I Do NOT Criticize

Plenty of my clients complain about how bad their piecing is or how their points don't match. Ya know what? I can fix that! Long arming and an experienced long armer can "alter" a lot of bad situations. And quite frankly, I do not judge. I'm one of the worse piecers out there. I mean, you'd think I'd be better after almost 30 years, but I don't stress about it. I pin very little and the outcome is all the same; a quilt for somebody to keep warm with. 

BUT...when you advance a quilt and you get a very nice, straight, almost perfect sashing across the belly bar...it makes my life/job even easier. 

Nice and straight!

I'm getting so excited for the new studio. The mudder is supposed to be finishing up today (although he's not here yet so I'm a little concerned). Jim is going downstate to work in a few weeks and I'll be painting while he's away. 

Did I mention the ceiling issue with the drywall? It's got issues and it's not the mudders fault. Jim and the boys lined up the seams (instead of staggering them) and this is going to be very obvious in the future. Even with several coats of paint. The mudder suggested a textured ceiling. 

I do not want to do texture. The long arming business is a very linty and dirty job and crap flies all over in the studio. I vacuum/dust bust every single day and the last thing I want is a ceiling that is prone to collect all of that. Especially with the furnace we selected which blows directly across the floor. 

I'm going to "Grunge" the ceiling instead. Won't that be cool? I have to find some nearly white grunge for my color inspiration, but I think I remember it having shades of pearl, white, light gray, and just a hint of teal in it. I think the "seam" that Mark the Mudder can't fix will look intentional in the grunge ceiling. Even though I'm going to be upside down working on this very large canvas, I'm excited to get to it. 

Did Anybody Miss Me?

I missed me which is probably what counts the most. Still not quite up to par, but I'm going to take the day hour by hour.

After customers came and went on Wednesday, the remainder of the day was spent napping off and on on the couch. And then I slept a full eight hours in bed. 

Yesterday wasn't spent sleeping at all, but just resting, taking it easy, doing minimal chores, and no long arming. What was attempted Wednesday morning has to be taken out and redone. Hauling 50 and 60 pound machines around when one is weak and can't see well (part of this thing goes into your eyes) the results are not pretty.

I am feeling a bit better, yet still pretty weak. And, for some reason, I could NOT sleep last night. It was well past 3:00 this morning before I finally settled down and then was awake each hour after that. I got up before 7:00 so I think maybe today may not work on the big machines.  

First thing this morning is a nail appointment. I can not miss this one because it's been a month tomorrow since they were last done and they are getting way too long!

So, there's no pictures to share today. Just keeping track of why I haven't really done anything much in the past two days in the studio. I miss sewing. I'm going to try working on the DSM for those banners I'm making the grandkids. I'll see how that goes since I can't really mess that up too badly. 

If I start progressing in a forward direction, then maybe (this is a big one) I'll fire up Bernie since he's the lighter of the two big machines, but I'm not going to push it and don't want to have to rip out more stitches. That's never any fun. 

When You Wish Upon a Star

If you're gonna wish, wish big, right? My two wishes for today:

1) This virus thing go away. People are so misinformed. The media stretches and cuts/pastes what they want the public to hear from physicians and medical facilities. The public is in a frenzy.

2) A sit down mid/long arm machine. My Janome (Mike) just doesn't like doing it. He'll only allow me to go down or to the right. Going left or up results in immediate issues. 

But, those are wishes and the reality is just dealing with what ya got in front of ya. Which I'm fine with. I stay home. Sew. Quilt. Get on-line for interaction with friends/family. It's all good for me actually.

Here's what went on the frame and partially quilted yesterday. 

Valerie's Bookshelf Top

It's loaded sideways in case the bookcase didn't come right into perspective. 

The pillow to match the top for mom was made and marked up two days ago, and I had every intention of quilting it on the Janome. But after trying to quilt my little monthly wallhanging yesterday, decided it would probably be best if I just do it on the long arm. 

Mom's pillow top in the works

Long arming had to stop mid-afternoon since the wind became rather ridiculous. Moving on to the slabs afterwards to complete the red and red/orange set. Once finished with those the May wallhanging was roughed in the day before so I worked on it. 

The wallhanging was background stitched with my double needle prior to adding the appliqué. But when quilting down the appliqué, forgot to add a backing to the dumb thing. Today that  has to be fixed  somehow. It was the last thing worked yesterday and decided I was probably tired and needed to stop at that point. 

Aannnddd, it's a Quit

The red and white quilt is completely quilted and trimmed for the customer. Unfortunately, nobody can come get their quilts for a few more weeks, but at least I'm all caught up...for now. I have a feeling a few weeks from now may be a game changer with everybody having so much time at home of late.

Today, however, I'm venturing into the world of Helen Godden. I'm making an art quilt for moms new twin bed when she moves into her condo.

This is a preview of what I'll be making...this is NOT mine, but Helen's piece.

So beautiful!

Can't wait to get started, but I'm doing mine a little different than Helen is doing hers. My blocks will be traced and assembled prior to doing any quilting. Once the whole top is complete and ready to quilt, I'll transfer it to DW and work on the quilting there. She is doing more of a quilt-as-you go kinda thing and while I would LOVE to do that, I have time on the machine to be able to do it over a few days rather than the two weeks she's working through hers.