Poppins Bag Complete

And here it is.

Poppins Bag

I would love, love, love to make another one of these. But it took sooooo long to complete. And it was a struggle the whole way along so maybe next winter, when the days are short and I need a constructive project to do, a second will be attempted.

Earlier today (after dealing with some crappy (literally) issues) I ventured over to Pieces in Thyme for the sashing for the t-shirt quilt. Here's what I brought home.

For Adrianne's t-shirt quilt

It's already been prewashed and ready for handling. Not immediately, but soon.

After taking Hazel down for a swim (78 degrees today) and finally getting the time to blog, the remainder of today will be spent working on more selvedge blocks. Long arming happened mid-afternoon, and only two more rows to go to finish the Tula quilt.

It Started Out Productive...

...yesterday. The Poppins bag is nearly finished but am struggling with getting the stays inserted. Jim's helping hand will be needed to finish. The Tula 100 Blocks top was worked on somewhat.

And...

...then it got nice outside.

The lawn and flower beds were crying out for me to deal with them, so out I went for the remainder of the day.

Today started out like yesterday left off, but now it's becoming cloudy and rather dismal.

I. AM. GOING. TO. STAY. IN. THE. STUDIO. TODAY.

T-Shirt Quilt

My wonderful neighbor to our north has asked me to make a t-shirt quilt for her daughter. They helped us so much on our barn last fall and we have obtained left over landscape blocks from them, it'll be like a barter trade for my making it. I hope.

Some of the pile I was given to work with

Trimming "the fat" off the shirt

Squaring the block

The interfaced pile ready for audition

A special insert

The first half

This quilt is going to be larger than my design wall. Construction will be done in two parts and the pic above is part 1. I don't make t-shirt quilts like most. Most want you to select a divisible number (4, 5, or 6) to trim the t-shirts to so blocks go together well.

Because I feel like randomness in a t-shirt quilt gives it a little more visual esthetics, I like to build my blocks to the divisible number AFTER they are trimmed with a 1/2" border around the motif of the t-shirt.

And the neighbor included her referee shirt to try to incorporate into the quilt. I'm going to try to get it in there, but it may not happen after construction actually begins.

Auditioning several colors of sashing and picking Katies brain on her thoughts, we decided the red grunge would pull out most all of the t-shirt colors.

Red it is

I've texted to make sure this is an okay color to go with prior to going out and purchasing more. I only have a fat quarter in my stash and it's not going to do all the bordering needed here.

16 + Three More

Here's the pic I promised yesterday. These are all mine (yep, not one customer quilt in the bunch) ready for quilting. Sixteen of them plus the selvedge quilt (when it's finished), Long Time Gone (when it's finished), and the Ladies top; so that's three more. Nearly 20! I need to quit doing yard work and get more long arming done.

16 Hanging Which Belong to Just Me. 

Which takes us to yesterday. ALL DAY LONG! Down by the lake moving dirt and rocks away from our retaining wall which is burnt and caving in. We knew this needed to be done, but it didn't work out to be completed last year.

I'm not going down there today. The neighbor to the north of us dropped off a large bag of t-shirts from her daughters' soccer years in school and wanted me to make a quilt for her, so I'm going to start sorting those out later today after lunch.

This morning, yep, gettin' on DW. Workin' on the Tula top. Jammin' to my tunes. It's a Friday. Get off me! :-)

An Oldie but a Goodie

I started organizing all the tops I have laying in waiting under DW's table. I had enough hangers to get about half of them hung yesterday (pics to follow tomorrow hopefully), but while going through them all, ran across this one. It still needed the borders attached and after doing that, I hung it on the rail in the loft for summer fun.

Hello Ladies

This top is going to be fun to quilt. The embellishment possibilities are endless!

I did get a sashing/border attached to the Long Time Gone top. I think it gives a stopping point before the next three borders will be added.

A "new" feature I added in

Most of the prior part of the day was long arming on the Tula 100 Block top.

Today is going to be hit or miss. It's threatening to be a nice day (I woke up to rain), and with nice days comes landscaping and yard work. I'm debating.

Nearly a Week?

Holy wow, it was last Thursday since my last post? WTH? Oh yeah, more nice weather.

