Retreat Week

I forgot to mention in the previous couple of days' posts that retreat starts tomorrow. It's just up at The Springs, but long arming doesn't occur when I'm up there. I'll be back on Monday in full long arm mode.

I love going to retreats, but it takes me away from the big machines for long periods of time, and I really miss the guys when I'm away from them. Isn't that silly? But I am noticing my attitude lately and need to readjust my head with fellow quilters. Maybe it's lack of sunshine, but I've been blue and kind of down and not feeling the best. This should fix things. 

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

Loving all the feathers and a sprinkle of modern

I'm going to continue on with that today and see how far I can get. Later tonight I need to start packing for retreat but will pull stuff out I normally forget as the day progresses. 

DW was loaded with his next project...

Another Flea Market

This one is done in the primitive color way, which I've only done one other one of. And it's not a huge one. This will be tackled once I return next week. 

After long arming yesterday, and while Jim was working on his truck in the garage, I put the last border on the Mary, Mary top.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary...

Once again, the pic doesn't show the color saturation very well. It's a little brighter than what is being depicted here. I'll have many more completed tops to show after retreat. I'm thinking I have at least four I'm going to be working on during the next five days and look forward to adding to my pile. 😉

Nothing Yesterday

I did absolutely zero in either studio yesterday. No construction. No quilting. No piecing. We went and got groceries, new studio paint (the primer anyway) and some other things (ceiling fan, exterior lights), and some totes for packing away quilts I've finished and that need to be put away. 

Just a few to get stored

I'll be working on that first thing this morning before heading to the studio. I have a customer coming to pick up and another to drop off today and I'll be getting a new piece onto DW as I work on Mary's quilt on Bernie.

Here is the wool prior to washing; clearly my favorite

Saturday morning I did some experimenting. I wanted to quilt out batting samples using the same motif to show how the quilt feels afterwards and to show how the quilting "popped" depending on the batt used. I also wanted to show how the batting reacted to washing and unfortunately, that portion did not go well. The muslin I used shrunk beyond what I thought it would and distorted what I was trying to portray so I can use those as rags around the studio for dusting. 

Finished and Finished

Sandy's quilt is finished. The drywall mudding (in the main room) is finished. Now the work begins. On, the [new] studio, not Sandy's quilt. Her quilt is all ready to be picked up. No, the mudder left a nice mess for me to clean up. I didn't want to pay him to do it so it's on me. And talk about fine dust. OMG, it's going to take forever, especially on that very large south wall.

Before and after cleaning the floor. 

But before I start in on that today, I have customers coming today to pick up and while I'm waiting for them to arrive, I'm going to do something I've wanted to do for quite some time...

???

I'm not going to report on this until it's done in case it doesn't work. But it will be to everybody's benefit when trying to pick out the right batting (nice clue, huh?). 

So, that's my forecasted day and Jim is out there working today too. Another repeat of last week(end). 

I Do NOT Criticize

Plenty of my clients complain about how bad their piecing is or how their points don't match. Ya know what? I can fix that! Long arming and an experienced long armer can "alter" a lot of bad situations. And quite frankly, I do not judge. I'm one of the worse piecers out there. I mean, you'd think I'd be better after almost 30 years, but I don't stress about it. I pin very little and the outcome is all the same; a quilt for somebody to keep warm with. 

BUT...when you advance a quilt and you get a very nice, straight, almost perfect sashing across the belly bar...it makes my life/job even easier. 

Nice and straight!

I'm getting so excited for the new studio. The mudder is supposed to be finishing up today (although he's not here yet so I'm a little concerned). Jim is going downstate to work in a few weeks and I'll be painting while he's away. 

Did I mention the ceiling issue with the drywall? It's got issues and it's not the mudders fault. Jim and the boys lined up the seams (instead of staggering them) and this is going to be very obvious in the future. Even with several coats of paint. The mudder suggested a textured ceiling. 

