A Late Studio Start

Jim had to run to a call-out and after our quilt deliveries/food pick up jaunt this morning I'm able to get into the studio for a spell.

It's a top!

The Rail Fence top is done. It finished at 86" x 94" and I wanted to load it so badly last night. But, no backing. It's probably just as well since I still have a few customer long arm things to work on still hanging out in the "holding cell". 

After the rail fence top was finished, I pulled out #2 of my year-to-elminiate-scraps project. Strings!

Reminds me of the framing wall at Hobby Lobby

I don't know if I'm going to leave them in the chevron format, turn them into large squares on point, or what? Still unsure of that yet. But for now they're like this so I can view them better while constructing them. I plan on making 100 11-inch blocks which should yield a pretty tidy quilt top...and eliminate most of those darn strings. 

Colds and Quilting

I'm at that point in my cold phase where the coughing starts in. Which is hard when trying to remain somewhat steady with your hand while quilting. Note to self: If the grandkids are sick, do not visit. 

Thread Sketching

Giving this huge panel some dimension was what I was going for. I'm not quilting this to death but instead, lightly thread sketching most of the major details in the watercolor print. The panel has a very nice hand to it and I don't want to add too much thread which would make it somewhat stiff. 

Hazel has decided she likes to hang out under the belly bar while I'm quilting now.

Hanging out with mom

I'm hoping to finish this piece today and deliver it and the previous one later this afternoon...or tomorrow morning. 

I started working on quadrant #3 on the Rail Fence top last night only to discover I can no longer count. Quadrants one and three should have been six by six blocks. I discovered quadrant three was only five by six after getting it on the design wall. Lesson learned; when coming down with a cold don't do anything mind blowing like counting.

I made six more new blocks, had to rearrange quadrant three and then pull out the top half of the piece to make sure I wasn't going to overlap colors. And since quadrant three was messed up I'll have to pay particularly close attention to the layout of number four later tonight. 

And apparently Superior Threads has finally gotten their #401 situation rectified because I received a notification my thread is on its way. A little too late, but better I get some more in the thread inventory since this one is used often in customer quilts. 

Blank Canvas

This is what's on the frame this morning...

I need to iron this, but this is what's being done today

And it's a blank canvas. The possibilities here are ridiculous and I'm having a hard time sending myself mentally in only one direction. This is a large 90" panel for the Pieces quilt shop. It should be a big hit with customers because it's so beautiful!

After finishing the tumbling blocks and loading the top above, I worked further on the rail fence. Quadrant #2 is done and the two quadrants completed thus far are together so I have half a top pieced. Today will be much of the same. 

 

Thread and Bobbin Chicken

When working on a customer quilt, this is never a good thing.

Where's the thread?

And I still had one and a half passes to go. Start making calls. Bribe people. Plead with suppliers. And then when that fails, call the customer after finding a color that is nearly exact from your thread stash. 

Apparently So Fine! #401 is a rare commodity. After spending a good amount of time on the phone with folks found that it's been an issue since last June or July. People are switching to different thread suppliers because of the situation. 

But it's rectified. Moving along. This is on the frame this morning.

Customer said to make this panel not look like a panel

I actually started it yesterday afternoon because I was excited to make the panel not look like one. A lot of ruler work and close quilting is happening to make the challenge happen. 

Quadrant #1 is complete on the rail fence top, and because I still wasn't feeling all that great (thank you Elijah), I knocked off before 8:00 last night. 

More of the same today with the exception of customers coming later this afternoon to pick up completed quilts. 

Dear Jane

I think there's a quilt pattern or fabric pattern out there called Dear Jane. 

Janes first quilt was completed yesterday and the second one loaded and started. Here's what's on the frame this morning...

Janes second granddaughter quilt

DW started this, but then he was having some issues after some adjustments I made. I decided I could mimic what the stitch pattern was and decided to do this one myself. 

The adjustments were changing needle size. And angle. And that wasn't the right thing to do. Skip, skip, skip. DW prefers a larger needle no matter the thread size. Period. He does NOT do anything less than a size 19. Period (I only went down one size to an 18). He wasn't having anything to do with it so we went back to our regularly scheduled programming and now he's fine again.

