The Babies Are Growing

Not only is our youngest granddaughter starting to roll over, the goslings on the lake have lost all their yellow fuzzies and are getting big very fast. We have very few this year since most nests were lost in the high waters in April, but we've spotted two families that did make it. 

Here is what I worked on yesterday...

Quit Diva Pattern by Amy Bradley

Isnt' she funny peering at me through the bars? It made me chuckle every time I looked up.

This is a problem

I love doing raw edge appliqué! There is very little the turns me off about it except what you see above.

Some fusibles leave a nasty ball of glue on the needle. I've recently picked up a new fusible (don't know the name) from Pieces recommended by Susan, but I could not, for the life of me, tell you the manufacturer. It is NOT gumming up the needle on the cowboy boots. 

This however, is not the cowboy boots but the Quilt Diva. From what I can feel I would hazard to guess it may be Heat N' Bond as it has a tendency to do this. And, it leaves the fabric feeling pretty stiff even with the Ultra Lite stuff. 

As I'm long arming this piece, I'm having to clean the needle very often and have already had a few shreds with the build up. 

Today we have to run to Bittersweet to pick up my Tilda Make Do and Mend quilt from her event two weeks ago. I had totally forgotten about it until yesterday. Oops. 

Hanging out until the next one is loaded

Oh...and the Strip quilt is done! I did finish binding it last night as well as making a Love Letters block and blanket stitching another cowboy boot. 

Getting Things Finished

The t-shirt quilt is done! A day ahead of schedule.

When the customer came yesterday to pick up her quilt she was asking about the machine binding that I do. She said she was having trouble getting her stitches to 'line up' on the backside of her quilt. I grabbed the strip quilt and we loaded up the machine with the correct threads and I did a quick lesson with her. I LOVE teaching!

Since the quilt was started, and while Jim was in the shower, I started the rest of the binding...

It didn't get finished because we needed to get our weekly groceries. Always a sticker shock at the check out counter.

Today I'll be working on this cute Amy Bradley Quilt Diva wall hanging for Ginny...

Quilt Diva pattern by Amy Bradley

...until Jim can get the backing loaded onto Marty for the next show quilt that's due like right now. 

Customer already here and gone to pick up the t-shirt quilt and the rest of the day/weekend is mine alone. 

Bummer

I didn't plan the white sides very well in the strip quilt. I ended up having to trim off quite a bit on both and some of the purple was even cut off. Well, it's for demo and learning purposes so it is what it is. It'll be loved regardless.

After working on the t-shirt quilt all day the dogs were being really patient and we finally took them down swimming. Once we cleaned them up from lake sludge, I worked on another Love Letter block before blanket stitching the next cowboy boot. 

Working on the t-shirt quilt again today. Neighbors to the north are up so may have visitors. And, I have a customer coming at some point to pick up her quilt. 

Sad News

Our son, who lives in Germany with his wife and daughter, have a cat they took with them when they moved last year. We just learned Surge has terminal cancer and is being put down next Wednesday. Yesterday was Caleb's birthday and he found out about Surges diagnosis then. What a crappy birthday present. 

Our other son, who lives in Ohio with his wife and two children, also have two cats who are very old. Like 17-years old old. Their health is also failing and will likely not be making the move in a month. Not a great month for our grand kitties. 

Back to quilting things...

Working on the t-shirt quilt took up most of the day yesterday. After working on it for about seven hours, I moved over to do a Love Letters block and then felt like I could tackle the rest of the strip quilt background fills once that was finished.

Aside from trimming and binding, the quilt is quilted...

Ready for trimming and binding

I don't have a binding picked out for this yet. I may have to run to Pieces if I can't find anything in my stash.

Finishing this didn't take as long as I thought so I moved over to the first cowboy boot to start the miles of blanket stitching. It took a little over an hour and a half but the first boot is done. However, I made one extra and the one I did was labeled the pillow block.

More t-shirt fun today and I have a customer coming to pick up. 

