Bedroom Make Over

I did a little knitting yesterday afternoon while relaxing and snuggling with the dogs.

Have you ever prepped a room for painting? I've started (as you know) by getting things out (like the dresser), but yesterday morning was spent washing walls, trim, ceiling fans, and doors. While I'm not painting the ceiling fan or door, it's nice to start with a clean slate. And, frankly, they needed it.

Here's the bedroom with the 'before' pic.

I'll repost the before pic after we get the room finished, but it's going to be a few months before that happens. I have to get paint first and with that I'll need my mom. She knows color and coordinates. I'll leave everything up to her.

Diane's quilt on Bernie will be finished today and then I'll be moving over to Marty to start Lynettes Quilted Witch. No pics of that yet. 

Enough

Ever have one of those days when you wake up and think to yourself 'I have to thoroughly clean all the bathrooms'? Today was one of those days. I could not take it any longer and everything needed to be dusted, washed, and rust-removed. I just finished.

We headed to Standish, Pinconning and Alder yesterday. When we got home and right after lunch we headed next door to visit our neighbors. It was a particularly unproductive day in the studio. I did, after returning from the neighbors house, get the binding on this wall hanging.

I'm hoping to hang this from the center beam in the studio today but Jim is out spraying around the house and then inside for bugs. We do this periodically to keep critters outside. I can't have bugs in here.

Not much else going on for the remainder of the day today. While snuggling with the dogs later I hope to work on the last embroidery section for the Quilt Room quilt and then I can start piecing it with confidence that all of the embroidery work is complete. 

Just got word from my friend over in Crystal that the pontoon registration for my grandfathers pontoon hasn't yet arrived. We may not be getting it after all if this thing doesn't show up. 

Beat the Clock

I was playing beat the clock yesterday with the humidity and the air erasable pen I use to mark with on quilts. I was also playing against mother nature who decided to cut my day short (more than once) with thunderstorms. Not only did I get off Bernie before 3:00, I couldn't even get on DW later in the evening.

Here is row four of the row by row for Ginny...

Textured wood and some flowers in the background

So I did some sit-down work and as the storms continued to roll through I continued on with more sit-down work. I got a love letter block done before 4:00. I moved over to a cowboy boot...

That was done by 5:30. Jim was still canning so I had plenty of time to do something else. I decided to get Rita the Ripper out and work on that. Turns out I had more than enough time to work on it and even put a border around (which the pattern did not).

Rita the Ripper

This pattern is still available on-line and in some stores. There is a whole series of them available including bobbins, thread, and other sewing notions. I thought this would go well with the needles wall hanging I have on the 'design wall'. 

Well, I still had some more energy and started going through my bag-o-tricks to see what I could start next. I have to have a half-dozen things going in the studio at once. However, only one or two appliqués are permitted. I can only take so much blanket stitching. I know this next project needs to be pieced first and the cowboy boots should be done before having to blanket stitch things here so this is my next project...

I've quilted a few of these for customers already and mom bought me this kit for Christmas two years ago. I'm NOT going to fuse these down. That's a lot of layers and the long arm isn't particularly jazzed about it all. Neither am I frankly.

They are large pieces and I feel like I can stitch them down as I build the blocks. I may get some fraying, but I'm okay with that. In fact, I may just promote it because that would be stinkin' cute as heck. 

Today is another round of beat the clock. Very humid and we have rain (maybe storms) coming later this afternoon. Ginny's quilt would have been done yesterday had I not had the interruption. And I have a customers' husband coming to drop off this morning, so I should be able to get the quilt done. 

Light Pollution

We've had a number of properties in the immediate area change hands of ownership. It may have been through the changing of generations or through sale. We live in a pretty rural setting with a country-esk feel. It used to be an occasional mercury light on a pole and some solar lights on decks that lit up at night. 

On our farm we had two outside lights; one on the back porch and one on an old windmill frame that we could turn on and off with a switch inside the house. 

Nowadays, folks seem to think they need to light up every square inch of their properties. It messes with the lightning bugs, the migrating birds, and trying to see the night skies. Seriously people, if you want light, move back to the big city and leave our little country paradise to nature. 

While trying to snag this awesome reflection of the full moon last night, I was having a hard time because of the house kitty corner across the lake from us. They have recently installed a very bright light above their barn. It makes the Bellers' pontoon lift look like it has headlights on it and it was affecting my attempt at night photography. 

That's the moon on our lake last night

Speaking of inconsiderate, let's talk about barking dogs at 12:30 in the morning. I love to sleep with my window open at night. I can listen to the night creatures (which we only get to do for a very short time) and wake up to the birds singing in the morning.

