Gotta Love Family

My days in the studio are going to shorten in another week or so. The annual DeGroot family reunion begins a week from tomorrow. We have family coming in from all over for this years event and since we're in charge, this is the one week during the year I just can't seem to get in here. So...enjoy it now!

I was cranking on Norma's reindeer top yesterday morning/afternoon and thought I was going to get her top completed on the long arm (still have DSM work to do afterwards), but then Jim reminded me I had a dentist appointment at 1:40, and I needed to stop by the butcher afterwards. And we still hadn't eaten lunch. 

By the time I returned and had eaten lunch I had lost my long arming mojo. But here's what her top is getting put into it...

Norma's Reindeer

Since the long arming mojo was gone, I started right in on the Bakery. Here's where I left off last night...

Pretty much the same day is ahead of me today. I don't have any customers stopping by and there are no appointments to take me away; there are no thunderstorms expected for a few days, and the temps are supposed to be reasonable as is the humidity level. A perfect day to quilt!

Changing Oars

Since yesterday was Monday, it was a work-in-the-yard morning. Which actually took until 1:30 in the afternoon since the yard had been ignored for a week. And it was hot. And it was muggy. And it zapped most of my energy while giving me a stellar headache for the remainder of the day.

I decided to not long arm at all because my work wouldn't have been my best. Cleaning out a WIP tote seemed like the restful thing to do. Five projects total (four in the tote and one on the shelves) were found. 

Project #1: A Jacqueline DeJong class from Craftsy that was started years ago that I no longer have an interest in. 

What to do with this?

I decided this would make a cute table thing and quilted it up quickly, pinked the edges (was not going to spend that much time binding it) and put it under my clarinet lamp. 

Project #2: An anything bag, which was from another Craftsy class, that had the zipper on the wrong side. 

I wasn't going to salvage a $.32 zipper

I scrapped it because the zip was incorrectly put in and stashed out the rest of the fabrics. 

Project #3: A large bag model to use for laundry/customers that is just that...a model. Not really a project at all.

Project #4: The Painted Ladies. Now this one you'll be hearing about for a few weeks. 

The Painted Ladies

I have been looking for these houses for quite some time now. I have pulled apart pattern drawers, looked on pattern shelves, looked in pattern baskets, and could NOT find these anywhere. I knew I would stumble upon them eventually...and finally! Here they are!! 

I'm very excited about this project. Each house is a combination of paper piecing, traditional piecing, and raw edge appliqué. I started working on the third "house", which is actually the Bakery last night. After an hour and a half, I made a door. These things are not for the faint at heart. 

It's a door

It's hot and muggy outside and today is a normal work day in here. Long arming Norma's reindeer will begin shortly and if the storms kick up like they're predicting, I'll move on to something off the long arm. Like the Painted Ladies. 😀

Are Ya Sick of Hearing About Town and Country Yet?

 If ya are, well, you should only be hearing about it for a little bit longer, and that's only when I'm long arming it. Yes...IT'S A TOP!

The Town and Country top is complete!

I persevered yesterday having made up my mind that it was going to be finished this weekend. 

This morning was the first day it hasn't rained in four days so the lawn needed attention. The entire morning was spent working on what would have been out of control quickly had I not decided to head there. We have more rain predicted for this afternoon and the next three days leaving my options slim.

Just getting to the long arm and will work there for a little bit...maybe?!? I'm pretty tired from all the yard work. 

And what I was dying to do last night gets to happen this afternoon. Dive into the WIP tote and see what's next in there. I'm kinda excited because I know it won't be as time consuming as the Town and Country piece was. Wow that one took a long time to complete. 

Better Late...

Our morning away-from-home activities resulted in my blogging (much) later than usual. 

All four borders on Town and Country are now prepped.

Four borders waiting to be stitched out

And last night was able to get one of them stitched. Tonight I have stitched border number two. Cruising along!

The quilt on the frame yesterday was the one I WAS sit-down quilting. But, I wanted to do some straight line quilting and I KNEW if I tried to do it on the sit-down machine, one little blip in the quilting would glaringly show itself. 

