Dentist

I have a dentist appointment right smack dab in the middle of my day today. And what's with my photos not loading like they used to on blogger? I'm trying to find a better blogging site, but I'm not having much luck. And, okay this waking up stuff at 6-whatever is getting old too. I guess I'm having a whining Wednesday. 

After working on Pats quilt all day my foot was throbbing so I did some piecing on Charlotte's quilt while Jim was working on facia on the porch. And then I worked on Charlotte's quilt some more and before you know it, I ended up with the first round done. 

In progress

I need to run a white border around all of this and then another type of block section around that next. I need to find a block section to do. Maybe some flying geese? Or maybe just some four patches. I dunno. I'll think about this while long arming. 

I'm going to try to hustle to get Pats quilt done before heading for the dentist. 

Making The Most

Out of all the machines I have. Yesterday was another six machine kind of day. 

It started with finishing Ruths quilt on Bernie. I accomplished this right after lunch. DW was up next to work on Pats quilt. Here's some of the quilting going into that...

Each block is different

I have finished row one and will work this most of today. From DW I moved over to Foster to work the next row on Arcadia Avenue. My foot was getting tired so I shut off the big machines and moved over to the little ones.

On Ellie I finished all the little blocks in Charlottes quilt top and they are now ready to be put into their big block format. That would have taken too long so I changed gears and did some sit-down quilting on Jay. Whoops...only two sections to go on block 12 so I finished those out, trimmed the block, and then put blocks 7-12 together. 

Row 2. Blocks 7-12

I have so much fun doing these, but I'm not very good at it. Getting better with all the practice though.

I needed Mike to put these together since it's kind of a quilt-as-you-go situation and there are six layers that need to be joined. He has the best walking foot to aid in assembly.

We heard from the cruising kids yesterday off and on. They have set sail and are headed to Iceland. So excited for them! 

I have one customer coming with a friend later this morning to drop off and that's about it. 

No Small Project Weekend

We've spent the weekend working. And not on small projects. And not in the new studio. 

We were working in the old studio/the Jim cave. Well, I did, Jim worked mostly outside staining and sealing all the decks. The painting is done, tape is removed. Switch covers are back on. Sills are washed/sealed. Couch has been completely steam cleaned. Rug and couch have been moved, and the room looks spectacular!

Getting ready for kickoff

We can't move the rest of the furniture out here until we get the Dish cable moved. This requires somebody to crawl under the house. And that's not me. 

The only thing I sewed this whole weekend were eight blocks for Charlottes quilt.  

Today I'll be working on Ruth's Christmas Star and once that's finished I'll move over to DW to work on this...

Paula's Black and White

This quilt looks simple enough, right? There are so many different gray tones in here and I'm thinking it's not going to be as simple as all that because of this. I'll know more this afternoon. 

Dog Food

I forgot to mention Hazel had to go to the vet on Wednesday. We thought she might have had an infected gland in her bum, but come to find out, she has the doggie version of hemorrhoids. I'm leaning towards changing their food. 

The vet said she was just a nervous doodle, but I'm not buying it. Why, all of a sudden, even with Lucy here, is she being affected by our occasional disappearances? Food was her issue in the past and I'm logically thinking this is the situation again. 

Here's some of the quilting going into Ruths Christmas Stars...

Just a circle in the center

Because there was batting behind the red and green points that I could get to with those 3D layers, the center at least needed to be quilted down. And, that's all I did. The rest of the quilt is getting pretty heavily quilted since it is a wall hanging. 

I had a few customers call yesterday and want to stop by in the late morning to both pick up and ask some advice on another top they inherited. We chatted well past lunch time; they are such good people!

I have a flash and smash appointment at 11:00 in Gladwin today. Meaning, I have to leave here by 10:30-ish. I have another errand to run over in Harrison after the flash and smash. I have customers coming to pick up in the mid-afternoon. Jim wants to run to Midland after we get done with the pick-up customers. And I'm supposed to work when? Tomorrow I guess. 

I did work a few more of Charlottes blocks last night after shutting down Bernie. And, my foot was bothering me so I moved over to Jay and did some sit-down quilting on the 365 blocks. I'm on big block 12 now. 

I Thought...

...yesterday was Thursday, but today feels like Wednesday. I finished the batik quilt for Pat and this is some of the quilting that went into it...

