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!

High Expectations

Wanna see the cutest baby ever?

Our Germany granddaughter

She loved the pumpkin patch yesterday.

I'm quilting along yesterday and I noticed I was throwing a lot of little threads on the floor. More than usual. I was picking them off the top I was working on and decided to do a clean sweep of about an 18" square area.

This is what I got.

Seriously?

Maybe I have higher expectations than other quilters? I know while I'm pressing my seams I pick seam threads out during the whole construction process because they'll just come to haunt me later on the frame if I don't. 

Do others not care? I'm a rare long armer that will actually clean your top up for you while I'm quilting. Simply because I don't just plug in a motif and push play on the computer and walk away and do something else. I see every millimeter of the top and take care of issues (threads, tears, missed seams) while I'm working.

If I wasn't a long armer and had to send quilts out to be quilted, I'd make damn sure I got rid of as many seam threads as I could. I expect myself to take pride in my work and not make others work harder due to the lack of caring/laziness. 

Soap box done. In the last hour of my work day mom stopped by and stayed for a few hours to visit. She also needed to pick up one of the quilts dropped off last week for her new bed on its way.

After she left I jumped right in to working on the Quilt Room. It was time to put the next big section together.

We finally have a rainy day today; we sure needed it. It's easier to stay rooted to the machine working when the weather adds to the ambiance; love rainy days. It's not going to be a long day though. We are hopefully going to be picking up the new pontoon later this afternoon. So. Fricken. Excited! 

Getting a Late Start

When I woke up at 7:30 this morning my intention was to just lay there and watch nature outside the window. I woke back up around 8:40. Oops. Must have been tired.

Dianes quilt is nearly done but I'm shifting over to this piece to get it done for the holiday.

Lynette's Quilted Witch by Lori Holt

Pumpkins!

I'm free motion quilting pumpkins of all shapes and sizes into the border. 

I pieced the next block in the Quilt Room

Scrap bins and bolts of fabric

Block #4

Block #3

Block #2

Block #1

Not sure why these loaded in reverse but I started the QAL with Natalia Bonner of Piece n' Quilt in Utah last night. I was having so much fun I did four blocks. I had all three long arms busy yesterday!

More of the same today while enjoying the picture perfect weather the past week (mid-70's with sunshine).

Do You Pretreat?

Sue's quilt is quilted on Marty but yet to come off the frame. Once that's done this morning I'll be turning to Bernie and working on this.

Diane's fourth quilt in the project pile for her

Once work was done yesterday the moving/cleaning started. I was able to get the dresser into the studio with all my under-a-yard cuts in it. It's going to hang out with all the customer quilts waiting in queue.

Once I was done with that for the day (more to come in the following week(s)) I was contemplating starting a new project and then after looking through my bucket list stash finally decided on something. Oh the choices! 

The Quilt Room is still going strong, but I like to have more than one project going at a time and I have nothing else in the works at the moment. Not until I can get to a retreat and get the Flower Power and Cowboy Boots on the wall to get them together correctly.

I do not normally pretreat my fabrics. I used to. I used to prewash and starch all the fabrics I used in a quilt. And then I started using precuts and it's pretty hard to prewash jelly roll strips or 5/10" squares. 

I LOVE Acorn!

And when I started using precuts I stopped the whole prewash/pretreat thing altogether. 

I recently watched a YouTube video about why I should at least pretreat fabrics before delving into a project. Well, I'm still not going to pretreat precuts but I will yardage and a FQ bundle. This next project has me using both and so it's getting the royal treatment. 

I hope it makes a difference because I need to piece pretty tight with Granny Squares by Lori Holt; which is the project I'm marathon cutting for.

I know a lot of quilters who have cutting their fabric at the top of the dislike list. It's actually one of my favorite things to do. I may feel differently after cutting over 700 white pieces and nearly 800 colored fabrics but that's what I started doing last night. Cutting for the next project. 

I also need to make a small design thing so I can lay out my blocks before piecing them together. I'll be working on this at retreat(s) because it's more like assembly line sewing and won't have to really think while making the blocks while gabbing with folks. I've learned my lesson about doing an intense project at retreat. Not a good decision. 

A Few Household Changes

Mom wants to get rid of her bedroom set. Not sure why because it's gorgeous. We are inheriting said bedroom set to include a large dresser, night stand, and a sleigh bed frame and mattress. The situation we have with that is moving the very heavy set. And, I need to rearrange/paint the room.

How is this quilting relate? The other lighter cherry dresser we have in the guest bedroom has all my under a yard fabrics in it. It will need to be moved out to the studio to make room for the other set. Jims 'dresser' (it's very small) will be moved upstairs as will the two mattresses from his downstairs bedroom.