Unless there is a dog barking kitty corner (the other way from the light people) for hours on end all through the late night/early morning hours. I finally had to shut my window so I could attempt to get some rest. Last I looked at the clock it was 2:30. 

More work on Quilt Diva today. Jim is in Midland getting an Occ Therapy physical for his W/C situation. And today isn't the only day he has to deal with this but has to go back in tomorrow morning too. What a load of crap we're dealing with. 

Getting Things Finished

The t-shirt quilt is done! A day ahead of schedule.

When the customer came yesterday to pick up her quilt she was asking about the machine binding that I do. She said she was having trouble getting her stitches to 'line up' on the backside of her quilt. I grabbed the strip quilt and we loaded up the machine with the correct threads and I did a quick lesson with her. I LOVE teaching!

Since the quilt was started, and while Jim was in the shower, I started the rest of the binding...

It didn't get finished because we needed to get our weekly groceries. Always a sticker shock at the check out counter.

Today I'll be working on this cute Amy Bradley Quilt Diva wall hanging for Ginny...

Quilt Diva pattern by Amy Bradley

...until Jim can get the backing loaded onto Marty for the next show quilt that's due like right now. 

Customer already here and gone to pick up the t-shirt quilt and the rest of the day/weekend is mine alone. 

When It's About The Piecing

If a busy quilt top is received into the queue and the customer wants custom work done on it, a look at what I have as a whole is necessary. The quilt I'm currently working is not about my quilting. At all! It's about the piecing. I have to decide how to enhance the customers piecing and not detract from it with the quilting. It's a balancing game. Here's an example...

See anything?

The top half of this block is quilted but can you see anything? No! And you shouldn't. Her appliqué work on this is stunning and I do not want to detract from her efforts. I'm just laying down thread to hold the piece together and not messing with her substantial accomplishments.

I've seen this quilt on-line and found that most long armers are merely doing an edge to edge on this particular pattern. Sadly. It detracts from the overall image(s) and bunches up some of those many layers this quilt has.

Because all of these pieces need to be started and stopped individually, this is taking a long time to quilt but so worth the work!

After working on this all day (and well past quitting time), I moved right over the DW to do my strip. I made a scrappy goodness block after that and then I was in the mood for some paper piecing. 

While I had zero intentions of working all of the third column in Rita, I was having such a good time that I did indeed get the third column completed and attached to columns one and two...

One more column to go

I love to paper piece and this has been fun. There are a lot of teeny, tiny pieces in here so as I'm building it I'm trying to work out how this is going to be quilted. I'm still unsure but it'll come to me when the time comes I'm sure. 

Today will be on Marty all day working on Bernadette's Hometown quilt. And, probably tomorrow as well since it's a slow-going process.

Okay, Please Stop

I've had to unfollow a few Instagram quilting acquaintances recently. First, I don't talk, listen to, watch, read, or get involved with politics. I think our WHOLE government system is broken and pointing a finger at one individual gets old. I can't fix it. You can't fix it. Even as a group (because plenty have tried) can't fix it. I'm at the age where I just want to enjoy my life and live each day like it's my last. Getting my blood pressure up on something I have no control over isn't worth the days I have left on the Earth. 

Let's think about our founding fathers. They, with their bullying, desecrated millions of Indians because they thought they were far superior. Sound familiar? How are we to blame the current situation on anybody but them? It's a vicious cycle that won't be fixed in my lifetime. Unfortunately. 

On to more positive things. I have finished the wall hanging for Cindy S. and have moved onto this quilt on Marty...

A lovely sampler

This is all hand appliquéd and this is a very large quilt. It'll be on the frame for the whole week I'm afraid. 

I have set in the first border and am working through the remaining borders today. Most of them have been ditched and I'm planning out the rest. 

Love a formal feather

While Jim was advancing the current backing being frame ironed on Bernie, he ran across this little situation...

A "darned" tear

The owner of this backing darned what appears to have been a tear in the fabric. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this because I'm afraid this is going to seriously interfere with the quilting going into the top we will load later. 

I did another Fireworks block and worked on DW for a while last night. I just had to do custom and thread changes for all the fruit didn't I? This is taking a long time to complete. 

The weather app on my iPad said we are to have a cloudy and windy day with zero precipitation. As I'm blogging, it's snowing out and has been for about a half hour already. Aren't apps great?

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.

Brrrr....

Haven't seen these cold temps in about seven years. Minus 18 this morning. Thank goodness (for now) the wind isn't blowing. 

Because of said temps, we are staying home and not taxing the trucks, or ourselves for that matter. In fact, we are colder than the North Pole and have been for going on our second day. It's Michigan. We're a hardy bunch. 