Letting me drive, not the computer

Susan Smith teaches, for a fee, a variety of free motion techniques to mimic computerization/digital quilting. I try to pick up as much as I can off her YouTube videos without having to pay for the class, but in all honesty, it would be cheaper to take her class then to have to buy a new tablet for my ProStitcher. Which, after the last quilt, is telling me it's time to replace. It is, after all, 11 years old. 

After I finished Pats batik quilt on DW, I moved over to Bernie to work on the Christmas Star quilt. Ummm...this is a puzzle. Here's why...

3D

All three of those inner layers are "popping up", meaning they aren't fastened down save for the seam at the cream backgrounds. If I quilt them down, it defeats the "popping up-ed-nesss". I've got most of the ditching done on the borders and will, while working the quilting in the borders, think about this some more. 

Actually, I thought about it all day yesterday. I researched on what to do about it. And honestly, I'm finding NOT A THING out there on how to handle this. I'm going to be the pioneer I guess. 

After I worked on both DW and Bernie, I moved over to Foster and did the first three Arcadia's on that quilt. I realized, when going out for a coffee break with the girls, my painters tape was coming off the trim in the old studio/new living room and decided I needed to get out there and get to painting. With all the humidity of late, it's a wonder it lasted this long. 

That took until nearly 8:00 so I was done working with fabric and thread for the day. Booo!

Making Up

I'm making up for the past two Fridays I took off I think. The Harley-Davidson quilt was finished yesterday morning and already picked up. Then I loaded this monster...

Huge T-shirt quilt

This received an edge-to-edge and an hour or so after Jim returned home from work for the day I was able to get it off the frame. This is what went into it...

Bubbles, bubbles

I, of course, being a Laker grad, had to select the GVSU t-shirt to capture the pic. I removed that from the frame and started frame ironing for the next quilt being worked today. Meanwhile, I pieced the first of 72 blocks going into Charlotte's quilt, only to find I undercut the amount of background fabric I need. More cutting ensued. 

Here's what I'll be working on today...

Lucy wanted to get in the pic too

Pat gave me the option on how to handle this top and I think if I custom quilt it the quilting will just get lost, so I'm going to give it an e2e with me driving. I'm tired of listening to the computer drive after yesterdays long day. 

IF I get time later today, I'll be working on this top on Bernie...

Looks simple enough, right?

All of these star points are 3D; meaning they pop off the fabric behind so to quilt them down would defeat the 3D intention. I'm still trying to work this in my head. The customer has called to inquire about what I decided to do and I had to be honest with her and tell her I still didn't have any idea. I'll be thinking about it more seriously while I'm quilting Pat's quilt today. Jim calls that windshield time. 

"It's a small quilt"

When a customer tells me "...and it's a small quilt..." I'm learning smaller means more work. Seriously! This Harley-Davidson quilt isn't all that big really. Yet, here I am, day three, (I started it last Thursday) before it will be finished. 

That's pretty much my work day and then after I shut down DW after 6:00, I started in planning and cutting pieces for Charlotte's quilt.

While I was doing that, Jim got the new closet doors hung, and then together we moved the pressing table back about 4-5 inches. This is so customers would have more room when they came in and it puts it closer to me while I'm working on Bernie. 

Foggy and wet out there today. Great day to be in working on quilts!

No more messes

He'll have to put a trim piece across the top to hide the hanging rails, but yay, they're up!

Whatnot

I did end up getting the old studio/new living room cut in after lunch yesterday. Unfortunately, after looking at what Jim painted on the ceiling, it looks different than the paint I used for cutting in, so I'm probably going to have to do it again. Ugh!

Meanwhile, still not a lick of thread into anything. I have a customer coming to pick up this morning sometime (sure wish they'd give me a more specific time they would be here) and I'll be on DW working until they arrive. 

The color swatch was done over the weekend for the Ink Tense pencils. That's about as "quilty" as I got. Happy Monday!

Ink Tense swatch

Whirlwind Couple of Days

It's been three days since I put any thread into anything. Friday morning was appointments. Friday afternoon was at the Lumberjack Festival (date day with hubby), getting fabric for the grand neighbor girl, getting groceries, and finally heading home. Saturday was picking up a barn quilt, star decoration for the new studio, grandsons birthday, picking up a t-shirt top/back to be quilted from an old friend downstate, getting closet doors/track, and finally coming home. The neighbors are up so after getting home, we were over there.

Today we started right in on projects; hanging the new barn quilt...

