Dodging

There are a few things long armers need to dodge: Pins, thick seams that will break a needle, and thunder. Thunder because when there is thunder there is lightning. Isn't there a song about that?

Today is going to be a dodge 'em kind of day I think. 

I'm going to try to start on Marty working on Julies Flea Market top. I'll have to keep my ears open. We have very dark skies all over and the rain sure is coming down. Unfortunately, the dam is in a holding pattern so it's not going to raise a whole lot over the next week or two but lightning and long arms simply do not mix.

I did get some knitting done yesterday while snuggling with the girls. 

Lovely autumn colors in the next scarf

That's about all of my day I've got planned so far. Pretty low-key stuff today. 

A Perfect Sunggle Sunday

A nice rain outside, thunder in the distance, overcast and gloomy. Yep. A perfect day to knit and snuggle with the dogs on the couch all day while watching sappy rom-com movies. 

Jim and I did some purchase damage at Bittersweet yesterday. I LOVE that quilt shop. Quality fabrics for sure and the staff are always so nice. Here's the haul.

Backing fabrics and other stuff

The MSU minky panel Jim brought home a few months ago-we needed a back for it. The inspirational teen girl panel I brought home last fall needed a back too. Then I found the book on the right to go with the pre-printed fusible above it and hey, I just got six new quilt ideas to make and holy cow, we just had a lightning strike a few hundred feet north of us. Big boom of thunder too. Shook the house. I won't be long arming today. 

After taking care of our purchases and making/eating lunch I wandered into the studio for the afternoon/evening. 

All the Flower Power blocks are blanket stitched and I'll be taking them to retreat in a few weeks to put together. 

Ready to be assembled

Once those were done I had to get the rest of the next block together in the Quilt Room. 

The next 'chunk' in the Quilt Room

These almost look like they're real. Once the block was finished, I had to get caught up on the Temperature blocks. I was nine days in arrears. Hopefully I can stay on task from here on in since we have nothing really scheduled for the remaining weeks of the year. 

I did not have time to long arm since I had all this other stuff I wanted to get done. Sad Face!

Planning

Do you recognize this quilt top on Marty?

[Another] Flea Market

Why look, it's another Flea Market. Shocking. After 'pouncing' all the grid work into the top all I had time for in my work day was the first border.

Book Nook

I've obtained a few large panels to make quilts for two of our grandchildren. Jim and I need to get some softener salt and dog food in Standish, and then we're running over to Bittersweet to see what we can get there for those panels (one needs a back, the other needs to have a front built for it). 

We ran to get people food last night and after returning I loaded Book Nook and got a Flower Power done. Those were relatively quick things to do so I started sewing together the next block in the Quilt Room. I did not get it done but will tackle that and hopefully the Temperature quilt blocks I'm in arrears with later today. 

Was It Monday?

Jim and I kept thinking yesterday was Monday. Probably because we took Tuesday and Wednesday off. Here is some of the quilting going into Dianes baby quilt...

Clouds and rainbows

This still needs to be removed from the frame and trimmed but after working late it's completely quilted. 

I did a Flower Power block. I removed the table runner, and, while talking to Andrew on his way home from work, got the binding on it. I did choose another quilt to load onto DW so started frame ironing the back for that. After that I started cutting out for the next block in the Quilt Room. 

Garden Table Runner

Later last night we had a lunar eclipse. I tried to capture it 'on film' and here's the beginning phase...

The beginning of the lunar eclipse

I did stay up late enough to see the totally dark landscape, but my bedroom is in the opposite side of where the moon can be seen. I didn't think Jim would appreciate me stalking around the house at 12:20 in the morning so didn't capture the entire eclipse.

I have one customer coming sometime today to pick up and while I'm waiting for her, and until I can get it loaded, the next quilt top going on Marty has to be entirely marked beforehand. I'm still debating how I'm going to do it (Pounce, manual chalk, or blue marks-be-gone). Anyway, happy Friday. 

Some Good, Some Not So Good

We visited several shops to and from Shipshewana. Some of them were meh, and others were OMG! We discovered our favorite in Middlebury, Indiana. What a gem!

Anyway, if I liked the shop, I would purchase something. Here's the haul I took from Quilts at Marshall House, Quilts at Essenhaus, and Yoders. I did not find anything at Lolly's (which was weird). 

The haul

Now I have plenty to do at both retreats and during the winter months here. Jim also found some fun things (he LOVES puzzles) to work on this winter. 

