Before Retreating Today...

...I thought I would share the accomplishments so far. The the first day I got the borders on Twirly quilt (forgot to snag a pic) and started to sew down the Chenille-it onto the second top...

Cute, huh?

This became a rather daunting process as I was using the regular pressor foot on Ellie. I switched to the free motion foot and was having even more issues with that. I put that aside and started working on 100 blocks. 

100 Blocks in 100 Days

Day two the top was done.

Day three I started right in on the H-E-L-L-O wall hanging and finished it minus the binding...

Going to hang in the new studio

After getting that done and after having a quick visit with Jim, I started in on the Farm Girl Vintage II top...

Everybody loved the piggy

That went together relatively quickly and so moved back over to the 'Tis the Season top and fought again with the application of the chenille-it. But I'm going to persevere today and get it all attached! If time permits, I'll make and bind the HELLO wall hanging and call that one finished.

Not Much to Share

We did a little bit of everything this weekend. The only sewing I did was on two 100 blocks. Yep, that's it. 

The rest of the weekend was spent moving dirt, steam cleaning the furniture, washing all the downstairs quilts, mowing, trimming, visiting my mom, and taking Sunday afternoon to just relax and rejuvenate. Jim and I go 100%  during the week, and let's face it, we're not 21 anymore. We need a half day to let our bodies recoup because we know, until this addition is done, we have a lot of work ahead during the week. 

Here's some of the quilting going into Sandy's Flea Market if that helps?

I love the texture wool batting provides

Hazel and Lucy were being silly on the couch yesterday. I got a few good pics of them playing but this is my favorite... 

Smile!

Mostly more Flea Market work today and then when Jim gets home, more dirt work. Yeah, when you only haul it a buggy load at a time (in our ATV), it takes a while to diminish the huge piles down. And we need to prepare the girls' new pen shortly to get ready for winter so the south pile needs to get out of here. 

Three More

Three more blocks done in the 100 block challenge. 

These have no colored border because they are the 10 that run diagonally to split the "girl" colors from the "boy" colors. Jim got a little more done on the new studio yesterday before we turned into movie watching zombies. We needed the break. But, it's Monday. We're recharged and ready to tackle whatever the week ahead brings to us. 

I'll be working on Debbie's Flea Market quilt today. It's going faster than I expected, but I'm still a couple of days away from finishing it I think. I stubbed my toe pretty good this morning and it's kinda throbbing, so I'm moving a little slower than usual. 

Small Project Sunday

Jim is going to be working on the new studio today while I work on 100 blocks. I did a few of them yesterday since I was being pulled away from the long arm, repeatedly, to do admin work. I'm hoping to knock out a bunch today. It depends on the complexity I suppose.  

And, I'll be at Jims beck and call should he need me to help move/hold things. 

We had an absolutely wonderful campfire last night with the stars very clear to see with all the rain the previous night, a meteor shower giving us plenty of shooting stars, and some great company and tunes to go with the whole picture. 

Beautiful fire night

Isn't life at the lake the best?

Pickles

I was outside on the phone with my dad this morning while the girls were doing their morning business. When I came back in the house, wow, does it smell like pickles in here. Jim put up a couple dozen quarts yesterday while the rain was just-a-coming down. 

While he was doing that, I was working on blocks for the 100 block challenge. I got seven done. 

Only six showing

After getting the first block done, which is actually block #10, I was able to get the first row pieced together and so it's laying in-wait down below Bernie. My design wall isn't big enough to get all ten blocks up there. As it is, the ninth block in the second row is just hanging there by a tiny pin. 

I'll be working on Sherry's Flea Market quilt all of today on DW and jamming to my tunes while doing so. Happy Monday. 

Out With The Old

Those two quilts on Bernie and DW are now trimmed, billed, folded, and the customers have been called. Here's what's on DW for the next few days...

We've seen this one before

I have about seven of these in the queue right now. Flea Market classes happened at Bittersweet Quilt Shop and I'm getting most of the custom work from the year-long class. 

Here's what's on DW for the next long period...

