Today is the Day!

Say good-bye to Foster...

Getting ready to leave

I really, really, really tried to like this machine. And he was great the first week he was here and the first week he came back after getting serviced. But then he started slamming, crunching, and started having electrical issues. I didn't feel like we were gelling all that well.

Marty is on his way to replace Foster as "we speak" and I'm so excited. 

Yesterday was spent on Ronda's quilt. After shutting down around 5:00 I had to move some more stuff in the studio to make way for today's arrival. I also had to prep backing and fabric swatches for class tomorrow. Once that was done, three more Pineapple blocks were made. 

In amongst the machines leaving (DW is going down with Foster for service) and the machine arriving, I'll be finishing Rondas quilt as I only have the two sets of borders and the side sashing to finish. I could have done that last night, but I didn't want to dive into a whole new quilt while the guys were here asking questions and making disrupting noises.

I've gotten to where I'm getting pretty regimented and while I'm happy about Marty's arrival, it does disrupt my day and I need to focus when I'm starting a new quilt top so I thought it prudent to keep to what I know for the work I'm doing while they are here. 

Yesterdays weather started out with about an inch or more of snow. That changed to freezing snow/rain. Near lunch that changed over to thunderstorms, then it rained and was very windy the rest of the day. Ahhh...spring in Michigan. Another windy day today, but the sun is peeking in and out of the clouds. No precipitation is expected so the guys will be dry while running in and out of the studio. Can't wait to show pics of the studio all put back together tomorrow!

Introducing Marty!!!

The Handi Quilter Forte and I are not getting along very well. As you may have been keeping track of. He's just not working out. It's a long story how this all came about, but Foster is going away in about a month. Marty will be joining us where Foster currently resides...

A new long arm coming soon

Yep, I bought a new long arm yesterday. Trading in Foster for what the kids and I have named Marty.

The Bernina machines are black and the frame we are putting this on is white, so what's black and white? 

Well, lots of things, but Zebras came instantly to Lia's train of thought. Then she thought of Marty from Madagascar. I thought of Marty McFly from Back to the Future (another of my favorite movies). Since Bernie is named after a movie (Weekend at Bernies) so too will Marty be named.

Yep, that's about all we did yesterday, but what a wonderful day! I'm still pretty giddy about it!

Nope. He Didn't Settle

Here's some of the quilting going into the United States appliqué piece...

Wandering Feathers for a Fill

I've finished quilting this and DW still isn't settled in. Meaning, he's going back to Lansing on Saturday. Jim has to pick up some venison and chickens, so he'll swing by Gall on his way to the B's. I'll be at retreat. I have a great husband who's willing to do this for me! That's another one of the items I need to deal with today; getting DW stripped back down for shipping. 

Here's what's on Bernie today...

Mary's pretty couch throw

I probably won't be able to show you the quilting in this one as I've (once again) matched threads too well. Maybe if the sun comes through the west window later this afternoon I can grab some texture. 

At some point I have to drop what I'm doing and start getting ready for retreat. Which starts tomorrow. Haven't done a thing to prep for this except order that insert for Jay so I can do some sit-down quilting. I've already been called about picking up two quilt tops while I'm there from another attendee so this isn't just a pleasure cruise. 

The Eagle

While mom was here on Monday, we heard the Eagle out by our floating dock. We couldn't see him, but the neighboring birds were in a dither and complaining loudly about his presence. After mom left a few hours later, the little birds were still chattering. I snuck down around the neighboring yard and was able to capture this...

Isn't he beautiful?

From the looks of his beak/talons, he's not very old but it's just breathtaking to watch him fly around the area. 

Gails quilt was finished just before quitting time yesterday. I'm going to be working on this one on Bernie today...

Bernadettes Tula Pink blocks

The lights aren't on in the studio yet, so the pic came out rather dark. Sorry about that. This is getting a free motion edge-to-edge treatment while I'm frame ironing the next back on DW.

After working on DW I switched over to Foster. I had a little left on the bobbin from Gails quilt and a little left over in the cone to wind another partial bobbin. I'm on to the last row but fear the bobbins aren't going to hold out much longer. 

The thread order, as well as the new brochures are due this week. Two different suppliers; two different shipping methods. I bet the brochures (shipping UPS) will beat the thread order (shipping USPS). Any takers on the bet?

How Is This Part of Quilting?

Thursday was spent with my mother and brother. I did get quite a few business phone calls while we were out and about, which lead to yesterday's frenzy. And lack of blogging.