I do not want to do texture. The long arming business is a very linty and dirty job and crap flies all over in the studio. I vacuum/dust bust every single day and the last thing I want is a ceiling that is prone to collect all of that. Especially with the furnace we selected which blows directly across the floor. 

I'm going to "Grunge" the ceiling instead. Won't that be cool? I have to find some nearly white grunge for my color inspiration, but I think I remember it having shades of pearl, white, light gray, and just a hint of teal in it. I think the "seam" that Mark the Mudder can't fix will look intentional in the grunge ceiling. Even though I'm going to be upside down working on this very large canvas, I'm excited to get to it. 

Neighbors Good and Bad

Everybody has to have that one neighbor, don't they? You know the one. The one you wished would find somebody else to live next door to instead of you. Everybody on our road gets along pretty well. Except one. 

And, unfortunately, they live right next door to us. They've been acting a little off of late and this morning the girls caught him down on our property by the stake at the lakeside. We never usually see them until spring, so this was additionally troubling on what it is they could possibly be up to. 

Meanwhile, I'm making progress in the studio. Here's some of the quilting going into Sandy's quilt...

Wool just makes everything better!

While I was working on Sandy's quilt yesterday, I was frame ironing the next quilt heading to Bernie. Here's what he ended up with last night before shutting down the studio...

Edityas Dresden Plate pattern

The pic didn't capture the actual beauty of this top. I think when I have just the ceiling fan light on it gives off that yellow-ish hue and not allowing for the correct lighting to capture pics like they should be captured.

After working on the big machines, I put the second and third borders on the Mary, Mary quilt. I thought there were only four borders on this piece, but after [finally] reading the directions, I discovered there are actually five. I have the next two cut, but the fifth border is pieced and has over 100 blocks...which I still need to make. But, they're at least all cut out. 

More on Sandy's quilt today. And, watching out the windows to see if the neighbor heads back down towards the lake. Although, I think since I caught him down there, he'll probably not be back today. 

Even 4-WD's Can Get Stuck

Part of my afternoon/evening was interrupted by this...

That's not the driveway

And this...

Beller Construction Movie

We received a lot of wet, heavy snow yesterday. Temps were at or near freezing so it was a snotty snow that just seemed to pull you into wherever it wanted you to go; usually, where you didn't want to go. I had to get the Dodge out of the garage and pull Jim out. The snow blower next door was clearing a path for the neighbors' construction crew. But not after they got stuck in the ditch at the roadside. Joan cancelled coming over until next week because of the weather.

I would be done with Joyce's quilt if not for the curiousness on what's going on around me. See...those windows around the house are sometimes (oftentimes) very distracting. Especially with somebody who is a little ADD. Only one more row to go and it'll be done this morning. I'll move on to Sandy's Kaffe quilt this afternoon.

Last evening I did manage to get the first and third borders assembled on this little quilt. Only the second and fourth borders to go. 

1st and 3rd borders assembled

Braving the Weather

As I was folding laundry yesterday morning I saw headlights headed up our driveway. I knew the dry wall guy had a dentist appointment and couldn't believe it was him already (it was 9:45-ish). It was a customer coming to fetch one of her quilts. And she brought friends. 

What a delightful time we had and these three were an absolute hoot! Not only did Bernadette pick up her quilt, but she dropped off three more. And Pam dropped off a t-shirt top for me to do and Maggie gave me two as well. Six in all added to the queue. 

Drywall guy is here already this morning and I'm going to continue on with Joyces quilt on Bernie today. Joan is supposed to come later this afternoon to pick up her quilt I did yesterday. More on that in a bit, and here's what's on DW for the next few days...

A Kaffe piece to customize

Okay, so here's the deal. Please, please, please give me enough backing on your quilts. Joans quilt was at a 1" deficit. I had to watch both sides very carefully to not get the backing flipped under the batt/top. I had to make sure it was falling square and not shifting. There was NOTHING to clamp to on the sides, meaning I was the "clamps" and had to hold it while it was stitching out. Strike one.

