It May Be...

I had a call into a skating rink in Midland about my old skates and getting them retrofitted for new boots. The plates, wheels, and bearings are all in beautiful shape. The trucks may be dry rotted and the boots are way too small (I've had these since pre-pregnancy). They were my competition skates and after having children, going back to university, moving, starting new careers, etc., skating was put on the back burner.

But when Jim and I met I told him then I'd be a horseback riding, water skiing, roller skating grandmammy. Well, the horse thing isn't going to happen. I don't think our neighbors would appreciate horses on the property. But the other two, yep, that's doable.

Wednesday morning is the "geezer" skate at the rink in Midland. I need more exercise. I LOVE to skate, and when we go down to Ohio in a few weeks, skating is on the menu with the grandkids. Can't use rentals. No good southerner would ever use instant grits, just like no good skater ever uses rentals.

So, if this pans out, my studio will be closed on Wednesdays. Skating is from 10:30 to noon and we wouldn't get back home until around 1:00. 

Meanwhile, since we had to run to Midland for the skate appointment, we also dropped off the borrowed receiver from our pontoon seller, mailed out some birthday cards, and then got back home after 5:00. 

I did long arm in the morning, but barely got one pass done as I'm into a lot of the lower witch detail. 

I did get this put together after we returned.

Q.U.I.L.T. Banner

Today we have the Lansing grandkids on their way up with their parents. The adults will watch the MSU football game against Wisconsin and I'll be playing with the kids (since I'm not really an adult). 😇

The 'B' family usually stays until the kids' bedtime so very doubtful if I'll get much done in the studio today. I do have to switch out all my back to school decorations with Halloween stuff so I'll get to work on that until they arrive. Which is about an hour or so from now. 

Schedule/Hours Revision

Since I'm 'retiring' in less than two weeks I'm thinking about changing my available hours for customer drops offs/pick ups. What do you think? Which day(s) should I eliminate or maybe hours to cut back?

I don't have to decide yet. Here's some background fill going into Lynette's quilt.

A nice swirl and some pebbles here and there

Two hearts and the 'Q' and 'U'

Once we got home from groceries it was still raining pretty hard and there's nothing to watch on TV on Thursday nights (not that I 'watch' TV), but Jim was going to be busy playing his games so I stayed out and constructed the first couple of blocks for the Quilt Room. 

We're headed to a sale over in Harrison this morning. All fabric $5 a pound. You can get about three yards of fabric in a pound and the math works. Can't pass this up and we'll go over and see what we can find. 

I'll be working this afternoon once we return from town. Oh, and all that rain we got over the past 24 or more hours; the lake is filling up nicely. We are still about a foot or a little more before reaching the summer lake levels but it's starting to look like a lake instead of a lazy river! 😊

The Doug (Dug, Dugg?)

Normal work day yesterday except I knocked off a little early. I took this pic before we left.

A view from our front (back) deck

I wanted to show the Fowler's where the new pontoon was going to 'live' over the summer. Speaking of pontoons, it's now in our yard. Which is why I had to knock off early. Jim wanted to avoid post-work traffic going through Midland with a pontoon boat. 

Home at last

I was pondering all week what to name the pontoon. It's a Bennington. Caleb's FFA advisors last name was Pennington. His first name was Doug. I keep calling the pontoon Doug so I believe that is going to be the name we settle on for the new toy.

Once we got home and settled Doug in the yard (for now) and let the girls out for a bit, I hustled in the studio and was able to get the next set of sashings/borders quilted in and the four blocks above done on the QAL.

Then I started cutting. 

Just a few pieces in the next block

It had been dark for quite some time by the time I left out of the studio. Making up for the couple of hours we were gone maybe?

A very rainy day today (hurray) which makes quilting perfect!

High Expectations

Wanna see the cutest baby ever?

Our Germany granddaughter

She loved the pumpkin patch yesterday.

I'm quilting along yesterday and I noticed I was throwing a lot of little threads on the floor. More than usual. I was picking them off the top I was working on and decided to do a clean sweep of about an 18" square area.

This is what I got.

Seriously?

Maybe I have higher expectations than other quilters? I know while I'm pressing my seams I pick seam threads out during the whole construction process because they'll just come to haunt me later on the frame if I don't. 

