Indian Summer

I'm not sure if what we experienced the past week was our actual Indian Summer, but it sure acted like it. Mid 70's to low 80's all week. Beautiful sunny skies and slight breezes. And with it, of course, outside work. 

The property is now minus one whole tree, and seven tops of dead Ash trees the Emerald Ash Borer tried to take. And, with the dead tops, comes a whole lotta mess. I also have a new mum garden near the entrance of the house. The lawn has been mowed for its last time, and the garden has been put to bed. 

Some of the mess

Visitors also contribute to little studio time. Dad and Charlotte came on Saturday (their first visit in a year), and many customers on Friday. Here's about all I did over the last seven days.

Sharon's Bear Paw and Black Bear Lodge Quilt

I have another cat quilt on the frame for Paulette right now. 

This is the full-size one. 

The one on the frame currently (pic won't upload for some reason), is a bit smaller. She did two with these crazy kitties in them. And they just crack me up while I'm quilting them because I've known cats with practically the same personalities as the ones she depicts in her work. 

I'll finish her smaller kitty quilt this morning, check to see who's next, and get that loaded hopefully before lunch. Since I have slacked off with the outside stuff, it's time to buckle down and get back into the work mode here in the studio. But that's a good thing because my muscles just aren't 21 any more. :[)

The First Ever Virtual Retreat

I attended my first ever virtual retreat this past weekend. WHAT. A. HOOT!

A shout out to Ebony Love for hosting the retreat and keeping everything accessible, light hearted, fun, informative, and a chance to talk to other quilters from around the globe. 

If you're interested in a virtual retreat, Ebony is going to host another in December (first week of), and you can bet I plan on attending. The cost is so affordable, and unlike a "real" retreat, virtual let me actually long arm here in my own studio. Can't take the long arm to an in person retreat for sure.

Here's what I made over the weekend:

Hey, this is one of mine!

I was able to start long arming the Bear Paws on Friday morning. What a great time I had using the Natalia Bonner rulers I have here in the studio. The quilt was completed yesterday morning. Yay!

I made two tops:

I did the gray one

I finished the Windblown top on Friday afternoon.

This top was finished Sunday morning

I didn't get actual pics of mine, but they look exactly the same.

Yesterday afternoon this Dream Big panel was basted in and then during our farewell address of the retreat by Ebony and friends, I was able to get the first outline of the petals started.

Folded in half, but you get the idea

Nova Star was not touched during the weekend. While I was in the studio from about 8:30 am to around 10:00 pm every day, time got away from me. I was hoping to also get it on the frame but other projects took longer than anticipated. 

Today, it's back to a normal "work" day. Paulette has a few quilts here for me to do, as do other folks, so this week will prove to be a busy one.

Subscriptions

Celebrate! I'm now officially LLC'd. Looking for a software program to handle my tiny little business is becoming interesting. It seems you don't purchase software anymore, but rather pay a monthly subscription for the rights to use it.

And a subscription for quilt magazines, monthly dog toys/treats, radio (Pandora and Sirius), TV, Cable, Crafting applications, Legal applications, Cloud space, and now this? When does it all end? I'm getting subscription-ed nearly to death.  

It's time to take a look at what is really important (needed) versus what is really not so important (wants), and while Jim is off on Work Comp, we need to evaluate whether my business is really worth all these expenses. 

Meanwhile, I continue on working my business.

Bear Paws ready to head to the frame this upcoming weekend...hopefully

I was able to lay this out while at moms yesterday morning. I got it together last night before calling it a night in the studio. 

Jonie's Tradewinds Top

I'll be working on Joanie's top most of  today. I've got the borders started (which I think is one of the hardest parts to accomplish, and frankly, takes the most time). The borders set the stage for the rest of what is going to happen in the rest of the quilt.

My goal is to get her quilt finished before Thursday so I won't feel guilty getting one of mine loaded for our retreat this weekend. I'm so excited for this retreat. I need to spend time with like-minded people and miss visiting with quilters. 

What is Going On?

My blog posting page looks different today. Again. This is the third "change" in to how submit in the past couple of months. Maybe they're all off with the virus thing too?

