Full Moon

The moon is so cool. And viewing it over one of our great lakes as it rises for the night is even cooler. 

Moon over Lake Huron

I think this may actually be Saginaw Bay, but nonetheless, it's spectacular. And we had a marvelous sunset on the other horizon to accompany us home. Later last night, we were able to see a partial eclipse of said moon but I could not get a pick of that. It was just the top portion but also very cool. 

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

Bernadettes halloween quilt

This is going to get a spiderweb edge-to-edge in it this morning. While that's stitching out, I'll be auditioning/starting this one on Bernie...

Judy's Twisted Bargello

I was initially going to put wavy lines following the twists, but I may do something different. I'm playing around with a few things in my head. I'l get the iPad out and sketch some ideas while DW is working.

One customer already here this morning dropping off a backing (the one that was too short last week) and another coming soon to pick up. The rest of the day is free to quilt away and it's supposed to be warm (unseasonably) and sunny again. Beautiful fall so far!

A Quick Post

Yesterday I finally got Judy's Pickle Dish quilted. It's still on the frame waiting for the marks to disappear. I'm going to start DW first thing after I get this post done and hopefully it'll be done before I have to leave today around 3:45 to head to Oscoda for our guild meeting. 

After getting the quilting done and all the paperwork around (it was after 6:00), I moved over to Bee Happy. I got the pinwheel blocks completed.

There are eight

Why do my centers never really line up despite accurate cutting/piecing and lining up when joining the two halves? I think I'm destined to just long arm.

Another beautiful, sunny, warm day ahead today. Unseasonably warm for a mid-September date. 

That Time of Year

About this time of year I start collecting fabric and patterns for quilts I'd like to make throughout the winter since I seldom go anywhere during the cold months. We took advantage of the beautiful day yesterday and headed over to Elm Creek to see what I could find for more background fabric for Bee Happy. And pick up anything else that caught my eye.

Here's my haul...

A few goodies

A new pattern book for a Double Wedding Ring, which is one of the last quilts on my bucket list. I'm going to attempt one. Background fabrics for Bee Happy, and a pattern/jellyroll/background fabric for a cool star-like quilt. 

I've been picking up things here and there. The Produce Section is one of those examples and what I hauled yesterday is another. I should have enough to keep me amused through about April. Or just about anyway. 

Saturday, after coming home from the art show, I met the mailman and my box arrived with the thread order placed last week, so DW is going to be cranking most of today. Well, it depends on which of the two quilts (DW's or Bernies) are from the Oscoda group because I have to head up there tomorrow night. I'll take with me anything I can. 

Art Show

The Gladwin Art Guild art show was pretty okay. I was surprised there weren't more entries or exhibits, but for a small town, we're lucky to even have such a thing. And there are definitely some talented artists here. Mom received an honorable mention in the traditional art category with one of her loose/modern paintings. 

I prefer her loose style over her painstakingly precise style

Here are a few of her other paintings on the sale wall...

I like the top one best in this section

Isn't the little girl just adorable?

I have to save money right now or I would have snagged my two favorites. After getting home and eating lunch, Jim was canning more (the last batch) of salsa and I headed to the studio. He was nearing the end of salsa just before the MSU football game started so I stayed in the studio and built blocks like a crazy woman yesterday...

Eight new Bee Happy blocks

I was going to stay in there today, but decided I need to get out of the house. Jim and I are going to enjoy the absolutely beautiful late summer day, see some color, and head over to Elm Creek to maybe pick out some more background fabrics for this piece. I don't think I have enough to get me through this whole quilt. And, even if I do, background fabrics are always a must for a stash. 

Don't Ever Get Old

As I approach the big 6-0, I find my energy level not nearly what it used to be. I work for an hour or so and then have to stretch and play with the dogs for a bit. Work some more and do the same. After six hours on the long arm, I'm spent. I power through but have to really (really) push to get through the next couple of hours.

Grandma use to say, "Getting old isn't for the faint of heart," and wow that woman was wise. Aches and pains crop up out of nowhere, sleep isn't what it used to be, energy level is zilch. I spend a lot of time thinking of ways to cut energy steps in my day; as long as I'm going upstairs with the laundry, I'll grab the water container and water plants, and grab the vacuum to do that up there too. When did I become so thrifty with my steps?

Yesterday was one of those days. It started out fine. Bernadette came over to fetch her quilt. We chatted for quite a while. It was lunch time. Jim left to go back to work, and my energy level tanked. After long arming for about two hours, that was it.

I headed over to Pieces to grab some more background fabrics for the Bee Happy quilt top, and the background fabric for The Produce Section so when I'm ready to begin that I have it available. 

Here's some more quilting going into Judy's quilt...

I love feathers!

And more feathers

All the "blades" in the Pickle Dish need to have echos done because she pressed her seams open. Twice the work but a better result nonetheless.

