RIP Luann!

The issue I have sometimes in my studio are interruptions. Quilting mojo if you will. Yesterday was a very unproductive quilting day. Customers in and out. Neighbors, appointments, and upsetting phone calls all interfering with my work day.

By the time I got home with my eyes dilated from the eye doctor, long arm quilting was not going to happen. Meaning, I still have this much to work on the Flea Market quilt... 

Still not finished

While I didn't feel safe working on customer things because the artistic side wasn't going to happen, the production side of me felt safe in cutting out fabric for my next project...

I love black, red, and grey quilts

The whole time I was "working" last night, I could not get Luann off my brain. Luann and I became acquainted about five years ago. Hazel was just a mere puppy and she said she'd watch her (she owned 2Canns Dog Kennel) while we went to our sons military graduation. We've been fast friends since because we both love dogs and we both quilt. 

Luann is no longer with us. After a year and a half battling cancer, the lord took her home two days ago. Now you see why my head wasn't really in the game even if my eyes had been working. I kept tearing up (which is very unusual for me as I view death as part of the life cycle) when thinking of her. I'll miss her dearly. 

Chicago Prices and Turn Around

I was recently told by a shop owner about a customer who lives in Chicago. The Chicago lady is a professional long armer, just like me. The Chicago long armer is eight to nine months out, is booked solid, and gets $0.08 per square inch on an edge-to-edge and beginning at $0.095 and upwards for custom quilting. 

Be thankful you don't live in Chicago. I'd have had the studio complete already with those prices. 

It was a busy phone/visitor day yesterday. First, mom stopped by. I was on the phone with Virginia about the shorted backing on her quilt when she showed up. After mom left, I was able to get a little long arming in and then the rush customer called and asked if he could stop by and pick up his quilt. While he was on his way over I received a call from a new lady asking about my services and expectations for dropping off a quilt top. Right after I hung up with her, Reta called and asked if she could come and get her quilts tomorrow (today) morning. I'm expecting her around 10:00.

The north neighbors came up for the night and we spent the late afternoon/evening with them to check out their house renovations and catch up on the last two months worth of noteworthy news.

I didn't get much long arming done on DW, but I did get Virginia's quilt off, added the extra backing, and put back onto Bernie while talking to customers on the phone. It's hard to long arm when I'm talking to customers. Balancing the phone and the noise is pretty phone prohibitive.

I have people coming shortly to check out the new studio, Reta is coming to get her quilts and I have appointments all afternoon; eye, screen printer, accountant. Blech.

And, yesterday would have went better if I didn't have to deal with these...

Gotta love unmeasured borders

Each roll after the first two are now requiring starch to bring in these seriously pleated borders. There's going to be some changes when the new studio is in place when I'm informed the person is a fairly new quilter. We'll have more room to spread the tops out, measure them, and identify whether there's going to be border issues. 

It's harder to explain why there are pleats after the quilt is finished rather than warning them beforehand there may (probably) will be issues during quilting due to the irregular measurements. I'm not a magician after all. 

Uh Oh

Worked on both DW and Bernie yesterday. I'm at about the 1/3 mark on Kathy's quilt on DW...

Borders

Isn't this texture AWESOME?

After working on her quilt for about six hours I moved over to Virginia's quilt on Bernie. I'm about 2/3's done there. 

Some of the texture in Virginia's quilt

And then I took the second to the last roll, and ummm...

This isn't right

I'm going to have to give her a call and see what I'm supposed to do with this. 

Meanwhile, while I was working on Bernie, Jim was out in the studio finishing the drywall on the south wall, getting the last pieces in the roof to tie in the insulation we got last weekend, and working on the bathroom...

Getting the bathroom dry walled

South end is drywall finished

Jim has Friday scheduled for an off day, so I think he wants to take advantage of natural lighting instead of trying to do this by one work light. 

Mom just texted me and she's on her way over so I may not get much done today on the quilts. I do have to call Virginia first thing about that shorted backing though before I get tied up into other things. 

Windy and Repeat

It's pretty windy here this morning. Not enough to keep me off the machines, but the furnace seems to be getting a workout. 

