A Late Studio Start

Jim had to run to a call-out and after our quilt deliveries/food pick up jaunt this morning I'm able to get into the studio for a spell.

It's a top!

The Rail Fence top is done. It finished at 86" x 94" and I wanted to load it so badly last night. But, no backing. It's probably just as well since I still have a few customer long arm things to work on still hanging out in the "holding cell". 

After the rail fence top was finished, I pulled out #2 of my year-to-elminiate-scraps project. Strings!

Reminds me of the framing wall at Hobby Lobby

I don't know if I'm going to leave them in the chevron format, turn them into large squares on point, or what? Still unsure of that yet. But for now they're like this so I can view them better while constructing them. I plan on making 100 11-inch blocks which should yield a pretty tidy quilt top...and eliminate most of those darn strings. 

Colds and Quilting

I'm at that point in my cold phase where the coughing starts in. Which is hard when trying to remain somewhat steady with your hand while quilting. Note to self: If the grandkids are sick, do not visit. 

Thread Sketching

Giving this huge panel some dimension was what I was going for. I'm not quilting this to death but instead, lightly thread sketching most of the major details in the watercolor print. The panel has a very nice hand to it and I don't want to add too much thread which would make it somewhat stiff. 

Hazel has decided she likes to hang out under the belly bar while I'm quilting now.

Hanging out with mom

I'm hoping to finish this piece today and deliver it and the previous one later this afternoon...or tomorrow morning. 

I started working on quadrant #3 on the Rail Fence top last night only to discover I can no longer count. Quadrants one and three should have been six by six blocks. I discovered quadrant three was only five by six after getting it on the design wall. Lesson learned; when coming down with a cold don't do anything mind blowing like counting.

I made six more new blocks, had to rearrange quadrant three and then pull out the top half of the piece to make sure I wasn't going to overlap colors. And since quadrant three was messed up I'll have to pay particularly close attention to the layout of number four later tonight. 

And apparently Superior Threads has finally gotten their #401 situation rectified because I received a notification my thread is on its way. A little too late, but better I get some more in the thread inventory since this one is used often in customer quilts. 

Blank Canvas

This is what's on the frame this morning...

I need to iron this, but this is what's being done today

And it's a blank canvas. The possibilities here are ridiculous and I'm having a hard time sending myself mentally in only one direction. This is a large 90" panel for the Pieces quilt shop. It should be a big hit with customers because it's so beautiful!

After finishing the tumbling blocks and loading the top above, I worked further on the rail fence. Quadrant #2 is done and the two quadrants completed thus far are together so I have half a top pieced. Today will be much of the same. 

 

Thread and Bobbin Chicken

When working on a customer quilt, this is never a good thing.

Where's the thread?

And I still had one and a half passes to go. Start making calls. Bribe people. Plead with suppliers. And then when that fails, call the customer after finding a color that is nearly exact from your thread stash. 

Apparently So Fine! #401 is a rare commodity. After spending a good amount of time on the phone with folks found that it's been an issue since last June or July. People are switching to different thread suppliers because of the situation. 

But it's rectified. Moving along. This is on the frame this morning.

Customer said to make this panel not look like a panel

I actually started it yesterday afternoon because I was excited to make the panel not look like one. A lot of ruler work and close quilting is happening to make the challenge happen. 

Quadrant #1 is complete on the rail fence top, and because I still wasn't feeling all that great (thank you Elijah), I knocked off before 8:00 last night. 

More of the same today with the exception of customers coming later this afternoon to pick up completed quilts. 

Flooring, Not Quilting

 I did exactly ten string blocks over the entire weekend. This is what we were doing instead.

Before

After

This is our entryway in the back of the house where all my customers come into first. The flooring in there was NASTY! Almost three years later we were finally able to get it replaced. Just need to trim it out.

Today I'm long arming Janes first quilt. DW is doing a cute meandering daisy in it and then maybe I'll have time to load and start her second quilt. 

The Janome 1600P (Jay) is finally back home! I've started the two tops I'm working on the HQ Stitch 210 but I think I can get the Rail Fence blocks together on Jay since it's just joining rows...once I get them laid out. Which may be interesting since my design wall isn't going to be nearly big enough. 

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.

Change of Plans

I'm still working on yesterday's quilt on the frame since only a half day was given to me to work (due to the power outage). And once Jim got home, I was pretty much done on the frame for the day. I diddled and did a few clean up stitches, but some days are like that.

Afterward, work on the green Rail Fence blocks began. I knew I had a lot of greens, but wow. The "only 12" that I needed turned into so many more. Change of plans with the original 10x10 layout (total of 100 blocks); it's going to be a little bigger depending on how many I have in this pile.

The Greens

Customer coming this morning to fetch her quilt (the huge 120" square cancer quilt) and maybe another later in the afternoon. I guess I should call her and let her know its done first?

Meanwhile, time to wake DW up and get to it. 

Power Outage

Waking up without power prevents the ability to long arm. Certainly glad I loaded this last night so as soon as I get caught up with chores today I can start right in this afternoon.

