All Three Long Arms

This is what I was working on yesterday after Sandy's Tilda Sampler was done. It's Diane's 6th quilt.

Come Sail Away

After working on the two Bernina's I had to reset my arm before jumping on DW. Even though we've taken off his computer hardware and have lightened him up, I still reset for a little bit.

I decided to try something new around the house. I made this.

Did we actually forget this holiday?

That didn't take too awful long and I wanted to actually sew something. I did a test block for the upcoming retreat and the Granny Squares blocks is one of the projects I'll be working on. 

Granny Square block by Lori Holt

I'm glad I always make myself do a test block. While the block itself turned out pretty perfect, I trimmed it a little not so perfect. I'll put it on the bottom somewhere or make a pillow out of it. 

Andrew called just as I was firing up DW. I was able to get three blocks worked on DW for Hannah's quilt while talking to him. Since there is so much writing and color changes, this one is going to take some time to get done. 

Off to do some skating and grocery getting. 

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. 

Visiting with Family Today

My brother is up from Cincinnati. I only get to see him about twice a year meaning we're taking today off to go visit him at moms house. 

I have made exceptional progress on Sandy's quilt and worked well after quitting time. From there I blanket stitched the two grand-girls' pillow tops and then made the backing for each of them.

Blanket stitch detail

I made zippered backs for each of the boys' pillows. Boys naturally don't take care of their stuff so I'm assuming the pillows will be all over the house without regard to dirt. The girls' pillows are getting an envelope back so they can still take off the cover to launder. I nearly broke a needle doing the zippers for the boys and the new zips I purchased (on line) are more for heavier projects like jackets. Not pillows.

Just watching the game

Jim's new Spartan fleece throw is getting good use and Lucy finds it very snuggly as you can see. She was watching the game with dad and I couldn't resist getting a quick pic of her in all her cuteness. 

DW Is Stripped

Off to skate with my getting-to-know-you "geezer" friends. I am past the half-way point on Sandy's Tilda Sampler. I haven't grabbed any pics because, well, we've seen this quilt so many times previously. 

I did get Elijah's quilt bound and here is the set he'll be receiving for Christmas. 

While I was working on Marty yesterday, Jim was working on this project at the other end of the studio. 

The carriage drives the motors for the ProStitcher

A naked machine

He has removed the ProStitcher off DW. I don't use it. I don't like. I don't have control and it adds a LOT of weight to my free motion work. 

I haven't tested him out yet to make sure we have all the necessary connections for the stitch regulator, but I'm sure it'll be okay. 

I also started Tristans pillow top. Jim assisted on the color selections and this is what we came up with. 

Election Day

Please go vote. If you don't, it provides a vote for somebody you may not want to get elected. Although, I am the most unpolitical person you could probably meet, I have morals and obligations as a U.S. citizen to uphold the right to vote. And keep this country I've vowed to protect, safe. 

I was finally able to get my first roll in yesterday on Sandy's Tilda Sampler quilt. I was kind of out of it yesterday so was working in slow motion. Jim threw up last night so I'm wondering if we had a little bug? Thankfully, we feel fine this morning. 

Elijah's pillow is done (see above) and his quilt is half bound. I have the back side attached and will hopefully attach the front tonight. Once we get done voting this morning I'll have a regular work day ahead. And, the temps today: High of 74. This is November, right?

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. 

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.

Solids

Do you have solids in your fabric stash? I have a lot of small pieces left over from both
the Amish with a Twist quilts, but very few large pieces. 

I was working on Elijah's pillow top last night. I was to the point of setting all the appliqué pieces on the background but could not find a background piece that would work. Black, red, and dark blue (all the big pieces I had) are not going to work. That's on hold until I can run over Thursday to get a piece that may be more suitable. Of course, a six year old isn't going to care, but I will. 

In the meantime, Janices quilt was finished at about 4:45 last night. She was coming this morning to pick it up but called already and rescheduled for Thursday instead. 

Drying from the markings

Today I'll be working on Diane's fifth quilt top while continuing to frame iron a new back on Marty. 

A simple quilt that needs some serious quilting

Jim has town stuff to do today; new tire on the truck (defect), doctor appointment, and attending the delivery of moms new bedroom furniture. 

