a heavy free motion/ruler piece. And her customer wants it done exactly as I did it for Linda. I may end up seeing it here if the long armer feels like she's taking on too much with it. 

She had other questions about the business and general best practices. The teacher in me started coming out while we were talking and after an hour I think I've made a new friend. She is such a nice lady and I hope she succeeds in her long arming endeavor. I'll help any way that I can being so far away. 

While I was talking to her (it was well past business hours), Jim was starting the beam in the new studio...

Starting the beam

We have three more hurdles before the final inspection: That beam, the closet, and the porch. He's working diligently to make this happen and I know he'll succeed. It's just that final month, when everything starts coming together, that the excitement is almost bubbling over!

Lighting

Lighting is everything. Especially when the eyes start aging. Quickly. I've noticed overhead lights even on a cloudy day, despite all my windows, is almost a necessity. The sun is always a big help but today we have clouds. 

Here's some nice lighting to get the whole effect of Maggies quilt that was finished yesterday. I was just getting ready to trim it up and the sun shone through the loft windows just right...

See what proper lighting can do?

I'm loading the next quilt, which came in last night as urgent. Haven't finished frame ironing so no pic on that. Diane's quilt received quite a bit of quilting yesterday while I was waiting for the urgent quilt to arrive. I'll keep chipping away at that as time permits. 

Soapbox: COME GET YOUR QUILTS! Some of these have been here for months. I currently have seven sitting in the waiting room...

Each bag is a quilt waiting to be fetched

I know life happens, blah, blah, blah, but we all have stuff. Be responsible and don't leave me here as a storage unit please. 

I have to research how to get letters into the quilt that came in yesterday. Normally I would use Art and Stitch to do that but it seems to have quit working with the last tablet update on DW. Maybe I should download some fonts instead?!?