What made me change was my dealer. He said the machine is timed differently when using a high-speed needle, which I have switched over to. Because, let's face it, I quilt fast. I had to get some more needles and my dealer kind of ripped me about using these high speed needles "because that's not how the machine gets timed when I bring it in". Well, he works fine with them. 

I called Handi Quilter to question the validity of this new information and the tech said it wasn't really that big of a deal. Then the tech told me that my needle MUST be positioned at the 6:30 position. NOT 6:28-6:25 where it sometime is. I moved it and DW still seems to be stitching fine...as long as he has that size 19 high speed needle in there. 

That was an hour or more out of my afternoon yesterday. Adjustments can only be made one at a time and it takes a while to determine the cause of issues when they start happening. 

After Jim got home, I was pooped. I had already quilted one quilt, started another, cleaned the studio while the first was stitching out, and a plethora of other small things were accomplished in here as well (moving and organizing my long arm bobbins, getting Jay back set up, etc.). And, I think I'm getting my grandsons cold because I wasn't feeling all that great. Still not feeling that well this morning.

I did get these laid out on the wall though. I had to do them by quadrants because it's going to be a rather large top when I get it all put together.

Laying out the Rail Fence 

Finishing Janes second quilt today. Loading another quilt for tomorrow. Piecing these quadrants together is on my radar for the day.

Flooring, Not Quilting

 I did exactly ten string blocks over the entire weekend. This is what we were doing instead.

Before

After

This is our entryway in the back of the house where all my customers come into first. The flooring in there was NASTY! Almost three years later we were finally able to get it replaced. Just need to trim it out.

Today I'm long arming Janes first quilt. DW is doing a cute meandering daisy in it and then maybe I'll have time to load and start her second quilt. 

The Janome 1600P (Jay) is finally back home! I've started the two tops I'm working on the HQ Stitch 210 but I think I can get the Rail Fence blocks together on Jay since it's just joining rows...once I get them laid out. Which may be interesting since my design wall isn't going to be nearly big enough. 

Shopping, Visiting, and a Mess

Friday was a shopping day with mom. Here's my Aunt Effies haul.

For a little over $100

10 yards of muslin, two types of hand sewing needles (for all those hexagons I've been making over the years), batting tape, a purple thang, three 1-yard coordinated cuts for that last minute project, and a bundle of 24 fat quarters for a project I have in mind utilizing an Alison Glass pattern I have on order. 

I did come home after our shopping day and start these...

The start of 100 11" string blocks

Yesterday we were on the road again. All day. Picked mom up around 9:00 and didn't get home until 6:00-ish. Visited with the kids/grandkids, stopped by Gall Sewing to get some needles (which they didn't have) and a 1/4" presser foot (without the rail) for my little HQ Stitch 210 (Lilo). Mom needed vacuum bags for her antique vacuum...and of course, Gall had them.

Lunch at Red Robin and then off to Lowe's. Picked up some flooring for our back entrance, some double sided tape for my long arm foam mats (because they are becoming slippery with all the lint), and two more totes to store quilts in.

After a quick trip through Culvers for a Concrete Mixer, we were headed back home. After getting in the back door, something didn't smell right.

Now, we leave Hazel often by herself. She's 2+ years old and generally, other than ripping out parts of her tail, is completely fine. But yesterday did not appear to be a good day for her. She ate/got into something that just didn't agree with her and left three large soupy green poop messes on our off white carpet. Clearly, she didn't feel well. Clearly, we're still working on getting up the stains.

Don't know if we're going to get to lay that flooring today. It's a beautiful sunny day so working back in the back room would be stellar, but Jim needs to find tools and see if we can actually get to this project. 

11 x 12

I have enough sets started from the greens to make the Rail Fence top 11 blocks wide by 12 blocks long. That'll be something like 88" x 92" without any borders. It may be smaller because I have yet to trim all these darn blocks down. I think maybe a four-patch border would be cute around the outside. Hmmm? I'll think about it today.

Here's what we have on the frame this morning...