Well, I have managed to slip in a few stitches on things in the studio between running down state, working in the yard, and doing the typical weekly errands.

Here's where I'm at on the Long Time Gone piece.

Long Time Gone

The pattern calls for a set of three scrappy borders, but here's my take on that. This is a pretty busy quilt. I think I'm going to set a neutral border around the top first, and then set the borders in. It just seems like (even from the photo of the completed quilt in the book), it's just too much and the borders get lost in the actual quilt.

Here's what's on the frame (still).

Getting Ready to Stipple

This only pass two of five (I believe). BUT, we have poopy weather today, so I'm planning on cranking up the tunes and working on this most of the rest of the morning and afternoon.

And here's Hazel's Tuesday pic. She just got a new haircut on Monday.

Nice Weather = Not Much Studio Time

The past two days have been perfect work outside weather. Low 70's, very few bugs (yet) and partly cloudy skies. The winters dander, lawns, living spaces, leaves, lake front area, and flower beds all needed attending to. All are complete except for the latter. Today is supposed to be nearly the same until later this afternoon, where we are expecting rain, but ya know what? I'm not going out to work today.

I'm going to enjoy the mostly cloudy morning, my music, and some sew time. My wrist is killing me and quite frankly, with the front coming through, my head is pounding. So, that's a good enough excuse, right?

BUT, good news. During all this outside work stuff, I was able to slip in a few stitches here and there (mostly after lunch while finishing up my hour off), and my 16 pineapple blocks are sewn for the Long Time Gone piece. Papers still need to be removed from the back, which is one of my to-do's for today.

Long arming seems like fun today, sewing filler blocks for Long Time Gone seems like fun today. Working on some selvage blocks seems like fun today. Oh heck, it all seems like fun since it's been a few days since I've been in here. Let's go!

I love being outside!

A Few Projects

Yesterday was take-advantage-of-gloomy-weather day.

The Poppins bag was first on the list. As far as supplies allowed was as far as the project went. When ordering the Craft Tex, I thought I had ordered enough, but found out yesterday it was not only the wrong size, but only one was ordered. It needs two.

Moving along to the Long Time Gone pineapple blocks. Two were nearly done before lunch. Five more to go.

The afternoon consisted of long arming and working on the selvedge top.

Tula Pink's 100 Modern Block Design

The long arming on the Tula piece is going to take much longer than anticipated. The meander being put into the fractured windows on the off-white section is very closely quilted. Even though the machine is set to manual and at about 50%, the time it's taking was surprising.

The seventh border is set into the selvedge piece and only one more fat border to go. The next border is half-square triangles and it too will take a lot of time to make each of the blocks needed. They are six inches in size and each is set at a diagonal with a variety of sizes of selvages needed.

Today is sunny and is supposed to be warm-ish. The windows on the house are looking pretty grungy and part of today may be working on those. Maybe?!

Back to our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Now that all the Hallmark Holiday Hoohah is done, life can get back to normal. Although, from this end, it was time spent with my mom (who is amazing BTW), and not time spent with my own kids. They have their own lives and wives to celebrate with I guess.

No pics today I'm afraid. We did do some minor rearranging and some major cleaning in the studio last night after we finally got done with the weekend. Quilting is a very dusty and linty business. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Since the place is more organized now, I'm really glad that I didn't purchase anything Friday at the quilt shop. I uncovered two more WIP's to be completed before anything new ensues.

What did I rearrange you ask? DW is now slightly skewed off a little on the end nearest the lake. It gives me a little more room to move around back there; which is great for the quilt needing a lot of thread changes. We shuffled the long cuts of fabric down under and behind the pressing table so Hazel can see better out the windows. The sewing table was shifted back and over a few inches and the shelves under the pressing table were condensed into one other shelf at the end of the sewing table and then removed completely from the studio. Grandma's chair is next to be removed from in here.

It's going to be hard to part with Grandma's chair. I love Grandma's chair; it fits me just right and it's been in our family for as long as I can remember. But Grandma's chair needs to be completely overhauled. The stuffing is mashed down to about nothing. The covering is starting to fray and show extreme signs of wear. The cost would be greater to redo it then to probably just buy a new one. But I've yet to find one to fit like this one does.

