A Non-Productive Productive Day

For not working on the big machines all day yesterday we certainly got a lot done. Our first stop was to test and pack up DW to come back home...

Going for a truck ride (again)

We always seat belt him in when we travel with him. Just in case. From there we headed to lunch (at the Pizza House) and then off to the shoe store in Okemos (Playmakers, which I highly recommend!) to get another set of tennis shoes to work in over the summer. My others have started hurting my feet.

We grabbed a dessert at Traverse City Pie Company in East Lansing once we found a pair of shoes and then headed to Meijer in Alma for our weekly groceries. 

The next stop was Pieces of Thyme to get a backing for both the Puppy quilt I did at retreat last weekend and for the quilt top Jim skinned for Virginia. 

Once we got home we had to unload everything and while doing so got a phone call from Andrew. They are moving. Holy cow the new house they're buying is gorgeous! 

Now everybody is back in the studio and we have the strip quit reloaded onto DW's frame. 

Everybody has something on them

It makes me uneasy when I have empty frames. Not sure why, but it does.

Jim was exhausted from driving. We ran into a lot of construction and some pretty dumb drivers out there. He took a nap while I cut out the rest of the wedges going into Love Letters...

Ready for piecing

I have three customers coming today. Of course, I get zero calls all week and then boom, we hit the road and my phone rings itself out of its case. All three are dropping off. That means I'll have taken 10 quilt tops in this week. I need to retire. 

Along with customers coming today, Joe and his son Joey are coming to start on those stairs to the lake. Happy Friday. 

Typical Monday

Since I had my batteries recharged from the weekend I was rearing to go yesterday. First up, Dianes quilt on Bernie. Here's some of the quilting that went into it...

Swirl hook

I had to call Gall Sewing about my issues with DW. I was advised to not use him anymore until they could take a look. Not only is he slightly out of time, but he's varying his speed even in manual mode, his on-board screen goes blank every once in a while, and he made a slightly electric smell on Friday. He's going down Saturday to have them take a look.

Since I can no longer use DW until further notice, we had to move the Make Do and Mend quilt over to Bernie now that I was done with all of Dianes tops...for now.

DW is grounded for now

Jim was skinning and frame ironing for the quilt I'll be working on next. Here's what's up for today on Marty...

Another tulip top!

The top above is completely custom and is going to a local show. I'll probably be working this through most of the rest of the week. I have an idea about some of it but still need to work through the sashing portions. 

After fighting to get the Make Do and Mend quilt transferred over (we never really did get it loaded straight), I had planned on getting row three complete. It's nearly there, but now that I'm on a smaller throat space, I have to change out thread colors twice as many times. It had been a long day and it was approaching 8:00 when I started closing up shop.

Not As It Appears

Yesterday was interrupted a little with having to do tax/grocery stuff. We had some things to return, purchase, exchange, and drop off. Meaning, we didn't get everything taken care of until nearly 7:00. I did not do Fireworks/DW work at all. Only customer work. Here are blocks 13 through 15. 16 is ditched and echoed, but not yet background filled.

Block 15

Block 14

Block 13

It's not just a matter of doing these blocks that comes with completing this quilt. It's also marking and quilting the three outer borders, ditching all the sashing, block, and border sections, and finding a motif that 'fits' with the block I'm working on. 

I have to call Gall Sewing today to try and obtain a receipt for the purchase of Marty for tax purposes. Somehow, with the trade-in on Foster and through phone work, a receipt wasn't obtained and the tax preparer needs that document for depreciation purposes. 

Jim has a basketball game tonight meaning I'll have plenty of time to catch up on stuff out in the studio. I'm not really expecting anybody today; at least nobody has called to indicate their desire to pick up or drop anything off, but that could change. 

Alaska Blocks

I worked on a few more Alaska blocks yesterday. 

Here's one of them. 

Moose in the trees

I have the polar bear and loon both blanket stitched and I have the salmon block appliqued but not yet blanket stitched. That leaves four to frame in total to complete the blocks. After all those are framed and constructed into a top, the pattern has a pretty pieced border that will go around all of it. But, I'm getting way ahead of myself here. 