The Witches

I've done another one of these but without the fourth panel on the bottom. I actually started doing this quilt, but since my embroidery skills are deplorable, handed it off to Diane S. to do for me. She LOVES doing this kind of stuff and said she'd be more than happy to work it for me. 

While DW was stitching out yesterday, and while I was frame ironing the two backings, I FINALLY got the small project done from last Sunday. I think I need to reevaluate what exactly a small project is since this took me way longer than a day. 

My "small" project

This has been added into the "to quilt" pile so I won't see it again for a while. I had a little time left over last night with the storms threatening, so I made another block in the 100 blocks challenge. 

No [new] studio work last night; temps in the 90's with thunder rumbling in the distance. Doctor appointment for me this morning (annual physical) and then off to the lab for blood work. No quilting this morning but I'll be back at it once I return from town this afternoon. 

Construction Weekend

I know today is only Thursday, but we start receiving all the building goodies today; anytime actually. I may have to assist in some of the work following delivery, so quilting for the next couple of days is going to be hit and miss. 

Two of the boys are planning on coming up to offer their muscles and extra hands in the work. We have awesome kids!

At any rate, I have this quilt to chip away at on DW for the weekend (and maybe Monday too)...

Pats log cabin

I have already planned the quilting process out on this one so yay on what takes me eons to do at times. 

While frame ironing the backing on this and after the planning, I put together two more blocks in the 100 blocks challenge. Today is the 27th and I have 44 blocks completed, so I'm still ahead of the game despite the construction/sickness/reunion interruptions. 

Did I mention I was sick for a couple of days. Either mild food poisoning or the stomach flu, but I seem to have passed through that. I haven't been this sick in my entire life, and yet the last year seems like I'm getting everything under the sun. Let's say we're done with all of that and not revisit it anymore. 

Until supplies arrive, I'm on DW. 

Small Project Saturday/Sunday

We had to go to Lansing on Saturday, but when we got home I needed to sew something. Anything. That was after we assessed the damage the hail and high winds did to the property while we were gone. 

Lansing was beautiful. Apparently it wasn't here. Jim lost a number of his peppers, and we had tossed over chairs, shredded leaves all over the side of the house and one the deck, sticks everywhere and a good bit of hail still at the end of the downspouts even nearing 11:00 that night. 

Yesterday we went to an estate sale in the morning and didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day. I did make another block and here's the four that were completed over the past two days...

Coming along

I did the four light pinks and it seems like all of them but a few are very labor intensive. I'm running out of room on the design wall too. 

I'll be working the Helms' memory quilt today on DW. My tummy has been acting up the past two days so I hope it's just an overindulgence of not-good-for-us-food over the weekend from the birthday party and not something else. It seems like every time we're around the B grandchildren, one or both of us come down with something. 

Small Project Sunday

The first eight colors are done in the 100 blocks and I also had time to get the rows assembled as far as I could given the blocks completed thus far. We had to head to moms yesterday to pick up some things, and for a much overdue visit.

Rows are together

I'll be continuing on with Mary's quilt today. I am hoping (upon all hope) to get this done by tonight. I'm going to have to fight with the blue glow in the dark thread because I don't want to have just one column tinted blue and all the others white. 

The Mettler thread is behaving a little better than the blue, but I think these threads are so finicky they require me to quilt slower than usual. 

Mom has a foot surgery tomorrow, so I'll be out of the studio for the day. Although, we won't know when her surgery time is until after 3:00 this afternoon. Isn't that crazy? She tried to get a time this morning and they said to call back after 3 o'clock. WTH? I guess "real" people don't need to plan their days or have a life. 

Happy Independence Day!

It is the 4th of July, but all the celebrating was done over the weekend. It's quieter around here than even a normal Tuesday. I took the day off (much needed) but spent all day in the studio making these...

Pencil (or whatever) Pouches

These are all for the little kids under the age of about eleven. I worked in the trailer all yesterday morning (mice got in again over the winter). Yesterday afternoon it was too hot to really do anything outside, so after finishing Lynn S.'s quilt, I made four blocks for the 100 block challenge. I had a customer come and pick up her two quilts amongst all of that. 

