Cheaper is not Always Better and Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Ya know, I've noticed a few of my what used to be customers not returning to me for quilting services. Which is fine. I know people move, leave this earth, or find somebody who was less expensive.

Story time.

My middle son, Ben, is a DM for a very large landscaping/snow removal company in the Lansing and Grand Rapids area. They lost an account last year to a competitor for what they can only perceive as a less expensive amount. The customer called earlier this week (even though commitments are already made for this upcoming snow season) to have Snelling come back. Snelling is the company Ben works for. They didn't get the service they were used to with Snelling and were disappointed in some of the other issues they had with the "new" company.

Less is often times not more.

I am passionate about what I do and I try to make it as right as I can. I ask questions when a top is dropped off to get the most out of whatever expectations the customer has as the end result. I get customer reactions when a finished quilt is picked up and try to gauge whether they are truly in love with what I did.

Just because somebody is less expensive may not always fit what is needed or even wanted. But that's business, and I get it. I can't be the end all-be all here, but it would be nice if honesty was presented to me in why you've left me as your long armer other than moving, death, or expense. I had one customer blatantly ignore me in a quilt shop because she had stopped coming to me earlier this year. I found out why two days ago by another customer in a round about way. Sadly, at our January retreat, she will not give me the real reason why she's stopped having me do her quilts, but I now know the truth.

Enough of story time. I worked on Debs quilt a bit yesterday morning. None on Dianes. The afternoon was spent in the kitchen and in the evening we were back to fetch mom from the hospital for another A-fib situation. I did get these put together somewhere in there...

Pears!

I'm loving this Produce Section quilt! Each of the four blocks are entirely different and I don't feel like I'm assembly line piecing. Or cutting.

May, or May Not

I may, or may not be quilting today. I've started cleaning the house and find that I've neglected it a bit too long. And, I have to get ready for the kids/grandkids to come up possibly tonight, but at least tomorrow and beyond. And then there's a huge meal to prepare.

And any rate, here's what I'm working on Bernie...

Dianes Gnomy Stars

While I was working that (which is custom), this was stitching out...

Nancy's Marine Biology top

I put meandering water throughout. Had a bit of a sticky situation on the bottom where the back was too short. I didn't complete the last pass and will have to talk to her about it next week when they come to fetch.

This is now on DW...

Deb K.'s Wedding Present

This is a large quilt and I don't think I'll have time to get through it today, so I'll baste it in this morning and get it prepped for quilting next week. Monday is shot (mom doctor appointment and me as well). The sun is shining and it's a great day to work around the house. 

After working all of this stuff, I was actually, able to build the next set of blocks in Produce Section...

Banana

Happy Thanksgiving eve!

Cranking Out Christmas

While I'm working on Christmas quilts this week, I'm listening to Christmas music. Sometimes. It just seems not right to be yet into the Christmas holiday until we give thanks on Thursday. Seriously. It's so overlooked and we have everything to be thankful for. We're not in a war. People can eat. People can find shelter if they seek it out. I'm thankful for every day I step foot out of bed and into my beautiful studio.

Here's some of the quilting that went into Sue S.'s quilt yesterday...

Using the Crop Outside feature

She wanted very light and loose quilting into this top so this is about all that went into it.

The next quilt went onto DW around late afternoon...

Another Michigan Shop Hop 2024 top

Ann didn't want custom into this one, so it received sailboats and sunshines throughout. Again, light quilting was requested.

This is on DW this morning...

For a marine biologist hopeful

This is getting undulating waves to mimic calm waters. DW sure is getting a workout this week. I'm loading a back onto Bernie during all of this quilting and will start with some custom work once that's done and the rest of the holiday quilts are tackled. I have a few more to do but most are E2E projects that don't take a quarter of the time a custom piece requires. 

Once I was through messing around on DW (eight hours later), I started piecing the strawberries on the Produce Section top. 

Sorry for the plastic bag

You get the idea. Happy logistical Friday! 

It's Thursday, Right?

Well, for me it is. Logistically. Eavestrough guy is here first thing this morning completing phase II of our eaves situation and while he's doing his thing, I'll be working Sue S.'s quilt on DW...

Very Large Top!

This is getting a combination of custom with E2E (by block) and variety is the spice of life, isn't it?

Not much else to report. I worked this yesterday morning and then we had to run to Mt. Pleasant for more lights and odds and ends. That pretty much shot the rest of the day but it was nice to take a little breather. 