I did get the Temperature quilt all up to date while we talked to Andrew on his way home from work. That took a while since I was two weeks behind and I had to add a row to the already existing top. No work on DW. 

London Fog

The fog of late has been so thick, but today it feels like London (not that I've ever been there). I still can't see down the lake and I'm blogging late this morning. 

Yesterday started out well. Very productive and I thought maybe I'd be able (if I worked late) to get Janices quilt done. But then, before my customer showed, this is what I discovered.

When Jim measured the back he found the length to only be 3 inches (total) longer than the top. He figured if we loaded the quilt the other way it would be long enough that way. He's still having a hard time turning things around in his head to make sure seams and sizes are correct. 

The back is WAY too short. Crap!

Well, now I have to find a way to fix this. 

Measure first to see how much of the sides I need to trim to get to the right length. 

Remove the whole thing from the frame.

Cut sides and piece them together to make a longer section for the missing bottom.

Add them to the whole quilt; and what a pain that is!

Reload after pressing and try to get the damn thing straight on the frame like it was previously. An almost impossible task.

It's reloaded and my customer finally showed up about 10 minutes before closing. She never left until nearly 5:00.

Since I was already in a frustrated, pissed-off state of head space, I decided to get even more frustrated with trying to rectify this awful situation. A few hours later and I had a top. 

There are supposed to be two additional small borders added onto the side. But, as a long armer, I know those small borders are more of a hinderance to quilt they they are a statement piece for the quilt top. I decided to leave them off. In all likeliness, this quilt will be cut up into a coat later at some point and I don't think those small borders (1" and 1 1/2") are even going to make a difference. 

I'm getting a later start today because, well, it's Saturday and it was a busy week. Playing with the dogs this morning was much more important than anything else I had planned.

I need to make a new table/dresser runner for the new dresser in the spare bedroom. Mom is afraid the sun is going to bleach the cherry finish so I'll appease her (when/if she ever comes over) and make something to match the quilt on the bed. 

I want to get on DW today to work on Elijah's quilt. Maybe during the football game later?

Not Sure How To Make It Clear

I've changed my hours both on Google and the web site. I had two people this morning near 9:00 texting me to ask work questions. I answered them right back but maybe being considerate or aware of others has went by the way side?

While I do eat, sleep, and breathe quilting, I like to enjoy waking up gradually. Business related items before I've even had my coffee is not cool. 

I have a customer coming today to drop off and I have another full day on Janices quilt on Marty. I got three rows done yesterday and I work tirelessly on it all day long. I have five more rows to go and since I have two more tops coming in today it won't get done until at least Monday.

Elijah's quilt is sitting on DW but  not basted in as of yet. 

Ready to begin

I wanted to concentrate on getting Jacobs pillow done. Here is his Christmas set ready for wrapping. 

Jacobs Christmas gifts

When you have seven grandchildren, the holidays have to start earlier around the house. Jim was working on our little strip project while I was working on Jacobs pillow. It takes a village. 

Noticing Things

I've mentioned before that when I'm quilting a quilt I see every stinking millimeter of the top. I inspect for tears, holes, threads, and other anomalies. Like the one below.

Blood? Food? Drink?

I'll be continuing on with Janices quilt later today but this morning is skating day and we have to get groceries while we are in Midland. 

Since I had a guild meeting last night and we didn't get home until nearly 9:00 nothing else was done in the studio other then cutting out more strips for the other project I'm working on. 

New Hours

I went into my web site yesterday to modify hours of availability with my 'retirement'. Same with Google. However, one of the two (I can't remember which one) would only let me either be closed on Friday or stay with the same hours (10-4). I wanted to reduce Friday to 10-12 since we seem to get pulled away on Friday afternoons for one reason or another. 

I opted to mark it closed and if somebody needs to come on Friday I'll make arrangements to be here. 

Meanwhile, here's some of the quilting going into Janice's quilt.

A corner

The border corner

After working I took a few minutes to cut up a bunch of strips. More on this later. 

Strips in green, white/off white, and red

I got the top together on the horse quilt and have to get a bunch of borders in next.

After getting that top where I wanted to be last night, I moved over to DW. I removed and trimmed Jacobs quilt and made the binding after that. It's not attached but ready for me to do when next available. Not tonight.