Here's some of the quilting that went into yesterdays quilt on DW...

ProStitcher hard at work

Once that was completed, it was immediately removed from the machine so the next backing could get loaded and frame ironed.

While the quilt on DW was stitching out I was working on Bernie and completed about 1/3 of Virginias wooly snowmen. I'll mix that one with the one now on DW over the next few days. Oh, here's what's on DW this morning...

Kathy's Flea Market

Yep, another Flea Market. I love these quilts. I don't have to think about much while working on them anymore because I've done so many already. And while they are the same, each one gets a little different quilting put into it. 

Jim worked in the [new] studio last night and it was a typical Monday kind of situation. He felt a little defeated when he came in indicating things did not go well and replacement pieces need to be purchased. We all have those days don't we? 

Solitary

Jim likes to watch that program called Alone. I see these people living out in the wild with no human contact for up to 100 days. Just the land, the animals, and their video equipment to play with. I often feel just like them.

While Jim is here during the evening hours, he's out hunting or working in the studio. Not a real conversational moment. I try to get him to let me help so that we can at least have some interaction, but he's kind of at a solo point (at least for a while) and doesn't need me getting in the way. And I get that. 

I'm not feeling sorry for myself. In all actuality, it's rather peaceful. But the upcoming holidays will be a welcome change and I'm going to relish all the chaos when it does finally get here. 

Here's what's on DW today...

This is the Christmas rush

I'm going to let the ProStitcher run this one. I know I could probably run through it faster, but I'm going to work on Virginia's while this is stitching out. Two birds/one stone. Happy Monday. 

Studio Progress

After finishing Reta's quilt yesterday (although it's still hanging out on the frame), the next order of business was heading out to start working on the north wall.

We discovered the previous owner, when the house was built, had this wide wood siding put on prior to the next owner having it vinyl sided...

A hidden gem under the Tyvek

We discovered this after removing said vinyl siding and a tear occurred in the Tyvek wrap underneath. The Tyvek was then stripped off to reveal this dark grey wall...

Removing the Tyvek

We shifted the drywall Jim was putting up to across the room and then we removed the rest of the Tyvek. Jim had to help remove some of the stubborn siding nails and staples underneath. But here's Jim's other project he was doing while I was working on mine...

Getting the drywall up on the south wall

While the gray siding looked okay, it was way too dark for my tastes. After lunch, we ran to town and picked up some trim for the cathedral north end, more insulation, and a few painting supplies. Have you priced a gallon of paint lately? STICKER SHOCK!

This is what the south end now looks like...

I LOVE THIS!

I need to go check it out in the daylight hours because as you can tell, it was very dark when we finally finished out there last night. 

Ran into town already this morning to pick up lunch stuff and some hinges for the west door. Jim is going to try to get that hung up this coming week and the hinges we found previously weren't the correct ones. 

Not sure what (if any) small project I'm going to get to today. I have to get Reta's quilt off and the backing prepared for tomorrow morning. I have that rush piece that came in last week and need to get to it. 

No Pics Today

Because yesterday was much of the same as the previous day. Reta's quilt is nearly finished but as I was working on the last hours' worth of work, Jim arrived home and suggested we head to The Depot to pick up drywall and particle board for the rest of the flooring and to begin the walls. 

It was a nice (weather-wise) night and I agreed we should do it while we have the time/weather on our side. 

So this morning I'm going to start in the old studio and work on Reta's quilt and once that's complete, move into the new studio to start removing the Tyvek on the existing house side to expose the original board and batten siding. It's a dark gray and runs vertical on the wall. I'm thinking if I paint the wide fore-facing portion and leave the channels darker gray, it would look really cool. AND, that's inside the closet anyway so I'm going with it.

It's better than purchasing new wall board to cover whatever is already there, only to be encased in a closet later. 

My ear is still popping and has pressure in it. I thought I had a handle on this thing, but apparently it's going to fight me. This is a residual from when I was sick week before last and have been trying to work through it all week. Darn winter bugs anyway!