Weather Cooperation

It was a wonderful day yesterday with the storms. I didn't have to shut the machine down for lightning and hopefully, with any luck, I'll be able to get the Farmyard Friends quilt done today. 

Here's some more quilting going into the right side of the quilt...

Quilt detail of the right side of Farmyard Friends

Getting the backgrounds prepped for the circles

To give my arm a reset I sewed the corners on each of the background blocks for Flower Power. Once those were finished I jumped on DW. If I had to stay up all night I WAS going to finish the Judy Niemeyer that's been sitting there for over a week.

I didn't get much sleep the night before but my determination won over and I powered through getting the piece done. 

I must like binding (which I DO NOT) because I'll have the table topper and the table runner to both bind this weekend once I get the marks off this piece below. I had to do a second spray this morning.

I'm technically closed today but I am still working on customer stuff. Once the quilt on Marty is completed though, the rest of the weekend is mine to play and enjoy our countries 250th birthday. 

Apparently Backwards Day is a Hit

I got SOOOOO much done yesterday. Not in any particular order I made a Love Letter block, matched the cowboy boots up with their checkerboard blocks, cleaned the iron, received the batting I was expecting, started this quilt below, quilted two sections of the Judy Niemeyer on DW, frame ironed and have the Farmyard quilt on Marty ready to start and made a 9-patch top. Here's the pics I grabbed during the day. 

Detail work on the Judy Niemeyer on DW

For the 9-patch quilt-along

Some of the quilting going into the one below

Finishing this one today hopefully

Today I'll be finishing the quilt on Bernie and hopping on over to Marty to start working on that immediate deadline. The one on Bernie is a July deadline so I better get to it. I'm quilting barefoot today since the temps when are already in the 80's with high humidity. Air you can wear! My feet will complain later tonight, but I'm wearing a lightweight dress for the icky weather and don't want to add more heat. 

A Little More Subdued

The star that I made yesterday (after having to remake a few of the parts) went together fairly easily. My colors are not as vibrant as the cover of the pattern, but am happy with the results...

Woven Ribbons by Judy Neimeyer

The rest of the afternoon was spent snuggling with the puppies and trying to stay warm. This frigid temp situation is taxing the house and our furnace, that's for sure. 

I'll be finishing the Flea Market wall hanging for Cindy S. this morning and then moving onto the quilt I'm frame ironing the backing for on Marty. 

For once, I'm working with the sun instead of against it. The sun bounces off the propane tank in the afternoon, which hinders my ability to see during the late afternoon. The sun is blazing through the windows on the east side of the house in the morning, which hinders my vision in the morning on Marty. 

Personal Time

At one point a person needs to take time out for oneself. Yesterday was spent working on DW the entire day and then after doing long arming I moved over to work on two Fireworks blocks. I didn't know if I'd feel like doing anything out in the studio today. 

After those two blocks were pieced and trimmed I wanted to start something new. The Fireworks blocks are a once-a-day thing, and the AQS state blocks are a once-a-week kind of thing. I didn't want to start something huge so found this in my stash from Shipshewana...

I have enough batiks to work this so started right in. 

My latest little project

The thing that intrigued me about this pattern wasn't so much the quilt design, but rather the quilting that was in the design itself. Had I not seen it completed in the quilt shop in Indiana, I may not have even given it a second glance. It's a Judy Niemeyer, and while I love doing her patterns, sometimes the directions are a bit muddy. 

Thankfully, I'm not a beginning paper piecer because this set of directions, were again, a little muddy to understand. Today I'm hoping to work on some more of this. We're getting a late start today. I could NOT get to sleep last night despite having the busy day that I had; I remember seeing 3:54 a.m. on the clock. Meaning, I slept in.

Just A Little Bit Of Quilting

Here is the first border in our week-long project on DW...

I LOVE feathers!

Yes, that's me driving...not the computer! The second border also has a different set of feathers in it but won't photograph well since it's such a busy print and I'm using a complimentary thread.

Can you even see anything?

I worked on this top until well after 7:00 last night and decided that was enough. From there I moved to the Alaska blocks and completed this one...

Bear Paw

I had a surprise pick up yesterday and I have another scheduled pick up this morning. 

Meanwhile, I'll be shifting my energy this weekend away from the Alaska blocks to something a little different. It may not look like much when I'm done, but I'm willing to give it a try and feel like doing something a little new for a quick change of pace. 