We encountered some weird weather coming home. I was able to snag a slight rainbow pic north of Saginaw while heading back from saying goodbye to Lia and Evelyn. 

Can you see it?

Here's some cute pics of Shipshewana in the fall...

Roasting marshmallows

Run, Forest, Run

And now it's back to our regularly scheduled programming. Jim is at PT this morning and I'm catching up on some laundry while already working in the studio. I had to wait for the mouse to recharge a bit before I could blog. It was completely dead.

I'll be working this quilt today on Bernie while frame ironing the back for the next one on Marty. I've already had to flip this quilt 90 degrees because of what I'm planning to put in here. 

Diane's little Noah baby quilt

It was a great few days spending it with my best friend. We ate way too much and traveled a lot of miles in a little over 24 hours, but we needed to get away for a few days and now Jim knows where I spend a week every November. BUT, it's GREAT to be home!

Heading Out

As soon as Jim gets out of the shower we're hitting the road. We'll be back tomorrow night, but will enjoy the mini vacation since it revolves around quilting!

Sandy's quilt is finished. I did a Flower Power once that was off the frame and all that goes with it was completed. Then I moved over to DW to finish the table runner. 

I love feathers!

It's a beautiful day for traveling. It's hard to imagine that in less than three months the travel down may be a little more dicey. Until tomorrow...

Small Vacation

Jim and I are taking a mini-vacation tomorrow and Wednesday. I won't be blogging those two days but will have much (hopefully) to report back on Thursday morning since where we are going revolves around quilting. 

A new knitting project

Okay, so all I do is a knit stitch and all I make are scarves. I like to do stuff with my hands and this seems like a great way to get something done while relaxing on our Sunday afternoon. I'm not wanting to really learn all the knit stitches and this is good enough for me right now. 

I did manage to get a grid marked on the interior of the table runner DW decided to not want to stitch out. I did this while Jim was grilling hamburgers for lunch.

Today I'll be working on Sandy's quilt on Marty and trying to get that done before we leave early tomorrow morning. Rory will be here with the dogs and they love her so that works out well. 

Research

My mom hates that word. Research. Probably because my brother overuses it and doesn't actually 'research' correctly. But this morning I was using it very correctly trying to find next years retreat gift pattern. 

That's why I'm blogging so late. I did manage to get some things done in the studio yesterday. I got the next two blocks done in the QAL. 

Once I completed those I removed that quilt from DW and put this one on.

The outside border is being done with custom quilting but the inside started with DW stitching it out on the ProStitcher.

And half-way through, the ProStitcher decided to be a bonehead and stop working. I tried a restart and instead of stitching out it decided to ghost stitch (following the path it was going to stitch, but not actually stitching). I gave up. I tried a few other things (reconnecting the motors, a soft restart, etc.) unsuccessfully. 

Jim was down to the neighbors visiting so I decided to join him instead of fighting the machine. After my experience yesterday with the computer, realized our days were probably over as a team. We had 14 good years but I think my patience and his age are going to be our demise. 

So, the rest of the motif is going to have to be done with rulers instead of the computer because I just don't trust it anymore. And it's very frustrating when the time is spent setting up the motif and getting everything just right just to have it crash or not stitch at all. Life is too short!

Forgot to Mention

One of the other items I hauled home was a new 24" x 36" cutting mat. Isn't it funny that after about five years, despite my changing blades often and cleaning the mat periodically, I have to replace them?

Here's some more quilting detail on Sandy's quilt...

I worked later last night trying to make up for some lost time with the Germany visitors and the AQS show. I'll do the same on Monday as we are not going to be here Tuesday or Wednesday. More on that later. 

Once I was done on Marty for the day I started in on a Flower Power block and my phone indicated a customer/friend calling (she calls after hours so not to disrupt my quilting zen). How come I get more done when I'm on the phone? Before I knew it, my Flower Power block was done and I was moving to something else.

I glanced under DW and saw my Temperature quilt and realized I hadn't worked that in two weeks. That was interesting trying to get the readings. NOAA has changed its website and it would only bring up snowfall amounts for Gladwin. I don't think we had any snowfall in the past two weeks.

I had to source elsewhere. Aaaannnddd...it's growing!

The backside

I want to get onto DW today to complete the last two weeks' worth of QAL blocks and then I'm going to pull that top off. I have the farmers table runner I finished last week to get on there to get it done for harvest season. 

