Puppies

My silly pup decided to challenge the temporary fence she had around her yard. It was temporary after all. And she is growing much faster than we anticipated. Needless to say, we spent last night installing a new permanent fence for her yard. And we made it much bigger to accommodate her size.

Since I was basically on total puppy watch yesterday, I didn't get much sewing done.

The previous few days have just been cutting. And more cutting. And then when a blister formed on my thumb from all the work, I did some more cutting just to hit the point home.

Pictures of cut strips of fabrics aren't any fun, therefore I'll not include any. But I'm ready for our retreat in January and have two quilt tops (similar in build as they are a log cabin-type of block), but it's mindless sewing and easier for me to do while visiting with all my friends.

After the cutting commenced, I needed to do something tangible. Something quick and fun. Something with a little whimsy and sense of humor. I haven't been able to get Ben's cow out of my head for about a week, and found the book I based the cow off of (It's titled 'Out of the Box with Easy Blocks' by Mary Lou Weidman and Melanie Bautista McFarland).

I started it yesterday and hope to have a completed top at least by the end of today. More to come...

New Guild

The quilt guild I belong to downstate is going to be a thing of the past in a few short weeks. My membership expires on December 31. I am not going to renew. It's too hard to travel down and back for a weekly meeting with a five hour drive round trip. I needed to find a new "home".

I tried a guild north of our new place. Twice. But it doesn't seem to be a good fit. The women there aren't very inquisitive about me and haven't really made an effort to get to know me much. I said something to a few of the ladies that work at a quilt shop near me and they mentioned another guild south of our new house.

I tried them out yesterday. They meet weekly too! Every Monday morning at 9:00-ish and you can bring whatever you want to work on in the four (or so) hours you're together. I brought the Witches along to work on (which is hand embroidery) so that I could talk and get to know the girls without having to talk over a sewing machine.

Yesterday was their Christmas party and they actually wanted me in the pictures when that time came. I already feel like I've been with the group for ages. They welcomed me warmly and were curious about me and the family and my quilting interests.

I haven't been in the studio much the past three days. Saturday dad and Charlotte came for a visit. They loved the art piece I made for them. Sunday we were in Kalkaska all day with my mom picking out our new dining room table/bar to replace the large dining room table we have/had that is too much table for our new house. Yesterday I was at the new guild.

I did manage to fit in some cutting time to prepare for our retreat in January and an occasional Christmas Vintage block that Katie and I have been working on for a few weeks now.

Today I plan on taking advantage of the poopy weather day and getting some "real" work done in here. I'll be doing a lot more cutting up of scraps to prepare for the retreat, but that's not all I plan on doing because the back and hands can only take so much of all of that.

Merry Holidays Everybody

May the holidays find everybody not so busy to be able to enjoy their peace, their companionship, and their friends and families.

I feel like Christmas, in particular, has found such a commercialism opportunity and it's not the reason for the season. Even quilting stores and web sites have used the holiday to try to ply you with "deals" and "values". Hopefully this is a trend that won't stay around long.

For my Christmas giving, I volunteered to quilt five charity quilts for the ASQ guild in Charlotte. Five quilts in 10 days. They were delivered on Wednesday of this week (thank you mom once again for assisting in getting them here and back).

Four of the Five Charity Quilts

The fifth one was on the frame when I snapped the pic, but it was orange, orange, orange.

Hazel seems to be getting bigger by the day.

Hazel at 13 Weeks with her "cigar"

She is learning about studio time and self-play. She tries to "help" me in the studio and I have relegated to giving her left over handles from various bag projects so she feels like she's actually a part of my studio time. 

Since she's getting so much better at independent play she enabled me to actually get this finished this week for my father and his wife Charlotte. They are coming later today for a visit and I made this for them for Christmas. 

The photo and the finished project

Here it is a little closer...

This took me about a week to complete

I love, love, love doing art projects! This is probably why I enjoy doing my long arming so much. I get to enhance the quilt with my version of art (since drawing and painting are NOT my thing). Here's what's on the frame this week.

My New York Beauty ready for long arming

I have started putting curly feathers into the outer border, curls in each of the "points", half feathers into both small borders strips, and half feathers into the quarter circles. I haven't actually started quilting the quarter circle points or the spaces between since the art project above took up much of my time.

Katie and I have realized we are less then a month before our annual winter retreat! We look very forward to this event every year, and last year, due to circumstance and weather, we were unable to attend. Barb and Margaret are supposed to come along again this year, so it's going to be very nice catching up with them during the four days we get to sew together.

I'm trying to get all my pieces cut before we leave. Everything is cut for the Antelope Canyon top I'm going to make and am now cutting for a pattern Katie drafted (from a picture no less). It's a rather complex scrappy block, so to make sure I'm keeping myself organized I have devised labels.

Keeping things organized as I cut from my scraps stash

That's about all the news as of late.

Giving

While I am still an active member of the Across the Square quilt guild, I very seldom attend any more meetings. The proximity of my house to where the meetings are held since our move is roughly 120 miles; or two hours-one way. My membership will expire on December 31, but I am still a member.

Everybody should have a merry holiday and even after the holiday's, have a decent life. I've decided to help out in any way I can for those folks who aren't so fortunate. The ASQ guild does a lot of charity work for the local battered spouse/children's shelter and we typically make quilts for them throughout the year.