Logistically My Wednesday

It's a wonder I don't get much done during the week with all the distractions from owning a small business. During the weekend focus can stay on the task(s) at hand and much more gets accomplished. Because of the previous couple of weeks, and the upcoming holiday week[end], today is my Wednesday. I'm working a full day minus one movie at lunch.

Elleens quilt was finished just before lunch yesterday and what I'm working on DW today can't be uploaded right now; update on the phone at the moment. But Jim has been working on these...

Hanging the Christmas lights

He's out hunting this morning since the winds have calmed a bit so off I go to play in the best studio in the world! 😙

Working Late

Because I had nails yesterday morning, and because Jim took the day off, we headed to Midland to pick up Turkey Day stuff. Jim treated me to lunch and then, after taking care of the groceries, I headed to the studio. That was around 2:00. I got out of there at about 9:50 last night. 

I'll be right back at it this morning once I get done here because Elleens quilt isn't done yet.

Let's talk about "light custom" versus "show custom" quilting. What Elleen wanted me to put into this quilt is show custom work. I need to educate folks about the difference. This has to be marked first, and then stitched out and each quilt block is individually done. It requires creativity and brain power. 

Marking the quilt before stitching out

I did get Bernadettes quilt stitched out...

Dog Houses and Bones

I'll be finishing Elleens quilt today and then moving onto the next one being frame ironed on DW right now. Happy Saturday. 

Going to E.R.

Jim got a call yesterday afternoon; mom had to call an ambulance, while I was here, to come get her for a really high heart rate. She's had this before, and the meds keeping from this happening had to be D/C'd for her surgery. Needless to say, she's back on her meds and hopefully this won't happen again. After spending time in the ER and then at home with her last night she's insisting she's fine now and we could go home. 

I have nails this morning, so another trip into town. Then, at some point today, we have to run and get Thanksgiving Day fixings. Our local grocery store is too pricey to purchase all that stuff so we'll be running to Midland or West Branch later.

The quilt I'll (hopefully) be finishing today was a BOM from The Quilt Show...

More crosshatching

Crosshatching, while simple looking, is very, very time consuming. I never did get to start stitching out on DW last night because of the hospital visit. 

Jim is taking today off to hang lights and get some stuff done around here. Honestly, they don't have enough work for him and his co-worker to do anyway, so he's taking advantage of the lull.

Well, happy Friday I guess. I'll be working through the weekend since I've spent so much time away this week (and the two previous weeks). And, then we have the grandkids the weekend following the holiday. 

Independent

My mother is a very independent person. After her surgery Tuesday morning, she was pretty out of it. I spent Tuesday night and yesterday morning with her. After she felt a little better, she insisted I go home and get some work done. Jim stopped by after he got done with his work day, and again, she insisted she didn't need me to come back and spend the night "just in case". 

I have customers coming later this morning and let mom know if she needed anything (at all) I would be free after lunch. This was via text. Since sending the text last night all I've received back were crickets.

Hope she's okay. I'm going to try to call her here in a bit. 

Meanwhile, I spent most of yesterday (once I did get home) on Bernie working Elleens A to Z for Ewe and Me quilt. I'm about half-way complete on that one. Lots of cross hatching...

Every letter gets crosshatching in the background

Once I worked that for about seven hours, I shut Bernie down to prepare Bernadettes Dog Park quilt for quilting today.

Dog Park by Elizabeth Hartman

This top is so darn cute! Hazel's in the front. LOL! It's getting an E2E with dog houses and bones in it, but first I had to get the new tablet hooked up to the internet. I had to make a call to HQ and then had to reinstall the latest ProStitcher version since it wasn't recognizing the wifi. 

Once that was done, I needed to purchase the motif Bernadette wanted. Now I can set quilting parameters and get it started later this afternoon. I don't want the machine running when customers are here. It always has problems during their visit and then I become frustrated.

We were supposed to get snow last night, but the storm split and went totally around us. Oh...I didn't post this earlier in the week but we now have the final "big" section of the studio done...

The last big studio chore

So glad that's done. Devon (the company owner) is coming back out today or tomorrow to work on some house issues we're having, but the studio is now drip free. Yay!

Cutting

A lot of quilting folks have their favorite, and, well, not so favorite thing to do. At the latest retreat, I polled our room and the least favorite chore was cutting the fabric and much to my surprise, binding was one of the favorite pastimes to do when quilting.