Jane's Top for her granddaughter

I don't know that this will actually get quilted today. Mom wants to head to West Branch for a shopping day and since I haven't been out of the house to do anything like shopping in four weeks, it's probably time to go out into the world and experience life again.

Funnily enough, 10 years ago you couldn't have kept me in a house for this long. After a few days I would have been climbing the walls, let alone weeks on end. But I love my studio so much. I love our property and the lake. I love being here with Hazel all day. I love how mellow I am here and it's hard to leave. 

Jim wants to go downstate tomorrow to visit our son and grab my sewing machine, and do other stuff around the "big city" but I'm balking at the trip for the reasons stated above. But I know I need to get that machine back home because once the rail fence blocks start going together the industrial machine is going to be needed. And we haven't seen Ben since Christmas. I miss him.

Change of Plans

I'm still working on yesterday's quilt on the frame since only a half day was given to me to work (due to the power outage). And once Jim got home, I was pretty much done on the frame for the day. I diddled and did a few clean up stitches, but some days are like that.

Afterward, work on the green Rail Fence blocks began. I knew I had a lot of greens, but wow. The "only 12" that I needed turned into so many more. Change of plans with the original 10x10 layout (total of 100 blocks); it's going to be a little bigger depending on how many I have in this pile.

The Greens

Customer coming this morning to fetch her quilt (the huge 120" square cancer quilt) and maybe another later in the afternoon. I guess I should call her and let her know its done first?

Meanwhile, time to wake DW up and get to it. 

Power Outage

Waking up without power prevents the ability to long arm. Certainly glad I loaded this last night so as soon as I get caught up with chores today I can start right in this afternoon.

Becky's Fisherman Top

I'll have to wait until the water heater recycles and gives us warm water to be able to do the laundry, take a shower, etc. and it's still only 60 degrees in the house. It got down to 56 in here this morning. Thankfully the sun is shining to help out a bit.

Our outside temp this morning

I worked on the rail fence blocks after long arming yesterday and after counting the blocks I only need 12 more. I may make more since green is the last color and I have lots and lots of those to cut down and sort through.

Lunch sounds like a good idea and I'll pretend it was actually breakfast and start my day out a few hours later than usual. 

Making it Pretty

When a customer tells me to edge-to-edge their quilt, yet a lot of negative space is available to show off their work, taking advantage of the space begging to showcase what they've done HAS to happen. The creative side in me won't let me do otherwise.

While this customer did not say to E2E the embroidery sections, she did in the rest of the quilt. I still couldn't let a sleeping dog lay. But here's what's going into todays piece.

Showing off her beautiful embroidery work

The quilting day was cut short since we had to be in Midland for a 5:00 appointment for Jim. Therefore continuation of this quilt will ensue today. 

Since we arrived back home later than expected (had to run to the store after the appointment) I decided to work on a few more rail fence blocks. 24 blue/teal "centers" were constructed before calling it a night.  

The wind is blowing and the snow is starting to let up, giving us a new 3-4 inches overnight last night. All the sledding tracks from the weekend are nearly gone. What a beautiful backdrop for a productive quilting day. 

Finished!

Sunday:

The huge quilt is finished. Even though we played outside in the snow for a while yesterday afternoon with the neighbors, I was able, during the abysmal MSU basketball game, to get DW to stitch out the last 12 sunflower motifs. Completed at about 7:00pm.

While DW was stitching out, I cut for the rail fence blocks and started/finished piecing out all the reds. There were a few pinks and purples to do and then moved along to the blues. 

Getting a few stacked up

Jim moved the leaders to a new rail position on DW. I found that with these giant quilts, having no clamps on the one end was becoming a situation.

More centered

Monday:

Calls made to: 

Gall. Sewing machine done and Ben will pick up. 

Becky. About her quilt top/backing. 

Tina About the cancer quilt being done and when that was going to be picked up. 

Cleaned long arm and then loaded this top.

Becky's Teapot Top

The reason I had to contact Becky about her backing is because it is nearly as nice as the top.

There are even two embroidered teapots under here somewhere

I don't know if Linda is going to stop by this morning to pick up Paulette's quilts or not. We received another bit of snow last night and I think the east side of the state is still getting some. 

