Gratifying and Sad at the Same Time

The Spool quilt is quilted. I had so much fun working on it. It was a combination of free motion and ruler work and I had several thread changes throughout. It lessens my boredom level which makes it even more pleasant to work on. But alas, now comes the binding. 

Some of the quilting detail

I wanted to get that done before starting Amish with a Twist. I did get the top border started last night before shutting down...

Starting the borders

The borders, I think, are the hardest part of the quilt. They set the tone of the rest of the quilt and are the largest negative space areas to work. Usually. And, because they are challenging, are one of my favorite parts of the quilting process. 

Jim volunteered to work today. I'm going to play in the studio all day and work on this quilt while I have what appears as a normal work day ahead of me. There is some chatter about the neighbor two doors to the north coming up today so that may be a hitch in my giddy up. 

Family Comes First

I spent a lot of time on the phone with family yesterday. This is probably why Spools isn't done yet. Maybe today?

DW finally got something put on the frame...

Amish With a Twist

This top was completed at least five years ago. It's 98" x 108" and it's been patiently waiting to get done. It was originally a BOM from The Hen House in Charlotte and what a fun one to do! I need a black batting for it. Which I have in stock. The problem is my batts are only 96" in width. I'm going to have to piece a section once I get down to the bottom. 

I was going to head to Houghton Lake today to pick up a king-size black batt, but they don't open until 10:30 and I'm not sure they even have one in stock. I was already in town today (nails) at 9:00 and didn't feel like waiting in town for another half hour to call them. 

I made an 'executive' decision to just whip stitch a section together once I get to the bottom. Gas went up again so I didn't want to spend the money, or the time driving up there only to find out they didn't have what I needed. 

Not expecting any customers today which means I get all day of uninterrupted play. 

A Great Day

Yesterday was spent downstate for our Christmas with the kids/grandkids. We had perfect driving weather. Wonderful food. Lots of laughs and the girls were absolutely well behaved. By the time we got home, and got everything unloaded from the truck, we were very worn out.  

I did get the MSQC wall hanging done on Tuesday afternoon. I made a modification to the pattern though. It planned for three mug rugs instead of actually incorporating all the blocks it had me make into the actual quilt. We don't use mug rugs. My kids, when visiting, would use them as frisbees (they are boys after all). 

Here's what I came up with...

Now it's more of a table runner-type thing

Now that I have all the Christmas presents received put away, I'm going to try to finish the spools quilt today. DW has been naked now for a few days (almost a week actually) and that's just not right. I have the remainder of this week and one day next week to play in the studio on my own stuff. I need to take advantage of that very precious time. 

A Quick Regular Day

Since we didn't have Christmas during, well, Christmas, our holiday will be tomorrow. So, logistically, this is our Christmas eve. I even did business on Sunday and Monday; three customers came yesterday. 

After the customers left, we quickly ate lunch and watched a movie and then we were off to finish holiday errands/shopping. Once we returned home (well after dark) I worked on my little wall hanging that came with the MSQC box. I still have lots to go but here are a few of the blocks I've completed...

Mugs!

This handy little gadget, that also came in the box, is almost priceless...

Excellent for separating chain pieces

Jim is at work today. I'm going to play, piece, wrap, and jam today in the studio. Enjoy!

Christmas (Observed)

My shop hours are posted on Google. And...everything else is/was closed both yesterday and today like I am (supposed to be). Yet...I have a customer that called last night (I'm not kidding about this) and is coming over today. She said, last night, she would be here around 11:00. 

Jim and I had things to do around here this morning (haircuts, etc) and were staged to receive her around 11:00. She just called again for the balance on the invoice and said they'd be here in the next hour to hour and a half. 

Do people really have such little consideration anymore? So frustrating. I know my brochure said I'm flexible. But there's flexible, and then there is just plain rude. 

Let's get to something a little more positive. In the MSQC box I opened yesterday, there were a number of small projects that could be completed rather quickly. Which I really enjoyed. Here's the ornament that came in the box...

Isn't this just darling?

There was a leather duck change purse you had to stitch together and complete so here he is...

Quack

Then there was a jar of buttons in the box and the next days' gift was a pattern to make a pincushion to set atop the jar...

