Beautiful Day

Oh yesterday was one of those perfect days. The weather was cool-ish, the day started out with some shopping at a quilt store (Bittersweet), we grabbed a few things at the local grocery store in Standish on our way home, had an excellent lunch, watched a movie, and then moved into the studio for some work there.

First, a Love Letter block and then the Temperature quilt needed to be caught up. Eight full rows are in. 

Starting to get pretty colorful

I started working on the daily Cowboy Boot block but then got a text from our neighbor three doors to the north saying they would be out to the property. I closed up shop and went for a visit. Jim and I didn't return until dusk. 

This morning we have to go visit my mother. Meaning I'm not sure anything will be done in the studio since I usually try to take Sunday afternoons off. Ah well, at least there was yesterday to reflect on. 😊

The Babies Are Growing

Not only is our youngest granddaughter starting to roll over, the goslings on the lake have lost all their yellow fuzzies and are getting big very fast. We have very few this year since most nests were lost in the high waters in April, but we've spotted two families that did make it. 

Here is what I worked on yesterday...

Quit Diva Pattern by Amy Bradley

Isnt' she funny peering at me through the bars? It made me chuckle every time I looked up.

This is a problem

I love doing raw edge appliqué! There is very little the turns me off about it except what you see above.

Some fusibles leave a nasty ball of glue on the needle. I've recently picked up a new fusible (don't know the name) from Pieces recommended by Susan, but I could not, for the life of me, tell you the manufacturer. It is NOT gumming up the needle on the cowboy boots. 

This however, is not the cowboy boots but the Quilt Diva. From what I can feel I would hazard to guess it may be Heat N' Bond as it has a tendency to do this. And, it leaves the fabric feeling pretty stiff even with the Ultra Lite stuff. 

As I'm long arming this piece, I'm having to clean the needle very often and have already had a few shreds with the build up. 

Today we have to run to Bittersweet to pick up my Tilda Make Do and Mend quilt from her event two weeks ago. I had totally forgotten about it until yesterday. Oops. 

Hanging out until the next one is loaded

Oh...and the Strip quilt is done! I did finish binding it last night as well as making a Love Letters block and blanket stitching another cowboy boot. 

Getting Things Finished

The t-shirt quilt is done! A day ahead of schedule.

When the customer came yesterday to pick up her quilt she was asking about the machine binding that I do. She said she was having trouble getting her stitches to 'line up' on the backside of her quilt. I grabbed the strip quilt and we loaded up the machine with the correct threads and I did a quick lesson with her. I LOVE teaching!

Since the quilt was started, and while Jim was in the shower, I started the rest of the binding...

It didn't get finished because we needed to get our weekly groceries. Always a sticker shock at the check out counter.

Today I'll be working on this cute Amy Bradley Quilt Diva wall hanging for Ginny...

Quilt Diva pattern by Amy Bradley

...until Jim can get the backing loaded onto Marty for the next show quilt that's due like right now. 

Customer already here and gone to pick up the t-shirt quilt and the rest of the day/weekend is mine alone. 

Bummer

I didn't plan the white sides very well in the strip quilt. I ended up having to trim off quite a bit on both and some of the purple was even cut off. Well, it's for demo and learning purposes so it is what it is. It'll be loved regardless.

After working on the t-shirt quilt all day the dogs were being really patient and we finally took them down swimming. Once we cleaned them up from lake sludge, I worked on another Love Letter block before blanket stitching the next cowboy boot. 

Working on the t-shirt quilt again today. Neighbors to the north are up so may have visitors. And, I have a customer coming at some point to pick up her quilt. 

Sad News

Our son, who lives in Germany with his wife and daughter, have a cat they took with them when they moved last year. We just learned Surge has terminal cancer and is being put down next Wednesday. Yesterday was Caleb's birthday and he found out about Surges diagnosis then. What a crappy birthday present. 

Our other son, who lives in Ohio with his wife and two children, also have two cats who are very old. Like 17-years old old. Their health is also failing and will likely not be making the move in a month. Not a great month for our grand kitties. 

Back to quilting things...

Working on the t-shirt quilt took up most of the day yesterday. After working on it for about seven hours, I moved over to do a Love Letters block and then felt like I could tackle the rest of the strip quilt background fills once that was finished.

Aside from trimming and binding, the quilt is quilted...

Ready for trimming and binding

I don't have a binding picked out for this yet. I may have to run to Pieces if I can't find anything in my stash.

Finishing this didn't take as long as I thought so I moved over to the first cowboy boot to start the miles of blanket stitching. It took a little over an hour and a half but the first boot is done. However, I made one extra and the one I did was labeled the pillow block.

More t-shirt fun today and I have a customer coming to pick up. 

Another Relatively Quiet Memorial Day Weekend

Since the lake hasn't returned, the crowds/noise was doable this weekend. And, the weather wasn't very accommodating either in that it was chilly, overcast, and somewhat rainy. There were a few cottages around the area that had company and parties, but not too many. I think next year will be a different story regardless of any weather handed to us.