While I was perusing IG this morning, before getting around for the day, somebody out there reminded us we should be starting our Christmas projects soon. Mom bought me a kit last Christmas to make [another] holiday quilt. I should cut that up and get it ready for retreat in a couple of weeks? I have to get in my retreat bin to see what I have there to work on and whether or not I should be taking something else along. 

If my memory serves me from April, I still have plenty to work in the bin. Here's the thing. The retreat I'm attending in a few weeks is up at The Springs. I've been there and obviously know how things work there. BUT, I'm going knowing zero people. Not. A. Sole. The one friend who was going texted me to let me know she was backing out. Whelp. Either these folks will love me or wish I'd never attended.

The issue I see in the future is that I need a design wall for all things I'm remembering are in that bin. If I get stuck out in the middle of the room I need to have something I can just sew and not need a wall for. I'll go through it today and see where I'm at.

AQS Quilt Week

Let the fun begin! So many beautiful quilts. I could fill my blog with pics from award winners but I'm going to share two quilts nobody really paid much attention to.

These two quilts were beautiful and the pattern/designs were my very good friend, Linda McGibbon at Lakeview Quiltings designs. She'll be happy to see they have made the AQS.

After looking at quilts all morning we headed to the vendor mall. We saw some very familiar faces and we met a lot of new ones. I even got to 'fan' over Ricky Timms, Adam Ratliff (AdamSewFun), and Micki Chip. Here's my haul from the mall.

Since there is so much I'll sum it up: Two pairs of leggings with quilt-themed motifs, a zippered jacket with a quilt-themed motif, 10 cones of SoFine! thread, two pairs of angled tweezers, three packs of prewound bobbins for the Janome Horizon machine, and four sets of lights. 

Four? Yes. One set for the Janome 1600P I take to retreats, one set for each of the Bernina long arms (a flexible side light) to be able to see white on white and black on black, and a set for DW around the collar because that USB port was broken and the old collar light is no longer around. 

Today is a normal work day so I better get to it. I've taken enough time off this week with the baby and the show. 

A Day Off

I took yesterday off due to the DIL and granddaughter still being here. In fact, they are here still today, but will be leaving later this evening. Tomorrow is AQS in Grand Rapids, so nothing will be done tomorrow. I'll have to make up for lost time during the weekend. BUT, our north neighbors are coming up so I can profess good intentions, right?

We went to an antique mall in Bay City. There were many quilts and unfinished tops there, but the prices were through the roof. I did find this for my son whose nickname is doughnut. 

When we finally got home we were playing with the baby and Lucy looked less than enthused. 

Lia is still hand stitching down the binding on the Raven quilt but she doesn't think she'll be getting it done before she and Evie are set to leave later tonight. 

I'm hoping to get a little work done while Evie is taking her morning nap here in a bit, but mom is coming over after lunch to visit the girls before they take off and who knows how long she'll stay after they have headed south.

More for Reference

Sometimes I take pictures so I can refer back to them later after advancing the quilt. If a block isn't repeated often, I have a tendency to forget exactly how I quilted it above in the beginning. But, sometimes it's just because I want to capture the texture and beauty custom quilting gives us. 

This time it's for reference. The batting underneath (not my choice in batting this time) doesn't lend a lot of texture but I need pics to reference on this quilt. 

Only four of these blocks

I think there's only four of these too

Once I got done working yesterday, most of the rest of the day was spent with my DIL and granddaughter, although once she went down for the night I was able to get a Flower Power block done.

 

I have a dentist appointment first thing this morning. I'm already showered, laundry is started, beds are made, and the dogs are taken care of. Not sure what we're doing when I get home but work probably won't happen today unless Evie starts taking longer naps.

Despite All Odds

Okay, let's be honest. I can't go more than a couple days without some kind of sewing. Evie is not up 100% of the time so I take that time and work out in the studio. In the past two days I've gotten the binding started on the Raven.

Getting the binding going

Notice, this is being hand sewn rather than machine bound. My DIL wanted something to do and she left her embroidery downstate, so she's sewing the binding down on the back. I did the machine part on the front for her. 

I was able to get this pieced...

This is the table runner I've been using those whirlygig blocks as leaders/enders on. It's finally done. Well, it's pieced anyway.

I did some knitting yesterday while we were chilling in the man cave and finished a small scarf that I had left over yarn from. I finished another small square of something or another (again, left over yarn), and then I actually started to crochet something to see if it would bother my hand. It didn't seem to, but today it's sore, so maybe not yet?