Looks like one of them was still "resting" when I snapped this pic

I worked on these while frame ironing for the next quilt on Bernie...

Joann's Christmas Tree

The campgrounds where we have the weekend-long reunion, has Christmas in July every year that same weekend. So, maybe this Christmas tree is appropriate? I want to start quilting it (like now), but know if I get started, I'll be angry during the family time about not being able to come home and finish it.

And, Quilting at the Lake is closed until next Tuesday. 

I decided with Jim having to go to the med center tomorrow morning (he has a cough he can't seem to shake and I'm thinking he has an upper respiratory something or another going on), then off to Midland to shop for 80 people for two days, and our own grocery shopping as well--we won't be home until much later in the afternoon. And, I haven't really started packing the trailer. I suppose I need to start on that now that I'm done sewing for the day? Bleh!

Family Reunion Week

The family reunion this year is right on the heels of Independence Day, which is weird. I usually have a week in between. But the trailer is up and cleaned out. Now we have to start packing it up. I'll be long arming here and there today to fill in the gaps. 

I'm taking tomorrow off of everything. I need a day to just get the house ready for the kids to come and stay next weekend (they aren't camping this year because Zechariah doesn't sleep through the night), and to get our inventory done for shopping on Wednesday, and get the trailer all packed up. 

I did play in the studio yesterday. I have this many blocks in the 100 blocks challenge...

22 blocks completed so far

I know I'm way ahead of the game, but I know after tomorrow, there's probably zero chance of working on this for about a week. 

DW is still down in Lansing (he'll be there until the 10th), so I'll work on finishing Lynn S.'s quilt before Wednesday gets here. 

I also made this little bag late last night. Took under an hour. Isn't it cute?

Scrap bag

I better get to it. The work isn't going to get done by itself. 😁

What's Missing?

So, what's missing from this pic? 

See anything wrong?

There's a carriage there (upper portion of the pic) but no head. DW is headed to Lansing for his annual spa treatment. Meanwhile, his bed is a great place to put customer quilts waiting to be picked up. 

Once I got DW torn down, and then loaded into the truck (thank you Wayne for coming over and helping with this), I had to move all the quilts in waiting over to DW's bed. Jim is currently sleeping downstairs since he's "disabled" for the time being, and for a few weeks the quilts can reside here. Hopefully though, people will come and pick these up. 

Work on Bernie commenced and the moth is taking longer than anticipated because of what I've decided to quilt in it. But that's okay. No hurries on this one. 

The neighbors are up this weekend and the girls discovered their daughter and granddaughters also came since their dog, Walter, came over this morning to fetch the girls for some play time. And, wonderful neighbors that they are, Mr. Beller is mowing both of our lawns at once this morning. One less thing for me to do.

Don't know if anybody is coming today or not. I have two customers who said they'd be by this week to pick up and it's now Friday. Had two come yesterday; one pick up and one drop off...another Flea Market, and it's so nice to hear all the positive comments about our new studio adventures. Though on hold for the time being since we are down a worker. 

After working on the long arm for a while, I decided, with the storms coming in, shutting down the long arm was probably a good idea, and I was pooped anyway. I pieced three 100 blocks instead and here are numbers 4, 13, and 22.

12 blocks done already. 

Apparently I Can't Count

Here's some more quilting detail on Pam K.'s quilt...

Large Borders? No Problem

This quilt is done and I'm just getting all the markings out before removing it from the frame this morning. Not sure what else, if anything, is going on DW this week. He's scheduled to head to Lansing on Friday morning, meaning whatever I decide to get on there has to be done by Thursday night. That's some pressure. While working on mark removal last night, I pieced together the next block in the 100 blocks challenge. 

My snafu with the 100 blocks cutting situation was because I thought the next row started with block 31. It was actually supposed to be 21 and found that out after incorrectly piecing the whole incorrect block. But 21 is now done. 

The real block 21

I'll be working on Lynn S.'s quilt today on Bernie regardless of what (if) I find a quick(er) one to tackle on DW. 

