Happy 82nd Mom

Moms birthday was yesterday. She's now 82. This morning she's at Urgent Care complaining of stomach pain. She has diverticulitis and yesterday ate things like beef, sausage, and other foods not compliant with her diverticulitis diet. I wonder why she has stomach pains? 😖

I knocked off early so we could head into town and deliver her a floral bouquet and a card. We also stayed and visited for a while so didn't get back home until well after 6:30.

I called the cousin yesterday morning to let her know my travel plans next week. When she called back we were at moms and didn't having billing info for her yet; had to deal with that right away upon our return.

From there I cut batting and got Hannah's quilt ready to start on later tonight. 

Sandy's quilt did not get done because of the florist hours (they closed at 4:00) and other quick tasks Jim needed to take care of prior to normal studio hours. I'm starting early today to make up for it, but Sandy's Tilda Sampler will be done today. 

After working around the house Saturday morning and making fish tacos for lunch (Jim was late getting home from Food Bank), I headed finally headed into the studio. 

The first order of business was to get the cousin quilt finished. 

I need to call her and let her know I'll be coming through Charlotte a week from today for her to have.

Next, get Hannah's backing onto DW and start frame ironing. Okay. That's started.

What to do next? I can't really start anything big (my rules) until all the Christmas gifts are finished. But, I do need a Christmas bow to put on the studio door in a few weeks. We always decorate on Thanksgiving night. 

That may change this year. The grandkids usually help to decorate and they aren't coming up until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The house will be lit though. I hope. 

Here is my start on the Christmas bow...

And of course, yesterday was a non-studio day. We ran to Wal-Mart and Home Depot up in West Branch looking for pillow inserts for Hannah and Penelopes pillows as well as window film. We struck out on both accounts. 

Today I hope to finish Sandy's Tilda Sampler on Marty. I have a 12/1 deadline in the queue I should probably tackle next and get started on that before heading down south. So. Much. Pressure! It's not the only December deadline I have and UGH, it keeps me awake at night. 

After Visiting

We had a delightful visit with mom and Chad yesterday. Tried the new Char House restaurant in Gladwin. Great food but freezing in the place; it was 44 degrees outside and yet the radiators in the old structure were stone cold. 

Once we were done with lunch we headed home via Pieces of Thyme. The original backing I got for the cousin quilt was too small by only a couple of inches so found a perfect back in flannel instead. Got that loaded on DW and am just doing an E2E on it.

After one pass and happy DW's stitch regulator is working after having taken all the computer components off, I was back in on Christmas gifts. The girls' pillows are sewn and all I need are the inserts. 

I also got caught up on the Temperature quilt blocks but had to go back and rip a few seams because I forgot the monthly placeholder between October and November. With that fixed I cut more green strips for our garland and then started gridding out fusible for another big [holiday] bow. I could have bought the premarked stuff but am watching the pennies before Shipshe. 

Once that was done I started pulling fabrics to begin cutting today. I'll be working on the bow at retreat and need to cut all the 2 1/2" blocks before I leave. Cutting here is much easier than trying to talk and cut there. 

I was on the phone with the Germany kids this morning for over an hour so I"m blogging late since after the phone conversation (and shower) decided the bathrooms all needed a good scrubbing. Now I can play the rest of the day. 

Happy Halloween

Do you participate in Halloween? We like the cutesy stuff for Halloween: Ghosts, pumpkins, the dressing up. What we don't like is all the creepy movies, disgusting movies, killing, death, satin-like fictional creatures. Halloween, IMO, has become dark and dangerous. 

So, have fun with the kids and their costumes, but unfortunately, we get zero trick or treaters and really don't participate in this holiday.

We do, however, participate heavily in Thanksgiving. Which, again, IMO, is way understated, has more meaning than Halloween, and gets lost somewhere between Halloween and Christmas. Don't we live in a weird world?

I got a good start on Sandy's quilt yesterday morning. Then the beautiful afternoon presented itself and the long arming mojo disappeared. Jim and I did some color touring, had a few errands to run, and attended an estate sale. I got a new fall/spring jacket from the MSU Marching Band and Jim got a new MSU throw as well as a soap stone. 

When we finally came back home my quilting mojo had returned. Sometimes it only takes a few hours to fire me back up. I got the borders on the cousin quilt and it's ready to hit the long arm.

Before I load this later I'm going to background quilt the pillows for Hannah, Penelope, and Tristan. It's easier to do it on the long arm than the DMS.

Meanwhile, and speaking of long arms, Elijah's quilt is quilted and off the frame. I need to trim it and get his pillow done at some point today. Want to hear something cute? Jim is on my industrial machine right now repairing his rag quilt before we wash it. I guess it's going to be a sewing kind of day for everybody.

Shopping for Insurance

Jim shops around for insurance every few years. He likes to make sure we are paying a fair price and the coverage on our stuff is well insured but not over insured (there is such a thing). His phone has been buzzing all morning. Talk about vultures!

Dianes quilt is done! I have her next back ironing on the frame. Here's what I'll be working on today on Marty. 

I wonder how many of these I've done?

