Blogger is Getting Stupid

For some reason, my old blog was initially posted to this morning?! I didn't even notice because I do the same darn thing every morning when I blog. I guess Google decided to change things up today. So, here we go again.

Carla's quilt was pondered on over the weekend and again yesterday while I was working on it. I have finally settled on what is going entirely into it and the rest of it is just time. Here are a few of the blocks...

Feathers!

Hearts where I can get them

The name of the quilt is Hearts and Home and so where/whenever I can I get some hearts into it I do. 

I moved over to DW after quitting time. I have progressed through all the "old" colors worked over the weekend and am now ready to introduce some new colors in the diamonds. Because this is a medallion-type of quilt, doing the colors in one pass on the top and bottom isn't going to happen.

I have PT at 10:30 this morning in Gladwin so won't be doing any customer work until I return. I'll need to discuss with them that mid-mornings are NOT a good time. 

Making Progress

No small projects yesterday, but I did work on DW a little bit. All the grays are done with the next roll and I was able to get some more into a few of the colors. Here's something cool I stumbled upon when I was working through this center section...

An unplanned star

I was not planning on that star pattern, but it was a part of what was initially planned in there and I decided to leave it. After my roll I was able to get this quilt off the floor...

Look how wrinkled it is

It looks terribly wrinkled down there at the end, but trust me, it will pretty much quilt out once I get there 

I was still vacillating on Carla's quilt all of yesterday and this morning, then I remembered I have a perfect example piece on my south wall. Duh, take pieces parts from that silly. Meaning, I'll be on Marty all of today, and possibly tomorrow if I can't get through this rather quickly today. 

The A/C is already fired up this morning. In fact, I think it ran most of the night last night. We are already in the mid-80's. Not typical for our state, but not unusual either. 

Sweaty Day

If you think about it, the difference in yesterday's temps and the normal winter temps is like 100 degrees. We ARE NOT warm weather people. Jim used to be the only one that liked the really cold temps, but the older I'm getting the less I like these 94 degree days. It's not even 11:00 and the temp outside is 89.4. UGH.

Normal, older people have a tendency to start traveling south for the winter preferring warmer temps when we begin to set in for the winter so I guess I'm not normal. 

I did some long arming in the morning on DW. Here's two more color's I've started...

Ya gotta have feathers in one of my quilts somewhere, right? I just tried to cut some fabric with a rotary cutter and, OUCH! My wrist has stiffened up so much over the past five weeks it's going to take some time to strengthen, and moreover, get mobility in it.

Jim is doing some cleaning this morning of our skylights and such. The south neighbor is out mowing in this heat (and I bet his mower is appreciating that) and I'm going to head into maybe do some more work on the Gravity quilt. It's too hot to do anything outside already. 

Unexpected Day Off

But so worth taking the time to spend with my best friend, Jim. We scooted around to all of the appointments that we were scheduled to deal with. I have PT I need to perform 3x's per day to strengthen the finger, but I'm finding my wrist to be more of a concern.

Typing is much easier, but because my wrist is extremely stiff and sore, I'm still slower than prior to the accident.

Hello!

Since after we got home and put everything away, it was nearly 4:00. I called the day a day off and didn't even work on customer things. Nor am I going to do customer work today. I'm excited to get onto DW because I started into the colors last night...

Aren't all these pretty cool?

I'm trying to not squeal with delight about how these are turning out. Jim is trying to set us up having the grandkids the week after the fourth. The B's said they'd think about how that would work and the logistics of them coming up. Meanwhile, it's kind of cloudy, warm, and very humid outside. A good day to stay inside and play in the studio I think. 

Appointments All Morning

First, nails. Second, Meijer. Third, hand specialist. Fourth and only if x-rays show it's okay, PT. That's my morning. I think we may need to stick a trip to Pieces in there to pick up some scissors for Jim and the girls.

Here's what's on Marty for the next few days since I finished the quilt on Bernie...

Carla's Hearts and Houses

I've started ditching and did the two outer borders, but I'm still sketching the negative space and can't decide what to do here. Too many options. 

I had one customer come to pick up yesterday and after working until 4:30 I moved over to DW.

My toe is feeling a little better so thought I would do some stuff on my quilt top...

The black diamonds

The fifth set of gray diamonds 

I have two more dark gray diamonds to do and then I can start working on the colored sections, which I'm pretty jazzed about as each section will be a completely different motif/section of work.

Jim took work off and he's going to appointments with me and we'll just enjoy each others' company. I don't know how much "work" I'll get done today meaning a long day on Monday, but that's okay. If I don't get that quilt done by Tuesday (Carla's) they'll understand.

When You Find Something You Love...

...order like 100 of them. I have a pair of MTA Sport Capris I absolutely love. They are not too thick, they fit well, and they hide my ever growing mid section (thank you broken bones). I wanted to order some more because the other capris I received from Amazon aren't the greatest quality. 

I discovered that MTA is a Meijer brand and the only place to get them (other than thrift sites), is, of course, at Meijer.

Guess I'm going to Meijer tomorrow after my hand appointment.

Not much to share in the way of quilting. I'm just plugging away at Carla's Grannies Garden some more today, although it should be finished later this afternoon. 

Here's the new Dahlia we planted earlier this spring...

Just outside the studio porch

I had two customer visits yesterday. One to pick up and drop off; the other one was just a pick up. She was not very nice. AT ALL. I don't think I have ever had a customer get so pissy with me and almost called her back here to give her back her money.

I called Caleb and Lia to ask their advice about it and they said absolutely not. I did what I said I was going to do. The work order was made with her present the day she dropped the quilt off and I have nothing to be sorry for so returning her money because she threw a tantrum was not a good business practice. 

It was that jean quilt I did a while ago and with the [wool] batting, backing (I picked that up for her) and the quilting it came to less than $200; she expected to have it bound as well. I don't do binding people! And it wasn't trimmed because it was done after the hand breakage. It's a free charge I offer anyway. I guess if she gives me a bad review I'll have to address it when it comes out.

More rain this morning and then it should be out of here around noon time. Great quilting weather!

Does Anybody Listen/Read Any More?

I've had  several customers lately who have referred to the business as Quilting on the Lake instead of Quilting at the Lake. If I was quilting on the lake, I'd only be doing it in the winter because certainly water isn't going to hold up three long arm machines.

I also stress the "at" part when I introduce who is calling and all my literature clearly has "at" on them, yet checks are made out to "on" and when they talk about the business they always say "on" instead of "at".

I think grammar and the understanding of the English language is under educated in our school systems.

Here's some of the quilting going into Carla's quilt...

Same but different

This is actually the pic from Diana's quilt but I'm doing the same in Carla's except for the feathers. I'm doing bump-back feathers in Carla's where I did traditional feathers on Diana's. 

OMG I can't wait to get this stupid ass cast off. Two more days. Meanwhile, I still limp around with my toe. Storms expected today so the machine may be off for a bit if that happens.