Long Projects

The new studio is definitely a very long project. We're at 10 months already and still things to be done. He said, when he started the project, to give him a year. Looks like it'll be close to that. 

And then I have my long project. While the Mary, Mary quilt wasn't huge by any means, the amount of thread going in and the time- consuming motifs I selected to insert into the quilt took a long while to complete.  

Mary, Mary

See what I mean about a lot of thread?!

While DW was stitching on Martha's quilt I worked on this one. Then, I loaded Martha's quilt incorrectly and found myself having to unload it, cut a section of backing for the bottom, sewing that on, reloading, and then starting again. 

Marthas quilt is done. Because I had to frame iron for the next one on DW, I continued with Dianes quilt and that's how I got it finished. I'm just waiting for the marks to fade before calling her.

Meanwhile, this is on DW today...

Pat's embroidered braid

The white sections are all embroidered and the braids are done in batiks. However, look at the top border. I haven't basted in yet, but I can see already there's going to be an issue. Again with the borders waving at me. I love a good people wave; I do not love a good quilt top wave. Wish me luck. 

Short Week

This week is going to be a short one for Jim and I. We have a Masters hooding on Thursday (DIL) and a Military Commissioning ceremony (Son) on Friday. Saturday we have a birthday party (G-SON). All of these take place in Lansing/East Lansing in the mid-afternoon with luncheons and dinners prior to and after the activity. 

Because we know we have a short week coming, we worked most of yesterday morning and part of the afternoon. Jim attached the boards onto the porch/deck and I quilted Justin and Sabrinas baby quilt. 

I had to set up a temporary sewing station in the backroom and then attach the binding onto said quilt. After I located my walking foot which was MIA for a bit there. 

Cute set!

DW is currently empty but I'll be frame ironing the next backing while I'm working on Dianes quilt some more. It's nice to have a quilt on Bernie to fill in the gaps between DW quilts. 

Sunny Sunday

It's sunny out there, but not very warm. I finished Carla S.'s quilt yesterday, built the rest of Justin and Sabrinas baby quilt, removed Carlas quilt from DW and then loaded on Justin and Sabrinas quilt. I'll be letting DW stitch that out today while I work a little more on condensing/cleaning the [old] studio.

Done with a layette bag to match

Loaded and ready to go

Speaking of studio, Jim worked in the new studio yesterday. He has the closets framed in and now come the walls...

Ready to start "walling"

Today, since it's a little nicer outside, he'll be working on the porch for a bit. I don't know how far he'll get since he doesn't have all the supplies and our local lumber yard isn't open on Sunday but he'll do what he can I suppose. 

Just Another Day

When I used to work outside the home, most other folks looked forward to the weekends. Since I worked in the healthcare field (hospital setting), retail, and in the Army Reserves, we worked weekends and they just weren't as big a deal to me. While I was growing up, we had a farm. The animals need feeding every day, twice a day, and there is no time off at all. The same holds true for self-employment. We work when we can and oft times it's during the weekend.

Here's what I'm working on today...

Some of the quilting detail

This quilt is almost 2/3's of the way completed. I'm hoping to knock the rest of it out today. Jim is on-call this weekend so we can't wander too far. He's working some more on the beam in the new studio. 

This work weekend is needed since we have three days in a row we need to travel to Lansing next week. College graduations, Officer Commissioning, and a grandchild birthday party. I'll be working longer hours this upcoming week as well to make up for the loss. But the perks of being self-employed is that I can adjust accordingly which allows me to be able to attend such functions without having to grovel to some power tripping boss for time off. Happy Saturday. 

Minor Touch Ups

As the new studio is being finished, things hit the walls, or we find an area that needs a little bit of TLC. The drywall in the bathroom at the GFI plug needed to be fixed, which Jim did. I touched up the paint this morning and will replace the cover later when it's dry. Except for the pocket door handle and maybe some trim, the bathroom is pretty much done.

Jim is still working on the beam. He ran out of long screws last night and we don't want that thing coming down in the middle of the night. He did get another rough wall up on the closet though so progress is occurring. 

Meanwhile, in the old studio front, Tina's quilt is finished and already picked up. I had three other quilts picked up yesterday too, so now the waiting room is less populated. 

It says, "The Great Lake State" on the bottom

Here's what's on DW today...

Ring Around the Posies

This is basted in, ditched, and already started before I finally shut the machine off yesterday. While I was frame ironing, I of course, was working on Dianes Mary, Mary quilt. Those pebbles take for-e-ver! I'll continue on with DW work today though. 