The backing was minky (fireside) and is very slippery with the batting on top of it (the backside is a very tightly woven poly) so the quilt/batt kept shifting with each advance. Some of the quilting is off a bit because of this and because I couldn't baste down correctly on the sides to stabilize it due to the backing shortage. Strike two.

The end of the quilt is even more unstable (more so without those side clamps) so I used large "C" clamps to hold everything while the quilt was stitching out. Apparently these stretched the fireside backing enough that when I released it from the frame, it actually bounced back a bit and it is now bunched at the end. Strike three.

Joan wanted this quilted pretty tight. The quilt will "suck in on itself" the tighter you quilt the top. I knew the backing was already at a deficit and so despite what I was told to do, couldn't actually get it as tight as she wanted because of the already negative backing situation. By the time I reached the end, the quilt had sucked in about another inch. Yep. Now we're even shorter on the whole thing. Strike four. 

Oh wait, there's only three strikes so now I'm going to have to explain all this to her when she comes later today to get this mess. I may not even charge her. It's a train wreck and I'm not proud of what we got off the frame yesterday. And I don't think she'll be very happy either. Lesson learned. Minky requires that four inches on each side!!!

After dealing with Joans quilt, and while frame ironing Sandys piece on DW, and after shutting down Bernie, I put these together...

The border to the whole quilt

There's a hand embroidered center piece that goes in here, but until I get the top and bottom "border" put on, I'm not going to trim it just in case it's a different measurement. 

No Internet

We had zero Wi-Fi this morning, and that goes for the internet too. That's why I'm blogging so late. 

Have already had three customers in and out this morning. One pick up and six drop offs. I was already in the middle of quilting out Joans quilt when they arrived amongst a pretty heavy snow. They are troopers to come out in this weather.

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

Joyces cute pumpkins

I'll be working on this after lunch this afternoon. Joans quilt is now finished stitching out but not without a lot of colorful language. It wasn't anything DW was doing wrong. Nope. Her backing is 1" too short (which became larger as I advanced), and it's got a Minky (Fireside) backing, which is slippery as all get out. 

Because the back was too short, I was the side clamps. Meaning, I had to hold the sides as DW was doing the stitching. Hopefully I spotted all the seaming threads as it was quilting because I was also trying to keep DW from pulling the three layers apart without a decent basting stitch on the sides. I guess you had to be there. 

I know Joan will not be happy with how the density came out on this quilt. She likes it pretty tight and because of the backing/clamping situation, I had to go a little more loose. Why? Because the more dense you quilt, the more the quilt sucks itself up, and we were already working with a deficit backing situation. Hopefully she'll understand. 

Now I have to trim it. I'm going to only trim the top and bottom to start. I want her to be here when I do the sides because of the way the backing became increasingly more short as I advanced. She needs to make the call on how much I trim. 

Yesterday Was A Mixture

Dealing with customers, loading quilts, frame ironing backs, cleaning machines and studios, and small projects made yesterday and nice mixture of quilting fun. About the only thing I did not do was actually quilt a quilt. I did baste in this one to be ready first thing tomorrow morning... 

Joans quilt ready for Monday

I wanted to make another cute pincushion for some new pins sent to me and I had started this late Friday night. Here's the finished project...

Selvedge Pin Cushion

That didn't take long and tried another small project I saw on IG. That's in the trash and we're just not going to talk about that wasted two hours of my life. Moving along. I have had a few projects given to me in pieces because the "giver" didn't want to deal with it any more. Here's the first one I finally finished...

Pretty table runner

Once I puzzled how to get this together, I looked through the pile and pulled out this...

Much smaller than you think

This is a Crabapple Hill project that is going to finish much small than I thought it would. But my friend/customer Diane did all the hand embroidery for me and I'm going to work the blocks today. Diane is the kind friend who is doing my Witches panels for me as well because she knows I can't/won't do hand embroidery. I love Diane!

How Is This Part of Quilting?

Thursday was spent with my mother and brother. I did get quite a few business phone calls while we were out and about, which lead to yesterday's frenzy. And lack of blogging.