I'll be working on Marty all day on Toni's Christmas quilt. Jim is downstate taking DW to the shop to get repaired since I knocked him totally out of time with that broken needle situation. Jim is also visiting the kids/grandkids while he's in the Lansing area and he has license plates to renew on my truck. Many birds with this stone. 

Working Today

It's going to be another unseasonably warm day today (high 80's) and I guess we're close to breaking some kind of record. But, I have to work in the studio today. 

I had a total of six drop offs yesterday and that took up all my morning. Jim got back from the doctors office and he's off work for at least the next week with many restrictions. One of those is standing for any amount of time. Groceries were on me. After I worked for a while in the studio, wanted to get that task out of the way so headed to West Branch to fetch our weekly chow. 

I wasn't in a long arming mood by the time I got home (early evening) so, instead, made my BOW. Here it is...

Looks a little washed up in this pic

In amongst all of that, Joyce's quilt had to be taken off Marty. One of the quilts that came in is a rush job and needed Marty to work this one since DW's encoder won't be here any time soon. How do I know this? We called Gall. Jason is on vacation. We called Handi Quilter. No orders received coming to the studio. So it's going to be a few weeks. At least. I still have many rows to go on the Bernie quilt, meaning that's what I'll be doing today. 

Here's the quilt I'll be working starting Monday...

For a girl who loves Halloween but hates the color orange

I've been given free licensing for what I want to get in here, but it does need to be custom work. That was my only parameter. 

The Scary Part

Some pretty quilting

There is a time when this long armer (and I think many of us are of like mindedness) is scared to work on a customer quilt. That first stitch. That first motif we put in. Just getting the quilt started is kind of scary. Why?

For the same reason a new long armer shies away from doing "that special quilt" on his/her new long arm. We don't want to "ruin" it.

Here's the deal. If it's finished, it's perfect! Doesn't matter what you put in it. Chances are, unless a fellow quilter looks at it, nobody else will even notice what you did. That's fact and has been proven by this science major. 

So, get out there and play with your machines. Even us seasoned professionals have quilt-beginning anxiety but we take a deep breath, set the needle to the down position, and push start to begin yet again another hug of love. 

DW has already returned home and while I haven't had time to check on his performance, there were many adjustments made that should have transpired the first time he went downstate. He should be fine now. I hope he is because Jim is headed back to Lansing today for our 3-year old grandsons birthday party. Happy birthday Zechariah. He could have taken the machine back down if he wasn't right. 

I'm here. We have some family dynamics that are a little skewed right now and it's best if my unfiltered mouth just stay in the studio. Honestly, I'm feeling so pressured for all the May deadlines I have it is best if I stay here and maintain a "normal" working day. Which is what I'll be doing. 

Christines quilt WILL be finished; at least that's what my head is saying. I have four white triangles to do (like the one pictured above) and the whole bottom and part of the side borders yet. A full day's worth of work. 

Tools of the Trade

What's all this?

I use many (many) tools when I'm working a quilt. This one I'm doing for Christine is so large and has a lot of space to be creative. Here are most of the tools above that I'm using in her quilt.

I'm past the half-way point and will be working this all of today. Jim has taken [another] day off to take DW back down to Gall for the repair on the repair.

Did I tell you about that? The new hopping foot/needle bar assembly wasn't installed correctly. The hopping foot is not sitting level to the throat plate and he's skipping stitches like crazy. It's frustrating with this machine that every time he goes down for a repair, he comes back with another issue and has to go back down again.

I received a UPS shipment yesterday. I was expecting batting (which was one of the packages). I also received another quilt for the queue and a surprise package; the new Shop Hop Magazine for 2025...

This years magazine

And look!

Linda and I are in it!

So excited to see my work in print. Again! Happy Friday!!

It Feels So Good

When I'm away from the big machines for a while, it feels so wonderful getting back on them again. Marty is a dream to quilt with. He's so quiet and is working like a champ!

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

Feathers galore!

Each fabric color gets its own thread color. 13 color changes per roll. And, since Marty is a Q20, that means I'm only getting about 18" of quilt space in there. On a 96" quilt, that means a lot of thread changes. But it's easy on the Bernina long arms making it not a real issue. 