Machine Shut Down

When we have severe lightning coming through, the big machines HAVE to be shut down. Unplugged. Removed from the outlet. I can NOT risk an electrical short in my investment. Yesterday afternoon proved to be one of those situations. 

I was working on this quilt for Tina...

For the Michigan Shop Hop

and it started getting really dark. I mean dark enough to fire up the solar lights on the deck. It was black in the south and I heard the wind start coming through the woods south of us. And then it hit. I immediately checked to see if there was a tornado warning and only a severe thunderstorm warning was issued.

Needless to say, there was lightning and lots of it. Shut down. Unplug. Remove from wall outlets. Do something else until it blows through. How about this quilt I'm making for Justin and Sabrina?

Baby quilt for their first baby

The storm only lasted about an hour and then I had the machines fired back up and was back on schedule.

I'll continue with Tina's quilt today. I have a new customer coming this morning to drop off and a previous customer coming this afternoon to pick up and a possible drop off. 

I had a nice conversation with a fellow long armer down in South Carolina. She's fairly new (under a year) and is going to be quilting the snowflake quilt I did for Linda M. about two years ago. But she's nervous about doing it as she is generally only an E2E quilter. That snowflake is a heavy free motion/ruler piece. And her customer wants it done exactly as I did it for Linda. I may end up seeing it here if the long armer feels like she's taking on too much with it. 

She had other questions about the business and general best practices. The teacher in me started coming out while we were talking and after an hour I think I've made a new friend. She is such a nice lady and I hope she succeeds in her long arming endeavor. I'll help any way that I can being so far away. 

While I was talking to her (it was well past business hours), Jim was starting the beam in the new studio...

Starting the beam

We have three more hurdles before the final inspection: That beam, the closet, and the porch. He's working diligently to make this happen and I know he'll succeed. It's just that final month, when everything starts coming together, that the excitement is almost bubbling over!

Lighting

Lighting is everything. Especially when the eyes start aging. Quickly. I've noticed overhead lights even on a cloudy day, despite all my windows, is almost a necessity. The sun is always a big help but today we have clouds. 

Here's some nice lighting to get the whole effect of Maggies quilt that was finished yesterday. I was just getting ready to trim it up and the sun shone through the loft windows just right...

See what proper lighting can do?

I'm loading the next quilt, which came in last night as urgent. Haven't finished frame ironing so no pic on that. Diane's quilt received quite a bit of quilting yesterday while I was waiting for the urgent quilt to arrive. I'll keep chipping away at that as time permits. 

Soapbox: COME GET YOUR QUILTS! Some of these have been here for months. I currently have seven sitting in the waiting room...

Each bag is a quilt waiting to be fetched

I know life happens, blah, blah, blah, but we all have stuff. Be responsible and don't leave me here as a storage unit please. 

I have to research how to get letters into the quilt that came in yesterday. Normally I would use Art and Stitch to do that but it seems to have quit working with the last tablet update on DW. Maybe I should download some fonts instead?!?

Pushing

I would have finished Maggies quilt yesterday had we not had [another] altercation with the not-so-nice neighbor. But it pushed me to clean up an area around the back of the garage that was in desperate need of post-construction cleaning. The big dirt pile is still there, but all the little ones are leveled and I'll seed tomorrow when it's raining. That took ALL afternoon to do and another shower since it was in the 70's (man I'm out of shape!). 

Here's what's going into Maggies quilt...

I love quilting in white spaces!

I'll continue on with this today and should be able to finish it by later this afternoon.

Did I mention we passed our final electrical inspection last week? I was so out of it with that darn flu bug that last week is a bit hazy. We have one more inspection to go; the final! Jim is still working on trim and will hopefully begin the faux beam tonight. Once the beam and the closet are done, we can get our guy out here to give us the occupancy permit to start moving in. May is coming fast!

Happy Sunny Monday

All the little spring things are starting to bloom and awaken from their winters slumber. It's nice seeing some other colors than brown and green. 

Jim and I spent Saturday running around Midland with my mom. It was our 39th wedding anniversary and we "blew" a construction day just antiquing, eating too much food, running non-construction errands, all while not freezing to death. It was nice.

Another year together. 

I did pick up a cute mirror from Hobby Lobby, and while I was there I picked up three yards of fabric and some Minky for a quilt I need to make for my sons college housemate and wife as they are expecting in July. I know, I know...I actually bought fabric from there. And I'm already seeing the difference. These blocks are supposed to rough at 5 1/2". I'm trimming them back to 5 1/4" because the fabric is so weird. 

