More Construction

Most of this weekend was spent outside. All except for yesterday. But since Thursday afternoon, we've been out working on the new studio. Here's where we ended Saturday afternoon...

Foundation is Done!

By "we" I mean my totally wonderful boys Caleb and Ben as well as Jim and I. The boys are work machines and without them Jim and I would still be on the first row had we had to do this ourselves. 

We have to wait a few days before any other "major" construction commences to let the mortar dry and make sure everything is settling. Jim will slurry the sides this evening after he gets home from work (today was his first day back), but that's a minor thing.

I spent yesterday in the studio most of the day working on this...

A bucket list project I've wanted to make

I've wanted to make a US map from appliqué since forever. This is the beginning. I have about 100 flying geese to put around the first border I've already attached, and then another border will be added after that. 

But, that's for later tonight or next weekend, depending on how much new studio construction assistance will be needed depends on how much "after work" time I get on quilting projects. 

I'll be working on Pats quilt today and hope to round that out later this evening now that I have my groove on quilt path and thread changes figured out. 

Progress

I did make some progress on Pats quilt yesterday; more than I thought possible considering the customer drop off I had and the construction activities going on.

Here's some of the quilting detail in Pats quilt...

Border detail

Blocks

I managed to get 1/3 of the way through this large top and will continue today if not needed out in "the hole". 

Caleb came up last night and helped to move the blocks down to the construction site...

Last nights work which finished at nearly dark

Ben is already here and they are already mixing mortar for getting the corners set in before the rain comes later today. IF we do get rain, what will have been completed will have to be covered otherwise it dilutes the mortar and would have issues with leveling. 

I have nails this morning and need to pick up some food items to feed these boys today, so off I go. 

Construction Weekend

I know today is only Thursday, but we start receiving all the building goodies today; anytime actually. I may have to assist in some of the work following delivery, so quilting for the next couple of days is going to be hit and miss. 

Two of the boys are planning on coming up to offer their muscles and extra hands in the work. We have awesome kids!

At any rate, I have this quilt to chip away at on DW for the weekend (and maybe Monday too)...

Pats log cabin

I have already planned the quilting process out on this one so yay on what takes me eons to do at times. 

While frame ironing the backing on this and after the planning, I put together two more blocks in the 100 blocks challenge. Today is the 27th and I have 44 blocks completed, so I'm still ahead of the game despite the construction/sickness/reunion interruptions. 

Did I mention I was sick for a couple of days. Either mild food poisoning or the stomach flu, but I seem to have passed through that. I haven't been this sick in my entire life, and yet the last year seems like I'm getting everything under the sun. Let's say we're done with all of that and not revisit it anymore. 

Until supplies arrive, I'm on DW. 

Bittersweet

Getting to the end of a quilt you've been working on for a few days is both glorious and sad at the same time. 

One more row

It's a time to reflect on what was put into the quilt and, perhaps, ponder about what could have made the process even better. 

We have big storms coming this afternoon. This means I'm going to have to really focus this morning and get this finished. Ben (and maybe the whole family) will be here this weekend and tomorrow morning is all I have left before we start on the weekends new studio work. 

Yes, the foundation is being started this weekend. So excited. Jim seems to be on the mend and should get a back-to-work clearance from his ortho doc this morning, and the blocks/mortar/boards are being delivered sometime tomorrow morning making it possible for us to start back in on the new addition.

Speaking of the new addition; our inspector came out yesterday to approve the footings, but the very first thing he did was jump out of his truck and head over to our privacy fence. You know the one there on the south side; the one between us and our cranky neighbors.

Well, the inspector said he received a complaint already about us being too close to the property line, which we knew we were not because we measured about 100 times to make sure we weren't. We knew the neighbors would complain. And the inspector said we were fine by two whole feet, he approved the footers, and said we were good to go ahead to the next step. Why is there always "that one neighbor'?

Partial Day

I only worked a partial day yesterday. A little after noon, my tummy was cramping so badly it hurt to lean up against the belly bar of the long arm. I didn't even eat lunch. I spent the rest of the day on the couch with terrible cramps, dizziness, and awful lethargy.  

I'm feeling a little better today but still a little foggy in the head. I'll work as long as I can. 

Here's what I was talking about before about 'same but different' in these memory quilts.

See any difference?

