[Not so] Small Projects

Saturday was spent on the roof. Which was fine in the morning before the sun came out. And then it got hot. Here I am "fixing" the damage we did to the existing house when we tore off the siding to join the two structures...

Trying not to burn my feet

See the grey siding void in that triangle to the left? That needed to be fixed. Which we did. Then we proceeded to get the rest of the roof done (what we could with what supplies we had) over the porch. Still waiting on the metal. 

I did manage to get a little fun time in the studio. Saturday, I started on Foster with the Dream Big panel until Jim needed my help outside. Friday night and Sunday morning I made thread baskets; one for Foster and one for Jay. 

This was supposed to be for Jay

I ended up putting this one between Mike and Ellie because it's bigger than the one that was there. I moved the yellow one over to Jays table.

Fosters thread basket

Since this was his "initial" stitch quilt, I repurposed his sandwich into his own thread basket.

Yeah, that's about all I got done this weekend. Jim planted his garden yesterday and I planted a few perennial plants (Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, and Lemon Grass) into a bowl and put it outside the new studio door hoping to keep mosquitos from coming in. Yeah, right.

I actually had a customer come last night. Yep, Sunday night. She was in the area and wanted to pick up her quilt. We weren't doing anything earth shattering so I said it would be okay. She brought her grandson and he loved the girls. 

Today I have to return and few phone calls before getting onto DW. I'll be working/finishing Linda's second quilt. Don't know if I'll be loading her third because that's one of the phone calls I have to make to clarify motif placement. Don't know if she'll pick up or not. She tried calling yesterday. I'm not sure what about "I'm closed on Sunday" people aren't getting lately? 

As much as my life is about quilting, sometimes it just isn't. <Gasp>. I need the time to just take a break so I don't burn out and resent my passion. I want to continue to love, love, love what I do, ya know? 

Challenges

When I'm given a challenge, I love to use problem solving methods to make the situation right. Yesterday, the borders were the challenge. I starched. I steam pressed, and even that wasn't enough to ease in the large amount of fullness in this border...

This is kind of excessive

I ended up taking a tuck because there was still over an inch remaining after all my other options were exhausted.

Here's what's going into each of the blocks in this piece...

A Sawtooth Star

I realize now why I'm not traditionally an edge-to-edger. Yawn. These motifs take a little under a minute to stitch out. Not enough time to work on Bernie, or do much of anything else. Then the motif has to be tied off, moved, realigned with the next block, bobbin thread pulled up and then stitch again. That's not problem solving nor is it a challenge. 

After working on this piece over six hours yesterday, I moved onto Foster to work the Dream Big Minky piece...

Eight petals completed

This machine has excellent lighting. But when I switch over to it during the evening hours, the window behind it faces west. With the sunlight coming through and the lighting on the machine, I was having a really hard time seeing the petals in here. I dialed the lighting down on the machine and that helped.

After working on that for a bit, I moved to Mike to stitch the first six blocks together in my sit-down 365 project...

That didn't take too long

Once that was finished I rolled it up and put it away until the next six blocks are done. I moved over to Ellie to construct the next set of blocks (33 of them) in the scrappy green clean-out-the-dresser project I'll be chipping away at for a while. I have 80 more blocks to go of the 168 I'm going to need.

Jim was busy cutting trim pieces for the studio and he got the transitional stair piece installed too.

No customers scheduled today. I'm going to make a thread basket for Foster to start and then I'll see if Jim needs my help outside (he's working on the porch). 

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

Okay, so the Linda quilts are not going to take as long as I thought they were going to take. The first one (Williams) is done and the second back is being frame ironed right now. I'll get that loaded in the next half hour.

Dealing with wavering borders. Again!

No work on Rae's quilt yesterday. 

Work on Foster did occur and a couple of lessons were revisited while working on it. 

    Lesson 1) Don't assume the parts that come with a new machine are ready to quilt with, i.e. the needle. Skipped stitches taught me that. So replaced needle. And did a thorough cleaning of the race and bobbin area. 

    Lesson 2) Don't assume new is better. While I appreciated the idea of clear view on the frame, it was not holding the quilt parallel with the ground, and, I didn't have anything to put my arm/hand on while quilting. Thank goodness it wasn't an extra feature I had to pay for; it just came with the frame. 

    Lesson 3) Different thread delivery requires modifications on thread treatment. I will have to net all the large cones of thread on the new machine because the thread base sits and is designed differently. It kept catching and breaking/shredding the thread. 

Here's what was giving me these re-learned lessons...

Crazy Feather

Work on Jay consisted of two blocks, but the first row is ready to assemble. Jim yard mowed this week so I didn't have to which gave me an extra two hours of studio time. Yay!

Gas line in!