The Grannies Garden was finished yesterday morning and I moved over to Bernie to work on this...

A wall hanging for Cindy S.

I have the bones set in and have started doing the quilting. This will be finished on Monday. A block was made for the Fireworks top and I moved over to DW to finish out my short day in the studio. We wandered over to the neighbors around 6:00 last night to visit with them. They had the flu last time they were here. 

I plan on doing some more work on The Produce Section on DW most of today. I received a few digitized E2E's at retreat so I need to get that piece off since there's a March 1 deadline on both of them. 

Cleaning up the Messes

Here's the quilt I'm working on Bernie...

The next holiday project

Here is a little of the quilting going into the borders...

Some of the quilting

After working until around 5:00 last night, I was at a good stopping point (bobbin ran out) and I then moved over to DW. I finished the table runner that was on him, but didn't get it off the frame as of yet. I have my reasons.

I proceeded on with my two BOW's and here's the results...

Too stinken' cute

I'm a little concerned about my fabric availability on the next two blocks. The background white is getting pretty darn low and don't think I'll have enough to finish with that particular fabric. ????

What I thought was only one quilt to get borders on, discovered there's another one below that one to also get borders on. Well, at least one was completed...

Life IS better at the lake

Since I don't have a BOW to work on tonight, the second top requiring a border should be able to be completed. However, we were on the phone last night with the B's and that lasted until almost midnight. Jim and I were both up at 5:45 this morning turning over last nights conversation so I'll be pushing through the day on sheer fumes.

And, I have two customers coming today to drop off; one this morning first thing and another later this afternoon. Customer presence seems to wear me out more than it used to. Not sure why? Age maybe?

It's Good To Be Home

I am so sad on the last day of a retreat. Leaving friends behind is always hard and the laughter we share will be missed until the next retreat. But, I love our home and while I do miss the girls already, it's good to be back.

I did not get as much done as I usually do at a retreat. Miscuts, undercuts, and other circumstances (lots of shopping) resulted in the slower progress, but I did manage to get the BOM top done...

BOM top ready for quilting!

I also completed two table runners for holiday gifts this year, but neglected to get pics of them. 

We spent yesterday unpacking and getting everything back in its place in the studio. I organized a few things I purchased in Shipshe and then we started working. The quilt Jim quilted while I was gone needed trimming and then I attached the binding to the front. Hand binding commenced after lunch and after only getting about four feet done, had to quit for the day. The hand can only handle so much,,,

Hand binding (bleh)

I received word this morning from the kids in Germany and all four quilts made it!

The quilts made it to Germany!

That's my kids' head above the pineapple quilt. lol. 

I missed blogging during the week, and I really missed the 'big guys' so I'm starting early this morning to take stock in where I left off, what I need to load onto DW for Jim to work on, and get my head back in the game. Vacation is over and the holiday season will be here soon. Let's quilt!

My Own Rules

I started the day out on DW getting the wall hanging that needs to get to Germany quilted. This was all before or near 10:00. Jim had to head into town to run some errands and get some personal affects from his desk (unsuccessful) leaving me here to do some quilting...

I finished Carrie's quilt on Bernie just before 4:00 and then looked behind me. 

I have a rule about DW. Once a quilt is taken off (mine) then the next one can NOT be started until the binding is on the one just removed. Yet, this was staring at me all last week as well as this week thus far...

Four ready to bind

Yep, four of them. I started around 4:30 and ended around 7:15. Enjoy the show!

Originally for Rayola but going to Germany now

Baby Spartan

Baby Hedgehog

Baby beds

Jim can ship these out next week while I'm gone. Speaking of next week, I popped open my tote to see what I had left to sew at next week in Shipshewana and it isn't good. I have one (ONE!) project in there and that certainly isn't going to keep me busy for a whole week.

I have the BOM I can cut out and take as well as Chads flying pig I could work on. Jim drug out my wagon for transport of things up to the room(s) and so tonight I need to start thinking about my projects being taken to Indiana and getting things around for that. 

I have two customers coming to day to pick up and this is what I'll be starting on Marty today...

A few of her favorite things

Another holiday deadline. 

Lots Going On

This is what I'm currently working on... 

Carrie R.'s hand embroidered girls

Here's some of what's going into it...

The inside border

Outside border

Jim did this little quilt for the kids in Germany...

Hedgehogs for the hedgehogs

Babysitting the Pro Stitcher

We had customers come later in the afternoon for pick up/drop off and they are infrequent visitors so we caught up with all that we'd been up to over the past six months. Delightful ladies for sure!

After the hedgehogs were completed we constructed backing, frame ironed, loaded, and then basted in for this next quilt on DW. 