Four customers in and out yesterday. Ann and Mary dropped off and picked up both. Onita dropped off. Linda picked up after I finished her quilt. In between customers I was able to get Lindas quilt finished (obviously since she picked it up last night)! And, I hit a milestone while doing it...

We actually got some sunshine to snap a pic

Look at the Lifetime Stitch Count

90 million!! My friend Nick, in Vancouver, BC has a billion, but I'm not far behind. He has a Fusion too so apparently they truly are work horses. 

What's going on here? How is this quilting related?

Thumb Drive?

Jason, from Gall Sewing and Vac, was one of the many phone calls I received Thursday and he indicated to me, that even though Bernie doesn't have the digital quilting system on him, he still has a computer interface. There is a Firmware update from Bernina I need to do and he thinks this will fix the small tension sensor problem. I'm going to try to tackle that today. 

I'm also removing Bernadettes quilt from Bernie and loading both the machines up as Jim is working today, and Mark is also here working on the drywall. It's like it's not even a Saturday but just a regular work day around the place. I think tomorrow may be a totally veg day since we've been running fast and hard the past week. 

Pause

When customers come to visit, whether it's dropping off or picking up, it's a delight for me to be able to converse with them and learn about them outside of their quilts. I merely pause the machine(s) and enjoy the moments. I'm so fortunate to have these delightful people in my life. Truly!

But, as much as I relish the visits, it puts me off the machines and works its way into my evening. Then, there's the life stuff that has to be dealt with. Shopping for groceries, cleaning, and, like last night, trying to get Thanksgiving stuff announced and assigned. 

Today, the weather is poopy. Because Jim knows the deer bed down during this type of weather, he's home with me this morning instead of out hunting. Thankfully, he recognized that the girls need grooming and he'll occupy his morning doing that out in the garage instead. 

Here's some of the quilting going into the Santa Face. The customer wanted me to "bring the quilt to life". Here's a before of Santa...

Before

After

Not a great pic, but you can definitely see the difference. And I did something new with Bernie for the first time ever. 

A medium Gray and a Linen 

One needle, two threads

The result...

A beautifully rich looking heavy stitch

And Bernie never balked a second about having me do this with him. I'm loving this machine even more now!

Today this quilt will be finished and on to the next one. 

Spa Time

DW is heading to Lansing on Friday morning to spend some time getting all cleaned and fixed. He's running fine. He just has some electrical issues and limited response on a few of his buttons that need to be addressed. So, I'm on a time crunch with him this week. 

I started on Bernie yesterday...

AWESOME texture!

Once the backing was frame ironed I switched over to DW. Here's what he's wearing today...

Janice's Irish Chain

I'm about half-way done with this one and I'll continue on now that we are back from Midland after getting ortho consults on Jim's knee. Which isn't as damaged as we originally were told on Friday. Yay!

Here's some of the quilting going into it...

This is a "clean" looking quilt so I'm keeping it clean in the quilting

After this one is done, then so is DW for a few weeks. They'll have him down in Lansing all of next week and then we have reunion, so won't be able to fetch him until around the 11th or 12th. I'll continue working on smaller-sized customer quilts on Bernie, but all the big ones are on hold for now. 

Play Time

Today is going to be a play day for me. We were supposed to be heading downstate to help the kids with their new house, but the weather last night resulted in Ben having to work, and we are getting intermittent snow squalls too. We are going to try for tomorrow instead.

And as many snow squalls as we are getting, we are also getting sunshine. But it's very cold and very windy out there; a good day to stay in the house and play in the studio.

Once I got the backing frame ironed (while working on Bunny's quilt) I loaded the quilt-along top and am working on row two this morning. Row 1 turned out just okay. The reason for a quilt-along is to learn and get a feel for new things. In my case, it's a new set of rulers. The thread and fabric chosen wouldn't let me get a pic of row one, but here's row two so far...

Starting the second row

My quilting day planned is just playing and staying warm. 

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday. We had some grocery shopping to do and when we arrived back home, the kids/grandkids were already here. Let the fun begin. 

I asked for a bathroom "remodel" for my birthday. I don't want a new vanity, new shower, new toilet. Just new plumbing and shower controller so that the dumb thing would quit dripping...constantly. The plumbing in the house was copper. 

Jim has pretty much changed out all the downstairs. All he had left to do was that upstairs bathroom. Ben and Jim are working on that right now. Meanwhile, we are without water and Lucy decided to roll in raccoon poop this morning while we were in the pumpkin patch. She's outside until she can get a shower. 

Here's what's on Bernie this morning...

