Violations

Notice how late I'm blogging this morning? It was a very restless night and I didn't actually get out of bed until almost 10:00. Then the kids called from Germany so here we are finally.

Jim and I are trying to find something to do today so while he's in the shower, I'll share my quilt police violation.

The first of 15

The directions on this piece are to fuse these petals down using some kind of fusible web. I don't like how stiff fusible web leaves the block. I hate it in fact. But I have zero desire to learn turn-edge appliqué and my thumb probably wouldn't deal with it any way.

There are a number of fusibles out there claiming to not a) gum up the needle when stitching it down and b)leaving the quilt soft and pliable after application. I find that it's either one or the other and I haven't found one yet that is true to both statements. Misty Fuse is about as close as it gets and you can still tell there is a webbing underneath. 

Solution? I had a hair brained idea to just cut the shapes out without fusible. Position them. Use Roxannes glue baste sparingly to get them to set down just enough until I could get them blanket stitched in. The result is above. The quilt police would be handcuffing me to a post!

I have two leaf sections already stitched in place with only minimal issues and it was issues easily dealt with (waving while stitching them down). Once I repositioned the piece, they stitched down fine. And honestly, that may be because I've got a thin batt down underneath to act as an interfacing. I'd rather use a batt than a woven/non-woven interface because, again, I want the block to be pliable. 

Prior to working on Flower Power I did the temperature quilt blocks for the week and after gluing all the leaves down to ready them for blanket stitching I moved over to DW. Here's what he's wearing for the next few days.

OMG, see the block towards the bottom right hand side? It looks wrong. And I'm just noticing this? It's too late now because I've already started quilting this.

Well, this is a utility quilt anyway so I guess it's going to be okay. 

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. 

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. 

Okay, Please Stop

I've had to unfollow a few Instagram quilting acquaintances recently. First, I don't talk, listen to, watch, read, or get involved with politics. I think our WHOLE government system is broken and pointing a finger at one individual gets old. I can't fix it. You can't fix it. Even as a group (because plenty have tried) can't fix it. I'm at the age where I just want to enjoy my life and live each day like it's my last. Getting my blood pressure up on something I have no control over isn't worth the days I have left on the Earth. 

Let's think about our founding fathers. They, with their bullying, desecrated millions of Indians because they thought they were far superior. Sound familiar? How are we to blame the current situation on anybody but them? It's a vicious cycle that won't be fixed in my lifetime. Unfortunately. 

On to more positive things. I have finished the wall hanging for Cindy S. and have moved onto this quilt on Marty...

A lovely sampler

This is all hand appliquéd and this is a very large quilt. It'll be on the frame for the whole week I'm afraid. 

I have set in the first border and am working through the remaining borders today. Most of them have been ditched and I'm planning out the rest. 

Love a formal feather

While Jim was advancing the current backing being frame ironed on Bernie, he ran across this little situation...

A "darned" tear

The owner of this backing darned what appears to have been a tear in the fabric. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this because I'm afraid this is going to seriously interfere with the quilting going into the top we will load later. 

I did another Fireworks block and worked on DW for a while last night. I just had to do custom and thread changes for all the fruit didn't I? This is taking a long time to complete. 

The weather app on my iPad said we are to have a cloudy and windy day with zero precipitation. As I'm blogging, it's snowing out and has been for about a half hour already. Aren't apps great?

A Happy Retirement Birthday

My best friend, my husband has his first "retirement" birthday today. It's still weird having him here all day long, but we're adjusting. Slowly. 

Yesterday was a mixture of all sorts of stuff; appointments, long arming, appliqué,
piecing, putting long arms back together, and watching the neighbors yard get torn up while it appears they are going to build a barn. The weather is a mixture as well. Six inches of snow on the ground and today it's raining. 

I finished the quilt on Marty and moved over to this one on Bernie...

Sue Spargo Woodland animals

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

Can you see anything?

After working on this piece into late afternoon, I found a quilt we needed to do a little work on. I had to get a couple of straight lines placed in an area that wasn't quilted...

Inserting some straight lines

After finishing that I finished appliquéing and putting the borders on the last block in the Alaska top...

I checked to see how this quilt top is constructed and I'm floored that I have to use a partial seam to get all the blocks set in around the center block. UGH. I like partial seams about as well as nothing. 

Jim had a b-ball game to watch so while he was doing that I found and attached leaders to the absolute perfect backing for a table runner going to the B's for the holiday. Once all the leaders were temporarily attached I loaded this onto DW...

I had a hair brained idea to knit scarves for all the grandkids, but I've got one in the works for my DIL so I finished getting everything ready for today's work and then went to work some more on that. I don't know if my goal will be accomplished or not? Just gotta keep plugging away at things I suppose. 

Last Day of Sheep

Once the sheep are done, I have to move over to DW to start working on the HUGE Judy Niemeyer. That one is going to take days and days to complete. 

We did run and get some groceries after lunch. When we returned I jumped back onto Marty to work on the sheep and did so until after 7:00 last night. Because Jim was watching the Spartan basketball game, I started making HST's...