To put into the nursery in Germany

We both selected a design together and got it ready to start first thing this morning, but the longer I thought about what we had picked to put in there the less I was sold on it. Back to the drawing board. I'll continue on with Carries quilt on Bernie once I get Jim started on DW. 

Rayola

My life this week seems to be like a shampoo bottle; lather, rinse, repeat. Here's some more of the quilting going into the two Tilda Samplers...

Not originally in here

This was originally just a cross-hatch, but I wanted to try a new stencil I got a few years ago. Yep, it took me this long to give is a whirl. It's a pain to work, but so worth the effort!

When I moved over to Bernie in the afternoon, I found this...

Fabric too short

I had to give it a good amount of thread to keep it from coming apart later. Once I was finished on the work quilts, I shifted over to DW and stitched this out...

Part of a Farmers Daughter

I started the Farmers Daughter and then lost interest. This is about as far as I got with it. Here's what I put in...

A loose flower-y swirl

I got the small wall hanging bound I finished yestreday while DW was doing his thing...

Notice the embellishments?

I have now this hung in the studio bathroom. After the Farmers Daughter was done stitching I got it all trimmed and ready for binding...

Gotta find some binding for this now

And I'm frame ironing for the next quilt going onto DW. I'll continue doing that while working on Marty this morning. At some point later today, I have two customers coming to drop off five new tops. Thankfully, she's not in any hurry to get them back. It's a good thing because it'll be a while.

One more thing to report; Jim and I have decided that anything under a king-size quilt will be donated to Rayola. With the exception of those very dear to me (365, Town and Country, etc.). We are going to sort those out this weekend since it doesn't seem there's anything else going on during the holiday. Hopefully, it won't be too hot out there in the garage going through all of those totes. 

RIP Teresa

We got news yesterday morning that Jims sister Teresa passed around 10:30 in the morning. She's had a 2 1/2 year battle with cancer and just as one mass disappeared, shortly after another would surface. The last one was in her brain. She lived in Tennessee but there will be a Michigan service later this fall. She will be laid to rest next to Jims dad in Olivet. 

Teresa and I didn't get along particularly well. She was a "Christian" but laid judgement towards me at virtually every turn for one thing or another. A few years ago, she and I got into a physical altercation at our home downstate and I never recovered from that. I am just glad she's no longer suffering. Nobody should have to suffer like she did no matter the circumstances or relationship with others. 

The house was very cold this morning. Near 60 degrees and it's because it got down to the low 40's last night; the lake was even steaming this morning.  Jim cranked the main house furnace on and then I went out to the studio to plug in the iPad and it was nearly 60 out there too. Not living in a cold house. I cranked up that furnace for a spell just to get the chill off. I'll turn it off once it's done cycling. 

But the first furnace burn is the first smell of autumn this year. I love it!

So, I got caught up on Marty where I was at on Bernie and here's some of the quilting going into either one...

I believe all three of these are actually on Marty, but the one on Bernie is getting the same treatment long-arm-wise.

And, more of the same today. I am expecting one customer to come and drop off later this afternoon. Yep, that's my day today. Whee!

After working on the "work" boys, I moved over and finished out the Sewing wall hanging on DW...

This one is quilted and I'll probably bind tonight

I was waiting for the marks to disappear before binding this, so once that was trimmed and sitting in wait, I started loading the next back for the next top of mine. I had to piece the backing first before loading it, which wasn't a big deal.

While frame ironing that back, I worked on my Tilda piece. I did get section three of the "A" section done. This quilt is taking me a lot longer to make than I thought it would, but I'm okay with that. I'm not in any hurry to have something more to long arm. Although it would be nice to have it on the wall. 

Cooler Temps, Better Working!

It looks like signs of autumn are starting to show. Leaves are starting to lighten, cooler temps at night, and today's high isn't even supposed to reach 70. I love autumn and it's perfect quilting weather. 

I did get two of the three pieces bound yesterday...

Isn't Lewis so cute?

Already on the design wall!

I started the binding on Gravity...

Half done

And that's as far as I got before having to stop and make lunch. I talked to mom yesterday while working on this binding and she did a cow similar to what I did on Saturday assisting with an art class in Beaverton. Weird, huh?

I have one customer expected and she's picking up while I'm working on both Bernie and Marty. Oh, what's on Marty? Let me show you...

[Another] Tilda Sampler

I think I'm going to work these in tandem. It will eliminate me from having to constantly refer back to the photos of the original I did and these gals want them both quilted the same as the original. This one on Marty, however, is double batted, so there will be a little more of a challenge there. I haven't actually "loaded" it yet, it's just waiting for me to start getting thread in. Happy Monday.