The Right One

Black batting showed up yesterday late in the afternoon. Like, after Jim came home from work for the day. 

No matters, I have to get the one on Bernie done quickly because I have a rush coming in from Bittersweet later this evening. 

Here's some of the quilting (if you can even see it) on Paulas Log Cabin quilt...

Using Black and White Thread

Obviously, the thread is melting into this top even in the black border. 

Speaking of which, we may have an issue later on today with that bottom row/border...

It's a little rippled down there

I'm trying to ease this in as I get further along but there's only so much I can do with that. 

Jim worked on furring strips again last night and he almost has the whole east end done. While he was doing that and while I was trying to rest my shoulders a little bit I decided to make a few more cowboy boots while talking with Caleb who called on his way home from campus. 

I have to remember to vary the fabrics a little better.

I may just cut a bunch of pieces for these and make as many as I can while I'm in Shipshe in two weeks. I have so many scraps laying around here and these are so versatile. And cute as all heck. 

The Wrong One

I had two rolls of batting ordered through my supplier and of course, the one I'm in desperate need of, was not the one to arrive yesterday. So, on to more Bernie work I go.

I finished the Tilda Cats for Debby and even loaded and finished her pillow top...

Pillow Top

That only took a little over an hour and then started frame ironing the next one for today. 

I'm finding myself listening to podcasts/YouTube videos in the afternoon while I'm quilting and found one very interesting yesterday, so I had to try it. It's a cowboy boot block and with me being a "retired" horse person, was very intrigued by it and seemingly how easy it went together via the demonstration. 

Between rolls I pulled some scrap fabric and tried a few boots of my own. What do ya think?

Howdy Pardner

I like them. In fact, I think I'm in love. What a great way to use up some scraps and have fun in the process! These may head to Shipshewana with me. Hmmm??? But I had to get away from my newest obsession and work on the puff/biscuit quilt some more before getting too deep into something new. 

While I was trimming/billing/loading/sewing Jim was out working on blowing some of our leaves out of the yard and then heading into the new studio to start getting the furring strips up so we can hang ceiling drywall. 

Lots of steps when doing construction

It seems like this project is kind of at a lull. I know there are a myriad of steps involved in construction, though I had no idea it was this many. 

Well, here's what finally was loaded onto Bernie last night since DW is still waiting for batting...

Paula's black and white log cabin

I'm in love with this quilt. But I love black and whites anyway. I have a few ideas on how I want to quilt this but will settle on what goes in once I turn on the machine and start getting into it a little further. 

Too Hot!

We're cold weather people. When we have temps and humidity duplicating Georgia, it's too darn hot to be out doing much of anything but sweat. I took advantage of staying indoors all afternoon by completing the Scrap Happy top. I finished Sharon's first quilt and loaded her second.

Sharon's second top

We had a storm starting to roll in after I got her top loaded and received a customer. DW does not get turned on when there's lightning flying around all over the place so dug into the bin to retrieve this second piecing WIP.

The second WIP from the bin: Soothing Log Cabin

This is now a top. During the storm I was determined to get this pieced together. The pic does not do it justice (making it look like something out of the 1980's). Heres a close up of one of the blocks. 

More like the real colors in the top

Today I'll be free motion quilting Sharon's second top and mom is coming over for a visit. It's supposed to be on again, off again rain and hot today so I will just plan on staying indoors for the day. Not to mention I have bug bites everywhere and I'm pretty sick of scratching. 

No Decking Today

I needed to take off of a deck making day. There are about another 700 screws to get in there, but I just couldn't bring myself to going out and doing it. I needed to sew today and get myself back into the swing of things.

After finishing Carla's second quilt, this one was loaded and started yesterday.

Mickey's Easy Quilt

After long arming for a while, I cut all the pieces for the new log cabin quilt I've designed.

Ready to start sewing

Not much else going on beyond that.

Not a New Pattern

I've made a few log cabin quilts in my quilting lifetime. They are usually very bright and sometimes a little wonky. Yesterday I ran across one that was neither bright or wonky. But very appealing.

I drafted the pattern and did a test run in the morning. The block was way too big and the measurements were a little off. After putting that aside, I loaded a customer quilt and worked on it for the remainder of the day/early evening.

After thinking about the block made earlier in the morning, I redrafted and rescaled the block to a more manageable size. Bingo! After making another test block, came up with a winner. It's a good thing I did run the test too because apparently math is something you only do in school.

The initial test block

This log cabin top is going to be very low volume; way different then I usually do, but when put together it looks so soft and snuggly. A wonderful soft batting will defiantly have to get put into it to enhance the exterior look of the quilt.

I ordered two jelly rolls from MSQC and hope they get here this year. Is anybody else having trouble with their orders? I sent one in on April 3rd and another on April 13th. Nothing has arrived yet. I can only imagine how backed up they are with the virus thing.

Two Days on the Road

And was somehow able to finish this cutie last night.

Log Cabins and Flowers

This top was obtained from an Amish Quilt Auction last spring in Clare, Michigan. It would make a wonderful lap quilt for an elderly person or a cuddly quilt for a toddler girl. It measures 40" x 52" and will be offered for sale.

I started loading the Lori Holt Vintage Christmas top Katie and I worked on last fall/winter.

Vintage Christmas

 It's just basically sitting there not basted in, but ready to be when time permits later today. Maybe.

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.

New Year, New News

So, let's get this out of the way first. Here's our baby girl.

Hazel at nearly 18 weeks

Apparently she'll mature at a much larger size then we originally thought, which is okay; closer to 75-90 pounds rather than the 40 we were lead to believe she would mature to.

Quilt Camp! I made this top.

Antelope Canyon

I constructed 36 blocks like these eight. I now have to play on the design wall to get them all together.

Scrap Buster for Sure!

Future project: Katie sent me a link this morning about a Project Quilting thingie. It sounds like fun.

Basically, you have a week to make something "quilty" focused around a word/theme and then post for a chance to win prizes and an opportunity to see what others are doing. I have to ask myself if I really need more things to do and I can't help but wonder just how much I need to make more "little" things that are of virtually no use to me around here. Getting a whole quilt done, start to finish, in a week is not where I want to venture into, and making more wallhangings just isn't what I need around here. I think I need to think about this further.

Puppies

My silly pup decided to challenge the temporary fence she had around her yard. It was temporary after all. And she is growing much faster than we anticipated. Needless to say, we spent last night installing a new permanent fence for her yard. And we made it much bigger to accommodate her size.

Since I was basically on total puppy watch yesterday, I didn't get much sewing done.

The previous few days have just been cutting. And more cutting. And then when a blister formed on my thumb from all the work, I did some more cutting just to hit the point home.

Pictures of cut strips of fabrics aren't any fun, therefore I'll not include any. But I'm ready for our retreat in January and have two quilt tops (similar in build as they are a log cabin-type of block), but it's mindless sewing and easier for me to do while visiting with all my friends.

After the cutting commenced, I needed to do something tangible. Something quick and fun. Something with a little whimsy and sense of humor. I haven't been able to get Ben's cow out of my head for about a week, and found the book I based the cow off of (It's titled 'Out of the Box with Easy Blocks' by Mary Lou Weidman and Melanie Bautista McFarland).

I started it yesterday and hope to have a completed top at least by the end of today. More to come...