I basted some leader fabric on the top and bottom of the quilt and attached the quilt onto the long arm; more than one way to skin a rabbit. 

Ingenious way to load an already quilted quilt

Here is some quilting detail of what I wanted to get in there...

A lot of ruler work that would have looked awful from the sit-down attempt

Todays quilt top on the frame is so cute and started working it after lunch. 

Norma's Reindeer top

Here's the challenge with this top...it's not blanket/any other stitched. It's all raw edged and the customer would like me to just get close to the edges and fasten the appliqué in that fashion. Everything started out okay until I got to an eyeball...

DW sucks up an eyeball

This happened multiple times despite my attempt at preventing it. 

Call the customer. 

I suggested, on the small pieces, to permit me to blanket stitch those down (resulting in a larger invoice) and she said she kind of wondered whether this was going to be an issue since she had small pieces coming off on her prior to her even giving it to me. She approved the additional labor. 

I'll get all the background fill put in and the rest of the regular quilting done and then remove it from the frame to do the blanket stitching on those tiny bits left. I'd really like to just blanket stitch everything down for her, but I'm not sure she'd be willing to foot that rather large charge. 

We have finally received a good amount of rain and while we were in desperate need of the moisture, I'm not looking forward to what comes next; mosquitoes. We were virtually without any for the past few weeks and it was extremely welcoming since I'm in charge of the yard this year. But with the rainy day came a wonderful day to shop with hubby this morning, and work in the studio, guilt-free, for the remainder of the day. 

Directions

The pattern: $59.95

The number of pages in said pattern: 207

The directions to do the last set of borders: Half a Page and extremely ambiguous 

I re-read the directions a number of times thinking that certainly 37 more appliqué pieces wouldn't be that big of a deal. What the pattern designer failed to mention is that the border would require these 37 pieces EACH...for a total of another 148 pieces. UGH!

Here are the corner pieces all stitched out...

Block #'s 362-365: Corner Tree(s) and Corner Cottage

Here are the two borders I did manage to get prepped before calling it a night at 9:00...

Two Borders Prepped

Today I have to work on the sit-down quilt for my customer and I'll load another customer quilt onto the frame. Then, on to more border work since these take a LONG time to get together (about two hours each). It'll be fun trying to get the blanket stitching into these since I'll be working with 78" strips (trying to remain optimistic about it). 

Productive Day

Yesterday's work was kinda backwards because of the Town and Country rows occupying the long arm. Those needed to be attached to free up the machine to get Becky's quilt off. 

Almost done...only one more row to go!

Ummm...this isn't right

Once the rows were attached to Town and Country and Becky's quilt was removed and trimmed, the next two up for quilting are Pats charity quilts. Pat pieced her batting. Well...kinda of. 

There wasn't enough batting width to just remove her stitches and then restitch the batt for her. Easier option...just cut a chunk out of my stash and use that. Done.

Here are the two charity quilts worked...

Pat's charity quilts

Swirls

Hook Swirls

Who says charity quilts have to have dull quilting put into them? Once I quilted the two charity quilts I moved on to sit down quilting. This will take much longer on the sit down machine than it would have could I have loaded it onto the frame. But the quilt has already been trimmed and is ready for binding and the client thought I could get some more quilting put into it than what she had already done. The problem is nothing was ditched and there was very little quilting actually into the piece that she gave me. 

Trying to ditch all that bulk on a DSM

Quilting texture

The corner blocks were prepped for the last row in Town and Country after three hours of sit down work. The last borders are cut and the fusible is drawn on to begin the first border of the last round. Tonight I'll continue on with both the sit down work and the Town and Country blocks. 

Second to the Last

The second to the last row has all blocks completed. 

Block #'s 358-361: Water Trough and Bird, Barn, Farm House, and Corner Farm Sign

I had enough time left over to get them put into rows...

Waiting to be attached

Notice where I put the constructed rows. Not a good decision last night (I must have been getting tired) because I can't long arm with all these hanging out. I'm going to get them on this morning, which requires a lot of finagling around the studio, since the top is getting so big.