Pretty fricken awesome!
Polyurethaning the new closet doors, and since it's getting gross outside (hot and sticky), we moved inside to start taping the old studio (new living room) which is going to get painted before we get stuff moved out there. There are a lot of windows and trim so we are just getting lunch made. 

I'm hoping to get the new living room cut in this afternoon so maybe (hopefully) I can do something "quilty" before the weekend ends. 

Kind of the Same

I spent yesterday morning trying to find a particular quilt top I made for my two-year old grandson. I pulled everything out of both of my flimsy totes and came up empty. I then remembered I had already quilted it. Now I just need to find it out in the garage in the finished totes. 

While I was digging around in the flimsy totes, I said to myself, self, why am I trying to find backings for some of these when I have plenty of backs for a lot of these. It was then I made a decision. I'm going to quilt the tops I have backs for first, then I'll worry about the rest later. The one that ended up on top of the pile was an oldie but a goodie...Arcadia Avenue. I threw the back on to frame iron while I worked yesterday so I could dig in after hours. 

I'm working on another banner on Bernie. It's a little different than the previous banner I finished yesterday morning...

Happy Birthday Banner

After shutting down Bernie around 4:30, I moved over to Foster to start Arcadia. Here's what I have in the border...

Cool border!

I also loaded up DW so when I finish the second banner on Bernie this morning I can move over to start in on that one. 

A Harley Davidson quilt top

This is made entirely of handkerchiefs and should be interesting on how it quilts up. 

While Jim and I were eating lunch we noticed it getting really dark outside. We received a blow-by storm with wind, sideways rain, and hail. Jims garden took it pretty good, but it did do some damage to the peppers and a few tomatoes.

Poor pepper plant

Much of the same happening in the studio today. Temps are much better; mid 70's expected with lower humidity. Relief at last!

Guild Meeting

I pulled off that Twirly quilt about a half hour before having to leave for the guild meeting. Suffice it to say I didn't work on anything else. So, today is buckle down day. 

Here are a few of the quilts shown at guild last night... 

I didn't get a great pic of this, but it was so cool!

Love anything colorful!

More colorful!

I'll be working on the birthday banner today on Bernie this morning. I've already had a customer come and both pick up and drop off and that's all I'm expecting so should be pretty productive. 

Diversion

I'm going to be diverting a little today. While I would not normally work on my personal quilts during the day, I'm going to have to bend that rule for once. 

I have the Twirly quilt top still on Foster and that needs to go to the guild meeting tonight. I have five rows yet to quilt and while it may not get bound, it needs to be, at least, quilted and trimmed. I have the low tone one I did during the 4th of July that will also be going tonight to show variations/flexibility of this pattern.

If all goes quickly this morning, I'll continue to work on this birthday banner...

What a great idea!

This is a banner the customer can hang up during birthdays rather than buying and then ultimately throwing away banners after the celebration is finished. 

DW's back is still being frame ironed; I got a little in my zen place yesterday and kept forgetting to roll that forward. Oops. 

Off I go.

No Phone Calls

All last week I received zero [new] phone calls. I guess all I need to do is close for a few days and that'll drum them up. I had four calls/text messages on the work phone when I checked it just now.

I did run to Pieces of Thyme on the way over to the reunion site to purchase the Prisma Ink Tense pencils for the Helen Godden quilt I'm starting. Her prices were even less than Amazon!

Did I mention we are in charge of the physical side of the reunion? Here's Friday as we are setting up and getting ready for everybody to arrive. 

Setting up the tables/awnings/canopies

We occupy 16 or so campsites during the weekend. Here are a "few" of the family enjoying lunch on Saturday...

Enjoying the food

We counted 63... just a little family. 

Cleaning up will continue later tonight, but we did the bulk of it when we got home yesterday afternoon. And then we crashed. It's becoming harder on us as we get older but nobody wants to take it over. We try every year to pass it on but so far, no takers. 

Back to quilting stuff now that we are done with that for another year. I have two quilts to remove from frames this morning, calls to return, and new quilts to get loaded back onto the guys so my work day here is going to be a busy one, which is not much different than what we just had to do. Oh, except here I'm in the nice A/C. 😁

Closed Today and Tomorrow

We are heading out of here right after lunch; the new owners have a 2:00 check-in time which, in my book, is purely stupid. Mostly everything is packed and I'm snugging up any last minute things as I think of them. 