Somewhat of a Stress

I put a lot of pressure on myself to complete tasks for others. It's self made stress and I need to find a way to say "maybe" to more people rather than the usual "sure, no problem" comeback I tend to hand out. 

Onto day three with this huge king cancer quilt. It's coming out beautifully but after working on it for six hours each the past two days, find myself getting tired after that amount of time hunkered over the frame. I want to make sure I get it done for the customer and at the same time, do a good job for what may be her last quilt.

Here is some of the detail going into the piece.

Two of the five borders

Getting pics of the rest of the quilt becomes difficult when using complimentary thread. 

Before I can go out and play with the neighbors and enjoy our winter wonderland, this needs to be finished. Or nearly finished. Otherwise, it'll be a stressful weekend and I'll have my mind on this the whole time we're out sledding and walking the ice. 

Change

I LOVE change. Probably from moving so many times in my life which creates a whole lot of change all around. I changed my blog theme yesterday. Nobody commented on it. But I like it and it's nice to have a little change in our lives I think.

Changed out the custom 58" quilt for this one...

Jodi's Kansas Troubles

This is what was written for another shop to do: Stipple. Cream Thread. Trimmed. 

No. No. And Okay. This person has cancer. This person may not live very long and this may be her last quilt. I'm going to do whatever I can to make it memorable so I'm completely custom quilting this with several thread changes, computer work, ruler work, and free motion. She's getting the royal treatment. 

It's a HUGE king too!

Every inch of leader is covered

This was dropped off mid-afternoon yesterday and three partial rolls have been done already. At 8:30 I started getting tired and the lighting over in that far corner is less than stellar, so it was time to call it. Since getting up early seemed to be the thing to do today I'll dive right in this morning. 

I did get some work done on the rail fence blocks while waiting for this to arrive, but nothing completed before this large project made it. 

Custom Quilts

Doing custom work is my absolute favorite type of quilting to do. It allows me freedom and the ability to be a little artistic...rather than robotic. And watching the quilt as it comes to life is also a plus. 

After the marks are removed and the detail added

And sometimes the back of the quilt looks just as good as the front.

The back

I'm in kind of a weird situation right now. Nothing is on the long arm. Even Hazel is wondering where the stuff is that should be on the frame.

Where's the quilt mom?

But have no fear. After tonight, the long arm will be rockin'. I have a special quilt (or maybe two) coming for a person who is trying to get them completed quickly. She has some medical issues that leads towards a not long existence. And this is her last hurrah before she leaves for heaven. I'm honored they are requesting my services to do this for her. 

So, until then, I'll make some rail fence blocks and clean the machine to get ready for our next long arming marathon over the weekend. 

-7

That's what the temp was this morning when Jim got up. Brrr! Which means, a GREAT quilting day!

This is what's on the frame this morning...

Tina's "Magazine" top

The quilt pictured above may possibly end up in one of the Better Homes and Gardens' quilt magazines. The customer indicated to quilt it heavily since magazines tend to prefer it. Here's where I started last night.

Just starting to quilt

I haven't worked on my rail fence blocks in two days and hope to revisit them this evening after working on this lovely piece above. There is a bit of a time deadline on this one and then the two others coming soon, so cranking up the tunes and focusing today is basically all my agenda has on it. 

Hazel Weirdness

While I was long arming Paulette's quilt yesterday (and NO! it's not finished yet), Hazel did something she hasn't done in a very long time; since she was a wee puppy. 

Hello

I'm not sure what's up with this behavior? She did it in the morning. We ate lunch. She did it again in the afternoon before mom came for a visit. And, last night she was looking for more batting to lay on in the evening. I had already advanced enough of the quilt where there was none on the floor, so there wasn't anything else for her to get cozy in...I guess. 

I'll be [hopefully] finishing Paulette's quilt today. Got a call yesterday about two cancer quilts coming. The quilt maker is in stage four and I'll be rushing to get her quilts done before anything else happens to her. My other customers will understand if theirs takes an additional couple of day to complete. 