Jim is still on the couch/his chair. Ortho appointment first thing tomorrow morning in Midland to determine just how long he'll be hanging around the house with me. 

Lesson Learned

Saturday, while I was coaching my 7-year old granddaughter through her first experience with cross stitching on plastic canvas (her other grandma bought her a kit), I was cutting out the next three blocks on the 100 blocks challenge. Her parents were canning strawberry jam and her brothers, were as usual, beating each other up. 

When I went to piece these together yesterday, discovered that block #12 was cut pretty incorrectly and had to recut several pieces, or even cut pieces I skipped over. Block #31 was cut as an entirely different block and none of it usable. Needless to say, I only got two blocks done yesterday...

#3 and #12 in the mustard yellow

Won't have time today to deal with this until maybe later tonight. Since Jim is out of commission until further notice, ALL the house/yard chores as well as my business are on my shoulders. I'll have to make sure all of that is dealt with before I get some sinful piecing pleasure at night. 😇

Working on Pam K.'s quilt today mostly. DW is supposed to head to Lansing on Friday, but again, it depends on what the ortho people say later this week and whether he can even drive himself down there. I'd have to load DW myself into the truck and I'm not sure I'll be able to get him up there in the back seat. 

Interesting 24 Hours

Had a customer come to pick up yesterday and I was pulling fabrics for the 100 blocks challenge starting in a week. This particular customer has a background in interior design and said what I pulled would not work. Color really isn't my thing anyway, so listened to what she had to say. 

After she left and Jim and I gobbled down some lunch, I headed over to Pieces to get the proper fabrics for this challenge. 

I came right home and pieced my last block on FGV2 giving myself permission to start playing with the new fabrics. 

Say Cheese

I basted in the new quilt in DW and while Jim was moving more dirt, I was working on the first three blocks of my 100 days blocks. Here's where I got to...

Days 1, 2 and 11

Here's the deal. I can do the blocks in their original order, OR, do them by color. I've chosen the later. The reason I have some of the blocks already, even though the challenge hasn't started yet, is because we have family reunion coming up and I know I'll get behind if I don't get a little ahead. 

After piecing these three, I decided I better actually do some real work. Here's what the first border looks like on Pam K's quilt

Pam's 1st border

This morning was a "new studio" work day. The kids came up last night with the explicit intention of relearning how to make strawberry jam. However, the cement truck was coming this morning. And since we have an asphalt driveway, we had to haul 3 1/2 cubic yards of the footer concrete with a cement buggy. Here's the first pour going in...

My son Ben and Jim pouring the first load

But then we ended up here...

Jim messed up his knee on the second load

So...now all this cement work rested on Ben, Alisha (his wife), and my shoulders. Jim hung out until we were done with the cement but yeah, Jim is out of commission for at least eight weeks. 

But we got 'er done and here's the footers, pads, and crock cement curing. 

Next step, the foundation

There was some interesting happenings between Jim being "bucked" off the cement buggy and my writing tonight. We almost got in a horrific car accident, the two knee brace places were both closed early today making our trip to West Branch useless meaning we had to head back to urgent care to put on a temporary brace (the pic above), the fridge decided it didn't want to close any more (Ben found the  problem with it and fixed it just a bit ago), and the dog sitter for the reunion can no longer watch the dogs for us. See...interesting 24 hours.

Tomorrow Jim and the kids will be making jam. Maybe I can get some long arming done?

Lots to Report

I finished Luann's second quilt yesterday and here's what went into that...

Circles to reduce the sharp points

While I was loading the next backing I worked on Diane's quilt on Bernie. I'll start with that today because the next quilt on DW is an E2E. Here's what he's wearing today...

Carla's next quilt

I've got everything set up and ready to go on this one, but will wait until after lunch to start it. Dianes should be done by then.

Jim got home from work last night and look what arrived in the mail!

Upside down but you get the idea

100 Days, 100 Blocks pattern is here!!! I perused through it last night before starting on FGV2 and some of these blocks are going to be pretty intense. I need to work out how I'm going to use the four colors for the main pattern and then integrate the fat quarter bundles I purchased for the remaining frames. 