Playing Saturday

I spent the first half of the day working on the strip quilt on DW. I still have the background fill to do on the last roll or so, but here's the last 12 strips...

The odds

The evens

And remember #12 earlier on in this venture where it was a duplicate and I needed to put something else in there? This is what I made up (kind of)...

And the missing #12

Once I was finished doing the strip work, my desire to long arm had waned and so moved on to the cowboy boots. 

I got all the motifs/pieces traced onto fusible (sure hope this new one I'm trying isn't as stiff as the Heat and Bond Lite I usually use)...

DW is assisting in keeping things organized

The boot heels are all black so I fused and then cut those out to set aside for today. 

From there I needed to bond and cut out the main boot part...

Ready to pair

The backgrounds needed to be pressed and cut out next which I did before calling it a night.

Today I'm going to pair the boots with their backgrounds and get at least the boot body and heel parts together on the background. I would LOVE to get the motifs matched with each boot and have them fused so that during movie time today I can work on cutting those out. 

Until DW is cleared of all his 'paperwork' I can't finish the strip quilt so I guess I should get a move on!

How Much Time?

When I work one block for a total of 50 minutes, is that too much time to spend on it? 

Almost an hour

Take this block above for instance. By the time I inlined all the letters, the motif around the letters and then put the TV ariel back fill in it I checked the clock and couldn't believe how much time I spent. And, the kicker about all of that is that it hardly shows. 

Now this shows...

This is the sashing/border going in and around the quilt. While this does take some time at least it shows somewhat. 

I wish this one showed a little more, but if you look, the t-shirt is called city shaper and I put a little city in and around the motif in the middle. 

The other two blocks in this row have static electricity waves and I did some McTavishing. After working through the customer stuff yesterday I did a block in the Love Letters to give my arm a reset before getting on DW.

I did only two strips yesterday. I had to introduce some more batting (my cut was short) and had to number the remaining 10 strips yet to go as well as baste in through the bottom. I have some bunching going on in the left side (???) but with a complete strip quilt I guess I should have expected it. 

After working on DW for a while, I thought about what I want to to work on this weekend and decided to get started back in on the Cowboy Boots. I have traced all the boots and soles and will continue on with the other motifs today. Jim is at a Smallwood Lake Association meeting this morning. I choose to abstain as I get pretty worked up at all the ridiculous questions and comments people who don't live here make. 

Flood-iversary

This is the week, six years ago, when our lake flooded. And the next day, emptied. It's been lower than legal lake levels since that fated day on May 19, 2020. 

Memorial Day weekend is to remember those fallen for our country, but I'm going to add to it (since I am a veteran and recognize the significance of the holiday) and remember that awful day when our dream of living on a lake was whisked away right before our very eyes.

While progress is being made on our dam, we are yet again, a summer without a viable lake to enjoy our "golden" years on. I'll remember the first two summers we had to enjoy it and be thankful no lives were lost in the berm failure downstream. 

Gails Sunflower quilt was finished yesterday morning. Once all the housekeeping chores were done to it, I moved over to this one...

Evelyns grandsons grad quilt

Here are a few of the blocks I've gotten in so far...

After working yesterday afternoon, Jim and I headed to the greenhouses to get our summer plants. He needed garden veggies and I needed a few flowers. We had a freeze warning for last night so they are still hanging out in the truck. Planting will take place after working today.

Once we returned from the green house I was still in a quilt-y mood and started working on a few strips on DW...

The 'evens' side

The 'odds'

It's a good thing Andrew called while I was working on those floating squares. They took forever and I would have lost patience with them. After long arming for a while I finished the third row in section A of the Love Letters top. Forgot to grab a pic though. 

More on the t-shirt quilt today on Marty. I have so many projects I want to play with during the holiday weekend, that while I'm working today I'm hoping to get them organized in my head. I do know that I want to finish the strip quilt on DW for sure, but the rest is kind of fuzzy. 

