Can It Get Any Better?

Our thermometer here in the house said 74 degrees yesterday afternoon; on the first of November?! This is really going to throw off the coloring in my Temperature quilt.

I worked on our garland for a few hours in the afternoon while watching movies. If you haven't yet seen Six Triple Eight on Netflix, I highly recommend it. But I may be partial since I am prior military.

This is all I have left to finish so I did make some headway. 

I'll be on Marty all day today working on Sandy's Tilda Sampler. Don't know where tonight is taking me. I'll have to wait and see.

Leaves

There are a TON of leaves floating along on top of the lake this morning. Is this natural or from somebody who blew them into the lake instead of dealing with them in their own yard?

Three pillow tops are quilted! 

Tristans

Hannahs

Penlopes

That's the easy part. Now the building of all the front pieces must commence. We are headed to moms this morning to visit with her for a bit and then snuggle Sunday. 

Not much else to report. I spent the post-movie afternoon getting all the Halloween decorations put away and then replacing them with all the Thanksgiving stuff while Jim was lifting the Dahlia bulbs and getting them down in the crawl space. 

Happy Halloween

Do you participate in Halloween? We like the cutesy stuff for Halloween: Ghosts, pumpkins, the dressing up. What we don't like is all the creepy movies, disgusting movies, killing, death, satin-like fictional creatures. Halloween, IMO, has become dark and dangerous. 

So, have fun with the kids and their costumes, but unfortunately, we get zero trick or treaters and really don't participate in this holiday.

We do, however, participate heavily in Thanksgiving. Which, again, IMO, is way understated, has more meaning than Halloween, and gets lost somewhere between Halloween and Christmas. Don't we live in a weird world?

I got a good start on Sandy's quilt yesterday morning. Then the beautiful afternoon presented itself and the long arming mojo disappeared. Jim and I did some color touring, had a few errands to run, and attended an estate sale. I got a new fall/spring jacket from the MSU Marching Band and Jim got a new MSU throw as well as a soap stone. 

When we finally came back home my quilting mojo had returned. Sometimes it only takes a few hours to fire me back up. I got the borders on the cousin quilt and it's ready to hit the long arm.

Before I load this later I'm going to background quilt the pillows for Hannah, Penelope, and Tristan. It's easier to do it on the long arm than the DMS.

Meanwhile, and speaking of long arms, Elijah's quilt is quilted and off the frame. I need to trim it and get his pillow done at some point today. Want to hear something cute? Jim is on my industrial machine right now repairing his rag quilt before we wash it. I guess it's going to be a sewing kind of day for everybody.

Shopping for Insurance

Jim shops around for insurance every few years. He likes to make sure we are paying a fair price and the coverage on our stuff is well insured but not over insured (there is such a thing). His phone has been buzzing all morning. Talk about vultures!

Dianes quilt is done! I have her next back ironing on the frame. Here's what I'll be working on today on Marty. 

I wonder how many of these I've done?

This will be done similarly to the past Tilda Samplers so I don't have to think about what to put in.

Janice picked up her quilt yesterday and was over the moon at how it turned out. I'm so glad I was able to take a top she didn't particularly like and make it something she now wants to enter into a show. 

While talking to Andrew last night on his way home I put the blocks, and then the top, together for the cousin quilt. I still have to get two borders attached but the body is together. 

Once we hung up with Andrew (Jim joined in the conversation about half-way through) I jumped on DW to work another row in Elijah's quilt. I have one more row and two borders to go. The cousin quilt will be loaded next since I want to deliver it when I head down to Shipshewana in a few weeks. 

Wow Am I Sore

I started following a professional skater on YouTube and she has me doing all sorts of exercises and stretches to strengthen my legs. While I do stand all day long at my 'job', the strength in my outer and inner thighs is lacking. Clearly from what they're telling me this morning after skating yesterday.

Anyway. I had to make room to work on Elijah's pillow cover so started piecing the blocks together for the baby quilt for Jims cousin. 

The direction I'm heading with that top

Once I got the area cleared on that portion of the sewing table, I started back in on Elijahs pillow top. I had to do some background quilting before applying and appliquéing things down. We stopped by Park Bench Quilt Shop between skating and groceries to pick up the background fabric.

That carried me through to about 8:00 and I was tired from our busy day so called it a night. Customer coming to pick up this morning and I'll be working on Bernie most of the day to finish Diane's quilt. 

No More Beacon

The crane down at the dam was used for all matter of things construction. It was finally removed yesterday. We could see the blinking red light throughout the night and last night it wasn't there. Our neighbor reported it was deconstructed yesterday. 

We are officially done!

Here is some of the quilting going into Diane's quilt. 

The first two borders

I have to make a quilt for Jim's cousin for another expected grand baby; one of those 3-yard things is what I selected and here's the fabric for that. 

Flannels!

And while working on DW last night I finished a pass with one color and switched to another. This is what was left on the cone I removed. Talk about thread chicken!

I'm off to go skating this morning and then we'll head to Meijer afterwards since we are already in Midland. Don't know if I'll have time after getting done with lunch (after returning home) to quilt this afternoon on Bernie.

Solids

Do you have solids in your fabric stash? I have a lot of small pieces left over from both
the Amish with a Twist quilts, but very few large pieces. 

I was working on Elijah's pillow top last night. I was to the point of setting all the appliqué pieces on the background but could not find a background piece that would work. Black, red, and dark blue (all the big pieces I had) are not going to work. That's on hold until I can run over Thursday to get a piece that may be more suitable. Of course, a six year old isn't going to care, but I will. 

In the meantime, Janices quilt was finished at about 4:45 last night. She was coming this morning to pick it up but called already and rescheduled for Thursday instead. 

Drying from the markings

Today I'll be working on Diane's fifth quilt top while continuing to frame iron a new back on Marty. 

A simple quilt that needs some serious quilting

Jim has town stuff to do today; new tire on the truck (defect), doctor appointment, and attending the delivery of moms new bedroom furniture. 

I did get the Temperature quilt all up to date while we talked to Andrew on his way home from work. That took a while since I was two weeks behind and I had to add a row to the already existing top. No work on DW.