Stinky Water

We've been dealing with stinky water here at the house. After the plumber replaced a part in the new water heater we finally have not-rotten-egg-smelling water to shower in. So happy! And, now, if I have to wash a customer backing I'm not worried about the smell issue either.

Still working on the tree skirts. The first two are not yet completed, but here's a little detail of what they are receiving...

Sorry it's upside down

And yes, that's a meander next to the trees. There was no other filler that would've worked in the irregular space. Even after drafting an echo or swirls, they didn't seem to fit the bill.

After long arming for nine hours, Jim arrived home just after the plumber showed up. Long arming any more was not going to happen. Once the "dust" settled with the replacement/repairs, I started in on this dolly quilt and completed it before calling it a day.

Dolly Quilt #3

Mom's coming over tomorrow. She hates the noise the long arm makes. I need to really dig in today on these tree skirts because I think the customer will be here Friday to pick them up (per our conversation of yesterday afternoon). 

Etheyl called yesterday from her shop (Aunt Effies...which is closing their doors in April). Her long arm decided to take an early vacation and conk out on her. She has a couple of customers who have to have stuff done in a timely manner and she's referring them my way, which is cool! 

Shopping, Visiting, and a Mess

Friday was a shopping day with mom. Here's my Aunt Effies haul.

For a little over $100

10 yards of muslin, two types of hand sewing needles (for all those hexagons I've been making over the years), batting tape, a purple thang, three 1-yard coordinated cuts for that last minute project, and a bundle of 24 fat quarters for a project I have in mind utilizing an Alison Glass pattern I have on order. 

I did come home after our shopping day and start these...

The start of 100 11" string blocks

Yesterday we were on the road again. All day. Picked mom up around 9:00 and didn't get home until 6:00-ish. Visited with the kids/grandkids, stopped by Gall Sewing to get some needles (which they didn't have) and a 1/4" presser foot (without the rail) for my little HQ Stitch 210 (Lilo). Mom needed vacuum bags for her antique vacuum...and of course, Gall had them.

Lunch at Red Robin and then off to Lowe's. Picked up some flooring for our back entrance, some double sided tape for my long arm foam mats (because they are becoming slippery with all the lint), and two more totes to store quilts in.

After a quick trip through Culvers for a Concrete Mixer, we were headed back home. After getting in the back door, something didn't smell right.

Now, we leave Hazel often by herself. She's 2+ years old and generally, other than ripping out parts of her tail, is completely fine. But yesterday did not appear to be a good day for her. She ate/got into something that just didn't agree with her and left three large soupy green poop messes on our off white carpet. Clearly, she didn't feel well. Clearly, we're still working on getting up the stains.

Don't know if we're going to get to lay that flooring today. It's a beautiful sunny day so working back in the back room would be stellar, but Jim needs to find tools and see if we can actually get to this project. 

11 x 12

I have enough sets started from the greens to make the Rail Fence top 11 blocks wide by 12 blocks long. That'll be something like 88" x 92" without any borders. It may be smaller because I have yet to trim all these darn blocks down. I think maybe a four-patch border would be cute around the outside. Hmmm? I'll think about it today.

Here's what we have on the frame this morning...

Jane's Top for her granddaughter

I don't know that this will actually get quilted today. Mom wants to head to West Branch for a shopping day and since I haven't been out of the house to do anything like shopping in four weeks, it's probably time to go out into the world and experience life again.

Funnily enough, 10 years ago you couldn't have kept me in a house for this long. After a few days I would have been climbing the walls, let alone weeks on end. But I love my studio so much. I love our property and the lake. I love being here with Hazel all day. I love how mellow I am here and it's hard to leave. 

Jim wants to go downstate tomorrow to visit our son and grab my sewing machine, and do other stuff around the "big city" but I'm balking at the trip for the reasons stated above. But I know I need to get that machine back home because once the rail fence blocks start going together the industrial machine is going to be needed. And we haven't seen Ben since Christmas. I miss him.

Going to a Quilt Shop

Aunt Effies, in West Branch, is a very nice quilt shop. She has a lot of everything there and it's set up more open then most quilt shops I've visited; which makes shopping very easy. While mom had to trek down to her art emporium where some of her paintings are available for sale, I went quilt shopping.

I. DIDN'T. BUY. A. THING!

I KNOW!

WHAT THE HECK?

I realized I have a lot of projects going on here and decided I needed to (once again) get some of these off my list before getting into anything new. Once in a while ya just gotta say "Enough," and actually finish some of what has been started.

When arriving back home, two more pineapple blocks for the Long Time Gone top were made, I worked the zipper into my Poppins bag, and looked ahead on what my next row (border) is on the selvedge top. After about 9:00, I settled down to start sketching out what I'm going to put into my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks top. Oh, the possibilities!

And I'm still undecided.

Oh the real estate!

Getting anything to really wow me was hard, but I came close on a few designs. I think this one, because it is so open, is going to need to be loaded and preview paper needs to be put over to play around and see what will work out best for the design.

So, Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks, after hanging on our loft bannister for over four months now, you are finally going on the frame today.