Weird Weather

The hot, muggy days like yesterday are bound to produce some interesting weather. Thankfully, we're up here in a valley where we get very mild weather. It's rare for us to have to seek shelter or worry about a storms fury. Unlike those folks downstate. They have all the fun. 

Ila's quilt is done and I'm moving over to Ginny's quilt on Bernie today. I've already started ditching and have been quilt planning since loading it yesterday afternoon.

A row by row

I'll be working on this cute piece most of the day. 

While getting this quilt above started I was frame ironing on both DW and Marty for their next projects. I'm ready to load on DW but have another couple of advances on Marty. I was waiting for Jim to get back from the food bank yesterday and blanket stitched this cowboy boot...

Howdy, howdy, howdy

Once that was finished I started to bind the Firework quilt until we left for our weekly groceries. I had, throughout the day yesterday, made a back for the baby quilt going onto DW and made two bindings. One for the baby quilt and the other for the Firework. Can't work on the baby quilt until the other one is bound. My rules. Otherwise nothing would get bound around here. 

Jim is off to the dentist this morning. Went yesterday and they didn't think anything was amiss, but had another tooth in front of the offender bother him throughout the night so he has an appointment to get that looked at. All of this without insurance. Just great. 

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. 

Looks Simple Enough

This is the sashing I'm putting into Ila's quilt per her request...

The sashing

It seems simple enough, right? This is all the markings and leg work that need to occur to get that 'simple' sashing motif into the quilt...

Getting the sashing in

The center point needed to be found. Then a measurement between blocks divided by the number of curves required for each curve has to be calculated. And they aren't always the same. Most of them are measuring at 2 7/8". Then, while quilting them, I have to be sure to hit that exact point where they intersect otherwise it throws off the whole motif. 

And, that's part of my job. Math. Speaking of math. Jim was babysitting DW again while he was stitching out this motif on the princess quilt for Sharon...

I like to overstitch motifs on E2E's so there isn't any negative space on the sides or the top/bottom. More math involved to ensure the motif isn't distorted or skewed. Once that princess quilt was finished, Jim started loading DW with the backing for my quilt-along that started on February 1st. Obviously I'm late getting to the party. 

I have never (ever, ever, ever) had two duplicate backs on the three frames, and here we are, loading a duplicate back to the one being frame ironed on Bernie for a customer...

I have pics of the blocks I worked yesterday in Ila's quilt, but won't post them today since I've already spent enough time blogging this morning. I worked late again getting blocks 11-15 completed before shutting down; around 6:15. 

I did get a fireworks blocks done last night and got the two tops on Bernie and DW set and ready to start basting in. I'll be working Ila's quilt today (blocks 12-16) and one customer is scheduled to come and pick up. I don't know if she'll actually make it since it's snowing pretty good out there and we are expecting an all day event so we'll see about that. 

Three, Three, Three Quilts in One

I worked on three customer quilts yesterday. First, Sharon's quilt had to be set up on DW for E2E work with the Pro Stitcher. 

Babysitting the computer

Here's the motif going into Sharon's I Spy quilt...

Flutterbys

Once I got everything all set for Jim to sit and babysit, I moved over to Judy's quilt on Marty. I didn't think I would be spending all day on her quilt since I only had borders, sashing and ditching to do. But, quilting life throws curve balls and that's exactly what happened. All. Day. Long I was working on that quilt!

My goal was to get Ila's quilt moved over to Marty before shutting down for the day, so working 'overtime' was in the cards last night. 

At around 6:00 her quilt was moved, loaded, basted in, and threads are selected ready for me to start right in this morning. 

Next up on Marty

And why I'm working on Marty, I'll be frame ironing the back for Sharon's next Princess quilt on DW and whatever is up next on Bernie. The one on DW has been started, but then this happened with the last roll last night...

Can you see it?

The center of this backing is dipping down while the insides are fine. The back is as tight as possible on all four sides. Jim is still learning and he's the one that loaded this back with the selvedges on the side rather than the top and bottom. I'm going to have to remove it and turn it 90 degrees. From there it will have to be back and front rolled to try to get this to even itself out. 

