Change of Routine

Since we've been living here, my morning routine has been pretty much the same. I won't spell it all out here, but let's just say it's changed a bit. 

I'm not opposed to change, in fact, embrace it. It will just be a new way to do things and that's okay. I like new, different, better. 

Yesterday, with the wonderful help of my husband, we were able to 'construct' this background piece...

Not yet sewn together

For this pattern...

A Laura Heine pig

This is being made for my brother who turns 60 in November. He saw this pattern at the quilt store we visited in May and made a comment about the Flying Pig race he occasionally enters down where he lives. Apparently it's quite famous. 

I'm not going to sew that bunch of fabrics together either. I'm going to build and lay the pig on top and then tulle the whole thing under the long arm needle to give it all a rather "rugged" appearance. Jim's looking at me like I'm crazy and I had to assure him I knew where I was going with this. 

More work on Anns quilt today on Bernie which is pretty much my whole week. These Tilda Samplers take a LONG time to work. 

An Old Friend

DW is my oldest and dearest machine. He was not behaving when he came back from the shop a few months ago, but he seems to have settled in and is now working wonderfully.

While Jim was puttering around the yard, I was long arming on my old friend and we did a few more diamond shapes in the Gravity quilt...

Love the center of this one

Have to have feathers in my quilts somewhere 

Simple but effective

Prior to working on DW, I built the small zipper pouch I was talking about. This was before...

Carrying all those odds and ends in my purse in a plastic bag

And this is after...

Me and my coffee

Sorry about the sideways pic, but you get the idea.

After working most of the "regular" day hours for us both, we moseyed down to the lake to take a look at the work we need to accomplish there. We made measurements on the current permanent dock to see what boards needed to be purchased for replacing all of them. They aren't looking good. 

Jim would also like to construct a platform next to the permanent dock for resting and relaxing on. This is going to be 10'x10' and will assist in keeping us out of the direct sunlight when the day has become too much in the sunshine. It'll also make a nice place to warm up in the spring and fall in the mornings and still be able to enjoy our coming waters. 

The pontoon (when we get one) will be on the south side of the permanent dock and the platform will be on the north. More trees on the north will result in better shade during our hot summer days.

Wide Feet

I'm on my feet. A lot. So finding comfortable shoes to accommodate my very (very) wide feet is tough. I do know that Keen brand shoes fit me the best. They have excellent support and exceptional comfort. The problem is, they are expensive. Having to choose here in my shoe selection is limited. Like to four pair limited.

For a woman to have four pairs of shoes is NOT cool. I do have other shoes. I have other options (like boots or sandals), but those are very limited as well. Honestly, if I went through my shoes and took out all the ones that are uncomfortable or don't fit any more, I'd have less than 12 pair. My DIL would be appalled. Andrew said she has over a 100 pairs of shoes to choose from. 

My husband has three pairs of shoes and two pairs of sandals and calls that extravagant. What my husband doesn't understand is that woman are NOT like that. We like variety and we like to feel good about ourselves. Ignoring that is mold in the cake; it doesn't taste good going down and will affect you later in the bathroom.  

Here's some of the quilting going into Ann's quilt on Bernie...

Just like Bernadettes

Changed up the grey border, but otherwise the same

And same here too

I got a So Fine! thread chart made up somewhere in all of yesterdays stuff and did my own inventory to see what I should not order when the vendors out there have July 4th sales.

I had a new customer come yesterday morning out of the blue who was referred to me. The customer visit yesterday afternoon was very long and while I had three quilts picked up, the intake for this week was four, so I'm still sitting on over 40 jobs.

Since the visit was later in the afternoon, and after the girls left, it was almost closing time. Jim and I headed north to the West Branch Meijer and did our shopping...and other stuff. 

I'll be working on DW today and at some point, need to make a little bag to hold the odds and ends my old purse held. They are currently in a plastic snack bag which is not cool. 

