Cutting

A lot of quilting folks have their favorite, and, well, not so favorite thing to do. At the latest retreat, I polled our room and the least favorite chore was cutting the fabric and much to my surprise, binding was one of the favorite pastimes to do when quilting.

I'm just the opposite of the poll I took. Binding is my absolute least favorite thing to do and cutting is one of my very favorites. 

I had all these to play with yesterday when preparing for the Produce Section...

Look at all the lushisness!

The first cuts are made. I know, from talking to fellow Elizabeth Hartman quilt makers, first cuts are made and bagged and then when each fruit element is made, more cuts will follow. All the colors are in their respective fruit bags and ready for me to tackle once I get to that point. 

However, today is back to the regular day schedule. I do have an eavestrough interruption in there (which is our last "big" studio finish project), but hopefully he'll show up after Jim gets out of the woods; he took today off to hunt some more.

First thing this morning I have to move the back loaded onto DW over to Bernie and then get a back loaded onto DW for an E2E that has another Christmas deadline. Man, I sure hope moms surgery isn't going to happen. I know that sounds selfish, but this is putting undo pressure on me. It takes something I love to do and turns it into a "job" which creates resentment and stress. Not cool. 

And...I'mmmm Baaaccckkk

I am back from Shipshewana, but I don't know how deep into my routine I'm actually going to be. Mom has a foot surgery scheduled for Tuesday. I'm the only close relative to assist in her convalescence. She can NOT put any weight on that foot for at least six weeks and she has very little balance left.

So, I'm going to be working second shift for a while if she passes her pre-op tests tomorrow. Jim will have to take over the afternoon watch because I still have Christmas deadlines to meet.

Today will be my last day "off" for quite a while I'm afraid.

My retreat to-do's changed in a matter of one day. The machine (Jay) that I took down didn't have enough lighting to actually allow me to work without terrible eye strain and I was in a corner where the overhead lights weren't the greatest.

I shifted gears. Did a little shopping and over the next couple of days, made something totally different than what I took down. I did get a border fabric for Bee Happy while out shopping and picked up a few Christmas gifts as well.

Here are a few quilts I brought home to quilt for customers...

A few other tops that Terri and Virginia accomplished are below...

Book Worm by Virginia

Terri's pretty flowers from a magazine she had

So many beautiful colors. We laughed. We cried. We prayed. We compared. We had a blast over all and the registration opened on Thursday for next years retreat. It was full by Saturday morning. I have that to look forward to over the upcoming months to get me through the next crazy year. 

Jim's out hunting this morning and I'll be starting to cut my Produce Section quilt out. I can't attach borders until I get all the fabrics off the sewing table or they'll end up on the floor so I have to deal with that today. 

And then tomorrow I'll be back on the big machines. We were hoping Foster would be done while I was cruising through Lansing yesterday, but his parts still haven't arrived, so another trip down to Lansing is in our future. 

Retreat Break

I have today to prepare for the "big" retreat starting tomorrow down in Shipshewana, Indiana. This one is the biggest of the year with over 150 in attendance and six days of fun-filled activities and sewing. I'm nearly packed since a little of what I needed for the previous retreat is going along for the upcoming one.

Except for the final border (which I did not have fabric for) Bee Happy is put together. Everybody else got a pic of it. I did not. I was holding one corner up while it was being photographed.

I also bound the two quilts I test ran DW on last week. Speaking of which, DW is back and is running very well. One of my regular customers was in attendance at the last retreat and asked if there was any way I could get her table runner (I say bed runner because it's so big) done before Thanksgiving.

Gobble, gobble!

I left early on Friday night and brought this home. I told her if she didn't mind guinea pigging for me with DW having just returned I'd be willing to work on it to see what we could accomplish.

11:15 Friday night and all was complete...

Love the texture!

Yesterday was spent unpacking Bee Happy stuff and repacking the Leah Day 365 stuff to take down south. I have a few bag projects I can make too that I bought at retreat but want to focus on the sit-down project since Foster should be home soon and I'll be back on him more than sit-down quilting. 