We did visit my mom on Saturday. She doesn't do well with babies. Never has. Proof positive I was basically raised by my grandmother. 

While Evie is napping this morning I plan on working a bit. I need to get Sandy's quilt basted in and started on Marty. With a seven month old (as of today) it's kind of hard to get much done, but her mom and Jim are both here, so it's not like she needs me all the time. In fact, Jim is having a ball with her. 

Lots of Stuff and Things

There was some outdoor stuff we had to do (dig up trees at the beach and move rocks at the campfire spot) and then while out working with Lia a customer texted and wanted to drop off a quilt. I let her know as long as it was before noon we could make that work. I made some binding, added sashing on Quilt Room, and started a Flower Power block before they arrived.

Once the customer came and went I finished the Flower Power I was working on and then we had lunch. We headed back down to Midland for a yard and estate sale as well as a trip to Michaels for some supplies; Lia needed an embroidery hoop, we found ribbon for Evelyns banner, and then some yarn for later this winter to knit with.

I finished the banner later last night and here it is with a happy recipient. 

I'm going to putter in the studio this morning with Evie and see if I can get anything done with a seven month old on/near my person. We are visiting mom later this afternoon and I don't know if anything else will be accomplished in the studio later today?

A Little Of This

Even though we have out-of-country visitors staying until next week, I had to work yesterday morning and early afternoon. I did get Virginia's quilt finished and called to let her know that it was done. 

Customers came right after lunch (actually, during lunch) and once they left we were headed to Midland. We missed the estate sale by a few hours but we did get some other shopping done at Meijer.

Lia and I decided to make a name banner for Evie's room and here's where I left off last night after Evelyn went to bed.

I'll work on this some more later tonight. Not much studio work planned for today since we have company. But who knows how much the kiddo is going to sleep and what is in store for our day. 

I Know, I Know

This is supposed to be about quilting, but I have to get a little sidetracked this morning. Look who surprised me yesterday with the help of a lot of people? 

I was just trying to finish up Virginia's quilt and Caleb's in-laws arrived. We visited with them for a few minutes and then Tim had to take a call. But it wasn't a call at all. It was Lia (my DIL) letting her dad know she was pulling in. 

All the way from Germany! Caleb was unable to make it this visit, but this is the first time we've been able to interact in person with our newest granddaughter. Meet Evelyn Riley DeGroot. Isn't she a doll?

Of course, this is going to put a damper on any quilt related items for the next week since that's how long they are visiting for. I will be trying to finish Virginia's quilt this morning and I will peck at this one next.

It will be intermittent and since the guest room is attached to the studio, I probably won't be doing much after-hours sewing either since that's where Evie will be sleeping. 

First Time in Seven Summers

Yesterday turned out to be a half day of work for me. Jim got home around lunch time towing this behind the truck.

Once we got through lunch we had a lot of work to do. The boat needed to be cleaned up before trying to get it into the barn. After removing all the leaves, taking apart the cover frame, and doing some general inventory, we headed to the barn. 

Well, this is a quilting blog so I won't go into the details of getting that pontoon into the barn. Let's just say it wasn't a matter of back up, drop, and unload. 

After we got the pontoon in and trailer returned to the neighbor, we headed down to the beach. The lake is coming up and we need to get the deadmen in for the floating dock. The first one was a struggle. Jim was pretty overheated and so he decided, after not swimming for seven years in our lake, he'd take a swim. 

We never came up to the house until after 7:00. Needless to say, other than customer work stuff, I didn't do anything else. Maybe today? Except we're expecting visitors later this afternoon, so in reality, probably not. 

Soon To Arrive

Jim is already gone this morning (he was when I got up) to pick up what I think is my grandfathers pontoon. It was hard to tell with the grape and wood vines climbing all over it and while the MC number looked familiar, it's no guarantee. I'll know more when he gets it home.

After working yesterday I quickly did a Flower Power block and then jumped right onto DW. I wanted to get the block finished that was started on Sunday while waiting for Julie to show and I wanted to get caught up with the group. 

Block #10

I messed up though. I thought we only had 12 blocks in the QAL, but as it turns out, there are 20. I am not going to leave DW loaded with this quilt that long. When block number 11 comes out tomorrow, I'll do that and then unload this piece to make room for something else. 
 