I have stupendous customers. They are ALL so friendly and fun to talk with. I love to hear about what's going on in their lives and how the top they are presenting to me came about. I treasure the days I have customers come into the studio!

I have a dentist appointment mid-morning which is gonna throw a wrench into my otherwise seamless quilting day, but then I'll rock and roll this afternoon upon my return. 

Back on the Iron Hunt

There used to be a commercial out there where a woman was screaming "Calgon, take me away," as her day kept getting more stressful. I feel like screaming out like this about irons.

The iron in the background in the pic below lasted maybe a week before it started showing illness symptoms; auto shut off shorter than eight minutes, steam sporadic if at all, burst of steam usually not present and when it was it was a 10-12 second delay in reaction after pushing the button. And yesterday is started randomly peeing. 

The debunked iron and a small project

So this pillow is the result of trying those scrappy blocks out that turned out I wasn't really all into...too many restrictions on light/dark placement. So I made a large pillow, but, I need some more batting scraps to get the insert finished (which I also made). 

I did about 15 of these this weekend.

The Oranges

This is a nice project for after my long arming day. Not much thought and they go together fairly easy. 

We started moving Jim's things into the downstairs bedroom preparing for his ankle surgery in six or so weeks. As usual, something like that always takes longer than you think its going to, and we are just starting.

Today I'm working on Paulette's king quilt intermittent with a visit from my mom later this morning/early afternoon. 

Thread

Sometime ago I was told that most high-end machines that are having trouble have a high (more than 80% rate) issue rate due to crappy thread. I use to purchase Connecting Threads thread for all my piecing. Talk about linty and causing issues with more than one of my machines. Some folks find it fine to work with but since my machines are my business, why not take care of them? And it wasn't performing that well for me anyway. ALL of that thread is now gone. 

The next thing to do was research thread. Aurifil thread is stellar! BUT, very, (very) expensive. Since I use thread in bulk this isn't really an option any more. And, I have found the last two spools have been somewhat linty (more than usual). After deciding between two resources (MSQC and Quilted Joy), opted for the MSQC box of 30 assorted colors since they double mercerize their threads and it comes with a great storage box to boot. 

Okay, that's done for the day. 

Long arming this morning on Paulette's quilt. This is some of what's been going in there...

The main stars (which received some additional quilting later)

Setting triangles

Ignore my notes on the bottom right corner

This is a completely custom quilt top so it's going to take some time.

I had to slip long arming in yesterday between the high winds. After the lights flickered a few times, quit for a while. But then the winds settled a bit in the afternoon for a spell, and was able to get a few more hours in before they kicked up again. 

Between long arm sessions, I was working and finishing the Celestial Stars top!

Celestial Stars all Complete

Now that Celestial Stars is finished, I can start to work on the Rail Fence Scrappy blocks. And as I was laying in bed this morning, was thinking about (again), my little town I was working on a few years ago. I've started and stopped that top more times in the last couple of years. Maybe it's time to drag it out and start to work on it again???

Dicey Day

Hesitation to long arm is met when the winds are whipping out there so bad our electricity has blinked already a couple of times on and off. It's trying to decide what it wants to do. And subjecting DW to that may not be the right decision today. But at any case, this is what's on the frame this morning.

Not a very good pic of Paulette's second quilt

Paulette is having me quilt this with wool which is very cool! Quilting with wool lets all the puffiness come through and show off not only my quilting, but her piecing as well.

After I pulled off her first quilt and then loaded her second, I needed to doodle to decide in what direction I was going to go with this one. While I was coming up with ideas, I started piecing together the Celestial Star top. 

I didn't get it all sashed in before running out of steam, but here's where it's at this morning.

Celestial Stars coming together

This top is not going to be nearly as big as anticipated. 59"x75" is what the pattern indicates for finished size. It's going to make somebody a nice throw.

Today, since I may wait a bit to see if the winds do calm down, I have a little reorganizing to do in the studio. Currently my batiks are in a rolling cabinet in drawers, while all the other fabrics are in crates throughout the room. 

Part of the long arming thread is in the secret drawer under the table of the long arm, but some of it is in crates on the floor. 