Four customers in and out yesterday. Ann and Mary dropped off and picked up both. Onita dropped off. Linda picked up after I finished her quilt. In between customers I was able to get Lindas quilt finished (obviously since she picked it up last night)! And, I hit a milestone while doing it...

We actually got some sunshine to snap a pic

Look at the Lifetime Stitch Count

90 million!! My friend Nick, in Vancouver, BC has a billion, but I'm not far behind. He has a Fusion too so apparently they truly are work horses. 

What's going on here? How is this quilting related?

Thumb Drive?

Jason, from Gall Sewing and Vac, was one of the many phone calls I received Thursday and he indicated to me, that even though Bernie doesn't have the digital quilting system on him, he still has a computer interface. There is a Firmware update from Bernina I need to do and he thinks this will fix the small tension sensor problem. I'm going to try to tackle that today. 

I'm also removing Bernadettes quilt from Bernie and loading both the machines up as Jim is working today, and Mark is also here working on the drywall. It's like it's not even a Saturday but just a regular work day around the place. I think tomorrow may be a totally veg day since we've been running fast and hard the past week. 

Much Warmer

We have heat! It took the guys all day to get the old furnace out and the new one up and running. Apparently the old one didn't want to leave the property. At any case, after running for over four hours to get everything back up to temp, we were finally able to enjoy our home again. 

More on Lindas quilt today. Still not nearly as far as I want to be. I knocked off after Jim got home last night because we needed to do some cleaning/drywalling ourselves in the new studio. Here's the progress so far...

Nearly finished

Mark said he only needs to sand the ceiling and fill in the drywall we added last night in the bathroom. So another couple of days should be the end of his contribution.

Welcome Early Morning

The furnace guys are here!

Yay!

Hopefully by days end we will have real heat in the house instead of running all these space heaters. Which are not keeping up with the current temps. This morning...8 degrees with a wind blowing outside. 

More on Linda's quilt today. I'm officially past the half-way point. I worked diligently on it until 5:30 last night and it seems like I barely got anything done. But now that all the decisions on what to put in each section, and, establishing a kind of got a rhythm, should get things going faster. A little anyway. 

After standing at the big machine all day I needed to do something different. I've had a Lori Holt project just itching to get started so this is my new [whenever] project...

Bee Happy by Lori Holt

I've got all my fat quarters pressed and have pawed through any whites that I have that may work in the quilt. I need to get more whites, but with having to replace the furnace, getting the little furnace installed, and the mudder guy, I'm going to have to wait for a few weeks. 

Got Rulers?

I did get the Make More put together. All except for the final border. Which I don't have any fabric for. Jim and I picked out something we thought would work, but I'm not really about it. So back to the drawing board.  

Have you ever wondered what a long armer does behind the scenes? I'm sure you've seen videos on media sites of people long arming, but that's only a small part of if. Here are most of the tools I'm using on just Linda's quilt alone. A variety of rulers, marking utensils, speciality tweezers and needles, books, pen/paper as well as my water. 

Tools of the trade

Today I'm going to suffer through the cold and continue with Linda's quilt. The customer who was scheduled to come today cancelled due to inclement weather. Mostly the frigid temps. The studio, despite having its own space heater, is currently at 56 degrees. 

Mark is already here to work on the drywall and man, it's nice and toasty out there. Almost too warm. But we have to utilize the heat from out there to assist in keeping the rest of the house warm. These three space heaters are struggling since it is so cold outside and need all the help we can give them. 

Small Projects

I started a small project yesterday afternoon after I worked on Lindas quilt. It's a tutorial Misty Doan put out on YouTube a few weeks ago and it's called "Make More". It's based off a mural painted in Hamilton, MO, on the side of one of their buildings. Here's my rendition using Tula Pink fabrics...

Laid out and ready for piecing

I have all the blocks ready to put together today. Since Bernie is kind of free, and depending on how quickly this goes together today, I may be able to throw some quilting in here. Doubtful, but maybe. 