An inexperienced long armer would have no idea how to remedy this, and I've only ever seen it one other time, but I know, from watching and learning from other long armers how to deal with this situation.

Meanwhile, Jim is running into town this morning for more tax stuff and other miscellaneous errands so will work on his E2E quilt later this afternoon AFTER I get the backing situation taken care of. Maybe. 

Don't Ask For Channeling...

Okay gang. You want your sides channeled before I set in the motif we discussed at the planning session. But, you only leave me this much backing...

2 3/4"? Really?

I can't attach the side clamps to steady the sandwich when left only this much backing. And since this quilt is so big, I can't even attach my leader grip bracket because I'm that close to the side of the frame. I've pulled multiple stitches on these channels, and I'm done with doing that. 

If you don't provide me with the minimum requirements of at least 4" all around, I can not be responsible for shoddy looking work. There is a reason long armers need that much extra. Too many to list today, but it's not because we want you to spend the extra money. We NEED that much to get things aligned and stable on that 12-foot frame.

I had the quality control crew making sure I was staying on task yesterday...

Hazel (l) and Lucy (r)

We have a beautiful snow coming down right now and it's supposed to stay with us until around noon. Then, it'll be kicking back up again later this evening. New snow is always soooo pretty and will be nice to look at while I've passed the half-way point in the Judy Niemeyer quilt. I knew this one would take over a week to complete. 

Very (Un)Accomplished Yesterday

I didn't get nearly enough done in what it was I was initially working on...

Some continuous curves in the triangles

Jim was having some tablet issues on DW. Here's what he's stitching out in Mary's quilt...

He kept touching the work portion of the screen and hosing up his progress. We had to restart the machine a few times because he lost connection. It was just one of those days I guess. But we did make it to the bottom with a few inches to spare on that backing. 

By the time he wrapped up his quilting and I trimmed the piece, it was past quitting time so I shut down Marty for the day. 

Jim asked what was next on DW. We have to get these two baby quilts done and in the mail headed for Germany. Customs goes through everything and last time we sent a package it took five weeks to arrive to the kids. We want to make sure these get there sooner rather than later. 

Having said that, this was loaded last night...

Baby DeGroots first Spartan quilt

I haven't actually quilted with DW in months. His buttons and weight are vastly different than the two Bernina long arms, yet, we fit together like peanut butter and honey (I prefer honey over jelly). 

And since I already had him loaded (we had to put a panel his his backing to make it wide enough), I decided I hadn't had enough long arming yesterday and tore right into it. 

Me doing free motion

Yep, this is NOT computerized but rather me doing the driving. After an hour or so it was finished and is now waiting for me to get it off the frame and trim so it can be bound. 

But the B's are headed up today (pending their alternator repair on the van) and Jim is pressing cider. I'm going to work in the studio for a short bit to get my BOW done. I had made great progress on it last night but then the Bellers decided to have a fire (Kathy's cancer is back) and we knew we needed to spend as much time with them as possible. They are headed to Florida next week for a month. 

If the B's don't come up, then I'll continue in the studio getting the next DeGroot baby quilt loaded. I have to find a back for it and that's another something I'm going to do this morning. I may need to run to Pieces. 

Un-Sewing on Halloween

This quilt was moved from Marty to DW as we decided to do a block by block E2E on it (the customer wanted E2E and something loose). 

Mary's Wensleydale

But, it was not laying straight, and we encountered this...

Backing too small

So we had to do this...

Unsewing the basting stitches

We needed to move it up a bit onto the backing as the quilt is square. Turning it 90 degrees would not have been an option. I hope we make it!

Here's Jim doing what Jim does now with his back injury...

"Babysitting" DW

After we got all of that straightened out and got Jim going on the blocks, I had to load some backs and start some actual quilting myself. 

This back may be an issue...

Drooping back

I rolled it back and forth a few times and it kind of straightened out, but not entirely. It's because it's a) Homespuns and b) Pieced together. It must be a bad backing week!

I'll make it work. At any case, while Jim is working on DW on Marys quilt, I'll be working on Marty on this cute Christmas quilt...

