So. Much. Better!

The fabrics, as mentioned before, were kept in crates throughout the studio, most of which were living under the long arm, facing east. I have huge windows facing east and we get a lot of sun up here on the hill. My fabrics were going to be ruined in no time had we not moved them.

The new and improved studio!

Notice also, the cutting mat on the right side of the pic which is attached to the pressing table and raised a few inches from what it was before. My last task in this whole process is to get uniform looking storage units to go under the long arm where we took out the crates. That will be a later task.

The quilting books and thread are now on the long arm side

Easily to get to and reference while working on customer quilts, we moved the bookshelf side of the unit to the long arm side. And...it hides my seemingly unorganized tools, although they are organized for me. 

Luann's last quilt was taken off the frame yesterday afternoon and will be delivered tomorrow when we drop off Hazel for Jim's surgery.

Working on getting the house ready for his surgery and having lunch with mom today. I don't think there will be much going on in here for a few days. Tomorrow we have a birthday party to attend downstate and a trip to Grand Rapids for "the day before". Monday is a wash since that's surgery day. 

A Golden Nugget

Not bad for my first go.

Pillow Cover

The pattern can be found on Missouri Star Quilt Company's YouTube channel. The quilting can be found under the "new" sit down machine I've made from my Janome 1600P.

Doing sit-down quilting is a much different beast than long arming. HUGE difference. But I've done sit down before and find it cathartic and after spending six to eight hours on your feet long arming, yet your quilting scratch hasn't been satisfied, this is the ticket.

The paisley still rears its ugly head. There's a back story behind this fabric, but here it is. Once again. Showing up in something I did with scraps of fabric. This is one of the "magazines" in Valeries quilt.

That damn paisley

But the bookcase quilt is getting bound this morning and it'll be off my to-do list.

And look at the selvedge I found with our granddaughters name on it. Too cute!

Penelope is famous

Today may be interrupted with some deck work, but this morning the temps are still very chilly and going outside won't be until later.

Coincidence and Eureka!

The bookcase quilt I'm doing for Jims cousin recently made her relationship official. They've been living together for 24 years, but finally went to the courthouse this winter and legalized it. Their last names are Miller. Look what I found in my selvedge stash.

A Miller Selvedge

Lol!

The Row by Row with Sugaridoo is complete for the month!

Month Six

And yesterday was discovery day. Long story (Katie's already heard this). This is my main piecing machine. I do about 80% of my work on this machine because of the built-in quarter inch foot and how well it stitches.

Jay

With what Katie calls the Covidbribe check we received this week, I was pondering getting a sit-down quilting machine. The other Janome (Mike) I have just doesn't cut it as described in yesterdays post. The Handi Quilter sit downs were financially out of the bribe check amount received. I looked at some Juki's on-line (because many of the instructors out there swear by them) and was planning on potentially purchasing one of those. Then I remembered I had a free motion/darning foot for Jay. Somewhere. In. Here.

After much searching, I finally found the thing and put it on. That was a royal pain: Unscrew this, unscrew that, remove this plate, line this up, turn this dial, screw this and that back in, put plate back on. BUT...it's on.

Jays new foot

I wanted to give it a spin before quitting for the night (it was already past 9:00) so whatever thread I had in it (Aurofil piecing thread) decided to give it a go. GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, LOVELY stitches came out of this machine. Better even than DW!

While I just saved $1,000 not having to purchase another machine, I've just dug a little hole here. This was my main piecing machine. Except, the HQ Stitch (Lilo) we received in Utah last year pieces very nicely too. I've done some paper piecing on it and I quite like how it performs. I was just putting it on the return side of Jay that is on hinges, but can't put it there permanently since I own a big dog who, when playing with dad at night, could easily knock the feet out from underneath of it.

Rearranging my studio may ensue to accommodate another small table for Lilo if Jay continues to positively perform through more testing today.

I'm so excited to finally have a sit down machine at my disposal. Just when I thought my life could't get any more perfect! See...wishes do come true. If only the damn virus thing would settle down in everybody's head both of yesterday's wishes would have been granted.

Slab-Tastic

All the slabs are done for the Scrap Happy top.

The slabs

Once MSQC sends me the background fabric, sewing will commence. Until then...

Adding titles to the spines

Not sure why my photos are being dingus lately, but you get the idea. I'm "borrowing" from my selvedges and adding those as the "book titles" and "authors". It's a long process; once you've found that 'just right' selvedge, it has to be fussy cut and trimmed accordingly.

May Wallhanging

This is the one I severely messed up on but corrected by adding some outline stitching to the whole motif. It still needs to be bound so maybe today?

Good Morning

And who can resist taking pics of this wonderful face/friend? The lighting lately has been great to photograph her so I've managed to grab some great pics. Opportunity!

Today I'll continue on with Valeries quilt since the selvedges are taking longer then originally planned. The Sugaridoo BOM (actually, RxR) came out last night, and we can't forget the May wallhanging that needs binding. Great way to play and enjoy the sunny (yet very cold) day outside.

When You Wish Upon a Star

If you're gonna wish, wish big, right? My two wishes for today:

1) This virus thing go away. People are so misinformed. The media stretches and cuts/pastes what they want the public to hear from physicians and medical facilities. The public is in a frenzy.

2) A sit down mid/long arm machine. My Janome (Mike) just doesn't like doing it. He'll only allow me to go down or to the right. Going left or up results in immediate issues. 

But, those are wishes and the reality is just dealing with what ya got in front of ya. Which I'm fine with. I stay home. Sew. Quilt. Get on-line for interaction with friends/family. It's all good for me actually.

Here's what went on the frame and partially quilted yesterday. 

Valerie's Bookshelf Top

It's loaded sideways in case the bookcase didn't come right into perspective. 

The pillow to match the top for mom was made and marked up two days ago, and I had every intention of quilting it on the Janome. But after trying to quilt my little monthly wallhanging yesterday, decided it would probably be best if I just do it on the long arm. 

Mom's pillow top in the works

Long arming had to stop mid-afternoon since the wind became rather ridiculous. Moving on to the slabs afterwards to complete the red and red/orange set. Once finished with those the May wallhanging was roughed in the day before so I worked on it. 

The wallhanging was background stitched with my double needle prior to adding the appliqué. But when quilting down the appliqué, forgot to add a backing to the dumb thing. Today that  has to be fixed  somehow. It was the last thing worked yesterday and decided I was probably tired and needed to stop at that point.