Another pincushion...which I am always in need of

Cute pattern

Then the box came with a winter-y charm pack, some yardage background fabric, and this pattern. I'm in the middle of all of this right now. I'll work on this until this customer [eventually] shows up. 

There's still another charm pack and background fabric to do another cute wall hanging and some more yardage to make a darling snowflake pillow. I'll tackle those later but for now, let's go sew. 

Merry Christmas

I made a folded start to put into the tree last night. Merry Christmas everybody!

Merry Christmas

Yesterday was spent working on the Spools quilt. Nothing else. But the Christmas present from Jim was additional lighting in the studio. Here he is getting it all in...

Hanging the new lights

Our family Christmas is actually on Wednesday. I knew this was going to happen (call is mothers intuition), so I had ordered a 25 Days of Christmas box from Missouri Star Quilt Company. It's been sitting here teasing me for a few months now. 

Spoiler Alert! The next pic is a compilation of everything in the box (minus two items).The very first day was not to disappoint (I won't tell in case somebody else out there ordered one)! It was a pleasant surprise throughout the whole box and I'll definitely order one again next year. 

MSQC 25-Days of Christmas Box

Merry Christmas Eve

We did our usual "Sunday" routine yesterday. I think the weather stress weighed on all of us...including the dogs.  

I did get the Needle quilt top onto the long arm and got it quilted before we turned into complete couch potatoes. 

Just need to bind

I have found some leftover fabric from doing this pattern and will make the binding today. I won't get the binding onto the quilt because Mike has been put away for the holidays; he's my go-to binding machine.  

Some more spool top work today and perhaps another one of my quilts will get onto DW. It's Christmas Eve...I can do what I want. Jim will be cooking/baking all day and so why he's in his happy place I'll be in mine. 

Jim's Home Today

And I'm so glad he called in earlier this month for today off. We were supposed to be heading down to Lansing. Like, right now. But with the blizzard out there we have to wait and see what happens. Maybe tomorrow we can head down? 

He's in the kitchen cooking today and I'll be fiddling around in the studio. This is the one week (between Christmas and New Years) I get to play and do a few of my own quilts. Now that the Weidman quilt is done, I'm able to actually do that. 

So darn pretty!

Once I was finished with this quilt I shifted to the back room to finish those placemats. Here they are waiting to be wrapped. 

Gnomes waiting for a new home

I need to get the Weidman quilt off the frame, trimmed, and billed out. Then I can load another of mine. Those needles need to get on there for some straight-line quilting. I'm not sure where I'll go from there. So excited to be able to get a few of my 36 tops out of their totes. 

As long as we have electricity (the winds are really gusting out there) I'll be enjoying some relaxing time in the studio. 

Quiet Work Day

Yesterday afternoon was productive. I was able to get past the half-way point on the Weidman quilt before Jim got home (early). We immediately shut the machine down, grabbed our coats, and were off and running. 

We did a plethora of errands and one of those was to Meijer. Yeah. Do NOT go to Meijer on the cusp of a storm and on the cusp of Christmas. It. Was. A. Zoo! Even the Shop and Scan line was a 20 minute wait. 

Anyway. We didn't get home until well after dark. Working anymore in the studio was not going to happen. But one of the gifts we did pick out were some additional light strips for over the long arms. (Jim got a grill). He's going to work on those while I open my MSQC gifts on Christmas Day. We also purchased some brighter LED bulbs for the ceiling fan in there. Hopefully this will aid in my "older" eyes.

The Weidman quilt is my top priority today. I want to be able to get most of it done should we lose power over the next few days with the strong winds they're predicting. Which we seem to catch the brunt of power-wise. Although, it's the folks across the lakes turn to lose theirs. We lost ours with the last high wind event. 

More quilting detail...

I love how the quilting is coming out on this one!

Time to turn on the Christmas carols, enjoy the peace of the house before it starts rocking later tonight, and quilt while I can. 

Orange Ball

Blogging late again today. Fed Ex delivery and then customer came to drop off. There's an orange ball in the sky this morning. Must be the calm before the storm is due.

Here's what's on Bernie this morning...