Exercise

Do you exercise? I don't and the thought of it just makes my head hurt. I just stay busy and try to eat right. My physical therapist is all about eating right and moreover, exercising. She's always trying to impress on me the importance of both. Okay, I get it. It's better for you, but to spend the time away from other life/work/relaxing/fun things just isn't my cup of coffee (I don't like tea). 

Okay, enough about that. We know where I stand. I'm not going to show pics of the Tilda Sampler today (because I forgot to snag some yesterday), but I am going to show what I did after "working" all day...

This one took a LONG time to work

This one didn't take long at all and is one of my favorites

I had all the side gray work to do before I could start working the colored sections above. I've also started the medium purple section but because I'm sliding down towards the bottom, can not get it all in one roll. I'll share those later. 

Two customers coming today to pick up and I'll be continuing on with Ann's Tilda Sampler in between their visit. 

Sometimes the Back...

...looks as good as the front...

A two-sided quilt

Since that one was done (but not yet trimmed) having worked late to get today's set deadline, I'll be moving over to Ann's Tilda Sampler on Bernie...

Another Tilda Sampler

The joy of doing this one is she wants it just like I did it for Bernadette, so all I'll have to do is pull up picks of how I did it. Some of them I remember, but others are a little sketchy. 

PT right after I get done blogging and then when I get home I need to work on my web site for a bit to announce my holiday/reunion days I'll be closed. 

Trimming quilts yesterday was doable, but painful and hard. So, I'm going to stick with long arming mainly for the next few weeks but that's okay. I have plenty of them in queue (mine and customers both) to entertain me. 

Is PT Worth It?

I don't feel like we did much yesterday except take measurements and introduce some new exercises for my hand/finger. Yet, I didn't get home until 11:30.

I did get an earlier appointment tomorrow morning (7:45) so it would not screw up my whole morning. I don't relish getting up earlier than normal, but if it'll be more productive in my day, then okay.

Here's some more pics of what I'm putting into Carla's quilt...

The stars block

In and around the hearts

I love pets! I love all creatures (except maybe ticks and wasps) but to have to remove their hair from a quilt top gets very disruptive...

All. Over. This. Quilt!

After working late on Carla's quilt (to make up for the time I lost in the morning), I moved over to DW and got three more diamonds quilted out...

This one is pretty cool

I love this one!

This one turned out okay. Not my favorite.

I have all the gray work to do tonight on either side of these three diamonds, but I made pretty good headway.

One new customer expected today. I'm actually going to try to trim a quilt after I get done blogging. The wrist still isn't very flexible and I'm lacking strength in my hand, but I'll change the blade in my rotary cutter so I don't have to push down as hard and see how it goes.

Blogger is Getting Stupid

For some reason, my old blog was initially posted to this morning?! I didn't even notice because I do the same darn thing every morning when I blog. I guess Google decided to change things up today. So, here we go again.

Carla's quilt was pondered on over the weekend and again yesterday while I was working on it. I have finally settled on what is going entirely into it and the rest of it is just time. Here are a few of the blocks...

Feathers!

Hearts where I can get them

The name of the quilt is Hearts and Home and so where/whenever I can I get some hearts into it I do. 

I moved over to DW after quitting time. I have progressed through all the "old" colors worked over the weekend and am now ready to introduce some new colors in the diamonds. Because this is a medallion-type of quilt, doing the colors in one pass on the top and bottom isn't going to happen.

I have PT at 10:30 this morning in Gladwin so won't be doing any customer work until I return. I'll need to discuss with them that mid-mornings are NOT a good time. 

Making Progress

No small projects yesterday, but I did work on DW a little bit. All the grays are done with the next roll and I was able to get some more into a few of the colors. Here's something cool I stumbled upon when I was working through this center section...

An unplanned star

I was not planning on that star pattern, but it was a part of what was initially planned in there and I decided to leave it. After my roll I was able to get this quilt off the floor...