A Lot Done Yesterday

The first thing I needed to do was get caught up on the Temperature blocks. 15 of them. Check.

I then moved over to working on a few of the Love Letter blocks and actually got the first and second rows together.

After a wonderfully tasty lunch (which my gut did not like) I jumped onto DW to start working the strip quilt. Here are the next eight rows...
 

I'm not working in the studio today. I had/have some housekeeping stuff to deal with and need to keep going on that. It was half-way through I remembered I hadn't blogged yet because we had to do haircuts before anything else this morning. 

Storms coming this afternoon despite the beautiful sunny day we are experiencing. 

Where'd My Glasses Go?

I have a prescription pair of reading glasses that I haven't seen since late January. I took them to the Creative Escapes retreat and haven't seen them since. I thought maybe they'd resurface at the next retreat or two but they still haven't shown themselves. 

So, I'm using a non prescription pair of cheaters to see small things. But they aren't really correct for my eyes (I have one that's far sighted and another that is near), but better than nothing I suppose.

What a busy day yesterday! First, the guys showed up to start the stairs going down to the lake. At one point, between customers, I was able to grab this pic...

How many men does it take to install a set of stairs?

The workers are on the actual stairs. The supervision crew is on the right. Are theses state workers?

I had three customer visits. I thought each client was bringing A quilt top. Nope, my second one brought two bringing my intake of tops this week alone to 11. 

After long arming (well past 6:00) on customer stuff I needed to do some sit down work for a while. The first couple of blocks were constructed in Love Letters...

Getting Love Letters started

After working with those for a while I needed to long arm some more so decided to see how DW behaved last night after getting him home. I quilted out four strips and the one with all the pebbles would have let me know he was not right. He performed very well!

My goal today is to get caught up on the Temperature quilt blocks, do a few more Love Letter blocks, and then work very hard on the strip quilt. I have 16 more strips to complete! There may be a nap in my future as it was a very early morning (6:30) with a huge thunder boom right next to my window. Doesn't the weather know it's Saturday?

A Non-Productive Productive Day

For not working on the big machines all day yesterday we certainly got a lot done. Our first stop was to test and pack up DW to come back home...

Going for a truck ride (again)

We always seat belt him in when we travel with him. Just in case. From there we headed to lunch (at the Pizza House) and then off to the shoe store in Okemos (Playmakers, which I highly recommend!) to get another set of tennis shoes to work in over the summer. My others have started hurting my feet.

We grabbed a dessert at Traverse City Pie Company in East Lansing once we found a pair of shoes and then headed to Meijer in Alma for our weekly groceries. 

The next stop was Pieces of Thyme to get a backing for both the Puppy quilt I did at retreat last weekend and for the quilt top Jim skinned for Virginia. 

Once we got home we had to unload everything and while doing so got a phone call from Andrew. They are moving. Holy cow the new house they're buying is gorgeous! 

Now everybody is back in the studio and we have the strip quit reloaded onto DW's frame. 

Everybody has something on them

It makes me uneasy when I have empty frames. Not sure why, but it does.

Jim was exhausted from driving. We ran into a lot of construction and some pretty dumb drivers out there. He took a nap while I cut out the rest of the wedges going into Love Letters...

Ready for piecing

I have three customers coming today. Of course, I get zero calls all week and then boom, we hit the road and my phone rings itself out of its case. All three are dropping off. That means I'll have taken 10 quilt tops in this week. I need to retire. 

Along with customers coming today, Joe and his son Joey are coming to start on those stairs to the lake. Happy Friday. 

Back in a Week-ish

I was in the studio for more than usual on a Sunday. After doing my daily strip I found something Jim needed for his man cave.

We have a table rubbing against our newly painted walls out there and I needed to make a Spartan-something-or-another to put on the table.

Here's what I came up with... 

Jim calls this a doily thing

It still needs to be quilted and bound, but it'll be here when I return on Thursday night. And, then I'm off again on Friday to spend the day with my brother and mother. 