Ho, ho, ho

Yep, I'm starting all the holiday quilts. Actually, I'm going to have one machine doing holiday stuff while the other one is doing queue work. Except this time. The two on Marty and the other I'm loading on Bernie are for the same customer and they are both holiday deadlines. Happy Halloween!

Reset Day

After pulling off Karen's quilt on Marty, I started frame ironing for the next one up on him; Cindy's Grandmothers Flower Garden. I finished Janice's on Bernie and started frame ironing for the next one on him; Marge's Southwest. I stitched out the rest of the baby quilt that I had to add more back to and started frame ironing for the next one on him; a customer quilt actually because I'm going to use the Pro Stitcher to do some of the blocks. This is Ann's Shop Hop quilt. So here was the studio in the morning...

All three machines are getting backs frame ironed

While working through the frame ironing I trimmed the two quilts off of Bernie and DW. I pulled batting for all three. I got threads ready for the first one I was going to work, because DW's backing was Minky and I didn't have to frame iron it at all. 

Here's what he's wearing...

For a neighbor

BUT, DW is being a goof ball. His Y-axis encoder is acting a little off. As I was quilting along, it started acting more off. I fiddled with his ribbons, checked his wheel, cleaned the rails on the carriage and the frame, yet he was still not right. Jim will be on the phone with Jason tonight to talk through two other things we can adjust to see if we can get it right. Otherwise, this quilt will have to be put onto which ever I finish first on the other two machines and I'll have to free motion something myself in those big blocks.

The backing on Marty was ready first and so got this set onto the frame ready for me to baste in today...

Grandmothers Flower Garden

I already know how I'm going to quilt this one so that saves a little time. This is the quilt I'm going to start with first since I want to wait to talk to Jason on DW's issue. 

The backing on Bernie isn't quite done yet, but this is what will be set on him later today...

Marge's Southwest themed quilt for baby

After fiddling with DW for a spell last night, and working through these backings/tops, I cut the next pattern out for retreat. That didn't take nearly as long as I had anticipated, so I started on the other one I had in mind to take. Remember, I'm going to three retreats. So far I only have four cut out. I'd like to have five or six since a few of them are pretty easy to do. 

Music and Quilting

Having zero music in my studio is uncommon. In fact, I found that I become frustrated and tense when there isn't music in the background. Or people talking. Sometimes I listen to a podcast or YouTube video when working. But there has to be some kind of noise. Isn't that weird?

Where do I begin on yesterday? I removed the Tilda Sampler from Marty and did everything I need to do with a customer quilt and then went to the queue to find the next 'deadline' to get it started. The back is being frame ironed...it's a big one.

I moved over to DW to remove the panel I quilted on Sunday so I could get the next Rayola quilt back started.

See all the candy?

The backing I found was long and skinny; a leftover from something done previously, but there was enough there to piece together the small 40" square quilt going on so I quickly did some piecing to get something onto DW (a naked long arm is almost as frustrating as not having music) and then loaded that up on the machine. 

I decided my class wasn't going to result in a positive deadline for what's on Bernie so decided to just start Janice's quilt and do my own thing on this one. While I was basting in, mom stopped by for a little visit and then Jim was home for lunch. 

Doing my own thing

I'm incorporating as many curves as I can since this is such an angular quilt. And, we're using a very flat batting so I need to get as much in the white space as possible.

I worked on that until after 'closing' time and then moved over to DW since that back was ready. I got the ProStitcher fired up and decided to get some flowers in there...

I'm giving away a Kaffe quilt?

Yep, this is done with Kaffe fabric. I know, crazy! I received a call in the afternoon from Yolanda from Rayola, who I talked to at the quilt show. She's stopping by later this afternoon to get all those quilts still sitting here waiting to be picked up. I was hoping to get the one above finished so she could take it too, but I messed up the backing.

I made it too small (see, I'm human too). I quilted as much as I could, pulled it off the machine, added more back to it and then reloaded. I'll finish that one tonight. 

Once I was done with that, I started cutting for more retreat projects. Cubby the Raven is cut out and ready to go and am now working on project number four. Remember, I have three retreats in seven weeks starting mid-October. But this is how I'm going to work it. I'm going to work here in the morning before heading over to The Springs and then retreat all afternoon and evening. 