Becky's quilt was completely quilted yesterday, but still needs to be removed, trimmed, and she needs to be called so I'll do that after getting these rows on. And then load the next one in line once that's done; busy day in the works. Yay! 

From "Not Much" to "Zero"

If I thought I wasn't getting much long arming in before, try making it zero long arming over the weekend. This was one of the reasons...

Hazel and Walter

Walter is the neighbors' daughters' dog and he and Hazel are in love. Since the neighbors were up, we spent the bulk of the weekend with them. 

I was able to fit in a few Town and Country blocks here and there...

Block #'s 351-354: Chooks (chickens), Straw Stack, Chicken House, and Trees on Hill

Those were Saturday's accomplishments.

Yesterday we headed downstate to the kids' house to celebrate Father's Day. Once we returned home I was able to stitch out three more blocks to try to keep on track.

Block #'s 355-357: Quad Bike in Shed, Barn and Grain Silo, and Donkey

Four more blocks for this round. Long arming today on Becky's top and a few more Town and Country's. Independence Day is two weeks away and I'm feeling pretty good about my deadline. I'm not expecting any customers nor any company, so I should be pretty productive today in the studio. 

Not Much Long Arming

Only a couple of passes needed on Jodi's quilt yesterday, a trim, a phone call, and it's finished. Had to run to town for a few items in the afternoon. Didn't get home until later since we also stopped by a friends/customer house and chatted with her for a while. Lost quilting mojo so moved on to Town and Country.

Only got two stitched yesterday...

Block #'s 349-Water Windmill and #350-Farm Cottage

Last Round All Prepped

And check this out! Because I only had the two prepped for stitching yesterday, I prepped a few more. And then a few more...and then before you know it, all the remaining blocks for this round are ready to stitch out. 

I'm going to load a customer top this morning and work it for a bit, but then plan on working on the Town and Country blocks the rest of today and tomorrow. We will be gone all day Sunday. Don't know how much I'll get done because of that so I need to keep that in mind. 

By the Hair of My Teeth

This particular quilt I'm working on for Jodi is fun! Look at the quilting she wanted me to put into it for her...

Utilizing the fabric detail as quilting inspiration

But, had a little bit of a batting problem once the top was basted in and was ready to start...

See the fusible tape I'm having to use to extend the batt out with?

And, the backing is extremely NOT square so I'm playing backing roulette too. I think (I'm hoping) it will JUST work out correctly. 

After long arming for a bit yesterday (was in the yard ALL morning and part of the afternoon yesterday), I dug into more Town and Country blocks. 

Block #'s 346-348: Grain Sacks, Barn, and Tractor 4

Today, minus the yard work, will be much of the same as yesterday: Long arming Jodi's quilt this morning and finishing that up. Loading another top for the weekend, and either stitching or prepping more Town and Country blocks. 

I started looking ahead to the last round on the Town and Country piece. It's going to be interesting to try to blanket stitch four 4 1/2" x 84" sections with pieces running all over. Most of the pieces are larger in scale and are gently sloping, but some of the hills have trees and other things on them, which are smaller pieces to deal with; meaning a lot of turning and maneuvering this under the machine. And...that will probably be about next week. 

And I just had another thought about the last borders: I'm going to have to be darn accurate when getting that batting underneath that long strip or there will be some interesting issues occurring. Yay! Can't wait!

Seeing the Light

As I snapped pics of my Town and Country blocks completed yesterday, I realized I'm getting very near the end of the round in progress. Here are yesterday's blocks...

Block #'s 343-345: Corner Farm Produce, Corner Duck, Duck, and Big Barn

And these few gave me another couple of very intensive blanket stitched blocks with all those tiny details. 

This morning started out right in with yard work and I didn't sleep very well last night. I'm fighting through it all day today while trying to make the lawn look pretty for Father's Day weekend. Maybe getting on the machine will be a fix I desperately need.

Here's what's on the frame today...