I spent all day Sunday working on the Cowboy Boots. Jim wasn't really into doing much else so he came out to see what I was doing. Because of his help, we ended up getting all 20 boots fused with their appliqué embellishments and I'll be spending the next 4000 miles of thread blanket stitching them all down. Here's a handful of the 20 we did...

I'll be on Evelyn's T-shirt quilt all day. Since I have a short work week, I may need to work longer hours to see if I can hit my by-the-end-of-the-week goal. 

Summer has finally arrived and isn't it funny that after Memorial Day weekend it almost always does? 

Playing Saturday

I spent the first half of the day working on the strip quilt on DW. I still have the background fill to do on the last roll or so, but here's the last 12 strips...

The odds

The evens

And remember #12 earlier on in this venture where it was a duplicate and I needed to put something else in there? This is what I made up (kind of)...

And the missing #12

Once I was finished doing the strip work, my desire to long arm had waned and so moved on to the cowboy boots. 

I got all the motifs/pieces traced onto fusible (sure hope this new one I'm trying isn't as stiff as the Heat and Bond Lite I usually use)...

DW is assisting in keeping things organized

The boot heels are all black so I fused and then cut those out to set aside for today. 

From there I needed to bond and cut out the main boot part...

Ready to pair

The backgrounds needed to be pressed and cut out next which I did before calling it a night.

Today I'm going to pair the boots with their backgrounds and get at least the boot body and heel parts together on the background. I would LOVE to get the motifs matched with each boot and have them fused so that during movie time today I can work on cutting those out. 

Until DW is cleared of all his 'paperwork' I can't finish the strip quilt so I guess I should get a move on!

How Much Time?

When I work one block for a total of 50 minutes, is that too much time to spend on it? 

Almost an hour

Take this block above for instance. By the time I inlined all the letters, the motif around the letters and then put the TV ariel back fill in it I checked the clock and couldn't believe how much time I spent. And, the kicker about all of that is that it hardly shows. 

Now this shows...

This is the sashing/border going in and around the quilt. While this does take some time at least it shows somewhat. 

I wish this one showed a little more, but if you look, the t-shirt is called city shaper and I put a little city in and around the motif in the middle. 

The other two blocks in this row have static electricity waves and I did some McTavishing. After working through the customer stuff yesterday I did a block in the Love Letters to give my arm a reset before getting on DW.

I did only two strips yesterday. I had to introduce some more batting (my cut was short) and had to number the remaining 10 strips yet to go as well as baste in through the bottom. I have some bunching going on in the left side (???) but with a complete strip quilt I guess I should have expected it. 

After working on DW for a while, I thought about what I want to to work on this weekend and decided to get started back in on the Cowboy Boots. I have traced all the boots and soles and will continue on with the other motifs today. Jim is at a Smallwood Lake Association meeting this morning. I choose to abstain as I get pretty worked up at all the ridiculous questions and comments people who don't live here make. 

Flood-iversary

This is the week, six years ago, when our lake flooded. And the next day, emptied. It's been lower than legal lake levels since that fated day on May 19, 2020. 

Memorial Day weekend is to remember those fallen for our country, but I'm going to add to it (since I am a veteran and recognize the significance of the holiday) and remember that awful day when our dream of living on a lake was whisked away right before our very eyes.

While progress is being made on our dam, we are yet again, a summer without a viable lake to enjoy our "golden" years on. I'll remember the first two summers we had to enjoy it and be thankful no lives were lost in the berm failure downstream. 

Gails Sunflower quilt was finished yesterday morning. Once all the housekeeping chores were done to it, I moved over to this one...

Evelyns grandsons grad quilt

Here are a few of the blocks I've gotten in so far...

After working yesterday afternoon, Jim and I headed to the greenhouses to get our summer plants. He needed garden veggies and I needed a few flowers. We had a freeze warning for last night so they are still hanging out in the truck. Planting will take place after working today.

Once we returned from the green house I was still in a quilt-y mood and started working on a few strips on DW...

The 'evens' side

The 'odds'

It's a good thing Andrew called while I was working on those floating squares. They took forever and I would have lost patience with them. After long arming for a while I finished the third row in section A of the Love Letters top. Forgot to grab a pic though. 

More on the t-shirt quilt today on Marty. I have so many projects I want to play with during the holiday weekend, that while I'm working today I'm hoping to get them organized in my head. I do know that I want to finish the strip quilt on DW for sure, but the rest is kind of fuzzy. 

Added Touches

When I work a quilt I add special touches to them. It's things you find later after you get it home and start using it. It makes the project special. We added these rocks to the side of the stairs and wow, look at the difference. This is what was worked on yesterday afternoon and evening. 

Adding the rocks Jim picked up yesterday

It's nothing earth shattering but it's a small touch and makes the stairs more appealing and cohesive with the environment it sits in/on (there's a rock pile just north of the stairs hiding our inhospitable soil that won't grow anything). 