I can't do that while I'm in Shipshewana, obviously, but I can with the two here and will make the most of both worlds as long as I can. 

I'll be working on Janices quilt on Bernie all day, and if time permits, I'll jump on Marty and get Karen's started. But that all depends on how long I'm fiddling with the Rayola quilts this afternoon. 

RIP Teresa

We got news yesterday morning that Jims sister Teresa passed around 10:30 in the morning. She's had a 2 1/2 year battle with cancer and just as one mass disappeared, shortly after another would surface. The last one was in her brain. She lived in Tennessee but there will be a Michigan service later this fall. She will be laid to rest next to Jims dad in Olivet. 

Teresa and I didn't get along particularly well. She was a "Christian" but laid judgement towards me at virtually every turn for one thing or another. A few years ago, she and I got into a physical altercation at our home downstate and I never recovered from that. I am just glad she's no longer suffering. Nobody should have to suffer like she did no matter the circumstances or relationship with others. 

The house was very cold this morning. Near 60 degrees and it's because it got down to the low 40's last night; the lake was even steaming this morning.  Jim cranked the main house furnace on and then I went out to the studio to plug in the iPad and it was nearly 60 out there too. Not living in a cold house. I cranked up that furnace for a spell just to get the chill off. I'll turn it off once it's done cycling. 

But the first furnace burn is the first smell of autumn this year. I love it!

So, I got caught up on Marty where I was at on Bernie and here's some of the quilting going into either one...

I believe all three of these are actually on Marty, but the one on Bernie is getting the same treatment long-arm-wise.

And, more of the same today. I am expecting one customer to come and drop off later this afternoon. Yep, that's my day today. Whee!

After working on the "work" boys, I moved over and finished out the Sewing wall hanging on DW...

This one is quilted and I'll probably bind tonight

I was waiting for the marks to disappear before binding this, so once that was trimmed and sitting in wait, I started loading the next back for the next top of mine. I had to piece the backing first before loading it, which wasn't a big deal.

While frame ironing that back, I worked on my Tilda piece. I did get section three of the "A" section done. This quilt is taking me a lot longer to make than I thought it would, but I'm okay with that. I'm not in any hurry to have something more to long arm. Although it would be nice to have it on the wall. 

No Small Project Again

Because of my hand cast, there will be no small project made this week again. We are heading over to my moms instead to visit.

I was working on DW yesterday morning until my new customer arrived. Talk about 'right to the edge'... 

Too, too close

This is one of those, don't-do-as-I-do situations. I didn't give myself nearly enough backing and am having to be really careful when quilting this last border. As you can see, I didn't get it done because Carrie arrived and needed to shut down the machine.

During lunch the kids called from Germany with some news and then we headed over to Colonville hardware to grab some things. Happy Sunday.

Why Some...

long armers don't long arm anymore. 

Notice anything out of sorts?

And the backing is too short

I called Sue to ask her if I could trim off the sides to obtain extra backing to add to the bottom. She couldn't believe she shorted me like that, but hey, I even do it to myself.

An hour later, and with Jims help, we removed the quilt, trimmed, sewed and sewed again, and then one more time to attach the extra needed at the bottom, and then reloaded. The reloading; that's where it's much easier with two people to assist with the weight of the whole quilt. 

There are many long armers out there who have given up the "sport" for reasons such as the two listed above. They were tired of wrangling these issues. I'm not so sick of it. Yet.

Because I had this little hiccup to deal with, and my eldest called to chat for a while, I did not get this quilt done. Today should be the day and I'll get right to it after my early nail appointment. Not expecting any customers and I have only one delivery coming in, so minimal reasons not to finish this one.

Braving the Weather

As I was folding laundry yesterday morning I saw headlights headed up our driveway. I knew the dry wall guy had a dentist appointment and couldn't believe it was him already (it was 9:45-ish). It was a customer coming to fetch one of her quilts. And she brought friends. 

What a delightful time we had and these three were an absolute hoot! Not only did Bernadette pick up her quilt, but she dropped off three more. And Pam dropped off a t-shirt top for me to do and Maggie gave me two as well. Six in all added to the queue. 