I called Gall Sewing about DW's new hopping foot/needle mechanism that was installed last week. It's sitting a little too low and raising it only causes skipped stitches. I asked Jen if it hitting the throat plate in the back was going to injure the machine. She said it wasn't doing it any good and she'd talk to Jason about it (he was in GR yesterday).

So, I'm not using him at the current time until I get an answer on that. After getting Marty all set up (there's lots to get set up on the machine when you first turn it on) I was able to get two full passes done after my drop off customers departed. I'll be working on this all of today.

I have one customer coming to drop off after lunch. We are getting light snow currently and winter has returned. I'm okay with that. I'd rather have cold weather and snow than muggy weather and bugs. Is it really already Wednesday? 

Class A Success

I was able to finish my coat in class yesterday. Well, I need to press the inside arm seam but I have a finished product and here it is...

Was it worth it?

This coat received glowing reviews from the shop owners, the fellow students, and customers in the store shopping. I guess it's a win. I love it! Jim even said he loved it and that it was cute. 

So, on to my next "garment" project. I can no longer show my knees. My over-sized thighs (thanks skating days) are heading south and heading towards my knees. They are UGLY! Summer is coming and while I do have a few pairs of capri jeans, it would be nice to have something a little cooler and freer flowing in those unbearable 90-degree days.

I love my bib shorts, but again, they show my knees. I tried ordering capri bibs and there are only a few available out there and what is available are ridiculously expensive. 

YouTube produced a vast number of bib overall/coverall/dungaree patterns and then I stumbled upon two Australian ladies who teach beginning garment sewing and how to draft your own patterns. I have hit pay dirt I think.

I have my pattern pieces drafted and cut out. I pre-washed some inexpensive fabric I picked up yesterday at Material Mart from their sale section. I got enough for four pairs of "dunga's" for under $60. One of the few pair on-line I liked were $89 without shipping. 

I was so excited I kept on going. I have the pockets made, the straps and loops made, and will be continuing on today while Jim is trimming the girls. 

Pieces of dungarees

We had a wonderful dinner yesterday after class at Lucky's Steakhouse and just before we left yesterday morning, Jason called and said both the "boys" were ready to pick up. But they were in Grand Rapids. Ummm...no. I have plans and can't make the trip before you are finished with your vendor event. 

Jim is going to take tomorrow off to run down to fetch them in Lansing. Yay. The studio looks empty with two vacant frames, and now nothing on Bernie's frame either. I have a HUGE work week ahead of me I think. 

Life Long Learner

I'm the first person you'll hear say something like, I did not know that or Hey, that's a really cool thing you did. 

My student yesterday came up with a motif I had never really seen occur in the quilting world before, so here's a pic of what she ingeniously invented...

The bottom motif

I like it!

I have a garment class today I'm attending and Jim is heading in with me to do our weekly errands. We're going out for our anniversary celebratory dinner after class.

The girls have already had baths today and while we were getting around for our trip into town Jim noticed two calls from Grand Rapids. Well, two means somebody is trying to get a hold of us. Jason had called from the Plainfield store and said both machines (DW and Marty) were ready to be picked up. BUT, they are in GR not Lansing.

Jim is going to take Monday off and run down to Lansing to pick up the "guys" instead of us having to run the additional two hours to get them. And, quite honestly, I won't be doing much on them this weekend because we're going to be gone all day today...and I don't long arm (usually) on Sundays. 

Let's Talk Wrinkles

So many of my customers are worried about a) the quilt top being square and b) wrinkles in both the back and the front. Neither is a concern actually. Here's why: There is no such thing as a square quilt. The second it's picked up at each of the border corners, it's been stretched and is now out of square, whether that's to put on another border, to show your friend, or to get it folded to come to me.

Wrinkles on the back I take care of when I load the quilt. Wrinkles on the front magically all but disappear when I quilt it.

Here's a before... 

Look at the white area

And here's the after...

Pretty much gone

DW is having an issue with his hopping foot rod. It's becoming loose(r) than before and I've contacted Gall about getting the part ordered and having this situation serviced. The new machine (Marty) can not get here soon enough!