We set up our retreat room last night at Riverwalk and I'm heading out here in just a few minutes since we can start sewing at 8:00. So excited! This is going to be a fun week because I get to see people I only see a few times a year. 

I have to make a quilt delivery at some point today. Probably later this afternoon during the "sleepy" hour. 

Happy Easter

Remember me saying yesterday we are having bad smells coming from the new water heater? Smells like rotten eggs and after today's shower, this proves we have sulfur being released from the anode rod in the water heater...

Not supposed to be this color

My ring(s) are usually very bright silver. That's Jims project while I'm gone next week. While I know eggs are associated with Easter, this is taking it a bit far.😉

I did my strip block yesterday. I started two pineapples, and in between all of that I was packing. And making Jim his anniversary gift; a stool cover/pad for his stool out in the studio. 

I keep thinking of little things here and there to grab (vitamins, acorn fabric treatment) and am putting them in their respective places/piles while making this weeks temperature blocks/row. 

Getting ready and so excited!

Here's where the temperature top is as of yesterday...

Through April 2nd

Today I'll continue to grab stuff as I think of it. I am going out to do my strip today since I'll be gone for the whole week and maybe a little something else. Jim is making us cookies for the meet and greet tomorrow night.

I did drag out my brothers Flying Pig (Laura Heine) to transfer the design onto the pattern ease fabric yesterday after working the temperature blocks, but that's about as far as it went before my batteries were getting low. 🐇🐇

We Have Stinky

Once again we have heavy rains and outside it smells like poopy (coming from the neighbors). The new water heater in the house is starting to smell like sulfur. This is a situation we've encountered in the past after replacing the water heater where the anode rod inside creates this smell. Bleh all around!

Here's some of the quilting that went into Dianes quilt...

That quilt is done and 'filed' away so on to her last one after returning. 

For the next week I'll be unavailable in the studio. Setting up tomorrow night starts the whole shebang and today I'm going to be packing for said retreat all day today. 

I have to pack stuff that I normally don't have to take up to The Springs. I have to pack my regular stuff (projects and supplies), and then I have to pack my clothes/toiletries which I also don't have to pack for The Springs retreats since I stay here at the house.

Jim is on his way to East Lansing for our grandsons birthday party. I chose not to go as there are some family dynamics there I'd rather not deal with today. Not before the retreat anyway. 

I did my strip yesterday after getting Dianes quilt taken care of and then I did two pineapples. It takes about an hour and 20 minutes to do two pineapples. I may take them to retreat...or not. I'm still unsure about that and will make that decision when I start packing today. 

Silly Weather

I'm supposed to be on my way to guild up in Hale right this very minute. But, they are expecting ice and have delayed it until noon today. It may get cancelled altogether depending on how much ice is expected. We are right on the line and are just getting rain/snow right now.

I have one more row and the last border to do on Dianes rag quilt and then I'll move over to the next one ready to load on Bernie. I don't have a pic of that yet. 

I worked late thinking maybe I could get the large quilt done, but after taking stock in where I was, knew it would be late, late, late if I continued. I moved over to DW and worked on my daily strip. Here's the past weeks worth...

Then from there I worked the other two corner blocks for the pineapple quilt.

I keep making lists while I'm working of items I need to take to retreat. I have a retreat set of bags already set to go, but since we're hosting we have to take more than our usual amount. Things like ironing boards, large irons, risers, cutting mats, and extension chords. There are plenty of others, but those are the major items. 

Caleb is already on the phone with us this morning but I'm going to start right in on Dianes quilt so if I am able to head north I won't feel guilty about basically blowing off the whole afternoon. 

While Lightning Strikes

There are two reasons I will NOT plug in and turn on the long arms; very high winds with higher gusts, and, lightning. 

If I hear thunder I tie off, shut off the machine and then unplug. Surge protectors and/or dedicated plugs are no match for mother nature and trifling with her is playing a very dangerous game. My day was cut short because of a two hour thunderstorm that went through around 3:15. 