Spools of thread

Quilting detail tomorrow on this one.

Here's some more quilting detail on the Weidman Quilters appliqué piece on DW...

First Row

I'm almost to the half-way point on this one. I'll work in this today and the Spools later tonight. I'm also working on those placemats and have the binding attached on one side. Maybe those will be completed this evening as well?

And it looks like our Christmas is postponed. We have a nasty storm due in starting tomorrow afternoon. Mom doesn't want to drive down to Lansing, and I was a little concerned as well. 

AND...the "B" grandkids seem to have come down with Chicken Pox. Jim and Colette do not have their Shingles vaccine so we would be a possible Shingles recipient...which we want no part of. Needless to say, our trip to Lansing Friday is out the door. Maybe after the first of the year when the grandkids are through their Chicken Pox we can celebrate? Suddenly, it doesn't' seem like Christmas at all. 

Skipped a Day

By the time I finally realized I had skipped blogging it was too late yesterday. 

This is what was on Bernie this weekend...

This WAS on Bernie

When I realized that straight line quilting would be the best for this top, I pulled it off Bernie and he'll be loaded onto DW when he's free. DW has channel locks. Bernie does not. And I'm not going to ruler all of that when it would take 1/10th of the time using those channel locks. 

Then I put on four placemats and did those. Didn't grab a pic...sorry. But they are quilted and off Bernie. I started loading last night what's going onto him next, but the backing is still being frame ironed. 

Here's some of the quilting going into the Weidman Quilters appliqué quilt...

The first border is in

You can tell it's really dry in here because my air erasable markers are staying in a long time.

I'll continue on with this piece again today. And continue to frame iron the backing for the new one going on Bernie. At some point tonight, I'm going to have to once again, drag out my "big" swing machine, and get the bindings onto the placemats; those are going with us downstate for a gift for someone. Wink, wink.

Santa's Workshop

Jims birthday is today. We don't usually do a whole lot for either of our birthdays. I guess we're getting too old for such things. And...it was Santa's workshop in here yesterday after lunch so I was busy with all of that. I worked on the Weidman quilt until then. 

Here's some of what came out of the shop:

1. Elijah's quilt is off the frame, trimmed, and bound. 

2. Six cutlery holders (which I still need to fill and roll before wrapping)

3. Seven gift card bags (which I need to find cording for and lace through)

Here's a pic of items two and three...

Cutlery Holders

Gift card baggies

And...all the holiday gifts are at least sewn. Jim should be home in the next hour. I've spent the morning on the phone with holiday shoppers trying to coordinate who got what for whom. I've been cleaning the studio and house as well to corral yesterday's workshop frenzied mess. 

I Should Know Better

How does the saying go...it's the mechanic that has the worse running car...or the shoemaker who has kids running around with holes in their shoes? I always check the batting in a customer quilt. Always! It has a tendency to want to bunch up and get weird as the thread starts bringing things together. I was in such a hurry to get Elijah's quilt quilted, I failed to check his batting. This was the result as I got to the end last night...

Oops

Yep, I goofed. thankfully the 2 1/2 year old won't give two hoots about this. But grandma will always know about it. I'm so mad at myself but I don't have time to unstitch the last 13" it would take to get this rectified, so it's going to have to stay. 

Moving along. Here's what's on DW this morning (and for the next week)...

The Weidman Quilt Group Quilt

They will be raffling this needle-turned appliquéd quilt and I need to get it done by mid-January so pics and finishes can be done for their advertisement(s). All those pieces need to be ditched. That is a very slow going process and will take a considerable about of time to get completed. So it'll be on the frame for a while. 

Caleb picked up my sidelight for DW yesterday, and Jim will bring it north with him tomorrow when he (finally) returns back home to me and the girls. I miss him terribly! But that sidelight is going to be a must when working on this piece.

As mentioned previously, Elijah's quilt is quilted, but it's still on the frame right now. I hope to get that bound today. The potholders were finished last night; here's the last one...

Number four of four

They all have a black/white/red theme to them but with different fabrics. P.S. I detest hand binding. 😛

And lastly, the six cutlery holder gifts are cut out and ready to assemble today. I have plenty to occupy my time today while waiting for my best friend, my man, my everything to return home to me. Being busy sure makes the time go by quickly and spending it in the studio being creative helps make it bearable. 