Becky's Fisherman Top

I'll have to wait until the water heater recycles and gives us warm water to be able to do the laundry, take a shower, etc. and it's still only 60 degrees in the house. It got down to 56 in here this morning. Thankfully the sun is shining to help out a bit.

Our outside temp this morning

I worked on the rail fence blocks after long arming yesterday and after counting the blocks I only need 12 more. I may make more since green is the last color and I have lots and lots of those to cut down and sort through.

Lunch sounds like a good idea and I'll pretend it was actually breakfast and start my day out a few hours later than usual. 

Making it Pretty

When a customer tells me to edge-to-edge their quilt, yet a lot of negative space is available to show off their work, taking advantage of the space begging to showcase what they've done HAS to happen. The creative side in me won't let me do otherwise.

While this customer did not say to E2E the embroidery sections, she did in the rest of the quilt. I still couldn't let a sleeping dog lay. But here's what's going into todays piece.

Showing off her beautiful embroidery work

The quilting day was cut short since we had to be in Midland for a 5:00 appointment for Jim. Therefore continuation of this quilt will ensue today. 

Since we arrived back home later than expected (had to run to the store after the appointment) I decided to work on a few more rail fence blocks. 24 blue/teal "centers" were constructed before calling it a night.  

The wind is blowing and the snow is starting to let up, giving us a new 3-4 inches overnight last night. All the sledding tracks from the weekend are nearly gone. What a beautiful backdrop for a productive quilting day. 

Finished!

Sunday:

The huge quilt is finished. Even though we played outside in the snow for a while yesterday afternoon with the neighbors, I was able, during the abysmal MSU basketball game, to get DW to stitch out the last 12 sunflower motifs. Completed at about 7:00pm.

While DW was stitching out, I cut for the rail fence blocks and started/finished piecing out all the reds. There were a few pinks and purples to do and then moved along to the blues. 

Getting a few stacked up

Jim moved the leaders to a new rail position on DW. I found that with these giant quilts, having no clamps on the one end was becoming a situation.

More centered

Monday:

Calls made to: 

Gall. Sewing machine done and Ben will pick up. 

Becky. About her quilt top/backing. 

Tina About the cancer quilt being done and when that was going to be picked up. 

Cleaned long arm and then loaded this top.

Becky's Teapot Top

The reason I had to contact Becky about her backing is because it is nearly as nice as the top.

There are even two embroidered teapots under here somewhere

I don't know if Linda is going to stop by this morning to pick up Paulette's quilts or not. We received another bit of snow last night and I think the east side of the state is still getting some. 

Back on the Iron Hunt

There used to be a commercial out there where a woman was screaming "Calgon, take me away," as her day kept getting more stressful. I feel like screaming out like this about irons.

The iron in the background in the pic below lasted maybe a week before it started showing illness symptoms; auto shut off shorter than eight minutes, steam sporadic if at all, burst of steam usually not present and when it was it was a 10-12 second delay in reaction after pushing the button. And yesterday is started randomly peeing. 

The debunked iron and a small project

So this pillow is the result of trying those scrappy blocks out that turned out I wasn't really all into...too many restrictions on light/dark placement. So I made a large pillow, but, I need some more batting scraps to get the insert finished (which I also made). 

I did about 15 of these this weekend.

The Oranges

This is a nice project for after my long arming day. Not much thought and they go together fairly easy. 

We started moving Jim's things into the downstairs bedroom preparing for his ankle surgery in six or so weeks. As usual, something like that always takes longer than you think its going to, and we are just starting.

Today I'm working on Paulette's king quilt intermittent with a visit from my mom later this morning/early afternoon. 

Kinda Busy Weekend

Working on the BOM (Celestial Stars) and the Rail Fence Katie sent to me via text was interspersed with visiting family.

Block 3

Picking from the scrap buckets

My brother here from Cincinnati

And my brother is staying through tomorrow so we're going to go out and do something with mom today. I'm going to try to get a little long arming done before they arrive around noon so at least I'll feel a little productive and less neglectful (is that even a word?) to my customers.

Saturday I picked up four more tops to do. I think the current count is around 14; therefore today is my last "play" day before I really have to buckle down. It has been nearly a month since I really dug my heels in with the business between the holiday and the "thing" and...it is time to get fully vested. 

Finally on the Frame

The quilt shop near my house, Pieces of Thyme, had a lingering sidewalk sale this weekend and Katie and I happened to wander over on Friday. She had some very (very) good deals on things to include a roll of backing fabric I happened to spot, which was JUST wide enough to get this big top onto the frame.

Need a name for this quilt.

I haven't named this quilt yet. I call it the colorful rail fence with black and white checkerboards. But that seems too long of a title. Any ideas?

Our Spartans did well in Evanston yesterday and while Jim was being entertained with their playing abilities, I made this.

Go Green! Go White!

I also got the borders pieced for the Roundabout top.

Jim is pressing apples this morning for his annual cider canning. The weather is being sewing cooperative so I'll be in the studio most of the day.