Day One

This was my intention yesterday playing in the studio...

To go over the electrical panel

And after helping Jim wash the house, and after the neighbors' granddaughters coming over to inquire about their quilts, I chipped away all day on this project and behold! It's on the frame!

Just need to quilt and bind

After completing this top, I bound three other quilts; one for the neighbor granddaughter and two for charity; they are going to Alaska, via Vegas for Sew Yeah Quilting.

We are running to town this morning to get groceries before all the drunks wake up. It was very loud here last night as our new neighbor to the south has decided to join in on the commercial fireworks war we have going on here. 

Lucy DOES NOT like fireworks. Hazel could care less. I want to get the above piece quilted later and maybe get Twirly quilt on the frame too. I have to find a back for that but I'm sure I can come up with something around here. 

Loaded Up

DW has a quilt waiting to be basted in. Bernie has Bernadettes quilt on it that I'll be working on again today. Possibly tomorrow as well; it's getting a lot of thread and ruler work. Foster has three quilts on it right now; two are quilted and the other may be quilted tonight. 

The one I'm working now

I'll try to get some quilting detail on it. 

Abbey's quilt

Going to Alaska

Up next for possibly tonight

I'll show what's on DW when I get to working on it. No other sewing last night. Had two customers come yesterday. One to pick up and another to not only pick up, but drop off as well. 

The flags are out for our Independence Day celebration. Today is logistically my Thursday as I'll be closed on the 4th and 5th both. I do plan on spending a LOT of quality time in the studio, but not actually "working". 

First Snow

While I was working on Janes quilt yesterday morning, that familiar unwelcome (to some) white stuff started floating past the studio windows. And then a little more started falling. Within an hour we had white ground. 

Three days after my birthday

Of course, it didn't stick around, but it was pretty for the little bit of time it was here.

Continuing on with Janes quilt today (seems like it's been on the frame forever) and it should be done. I was supposed to go to Oscoda for the QQQG meeting, but my grandson decided to share his cold with grandma and so I'm not feeling particularly well. Sore throat, stuff nose, headache. Bleh. I don't want to spread this around so I'm going to stay here. Plus, there's more snow in the forecast. 

I did get the charity quilt quilted before shutting down for the night. I'll get that off today and get another one loaded; if my energy stays with me (crossing my fingers here).

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. 

Productive Day

Yesterday's work was kinda backwards because of the Town and Country rows occupying the long arm. Those needed to be attached to free up the machine to get Becky's quilt off. 

Almost done...only one more row to go!

Ummm...this isn't right

Once the rows were attached to Town and Country and Becky's quilt was removed and trimmed, the next two up for quilting are Pats charity quilts. Pat pieced her batting. Well...kinda of. 

There wasn't enough batting width to just remove her stitches and then restitch the batt for her. Easier option...just cut a chunk out of my stash and use that. Done.

Here are the two charity quilts worked...

Pat's charity quilts

Swirls

Hook Swirls

Who says charity quilts have to have dull quilting put into them? Once I quilted the two charity quilts I moved on to sit down quilting. This will take much longer on the sit down machine than it would have could I have loaded it onto the frame. But the quilt has already been trimmed and is ready for binding and the client thought I could get some more quilting put into it than what she had already done. The problem is nothing was ditched and there was very little quilting actually into the piece that she gave me. 

Trying to ditch all that bulk on a DSM

Quilting texture

The corner blocks were prepped for the last row in Town and Country after three hours of sit down work. The last borders are cut and the fusible is drawn on to begin the first border of the last round. Tonight I'll continue on with both the sit down work and the Town and Country blocks. 

Quilting Friends

When customers come to pick up, or drop off their quilt, it just tickles me. It's new friends who share a passion together talking about a variety of things both quilting and non-quilting related. I cherish days like yesterday when Pat and Paulette stopped by.

One of Paulette's charity quilts.

This little quilt is getting swirls and pebbles put into it. I can't believe it's a charity quilt as it is so cute and whimsical.

Today I'm reloading Lona's chain quilt to try to get it finished for her. This is the one I had to take to Lake O to finish doing the Pro Stitcher work on last Friday. Because I was renting time for the machine, I didn't finish it there but rather chose to bring it home and work on the ruler work here.

Yesterday was also a cutting and piecing day (well a little any way) for the yellow portion of the bear paw blocks. I still have to snowball the blocks and then yellow will be complete. Pink is next.

A Little Something

A very welcome and unexpected visit from the kids/grandkids over the weekend kept me on the down low...again.

BUT, was able to work this on Thursday night prior to heading off to do some stuff with mom on Friday.

Kind of a funky corner to have to deal with

And this was done yesterday.

Yep, I know. Maize and Blue and all that happiness

As you may/may not know, we are green and white in this house. It was all I could do to not stick a block "S" in there somewhere.

Going to load another one of Paulettes charity quilts this morning and maybe, just maybe later, work on another color in the Bear Paw blocks. I only have two more colors to go before I can start building the actual top.

Busy, busy, busy...