Dog Sitter Rescheduled

We have a new dog sitter coming for a meet and greet, but the icy weather conditions today aren't going to allow that to happen. She rescheduled for Sunday afternoon. 

A full 11 hours in the studio yesterday. Joans quilt is finished, but still hanging out on the frame. It's white and until the girls are settled down for the morning and I have had a chance to clean the studio floor, I'm not taking it off to trim it. 

Once I was done with Joans quilt, I moved over and did a few hours on Elijah's quilt. Still not done with that. 

I bound yet another pot holder (one more to do) and then made a prototype of something else I'm making all the big kids for their cars. The pattern calls for more yardage than a fat quarter will get me, so I'm modifying the pattern a smidge to accommodate the fat quarters I picked up at Pieces last week. Here's the first go-around...

Cutlery Holder

The idea is the kids can keep these in their cars so if they need a set of eating utensils, they'll have one handy. Although, those who travel to an office, could just take them there. It's their choice...it's their gift. 

Today I have to trim Joans quilt (she'll be here later this afternoon to fetch), reload DW, get Elijahs quilt quilted, get the last pot holder bound, and if time allows, get the binding made and on Elijahs quilt. I need more hours in a day, especially around the holidays.  

Happiness is...

...being blessed with the space I have to enjoy each day while I'm working. Sadness is not having my husband home each night. I miss him while he's downstate working. 

Not many customers through (so far) this week, so it's kind of lonely. 

I'm continuing on with Joans quilt today. I've almost reached the half-way point and I'm aiming for completion tonight. She's going to be up this way tomorrow and I want to get it done while she's in my neck of the woods. 

Here's some of the quilting detail going in...

The sun came out for a minute yesterday and was able to grab this pic

Here's what I mean about her shimmery fabric...

Shiny!

It looks like new fallen snow!

I was able to get another pot holder bound last night meaning two of four are done. I'll keep chipping away at those to reach the Christmas deadline. Elijah's quilt didn't get worked on at all since I was solely focused on Joans quilt. Maybe tonight if the quilting gods are with me?

I was on the computer off and on yesterday trying to find a dog sitter for the girls the night of the 23rd. The "little" kids recommended Rover to try to find somebody to come and stay with them. I did find somebody but the app is awkward to maneuver even for a tech savvy person like me. I'd recommend it but you better have a younger person around to help navigate it, or be tech savvy yourself.

Country Music

I listen to music most days in the studio. It's almost a must for my creativity. Christmas music is the go-to choice over the last 10 or so days, but c'mon, enough is enough. I have 172 songs in my play list, I've listened to a few on I Heart Radio, the Dish, and Amazon Music. But I had to switch back to country yesterday. I needed a break.

But the country today is not what I remember country should sound like. When did they introduce electric guitar solos? Rap? Heavy bass beats? Alan Jackson made a statement earlier this week about this situation. I have to wholeheartedly agree that country needs to go back to fiddles, acoustic guitars, and banjos.

Anyway...I am listening to kinda country again today while working on what's on DW this morning...

Joan's JOY quilt

This is a pretty background fabric with lots of sparkles. Very festive!

I did work Elijah's quilt a little bit last night, as well as one of the four pot holders before getting out of the studio. I've got to focus mostly on Joans quilt today though. She's going to be up this way on Thursday and I want to have it done for her. I'm going to try my hardest. 

A Weird Weekend

No quilting on Saturday (our neighbors were up and we had Christmas errands to do all morning), but I did quilt on Sunday...which is a no-no for me. But I had to make up some Saturday time and these holiday quilts aren't going to finish themselves. 

Once I got off the long arm for the morning, cooking ensued. I had to get ready for Jim's departure for this week. He's downstate working all week and he needed some food to take down with him. 

After he left yesterday afternoon I was kind of tired (not a good thing on those big machines), so decided to do something a little more sedate. Well, my Sunday Small Project turned out to take way longer than I had originally estimated. I came out of the studio around 10:00 last night. But it's finished. 

Isn't this cute?