This makes no sense all of a sudden and swapping them out for each other is going to happen. I may not like it and may just put it back, but it's a physical something to do to keep me warm as the wind howls and the temps continue to drop, and, it needed to be done (at least in my head anyway). 

Computerized Freedom

My least (not that its awful at all) favorite way to long arm is using the Pro Stitcher, which is the computerized portion of my whole long arming system. 

I don't get to really do much with the machine except take measurements and keep an eye on things while it stitches out. Leaving the room isn't entirely possible either; as soon as you do a thread break occurs. It's the computerized long arming code (or something stupid like that). 

But, having the Pro Stitcher driving frees me up to do things in the way of piecing in here. The Celestial Star Month 12 Block is finished.

Month 12

Also, while DW was stitching out, I got the opportunity to work on a bajillion flying geese for the border stars. 

See, about a bajillion

Once Linda's quilt was off the machine in the late afternoon, I was able to load Paulette's on before the sun even set. 

This is on the frame this morning and will be completed by lunchtime (hopefully).

Paultette's HST Throw

I did get one set of borders star sets made last night actually since I was cruising along so well in my day.

The first four of 20 needed

DW is driving today again so sad face/happy face and can work on more border stars while he cruises along. 

Flexability

My hours, as stated on my brochure, my website, Google, and my blog, are 10-4 M-F and 10-1 on Saturday. But I'm pretty flexible and realize life gets precedence allowing customers to come when it's convenient for us both.

Last night, around 6:15, I had a [regular] customer come to drop off four tree skirts for quilting. She brought another prospective customer with her and it was a win-win. If I hadn't let her come later than the posted hours I would not have met the new person and may have lost some potential business. 

Here's what's on the frame this morning and is actually being quilted out as I'm blogging...

Linda's King-Size

This top measure 94x104" and because most of the quilting will get lost in it, it's going to get an E2E with DW assisting today.

After the customers left last night I commenced piecing and then trying to put together Month #12 of Celestial Star.

Month #12

I completely misread the construction instructions after the pieces were paper pieced and had to rip out about half of the block. And, I'm without my industrial machine (down for service and cleaning) so had to work this on Lilo...my Handi Quilter Stitch 210. It's a very small machine but seems to plow through bunches of seams without too many issues. The Janome Horizon I have eats batiks when I try to start the blocks, so piecing on him is avoided for that task. 

Today I'll continue with this block. It has a paper pieced border running around it and while DW is working, I'll do some more on Celestial Stars. 

Hazel seemed to enjoy her new groomer, in as much as she likes to eat lettuce. She liked playing with all the other doggies, but her new groomer said she would not behave in the washer, dryer, or on the table. And did not want to be caught to come in to get groomed to start with. But since the experience was relatively positive, maybe with a few visits she'll get better about the whole thing. 

The Simplest of Quilts...

...take the longest to complete. Or so it seems.

Still working on Susan's Garden quilt. I was interrupted in the afternoon to run to Midland for a toe appointment for Jim, otherwise it would have probably been finished. Obviously, that's first on my list this morning. 

From the toe appointment, Jim took us a different way home and we were able to gander at the rebuilding progress of the M-30 bridge that the flood took out last May. 

The M-30 Bridge Construction

Hazel has a grooming appointment with a new groomer today. Long story about the other one.

It'll be wonderful to have this bridge functioning again. Our trips to Midland are increased by about 10-15 minutes because of this being absent. Oddly enough, I'm going back down there today since Hazel's new groomer is just on the north side of all of this mess. 

Studio-less Weekend

It wasn't an entirely studio-less weekend; a little paper piecing occurred as well as a little project (another mask) and long arming on Saturday morning, but that was it. Jim has a toe appointment later this afternoon so long arming most of the day today to make up for lost evening hours. 

Yet another pattern for a mask

I wore this mask for a bit on Saturday for one of our many stops during our errand afternoon/evening. It didn't work out as well as the previous mask Katie sent me the link for. So, the winner for overall comfort, less glasses fogging (although you will NEVER eliminate the fog entirely), and ease of construction is the 3-D Face Mask Updated version. 

Here's another way to eliminate the mask making problem. Eliminate their requirement altogether.