A Day on the Road

First stop was here...

DW's First Home

Jason was wonderful about listening to all of DW's little "problems" that have cropped up in the past 16 months. They'll take good care of all of them and I'll be able to run down to get him (hopefully) on Thursday. 

From there, Bed, Bath, and Beyond to do a Christmas Exchange. From there I met Katie at Cheddars on West Saginaw for some lunch. We have such a fun time together. I hated to go, but still had a few more stops to make...and it was already past 1:00.

The next stop was the B's house to drop off meat and jam/jelly. We had a nice (albeit quick) visit and I promised the grandkids I'd stay longer when I came back down later in the week. There were ugly black clouds looming in the north and I wanted to make sure I didn't get myself stuck.

Final stop was Country Stitches. I wanted to take a not-hovering-over-you look at the Bernina Q24 long arm machine (because both Gall and CS sell them). Once I did that, as well as a little shopping, I headed for home. 

I did manage, once replaying our days to each other, to get two pineapple blocks done before running out of steam. And I had a raging headache. Probably due to the stress of getting the machine down, the driving in not so great road conditions, and not getting much sleep the night before. 

I plan on working on the pineapples some more today as well as the remaining ditch stitching on the puzzle wall hanging. I was also thinking that I would start taking pics of the customer quilts I have in queue and planning the quilting on those. That way, when they hit the frame, I'll already have a plan laid and the quilting will go quicker since I'm losing nearly a week of productivity. And the planning is what actually takes quite a bit of time. 

Posting on a Sunday

After working on the long arm yesterday morning, decided his service date of 2/22 had to be moved up. He was being a very naughty boy and I can't take him being like that with customer quilts. He's taking a trip to Gall Sewing on Monday. Yay! BUT, this means no long arming for about four-five days. 

Ready to head out

His electronics are all removed and his poles are down so all Jim has to do is get him in the truck tomorrow morning. 

Since I can't long arm, I moved to the sit-down machine (once I got the baking and a nice phone conversation with Katie done). 

Here's where I left off last night...

"Puzzle" wall hanging

This is the back side of this quilt because the front side has all sorts of markings causing a distorted view of the current quilting. It appears I have about 11 blocks left to do. Katie asked what I was going to do for the next few days since I can't long arm. Ahhh...the opportunities are endless.

The Pineapple blocks will probably get finished, which means I may not have them to take to retreat. I've got another top I purchased fabrics for yesterday at Pieces and I have a few of those 3-yard projects I can cut and take to retreat so I'll prepare all of those. Cleaning and organizing the studio is always on the to-do list and I'm sure, while I'm doing that, I'll find plenty of other projects I have forgotten I want to tackle. 

Almost There!

I ran out of steam last night. I didn't even work on the Puzzle wall hanging because nine intense hours on the long arm did me in. Not to mention, DW is being naughty and is stressing me out. He's making some weird clacking noises in the bobbin race area and is, once again, making small birds nests when I travel from 10:00 to 11:00. This tells me he is definitely out of time. I wonder if I can get him in sooner than the 22nd? I'll need to call on that.  

But I work within the directions he is behaving and just deal with the issue until he can be tuned up. 

Here's another couple of petal details...

These are LARGE petals to be filling

I have one more petal to do this morning and then all the filler. My goal was to have this to Pieces this weekend and it looks like I might make it. I have another customer quilt to pick up from there so I better get to it. 

Jumbo Dream Big

Yep, this bugger measures 109" square and it's taking for-e-ver! Only half way (not even really) after two full days of working. Again, it's the time it takes to decide what to put in each petal; what's near the previous one, should it be linear, circular, feather-y, or grid-based? Even the placement of the petal within the flower itself poses some hurdles.

Here is one of the petals I was able to snag in a pic this morning...

It looks better in person

I'll be working on this all day between customers; I have two coming today. They were supposed to be here yesterday but a medical emergency cropped up and they had to reschedule for today, which is fine. Again, I'm flexible.

I was able to get two more rows ditched on the puzzle wall hanging last night. It's nice switching to sit-down after being on my feet all day with the long arm. 

Late Morning Start

Hazel has been shaking her head lately (more than usual) and found a little ear infection needed treating this morning. That's always a half hour project.

Beths quilt is done and the needle was immediately thrown away to start afresh on this new top...

BIG Dream Big

And quilting this is quite a challenge. First, a motif. What to put in each petal. Second, it's huge and so are the petals so they have to be done in chunks at the top and the bottom. 

But I'm having fun not having to deal with seams and now that I've switched back to all Glide thread, am having zero skipping or shredding issues. 

After spending a good amount of time on the Dream Big piece I moved into my small wall hanging that was started on Sunday. I have the first row ditched in and it's looking pretty cool. 

I have two new customers coming around lunch time today and will work the panel before and after. 

Long Arm Issues

I've noticed DW acting kinda weird since doing that large paper pieced quilt. He's making a new clicking noise underneath where his bobbin case resides. And yesterday, was skipping a stitch every once in a while. Although, this could be most of the problem...

Blob of fusible

See that fuzzy thing on the right of the needle? That's a blob of fusible in the thread path. This is the second needle I've put into this quilt already. And after stitching for about six inches, it's all gummed up again. I'm going to have to rethink doing appli-quilting for people.

Needless to say, DW is going down for a spa treatment while I'm at the retreat on the 24th. I'm going to drive him down on the 22nd so I can spend the 23rd getting ready. They'll have him ready for me to pick up on Monday. 

I'm going to finish Beth's butterfly (Flutterby) this morning. Hazel was supposed to go to the groomer today, but a snowy day is ahead (they have winter storm warnings out downstate) and was getting anxious about having to go out. Her groom just needs to be rescheduled. 

Flexible

Yup, I'm flexible. I didn't used to be. Maybe it was the farm girl in me (horses do not like to wait for their meals), or maybe it was my military training? Or maybe it was because I had a very strict upbringing? Whatever the reason, I would balk at anything I hadn't "planned" whether it was in my head or on a list. 

But in the quilting industry, not only is my work schedule in here liable for disruptions, machine issues, or whatever, we have to be flexible in the way we think about how to construct a quilt top. Remember even 15 years ago when all we had were templates to construct intricate blocks...and by today's standards, they weren't really all that intricate after all?

Yesterday was one of those flexibility days. But we conquered and moved on. The Small Project Sunday puzzle quilt wasn't even touched except to get moved out of the way. However, Tina's quilt is done for her mom and this is what's on the frame today...

Beth's Beautiful Butterfly (Flutter-by)

This is getting appli-quilted while I'm working on the rest of the quilting. What is appli-quilting? Stitching down the appliquéd pieces while quilting the pieces themselves. It eliminates all the blanket/whatever stitching around each appliquéd piece for the quilt top constructor. I just hope DW behaves and whatever fusible Beth used isn't going to gum up my needle(s) too badly. 

Mom may be stopping by today so I'll have to work late tonight in here. Which is fine. Jim has a basketball game to watch at 7:00 tonight and will keep him from wanting me out of the studio so soon. 

And Katie reminded me that today is the 1st of the month so the machines all get a good cleaning, which I can do while mom is here talking to me.