Speaking of FGV2, here's the block I made last night...

Watering Can

And only four more blocks to go. The last block in this book is a log cabin block, and then I've selected three more from a previous Lori Holt book I had. 

While I was working on that, Jim tackled a few needed projects around the property (getting the weeds down by the "beach", watering trees/garden plants, and shortening the girls' temporary pen grass. He then moved onto new studio work and has all the trenches in for the footer forms. 

From the backroom window

He'll get those forms together tonight (most likely) and he's discouraged at how long this is taking. But a room without a proper foundation is doomed for disaster and I'm glad he's taking his time. It seems like the beginning process of any construction project (quilting or wood) takes forever. Look how long I've been working on FGV2! Persistence is key and looking ahead to the finished product motivates. 

100 Blocks in 100 Days

Angie, from Gnome Angel, is again hosting a 100 blocks in 100 days quilt-along. I was vacillating on whether or not I was going to participate, but then after attending the Pieces of Thyme sale last night, found fabric bundles and complimentary yardages at a fairly low price. So, I'm doing it. It starts July 1st and after returning home, I purchased the pattern, which is now on its way. 

I may regret my choice of pattern though. After placing my order, found there are a lot of little pieces in some of the blocks and instead of choosing paper piecing I instead opted for a traditionally pieced pattern without the templates. I may regret this decision. Hmmm?? I'll find out when the pattern arrives.

Still working on Bernadettes quilt. Here's some of the quilting going into it. Enjoy!

3-D tire track

Straw sticking out of the bales

A new background filler

Pebbles in the corn

Giving the silo some dimension

I'm just about done with the center section, which is loaded with stuff to do. I may (big if here) get this done today. I have customers in and out all day today to pick up. They are heading to the sale and will be by here in their travels. No work on Bernie yesterday. 

We are getting a nice soaking rain this morning and it's so dark out I have all the lights on in the house. But we need the rain. Jim worked on the footers again last night and even though we do need the rain, he didn't really want any right now with the studio work he's dealing with. Leveling requires precision and mucking up the soil is not a good building plan. 

I Never Did...

...post the pic of my completed 100 Blocks. There was a legitimate reason in we had horrible weather with which to photograph the quilt until yesterday.

Yesterday provided us with a fresh new four inches of snow and the morning temps and sun provided an excellent time to snap a few pics this morning.

100 Blocks in 100 Days

Yesterday was also a good day to stay home and work on customer quilts. This was my first long arm project for the day.

Adding hook swirls in the rail fence top

Three more Christmas presents were completed and the papers were removed from my latest Jacqueline de Jonge set of circles.

Today there's another customer quilt to long arm and its very cold so a good day to basically stay in and work with the beautiful view of the freshly fallen snow.

It's not Friday

My girlfriend, Katie, commented yesterday on everybody posting on Friday. Well, it's not Friday.

The t-shirt quilt is done. The 100 Blocks is loaded and three rows were completed yesterday.

Just before loading

Let's talk Jacqueline de Jonge. She is an amazing quilt designer and her tops are NOT for the faint at heart. In the quilting world, completing one of her beautiful creations is like a quilters Everest conquer.

I purchased one of her patterns about three years ago. It took me this long to start the project.

A mountain to climb

This is a full-size top; 80x80. See the little circle in the center? It took me about four hours last night to figure out what to do on that.

The first of many

But isn't it gorgeous? I have cut the fabrics for the next circle behind this one and hope to piece them today. The directions for this quilt top isn't just a few pages; 32 to be exact. And you read and re-read the directions about a dozen times before moving along to the next step.

16 of 24 total colors used in this piece

And what a beautiful day to work in the studio. As you can see from the pics, the sun is shining (for now), and I don't have to be into work until 5:00 tonight, so the whole day is mine to play as desired.

We had a killer freeze last night and the leaves are falling quickly now. This will probably be the last pic of the wonderful autumn view from the studio windows.

Saying goodbye to our warmer months