48 of them

Now that those are all made, I started constructing the first block with the frames that go around...

That looks nice

And just when you think you can move onto the next block, realization hits you in the face. I have to blanket stitch the appliqué down yet before moving on. I do have the machine set up with the correct threads and am ready to start tonight after long arming.

What Time Alone Can Accomplish

I did not go with Jim down to his class reunion. I had some goals and wanted to accomplish those with my afternoon off.

The morning was spent working and here's what Linda's quilt had put into it...

Dino tracks

When I opened up her stick to pull off this motif (she usually provides the motif she wants), it was not this motif but rather puppy dog tracks. She left a "mock up" sheet with how dense she wanted the quilting and thankfully the information about where she purchased the motif was on the mock up. I purchased it for her on my own stick and got everything straightened out.

Dinosaur quilts need dino tracks, not puppy tracks

Once I had her quilt off, trimmed, billed, and put away, I was able to work on some of my stuff. First. A cow. A thoughtful customer brought me this raw edge appliqué and so I started working on that...

Moo

This will be a Christmas present for my middle son who adores cows.

Next up...

Just some straight lines

I did not blanket stitch this down nor did I do any kind of stitching on the appliqué. I instead opted to leave it kind of raw and just decided to hold it down with some straight line quilting. Both of these are getting bound today, as well as the Gravity quilt that's been sitting in my guest chair for weeks now. 

So today is binding day. Bleh. However, I do have another small top on DW ready to be quilted if I so choose later this afternoon. I don't know that I want to sit around and watch movies all day today; I have too much to do.

I did get this next wall hanging onto DW but haven't a clue how I'm going to quilt it...

A sewing sampler

Oh, and I did work on my Tilda blocks a little bit as I was frame ironing the backs for the wall hangings. I have the top of the pin cushions done and they are all bundled with their counterparts until I can work on those again. 

Memory Lane

Yesterday was not a good news day. I found out my childhood friend from our cottage had a death in her family (FIL) and one of my customers lost her husband the previous day. 

My father texted me and asked for another quilt for his bed since his wife 'borrowed' his indefinitely. While I was going through totes after my PT appointment, I couldn't help thinking about these two deaths and how precious life is. 

And then I pull out quilt after quilt and think about how much joy making those quilts gave me and how it's hard to let them go (for sale, or whatever) just like a member of our lifes circle. Here are a few of the ones I sent pics of to dad to see if he'd like any of them...

This is the one he selected. Farm Girl Vintage II by Lori Holt

I don't remember the name of this one

Seasons by Edita Sitar

Just a scrappy pattern I found on line

There are a crap load more out there, but he was looking for a large queen/king-sized quilt and it needed to be dark in color since his dog sleeps with him sometimes. 

I'll continue to make quilts because it gives me joy and happiness and damn it, life is too short to not be doing what we love to do. 

Had a drop-in set of women stop by yesterday morning. I don't think I'll be seeing them again since price was their main concern. I also had a previous customer come to drop off just one top around lunch time. I did get Bernadettes quilt finished in the early evening. I worked on DW for a bit and then moved over to the Tilda piece for a while. 

 

Hopefully today I'll have uninterrupted work time and can enjoy the rainy day headed our way. We need the rain. The lawn is starting to turn yellow and Jim's garden is looking pretty wilted. 

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!

Rest Day

I didn't do a thing in the studio yesterday. By the time haircuts were done and cleaning thereof, and by the time we finished morning chores, it was time to prep for lunch. 

MSU lost last night but at least we made it one step further than Michigan. 

I'll be working on this piece all day today...

Lots of work here

Since I really only have one working machine right now, this is going to be my entire focus for the next day or so. Pics of quilting to come tomorrow. 

Milestone Monday

DW passed a HUGE milestone yesterday...

100 Million!

We've certainly had some good (and some frustrating) times over the past 12 years. I love 'em though.

I'm giving a small long arm clinic (I guess that's what you'd call it) later this morning. Around 10:30 or whenever the three participants arrive. It's basically showing how to use rulers, free motion, and how a quilt is quilted and completed.

So I couldn't finish the quilt on DW since that's the one being used for demonstration purposes. The last quadrant is waiting for the ladies to show later. Meanwhile, I loaded this quilt top onto Foster...

Happy Camper

And after basting this one in I loaded this one onto Bernie...

Millies Dresses by Tilda

Bernadette loves the Tilda fabrics and patterns, and I love them too, making it a win-win situation. I'll continue to work this until the ladies arrive later this morning. I've already got the ditching in and have an idea of what I'm going to do in here as I sketched a quilt plan last night on the iPad.

After working I started playing with the Yoder Sisters and before I knew it, they were all built and this is where I stopped last night...

Two more steps to go

I have to get the ladies sewn down. I'm going to free motion on Jay (the sit-down machine) the appliqué pieces and then it'll be ready for binding. Maybe tonight?

Temps this morning: minus 7 degrees, but it's very sunny out so while it looks nice enough, being outside for any length of time isn't a good idea.