The drywall guy is here mudding this morning and Jim is headed out to tidy up the driveway and get the bank the plow pushed in front of the opening cleaned up so customers can get in tomorrow. I'm expecting at least one. 

Bad News

The furnace is not fixable. Too old. Too expensive. A new furnace is only a third more in cost, so a new furnace it is. Unfortunately, the soonest we can get one is Tuesday, or more likely, Wednesday. We've heard we have a deep freeze coming weather-wise, so this could be fun. 

Still working on Linda's quilt. With the way I have this quilt loaded it's hard to tell where I'm at but I think I'm nearing the mid-way point. I'm going to work on that most of today while we are snowed in. It's so pretty! Here's Quilting at the Lake in the winter...

The pic doesn't even begin to show how pretty it is

Still No Heat

We have three space heaters as well as the little furnace out in the new studio going, but today, hopefully, we'll have a solution to our problem. I have an appointment this morning and today I should be visited by the drywaller, plumber, and the HVAC guys. I hope I'm able to get some quilting done with all of that. 

Here's some more progress in Linda's quilt...

Here's the reveal

Yesterday I wasn't sure what I was putting into those weird shapes and this is the outcome. Do you like?

Beller's came up yesterday and came over for a visit last night. After they left, it was still too early to call it quits in the current studio and of course, my long arming mojo was gone. 

Sew Very Easy is hosting a free BOM using up scraps in your stash. I vacillated in whether to participate. I have enough scraps around here and it would certainly get rid of a bunch so that decided it for me and I'll be "playing" along. Our homework for this month is cutting everything out. It's a mystery quilt but she gave us some rough guidelines to use and said to not overthink it. I started working on those.

Misty Doan also posted a cute wall hanging on YouTube that would be fun to piece. I think after I get through cutting for the Sew Very Easy quilt-along I'll work on finding scraps around here for what Misty is calling "Make More". 

Fun Stats

We still don't have any heat. But we do have a space heater and are working with that to make sure the current studio is at a decent enough temp for me to work. But it takes a while to get the room warm enough. 

I did my books yesterday for month/year end while waiting for the space heater and here's some fun stats: 

In 2023 I quilted 136 quilts. 

Only eight of those were mine and they were either turtles or small wall hangings. 

29 were edge to edge and 107 were custom making custom nearly 80% of my work. 

I average a quilt off one of the machines every 2.68 days 

To date (meaning since I've had my long arms...not just in 2023) I've quilted 3,810,743.43 square inches. That number is actually under the amount because that does not factor in any basting or ditching I've done. The number only includes the square inches of each quilt prior to loading. 

Enough with the stats. Still working on Linda's quilt. Here's what is going into each of the arcs...

The quitting on the light areas shows up so much better

More of Linda's quilt today. I was stuck on the section below the arcs. I doodled with that last night on the iPad and came up with several ideas. I'm going to preview paper it today and see which one is the winner. Stay tuned. 

No Heat

Woke up this morning and Jim had the "door" to the new studio all wide open and that furnace was just cranking away. Our main furnace, for the rest of the house, does not have heat. The furnace guys were already here this morning and apparently the mother board has blown. They went back to get one. Cha-Ching. 

Meanwhile, the backroom, spare bedroom, and current studio are all closed up trying to conserve heat. This on the cusp of the new six inches of snow we got overnight and the winds that are picking up out there. 

I can't work out in the studio until we get heat. Trying to long arm in 50 degree temps just doesn't work so maybe I'll drag my Sew Steady table out and my small sewing machine and put some blocks together until the heater guys reappear. 

I did get Bernadettes quilt done yesterday just before lunch. Right after a quick lunch I got right on Linda's quilt and despite not coming off the machine until 6:30, only got about the first 10" done. This quilt is intense!

Still can't see much of the quilting

So. Here I am. Stuck until we get heat. Oh how these modern conveniences are so relied upon. 

Snowy Morning

Winter seems to have finally arrived. At least by all the snow coming down anyway. But the temps are right at the freezing mark so I'm not sure how much of this is going to actually cover anything. 