Jim also did some studio work outside. The gas line is buried and no longer worrisome to me. It made me nervous with it above ground, especially since we are into mowing season. A very productive day for us both!

Tattoos

The new long arm didn't seem like part of the "gang" until he was reasonably dressed. Meaning, he needed some tattoos to fit in with the crowd. Nearly all of my machines have some kind of bling on them and it was a visual priority for me to get him to fit in...

Do you see anything missing?

Jim noticed it right off the bat when Foster was delivered. Can you see it? The line on the "Q" is missing, making it look like I have a HoForte. No, he's a guy, not a ho. 😆

DW stitched Ann's quilt out beautifully but I can't say the same for me. The motif I selected was too big for the frame space and he, inadvertently, twice, motored out because I didn't give him enough space. That was fixed (error on my part) and he had her quilt done by lunchtime.

In fact, I was starting to frame iron the back of the next set of quilts when I called Ann to let her know it was finished. Yes, I wrote that correctly; the next SET of quilts. 

Here's what I'll be working on today...

Linda's first of three for William

There's a story that goes with the next three quilts but I won't carry one about that. They are all pretty much the same but each requiring a little different treatment in quilting. This is Williams' quilt. 

I'll be using the ProStitcher to do these, but not in the E2E format. Each individual block receives a singular motif. All the blocks have to be ditched, so I'll be driving that portion, but then will engage the motors to do the piano keys and the motif for each block. Very time consuming!

Each of these next three quilts measure 80"x100" so this isn't a one day and done situation. Plan on seeing these for a while. 

Nobody expected today. My batting and the tattoos showed yesterday. Still waiting on the Red Snappers and a check from a customer but doubt if they'll show today as I received texts/messages about both just yesterday. Onward, ho. 😊

Four of Six

I currently have six machines set up in the studio. Three are long arms and three are domestic sewing machines; one for sit-down quilting only. Of the six machines, I was on four of them yesterday. All three long arms and the sit-down quilting machine.

I love my new studio!

Sherry's quilt is finally finished and here's what's on DW today... 

Ann's patriotic quilt

This is getting an E2E with DW driving. While that's stitching out I'll be working on Bernie doing some more chipping away at Rae's quilt. Lots of thread going into Rae's quilt and more thread equals more time.

The girls are still having a hard time deciphering the new studio situation. They wander around. Lay somewhere. Get up. Wander some more. Lay down. Get up. Wander some more. Lay down. This is one of the spots they wandered to yesterday...

Can't seem to find "their spot" yet

They'll figure out eventually. No customers expected today. Many deliveries expected over the next week or so. Still waiting on that batting to arrive and I have tattoos for Foster as well as a package from Gall coming. I'm also expecting the Red Snappers for Foster in that bunch of stuff so maybe something will show up today. 

Yesterday's Project

I thought yesterday's project would go quicker than it did, but of course, squirreling happened and so did neighbor visits. And movie day.

These two totes have all my tops in them, along with some of the backings that go with them...

Plum full as a tick

The tote on the left was as full as the one on the right until I started pulling out tops/backs. Then I found one in the pile that just had to be loaded onto Foster because I already had the top/back pair and it doesn't require ruler work (I'm still waiting on the ruler base for Foster). I hunkered down and actually pinned the backing on and it's waiting for me to do something with it now...

A "minky" dream big panel

Okay, so I may want to put some piano keys on those borders, but I'll see what I can do without my rulers. 

No customers expected today and it's a cool-ish day to start our summer, so I'll be cranking on Sherry's quilt until it's done. It's time to get that one off of DW's frame. 

Family...

...is so important. While I was in my groove working on my latest WIP (see below) the kids arrived for a cookout, some corn hole, and then off to the ice cream shop. We had so much fun! They weren't here long, but we knew they wouldn't be and we savored the time we had with them.

Before, and after they were here, I was working on my latest WIP (bags and long arming didn't appeal at the time). 

When I moved from the previous studio to the new one, I rounded up all the WIPs and put them in separate bags and then tucked them away under the spare room bed. This one is for me to be able to work on the sit-down machine at night if I'm tired from being on my feet all day.

Making the "base" blocks

I started this about two years ago. Then after getting Bernie, the sit-down machine and the quilting table had to be put into the barn until there was more room to house everything. I'm getting the blocks all made, sandwiched, and labeled so I can just sit and sew when I feel like it. 

It's a 365 quilt and a combination of two books are being used to initiate the quilting within each block. Every block will be quilted differently with white thread and after looking at the first four "sections" already completed, have realized I have learned so much since I started this back then. Once all the blocks are quilted, the joining of them will be similar to joining quilt-as-you-go blocks. Of course, I'll keep blogging about my journey on this one.

It's not going to be finished overnight but I'm excited about it coming together at some point.