This will be done similarly to the past Tilda Samplers so I don't have to think about what to put in.

Janice picked up her quilt yesterday and was over the moon at how it turned out. I'm so glad I was able to take a top she didn't particularly like and make it something she now wants to enter into a show. 

While talking to Andrew last night on his way home I put the blocks, and then the top, together for the cousin quilt. I still have to get two borders attached but the body is together. 

Once we hung up with Andrew (Jim joined in the conversation about half-way through) I jumped on DW to work another row in Elijah's quilt. I have one more row and two borders to go. The cousin quilt will be loaded next since I want to deliver it when I head down to Shipshewana in a few weeks. 

Wow Am I Sore

I started following a professional skater on YouTube and she has me doing all sorts of exercises and stretches to strengthen my legs. While I do stand all day long at my 'job', the strength in my outer and inner thighs is lacking. Clearly from what they're telling me this morning after skating yesterday.

Anyway. I had to make room to work on Elijah's pillow cover so started piecing the blocks together for the baby quilt for Jims cousin. 

The direction I'm heading with that top

Once I got the area cleared on that portion of the sewing table, I started back in on Elijahs pillow top. I had to do some background quilting before applying and appliquéing things down. We stopped by Park Bench Quilt Shop between skating and groceries to pick up the background fabric.

That carried me through to about 8:00 and I was tired from our busy day so called it a night. Customer coming to pick up this morning and I'll be working on Bernie most of the day to finish Diane's quilt. 

No More Beacon

The crane down at the dam was used for all matter of things construction. It was finally removed yesterday. We could see the blinking red light throughout the night and last night it wasn't there. Our neighbor reported it was deconstructed yesterday. 

We are officially done!

Here is some of the quilting going into Diane's quilt. 

The first two borders

I have to make a quilt for Jim's cousin for another expected grand baby; one of those 3-yard things is what I selected and here's the fabric for that. 

Flannels!

And while working on DW last night I finished a pass with one color and switched to another. This is what was left on the cone I removed. Talk about thread chicken!

I'm off to go skating this morning and then we'll head to Meijer afterwards since we are already in Midland. Don't know if I'll have time after getting done with lunch (after returning home) to quilt this afternoon on Bernie.

Not Going to Ohio

We were supposed to be leaving this morning to head down to Andrews. Tristan (our grandson) isn't feeling well, but moreover, Hazel had to have five teeth removed yesterday. She has stitches, pain meds, and is on antibiotics. Too much for the dog sitter to deal with. We had to cancel.

I'll be fussing around the studio today. Not necessarily working but, yes, working. To shorten a lengthy story, I came home with a crap load of fabric from the retreat and have filed most of it away. But I have other things to take care of. 

Here's what I accomplished in four days.

Day 4: Potty Humor

Day 4: The Quilt Room

Day 3: Ho, Ho, Ho

Day 3: Cowboy Boots

Day 2: Flower Power

My birthday was amongst the retreat happenings and Jim not only got me a long stemmed rose for the retreat table, but he got me these for the house.

Gorgeous!

From the pics above, I managed to get five tops put together. The piece I worked on the first day was not going together well. And, quite honestly, I was being lazy. I didn't trim each block as I was building them and it's not going together very well. I'm hoping to rectify that soon since all my big projects are now all together. 

In-Between Weather

It's the time of year when putting on almost winter clothes starts the day, layers get shed throughout the day, and layers reemerge later in the evening. I'm back in a turtleneck under the sweatshirts. I don't shed many clothes knowing in a few hours I'll just have to put them all back on. 

Diana's quilt was finished yesterday morning and here's what I started working on after lunch.

Diane's third quilt

This one is pretty straightforward. The border is a braided block extended to just have ditched and a 1/4" echo inside. The background is a loopy flower but the challenge comes inside with all the white area. That's all embroidered and will need to have ditching done around. 

While I was cleaning up from Diana's quilt and getting the next one prepared for frame ironing, Jim was working on some new thread drawers for me. The beautiful thread containers that were under the pressing table have been relocated to make room for new thread cones. 

Relocation

This pic turned out weird?

I have thread coming out my ears around here, which is great! I need thread in my job and just to have to piece with. 

Speaking of piecing. Since I was sick on the couch Saturday, I didn't work the Temperature quilt blocks at that time. I got caught up on those last night while talking to Andrew.

After having those built and put into the ever growing top, I moved over to DW to work on the Book Nook. One more book row to go. Oh, and hey, that was all three long arms yesterday. Haven't done that in a while. 

The sun was shining in over the back of the top

I was going to continue on but it was approaching 8:00 and I was starting to get a little tired. I got up too early yesterday I think. 

One customer coming to pick up sometime today and I'll be working on Dianes quilt trying to get it finished before the weekend hits. 

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!

No Sleep. Again!

Last night was the third night this week I have fallen asleep only after 3:00. Good thing I'm taking today off. 

Not because of the "holiday", but because we are going to the lake I was raised on down in Crystal. We are reconnecting with people I grew up with and visiting the ole stomping grounds. I moved a lot when I was a kid but every summer until I was a teen were spent with grandma and grandpa at the cottage on the lake. I've only been back a handful of times since getting out the Army 35 years ago.