Today I'm planning on finishing Bernadettes quilt despite the batting having arrived yesterday. As well as the thread for Joans quilt. It was a busy delivery day since they came via two different delivery service ways.

I did get Linda's quilt basted in and started...

Can you even see what I put in here?

At any case, I was just getting into my zen mode and I got a call from a customer to see if she could bring over a top before the storm hit today. Sure. That turned into an over an hour affair and by that time I had lost my quilting mojo. 

Mark, the drywaller, was here another almost six hours yesterday and he's still not through "roughing" in the room. This may take longer than we thought, but I think he's through the worst of it. 

So yesterday I had two deliveries, a customer stop by, a contractor working, and Jim came home for lunch. I wonder why I didn't get more done? Today should be quiet. With the storm I'm not expecting anybody, including the contractor, and that means productivity. Yay!

Finally, a Full Week

Back to a normal full week of work and on the cusp of a storm. So they say. The lake will probably eat it like it usually does.

The drywall guy is supposed to be here today to work and I'm hoping the batting shows up today for Linda's quilt. I'll be working on Bernadettes in the meantime. 

I did sew a few pieces together yesterday before lunch and while we were in the middle of our movie, Virginia arrived and we got to spend a little time together before she headed back north. But here's some of the pieces for said quilt top I was working on...

I need to move this stuff

While it's great having everything front and center, I need to get this off my pressing table. That's first thing after blogging even though I've already laid down thread on Bernie this morning. This pile of stuff is driving me batty. Which isn't far to drive, but you get the picture. 

Want a laugh? Watch what Hazel does when she gets a squeaky ball in her mouth. 

Happy Relaxing Sunday

I have a customer/friend stopping by sometime today to pick up a quilt and to catch up a little. Haircuts this morning and a little housekeeping, but a relaxing Sunday in store for the rest of the day. I plan on putting together a few pieces of the Quilt-Along quilt before lunch though.

Yesterday, while I was chipping away at Bernadettes quilt, Jim was outside doing some much needed items neglected over the fall. He wasn't working in the studio because our drywall mud guy was out there working all day long. Here's what he's been up to...

The first round

Looking like a "real" room and this is only his first day. He's coming back tomorrow to work some more. 

Song Titles and Words

If you know anything about me at all you know I love music. I'm at that age where instead of just singing along to the melody I actually listen to the words of a song. Many of them, while growing up with them, make so much more sense now. 

Listen to some of the music you grew up with and when I say listen, really, really listen. Not only to the words, but the music itself. It's a wonder all todays artists do is remake songs of old, because honestly, that's the best music out there. 

Linda's quilt is sitting on DW just waiting for the batting to arrive. But what's different here?

Are those pins?

Wait. What's with the extra bar in front?

Okay, here's the deal. I charge a LOT more to do a show quilt. This is just the beginning list of reasons why. Show quilts should not be floated. Even though they are judged laying flat and how they hang is not gerenally a judge-able event, quits that are floated on the frame can sometimes hang a little weird.

I don't think any of mine do since I measure with each roll forward to make sure they are not veering off into never never land. But since this quilt is going to an AQS show, I'm not taking any chances. Since I have to actually attach the top to the extra bar, I have to pin the quilt onto that leader of said bar. 

But here's a glimpse of the quilt top before it all gets tucked away. 

NOT a Judy Niemeyer

This is actually a design by Lakeview Quilting and Linda McGibbon, who is on par with Judy Niemeyer and Jacquelyn deJong...as you can see. 

On a lighter (or hotter) note

This is some of the quilting going into Bernadettes quilt. She asked I put flames in all the black negative space. I'm going to work on that this morning and part of this afternoon before getting into anything of my own. 

The drywall mud guy (Mark) was supposed to come out today. He may still, but we haven't seen anybody yet, although, it's still kind of early I guess. 

Is It Friday Already?

Next week is a full week, right? I sure hope so. Seems like time is passing quicker as the years add up. 