Jodi's top

I LOVE the colors in this piece. This is my kind of color scheme and am really enjoying having it on the frame for a day or so to brighten up the already bright studio. I'll chip away at this some more this afternoon (I only got it started yesterday) and see how long my tired head will let me quilt. 

And from there, I'll move along to prepping and making a few more Town and Country blocks. Only 17 more days to finish 40 more blocks. I can do it. I can do it! I can do it!!! (she says to herself every day she wants to move on to something (anything) else). 

Another Completed Quilt

Marilyn's quilt was finished early yesterday evening. I'll pull it off this morning and contact her. I'm not sure what heads to the frame next so it's going to be a surprise. 

Between thunderstorms last night I was able to get these three blocks done on Town and Country...

#'s 339-341: A Frame Chook (Hen) House, Honey, and Sunflowers

These were three very labor intensive blocks which is why only three were completed. I only have one more prepped for later tonight so I won't be getting many stitched this evening I don't think. 

More Good Intentions

I had every intention to work diligently on those Town and Country blocks, but after getting home from the store and errands yesterday morning/afternoon, my tired body didn't want to cooperate. 

I think I've been running too hard at this age I'm at and it was letting me know it by not wanting to even step foot in the studio. Which is like having the quilting flu. 

But today I'm ready and after having spent the morning outside working the yard, feel ready to get at it full force and with a clearer head and body. 

I did manage to get two Town and Country blocks done on Saturday...

#337 Chook (Hen) House, and #338 Bee Hive

Going to work on Marilyn's top today but will have to do a little more yard work. We received rain last night and Hazel's yard wasn't dry yet when I wanted to mow it. 

Speaking of Hazel, I think she needed a veg day yesterday too with plenty of snuggles with mom...

Such a snuggler

Texture

This is the back of one of my customer quilts from yesterday. No, this is not the computer doing this quilting. This was me doing all free motion. Minke, the backing fabric, always shows so much texture after it's quilted. I'd almost like to do a two-sided Minke quilt because the stuff is so snuggly. 

Texture in the Minke

Customers were here most of the day yesterday. I was only able to get one row completed in Marilyn's top and then I was off and running to a nail appointment. 

I did manage to get some Town and Country time in because we had a couple of thunderstorms go through (giving us about 3/4" of rain finally). I don't even turn the long arm on when we have thunderstorms nearby. 

#'s 332-336 Tractor 3, Hay Bales, Farm House, Sheep, and Barrel of Apples

I'm not sure where I'm headed in here today. I should probably stay on task with the Town and Country blocks all day. I'm getting so close (less than 40) and knocking out five or six at at time brings those numbers down fast. Jim is putting up our strawberry jam this weekend so he'll not care what I work on in here. 

And, as much fun as I'm having with these blocks, I'm ready to start something else from the WIP tote and get things moving along. How many months have I been on these already? Three I think. Yep, time to start something else. 

Unique Borders

This customer doesn't remember, from her pattern, if she was supposed to trim these borders down or leave them like this...

I think these should have been trimmed

And in all actuality, if binding for you is not an issue, it would be pretty cool to leave these borders like this. I'm fully quilting them in case she decides to not cut them back.

Here's some quilting detail of what this quilt is receiving...

Some quilt detail

DW is driving those big real estate blocks. I'm driving the star blocks and together we're making this one beautiful quilt. 

Still no rain which means outside watering. And I decided the weeds at the "lake" needed to be sickled down so I had a late afternoon workout. But prior to heading out to get all sweaty and gross, these Town and Country blocks were completed...

#'s 329-331: Sheep, Llama, and Trees on Hill

I just realized I haven't any blocks prepped for tonight/this weekend and I have four customers coming today to pick up and drop off more tops. Oh, and a nail appointment late this afternoon. And Jim has decided to do berries this weekend as well. I'll have to just stay in here late tonight, or work it into my day somehow between customers. 

Thread Chicken

I'm running low on the dark brown thread being used in some of the Town and Country blocks. Yesterday was thread chicken day...

I made it!

I was stitching blocks while waiting for a customer backing to "iron" out on the frame. This is what's on the frame this morning...

Look at all that real estate!