Drywall guy is here already this morning and I'm going to continue on with Joyces quilt on Bernie today. Joan is supposed to come later this afternoon to pick up her quilt I did yesterday. More on that in a bit, and here's what's on DW for the next few days...

A Kaffe piece to customize

Okay, so here's the deal. Please, please, please give me enough backing on your quilts. Joans quilt was at a 1" deficit. I had to watch both sides very carefully to not get the backing flipped under the batt/top. I had to make sure it was falling square and not shifting. There was NOTHING to clamp to on the sides, meaning I was the "clamps" and had to hold it while it was stitching out. Strike one.

The backing was minky (fireside) and is very slippery with the batting on top of it (the backside is a very tightly woven poly) so the quilt/batt kept shifting with each advance. Some of the quilting is off a bit because of this and because I couldn't baste down correctly on the sides to stabilize it due to the backing shortage. Strike two.

The end of the quilt is even more unstable (more so without those side clamps) so I used large "C" clamps to hold everything while the quilt was stitching out. Apparently these stretched the fireside backing enough that when I released it from the frame, it actually bounced back a bit and it is now bunched at the end. Strike three.

Joan wanted this quilted pretty tight. The quilt will "suck in on itself" the tighter you quilt the top. I knew the backing was already at a deficit and so despite what I was told to do, couldn't actually get it as tight as she wanted because of the already negative backing situation. By the time I reached the end, the quilt had sucked in about another inch. Yep. Now we're even shorter on the whole thing. Strike four. 

Oh wait, there's only three strikes so now I'm going to have to explain all this to her when she comes later today to get this mess. I may not even charge her. It's a train wreck and I'm not proud of what we got off the frame yesterday. And I don't think she'll be very happy either. Lesson learned. Minky requires that four inches on each side!!!

After dealing with Joans quilt, and while frame ironing Sandys piece on DW, and after shutting down Bernie, I put these together...

The border to the whole quilt

There's a hand embroidered center piece that goes in here, but until I get the top and bottom "border" put on, I'm not going to trim it just in case it's a different measurement. 

No Internet

We had zero Wi-Fi this morning, and that goes for the internet too. That's why I'm blogging so late. 

Have already had three customers in and out this morning. One pick up and six drop offs. I was already in the middle of quilting out Joans quilt when they arrived amongst a pretty heavy snow. They are troopers to come out in this weather.

Here's what's on Bernie this morning...

Joyces cute pumpkins

I'll be working on this after lunch this afternoon. Joans quilt is now finished stitching out but not without a lot of colorful language. It wasn't anything DW was doing wrong. Nope. Her backing is 1" too short (which became larger as I advanced), and it's got a Minky (Fireside) backing, which is slippery as all get out. 

Because the back was too short, I was the side clamps. Meaning, I had to hold the sides as DW was doing the stitching. Hopefully I spotted all the seaming threads as it was quilting because I was also trying to keep DW from pulling the three layers apart without a decent basting stitch on the sides. I guess you had to be there. 

I know Joan will not be happy with how the density came out on this quilt. She likes it pretty tight and because of the backing/clamping situation, I had to go a little more loose. Why? Because the more dense you quilt, the more the quilt sucks itself up, and we were already working with a deficit backing situation. Hopefully she'll understand. 

Now I have to trim it. I'm going to only trim the top and bottom to start. I want her to be here when I do the sides because of the way the backing became increasingly more short as I advanced. She needs to make the call on how much I trim. 

Chicago Prices and Turn Around

I was recently told by a shop owner about a customer who lives in Chicago. The Chicago lady is a professional long armer, just like me. The Chicago long armer is eight to nine months out, is booked solid, and gets $0.08 per square inch on an edge-to-edge and beginning at $0.095 and upwards for custom quilting. 

Be thankful you don't live in Chicago. I'd have had the studio complete already with those prices. 

It was a busy phone/visitor day yesterday. First, mom stopped by. I was on the phone with Virginia about the shorted backing on her quilt when she showed up. After mom left, I was able to get a little long arming in and then the rush customer called and asked if he could stop by and pick up his quilt. While he was on his way over I received a call from a new lady asking about my services and expectations for dropping off a quilt top. Right after I hung up with her, Reta called and asked if she could come and get her quilts tomorrow (today) morning. I'm expecting her around 10:00.