Here's another pic of Joyces quilt as I was working on it yesterday...

The petals

This was finished as business closed last night. 

I'm going to make a detour over to Pieces of Thyme on my way over to the campgrounds to see if they have the Ink Tense pencils I'm looking for. Meanwhile, this weekend is anything but a vacation for us, so I'll have lots to tell on Monday. Happy weekend for the rest of the world. 

Shopping Day

Today is supposed to be the day we run to Midland and get all the food/supplies for the reunion. It's pouring and it's supposed to do this most of today and tonight. Shopping may have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Here's some of the quilting that went into Dianes quilt...

Doing some echoing

The side pieces received echos while the center pieces received a cross hatch. This quilt is coming off the frame today after all the marks are removed.

Joyces quilt instructions were to "quilt the snot out of it with swirls". Here's what's going into her quilt...

The petals are receiving a different treatment

I'm about 1/3 of the way done with Joyces quilt and after working until well after 4:00 I started in on Foster and got two rows done on Twirly...

Can you even see anything?

Here's something new I tried yesterday; pre-wound bobbins. I had a box of cream colored bobbins I purchased eons ago and was waiting for the right backing to use them with. They are being used in Joyces quilt and I must say, a bit hit! 

I did have to do some tension adjustments in the bobbin case, but after getting that dialed down, it was pretty much smooth sailing from then on. I'm going to continue to test these out and I may be a convert. 

I worked on the sit-down machine after around 7:00. I got block 10 completed and am working on block 11. I'd love to take this machine with me and work on it while camping. Wouldn't that be fun?

I'll be knocking off work at the normal time tonight since I have a LOT of reunion stuff yet to do and tomorrow afternoon is pull-out day. The new owners said we can't check in until after 2:00. The old owners would let us check in even before noon if nobody was on our lot. So far new owners, 0, old owners, 1. 

Packing

I started cleaning and loading the trailer up this morning. It's pretty gross out there, weather-wise, so that's about all I'm going to do for now. And honestly, I'm about as far as I can go at the moment. 

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

Diane's beautiful EPP and hand embroidered quilt

Pics of the quilting tomorrow. The other two machines are loaded as well. Here's what's on Bernie...

Joyce's Dahlia

I've done a few of these previously and she would like it quilted to death, and with the wool batt it's going to turn out beautifully. IF I get to it before leaving.

Here's what's on Foster...

Another Twirly top

If you look the blog a few days ago, you'll find a mini version of this quilt. This is a more wild and larger version and wow do I love making these! This is actually getting "piece specific" quilting in it. Don't know how much the camera will pick up on what I'm doing, but I'll try.

After long arming all day and into the early evening, I turned my attention to the pillow off of Foster. Here's the finished product, complete with a zippered back...

Not a great pic, but the idea is there

I used all my batting scraps to make the insert, so it's pretty poofy and full. Once that was finished I started on the Helen Godden alphabet blocks. I did a test run on "Z" and I'm not sure if the InkTense blocks are going to cut it. What do you think?

Using the blocks instead of the pencils

I don't own a set of the pencils, and I'm thinking, for the inside portions, I need a little more control. I haven't "washed" them down yet, so the colors will be more vibrant when I do that after the stitching out. Maybe I'll get to that tonight?

Short Week

Another short week in the horizon this week. I'll only be open today through Wednesday. Thursday we leave for reunion. I'd rather be working if I'm being honest. 

The reunion, for most, is a vacation. For Jim and me it's work, work, work. And it's not just the four days we are there. No, it's the three days preceding and the two days after packing and unpacking, cleaning, etc. I could go on all day about this, but this is a quilting blog, not a bitch blog.

Here's the quilting that went into the Lake pillow...

Looks like gentle waters

Once that was quilted, I moved along to another project I started on Saturday; the Helen Godden pattern I downloaded a week or so ago...

Not sure how I'm going to color these yet

This is going to be an alphabet quilt that will be quilted on the sit-down. After tracing all the letters, I now have to color them in. Not sure yet how I'm going to do that; whether it's going to be my luminary paints or with my InkTense blocks. I have plenty of time to think about that though. 

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

Diane's beautiful EPP and hand embroidered top

Diane does such beautiful work. Actually, most of my customers do. I won't be long arming for a bit though because I have two quilts to pull and trim off Bernie and Foster and two backs to get back on them to frame iron. And, we have another thunderstorm going through this morning.  