Three Town and Country blocks stitched out yesterday so while not a stellar number, at least I'm still on track for the completion [goal] date. And, I received an email from AQS about next years upcoming submission deadlines. With the encouragement of customers and family members, I think Town and Country may be going to a show. There are a lot of hoops to go through to get a quilt submitted and I'll decide the quilts fate once I get it completed. 

#'s 326-328: Barn, Goat, and Geese

Today I'll be working this top on the frame and doing as many Town and Country blocks as I can. I have a customer coming today to pick up her little quilt, two sets coming tomorrow to both pick up and drop off, and I need to run to Pieces at some point tomorrow or Saturday to say just say hello. I haven't been over there in a while and like to see what's new in the shop every so often. 

I think I May Deem Days Off Yardwork

I workout on M/W/F mornings and since I'm already sweaty, figured I may as well go out and tackle some yard stuff. That usually occupies most of the morning, leaving at least the afternoon to sew. 

Yesterday, being Tuesday, I didn't go out and do a lick of yard work and instead was very, very productive in the studio both on customer quilts as well as my own work. And that seems to work out very well. Sue's quilt is done and was able to get a second one loaded. 

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

Pat's Baby Quilt

I got a little of this completed before mom made a visit for a while. By the time she left, my long arming mojo had left as well so I moved on to Town and Country. Here's the blocks completed yesterday...

#'s 318-325: Trees on Hill, Pony Poo, Pony, Horse in Stall, Vehicle Towing, Horse Trailer, Corner Sign, and Gate

Yep, I was very productive yesterday. 

This is Wednesday, so back outside I go. Got the 13 perennials planted that mom found to put in our north lake garden. Watered a few of Jim's garden plants and will water more tonight if we don't receive any rain. Which, we aren't expecting. 

I'll finish Pat's quilt this afternoon and load another before getting into the the Town and Country blocks. I only have one prepped so not as many will be completed today...unfortunately. 

Not Going Solar After All

Sue's top is about half way completed now...

Quilt Detail (if you can see it)

See, the camera on my phone is being dumb. Through the lens, this looked great. Ah, well. I'm not going out to buy a new phone just because the camera doesn't work. Technology huh?

After my back said "enough" yesterday evening, I moved on to more Town and Country blocks. Five were stitched out before running out of prepped blocks.

#'s 313-317: Farm Cottage, Fence, Straw Stack, Hat & Gumboots, and Tractor 2

I think I have enough to get one row put together but am out of room on the design wall to hang this top should I add any more. I'm going to assemble the round all at once I think because I'm lacking space to put the top after getting the next row on. 

While talking to my brother last night about the possibility of solar panels (he has 25 of them on his house and talked us out of getting any since the return on investment is crap), I was able to prep eight more blocks for tonight and tomorrow. 

Customer who was to come today rescheduled for Thursday. Sue's top should be done today (back dependent), and more Town and Country blocks. Just think, I'm on track for numbers so I should be done by my goal date of July 4th on the Town and Country project. 

Well...

...once again my productivity level in the studio was virtually nil over the weekend. Saturday was a "mom" morning with a visit to the Midland Art Festival, grocery shopping with Jim, getting truck work done, and then  getting Town and Country blocks prepped for stitching.

Sunday afternoon was spent at a customer location to go through her sewing room since she is, unfortunately, leaving the state. It was hard to focus because she actually lives on a real lake with real water and real boats. 

And it was hot yesterday so the lake was super busy. But after coming home with a few kits, a wall hanging, a cross stitched snowman, and three charity quilts to get done for her before she leaves, was able to get these completed beforehand. 

#311-312: Farm Dog and Farming Tools

This morning, after working out, and before getting ridiculous hot with rain on the way, needed to tackle the lawn. The entire thing including Hazels pen and trimming was finished in time to grab a bite to eat. Now I can actually get to work in here. 

Here's what's on the frame today...

Sue's beautiful batik garden

The rains (finally) came and the rest of the afternoon is mine to quilt and enjoy the studio views. Sue is giving me free license to do what I want in this top so it should be a fun time.