My sewing Christmas tree. Speaking of trees, I did this little cutie on Friday. Mom was going to throw the wood tree away when she moved into her condo. Jim rescued it and I embellished the whole thing. All for under $7.00.

After getting the 'garland' on

I've since added an owl for the top of the tree, and a laying fawn at the base. 

Today is work-my-butt-off day. I'm expecting a few phone calls and maybe (??) one customer but other than that no other visitors expected. Meaning I can totally focus on work. Dogs willing. 

Side Light

DW has a side light that I am pretty much completely dependent on; especially when working on very light or dark colors.

My little quilting crutch

It's been flickering off and on for the past couple of months, but yesterday was a whole new rate of flicker. More like strobe lighting. I have an email into Gall about whether the bulb (which appears to not exist) or the whole unit needs replacing. 

Here's some of the quilting detail going into Sue's Georgia Tech quilt...

One hornet per block please

This is the part DW is stitching out with the pro stitcher. 

I am just past the half-way point on Sue's quilt. I had three customers come by yesterday. The first one picked up...and then dropped another off. The second just picked up, but has more to come later after the first of the year. The third one dropped off and thankfully, there are no time deadlines for any of them. 

Once Jim got home I moved over to Bernie to start working on Elijah's quilt. I didn't grab a real great pic of what's going in on the borders, but here's one of the blocks...

More straight lines

I'm going to alternate between vertical and horizontal straight lines since this is set in an odd block format. 

I have nails this morning, I'm dropping off a completed quilt to Pieces for Paulette, and then I can focus on my work before campfire later this afternoon at the neighbors. 

Two More For The Holidays

Two more tops are loaded onto the long arms. Here's what's on DW this morning...

Sue L.'s gift for her grandson

This one is going to be a combination of ruler and ProStitcher work. Not much free motion though. 

Here's what's on Bernie this morning...

Another grandson gift for the holidays

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one yet. It's for a two-year old so he won't care, but I do. This kit WAS available at Piece of Thyme but I believe she has sold out of them; when I was there last week I didn't see it hanging from the ceiling any longer. 

I have a customer coming any time now to pick up, and another one around 10:30-11:00 to also pick up. That should be about it for traffic today. The neighbors to the north came up last night and we haven't seen them in a while. Probably won't see them again until after the first of the year, therefore we need to take advantage of their visit. 

Seam Threads

It seems like lately, a lot of the customer tops have been full of seam threads. Am I the only one who trims these when I'm pressing my seams? I had a long arm friend of mine who was pulling what she thought was a seam thread, only to discover it was actually the piecing thread. Oops. 

Here's a little quilting detail of June's top (back)...

Some clean straight lines to enhance the chandeliers

Here's a little quilting detail of Paulette's top (the actual top 😀)...

More straight lines

I must be on a straight line kick lately. Everything seems to need just those in them. 

Much of the same today. I have one customer picking up. There are a few packages expected today; thread for me, uniforms for Jim, and any Christmas packages that happen to appear. 

Still Getting Acquainted

Bernie and I are still "shaking hands" and feeling each other out. I had to adjust his right handle bar yesterday because I was noticing some wrist fatigue about half way through my day. I've never (ever) had that on DW. I put his handle bar as nearly as I could to match DW's hoping to rectify that situation.

Here's what's on DW this morning...

June's Chandeliers/Memory Quilt

This is actually the back of the quilt. I know, it's loaded as the front. This is a very weird situation in that the back is actually the front because the photo's of Oreo, the dog, are on the other side.

But we had to finagle this to make sure things lined up in the center, AND, not stitch over the dog photos on the back (front). The other issue we had is the back (front) is bigger than the chandelier side. And it would NOT load like that. No matter how we worked through it, and the borders on the chandelier side would have been SO messed up. 

So I'm going to quilt the blocks, paying extremely close attention to the photos on the underside so as not to stitch over them (June doesn't want them stitched over), and then once the quilt is done on the frame, I'll stitch around the photos on my DSM. 

Here's what's on Bernie this morning...

Paulette's auction quilt for the POA

Like most of Paulette's quilts, she said to just do my thing on this. Although, this one is time sensitive as is the one above. Of course they are, there's only 20 days until Christmas. 