Do others not care? I'm a rare long armer that will actually clean your top up for you while I'm quilting. Simply because I don't just plug in a motif and push play on the computer and walk away and do something else. I see every millimeter of the top and take care of issues (threads, tears, missed seams) while I'm working.

If I wasn't a long armer and had to send quilts out to be quilted, I'd make damn sure I got rid of as many seam threads as I could. I expect myself to take pride in my work and not make others work harder due to the lack of caring/laziness. 

Soap box done. In the last hour of my work day mom stopped by and stayed for a few hours to visit. She also needed to pick up one of the quilts dropped off last week for her new bed on its way.

After she left I jumped right in to working on the Quilt Room. It was time to put the next big section together.

We finally have a rainy day today; we sure needed it. It's easier to stay rooted to the machine working when the weather adds to the ambiance; love rainy days. It's not going to be a long day though. We are hopefully going to be picking up the new pontoon later this afternoon. So. Fricken. Excited! 

Getting a Late Start

When I woke up at 7:30 this morning my intention was to just lay there and watch nature outside the window. I woke back up around 8:40. Oops. Must have been tired.

Dianes quilt is nearly done but I'm shifting over to this piece to get it done for the holiday.

Lynette's Quilted Witch by Lori Holt

Pumpkins!

I'm free motion quilting pumpkins of all shapes and sizes into the border. 

I pieced the next block in the Quilt Room

Scrap bins and bolts of fabric

Block #4

Block #3

Block #2

Block #1

Not sure why these loaded in reverse but I started the QAL with Natalia Bonner of Piece n' Quilt in Utah last night. I was having so much fun I did four blocks. I had all three long arms busy yesterday!

More of the same today while enjoying the picture perfect weather the past week (mid-70's with sunshine).

Bedroom Make Over

I did a little knitting yesterday afternoon while relaxing and snuggling with the dogs.

Have you ever prepped a room for painting? I've started (as you know) by getting things out (like the dresser), but yesterday morning was spent washing walls, trim, ceiling fans, and doors. While I'm not painting the ceiling fan or door, it's nice to start with a clean slate. And, frankly, they needed it.

Here's the bedroom with the 'before' pic.

I'll repost the before pic after we get the room finished, but it's going to be a few months before that happens. I have to get paint first and with that I'll need my mom. She knows color and coordinates. I'll leave everything up to her.

Diane's quilt on Bernie will be finished today and then I'll be moving over to Marty to start Lynettes Quilted Witch. No pics of that yet. 

First Order of Business

Wow, did I get some things done in the studio yesterday. I think I was making up for the past two unproductive days. 

First: All the pieces for the Granny Squares top are cut, organized, and ready to head to a retreat. Check. 

Next. Finish the Book Nook quilt on DW. Check.

Next. Get binding on said Book Nook quilt and shoot a photo before putting it away. Check.

The pumpkin was still sweating from the cold night we had so was finally able to get it dollied up for the fall season. Check. 

Get new top loaded onto DW for the 9-Patch Quilt-Along with Natalia Bonner. Check.

Decided on a different border treatment than she put in because I know this quilt-along is a bit simpler than the one I'm doing with Sam from Quilting Curve Studio. How about this?

I'm now ready to actually participate in the QAL since I have the borders and sashing started. Yay!

Because I had spent a lot of time on DW yesterday getting things finished and started, I pulled away from him around 7:00 to do some cutting for the next block on the Quilt Room. 

But today I'll not be doing that. In fact, I should be heading to Crosswell for a fantastic fabric sale going on but it's a 2 1/2 hour drive one way and the sale started yesterday. Chances are, everything is picked over and it's too nice to be in the truck all day long (again) today. 

Jim has applesauce he wants to start. There is another sale next weekend in Harrison with even better prices than Crosswell and I'll just attend that on Friday (Saturday, we have family coming up). 

I need to run into town sometime today to find a foam core board for the super-mini design wall I'm going to need for the Granny Square planning. I also need to wash down the trim and ceiling fan in the guest bedroom to prepare it for painting so I'll start there and later we can run in after Jim fends off all the mean bees out right now while he's peeling and coring apples outside.