I ran a triple frame around the negative space to frame the dresses a little better. And, to eliminate some of the negative space for filler. I think it divides it up better and gives it a little more presentation.

This is what I'll [try to] continue on with today. We have a building/county inspector coming sometime this morning to look at our footers and give us the go ahead on those before starting the foundation this weekend. Hope all is well with what he's looking for. 

Small Project Saturday/Sunday

We had to go to Lansing on Saturday, but when we got home I needed to sew something. Anything. That was after we assessed the damage the hail and high winds did to the property while we were gone. 

Lansing was beautiful. Apparently it wasn't here. Jim lost a number of his peppers, and we had tossed over chairs, shredded leaves all over the side of the house and one the deck, sticks everywhere and a good bit of hail still at the end of the downspouts even nearing 11:00 that night. 

Yesterday we went to an estate sale in the morning and didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day. I did make another block and here's the four that were completed over the past two days...

Coming along

I did the four light pinks and it seems like all of them but a few are very labor intensive. I'm running out of room on the design wall too. 

I'll be working the Helms' memory quilt today on DW. My tummy has been acting up the past two days so I hope it's just an overindulgence of not-good-for-us-food over the weekend from the birthday party and not something else. It seems like every time we're around the B grandchildren, one or both of us come down with something. 

Feet

When sewing conventionally there are several feet available for ones sewing machine; even the lesser expensive models have a few feet that come with the machine. Did you know the same is true for a long arm? It is, after all, nothing more than a giant sewing machine turned 90 degrees.

When I'm working an appliqué (or in this case, a memory quilt), I use several feet to move around the quilt. 

A cup/spoon/Glide foot

This foot is used for heavy bulk, and in my case, to get in between the folds of each of the dresses.

An echo foot

I have these in 3/8", 1/2", and 3/4" sizes. I'm using the 1/2" for this particular quilt.

Ruler foot

The one I use the most. It has a higher profile on the sides to keep from jumping over the edges of my rulers and causing serious damage to the machine. 

I have two of these feet also available for the Bernina as well as others. But for this particular quilt, these are the three I'm using. 

Off to Lansing first thing this morning for our grandsons 5th birthday party, so not much quilting today I'm afraid. 

Number Two

Here's the second memory quilt and it's not going to get finished before tomorrow. I have a dentist appointment this morning at 11:00 and thank goodness for those reminders they text to you because I would have totally missed the boat on that one. 

The Second One

This is about the same size as the previous quilt and I'm going to do pretty much the same quilting, but a little different; just enough to change it up a bit but have them cohesive to each other. 

And because we're leaving by 10:00 tomorrow morning it only leaves this afternoon to work this whole quilt. Not gonna happen unless I quilt well after midnight tonight. And since the neighbors are up and it's supposed to be nice this evening, I'm thinking we have a campfire in the future. 

Probably Not Going To Make It

My initial "deadline" for these two memory quilts was Friday night. We have to be in Lansing by noon-ish on Saturday. We have storms coming this afternoon and if those do decide to show up, I'll have to shut the machines down until it passes. 

Here's some of what's going into the first quilt... 

The first border going in

Free motion fillers are fun!

Love doing the cross hatching as well

More of the same today.

I had an email come through yesterday inquiring about my prices and my turn around time. My thoughts on that are: If the turn around time for your custom long armer is long, she must be pretty good because everybody keeps bringing their quilt tops to her. No? And ego booster for the start of my day. 😉

Deadlines

Okay people, if you've given me a deadline, I'm going to meet it. Period. I've never missed one yet and I have no intention of ever missing one. There is really no reason to call or text or email to see how I'm coming along on your quilt. This takes time away from the actual quilting process and it puts me even further behind. 

Soap box done for the day.

I soap boxed because lately I've had a lot of folks calling to see where they are at in the queue and how soon before their quilt is done. And, then giving me deadlines after initially telling me there wasn't any hurry on getting their quilt back. 

Here's the math: It takes me an average of three days to do a quilt. I have nearly 40 in queue right now. 3 x 40 = 120 days. Any questions? 

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

Memory Quilt Top

I have two similar quilt tops to do back to back. This is for one of my customers/friends down in the Lansing area and since we're heading to Lansing on Saturday, it would be awesome if I could get these both done beforehand so I can deliver them instead of having to have the customer come way up here to get them. 