Here's some of the quilting going into Dianes rag quilt...

Kind of custom

I'll be working on this all of today. It's a large quilt and I'm thread changing for all the various reds, green, and creams throughout.

After having to shut down prematurely, I prepped for the strip of the day which required some markings and I also prepped to sew the two remaining blocks in Scrappy Goodness. More fabrics were cut for the pineapple blocks and then once it was clear to work on stuff all of the above were completed as well as construction of two of the four corner blocks in pineapple. 

I received a text last night that the tie quilt made it to Florida! Yay! She later sent a pic of the maker and the recipient with the quilt on the bed where it's going to live. 

Seeing it in its element

This warms my heart! I love to see something quilt makers and I put together and the happiness it makes for the person it was made for. Truly, this is why I do what I do because their reactions and faces are priceless!

Happy April Fools Day. Here's hoping you don't get pranked.

Learning

Teachers are life-long learners. I ask a lot of questions, especially when we are making a rather substantial purchase to make sure we are making the right decision(s). 

Yesterday we spent most of the day in search of a new washer. Front load? Top load? Stackables? Size? All questions we needed to ask. 

The most important thing we learned was that local businesses don't generally keep washers in stock anymore. They have to be ordered. And what is on the floor to look at is minimal right now. Would you buy something that expensive based on a picture? 

As much as we support small businesses we ended up at Lowe's and purchased our washer there. They had dozens of models to open, touch, and play with before we made our final decision. And I'm glad we were able to because there are a few features on our current washer I could do without, and there are a few I had to have on the new one.

So, here's what we learned: Washers today are good for about 7-10 years (at the outside) unless you wanted to spend $1400 or more on an industrial model which, not everything would be covered if it died. We didn't purchase the cheapest, but we went low to mid on price, features, and usability. 

And...we will receive a $50 credit from Consumers after they pick up our old one. The new washer will be here Monday.

I have to do something with this QR code...

Where does quilting come into all of this? A top-load washer still uses agitation to clean; rubbing fabrics together while swirling water around it. Notice the word 'agitation'. I don't want my quilts agitated. At all. I think making seams go back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth is asking for trouble. We stuck with a front loader in our decision. All the sales people we talked to whole heartedly agreed. 

We are washing all the rugs/mats and dog things today so if we further wreck our current washer (it is dying) we aren't out anything. I don't want to start right in with the new washer and break it from the opening gate so we are doing our spring washing a little earlier this year. 

Did I do anything in the studio yesterday? A little. I did my strip and a scrappy block. I was all set to start in on the last two center pineapple blocks but then I became really sleepy and decided I was going to just relax the rest of the day. It's the weekend. I'm entitled, right? 

Well, We're Out Of The Tournament

Jim was up well past midnight watching the Spartans claw their way through a tough basketball game. We lost by three and are now out of the tournament. I'm kind of glad. Jim gets pretty worked up when his Spartans play.

I jumped right into Dianes quilt on Bernie and here are the border treatments going in...

I got a lot done in the morning since Jim was gone hunting for a box big enough to ship a quilt (the tie quilt) and getting more background fabric for the Pineapple blocks.

That was a feat. Not the box. That was easy. The fabric was another situation altogether. Here's the lesson learned on that; Buy and LABEL the fabrics purchased for your project. Buy enough and then some and then label it so it's not inadvertently used for another project. 

Which is what happened. I know I got the fabric at Pieces. That's where most of my purchases come from. But they didn't have the right color of gray and ended up with a slightly lighter shade. I have enough of the darker stuff to finish the inside blocks so I'll use the lighter fabrics for the outside blocks, which I think will actually work out okay.

But that's not always the situation. We had to run and UPS the quilt out and then get groceries after. When we arrived back home, and while he was watching his games I did a strip, a scrappy block, and constructed two more inside pineapple blocks; only two more of the inside blocks to go.