I'm just the opposite of the poll I took. Binding is my absolute least favorite thing to do and cutting is one of my very favorites. 

I had all these to play with yesterday when preparing for the Produce Section...

Look at all the lushisness!

The first cuts are made. I know, from talking to fellow Elizabeth Hartman quilt makers, first cuts are made and bagged and then when each fruit element is made, more cuts will follow. All the colors are in their respective fruit bags and ready for me to tackle once I get to that point. 

However, today is back to the regular day schedule. I do have an eavestrough interruption in there (which is our last "big" studio finish project), but hopefully he'll show up after Jim gets out of the woods; he took today off to hunt some more.

First thing this morning I have to move the back loaded onto DW over to Bernie and then get a back loaded onto DW for an E2E that has another Christmas deadline. Man, I sure hope moms surgery isn't going to happen. I know that sounds selfish, but this is putting undo pressure on me. It takes something I love to do and turns it into a "job" which creates resentment and stress. Not cool. 

And...I'mmmm Baaaccckkk

I am back from Shipshewana, but I don't know how deep into my routine I'm actually going to be. Mom has a foot surgery scheduled for Tuesday. I'm the only close relative to assist in her convalescence. She can NOT put any weight on that foot for at least six weeks and she has very little balance left.

So, I'm going to be working second shift for a while if she passes her pre-op tests tomorrow. Jim will have to take over the afternoon watch because I still have Christmas deadlines to meet.

Today will be my last day "off" for quite a while I'm afraid.

My retreat to-do's changed in a matter of one day. The machine (Jay) that I took down didn't have enough lighting to actually allow me to work without terrible eye strain and I was in a corner where the overhead lights weren't the greatest.

I shifted gears. Did a little shopping and over the next couple of days, made something totally different than what I took down. I did get a border fabric for Bee Happy while out shopping and picked up a few Christmas gifts as well.

Here are a few quilts I brought home to quilt for customers...

A few other tops that Terri and Virginia accomplished are below...

Book Worm by Virginia

Terri's pretty flowers from a magazine she had

So many beautiful colors. We laughed. We cried. We prayed. We compared. We had a blast over all and the registration opened on Thursday for next years retreat. It was full by Saturday morning. I have that to look forward to over the upcoming months to get me through the next crazy year. 

Jim's out hunting this morning and I'll be starting to cut my Produce Section quilt out. I can't attach borders until I get all the fabrics off the sewing table or they'll end up on the floor so I have to deal with that today. 

And then tomorrow I'll be back on the big machines. We were hoping Foster would be done while I was cruising through Lansing yesterday, but his parts still haven't arrived, so another trip down to Lansing is in our future. 

Retreat Break

I have today to prepare for the "big" retreat starting tomorrow down in Shipshewana, Indiana. This one is the biggest of the year with over 150 in attendance and six days of fun-filled activities and sewing. I'm nearly packed since a little of what I needed for the previous retreat is going along for the upcoming one.

Except for the final border (which I did not have fabric for) Bee Happy is put together. Everybody else got a pic of it. I did not. I was holding one corner up while it was being photographed.

I also bound the two quilts I test ran DW on last week. Speaking of which, DW is back and is running very well. One of my regular customers was in attendance at the last retreat and asked if there was any way I could get her table runner (I say bed runner because it's so big) done before Thanksgiving.

Gobble, gobble!

I left early on Friday night and brought this home. I told her if she didn't mind guinea pigging for me with DW having just returned I'd be willing to work on it to see what we could accomplish.

11:15 Friday night and all was complete...

Love the texture!

Yesterday was spent unpacking Bee Happy stuff and repacking the Leah Day 365 stuff to take down south. I have a few bag projects I can make too that I bought at retreat but want to focus on the sit-down project since Foster should be home soon and I'll be back on him more than sit-down quilting. 

Isn't it funny, I'm still making lists of things to take and for Jim to do while I'm gone. I'm planning on working on Mary's quilt while thinking of more items to be added to both of those. Her quilt should be finished before shutting down for the night. Hopefully! And while I'm working on that, I'm frame ironing for Elleens next quilt on DW since he behaved so well Friday. 

Sun Not Cooperating

We didn't have much sun yesterday and what we did get was in the early afternoon. The evening sun was behind some ugly clouds, so no texture on Mary's quilt. I tried to get a pic this morning but that didn't work either. 

DW is all ready to head back south...

Unplugged and ready to get off the frame

Good thing I'm heading to retreat today otherwise I'd be a little more upset about this. 