Mom sold the cottage when grandma had to be put into a care facility. It had been in our family since the 50's. The cottage was torn down two years ago and a new monstrosity now sits in its place. But the memories are still there and some of the people we knew growing up are still living right next door to our old lot. 

Today we are taking a pontoon ride around the lake. Something we used to do often as kids with the whole neighborhood. Bring your own chair and a coffee and away we'd go for a two-hour ride around this beautiful body of water in central Michigan. It's a hidden gem and property values there have skyrocketed because of it. Which is why we aren't living there instead of here. 

Anyway, pics from todays adventures will post tomorrow. I started in on Evelyns Farm Girl Vintage II quilt yesterday morning first thing. 

Border(s)

Corner

Let me show you the difference in custom versus edge to edge quilting. If this had been E2E quilted, this wonky block would have never laid down correctly...

Notice all the lifting and weirdness happening here

This is the after pic after I got it quilted...

Pretty much fixed

I got a Love Letter block done after working and then did my daily cowboy boot...

The second star boot

I got the baby quilt off DW and bound that...

And then I loaded this onto DW...

It's all basted in and ready to get quilted. Maybe later tonight if we get home at a decent time?

Not Responsible

I was cruising around on IG last night while listening to another season of Alone. One of the fellow long armers made a sign for her studio that said: I am not responsible for stray seam threads, pet hair, puckers (should you fail to measure your borders), and your back being short. I think I need this in my studio. 😉

Ginny's quilt on Bernie was finished in the late afternoon. This is what I'll be starting today...

Evelyns Farm Girl Vintage II by Lori Holt

We have attempted to load this quilt twice already and maybe the third times a charm? I investigated how others have quilted this including Lori Holts long armer (or maybe she does her own long arming?) and EVERY picture I found has this quilt edge-to-edge quilted. Weird!

We're not doing that per the customer. She said to just have fun so that's what I'll be doing. 

After getting this on the frame I did a Love Letter block, a cowboy boot and I finished quilting the baby quilt on DW. It's still on the frame, but it's quilted.

This one only took a little over an hour to stitch

One customer expected today to pick up. I have to do some batt ordering and a little other admin work first though. Bleh. 

Doing Pinwheels

I forgot to mention about making pinwheels for that little garden table runner. Instead of tying off I run a HST through the machine and construct pinwheels while make the love letter blocks. I think I have about 10 of them made already.

 Here is some of the quilting going into the RxR for Ginny. This is row two.

Lady Bug row

I completed row three before taking a roll in the afternoon but forgot to take a pic beforehand. On to row four today.

After working I made a Love Letter block and have the first row together in section three (there are five sections). I moved over to Mike and did the daily cowboy boot...

Moo

From there I fired up DW and did some quilting in the baby quilt. Why can't I just do E2E on these things? Oh, because I know how to do custom and it looks better. But I did do a hand guided (not computerized) E2E design in the center panel section...

Swirl flower edge to edge

While I was out playing in the studio Jim was playing in the kitchen. He loves doing this stuff (which is good because I DO NOT). Here's his accomplishments for the night...

Some of these are for customers

I'll be giving away a small jar of jelly to anybody who visits after Thanksgiving. These are all strawberry, but today he'll be doing strawberry banana and strawberry rhubarb. We don't actually eat this much jam throughout the year. Some of these are given away to family and friends. Mostly family. 

Windy Day

After working on the temperature blocks yesterday morning it was almost time for Jim to get home. After lunch the wind was roaring but I didn't feel like staying here. We jumped in the truck with the girls in search of strawberries and a place to walk the dogs. We also stopped at a garage sale and to look at a yellow Jeep alongside M-61. Too high millage and they had smoked in it. The Jeep, not the garage sale.

We found strawberries (OMG the price [$6.00/qt.]) and then Jim dropped me off at Riverwalk so I could follow the trail back to moms condo. He met me there and we thought we'd visit with mom if she was home. She wasn't.

It was after 5:00 when we returned home. Jim searched out more strawberry resources (found one for $4.00/qt.) and I appliquéd another cowboy boot...

I was going to call it a night, but still had plenty of energy left. I fired up DW and started quilting the cousins quilt...

Of course, I can't just free motion the whole thing! I'll do a hand guided free motion in the center portion but the sashing, border, and geese get custom work done.

Nothing in the studio today. We have to go visit mom because when we were there yesterday she was (of course) out running the roads. It's no wonder the woman needs a new car every four years. 

Row #1-11 Color Changes

I've started getting into the rows on the quilt being worked on Bernie. 11 color changes so far and many more in the future as I look ahead. 

Here's some of the quilting going into some of the row by row...

After I worked for the day I was able to get the Fireworks quilt bound...

Fireworks!

I did a Love Letter block and then afterwards, did a cowboy boot.

I'm going to finish loading the baby quilt on DW this morning and get started on it. I'll work some temperature blocks as well while Jim is at the food pantry working this morning.