After working on Sharon's Flower Power quilt well after normal quitting time, Jim came in from doing outside stuff (fenced the white pine in the girls' pen for one) and assisted me in getting those parallelograms hung on the design wall. I can start filling in with my scrap pieces now...

I've gotten a few of them done already

There are more scrap pieces that are finished, but they are for the bottom section(s) we could not get on the wall.

I have one customer coming to drop off and I'll be continuing on with Sharons quilt most of the rest of the day. 

Happy Valentines Day!

I'm wearing my burgundy, pink and white today to celebrate the day of love. Although, I think we should celebrate love every day. No?

Janice's colorful top is now a quilt. I didn't get any pics of the E2E I put in, but I drove and did the swirly feather flower all over. Except the border where I put in a half feather.

Here's what's on Bernie next... 

Steam Punk from Indiana

I have three quilts in a row for a customer in Indiana. Her name is Gail and I get tops from her at Shipshewana for me to quilt. This one is going to be a shop sample so there is custom going in.

DW hasn't been fully loaded yet but here's what he'll be wearing today...

Janices Soccer Boy Top

This is actually a Carpenters Star from what looks to be a layer cake and some background fabric. I'd love to quilt this with some shocking green, turquoise, or yellow but that's not what the customer wants.

As promised yesterday, here's some of the quilting going into the I-don't-remember-when-I-did this quilt on Foster...

Corner treatment

Upper border area

This looks so cool with the afternoon sunshine hitting it since Foster is on the west end of the studio.

I was on the phone all of yesterday morning. Bernadette and Maggie are coming to get their quilts around noon today. I left a message for Gail (other Gail, not the one from Indiana) about her Dad art quilt being done. I had to call Gall Sewing about something I have in the works (a secret until something more concrete comes of it), and then Gail called me back to let me know she was on vacation until the end of the month and would pick up her quilt then. 

My brother was texting me during all of this so I was definitely multi-tasking because I was also basting in and getting ready to quilt Janice's quilt on DW as soon as I could get off the phone. 

Well, I have nails first thing and will get right back home to work on Janice's second quilt before the girls show up around noon. Happy VD!

Settling In

 I called my dealer about DW's basting issue and he said he noticed there was a slight issue there, but seemed to only happen to him once. He thinks after DW "settles in" it'll rectify itself. I'm not so sure. I don't want to risk messing up a customer quilt, so I have another one of mine on him and I'll work through this today while I'm frame ironing the next one going onto Bernie.

An applique of the U.S.

The "secret" quilt is done so Bernie is now freed up. Jim and I had to make some minor adjustments to his frame since he's pinching in the middle, causing me erratic quilting. Not cool.

Another rainy/cloudy day today. But we really needed this rain. We were at a very high fire possibility because things were so dry. 

Today is also election day. Jim and I will go vote tonight when he gets home from work. I need to do a little lunch time research to see where I'm going with all of this. I can't this morning as the computer has an update it wants to do and I have quilting jobs to deal with. 

Retreat Week(s)

To prepare for the two upcoming retreats I'll be attending, I needed some more leggings. And tops. Jim and I finally broke down and purchased a Costco membership and wow, can that place be overwhelming. We've learned something about Costco and that's to not go there on a Sunday. What. A. Zoo!  

But I found four new pairs of leggings, three new heavy weather tops as well as some other fun things. We'll be shopping there for Christmas that's for sure. 

Anyway. here's another block for Bee Happy. The pokey-things coming out of the top are pins and they'll be given pin heads when I quilt this piece. 

Rain expected all day today. Usually when we have icky weather I get very few customers. I'm hoping to get the "secret" quilt done today and I have to call Gall about this "catch" in the basting stitch DW is having issues with. Hopefully he won't have to go back down next weekend and it's something I can fix here.

I'm Still Here

Along with Friday's secret quilting, I worked on this block on the Bee Happy...

Bee Hive

I also received these in the mail...

So Fine! Thread

It was a good thing it came too because I needed that orange for the secret quilt. 

Yesterday we did this...

