Not Going to Ohio

We were supposed to be leaving this morning to head down to Andrews. Tristan (our grandson) isn't feeling well, but moreover, Hazel had to have five teeth removed yesterday. She has stitches, pain meds, and is on antibiotics. Too much for the dog sitter to deal with. We had to cancel.

I'll be fussing around the studio today. Not necessarily working but, yes, working. To shorten a lengthy story, I came home with a crap load of fabric from the retreat and have filed most of it away. But I have other things to take care of. 

Here's what I accomplished in four days.

Day 4: Potty Humor

Day 4: The Quilt Room

Day 3: Ho, Ho, Ho

Day 3: Cowboy Boots

Day 2: Flower Power

My birthday was amongst the retreat happenings and Jim not only got me a long stemmed rose for the retreat table, but he got me these for the house.

Gorgeous!

From the pics above, I managed to get five tops put together. The piece I worked on the first day was not going together well. And, quite honestly, I was being lazy. I didn't trim each block as I was building them and it's not going together very well. I'm hoping to rectify that soon since all my big projects are now all together. 

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).

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.

I Have NEVER Done This!

We spent most of the late morning/afternoon with mom. We went out to lunch, cleared out some stuff she needed to get rid of and I think we've acquired a new bedroom set. We'll see if she actually gets a different one for her bedroom.

Despite being gone most of the daytime hours, I was able to get the State of Michigan quilted, trimmed, and then did something I've never (ever, ever) in the 32 years I've been making quilts, faced the finished piece. 

I like the facing!

It was way easier than I thought and I believe all my future artistic wall hangings will get this treatment from here on in. 

I cut out and then pieced the next block in the Quilt Room. Jim was watching MSU get their butts kicked by Notre Dame and I didn't want to hear his grumblings about how the team was playing. 

These are supposed to be spools but to me they look like boxes of presents stacked up. When I quilt this, I'm going to really have to emphasize the 'spool' part. 

Haircuts have already been done this morning and I'm not sure where the rest of the day is going. Since it's nearly noon it probably won't go very far. 😉

A Day of Small

Diane's quilt is done (those small ones usually go pretty quick) and I'll be working on a Trip Around the World on Monday. Meanwhile, after I was able to get Diane's quilt off and trimmed (and all that goes with it), I loaded this onto Bernie to work today. 

I didn't actually baste it in but it's ready to work when we get back from town. Since Bernie is free and DW is not, and since I'll have this done before Monday and having to load another Diane quilt I thought I'd get this done toot sweet. Prior to loading the State of Michigan, I did this little project for my tools I use on DW...

A travel case for teaching

With all DW's things inside

Without anything in it

It was still early so I began piecing the next block in the Quilt Room.

We are headed to visit my mom this morning since she just got back from her up north trip. The game tonight is at 7:00 so I'll be in the studio quite late tonight. I suppose I'm going back to my second shift days at the hospital. 😊

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. 

I May Have Went Too Far

I'm actually feeling worse this morning than I did yesterday morning, but better than Saturday or Sunday morning. I noticed when I came out of the studio last night that I wasn't feeling the greatest.

But, I'm going to continue on today like nothing is wrong. I've got things to do. I'm nearly at the half-way point of the Dresden quilt for Diana. At least it's off the floor this morning. After working I needed to complete the block in the Quilt Room that was started on Saturday. 

I finished the block and have matched it up with the two blocks above. 

Still needs borders, etc.

It still needs to be bordered and the embroidery hoop block will be set in there as well. I wasn't up to wrestling with something big last night. Still kinda achy. 

What's going on here?

Gridding out the interfacing

There is pre-printed interfacing for purchase in increments of your choosing, but it's just as easy (and way cheaper) to make your own gridded interfacing for a smaller project. I would not attempt to do this on something huge. I did that once already and it was a nightmare. 

Here's what went onto the interfacing. 

Hmm?

You'll see later this week what's happening here but I think it's going to turn out well. 

Today will be a repeat of yesterday except for the weather. I should be less apt to squirrel since the weather outside is rainy for now. Yesterday was a beautiful fall day with temps around 70 with the sun shining; who wouldn't squirrel with weather like that?