The trip to the fabric store put a little more energy in me so I switched over to Foster and got the black and border done on the first block. Jim got home from work and decided we were going to get groceries.

I have to attend moms art show this morning and after lunch I'm not sure which direction I'll head. Got a call from Caleb at lunch yesterday and he has received his permanent duty station after he gets done with training in Oklahoma. Vilseck, Germany. For at least two years. 

I'm excited for him and should get some great fabrics out of Europe, but I'd rather have the kids nearer than across the pond. Ah well, the life of a soldier. 

More Wildlife

Last night it wasn't screaming (from the fox) but grunting. Probably from our resident bear. We think he was down eating apples at the Bellers'. 

Still no thread (of course there isn't, I just put the order in a few days ago) meaning no DW work yesterday.

What I am working on is Judy's Pickle Dish quilt...

Of course, yellow and blue are questionable in this house

Here's some more up-close pics...

Tula!!!!

Corner treatments

I'm going to do something with this quilt I rarely do. I'm going to turn it 90 degrees when the body is completed. Reload. And then do the borders all at once. It's gotta be easier than trying to match up the feathers as I'm progressing. 

There is a LOT of quilting detail going in here and I'm taking my time doing it. I love how this quilt is coming out and this is my happy place. 😃

After working on this quilt for the day, the hot temps outside just started zapping my energy. We did not turn on the air yesterday opting for keeping the house shut up instead. But when I went outside a few times (once to the neighbors to see what the cement truck was doing and again with the dogs), it started taking all my energy.

I didn't even feel like getting on Foster and working over there, so instead did my five bee blocks for the Bee Happy quilt. 

Bzzzzz

Bernadette is coming to pick up her UofM quilt later this morning and I'll be working on Judys Pickle Dish the rest of the day. Happy Friday. 

Screaming

Last night, just before heading to bed, I let the girls out. I always go out with them to look at the stars, look for auroras, see what wildlife is prowling down at the beach, and to make sure the girls don't get face to face with a skunk. 

Talk about screaming. And then a slight purring sound. It was on foot because it was going back and forth near our two docks. Once it realized I was out there, it scooted down the beach to the north. I researched this sound to see what the heck it was. 

Apparently our fox is still in residence. It was her calling out for a mate. I guess they don't actually mate until December or January, but they establish territories and find their potential suitor so when the time arrives, he'll be in the area.

But her scream was enough to keep me up very late last night. I'm a little bleary eyed this morning, but alas, I've already gotten chores out of the way and am already heading into the studio. Kathy's quilt is done and I'm frame ironing for the next one; Judy's Pickle Dish.

Still no thread, but I'll track the order at lunch to see where it is. While frame ironing last night I worked on the "new" version of Lori Holts Bee Happy top. Here are the blocks, side by side showing the interfacing method and the Misty Fuse version...

Left...ick! Right...Very nice!

I still wasn't through Judy's back, and Jim was out working on the ice guard on the east side of the studio, so proceeded with the next three blocks...

The left one is a little far apart, but I'll take it

I'm not in any hurry to finish this quilt, so I'll take my time working on it. I received a distraction in the mail yesterday though...

A long-time want

I've eyed this quilt for almost a year now. When the pattern came, I received two of them for some reason. I have to check my invoice to see if I inadvertently selected two instead of just one. Otherwise, somebody coming through will grab the extra. 

Every Intention

I had every intention of getting this quilt stitched out today... 

An Edge to Edge with the Pro Stitcher

But after I got it loaded and all ready to start this morning, I looked at the work order last night and discovered she requested cream (#20001) thread. This is how much cream thread I have left...

Ummm...not happening

That is not enough to quilt this piece out. By a long shot. This quilt is a super king and this amount of thread here would only do a twin-size. At best. And I need this color for the other quilt I'm working on Bernie.

An immediate thread order went in last night and hopefully it'll be here quickly. Although, they usually send through regular mail, so maybe not until next week. Drats! I'm not pulling that quilt off the frame since I had so much difficulty getting the backing all straightened out and ironed.

I'll continue on with Kathy's quilt on Bernie and when that gets finished I'll just have to stick to working on him for the next few days on something different. 

After making three new pincushions (left over jars that I could put buttons on the bottom of) I moved on to something else. 

I tried to do the first two blocks in my Bee Happy quilt. Epic fail! That interfacing stuff and I are not getting along. It looked messy and after blanket stitching the appliqué blocks, I'm still not happy with it. And the frustration level was over the top. This should be a fun hobby and getting frustrated isn't fun. I'm switching modes of adhesive. Hello Misty Fuse!

I gave it a shot. I didn't like it. I gave it another shot. Liked it even less. I'm cutting my losses to a few yards of lightweight interfacing. Which I'll just use for another project. Moving along. 