But the member who used to cut and then promote the kits to assemble a top for our SIREN chapter has moved to Arizona. Nobody has really taken up the cause since her departure over a year ago. I think a mass assembly of tops took place sometime this fall to make up for our latency. I said I would quilt a few of them for the cause and was given four.

This is the first one I started with. I finished it this morning and  here is a close-up of some of the quilting put into it.

I think just because you have been given a crappy hand in your current life situation you deserve something somebody actually took some time in creating. This particular top was pieced very nicely and I took the time to put some nice detail in the quilting.

The next top is already loaded and I have already started quilting it. It's a busier top then this first one, so putting a lot of detail into the quilting will only get lost in the fabric. Therefore, I'm using a lot of straight lines in the blocks and on the borders to create connectivity in the quilt as a whole.

I received my Build-a-Block from 'Quilting is my Therapy' (Angela Walters) in the mail today. It's like a mini Christmas when I get quilting stuff in the mail. I've already built the block and will look forward to the next block next month.

I'm cruising along in the Vintage Christmas Quilt-Along. Katie and I are pretty much at the same place, and despite our nutty schedules lately, we are keeping up with the group.

Why did YouTube delete all my subscriptions on my iMac? They still exist on my iPad, but after we returned from Missouri, it seems the machine got hungry while we were gone and ate them all.

Delayed

I have been delayed in posting anything new because of the "little kid" graduation. It sounds like a kindergarten graduation, doesn't it? It's actually our youngest son, who is 24, who graduated from Army basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. This is Caleb and me just after the ceremony. I couldn't be prouder. Doubly so because I too am former Army, as is my dad, and his dad too.

Hopefully I'll get back to daily postings now that all the travel dust (snow) has been brushed off and we are settling back into our pre-travel routines.

Jim is back to work. The puppy is back to peeing on the floor, and I am back to chasing the puppy around and not getting much quilting done. But I'm sure going to try on the days she likes to nap more than play.

Learning

I have an industrial Janome sewing machine that I have named Jay. I usually do most of my piecing on him since he has this great scant 1/4" foot. But, with the Vintage Christmas sew-along I'm doing with my friend Katie, I wasn't getting the correct 1/4" seams.

I don't generally have to do much accurate piecing anymore. I have shifted to more of an art/free style quilter, or using patterns that don't require such accuracy since I'm happier doing them. But these little 6 1/2" blocks have a lot of pieces and very little ones at that. Accurate piecing is a must.

The thread I had in Jay was from Connecting Threads. He likes the thread, and it's pretty inexpensive to purchase. But it's thicker thread and just that difference in thickness was causing my blocks, especially those that had more pieces, to become increasingly off as I was building them. Now I'm piecing with Aurifil and the results are vastly improved. Lesson learned.

Hazel is learning too. This morning she mastered going down the stairs from our loft area. She wasn't all about being in the bathroom while I wanted to shower, so we had a stair master lesson instead.

I was able to get the quilt on the long arm completed last night. Jim graciously watched puppy while I was finishing up. I have four charity quilts coming either today or tomorrow to do for the guild downstate, and I needed to get this one done so receiving those wouldn't feel so stressing.

Dale's BOM from a few years ago

This quilt wasn't anything spectacular when I loaded it last week, but after getting some feathers in the negative space, and doing some dot-to-dot quilting in the stars, it turned out pretty nice in the end.

First Snow

I have a quilt called "The First Snow". It usually hangs on the wall beginning Thanksgiving night when we decorate for Christmas. Today is our first official snow of the season. We have received one other dusting, but the snow melted before the day hardly began. Today we have already accumulated white all over.

Mom's birthday...our first snow

It's so pretty! 

Hazel was recovering from her puppy shots yesterday, so I actually got a lot done: Bound the Eagle lap quilt for mom, bound Chad's birthday quilt, tidied up the pressing table which was getting way too bogged down (again), completed one row of Dales BOM left over couch quilt on the long arm, and then made mom a table runner for her birthday. Puppy naps are good!

Hello, hello!

I have missed blogging! I have missed putting down my daily activities, keeping track of my progress in growth and in person, and I have missed being part of the blogging world!

It's time to reawaken. I have my dream home, my dream dog, my dream life, but mostly, I am so blessed to have my dream husband. (Thank you Jim for making the later years the best years).

What's been happening? Well, DW (the long arm for those of you who haven't followed me on my previous blog) made the move okay. He had some issues and after a trip back to the hospital, he seems much better.

I haven't quilted all that many quilts since we've arrived up north. Too much to do and moving in the spring provided us with amazing weather and conditions to resurrect this vacant and neglected lake house.

Lily had to be put down in May. She was with us for a little over 13 years. I still tear up when I think about her (and Dolly too). I visit her almost every day out there in the yard where she is buried. But I now have a new friend keeping me company in the studio. Her name is Hazel.

Hazel came to us on October 26. The 30th was her 8-

Hazel at 8-Weeks Old

week birthday, so she's still just a baby. But, she is smart, she is cute as the dickens, and she has wormed her way into my heart in less than two weeks. You'll be hearing a lot about Hazel.

The remainder of our summer, after repairing "dangerous" things around the new place, was to begin and continue to work on a large (30x40) pole barn to enable us to get items from downstate, up here with us. Eventually, the barn downstate will be sold, and we don't want to be in a situation to have to move in February.

Just getting started

I used to blog daily. In fact, my old site had over 741 posts at last check. Jim and I have moved as has my business and now my blog.