Happy Mom's Day!

My hopes for all women out there is that there is a special someone to wish you a happy Mom's Day. If there isn't, I'm going to say "Happy Mother's Day" to you! It's a simple gesture but it means so much because without you, your children, pets, parents, whatever, wouldn't have the care and love you provide to them.

The Tula 100 Modern Block top almost (almost) didn't get loaded yesterday. While going through the batting options in the batting closet, I didn't have a king-sized batt. But after doing some piecing, was able to put together enough wool cast offs to add to the queen-sized available to make it a go.

Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks

If you look close enough, I've started to quilt around each of the blocks. I'm putting a double frame around each of the feature blocks to start and then quilting each block randomly. The "real estate" will be filled in on a row by row basis. I think each color will be done with a different motif.

Going to a Quilt Shop

Aunt Effies, in West Branch, is a very nice quilt shop. She has a lot of everything there and it's set up more open then most quilt shops I've visited; which makes shopping very easy. While mom had to trek down to her art emporium where some of her paintings are available for sale, I went quilt shopping.

I. DIDN'T. BUY. A. THING!

I KNOW!

WHAT THE HECK?

I realized I have a lot of projects going on here and decided I needed to (once again) get some of these off my list before getting into anything new. Once in a while ya just gotta say "Enough," and actually finish some of what has been started.

When arriving back home, two more pineapple blocks for the Long Time Gone top were made, I worked the zipper into my Poppins bag, and looked ahead on what my next row (border) is on the selvedge top. After about 9:00, I settled down to start sketching out what I'm going to put into my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks top. Oh, the possibilities!

And I'm still undecided.

Oh the real estate!

Getting anything to really wow me was hard, but I came close on a few designs. I think this one, because it is so open, is going to need to be loaded and preview paper needs to be put over to play around and see what will work out best for the design.

So, Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks, after hanging on our loft bannister for over four months now, you are finally going on the frame today. 

A Little of This, A Little of That

Yesterday began with long arming, since the electricity decided to stay on and my thread came in the mail. The "Beast" is finished. The pattern is one of Edyta Sitar's that was offered as a BOM through The Quilt Show. It's called The Patchwork Barn and the customer actually enlarged the pattern to accommodate her king-sized bed.

The Patchwork Barn by Edyta Sitar

This quilt was extremely fun to work on. There was free motion work as well as ruler work, which provided variety in my otherwise get-bored-quick head.

The customer is coming to pick this up later this morning and I'm hoping to get my Tula 100 Modern Blocks quilt loaded later this afternoon.

After long arming, Jim and I (he had training all morning here) ran errands. All the dog food we have purchased trying to figure out what was wrong with Hazel needed to go to the Humane Society. We had to return some items in West Branch, so the Ogama Country Humane Society was the recipient of food and treats. They truly appreciate any and all donations given.

After returning home and working on things around the yard (Hazel's pen, weeds, etc.) we finally surrendered around 9:00. I did manage, somehow, to get another Pineapple block fit in there, but it was randomly worked on while doing other things around the place.

Moms coming over this morning and my customer right behind her. I'm not sure what's on the agenda afterwards (because when mom visits, you just never know). But it's a funky weather day, so I'm thinking most things will take place inside somewhere.

Mom's Day

My mom was easy to buy for this year; she basically told us what she wanted.

Jim's mom is another story. The woman is difficult to figure out. She loves to eat (but complains about her weight). She loves to buy clothes (but again, her weight is up and down). And, quite frankly, the woman has more clothes then Jim and I combined.

While waking up a few mornings ago, I remembered that Jim's mom loves pictures. She likes taking them, developing them, writing on them, and then sending them back (at some point). I took all of yesterday and created a photo book for her with the new grand babies and grand kids, and a few of us.

The prior day, while waiting for pictures to arrive electronically from the boys, I completed a little squirrel project that was started Sunday.

The Row by Row from Bittersweet Quilt Shop in Pinconning for 2018

The thread arrived today (since I ran out Monday) from Utah and so today is the last day on "The Beast". Wish me luck.

8 Months Old!

Hazel is now officially eight months old! After going through my phone deleting pictures yesterday, I scrolled back to when we first got her. I can't believe how quickly she wormed her way into our hearts.