Tonight I have a QQQ meeting up in Oscoda and we have to leave here around 4:30 to get up there in time for the meeting. 

Change the Web Site

If I put a blurb in here I'll be more inclined to remember to do something later. Like changing the hours on Google and on the web site. I'll be closed on Wednesdays, remember? 

This is what I'll be working on for the next few days. 

I laid in bed last night thinking about how I'm going to quilt this, but thought it was pieced differently than what I was 'quilting' in my head. Back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, nothing quilting or knitting yesterday. We were in Mt. Pleasant most of the afternoon and once we got home our neighbors three doors down were out to the property and we went to visit until nearly sunset. 

Retreat Dates

I'll be out of the studio all next week. Monday through Thursday (October 12-15) I'll be retreating at The Springs. Friday through Sunday (October 16-18) we should be in Ohio. That depends on this big girl. 

Not feeling the greatest

Hazel has some bad teeth and I don't know if they will just clean them or remove them. If they remove them, we won't be doing any traveling because it's not fair to the dog sitter to have to deal with her convalescence. 

I finished Lynettes quilt and hung it on DW temporarily while I was doing admin stuff for the project and look how the sun shows the detail I inserted in this.

Sometimes the back looks as nice as the front

I wanted to get on DW last night to start working on the first (second now) QAL but I knew if I didn't get this one below bound I was breaking my own "rules". I know if I don't get the binding done I'll regret it later. 

For Zechariah

This quilt is going to my youngest grandson along with a matching pillow, which I started last night instead of long arming. Today though I need to get caught up on the Temperature quilt. I am way behind on that. We also have lunch plans with mom and so I may be just cutting pieces instead of actually sewing them together. I'll take it to retreat to work on if I have to.

Have you priced poly fill lately? Holy cow, it's averaging $7/lb versus $3/lb less than five years ago. And I have six pillows to make all needing about 1.5lbs each. Yikes. Good thing I started making holiday gifts early this year so I can spread that expense out a few months. 

Out of the Box

As we get older we fall into a comfortable routine. When the routine is disrupted it's like working outside of the box or coloring outside of the lines. Remember in our younger years routine changes didn't seem as big a deal?

Today is back to the norm, but I quite like getting outside of the box. I like change. I like to mix things up. While getting back to the norm is like a favorite pair of shoes; comfortable but not quite as supportive or clean anymore, let's get those shoes really dirty! More in a bit.

Here is some of the quilting going into Lynettes quilt. 

Frosty?

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Honk

The previous night I did get all the blocks done on the QAL and only had to do the border. Here are the last four blocks. 

Block 12

Block 11

Block 10

block nine

And the last big block in the Quilt Room is finished meaning it's time to get the whole thing put together.

Last block is done

I have a few hours left to go in Lynette's quilt this morning and then my day will be done. I may start in on the fifth quilt from Diane, but since it's supposed to be nice today (another pic-perf autumn day) it may be difficult to stay in the studio this afternoon. 

Yesterday was another 'norm' day, but I'm doing my skating exercises to regain the balance I've lost and adjust to my new 'older' body (which is not 16 anymore). I'm planning on sticking with my skating (re)endeavor and that's getting the shoes very dirty!

Where Was I Yesterday?

I did do quilting things both Tuesday and Wednesday, but yesterday morning I was off and running with Jim. We were doing this...

Trying to get the old boots off. The bolts/nuts were rusted on. 

My old skates received a minor overhaul. New boots, cleaned bearings, and new inserts. Here they are ready for me to pick up on Sunday...

The skates reconditioned

Here's the thing about my skating habit. I used to go whenever I could. Didn't matter the weather, temperatures (most rinks are not air conditioned), inside or outside, I loved to skate and would get on them as much as possible. I started training for speed/distance competitions and then I found out I was pregnant.

The doctor said I was not allowed on my skates. Life, moving, college, boys, moving, new careers, moving, and now age have gotten in the way along my lifes path. 

Nearly 40 years later I'm treading into a very familiar, yet oddly new experience. When ya start losing your balance (as we do as we age), skating becomes a new experience all over again. And, my skates were not done yesterday in time for me to enjoy getting on the floor. I grabbed a pair of rentals and at least played for a little while. Well, played is not correct. Trying not to fall is more like it.