I like adding those special touches to things. It shows you care and are actually invested in the project as well as the outcome.

Here's some special touches I'm putting into Gails quilt...

Bees and bugs flitting around the quilt

I'll be finishing this quilt today and moving over to a t-shirt quilt that has a quick deadline pushing quilts (again). BUT, Jim and I have to get the garden and annuals in this weekend and we don't want to fight with the Memorial Day crowds. We are going to run and grab those later this afternoon. 

Talking to Caleb right now and then off to work.

Finished

The new set of stairs are built. Finished as far as the builders are concerned. We have work to do yet. Last night we removed all the extraneous dirt and today Jim is going to check on some rocks. 

The dirt piles on the sides are now gone

I remembered last night, while working on said stairs, why I really dislike summer. Bugs (particularly those that bite), love me. I'm covered in mosquito/black fly bites even after the midnight spray gig yesterday morning. 

The Floral Felicity is done and ready for pick up. After lunch I moved over to the Sunflowers top and here's some of the quilting going into the actual sunflower motif...

Today will be a Sunflower kind of day. I have one customer coming for pick up and our weather has taken a severe turn from warm, summer-like weather complete with thunderstorms, high temps, and high humidity back to low humidity, clear skies and temps today topping out in the mid-50's. Back to the winter clothes and for me, welcome back!

After Day 2

One or two more sections to go and the stairs will be complete. They are supposed to be here early this morning, but haven't shown yet. Apparently 8:00 means something else to people. 

Almost there

The neighbors are getting their barn cemented today so that'll be another racket going on in the neighborhood. But it didn't start there. We had the mosquito sprayer in our driveway this morning at 1:21. Yep, you heard that right. At 1:21 the Ring fired off and then the dogs were right behind the Ring. WTH?

The reason the stairs didn't get finished was because of some nasty weather we had coming in. And, shortly after the guys left the storm hit. Because Mother Nature decided on her own agenda I was not able to get the Floral Felicity finished. I have a few blocks and the borders to work this morning but it should be done by lunch.

I'll be moving over to this quilt after lunch...

Gails sunny sunflowers

While the storm was blowing through I did get a block done in the Love Letters top so at least I was able to do something. Nothing on the strip quilt though. 

After the storm pushed through I worked until after 6:30 last night and was too tired to do anything else. Why does the warm (mid-80's with high humidity) zap the energy out of ya? We're cold weather people; maybe that's why? 

Stairway to Heaven

Our stairs are being worked on again today. It looks like they are going nowhere right now but at the top is our deck and the studio, which is my slice of heaven!

Continuing on this morning

We have rain/storms coming this afternoon (yesterday's missed us) so the goal is to get this finished today. They're words, not mine. 

I'm back on Marty this morning working on the Floral Felicity. With any luck, and not too many disruptions, I'll be able to get it done before the end of today. 

A Lot Done Yesterday

The first thing I needed to do was get caught up on the Temperature blocks. 15 of them. Check.

I then moved over to working on a few of the Love Letter blocks and actually got the first and second rows together.

After a wonderfully tasty lunch (which my gut did not like) I jumped onto DW to start working the strip quilt. Here are the next eight rows...
 

I'm not working in the studio today. I had/have some housekeeping stuff to deal with and need to keep going on that. It was half-way through I remembered I hadn't blogged yet because we had to do haircuts before anything else this morning. 

Storms coming this afternoon despite the beautiful sunny day we are experiencing. 

Where'd My Glasses Go?

I have a prescription pair of reading glasses that I haven't seen since late January. I took them to the Creative Escapes retreat and haven't seen them since. I thought maybe they'd resurface at the next retreat or two but they still haven't shown themselves. 

So, I'm using a non prescription pair of cheaters to see small things. But they aren't really correct for my eyes (I have one that's far sighted and another that is near), but better than nothing I suppose.

What a busy day yesterday! First, the guys showed up to start the stairs going down to the lake. At one point, between customers, I was able to grab this pic...

How many men does it take to install a set of stairs?

The workers are on the actual stairs. The supervision crew is on the right. Are theses state workers?

I had three customer visits. I thought each client was bringing A quilt top. Nope, my second one brought two bringing my intake of tops this week alone to 11. 

After long arming (well past 6:00) on customer stuff I needed to do some sit down work for a while. The first couple of blocks were constructed in Love Letters...

Getting Love Letters started

After working with those for a while I needed to long arm some more so decided to see how DW behaved last night after getting him home. I quilted out four strips and the one with all the pebbles would have let me know he was not right. He performed very well!

My goal today is to get caught up on the Temperature quilt blocks, do a few more Love Letter blocks, and then work very hard on the strip quilt. I have 16 more strips to complete! There may be a nap in my future as it was a very early morning (6:30) with a huge thunder boom right next to my window. Doesn't the weather know it's Saturday?