I hadn't been on the long arm in over a week. Our weather has been spotty with high winds and/or storms; I don't get on the machine for fear of electrical surges. The weather finally broke a few days ago and I've been a crazy person on DW since.

After finishing the selvedge quilt, I put this little cutie on to do the background fill.

A monthly mantel mini quilt

Once this was done, I loaded and quilted this piece yesterday.

A-B-C's

This A-B-C top had been sitting in my WIP pile for a while now (Katie calls it our rack of shame...which isn't too far off). It was a panel I purchased at The Hen House and somehow made work with the fabric within my stash. It's loosely quilted with a flowing flower motif and would make a nice quilt for somebody's couch; or a child's room.

Then, because Jim is still not able to do a whole lot of anything after his eye surgery, I took advantage of the time and loaded and started this piece below.

Small Log Cabin

The log cabin top above was purchased at an Amish auction last spring, and I must say, while lovely in color and placement, the piecing needed to have some trimming and pressing done prior to getting it on the machine. Apparently 1/4" seams are optional in Amish piecing.

I hope to finish this one yet today and maybe get another top loaded before having to go out and mow later.

Merry Holidays Everybody

May the holidays find everybody not so busy to be able to enjoy their peace, their companionship, and their friends and families.

I feel like Christmas, in particular, has found such a commercialism opportunity and it's not the reason for the season. Even quilting stores and web sites have used the holiday to try to ply you with "deals" and "values". Hopefully this is a trend that won't stay around long.

For my Christmas giving, I volunteered to quilt five charity quilts for the ASQ guild in Charlotte. Five quilts in 10 days. They were delivered on Wednesday of this week (thank you mom once again for assisting in getting them here and back).

Four of the Five Charity Quilts

The fifth one was on the frame when I snapped the pic, but it was orange, orange, orange.

Hazel seems to be getting bigger by the day.

Hazel at 13 Weeks with her "cigar"

She is learning about studio time and self-play. She tries to "help" me in the studio and I have relegated to giving her left over handles from various bag projects so she feels like she's actually a part of my studio time. 

Since she's getting so much better at independent play she enabled me to actually get this finished this week for my father and his wife Charlotte. They are coming later today for a visit and I made this for them for Christmas. 

The photo and the finished project

Here it is a little closer...

This took me about a week to complete

I love, love, love doing art projects! This is probably why I enjoy doing my long arming so much. I get to enhance the quilt with my version of art (since drawing and painting are NOT my thing). Here's what's on the frame this week.

My New York Beauty ready for long arming

I have started putting curly feathers into the outer border, curls in each of the "points", half feathers into both small borders strips, and half feathers into the quarter circles. I haven't actually started quilting the quarter circle points or the spaces between since the art project above took up much of my time.

Katie and I have realized we are less then a month before our annual winter retreat! We look very forward to this event every year, and last year, due to circumstance and weather, we were unable to attend. Barb and Margaret are supposed to come along again this year, so it's going to be very nice catching up with them during the four days we get to sew together.

I'm trying to get all my pieces cut before we leave. Everything is cut for the Antelope Canyon top I'm going to make and am now cutting for a pattern Katie drafted (from a picture no less). It's a rather complex scrappy block, so to make sure I'm keeping myself organized I have devised labels.

Keeping things organized as I cut from my scraps stash

That's about all the news as of late.

Giving

While I am still an active member of the Across the Square quilt guild, I very seldom attend any more meetings. The proximity of my house to where the meetings are held since our move is roughly 120 miles; or two hours-one way. My membership will expire on December 31, but I am still a member.

Everybody should have a merry holiday and even after the holiday's, have a decent life. I've decided to help out in any way I can for those folks who aren't so fortunate. The ASQ guild does a lot of charity work for the local battered spouse/children's shelter and we typically make quilts for them throughout the year.

But the member who used to cut and then promote the kits to assemble a top for our SIREN chapter has moved to Arizona. Nobody has really taken up the cause since her departure over a year ago. I think a mass assembly of tops took place sometime this fall to make up for our latency. I said I would quilt a few of them for the cause and was given four.

This is the first one I started with. I finished it this morning and  here is a close-up of some of the quilting put into it.

I think just because you have been given a crappy hand in your current life situation you deserve something somebody actually took some time in creating. This particular top was pieced very nicely and I took the time to put some nice detail in the quilting.

The next top is already loaded and I have already started quilting it. It's a busier top then this first one, so putting a lot of detail into the quilting will only get lost in the fabric. Therefore, I'm using a lot of straight lines in the blocks and on the borders to create connectivity in the quilt as a whole.

I received my Build-a-Block from 'Quilting is my Therapy' (Angela Walters) in the mail today. It's like a mini Christmas when I get quilting stuff in the mail. I've already built the block and will look forward to the next block next month.

I'm cruising along in the Vintage Christmas Quilt-Along. Katie and I are pretty much at the same place, and despite our nutty schedules lately, we are keeping up with the group.

Why did YouTube delete all my subscriptions on my iMac? They still exist on my iPad, but after we returned from Missouri, it seems the machine got hungry while we were gone and ate them all.