Look how wrinkled it is

It looks terribly wrinkled down there at the end, but trust me, it will pretty much quilt out once I get there 

I was still vacillating on Carla's quilt all of yesterday and this morning, then I remembered I have a perfect example piece on my south wall. Duh, take pieces parts from that silly. Meaning, I'll be on Marty all of today, and possibly tomorrow if I can't get through this rather quickly today. 

The A/C is already fired up this morning. In fact, I think it ran most of the night last night. We are already in the mid-80's. Not typical for our state, but not unusual either. 

Sweaty Day

If you think about it, the difference in yesterday's temps and the normal winter temps is like 100 degrees. We ARE NOT warm weather people. Jim used to be the only one that liked the really cold temps, but the older I'm getting the less I like these 94 degree days. It's not even 11:00 and the temp outside is 89.4. UGH.

Normal, older people have a tendency to start traveling south for the winter preferring warmer temps when we begin to set in for the winter so I guess I'm not normal. 

I did some long arming in the morning on DW. Here's two more color's I've started...

Ya gotta have feathers in one of my quilts somewhere, right? I just tried to cut some fabric with a rotary cutter and, OUCH! My wrist has stiffened up so much over the past five weeks it's going to take some time to strengthen, and moreover, get mobility in it.

Jim is doing some cleaning this morning of our skylights and such. The south neighbor is out mowing in this heat (and I bet his mower is appreciating that) and I'm going to head into maybe do some more work on the Gravity quilt. It's too hot to do anything outside already. 

Unexpected Day Off

But so worth taking the time to spend with my best friend, Jim. We scooted around to all of the appointments that we were scheduled to deal with. I have PT I need to perform 3x's per day to strengthen the finger, but I'm finding my wrist to be more of a concern.

Typing is much easier, but because my wrist is extremely stiff and sore, I'm still slower than prior to the accident.

Hello!

Since after we got home and put everything away, it was nearly 4:00. I called the day a day off and didn't even work on customer things. Nor am I going to do customer work today. I'm excited to get onto DW because I started into the colors last night...

Aren't all these pretty cool?

I'm trying to not squeal with delight about how these are turning out. Jim is trying to set us up having the grandkids the week after the fourth. The B's said they'd think about how that would work and the logistics of them coming up. Meanwhile, it's kind of cloudy, warm, and very humid outside. A good day to stay inside and play in the studio I think. 

Appointments All Morning

First, nails. Second, Meijer. Third, hand specialist. Fourth and only if x-rays show it's okay, PT. That's my morning. I think we may need to stick a trip to Pieces in there to pick up some scissors for Jim and the girls.

Here's what's on Marty for the next few days since I finished the quilt on Bernie...

Carla's Hearts and Houses

I've started ditching and did the two outer borders, but I'm still sketching the negative space and can't decide what to do here. Too many options. 

I had one customer come to pick up yesterday and after working until 4:30 I moved over to DW.

My toe is feeling a little better so thought I would do some stuff on my quilt top...

The black diamonds

The fifth set of gray diamonds 

I have two more dark gray diamonds to do and then I can start working on the colored sections, which I'm pretty jazzed about as each section will be a completely different motif/section of work.

Jim took work off and he's going to appointments with me and we'll just enjoy each others' company. I don't know how much "work" I'll get done today meaning a long day on Monday, but that's okay. If I don't get that quilt done by Tuesday (Carla's) they'll understand.

When You Find Something You Love...

...order like 100 of them. I have a pair of MTA Sport Capris I absolutely love. They are not too thick, they fit well, and they hide my ever growing mid section (thank you broken bones). I wanted to order some more because the other capris I received from Amazon aren't the greatest quality. 

I discovered that MTA is a Meijer brand and the only place to get them (other than thrift sites), is, of course, at Meijer.

Guess I'm going to Meijer tomorrow after my hand appointment.