Speaking of retreats, this one I'm attending doesn't start until 1:00! WHAT???? Half the day is gone at this point. I have to get packed up and ready to go, which I haven't even started to do yet.

What am I going to work on? Well, for this one, I'm hoping to get Bee Happy blocks completed to include the daunting border full of 99 hexagons. It's going to take some time to get all of those stitched. I've got the last three blocks ready for blanket stitching and hope to get those done before leaving.

I also have those two quilts I did on DW to bind, so it looks like Mike is traveling with me this go around. 

Mary's quilt has too much to do for me to complete it before leaving, so it'll be here on Monday for me to work on before heading down to Shipshewana. 

Nope. He Didn't Settle

Here's some of the quilting going into the United States appliqué piece...

Wandering Feathers for a Fill

I've finished quilting this and DW still isn't settled in. Meaning, he's going back to Lansing on Saturday. Jim has to pick up some venison and chickens, so he'll swing by Gall on his way to the B's. I'll be at retreat. I have a great husband who's willing to do this for me! That's another one of the items I need to deal with today; getting DW stripped back down for shipping. 

Here's what's on Bernie today...

Mary's pretty couch throw

I probably won't be able to show you the quilting in this one as I've (once again) matched threads too well. Maybe if the sun comes through the west window later this afternoon I can grab some texture. 

At some point I have to drop what I'm doing and start getting ready for retreat. Which starts tomorrow. Haven't done a thing to prep for this except order that insert for Jay so I can do some sit-down quilting. I've already been called about picking up two quilt tops while I'm there from another attendee so this isn't just a pleasure cruise. 

Settling In

 I called my dealer about DW's basting issue and he said he noticed there was a slight issue there, but seemed to only happen to him once. He thinks after DW "settles in" it'll rectify itself. I'm not so sure. I don't want to risk messing up a customer quilt, so I have another one of mine on him and I'll work through this today while I'm frame ironing the next one going onto Bernie.

An applique of the U.S.

The "secret" quilt is done so Bernie is now freed up. Jim and I had to make some minor adjustments to his frame since he's pinching in the middle, causing me erratic quilting. Not cool.

Another rainy/cloudy day today. But we really needed this rain. We were at a very high fire possibility because things were so dry. 

Today is also election day. Jim and I will go vote tonight when he gets home from work. I need to do a little lunch time research to see where I'm going with all of this. I can't this morning as the computer has an update it wants to do and I have quilting jobs to deal with. 

Retreat Week(s)

To prepare for the two upcoming retreats I'll be attending, I needed some more leggings. And tops. Jim and I finally broke down and purchased a Costco membership and wow, can that place be overwhelming. We've learned something about Costco and that's to not go there on a Sunday. What. A. Zoo!  

But I found four new pairs of leggings, three new heavy weather tops as well as some other fun things. We'll be shopping there for Christmas that's for sure. 

Anyway. here's another block for Bee Happy. The pokey-things coming out of the top are pins and they'll be given pin heads when I quilt this piece. 

Rain expected all day today. Usually when we have icky weather I get very few customers. I'm hoping to get the "secret" quilt done today and I have to call Gall about this "catch" in the basting stitch DW is having issues with. Hopefully he won't have to go back down next weekend and it's something I can fix here.

I'm Still Here

Along with Friday's secret quilting, I worked on this block on the Bee Happy...

Bee Hive

I also received these in the mail...

So Fine! Thread

It was a good thing it came too because I needed that orange for the secret quilt. 

Yesterday we did this...

Ignore the quilt...how about the machine?

DW is back home! Ya know, every time I bring him back home, it's like learning him all over again. This time his little quirk is not wanting to really stitch long stitches with the up/down button. But his regular stitches are beautiful. ???? I'll have to call tomorrow to find out the possible reason for this. 

I threw this top on (one of mine from the October retreat) and did an E2E. I hadn't done an E2E with the new tablet yet, and I knew if DW was going to be a turd, this was the time he'd do it. 

He quilted beautifully.

He only had two or three thread breaks, and I think it was my fault for getting the backing too tight. When he's perfectly timed, this happens. After he loosens up (a few million stitches in) then he's a little more flexible and I can crank that back pretty taught. 

I'm going to get this off the frame this morning and fiddle with the little "issue" of those long stitches. I had to rethread him when we got him back on the frame. I probably messed that up since I haven't had to thread this machine in like, forever.