Hmmm...now what's this going to be?

Stay tuned on how this comes together. Meanwhile, that's about all I did on Saturday night when we finally returned home. Sunday we were once again on the road first thing in the morning returning the white siding we got for the gable end and picking up the actual blue we needed (had to special order it). 

Once we got back from that and grocery shopping, the neighbors came over for a visit for a while. We still hadn't had lunch and it was approaching 3:00. Once they left, we quickly threw together some stir fry and were able to relax for the weekend. 

And that's just what we did. Jim slept a lot and I'm afraid he has contracted my flu bug. He's not feeling well today and while he did go to work, I don't suspect he'll last long there (if it's even remotely close to what I had). 

It's another beautiful spring day here. I'm actually wearing capri's! I'll be working on Maggie's quilt on DW most of today and enjoying all the birdsong, warmer breezes, and looking out my [very dirty] windows at the sparkling lake. 

Personal Phone Troubles

So I have two phones; a personal phone and a phone just for work. My personal phone is a few years old (three or four I think) and I'm having some charging issues with it. I'm a pretty tech savvy person and I've done all I think I can for it. Coincidently, my Verizon rep called yesterday (I have a business account) and it may be a sign we need to go see him. 

Technology is a wonderful thing, but I think my phone has my flu bug. Okay, so I wasn't going to overdo yesterday. Just take it easy and slow and see how the day played out. Jim had to drag me out of the studio at nearly 8:00 last night because I was having so much fun being back in there. 

While Maggies first quilt was stitching out, I was working on this...

Tackling another studio area for purge

If you are in the market for some quilting books, I just donated about a hundred of them to the mission in Gladwin. Yep, both of those stacks plus another one were sent over this morning with Jim, along with some rulers, notions, and individual patterns. 

Got a lot of cleaning done too. I have a very dirty job...just sayin'. 

That was completed by lunchtime and while frame ironing for Maggies second quilt, I worked on Dianes Mary, Mary top for a while. Here's something I put into one of those large negative spaced blocks...

Let's try another angle...

Well, bad lighting this morning 

There's a butterfly in all of that somewhere. Can you see it? I'm going to have dragonflies and flowers in some of the other blocks too. Fun!

But then Jim got home and the long arming was done for the day. Time to do something in the new studio. I laid the second coat of poly down in the bathroom, but that didn't take too awful long. 

I remembered I had started a few customer bags and quickly finished those as well as getting the outer border on the cabin block part of the cabin quilt. And now I'm not happy.

After getting everything but the porch done on that cabin top, the instructions for that are missing. I have searched through the packet dozens of time and still nothing. I even laid each page out individually to see if I was missing something and still can't come up with anything. UGH!

I decided to move onto something else. I did my BOM for March for Sew Very Easy and even made bonus blocks. I'll work on Aprils next week. This is our anniversary weekend (39 years!) and I don't think I'll be around much to sew. Or maybe I will. We're having a hard time finding something to do this weekend other than going out to eat. Whoopee. 

Hello World!

Since Sunday evening, I've been on the couch. Sick. Stomach flu. Bleh! Probably got it from the grandkids when we were there Saturday. I'm still a little light headed and fuzzy feeling this morning, but I'm going to try to do something in the studio. I'll see how it goes. Maybe just getting up and working will get the kinks outta my system. 

Here's what on DW today...

Maggie's aboriginal top

You can't see many of the details in her fabric choice, but this is a really (really) cool quilt top. 

While I was stuck on the couch, during the most perfect spring days one could ask for, Jim was making headway on the new studio. He got the stringers on the porch, the deck boards are laid out, the scaffolding is back inside getting ready to put on the faux beam, and I'm not sure what else he did, but I'm sure he told me and I was pretty out of it to comprehend what he was saying. Sorry honey.

He said he didn't attach the deck boards yet because we have to run a couple of inches of pea stone under there and it's easier to do with the boards not yet attached. Makes sense.

So, for three days, that's about it. I've had a couple of inquires come through the phone and text/email and one customer wanted to come fetch her quilt. After explaining what I was dealing with here health wise, she decided next week might be better. I agreed. It's, of course, rainy and overcast, but I'll take that over being sick regardless. Wish me luck today!

No Sewing But Lots of Studio Time

Not a stitch was sewn this weekend but we did do a lot of work on the new studio despite having to be in Lansing all day on Saturday. Here's some of our progress...

Facia done on the west side

Starting the porch

The east side is officially done!