Today we are heading to Clare to look at washers. Ours is spitting out oil onto our clothes, it will occasionally not entirely spin out, and the clothes are smelling a little funny. The dial on the front hasn't worked since forever, and all the signs are pointing to it quitting. We're going to try to head that off. Thank goodness for a decent tax refund. 

Long Projects

After getting through Dianes quilts over the next week I noticed I have several tops that are long-to-complete projects. Most of the remaining quilts in queue are a week or better in working. Not that Dianes aren't, but I know I've done several of the quilts in queue already and they all want same but different quilting in them as the previous ones already completed.

Here's what I'll be working on today...

The middle is embroidered, kind of

Borders take the longest to work. They require a lot of planning and sometimes math. But while I was going to sleep last night, I was "working" the first two in my head and today while I'm working through those, I'll work through the next one in my head.

Bernadettes quilt was finished late in the afternoon and am already frame ironing another back on Marty; the only large quilt top Diane left me last fall.

After working, I made a Scrappy Goodness block, did my strip on DW, and then completed three more pineapple blocks. I discovered I am short on the background fabric. Jim has to find a box somewhere in town to ship out Judy's Tie quilt today and then he'll head over to Pieces to get more background fabric for me while I'm here working. He's such a great husband!

A Crappy Day

Well, I had a great day. Very productive. Jim did not have a great day. More on that in a bit. 

I worked on Bernadettes Hometown quilt all day and will be doing that again today. Maybe this is its last day before being completed?

Here are a few of the threads going into it though...

I actually added one more after this pic was taken

After working, once again, past quitting time, I moved right over to DW. I should not do that because the difference in the Bernina weights and DW's weight is significant and I don't feel like I quilt as well because of this. Here's the last weeks worth of strip quilting...

We are more than half-way done with these so not too many more weeks. 

I did a Scrappy Goodness block and then tried to move into an appliqué project I started months ago, but don't have the transfer fabric to complete it (A Laura Heine) so pulled some other project out that's been put aside for quite some time. 

Remember the pineapple blocks I was making eons ago? They have been hanging out underneath the sewing table way too long. Yep, those are going to retreat to get finished if they aren't by then.

Here's what Jim had to deal with yesterday...

Increasing the riser height

Talk about a stinky job for him to have to deal with. I didn't even go out and talk to him while he was working because, just, NO! We have burned up three pumps in eight years and it's the lay of the land that causes it to overwork itself during heavy rains. He's trying to rectify the situation. 

When It's About The Piecing

If a busy quilt top is received into the queue and the customer wants custom work done on it, a look at what I have as a whole is necessary. The quilt I'm currently working is not about my quilting. At all! It's about the piecing. I have to decide how to enhance the customers piecing and not detract from it with the quilting. It's a balancing game. Here's an example...

See anything?

The top half of this block is quilted but can you see anything? No! And you shouldn't. Her appliqué work on this is stunning and I do not want to detract from her efforts. I'm just laying down thread to hold the piece together and not messing with her substantial accomplishments.

I've seen this quilt on-line and found that most long armers are merely doing an edge to edge on this particular pattern. Sadly. It detracts from the overall image(s) and bunches up some of those many layers this quilt has.

Because all of these pieces need to be started and stopped individually, this is taking a long time to quilt but so worth the work!

After working on this all day (and well past quitting time), I moved right over the DW to do my strip. I made a scrappy goodness block after that and then I was in the mood for some paper piecing. 

While I had zero intentions of working all of the third column in Rita, I was having such a good time that I did indeed get the third column completed and attached to columns one and two...

One more column to go

I love to paper piece and this has been fun. There are a lot of teeny, tiny pieces in here so as I'm building it I'm trying to work out how this is going to be quilted. I'm still unsure but it'll come to me when the time comes I'm sure. 

Today will be on Marty all day working on Bernadette's Hometown quilt. And, probably tomorrow as well since it's a slow-going process.