Not much to share in the way of quilting. I'm just plugging away at Carla's Grannies Garden some more today, although it should be finished later this afternoon. 

Here's the new Dahlia we planted earlier this spring...

Just outside the studio porch

I had two customer visits yesterday. One to pick up and drop off; the other one was just a pick up. She was not very nice. AT ALL. I don't think I have ever had a customer get so pissy with me and almost called her back here to give her back her money.

I called Caleb and Lia to ask their advice about it and they said absolutely not. I did what I said I was going to do. The work order was made with her present the day she dropped the quilt off and I have nothing to be sorry for so returning her money because she threw a tantrum was not a good business practice. 

It was that jean quilt I did a while ago and with the [wool] batting, backing (I picked that up for her) and the quilting it came to less than $200; she expected to have it bound as well. I don't do binding people! And it wasn't trimmed because it was done after the hand breakage. It's a free charge I offer anyway. I guess if she gives me a bad review I'll have to address it when it comes out.

More rain this morning and then it should be out of here around noon time. Great quilting weather!

Does Anybody Listen/Read Any More?

I've had  several customers lately who have referred to the business as Quilting on the Lake instead of Quilting at the Lake. If I was quilting on the lake, I'd only be doing it in the winter because certainly water isn't going to hold up three long arm machines.

I also stress the "at" part when I introduce who is calling and all my literature clearly has "at" on them, yet checks are made out to "on" and when they talk about the business they always say "on" instead of "at".

I think grammar and the understanding of the English language is under educated in our school systems.

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

Same but different

This is actually the pic from Diana's quilt but I'm doing the same in Carla's except for the feathers. I'm doing bump-back feathers in Carla's where I did traditional feathers on Diana's. 

OMG I can't wait to get this stupid ass cast off. Two more days. Meanwhile, I still limp around with my toe. Storms expected today so the machine may be off for a bit if that happens. 

Broken Toe

Maybe the quilt Gods are telling me I'm not supposed to long arm? Here's the latest injury in the elder DeGroot household...

Broke my toe

And man did it hurt yesterday while working. It's a bit better today, but then again, I haven't really done a whole lot yet. 

Bunny's Flea Market quilt is done but not yet off the frame. Here's what I'll be working on today once I get the other quilt off...

Look familiar?

Yep. Grannies Garden #2. This one is for Carla. She has another one in the queue that'll be next onto Marty. At least with this one I won't have to think much about what I'm doing since I've already done one and she wants it done the same.

And, that's pretty much going to be my day while hobbling around the place. 

Beautiful Day

It was a gorgeous weather day yesterday, yet we spent most of the late afternoon/evening in the living room watching movies and eating junk food. Jim and I are so busy during the week we need a half day to just relax, take naps, and ramp up for the upcoming week. 

While Jim was grooming Hazel, I was doing some minor chores and then I remembered I had something I purchased down in Ohio (the scene of the "crash" if you will) at the one quilt shop Chad took me to. It doesn't take much to lob off a rough 20" square, mark lines, and put the mostly precut letters/shapes onto the square...

With Kaffe fabrics too!

All of this will need to be blanket stitched, and then of course, quilted. I'll probably appli-quilt it and then do some straight lines once the appliqué is secured.

Need to order mom some business cards yet this morning and call my hand specialist about PT on Friday before I head into the studio but I'll be working on Bunny's quilt most all of today. 

Happy Fathers Day

When somebody makes an appointment and then, when the time passes for them to arrive, they haven't yet shown, it's very disappointing. I called the people and the man said they were just at Pieces and they'd be there a while. 

Nope. My appointments on Saturday are until noon. It was already 12:15 and we had yet to even start lunch; chicken and waffles which take a solid hour to prepare. We were getting hungry and told the visitors maybe another time would be better. 

I have to call my dad and then text the boys for Fathers Day. We have already talked to Caleb but I need to take into account time zone differences (I have one in Alaska and one in Germany, so an 11 hour time difference). 