A charity quilt

I was able to get this top basted in and started the first row until the grandkids decided they were done with the activity they were doing and needed grandma's attention.

We were trying to get pics of the girls together yesterday so I could change my FB profile. Here's a few of them, but I'm still going to try to get some better ones. 

Too dark

Lucy wasn't going to cooperate

The kids are planning on leaving later today, so maybe I'll get to work on the charity quilt some more tomorrow a little bit. I want to have it quilted by Monday so I can take it to sew-in on Tuesday. 

Sunday = Funday

It's funny that when I don't quilt on DW first, Bernie is a lot easier to handle. I think I'm used to DW's bulk and resistance and then hop over to a machine that is half the weight and has very little drag. 

The 9-Patch is off of Bernie now and my panels are on...

The panels for Ellies cover

I've straight lined two of the panels, continuous curved with an echo on one and I'll probably just straight line the next two. The odd ball one is going to be in the front, wanting to do something a little "fancier" in that one. 

I'll be working on Joni's quilt most of the day since I didn't work at all on Saturday. I may be finished with it by the end of the day????

Small Project Sunday

I actually started the small project yesterday while Jim was watching MSU lose (again). I have all the "base" pieces put together for Ellie's new cover, but now they have to be quilted. And both machines are tied up at the moment. 

I could just straight-line the pieces together, which I may end up doing, but that machine is put away. And even if I did get it out, I don't have a table to work on with it. Hmmm??? This may be a retreat thing I end up finishing there. Which is a week from tomorrow. 

After piecing together the bases for Ellie, I moved over to Bernie and got another row in. Here are a few of the blocks...

I love quilt-alongs. They take forever, but now that I have two machines to long arm on, it's pretty fun doing this with people around the world. 

I'm going to work on this some more today (no customer quilting on Sunday) and see if I can get it done. 

And Then There Were Two

A Bernina Q20 and a Handi Quilter Fusion. 

Making the max out of the min

I can't sew/piece much since I'm down to just my little HQ Stitch 210 for domestic machine accessibility, but my love is here with these big machines. I (we) have to figure something else out for the Janome Horizon and my new Elna EF1 (that also arrived yesterday) and the sewing table they usually reside in; which is currently out in the barn in pieces. 

Here's some quilting detail on the Jacqueline piece I'm working on...

Gotta love all that tiny detail work

When I finally got to working yesterday (after my installation guy left at nearly 2:00) I was only able to get about five hours into this. It should be finished up today. 

Once I was done quilting, I worked some more on the Bernina (hereinafter referred to as Bernie). While it looks pretty just sitting there, that's not what it was purchased for and I need to get myself into it quickly. This is what's on Bernie this morning...

One of mine!

Here's the plus side to this machine so far: 1) It's very quiet! 2) It's smaller and less space is required to move around it. 3) It stitches beautifully once you get the thing threaded and tensioned correctly. 4) The lighting is wonderful, even in that dark corner during night time hours. 4) It is very smooth of the frame and the stitches are perfectly spaced!

Here's the downsides I've discovered (but correctable): 1) The take-up leader was installed incorrectly so we have to turn that once this quilt is finished. 2) The dead bar is too close to the head and needs to be raised slightly. 3) I have to pin the backing onto the leaders. Purchasing an additional set of Red Snappers will solve that. 4) There is no way to accurately plumb the top of the quilt. They have channel locks available as an additional purchase so sometime in the future those will be coming. 5) It's set a little too high but I don't have mats in front of it yet to raise me up to where I need to be. I'll be looking for some of those. 6) It's not DW and I'll have to learn my way around this beautiful piece of machinery. Time and use will take care of that. 

I'll know more about the plusses and minuses once I actually get to quilt on it later tonight. So far I've just basted in and played in one tiny corner to check tension, but I'm remaining optimistic since I love to learn and this is my passion. 

BIG DAY!

Lauren showed up a little after 10:00 this morning and guess what he's up to?

Getting Bernie's frame put together

Looking better but still not there

It's a slow process, but Bernie is at least on the frame now. Still lots to do; getting the poles put on, adding the leaders, the ruler base, and all the ratchets for the poles have to be aligned. I'll be playing tonight on this beautiful baby! 

No other quilting related activity over the weekend. The funeral service Saturday took all day. Yesterday we washed the garage door, Jim cleaned the downstairs shower head, I moved things away from the corner where Lauren is working to give him "construction" space and we binge watched movies all afternoon. 

This afternoon I'll have to put the studio back to rights, move everything back in that was taken out for construction space, and, well, actually work a little bit.