I have a new customer coming today. I don't know how much business I'll get from her since she's an art quilter and only makes small pieces. She just can't seem to get the eyes right and wants me to bring the rest of it to life. But it should be fun. I love doing art quilts!

Pieced Backs

By pieced back I don't mean just joining two large chunks of fabric together to make a larger chunk. Todays discussion is about backs that have patchwork in them. This particular back is a large chain of 2 1/2" blocks along the width of the backing. Twice. 

Here's what's happening as I load it...

See all those pleats?

If I know quilt making as well as I think I do, the resulting tucks and puckers are the result of the blue fabric (the large piece) being placed below the patchwork segment when it went through her sewing machine. 

I'm working to get these out through frame ironing and spritzing heavily on the seam line. Hopefully this will be enough to rectify this situation.

While working this backing on DW, I'm quilting Kathy's quilt on Bernie. Here's some of the quilting going into it...

Ruler work and free motion

I love the flying geese sashing/filler blocks

I'll be doing much of the same today. The back will be frame ironed by days end today and I'll have everything loaded and ready to go for the Pro Stitcher tomorrow. 

Linda stopped by yesterday to drop off another one of hers, although this isn't as time sensitive as most of her others. I have a new customer coming tomorrow who was referred to me to do some art quilting. Bernadette is pleased as punch her UofM quilt is done already. So am I!

Traveling Sunday

I don't have much in the way of quilting to share today. We were on the road all day and if not traveling, visiting with the kids and grandkids. 

We had some items to exchange with everybody. Ben received his birthday gifts. Caleb received his diploma (which got lost getting here). All the kids received a nice meal at Pizza House for their birthday meals (all inclusive). Jim received canning jars and I received my gifts from the kids' cruise. They picked up some fabrics and a small skein of wool yarn and wow are these fabrics lovely... 

Love to get fabrics from abroad

So, with the wool yarn, I decided to try to knit. Again. Once again, epic fail. I love to crochet, but I get lost in the turns and don't have the ability to keep my rows consistent. Now I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with said yarn. 

I'll be finishing the UofM quilt on DW. I'll move over to Kathys barn quilt on Bernie while DW is frame ironing the backing to the next emergent quilt. I have a  busy couple of weeks coming up! 

Didn't Get the UofM Quilt Done

And MSU only won with one second left on the clock and a field goal to give us the W. See...bad juju. However, Michigan lost and so maybe it isn't such bad juju after all.

I started on this while Jim was watching the game... 

Lori Holt's Bee Happy Quilt

I've had the fabrics for over a year, but hadn't gotten the templates to work on this. Tina, from Bittersweet Quilt Shop ordered them for me and Jim picked them up on Friday. Unbeknownst to me, I also needed some bias tape makers, so I ordered those yesterday via Amazon. There are other blocks I can make without them though.

I'll still continue to cut out pieces for the cottage quilt. That's one of those projects I can take to retreat next month because it's relatively mindless sewing/piecing. I did complete the 25 partials from earlier this week, so now I have more than 40 made. 

Unfortunately today I will not be in the studio at all. We are leaving here in about 45 minutes for Lansing to celebrate Bens birthday. That's a whole day shot in the arse. It's a four-hour turn and then the time at the restaurant with all the kids/grandkids. We will probably end up over to their house after we eat, which is more time away. 

Birthday Week

Hazels birthday was Thursday, Ben's was Friday. Don't know if we're going down to Lansing or if they are coming up here to celebrate. Or, if Ben is going golfing in which nobody is traveling.

Either way, Jim and I are getting ready to head out and get groceries. We would have did it last night but we spent the evening with our neighbors, who left early this morning.

Here's a little of what's going into the UofM quilt...

Block M

All colleges have their block letters and I set these into the setting triangles around the quilt. DW did some football quilting inside of the body, and as you can see, I'm piano keying (to mimic yard markers) on the borders. It's still not done. The time spent with the neighbors took me away from the quilting.

Here's a little of the border treatment going into Kathy's quilt...

While waiting for Joan to arrive

Joan called yesterday morning (she forgot yesterday was Friday) and picked up her shorted backing to add to it. She was here for a while as we needed to do some math and get her head into what she wanted back there. 

Okay, so I guess the kids aren't coming up here. Men don't communicate well. Jim texted instead of calling and Ben indicated they weren't coming up. So, are we supposed to come down? Is he even going to be there? Or, is he golfing? Then we tried to call and it went straight to voicemail. UGH! I'm a planner. 

Yesterday Was A Blur

I had three sets of customers come in yesterday and they were both drop offs and pick ups. Five quilts out. Seven quilts in. No wonder I'm behind. 

I started loading Joans quilt onto DW yesterday but discovered the back was too short. Had to call her and then remove the back from DW. It's probably a good thing because one of the quilts that came in was a rush situation and required the Pro Stitcher to work some of it. I'll be doing some ruler work in this as well...