But then again, I didn't realize these were so large and that may be a stretch. Here's hoping!

Coming Home

Caleb, our youngest son, who is in the U.S.A.R and an R.O.T.C. cadet is coming home next week. It seems like he's been gone longer than the month he's been gone, but it's going to be wonderful once he gets done with his officer training.  

Meanwhile, I chipped away at Mary's quilt on and off yesterday. Had a new customer call and had to talk to mom off and on about her surgery. That was scheduled for today. That was cancelled until August 1st. We also had an appointment later in the afternoon to tour a new dog kennel up in West Branch. Still not as nice as Luanns place, but it's doable. 

The nice people we talked to (Brad and Carrie) were asking about my business and I realized I hadn't taken any pics of the boys together in a while. 

And, as you can see, Mary's quilt is still on DW

The neighbors are coming up later today so I need to crank on Mary's quilt this morning and early afternoon. You never know what to expect when they come up as we find ourselves getting into all sorts of mischief. 

Small Project Sunday

The first eight colors are done in the 100 blocks and I also had time to get the rows assembled as far as I could given the blocks completed thus far. We had to head to moms yesterday to pick up some things, and for a much overdue visit.

Rows are together

I'll be continuing on with Mary's quilt today. I am hoping (upon all hope) to get this done by tonight. I'm going to have to fight with the blue glow in the dark thread because I don't want to have just one column tinted blue and all the others white. 

The Mettler thread is behaving a little better than the blue, but I think these threads are so finicky they require me to quilt slower than usual. 

Mom has a foot surgery tomorrow, so I'll be out of the studio for the day. Although, we won't know when her surgery time is until after 3:00 this afternoon. Isn't that crazy? She tried to get a time this morning and they said to call back after 3 o'clock. WTH? I guess "real" people don't need to plan their days or have a life. 

Thread Snob

I'm a snob about some things I put into my own personal quilts, and, sometimes, about what I put into customer quilts. Thread is one of those. 

I use Glide (by Fil-Tec) and So-Fine! (by Superior) almost exclusively in the long arms. But, occasionally, I have to use a speciality thread per the customers request. Well, just because it's made by XYZ company doesn't necessarily mean the quality follows along in all of the lines they manufacturer.

For example...

Wasted thread

...this light blue glow in the dark thread. Its cone name is Luminary and it's made by Fil-Tec...one of my go-to thread manufacturers. I wish words could describe the frustration level in dealing with this stuff yesterday trying to work with constant breakages, skipped stitches, and twisting. 

I called Pieces of Thyme to see if they had any glow in the dark thread (because another 20 blocks of this was going to send me up the pole) and they do indeed carry it now. 

However, it's a Mettler brand and it's not blue. It's white. So, I'm going to have to deal with the light blue through at least one more row (I'm going to alternate every other row), but I haven't yet set in the Mettler to see how it behaves on the machine. That's in about 10 minutes from now. 

And, after calling my usual thread supplier (Quilted Joy) about any recorded issues with this stuff, they, of course assumed it was my machine adjustments. We talked through that, and didn't come up with any significant solutions. The breakage didn't start happening until I changed out threads and when I put the Glide back in to resume the next row, DW behaved swimmingly. He better. He did just come back from his spa week after all.

Wish me luck today on this new glow in the dark thread!

Thunderstorm This Morning

So I was kind of lazy and getting a little bit of a late start to my morning. We don't turn on long arms during thunderstorms.

Here's some of the quilting going into Mary's quilt...

Beyond the border

Some of the center section.

Love this border design

I wish it showed up better!

I was only expecting a few customer drop offs yesterday and one pick up. I did have just the one pick up, but holy wow, got seven drop offs added to the queue. Here's the rack where not one more top could go.

The rack is officially full

See what I mean about being so excited to get that new studio done? There will be a double tier rack in the new digs. 

More of Mary's quilt today and maybe a little of Joanns. 

Two Weeks

Has it really been two weeks since I heard the comforting hum of my long arm machines? I checked my photos and it was two weeks ago today since I last turned on DW. 

Here's what he's wearing today (and probably tomorrow, and, and, and)...

Mary A.'s blue and almost white top

I'm going to have a lot of fun with this one. I'm putting glow in the dark thread in those center kind-of star things (per the customers request) and I think a multi-layered scallop with a basket weave in the border. But that may change as I start getting into things. I need to get it basted in and ditched first, and since DW wasn't fully hooked up yesterday (too much yard work and then storms later in the evening), I have to do that as well. 