While waiting for my "visitors" I worked first on Bunny's quilt and then moved over to DW after one pass on Bunny's...

The fourth set of diamonds

Still debating on whether to put pebbles on the outside set of channels? 

Jim is trimming Hazel up right now and I had a haircut before she did. Not sure what else Jim is going to want to do afterward, but it's his day and he's driving. 

All Wool

All three of the quilts being worked have wool batt in them. That's highly unusual in having all three be the same batting, especially with all the batting varieties available out there.

It's a cloudy day today and I was able to snag this pic this morning of the exterior of the studio...

Hello!

I hadn't yet put the flag out for Flag Day. I'll be in the studio this morning working on either Bunny's quilt or my own. I have a quilting visitor (not a customer) to come and look at the studio later this morning. Jim is canning berries. It's Father's Day weekend and he gets to do whatever he wants this weekend.

Bunny's quilt is about a third of the way done. Mine wasn't touched at all yesterday as we went grocery shopping after Jim groomed Lucy. 

All Three Long Arms

I did actual work on all three long arms yesterday. First, Bernie...

A nice hand guided edge-to-edge 

Hand guided means I did the driving, not a computer. Bernie doesn't have one anyway. 

Once that was taken off and the customer was notified I have three of her quilts done, I moved over to Marty...

Look Familiar?

Number 14 of the Flea Market quilts and I'm told, this isn't the last. Piano keys in the border, ditch and echo on the flowers/leaves and then I think I'm going to run a leaf meander in the negative space. Bunny doesn't want it as tight as I did with Carla's (which I believe had pebbles in the background). 

After working on that past 4:00 I moved over to DW. The Gravity quilt was loaded...

Gravity by Jaybird Quilts

This has been in my bin for a long time. It's kind of wrinkled but they'll smooth out with the wool batting I'm putting into it.

Here's the first couple of grays on the outside...

3rd gray

1st and 2nd grays

It's Friday the 13th and while others view the 13th as bad luck, Jim and I were married on the 13th so we feel like it's good luck instead of bad. 

Familiar Sound

While eating my breakfast I thought the neighbors were doing something. I heard the sound and it sounded vaguely familiar. Then I realized what it was. They are [once again] working on the dam! In under a year we should be getting our lake back!!!

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

A little baby quilt for Patty

This is going to get a quick E2E in here. I have customers coming in a little bit so it'll be easy to pause and resume when they get here and then after they leave.

I had a brain fart moment yesterday when I talked about Jims passion and dah, what was I thinking? The guy loves to can and freeze things. He likes to make food to share and for us to have all through the non-growing months. It's been seven months since he's been able to do it but now the season starts...

Canning season begins

While he was doing that I finished Scrap Happy (or Colorful X's and O's) on DW and started frame ironing the next back. I'm going to load Marty today too while working on the quilt above on Bernie. A full day all around. 

Thank you also to Jim for helping to cut batting for the next couple of quilts because it's so nearly impossible with my dumb cast to tackle it. Eight more days with this stupid thing!

Find Your Passion

I know I've talked about this before but it's that important. I have an idea about my family and what they like to do. My mom loves to travel and shop. Although she paints as well, I think her passion is more likely found on the road or in some art studio.

My eldest loves to garden and cook. My middle kiddo loves to work outside, and my youngest loves music and technology. I'm still not sure what Jims is. Puzzles or fiddling with wood maybe. He loves to solve things and socialize. And, we all know what mine is.

Here's something Jim finished yesterday showing his wood passion...

Welcome!

As we age we need to find our passion. It keeps us young and our minds busy. It's that one thing that when we are doing it our BP is lower, we feel happier, and it makes us feel accomplished. 

Speaking of my passion, here's some of the quilting going into Diana's quilt...

Some light custom work

I'll be on this quilt at least through the morning and possibly in the afternoon before heading to Bernie to work on another Patty quilt.