Anns quilt is done. I was able to grab this pic last night before we headed to do some grocery shopping. It's hard to get a pic of dark fabric quilting because the thread only makes subtle textures. 

Just before folding 

The wool gives it that "comforter" look, doesn't it?

Working on Bernadettes quilt for the next few days on Bernie. The batting has been shipped, so frame ironing Lindas backing is happening while I do that. 

No contractors expected today. Although Mike the plumber (from Advanced Plumbing) may be around any day to connect into the septic system for the new bathroom. Hopefully not today though. 

Contacted Angela Huffman at Quilted Joy yesterday about the APQS experience I had with those awful test drives. She feels that since all three machines had Quilt Path (their version of my Pro Stitcher), which is the robotics that drive the edge-to-edge quilting, they didn't disengage their belts. They may have disengaged the motors, but if the belts are still engaged, it'll drive jerky and hard like we experienced. Now I need to contact the seller to see if she can grab a pic of both the track system as well as the head. 

More Construction

Okay, so Anns quilt is nearly done. The basic stuff is in but I feel like I need to get some more quilting in a few places. Meaning, it's still on the frame. I didn't come out of the studio until 8:30 last night. Whew!

Wasn't expecting any customers yesterday, but then one texted and asked if she could come yesterday instead of today to drop off backing for a top I've been holding for her. Just as she was leaving the HVAC guy showed up to do a site prep for today.

First thing, while I was placing a batting and thread order this morning, here they are. Two of them to work on our heating in the new studio. Once we get heat we can start mudding the drywall. And that was another contractor who stopped by in the afternoon to see about doing the drywall mudding. He didn't seem very excited about the cathedral ceiling and has a bad back. Next guy. 

Getting the heater in today

Once Anns quilt is done this morning I'll shift over to working on Bernadettes quilt that's been hanging out on Bernie until either a)The batting arrives for Linda's quilt or b)The thread arrives for Joans. Either quilt has to be done rather timely and so whoever gets supplies first wins the first slot! 

Time

Time marches on doesn't it? The clock keeps on ticking and making the best of what we have left seems to be a priority in later life. Young people don't think about it as much, but when you hear/watch people your age leaving us way too early, well, it starts to sink in. 

I had a customers/friends stop by yesterday. They were here a long time. Previously this would have bothered me. I needed to long arm, not stand and catch up. But, the long arming will get done eventually. The quilt will still be there today and tomorrow and however long it takes to finish. But friends...well...ya just never know. 

Here's some more of what's going into Anns quilt...

The sun actually came out to let me grab this pic

The sun wasn't out any too long; maybe a few hours. But I snagged this while it was because who knows when we'll see it again. Not today it appears.

More work on Anns quilt today. Maybe (just maybe) I'll have that done by days end. 

Now We Settle In to 2024

Since we are now officially over the holidays it's time to settle in for the winter. I love winter. I know. I'm weird. But I don't feel guilty not out working in the yard or around the outside of the house. I love gray, overcast days where I can turn on all the lights in the studio, turn the volume up on the music, and lose myself in the long arming process.

I hope to get the bulk of Anns quilt done today; still lots to do on it. 

I did some "self" sewing yesterday. Stitchin' Heaven from Quitville, TX had an all-day sew along via YouTube and I participated with over 1500 others around the world. What a great time! Lots of laughs, give-aways, and even two techniques I knew nothing about. Here are the first two blocks I completed at the end of the five hour cutting and sewing marathon...

Blocks A and B

These are all the blocks in the quilt, but the setting is beautiful and creates a nice pattern. I'll chip away at building the block pieces (along with Metro Rings) over the next few weeks so I can take them to retreat to finish there with larger design walls available. 

The house is back to normal now. All the decorations are down, the tree is being recycled today, and the furniture is back in its place. Jim still has to get the outside stuff put away, but for the most part, we are ready for 2024. With a little luck, our lake will return this year, and that in of itself, is starting the year on a high note.