Another Project (Done)

The Twirly quilt is quilted and bound. 

Ready for a class sample

Once I finished that I started another little project I picked up from Bittersweet last week...

Love it!

This is already on the long arm and I'm hoping to get some quilting done to it today. It's going to be a giant pillow with which I'm going to try my hand at a zippered envelope back. Never attempted one of those before. 

After loading this last night, my gears shifted (again) to this project...

a Helen Godden pattern

This is going to be for sit-down work, but all the letters need to be traced out first on fabric before any stitching can commence.

This morning I was (once again) on the roof. Our Amish guy finally decided to get out of the hay fields and make our metal for the porch...

Getting the metal on top

It started getting hot out there so I'm glad this wasn't a day-long type of project. It looks so much better than the ice melt/tar paper that's been hanging on for a month or better. 

More fun studio work during the warm part of today. Tonight, when the sun settles down a bit in the horizon, it's time to start working on the trailer and getting ready for reunion. I only have tonight, Monday and Tuesday to work out there because we have family coming over Wednesday after work. And we leave Thursday. I just hope the initial inspection proves our mouse eradicator worked and I don't have all of that to deal with. 

Scooting Along

My wall hanging is up and it looks great in the spot I wanted to put it. Here's what's on Foster today...

Twirly Quilt

I had to put off long arming for a bit yesterday. Seems we had a bit of a weather situation...

Forming a possible tornado

We hung out in the neighbors (very) nice basement for a spell waiting for the weather to pass. Ignore the picture of the next insert, but turn up the volume and just listen...

Almost an hour of continuous thunder; that is not wind you hear as you can see not a branch is moving in our white pine. Our 70-year old neighbor said he had never heard or seen anything like this in his lifetime. Jim and I know we haven't either. 

Working on bags this morning and then hopefully hop on the long arm at some point today. 

Day One

This was my intention yesterday playing in the studio...

To go over the electrical panel

And after helping Jim wash the house, and after the neighbors' granddaughters coming over to inquire about their quilts, I chipped away all day on this project and behold! It's on the frame!

Just need to quilt and bind

After completing this top, I bound three other quilts; one for the neighbor granddaughter and two for charity; they are going to Alaska, via Vegas for Sew Yeah Quilting.

We are running to town this morning to get groceries before all the drunks wake up. It was very loud here last night as our new neighbor to the south has decided to join in on the commercial fireworks war we have going on here. 

Lucy DOES NOT like fireworks. Hazel could care less. I want to get the above piece quilted later and maybe get Twirly quilt on the frame too. I have to find a back for that but I'm sure I can come up with something around here. 

Closed Independence Day Weekend

I will be closed after 4:00 today until next Monday. I'll be working in the studio, but on whatever comes my way or what I feel like. I'm calling it a sewing stay-cation 

It's always nuts around the lake on the 4th, but we don't participate in most of it as we have next weekend to deal with which is exciting enough for people our age.

Here's some quilting detail going into Bernadettes quilt...

I love ruler work!

After working for nine hours on this one, my feet were tired and I wanted to do something sit-down, so I put this class sample together...

Showing the many layouts possible

I had a bundle of 16 fat eights which was just enough to make this sample, which will eventually end up as a baby quilt for some cute little girl. 

I'll be finishing Bernadettes quilt today and then who knows what. 

I picked up a table runner at Bittersweet last Saturday that I'm hoping to get done over the weekend to use as a cover up for the electrical panel in the new studio. And, there's plenty of other things to fiddle with out there and am so excited to be able to just enjoy the space instead of the pressure of working since that's basically all I've been doing since moving in six weeks ago. 

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Loaded Up

DW has a quilt waiting to be basted in. Bernie has Bernadettes quilt on it that I'll be working on again today. Possibly tomorrow as well; it's getting a lot of thread and ruler work. Foster has three quilts on it right now; two are quilted and the other may be quilted tonight. 

The one I'm working now

I'll try to get some quilting detail on it. 

Abbey's quilt

Going to Alaska

Up next for possibly tonight

I'll show what's on DW when I get to working on it. No other sewing last night. Had two customers come yesterday. One to pick up and another to not only pick up, but drop off as well. 

The flags are out for our Independence Day celebration. Today is logistically my Thursday as I'll be closed on the 4th and 5th both. I do plan on spending a LOT of quality time in the studio, but not actually "working".