The north neighbors came up for the night and we spent the late afternoon/evening with them to check out their house renovations and catch up on the last two months worth of noteworthy news.

I didn't get much long arming done on DW, but I did get Virginia's quilt off, added the extra backing, and put back onto Bernie while talking to customers on the phone. It's hard to long arm when I'm talking to customers. Balancing the phone and the noise is pretty phone prohibitive.

I have people coming shortly to check out the new studio, Reta is coming to get her quilts and I have appointments all afternoon; eye, screen printer, accountant. Blech.

And, yesterday would have went better if I didn't have to deal with these...

Gotta love unmeasured borders

Each roll after the first two are now requiring starch to bring in these seriously pleated borders. There's going to be some changes when the new studio is in place when I'm informed the person is a fairly new quilter. We'll have more room to spread the tops out, measure them, and identify whether there's going to be border issues. 

It's harder to explain why there are pleats after the quilt is finished rather than warning them beforehand there may (probably) will be issues during quilting due to the irregular measurements. I'm not a magician after all. 

Time Gets Away

Completely lost track of time so much so last night I missed The Voice. Good thing Jim taught me how to record it. I don't revolve my nights around TV. I have better things to do. Like quilt! 

Linda and Jeff's quilts are quilted. Both are trimmed, and Jeffs only needs to have the binding attached. Here's what's on Bernie today...

Lynette's gorgeous autumn top

I've already basted and ditched in what I could on this one. 

While beginning Lynettes quilt I was (of course) frame ironing Gail's quilt top. She's using flannel on the back. When I'm frame ironing I also pick any erroneous threads off the fabric. I don't want anything to show through light colors on the front so I'm pretty diligent about this. I thought this was a thread...

A slice in the backing

The slice is about 15 inches into the left side. I'm going to load so I can miss this entirely as she gave me plenty of backing to [hopefully] make this work. There may be a few hand stitches that need to go in if I can't avoid it. This is the top that's going onto DW today...

A Musical quilt for her grandson

Gails quilt wasn't the next one in the queue however. I have a partially finished T-Shirt quilt that was sent to me when the previous long armers long arm quit. I was trying to duplicate the motif and just continue on as they were doing. But it has a lot of curves and points into it and it just wasn't happening. I called the customer and they gave me permission to rip out the three rows already into it and start over. 

Unsewing

Jim loves to do this kind of stuff. Even though I started it, we talked last night and he said he'd work on it after he returned back home. So this is put away for now. 

Still Getting Acquainted

Bernie and I are still "shaking hands" and feeling each other out. I had to adjust his right handle bar yesterday because I was noticing some wrist fatigue about half way through my day. I've never (ever) had that on DW. I put his handle bar as nearly as I could to match DW's hoping to rectify that situation.

Here's what's on DW this morning...

June's Chandeliers/Memory Quilt

This is actually the back of the quilt. I know, it's loaded as the front. This is a very weird situation in that the back is actually the front because the photo's of Oreo, the dog, are on the other side.

But we had to finagle this to make sure things lined up in the center, AND, not stitch over the dog photos on the back (front). The other issue we had is the back (front) is bigger than the chandelier side. And it would NOT load like that. No matter how we worked through it, and the borders on the chandelier side would have been SO messed up. 

So I'm going to quilt the blocks, paying extremely close attention to the photos on the underside so as not to stitch over them (June doesn't want them stitched over), and then once the quilt is done on the frame, I'll stitch around the photos on my DSM. 

Here's what's on Bernie this morning...

Paulette's auction quilt for the POA

Like most of Paulette's quilts, she said to just do my thing on this. Although, this one is time sensitive as is the one above. Of course they are, there's only 20 days until Christmas. 

I did manage to get the sewing tree loaded on Bernie last night and stitched out prior to getting Paulettes on the frame. And yes, the Gnomes are done! They took all day (things take longer on Bernie for some reason) but they turned out so darn cute.