Yes, I'm actually quilting a U of M (bleh) quilt

I have already started this one, but have also started this one on Bernie...

Kathy's cute barn quilt

After I worked on both of these for a bit (because most of the morning and early afternoon was with customers) I was spent. I mean, when you're "live" with customers it drains the energy out of you. And it's not them. Not. At. All! It's me. I try to maintain a positive attitude, give advice when asked, work through quilting options on incoming tops, record the quilts, hang them, and clean up between each set of them. It's a lot of mental work and as I approach my not-so-young years, I'm finding it drains me. 

But alas, since I didn't get much thread work done on the "work" boys, I fired up Foster to do a little bit of work there. But, Jim decided to call Norwegian Cruise Lines while I was just getting started and after a 45 minute conversation with Victoria, we have officially booked our cruise for next year to Alaska. 

Jim and I are cruise virgins, so this should be interesting. Fortunately, Caleb and Lia just came back from their cruise and are giving some great advice on all sorts of things. 

Okay, I'm a little excited about the vacation in less than a year, and since this is a quilting blog, should get back on track with that. I'm working the UofM quilt all day today to try to get it off the frame ASAP. Bad juju when MSU plays tomorrow and that maize and blue thing should not be displayed during game day.

Happy 6th Birthday!

Today is Hazels sixth birthday! 

I'm six today!

If what everybody has indicated I should have at least four customers coming today. Three to pick up and one to drop off. Won't be getting much quilting done if this comes to fruition. That's okay. I have a lot of admin/cleaning up to do.

Mary's quilt is done but is still hanging out on the frame. Worked until well past 7:00 getting it finished and didn't even do anything else afterwards. Too tired. 

While I was working, Jim started hanging the ice guard on the studio roof before the eavestrough guys come to do their thing. He also trimmed some of the lower, dead branches on the Ash tree outside the west studio window so the branch didn't break off, bounce, and then hit that particular window.

I never did get a decent pic of what went into Mary's quilt.

Credit Unions

My business account is through a credit union. With a different credit union, Jim and I do our personal banking. Not all credit unions are created equal. I'm on hold (ignore) with the business credit union right now trying to figure out why two of my Friday deposits didn't go through. 

I follow all their little "rules" and while one of the checks went through, two others did not. WHY? Because they "recently" changed their policy and I have to have the business name written on the back of the check. Even though one of the checks went through without it. Seriously? Whatever. 

Okay, no more ranting today. I'm in a mood. Probably because I was up early and waking up with the sun isn't normally on my to-do list. 

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

Can't hardly see anything

I'm using a green thread on green fabric, so all you can see is some texture. Sorry about that. I'll try to grab a pic of the back which can be seen a little better once it's done later today. Hopefully.

I'm loading a back onto Bernie right now and I did some quilting on Foster last night after finishing up on DW for the day. I had two customers come and pick up yesterday; one was scheduled and the other was a quick drop-in, until both turned into not-so-quick visits. 

25 more cottage fronts were made after long arming so despite having customers in and out, much was accomplished. Yay!

Steaming Lake (River)

Temps have been getting down there the past two nights. The lake (river) was steaming this morning...again. Mid-40's this morning and the house is chilly. Fall is right on our heals. HURRAY!

I worked on the cottage blocks yesterday and now have a total of 20. 

20 of 132

The pattern calls for 132 blocks so I have a  while before these are all done. I've cut for the next set of backgrounds and several house sets so I can just sit and sew this week after working.

I'll be tackling Mary's whole cloth today. Since I don't have to change threads and worry about working around patchwork, it should go pretty fast depending on how much detail I decide to get in there. Jim is not coming home for lunch today so that will help shorten lunch time and provide more quilt time. 

A Variety

Yesterday was a variety of things in the studio. The first thing we needed before I could "play" was to grocery shop. That's kind of depressing. After getting back I cheered myself up by completing this...

Will not be making this again

The templates provided were not ample enough and I has some exceedingly frustrating moments building this block. It's going to end up being a wall hanging. I'll donate this pattern. 

I moved over to Foster after Jim got a call out for a 'smells gas'; he's on-call this weekend and all of next week. I have the first row half done, have taken a roll, and will work on that again this morning while Jim is canning salsa.

After working on Foster for a while, I dug around to find something new to work on. I did find a project I've put off for a while, but don't have the right color/amount of solids to complete it, so moved onto something else. 

I settled on this knowing I'm still trying to diminish my scrap stash. This should bust out a few...

I love house quilts!

When I refer to "The Village" for the next few weeks, this is what I'll be referring to. Each of these blocks measures 5 1/2" x 7"unfinished so I'm not going to tear through a large quantity of scraps, but a few. My rule is no large scrap pieces but all those small-ish ones floating around in the dresser that my fingers constantly push back down into the other bigger scraps.