Eight Months Old

Long arming took up most of the day yesterday; until thread became an issue.

When ya can see the white...

There is one appliqué border to finish and this is not enough thread to finish it. Especially when the bobbin is also empty. The order is in for more thread.

Today work will be done on a little "squirrel" project purchased last week when mom and I were out shopping in Pinconning. The Bittersweet Quilt Shop had an amazing Row by Row block last year and I found I just HAD to do it. She didn't have any kits left, but the pattern was still available. I'll see what I can make out of it since all my other projects don't sound very appealing to me today.

Perfect Weather Weekend

It's rare when the temperatures and the sunshine coincide with the lack of bugs and on both weekend days . We had to take advantage! Different projects around the place ensued rather than quilting or sewing.

Hazel's new pen (with our sheets on the line)

Except for the gate, Hazel has her new permanent pen. This took all of Saturday as well as Sunday morning

The "before" pics of the chairs being refinished

While Jim was working on his barn (the east gable end), I started a long overdue project. The middle chair is from my grandmothers cottage. Everybody who sits in this chair absolutely loves it and it's going to get a nice facelift. It's still in pretty good shape; just dirty and needing some TLC. The other two chairs were found in the barn downstate when Jim acquired the property (back). Like grandma's chair, they are in decent shape which will give me an opportunity to give them an update too.

Picking up moms Mother's Day gift

Mom wants a kayak for Mother's Day and the middle one is the one she selected when we happened to be at this particular store last Thursday. We ran to Pinconning last night to get this for her.

Today the weather is now cooperating for me to stay inside and perhaps finish "The Beast". I still have about 24" left to quilt and if I really put my nose to the grindstone, I should be able to "Git 'er Done'.

The Sun! Finally!

It was a gloomy start to the morning but now the sun decided it had had enough hiding. Great weather (because it's still in the 40's) to long arm today.

Not much long arming yesterday. Mom and I spent the day bumming around Pinconning so the only work done on The Beast was prior to mom showing up (around 10:00). Today will be used to make up for the lost time.

Once mom did leave, however, I did another block on the Long Time Gone top. I'm up to the Pineapple Log Cabin blocks. 5 1/2" unfinished with 37 pieces in each. Here are the first three of 16 needed.

Pineapple Log Cabins for the Long Time Gone Top

I had been using my big Janome to piece them, but then thought, 'I have my new little HQ Stitch that could be set on the cutting table, thus eliminating a lot of walking (or tripping in my case) around the studio.' It worked like a dream! This was my first time using it, and BTW, Caleb and Ben named her Lilo.

I snagged a selfie Pic of Hazel and I, so here's a good laugh for anybody interested.

Almost eight months old!

Got Long Arming?

Another six hours (or more) on DW yesterday.

Negative Space

The quilt top has this negative space over the barn. After auditioning several motifs, the decision was made to echo around the flowers for consistency within the quilt itself. This is the result.

Prior to long arming though these two blocks were completed. These are from the Leah Day Friendship Quilt-Along.

Leah Day Friendship Quilt-Along #6

Notice the ugly grass outside the window? We still don't have spring-like weather today.

Mom is coming by later today, so long arming will commence this morning until she arrives. I'm hoping the cone of thread I'm using holds out. It's starting to look very thin up there and it's a concern as to whether or not it'll make it through this entire top.

April Showers and all that Jazz

Our winter in central northern Michigan is giving a hard fight this year. Last year we literally went from winter to summer in about 10 days. I think we are headed that way again this year. But we have thunder here, so long arming is out until this blows over.

Since it's (already) May 1st, today I'll work on my Leah Day Friendship blocks. This is number six, and a little less intense than the previous two months (thank you Leah).

Yesterday, as well as spending six hours at the long arm, I worked on my Selvedge quilt for a bit while the neighbor was having his lifts put into the lake and watching one of the workers fall into that freezing water with his waders on (which promptly filled completely up). Brrr! The quilt has a total of nine rounds of borders after the center section and last night was number six (again with the sixes).

Border six of nine (with Hazel assisting)

I've already started mocking up the quilting on my iPad and with all the negative space, it's going to quilt out so beautifully. I'm just as excited to quilt it as I am building it.