Starting to Poly the floors

More porch work

I can't do more polyurethane until tomorrow afternoon after the electrical inspector is finished. Bleh. 

Here's two of the quilt tops I'll be working on this week...

Dianes Mary, Mary embroidered quilt

And on DW is Maggies Aboriginal quilt top but I'm having technical difficulties this morning and will post tomorrow. 

Not sure how much I'm going to get done today. I'm dealing with a very unhappy tummy right now. I'll blame that and how oddly my phone and computer are acting on the eclipse we're in store for later today. 

Getting There

The final electrical inspection is set for Tuesday. Jim is calling the other inspector today to see what final things need to be done to get through the final (occupancy) inspection and we'll be tackling whatever that is in the next few weeks.  

Meanwhile, this is going to be one of the last pics of the studio as a whole before we move...

A few more weeks

I was dragging yesterday, but a call from a customer coming to pick up and drop off in the early afternoon kept me going. I have one more row in the t-shirt quilt to do today and it'll be done. 

Nail appointment this morning and then running over to Pieces to say hello there before I start my actual work day. 

A Full Customer Day

Let me see, I think I only quilted about a total of two hours yesterday because around noon I had a new customer come with her SIL and, since she was new, had a lot of questions and grief to work through. I enjoyed meeting them both and look forward to making her three memory quilts complete.  

I quilted a little before they got here and then a little after they left because in mid-afternoon Ann came to pick her quilt up and brought Mary with her to drop one off. We chatted for a while and they took a look at the new studio addition exclaiming how wonderful it's going to be. 

As they were leaving, Linda and Rick came over to get her quilt and to chat/commiserate about the Heron Cove Group who is suing the FLTF on this dam repair thing. What. A. Mess! And, the electrician showed up somewhere in there to put on the exterior lights and let us know the electrical inspector would be here for his final inspection either today or next week sometime. 

They left around 6:30 last night and by that time, Jim hadn't had dinner (he and Rick love to shoot the bull) and we both had a pretty busy work day. Nothing else was done in either studio. 

Nobody expected today. 

Here's what's on DW today for me to work on...

Pams t-shirt quilt

This is not the "normal" t-shirt quilt quilting job. I'm glad she didn't want a meander run through all of this. I dislike having to do that because it ruins the integrity of the plastic transfers; poking holes which are completely unrepairable and I don't think it adds anything to the piece. 

I'm painstakingly outlining each and every written/logo with matching thread. Lots of thread changes and lots of patience. Good thing I have a lot of both. 

Let There Be Light

DW was busy again today stitching out the adorable cat quilt for Linda M. all while I was working on Diane's quilt on Bernie. 

I had a few interruptions yesterday...

Our electrician

This guy (Nick) who owns Arrow Power is absolutely awesome! He goes above and beyond and we couldn't have asked for a more personal and professional experience. I need to give him a Google review this morning once I get done here.

Once he was done for the day (he has to come back today to install the exterior lights and didn't want to do it in the pouring rain), this is what we came away with...

Such a HUGE difference!

Jim and I kept playing with the lights and the ceiling fan last night. It's like two kids with a new toy. 

After I got done long arming and while Jim was working on the closet exterior...

Starting the exterior of the closets

I worked on my cabin quilt top. This is where I ended last night...

Getting the body worked on

I still have to put on the sides of the center body and then work the porch area, but it's coming along. I needed to just sit and stitch something last night after all the long arming the past two days. 

I have two customers coming today. I'll be working on Bernie while frame ironing the next backing and getting DW loaded back up while people (construction included) are in and out all day. 

Go, DW, Go!

My brother just texted me to let me know our lake dad passed away...last July. Why am I just finding out about this? Why didn't I get a call or text message? We were like his second set of kids. Kinda bumming right now. 

DW was cranking yesterday. Two quilts and another backing frame ironed. I'm hesitant to get the next one started. Our electrician is expected shortly to finish with all the wiring and lighting in the new studio. I'm not sure if he's going to have to shut the main house down to do all of that. Once an E2E is started I don't want to stop the momentum and it's nearly impossible to get everything lined back up again. 

Here's what DW did yesterday...

Trailing Leaves

Here's the second one...

Wandering Baseballs

But then I ran into a problem...

The blue is the backing. 

So I had to take this off after pass two and rob Peter to pay Paul from the sides and attach to the missing end. And, of course, that didn't go smoothly because I attached it incorrectly and had to rip out the whole length of it and do it again. But I got it handled. 

And while DW was doing his thing, I was working on Dianes quilt on Bernie. Here's some of what's going into that...