Moms new bed should be here in a few weeks so I have very little time to get all of this done. I think maybe we'll move the fabric dresser tonight?

Anyway, back to the studio stuff. I have this going into Sues quilt on Marty. She wanted very light custom quilting in here so I'm doing a piano key in the border and a continuous curve in every other block in the body. I'm nearly half-way complete. 

Piano key border with cc's in every other block

I cut out and pieced the next block in the Quilt Room. 

Books!

I jumped on DW after I got that finished and am on the last row of Book Nook. Jim is concerned about him moving upstairs in that the girls use that bed to look out the window for incoming visitors. They mash down any dirt they have on their paws and although I have a protective 'cover' on the top of the bed, it's not quite big enough to cover the whole thing.

I guess I need to make another cover and I think Christmas is a good time to do that. We can have all the family long arm something for memories. The current cover is just that. When I first got DW we loaded some fabric onto the machine and let all the grownups play. I'll keep that quilt forever even though it's not finished or correct. But, it's memories. Once we get to this age, that's about all that really matters anymore.

In-Between Weather

It's the time of year when putting on almost winter clothes starts the day, layers get shed throughout the day, and layers reemerge later in the evening. I'm back in a turtleneck under the sweatshirts. I don't shed many clothes knowing in a few hours I'll just have to put them all back on. 

Diana's quilt was finished yesterday morning and here's what I started working on after lunch.

Diane's third quilt

This one is pretty straightforward. The border is a braided block extended to just have ditched and a 1/4" echo inside. The background is a loopy flower but the challenge comes inside with all the white area. That's all embroidered and will need to have ditching done around. 

While I was cleaning up from Diana's quilt and getting the next one prepared for frame ironing, Jim was working on some new thread drawers for me. The beautiful thread containers that were under the pressing table have been relocated to make room for new thread cones. 

Relocation

This pic turned out weird?

I have thread coming out my ears around here, which is great! I need thread in my job and just to have to piece with. 

Speaking of piecing. Since I was sick on the couch Saturday, I didn't work the Temperature quilt blocks at that time. I got caught up on those last night while talking to Andrew.

After having those built and put into the ever growing top, I moved over to DW to work on the Book Nook. One more book row to go. Oh, and hey, that was all three long arms yesterday. Haven't done that in a while. 

The sun was shining in over the back of the top

I was going to continue on but it was approaching 8:00 and I was starting to get a little tired. I got up too early yesterday I think. 

One customer coming to pick up sometime today and I'll be working on Dianes quilt trying to get it finished before the weekend hits. 

A Lost Afternoon

Jim didn't get home from his appointments until nearly lunch yesterday. He wasn't into really starting something because he knew we had to get groceries in the afternoon.

He hung out with me in the studio for a while and I finally said that we should go. Needless to say, Dianas quilt did not get done yesterday. Today for sure it'll be finished.

After we returned home I started making the next block in the Quilt Room since I had cut it out the night before (forgot to mention that yesterday). 

These blocks seem to be getting harder in technique (those knitting needles were not easy) as the progression carries on. 

We have a typical fall week upon us. Colder temps, hit and miss rain showers throughout and very little sunshine. But the leaves are beginning to change and fall and the mum is in full bloom. Jim picked up my pumpkins for the studio porch and I'll need to deal with the white one here soon. 

Just another work day today and beyond that, who knows? I need to get the quilt on DW finished so I can load for the 9-patch QAL that's going on right now. 

What's Taking So Long?

Those who aren't into the whole long arm scene do not know what we do as long armers to actually do their quilts. It's not just putting in stitches. As I've discussed before about the 'after' process, what about the 'during' process other than the quilting?

The first item up is unlocking all the ratchets to actually roll forward. 

After the quilt is rolled it looks like this.

Since this isn't straight and flat this has to happen.

The quilt top is brought up and the batting is smoothed first. Then the top is moved back into position to smooth it out. 

Once that's done and the quilt is squared up on the frame, the side leaders/clamps have to be attached.

And now it's time to baste in both sides after everything is checked and ready to get started.

I baste in at about 1/2". Oops, one more check. All the seam threads need to be pulled in that row.

Now it's ready to start getting more quilting put in. This whole process above takes about 10 minutes to perform. This particular quilt gets a roll for each sashing row and each block row so nine advances on the frame. That's an hour and a half just for rolling each section. 

Remember those little squares I took a pic of yesterday? Well, this is what they turned into last night. And after that I did get all the sections together in the Quilt Room.

Diana's quilt will be finished today if all goes well. Jim is at PT and then the dentist so I'll have a quiet morning. The girls are sulking because he's not here. They'll get over it.