Jim has to move the computer this morning since where it currently lives is where the Christmas tree is supposed to go. I'm sure I'll have to direct "traffic" in this endeavor since not only does the computer have to move, but so do the two chairs in the "office" and in the living room. 

Found

I had to do some maintenance on both of my bobbin winders last night and found these in a basket with all the tools for the machines...

Lots of half-square triangles

Before I do anything else I should probably put these into some kind of arrangement and get them sewn together. 

Believe it or not, I still have a half-day on Anns quilt. These Judy Neimeyers take so long to do. It's only the last border, but again, borders take forever and all the flying geese are individually started/stopped. 

After working I started right in quilting the background for the Yoder Sisters wall hanging. 

The left block

The center block

The right block

All the background area needs to be done next. The pattern designer pebbled all of it, but I'm (of course) not going to follow her lead (I didn't with the blocks either). 

After working on those blocks, I finished binding the last quilt on Foster and here it is complete...

Ready to give away

Not sure where or who this is going to. I just love making things. I'll be starting on what I've loaded onto DW later this afternoon, but today will be cut a little short; we have to get food at some point so basting in and getting a design planned will be about all I get done I'm afraid. 

Bitter Winds

Even though it's very cold outside (six this morning), the wind is what makes it nearly unbearable. Jim said it's even cutting through his Carhartts. 

One more day on Anns quilt I think. Once again, while the furnace was running I was working on Foster and piecing the background for the new Yoder Sisters wall hanging. 

This is now complete

I have attached the binding on one side. I'll finish that tonight. I did finish the whole background on the Yoder Sisters and have it loaded...

Ready to quilt

Yep, I know. Normally one would get the appliqué on there and then do the quilting as a whole. I'm not doing it that way. This has a lot of really intense quilting in it and it's too big to do on my sit-down machine, so I'm going to background quilt first, attach the appliqué pieces and then appli-quilt those down on the sit down. Everything will be stabilized and I can whip that puppy around as needed while adhering the appliqué pieces. 

Who likes to follow rules anyway?

My scrap dresser is bugging me again. I think I'll get the Creative Grids pineapple ruler back out and start eating up some of those scraps. I just need to stick to darks and lights. There is no right way on a scrap quilt I don't think. I'll just starting cutting the needed pieces, make some piles and then start working block by block. 

Sunny to Gloomy

It was so sunny out yesterday. A welcome reprieve from the gloom previously. But, this is Michigan and two sunny days in a row in the winter is almost unheard of and today proves that fact. Very cloudy this morning and we are expecting a bit of snow later this afternoon. Ahhhhh...winter. But better than bugs!

I finished Janices quilt yesterday...

See why these borders took so long?

I started in on Anns quilt on Bernie...

Stars of Valor by Judy Niemeyer

Isn't this quilt gorgeous? I'm hoping she's going to gift it and my military son saw this over the holiday and went nuts! They have a Judy Niemeyer (Amazon Star) on their bed and this would be a very nice compliment to that quilt. Isn't it funny that I have two red/white/blue quilts going at the same time?

I'll be working on this mostly between people visits; one customer, one plumber, one brother, and, one mother are all expected in and out throughout the day. 

I've discovered one thing though. Working on Bernie a) when the furnace is running and b) when it's sunny out is nearly impossible. The furnace bakes you and the sun blinds you coming through the south window. I may have to rethink the arrangement out there???? Jim's going to kill me if I already want to move things around. But that's what I do. I like change and this may need to happen to keep production going. 

Retreat Day!

Because my truck was gone for five days. And because we've had bad weather, I've only been out of the house once in two weeks. I am so looking forward to seeing quilting people again! 

While I'm waiting for the retreat doors to open at 10:30, I'm going to get a few stitches into Debs quilt and pack up what I forgot to pack last night. There's always those few items you remember while showering. 

Here's some of the detail going into Debs quilt...

Inside corners

The arcs

The leaves

I'll keep chipping away at this during the weekend while I'm here. Probably not a whole lot because I'm usually bushed when I finally arrive back home at night. But maybe in the mornings if I get up early enough.

While Jim has been home during our ice storm, he's been working on my thread cabinet. He's waiting for some more glides to arrive before he can finish, but it's in the studio and he loaded it up with the threads I had in the ugly plastic cart. And in baskets. And in bins. 

My new thread cart

I'm going to have to do some rearranging I think because he's also made a ruler rack to go on the side and it's going to interfere with the ruler rack on the wall if I don't rearrange. Not a problem. I'm flexible!