I did manage to get the sewing tree loaded on Bernie last night and stitched out prior to getting Paulettes on the frame. And yes, the Gnomes are done! They took all day (things take longer on Bernie for some reason) but they turned out so darn cute. 

Holiday Moving

We have to do some moving around in here to get ready for the tree and other decorations accumulated the past 38 years. We found our tree yesterday afternoon and got it as far as into the house. Jim received a call out on a 'smells gas' so the rest had to wait until he got home. Once he returned the lights were put on but that's as far as he got. We'll finish decorating tonight. 

While he was working on outside chores yesterday morning, I colored my nutcracker and have him layered, sitting in-wait to be worked on...

Helen Godden's 2022 quilt-along piece

While he was out on his emergency call, I worked on the background for my new sewing tree pattern...

Doing it differently

All these appliqué directions say to first adhere the appliqué pieces to the background, stitch them down and THEN layer and quilt. I do it differently. 

I build the background (to include borders), mark the placements out with a Frixion pen and then quilt the background on the long arm. Afterwards I'll put the appliqué pieces down and THEN blanket stitch. 

It's like appli-quilting. The Yammy Cat and Pod Cats were done this same way. It works out better for the quilting end of things and the backing is double adhered down so gravity can't take its toll on the piece over time. 

Today, nothing (yep, you heard right) is on DW. My goal is to have the Gnomes done before anything else gets put on. I'm more likely to steer in the right direction if I'm not tempted in the other. 

Binding Day

Today is binding day. Here's Aileen's quilt waiting for me to finish it. BUT...there wasn't enough backing left to make the binding so off to Pieces I went first this morning. 

Trimmed and sitting in wait

I worked late last night to get this done and Jim helped me trim it. Thank goodness he did because the squaring situation turned kind of nightmare-ish. 

I plan on, while I'm in binding mode, to get the cats bound as well. I have to make some for all of these and the cats will also need to have a hanging sleeve/triangles made too. 

IF I have time before Jim gets home from work, I'll work some more on the Gnomes (seen in the background of the pic above). After he gets home we need to run to West Branch to grab some groceries. And other stuff. 

Deadline Passed

The Christmas quilt deadline has passed for quilting here at the lake. No exceptions. I'm getting phone calls and text messages about having quilts done for the holidays when I wasn't told when they came in there was no deadline for them. Pressure and artists don't really mix and I'm feeling the pressure. 

Here's what's on DW this morning...

Aileen's "consult" quilt

108" square and all hand pieced; but not very well. Here are a few pics of what's going on in this large project...

Selvedges used within the seam(s) and piecing

Spots and stains (which aren't coming out)

SOOOO many tucks and puckers

And there are holes everywhere I'm having to be mindful of. I chipped away through most of yesterday afternoon. Here's where I left off last night...

I love the texture

But look at all the ruffling I get to deal with today. I can't starch this either...my colorfast test let me know there would be plenty of bleed. 'Oh quilt Gods, please be with me today for peace, serenity, and wisdom.' Amen. 

I worked on the Bernie Gnomes for about two hours and it's coming along...albeit slowly. Today will be much of the same as yesterday minus the trip to Pieces. Happy December. 

Consult Gone Big

The consult I had with a new customer yesterday turned into a bigger venture than I originally expected. This HUGE (108" square) Lone Star top was hand pieced and not very well. I have been commissioned to not only quilt it, but fix where needed and to bind it. I also offered to get the backing for it (she didn't have any yesterday). This morning I was off and running to pick that up. 

While at Pieces, I picked up another quilt top from Paulette that is also a little time sensitive. It's a horse themed top and I look forward to doing anything with the horses!

Lynettes quilt is done but is still on the frame. I have to remove that and trim it before getting this new one on, which is a time sensitive situation. 

Meanwhile, I was having to starch the last border on Lynettes quilt (ruffles and pleats) and while waiting for that to dry, I finished blanket stitching the Pod Cats and then worked a little on the Gnomes that's on Bernie right now. 

Pod Cats

I have a busy day ahead and now that I have the brownies in the oven, can move into the studio.