The Lona nightmare is now complete. Well, the quilting anyway. I still need to trim and invoice. 

The blocks for the bear paw top are finished too. 

All 100!

Since we had some severe storms roll through most of yesterday afternoon, long arming was not an option. Making blocks was. It was better to risk a machine that cost a few hundred dollars then one that cost way more. Sashing has to be done next on these...which I fear will take quite a while. 

Then once the storms finally passed late afternoon, and my long arming for the day was nearly complete earlier on before the storms, I was able to start my little July wall hanging. 

Then I had to prod the AIQ squad for some advice about this.

Hmmm????

I was going to get super intense with this little panel, but the back that goes with it (another panel, thus making a two sided quilt), isn't going to allow me to get all that nuts. The group suggested some random circles echoed and then filler inside. With another filler in between. I like the idea, so this is getting loaded today. 

Quilting Friends

When customers come to pick up, or drop off their quilt, it just tickles me. It's new friends who share a passion together talking about a variety of things both quilting and non-quilting related. I cherish days like yesterday when Pat and Paulette stopped by.

One of Paulette's charity quilts.

This little quilt is getting swirls and pebbles put into it. I can't believe it's a charity quilt as it is so cute and whimsical.

Today I'm reloading Lona's chain quilt to try to get it finished for her. This is the one I had to take to Lake O to finish doing the Pro Stitcher work on last Friday. Because I was renting time for the machine, I didn't finish it there but rather chose to bring it home and work on the ruler work here.

Yesterday was also a cutting and piecing day (well a little any way) for the yellow portion of the bear paw blocks. I still have to snowball the blocks and then yellow will be complete. Pink is next.

Good Intentions

Despite all the appointments this week, I had good intentions of getting back into some sort of routine around here with the customer quilts stacking up.

And then life happened.

What's wrong with this picture?

Where's my carriage?

The internal motor sensor that drives the computerized quilting on my Pro Stitcher decided to try to burn itself out yesterday. I had a hiccup with it a few days ago, but attributed it to maybe a tied up cabling issue.

And then it happened three more times yesterday. A call to Gall (they were already closed for the day) and then one to Handi Quilter determined the problem. It's such a technical problem that Mike at Gall can't even fix it. So back to Utah the carriage goes to be fixed. Because of the virus problem, it's going to be 3-5 weeks before the carriage makes it back here.

Meanwhile, I'm only half way through Lona's quilt and had to call to give her the bad news. BUT...then I got to thinking after I called her. Friends Quilting Basket is open now and I asked if I could rent time on one of their machines to finish out at least Lona's Pro Stitcher work. "Sure," Christie said.

Tomorrow I'm heading downstate to Lake Odessa to do that. Mom's tagging along and hoping to get some antiquing done while we are there. I'm not sure if the antique place is open yet or not???

Meanwhile, I'm now trying to get a handle on a replacement carriage until the original comes back. We gave Gall back the free motion carriage when we moved up here, so Jason is trying to locate it in his warehouse. Hopefully (fingers crossed) he'll find it while Jim is downstate today getting his new implant done on his tooth.

I guess for today I'll work on my Bear Paw blocks. Here are the purples I did two days ago.

The purples

Nope

Schedule did not resume as normal. Mom closed on her condo. Brother came up from Cincinnati. More deck materials arrived. Maybe this week?

Yesterday proved to be a semi-successful studio day. I did a little long arming.

Lona's quilt for her granddaughter

And later, after two appointments, I was able to continue on with a few more Bear Paw blocks. Oh, I didn't mention that? Katie found a cool quilt on Instagram and she was able to trace the pattern back to a MSQC video. We are reversing the light/dark areas and are making a ROYGBI/VP version. Each color will be 14 or 15 in numbers to make 100 blocks total. These will be set in quadrants of four and then sashed between quadrants. Here's what I have been able to slip into my life over the last week.

Unnamed quilt top in progress, but it's the Bear Paw blocks making the top 

Today, no appointments! Maybe just a run to pick up Jim if his pickup truck is done at the shop. It went to the hospital as it was running very rough of late. Long arming and cutting more blocks for more Bear Paw blocks in my future today. Happy quilting day!!!