Bugs Bug Me

More on the bugs thing in a minute. I'm about half-way done with the 'tis the Season quilt and I'll continue on with that as best as I can given what the bugs did to me last night. 

When I was finishing Bernadettes Quilted Witch yesterday, the pumpkin I quilted didn't set well in my head. Here's the before...

I back rolled and did a modification. Here's the after...

Did some matchstick fill

Doesn't that look better?

I was working on Bernie in the afternoon and after being done for the day I was going to switch to Foster to work on Arcadia Avenue. BUT, the temps are calming down and it was a rather nice day. There are a number of outdoor chores that needed to be done, and Jim was in here canning peaches so decided to head outside to work.

Dumb idea.

After picking up doggie poo, mowing and weed whipping the pen, I moved to the privacy fence to start digging up the flowers to move them into nether regions of the yard. The area I took them from is going to be the girls' new pen; the one they are in currently was a temporary during construction. 

I got those all transplanted and then still had some daylight to work with. I grabbed the post hole diggers and tape measure to start getting their new permanent post holes dug. Jim had some pressure cooker downtime and came out to help me. We have rock hard clay and I was making very little headway. While he was doing that I grabbed a couple of buckets and headed to the lake to get water for the new transplants. 

After that was done, Jim had to head back in to work more on his peaches and I dug the last post hole on the east side by myself. I was about spent after that yet need to work more on the west end. Maybe tonight? Or maybe not. Look at what happened to my eye during all of this...

Swollen

Something bit me and it's so swollen I can only look straight ahead or down. There is no looking up. I hate bugs!

If I get the 'tis the Season finished today I'll be moving over to this one on DW...

Stack and Wack

Voting

Do you vote? I most certainly do. Last night was our local township and county vote night so not much personally in the studio completed. I am nearly done with the Quilted Witch though. Would have finished if we didn't have to go vote. And the north neighbors are/were up and we spent some time with them as well.

Once the Quilted Witch is done (about another hour-ish to go) I'll be moving over to Bernie to work on this...

Diane's 'tis the season quilt

Look familiar? She did hers exceptionally better than I did mine. Life is good isn't it?

Good, Rainy Tuesday Morning

We have a rather nice rain shower coming down but is expected to be out of here by late morning. Meanwhile, the annual physical is at 10:00 today so I'll be starting out with that this morning. Bleh.

Here's some of the quilting detail going into the Quilted Witch...

Curly Hair

A spider web

Pumpkin face

I have about a third more to go on this piece and don't know, if with this mornings appointment, I'll get this one finished today. Hopefully.

After working later last night (to make up for this morning) I had to rest my foot and worked on some sit-down quilting. I haven't been taking many pictures of all of that and I'm not really sure why. Here's some of last nights...

Section 14 or 15 (I think)

What's funny about this project is that even though it's quilted to death, once I get all the sections done and together, I'll have to still put it one the long arm to do the borders (because four of the blocks are cornerstones) as well as ditching all the actual quilted blocks. I'm not doing a traditional quilt-as-you-go assembly on these and that's why. 

Small Project Sunday

I finished two bags for customers and got caught up with my July BOM/Mystery quilt-along with SewVeryEasy. Yep, that's about all I did in the studio yesterday. 

Jim washed the dogs. 

We vegged the rest of the day after a late lunch. I think Jim and I run so fast during the week we need that downtime to recharge our batteries. Isn't it funny that when we were younger this was never a need?

I never did get a pic of the finished studio as you walk into it from the porch. Here's a visual to show what you see when coming through the door...

As you walk in

I have one customer coming later this morning to drop off three quilt tops and I'll be working Bernadettes Quilted Witch on DW all day. Happy Monday. 

Happy Place!

Jim and I are both going to be in our happy place today. He's canning...

Pickle time!

And I'm going to be on Foster all day working on Arcadia Avenue. Here's another glimpse of the quilting going in...

One of the "blocks"

Last night after working on the Quilted Witch all day, we headed to Midland to grab some new, correct shoes for me. As well as inserts and compression socks. Apparently I have developed Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot and we're hoping this will correct it. We did other errands as well, but that's not quilting. 

Once we got back I worked on Charlotte's top, which is now complete (I didn't grab a pic) and then started a few more customer bags.  

We've already did errands this morning (shower fixture, turkey burger, and milk (Meijer was out last night)) so we're hunkering inside since the temps are already stupid. 

Happy Friday Heatwave

What's with these Georgia temps and humidity this week? The lawn really needed mowing and Jim kept putting it off because it's hard on the mower to run it at these temperatures. Well, last night he broke down and did the lawn; it was looking pretty shabby. 

And it's time for him to do pickles so he won't have time this weekend to fuss with it. 

I finished the cute baby quilt on Bernie yesterday morning and moved over to start this one in the afternoon...

Bernadettes Quilted Witch by Lori Holt

I have two of these in the queue to work, each being quilted a little differently. When I researched how others quilted this piece, most everybody chose an E2E for it, but a few did exactly what I was hoping for. And, once you begin a quilt you're committed to doing that throughout the quilt.

Here's the insane amount of filler going into the negative spaces. Thankfully we are putting a bamboo batting in here so it will remain soft and pliable despite the amount of quilting going in.

Large pebbles and a swirl here and there

The blocks themselves are given about a 1/2" echo and then ditched inside. I am quilting inside the blocks if there is a big enough space (larger than 4") for me to do so. 

The "accessories" in the quilt i.e. witch, broom, pumpkin, etc. are going to get special treatments once I get there. This quilt is going to take a few days to complete because I'm insane. 

After working on DW until about 5:00, I moved over to Charlotte's quilt and attached the first white border around the rainbow blocks all the while thinking to myself how am I going to quilt this?. 

Attaching the first set of borders

It needed another "block" treatment on the top and bottom to make it rectangular shaped rather than square so I made these rainbow 4-patches. I called Jim in once he was done mowing to ask his opinion on which layout to choose...

Which one?

Since the first rainbow blocks are kind of stand along-ish we decided the top option. 

No customers expected today and we have to run to Midland this afternoon to get groceries and a new pair of shoes. This foot issue I'm having isn't going away and without my feet, I'm sunk. Hopefully we'll come up with a solution. 

It's August Already?

The summer is zooming by, isn't it? Talk of returning back to school is all around me and soon the leaves will start to change. I love autumn! These high temps and humidity can just go away.  

Paula's second quilt is done and she'll be here later this morning to get both of hers. Here's what's on Bernie today...

A cute kiddo's quilt

I have it all basted in and started...

A nice E2E I'm putting in

I'll finish on this during the morning (if customers don't stay too long) and I'm frame ironing the next back on DW while I'm working on this. 

After hours last night I worked some more on Arcadia Avenue and then the foot started really throbbing, so I moved over to sit-down quilting. My control is getting better and am really enjoying turning the page of my book to see what I get to quilt next; I don't look ahead because the element of surprise is fun.