Dianes snuggly flannel quilt

I'm going to start with Diane's this morning and wait until Nick gets here to see whether or not he's shutting down the main house. I want to make sure before I get going on any computer work on DW. But here's (maybe) what he'll be doing today...

Linda's cat quilt

Once Jim got home last night, he finished the exterior of the bathroom wall. Isn't this pretty? And of course, Lucy had to inspect everything. It's coming along slowly but steadily. Jim does a little each night and I'm so proud of what he's accomplished each night after working all day long at his "real" job. 

Bathroom exterior wall

Purging

 I'm starting to purge and get the old studio ready for the move. I know it's not for another seven (or more weeks) but I have that much stuff that needs to be gone through. I started with the least favorite task of working on this shelf...

The shelf is now empty

It used to be loaded with all sorts of odds and end fabrics, but mostly my stripe collection. Now it resides on the other side of the structure because I was able to purge that section down to four cubes...

Fabrics all organized

The empty shelf will house something else once the structure is moved, but for now, it stays empty until the move. 

DW is going to work his tail off for the next few days. I have three time sensitive quilts that need to be done and all three are E2E work. He'll be screaming away while I work a bit on Dianes quilt on Bernie. 

I have a few phone calls to deal with this morning before I get started which is why I'm blogging so early. And, I have to set up for the computerized work before actually getting DW's butt in gear (pun). 😆

Hoppy Easter

I hope the Easter bunny finds you well. Jim was working on the pocket door interior and exterior wood while I was making blocks, bags, removing quilts, decluttering the [old] studio, and reloading quilts.

I have another block done in the cabin top. Two new customer bags made. The Jacqueline is off/trimmed/billed and ready to pick up. The 16-block organizer on the backside of the planning/pressing table has ben reduced a little and here's what's on DW for tomorrow...

Joans low tone top

Here's Jim getting the header board put up on the exterior of the bathroom...

Working on the exterior

Process and Happy Easter Weekend

The process of quilting accurately requires some marking. Now this is what I call a crap load of marking!

All those chalk marks

I will NEVER, EVER mark your quilt with something that can't be brushed away or spritzed with water to remove. 

On a positive note, the Jacqueline quilt is done. The quilting Gods were with me yesterday in that there were no interruptions to distract my focus. It's still hanging out on the frame waiting for the markings to disappear and I'll load later today prepare for Monday. 

We have already been to town to pick up wood for the pocket door encasement. Jim is hammering away at trim around the windows and I'm going out to work on severe cracks in the flooring before we poly next week. 

Here's the next quilt up on Bernie...

Dianes flannel beauty

Don't have a clue what I'm putting in here yet, but it's going to hang out for a while since I have a few deadlines I need to deal with on DW this week. 

I did get one more block done on the Cabin quilt last night after shutting down the long arm (around 7:00) and can maybe get another done later today. Happy Easter weekend!

Make That 17

I'm now onto my 17th thread color in the Jacqueline quilt. 

Here are some pics from yesterdays quilting adventures...

This took forever to get in here

Woodgrain for the termite

And here's the big blue bug again

The quilts last row

It's now finished and I'm waiting for the air erasable marks to disappear before unloading. You're probably wondering what the big blue bug is about. Google it and you'll discover the history behind the bug and how famous it is in the state of Rhode Island. 

I moved over to the Jacqueline shortly after Jim arrived home for the day. I may (that's a big 'may' there) get that one completed today. I don't know. There's still a lot to do and I'm barely 75% through it. 

Not expecting anybody today and the sun is shining so nicely (but it's cold out) which will make for a good quilting day.

Thread Changes

A lot of long armers out there won't change threads. You pick one (or they will for you) and that's the color thread you get throughout the quilt. And that's fine if you're okay with that. But as long as I'm doing custom work, I'll change threads as much as needed. It only takes an additional minute and isn't your quilt worth it?  

The quilt I'm doing for Ann V has 10 different colored top threads and two different bobbin colors. The Jacqueline has 16 different top threads and six different bobbin colors. And, for me, it's a little break in the quilting and offers a chance for me to stretch and play with the girls for a bit. 

Here' some more of the quilting going into Ann V's quilt...

Filler for the state block

A fun little filler for Godzilla

Wind and waves being worked in here

Hopefully this quilt will be done today barring any interruptions. The neighbors are supposed to be up later but they usually arrive in the evening. No [new] studio work last night; we had to run to get some groceries since we skipped last week. That's always a treat when you get the check out isn't it?