Ignore the quilt...how about the machine?

DW is back home! Ya know, every time I bring him back home, it's like learning him all over again. This time his little quirk is not wanting to really stitch long stitches with the up/down button. But his regular stitches are beautiful. ???? I'll have to call tomorrow to find out the possible reason for this. 

I threw this top on (one of mine from the October retreat) and did an E2E. I hadn't done an E2E with the new tablet yet, and I knew if DW was going to be a turd, this was the time he'd do it. 

He quilted beautifully.

He only had two or three thread breaks, and I think it was my fault for getting the backing too tight. When he's perfectly timed, this happens. After he loosens up (a few million stitches in) then he's a little more flexible and I can crank that back pretty taught. 

I'm going to get this off the frame this morning and fiddle with the little "issue" of those long stitches. I had to rethread him when we got him back on the frame. I probably messed that up since I haven't had to thread this machine in like, forever.  

This IS NOT Cool

Both big machines sitting on the floor at my dealer waiting to get in to be fixed. 

In the waiting room

The sad thing about this is that they won't even get looked at until Thursday. At the earliest. My tech is on vacation until then. But we had to run them down during a non-work day because now that I'm down to one machine, I can not take any time off of the studio to deal with this. 

And then we went over to visit the B's. Alicia and Hannah scooted off to a baby shower upon our arrival, leaving only the boys. They are in the middle of landscaping their yard and the rock pile is a great place to play?

Jacob has new glasses and Elijah likes to hide

Love these kids to death!

Going to Lansing

DW and Foster are headed south to get themselves back to rights. We are leaving as soon as the dryer is done.

Here's what's on Bernie for Monday...

Elleens Christmas Mesiah

Still working through how to quilt this one. Meanwhile, we'll be on the road all day and then Spartan Football when we get home (well, Jim will be watching Spartan football. I'll be working on Bee Happy). 

Monday's Are Not My Friend

I had two calls yesterday from customers; both men. One of them stopped by later in the afternoon with his wife wanting a custom quilt (or three) done so it was an initial consultation. I don't normally build quilts for people, but I may make an exception here. 

That was the good part of the day. More business. The start was the news of Scotts passing and then just when I thought the day was ironing out, DW did something he's never done before...

Doesn't look like much, right?

The needle is barely going into the throat plate and then it hits the race. The piece the bobbin goes into. And just all of a sudden while taking the last line of stitching into Patty's quilt it banged, had a motor error, and severely bent the needle. And, of course, this all happened after my dealer was closed. After doing some of my own investigating I realized this wasn't something simple. I think he'll be heading to Lansing in the next few days. Looks like his timing is WAY off, or, let's just hope that's all it is. 

I'll be working on Bernie for the foreseeable future now so I have to get Diane's quilt off that's been hanging out there since Thursday and reload with her next one. But I still need to trim and prepare Patty's quilt for pick up. Thankfully, the weather has been cheerful because so far the week isn't starting out very well. 

Thunderstorm Morning

We have a nice late spring/early summer thunderstorm rolling through right now. It doesn't look like it's going to last too long but we needed the rain at any amount.

Yesterday morning was spent on the phone. Literally. ALL MORNING! The only thing I stitched on DW was to baste in the batting to the back to get a plumb line. Yep, that was it. 

I only took one break after lunch and when Jim got home, I had only set in the first two rows. The motif Linda decided on is spectacular, but so (so, so, so) time consuming. Here's what the last of her quilts is getting...

Custom quilting the last one

What takes so long are the channels and the feather spines. Each and every one has to be individually started and stopped.

Gall Sewing called yesterday and said all my goodies were there. Caleb is planning on coming up today to do berries with Jim and he'll bring everything with him. It'll be nice to get a ruler base on Foster. It's even nicer to have children that support what you do!

Sherry's quilt arrived to her place all safe and sound (UPS'd that out on Monday night), and Pat N. called to thank me for the beautiful job I did in her quilt (that was delivered to Terry a few weeks ago). I needed those calls after the mornings phone interludes. 

Looks like the storm is already winding down. Time to get the music on and the thread a runnin'. 

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.