The first "chunk" in The Quilt Room

I'm loving these low volume fabrics. The lighting and where I was standing wasn't optimal last night when I grabbed this pic, but it's turning out so darn cute!

I'm hoping upon all hope to finish Virginia's quilt today on Bernie. It's going to be a stretch whether I get it done or not because I'm just past the half-way point. But now that I'm in my groove, it should go a bit quicker? 

Had a friend text that she can't go to the retreat in September so I'll be going to this retreat not knowing a single person. I'm use to walking into a room full of people I don't know, but after a few days, like typical quilters, we'll feel like long lost friends. Unless this group doesn't appreciate my weird sense of humor and my loud and boisterous self. Then I may not be welcome back again next year. 😉

It's Started

While waiting for my customer to show up, and instead of working on The Quilt Room, I fired up DW instead. I don't like having a hot iron on the planning table when customers come. Too big a risk. I got this much quilted before they showed...

Partially done

The customer stayed for a while and after finally saying good bye, it was lunch time. The rest of the afternoon we vegged and just relaxed. It seems the older we get the more there is to do and why is it the day goes by so quick now? Sunday afternoons are a time for us to recharge and snuggle with the girls. 

Visiting

I did manage to get two blocks quilted out on DW before lunch. The first one was pretty intense.

This took a while

The second one, once I wrapped my head around the direction I was supposed to go was pretty easy.

These blocks are not going to be perfect since this is a learning exercise as well as a fun thing to do with quilters from around the world. It's all virtual. It's all good!

Believe it or not, I have a customer coming through to pick up two quilts shortly. I don't like to do Sunday situations. I want to dress not to impress, I want to relax and do what I want on my only day off, and I'd like to wander if the mood strikes. 

But we did that yesterday. We visited mom, went to Tractor to pick up deadman anchors for the floating dock, we visited our neighbors north aways to thank them for dropping off the pontoon trailer. We received a few deliveries while we were in town so dealt with those, and then, finally, around 7:00 was able to play in the studio for a bit. I started getting the next block together in the Quilt Room, but as it rolled around to 8:30, I knew I was not going to finish any time soon. While I'm waiting for my customer, I'm going to work on that. 

Rearrange

While this rearrangement wasn't in the studio, it did keep me out of the studio most of the morning. I had to do something with our 'reading room' arrangement. We keep adopting moms furniture and prior to yesterday, everything had pretty much just gotten tossed in the reading room. It needed organizing and rearranging. 

And I had to clean some windows in the man cave. And then I had to vacuum the floors because you know, I moved furniture. Then the door to the girls' pen needed cleaning. And then after moving things around in the reading room I noticed the walls were looking pretty dirty. Jim was out weed whacking so I did all this while he was outside. He hates it when I rearrange stuff. 

Once we downed lunch we had to head to West Branch for my eye appointment. Cataracts are forming in both eyes and I'm having a prism situation required to be put into my new glasses. My eyes aren't lining things up correctly which is the reason for the [often] blurry vision. Which isn't good in my line of work.

After we returned from town it was after 4:00 already. No long arming for customers. I did get the following block(s) done: Flower Power, Temperatures, and I got one quilted on DW. I did cut out for the next block in the Quilt Room to round out the evening. 

Block #6

Jim is doing his volunteer work at the food pantry and I'm not sure what's in the works for this afternoon? It's supposed to be icky outside so something indoors I'm sure. 

Talking and Working

Mary's quilt was finished on Marty and now I'm on Bernie working on Virginia's quilt from Primitive Gatherings. While Virginia's isn't a big quilt by any means, it seems those take longer than the others. This is going to be a wall hanging and since there is no continuity between blocks (orange isn't attached to another orange kind of thing) I have to start and stop at virtually every bit of piecing. That's the reason for the long time. And then, of course, there are all those color changes. You get the picture.

After working past quitting time, and while talking to Andrew, I jumped onto Mike to do a Flower Power block and worked these two blocks on DW.

These are turning out so pretty and I'm so sorry I didn't double batt this!

Once we hung up with Andrew I had already cut out the next pieces for the Quilt Room and so started constructing the next block. Here's the result. I love the low volume which isn't usually my jam. 

Only a half day today. I have an eye doctor appointment at 1:30 and after dialating my eyes, chances of me doing much the rest of the day is slim. I already have a sensitivity to light (blue-eyed people do I'm told) but that just makes life a little too bright. 😙