Why, when you get back from "vacation" does it feel like the yard goes gang busters? Mike and I did the whole yard just a week ago, and yesterday it looked like it had been over two weeks. Took that long too. Jim and I were on mowers before lunch. I was on and off the weed wacker all day while filling in the charging time with weeding. Or dealing with customers. Had a new one drop off yesterday.

Speaking of which, I have another new customer coming around 10:30 this morning and some repeats coming to both drop off and pick up a little later that. 

I usually get about five quilt tops in from mid-June to mid-August. It's my time to catch up from the late winter flurry that traditionally hits me. But this year, WOW, consistent drop offs and not much time to actually catch up. As I look out the window at our currently stalled new studio progress, I become excited for the digs that will provide less wasted time and a better work flow environment. 

We're Back!

DW is back from his spa week down in Lansing. Quite a few things were found that were wrong with his old self, but when Jim heard him [test] running he said he sounded like new. I, on the other hand, am feeling not so new.

He's back!

I got all the poles put in this morning and have everything moved to get right back into the swing of things.

During our rain-filled reunion, caught a chill and I think Jims sister decided to share her Croatian cold with me. I was on the couch for three days trying to shake this thing. I'm still not a hundred percent, but I'm getting there. 

I've already had one quilt dropped off this morning and have another coming later this afternoon. I'm frame ironing a backing on DW and this is what will be loaded once I get that done. 

Mary's beautiful (and very large) quilt

Meanwhile, Jims leg is on the mend, although he goes in for an MRI early (2am) Monday morning to rule out a possible bone chip. We have a lawn that, with the rain, has decided to get ridiculous and we are still trying to close out the reunion stuff, but hopefully will be done with that later today. We have rain coming so I'm afraid I'm going to have to mow yet this morning before the customer shows early this afternoon. 

Ahhh...such is the life of a small business owner I suppose. 

Happy Independence Day!

It is the 4th of July, but all the celebrating was done over the weekend. It's quieter around here than even a normal Tuesday. I took the day off (much needed) but spent all day in the studio making these...

Pencil (or whatever) Pouches

These are all for the little kids under the age of about eleven. I worked in the trailer all yesterday morning (mice got in again over the winter). Yesterday afternoon it was too hot to really do anything outside, so after finishing Lynn S.'s quilt, I made four blocks for the 100 block challenge. I had a customer come and pick up her two quilts amongst all of that. 

Looks like one of them was still "resting" when I snapped this pic

I worked on these while frame ironing for the next quilt on Bernie...

Joann's Christmas Tree

The campgrounds where we have the weekend-long reunion, has Christmas in July every year that same weekend. So, maybe this Christmas tree is appropriate? I want to start quilting it (like now), but know if I get started, I'll be angry during the family time about not being able to come home and finish it.

And, Quilting at the Lake is closed until next Tuesday. 

I decided with Jim having to go to the med center tomorrow morning (he has a cough he can't seem to shake and I'm thinking he has an upper respiratory something or another going on), then off to Midland to shop for 80 people for two days, and our own grocery shopping as well--we won't be home until much later in the afternoon. And, I haven't really started packing the trailer. I suppose I need to start on that now that I'm done sewing for the day? Bleh!

Family Reunion Week

The family reunion this year is right on the heels of Independence Day, which is weird. I usually have a week in between. But the trailer is up and cleaned out. Now we have to start packing it up. I'll be long arming here and there today to fill in the gaps. 

I'm taking tomorrow off of everything. I need a day to just get the house ready for the kids to come and stay next weekend (they aren't camping this year because Zechariah doesn't sleep through the night), and to get our inventory done for shopping on Wednesday, and get the trailer all packed up. 

I did play in the studio yesterday. I have this many blocks in the 100 blocks challenge...

22 blocks completed so far

I know I'm way ahead of the game, but I know after tomorrow, there's probably zero chance of working on this for about a week. 

DW is still down in Lansing (he'll be there until the 10th), so I'll work on finishing Lynn S.'s quilt before Wednesday gets here. 

I also made this little bag late last night. Took under an hour. Isn't it cute?

Scrap bag

I better get to it. The work isn't going to get done by itself. 😁