Isn't it funny, I'm still making lists of things to take and for Jim to do while I'm gone. I'm planning on working on Mary's quilt while thinking of more items to be added to both of those. Her quilt should be finished before shutting down for the night. Hopefully! And while I'm working on that, I'm frame ironing for Elleens next quilt on DW since he behaved so well Friday. 

Sun Not Cooperating

We didn't have much sun yesterday and what we did get was in the early afternoon. The evening sun was behind some ugly clouds, so no texture on Mary's quilt. I tried to get a pic this morning but that didn't work either. 

DW is all ready to head back south...

Unplugged and ready to get off the frame

Good thing I'm heading to retreat today otherwise I'd be a little more upset about this. 

Speaking of retreats, this one I'm attending doesn't start until 1:00! WHAT???? Half the day is gone at this point. I have to get packed up and ready to go, which I haven't even started to do yet.

What am I going to work on? Well, for this one, I'm hoping to get Bee Happy blocks completed to include the daunting border full of 99 hexagons. It's going to take some time to get all of those stitched. I've got the last three blocks ready for blanket stitching and hope to get those done before leaving.

I also have those two quilts I did on DW to bind, so it looks like Mike is traveling with me this go around. 

Mary's quilt has too much to do for me to complete it before leaving, so it'll be here on Monday for me to work on before heading down to Shipshewana. 

Nope. He Didn't Settle

Here's some of the quilting going into the United States appliqué piece...

Wandering Feathers for a Fill

I've finished quilting this and DW still isn't settled in. Meaning, he's going back to Lansing on Saturday. Jim has to pick up some venison and chickens, so he'll swing by Gall on his way to the B's. I'll be at retreat. I have a great husband who's willing to do this for me! That's another one of the items I need to deal with today; getting DW stripped back down for shipping. 

Here's what's on Bernie today...

Mary's pretty couch throw

I probably won't be able to show you the quilting in this one as I've (once again) matched threads too well. Maybe if the sun comes through the west window later this afternoon I can grab some texture. 

At some point I have to drop what I'm doing and start getting ready for retreat. Which starts tomorrow. Haven't done a thing to prep for this except order that insert for Jay so I can do some sit-down quilting. I've already been called about picking up two quilt tops while I'm there from another attendee so this isn't just a pleasure cruise. 

Settling In

 I called my dealer about DW's basting issue and he said he noticed there was a slight issue there, but seemed to only happen to him once. He thinks after DW "settles in" it'll rectify itself. I'm not so sure. I don't want to risk messing up a customer quilt, so I have another one of mine on him and I'll work through this today while I'm frame ironing the next one going onto Bernie.

An applique of the U.S.

The "secret" quilt is done so Bernie is now freed up. Jim and I had to make some minor adjustments to his frame since he's pinching in the middle, causing me erratic quilting. Not cool.

Another rainy/cloudy day today. But we really needed this rain. We were at a very high fire possibility because things were so dry. 

Today is also election day. Jim and I will go vote tonight when he gets home from work. I need to do a little lunch time research to see where I'm going with all of this. I can't this morning as the computer has an update it wants to do and I have quilting jobs to deal with. 

Retreat Week(s)

To prepare for the two upcoming retreats I'll be attending, I needed some more leggings. And tops. Jim and I finally broke down and purchased a Costco membership and wow, can that place be overwhelming. We've learned something about Costco and that's to not go there on a Sunday. What. A. Zoo!  

But I found four new pairs of leggings, three new heavy weather tops as well as some other fun things. We'll be shopping there for Christmas that's for sure. 

Anyway. here's another block for Bee Happy. The pokey-things coming out of the top are pins and they'll be given pin heads when I quilt this piece. 

Rain expected all day today. Usually when we have icky weather I get very few customers. I'm hoping to get the "secret" quilt done today and I have to call Gall about this "catch" in the basting stitch DW is having issues with. Hopefully he won't have to go back down next weekend and it's something I can fix here.