But it'll come. 

Back to the quilting end of things. Tuesday was a busy day. Here is what I've been working on the past two days...

Another Tilda

And since I've been long winded this morning I'll just tell you all the blocks in the 9-Patch QAL are done. I just need to get the border in. The last block in the Quilt Room is being constructed and I've got a little less than half done on Lynette's Tilda quilt above. 

It May Be...

I had a call into a skating rink in Midland about my old skates and getting them retrofitted for new boots. The plates, wheels, and bearings are all in beautiful shape. The trucks may be dry rotted and the boots are way too small (I've had these since pre-pregnancy). They were my competition skates and after having children, going back to university, moving, starting new careers, etc., skating was put on the back burner.

But when Jim and I met I told him then I'd be a horseback riding, water skiing, roller skating grandmammy. Well, the horse thing isn't going to happen. I don't think our neighbors would appreciate horses on the property. But the other two, yep, that's doable.

Wednesday morning is the "geezer" skate at the rink in Midland. I need more exercise. I LOVE to skate, and when we go down to Ohio in a few weeks, skating is on the menu with the grandkids. Can't use rentals. No good southerner would ever use instant grits, just like no good skater ever uses rentals.

So, if this pans out, my studio will be closed on Wednesdays. Skating is from 10:30 to noon and we wouldn't get back home until around 1:00. 

Meanwhile, since we had to run to Midland for the skate appointment, we also dropped off the borrowed receiver from our pontoon seller, mailed out some birthday cards, and then got back home after 5:00. 

I did long arm in the morning, but barely got one pass done as I'm into a lot of the lower witch detail. 

I did get this put together after we returned.

Q.U.I.L.T. Banner

Today we have the Lansing grandkids on their way up with their parents. The adults will watch the MSU football game against Wisconsin and I'll be playing with the kids (since I'm not really an adult). 😇

The 'B' family usually stays until the kids' bedtime so very doubtful if I'll get much done in the studio today. I do have to switch out all my back to school decorations with Halloween stuff so I'll get to work on that until they arrive. Which is about an hour or so from now. 

Schedule/Hours Revision

Since I'm 'retiring' in less than two weeks I'm thinking about changing my available hours for customer drops offs/pick ups. What do you think? Which day(s) should I eliminate or maybe hours to cut back?

I don't have to decide yet. Here's some background fill going into Lynette's quilt.

A nice swirl and some pebbles here and there

Two hearts and the 'Q' and 'U'

Once we got home from groceries it was still raining pretty hard and there's nothing to watch on TV on Thursday nights (not that I 'watch' TV), but Jim was going to be busy playing his games so I stayed out and constructed the first couple of blocks for the Quilt Room. 

We're headed to a sale over in Harrison this morning. All fabric $5 a pound. You can get about three yards of fabric in a pound and the math works. Can't pass this up and we'll go over and see what we can find. 

I'll be working this afternoon once we return from town. Oh, and all that rain we got over the past 24 or more hours; the lake is filling up nicely. We are still about a foot or a little more before reaching the summer lake levels but it's starting to look like a lake instead of a lazy river! 😊

The Doug (Dug, Dugg?)

Normal work day yesterday except I knocked off a little early. I took this pic before we left.

A view from our front (back) deck

I wanted to show the Fowler's where the new pontoon was going to 'live' over the summer. Speaking of pontoons, it's now in our yard. Which is why I had to knock off early. Jim wanted to avoid post-work traffic going through Midland with a pontoon boat. 

Home at last

I was pondering all week what to name the pontoon. It's a Bennington. Caleb's FFA advisors last name was Pennington. His first name was Doug. I keep calling the pontoon Doug so I believe that is going to be the name we settle on for the new toy.

Once we got home and settled Doug in the yard (for now) and let the girls out for a bit, I hustled in the studio and was able to get the next set of sashings/borders quilted in and the four blocks above done on the QAL.

Then I started cutting. 

Just a few pieces in the next block

It had been dark for quite some time by the time I left out of the studio. Making up for the couple of hours we were gone maybe?

A very rainy day today (hurray) which makes quilting perfect!