Decisions, Decisions

Isn't it nice to have such easy decisions to make rather than life-altering decisions? So many people have much harder decisions to make and I am grateful mine are as easy as they are. I decided to do an E2E on the Tula Butterly...

Watching DW work

The motif going in

I remember when I bought DW back in '13 I asked the dealer about this ProStitcher thingie. I'm glad I listened to him because while DW was back there finishing another quilt, I was binding and recording the previous quilt last week (donation quilt)...

#114

This is a very soothing log cabin some girl should love. After lunch I remembered I needed to complete a block for next years raffle quilt for the Hale guild. I did that...

For the Hale Country Quilters raffle quilt next year

...and then moved on to working on my Tilda piece. I have the scissor handle and then the blade sections complete. I just need to join them together and then add them to the pincushion section. Pics to follow tomorrow.

This morning, after scheduling my mammogram (Wednesday afternoon) I also signed up for this years Quilting Summit...

Last year I purchased the extended pass, but hardly used it. I didn't do that again this year, but will later if I find there is invaluable information I won't be able to live without. 

Today I'm hoping to get those scissors put together as well as the pincushion section added on. I may also get the binding made for the Tula butterfly, but getting it bound today probably isn't in the cards. 

Hello Old Friend

Jim canned salsa yesterday and the house, for a while, smelled like a nice Mexican Restaurant. While he was canning I was doing some maintenance on Caleb and Lia's quilt; Amazon Star...

We meet again

DW did the original quilting on this piece and here it is again, over 10 years later, back on DW working on some seam pulls and other stuff. Other stuff means I found two sections where the blocks weren't finished, and another whole section that wasn't even quilted. At all. 

Yes, you can get a previously finished quilt on the long arm and the proof is above. 

From there, and after lunch, I headed back into the studio to bind #113 donation quilt (Farmers Daughter) and worked on my Tilda piece. Section three of the second 'batch' are all done and I'm working on the second half of the second section of the second 'batch' now. LOL.

Meanwhile, I grabbed some pics of the donated quilts in their temporary storage area (one of three) while we were on our way to Elm Creek. They just came through the Mac this morning...

About half of the donations

Here are some more that are going...

I texted Keri this morning to let her know that all [113] are ready for pick up and that a bigger vehicle or a trailer would be needed to get them all in one go. I'm sure she's trying to find the means with which to get these as I have not heard back from her yet. 

I'm back on Marty/Bernie today. My goal is to get these two Tilda Samplers done before shutting down tonight; It will depend on whether my day is interrupted with quilt fetching. 

Perfect Labor Day Weekend

We labored on Saturday, had a relaxing Sunday and today we're doing what we love to do. Jim is canning salsa and I'm going to work in the studio.

I did pick up some things from Elm Creek when we were there yesterday morning. A 3-Yard book at the Spartan fabrics to go with it. This will be for the newest addition expected in January. They HAVE to have a Spartan quilt for heavens sake.

I also picked up a pattern for the Stand Mixer (a cover by Annies) that I've been trying to find for a while now. Yay! Jim helped me pick out the fabric for that because we'll be looking at it for quite some time. 

Here are some more quilts that are going to Rayola...

Some of them are simple...one of them (Editya Sitar's BOM) is not so simple, but I can't keep them all.

I'll be working on Caleb and Lia's quilts today to start. I have to repair the one, and check the other to make sure it doesn't need any repairs as well. Then I have to get them ready to ship over to Germany.

I Figured a Few Hours...At Most

I didn't thing we'd be out in the garage but for only a few hours at best. Six hours later with two of us working and only taking two breaks (my phone overheated and died during one forced break), we were able to get through all 16 totes. So far, a total of 112 quilts have been labeled, measured, photographed, and folded to bet sent to Rayola.

It was good seeing my old friends again coming out of those totes. I got cranky through about a 1/3 of the way through the project because it was becoming personal to me. 

Amongst the sorting process, I had to wash and lay out in the lawn (between two sheets) the quilts Caleb and Lia left behind for me to deal with for them. They smell so fresh now and one needs repair, but I'll get to that tomorrow.

Here's a few more of the quilts donated yesterday...

Jim and I are running to Elm Creek this morning. They are having a Labor Day sale. There is something for both of us; Jim in the gardening center and me in the quilt shop. Because, you know, I need to make more quilts, right?

We did end up keeping about four totes worth of quilts behind. Most of them were art pieces or weird quilts nobody else would want. Some of them were personal to me (my addresses and a t-shirt quilt) and others were just too big (king-sized). We did keep back one baby quilt for the "little" kids as well as one couch quilt that would make a nice wedding or something or another gift. 

I'll keep posting quilts to the blog that I captured on my phone. I had to use Jims after mine died and he doesn't back up to the Mac but rather his iPad. 

Donation Day

Here is some more eye candy on the Tilda Samplers...

I worked until past 8:00 last night and still have one more row to go, plus a filler block. Maybe on Monday or Tuesday these two will be done? After long arming, while Jim was watching our first Spartan football game of the season, I made the binding for the Farmers Daughter quilt. That will be donated as well and need to get it done. 

I had to clean and rearrange the loft upstairs this morning which is why I'm blogging so late. The grandkids' bookshelves were a disarray of art supplies, books, and a few games. Not to mention dusty as all get out. 

Once I got that done, my shower taken, everything put away that another shelf up there was purged from, I started in on the donation log/labeling. The first five are ready for pick up...

#4-Happy Camper

#1-Pastel Skates

#5-Rainbow X's and O's

#3-Rainbow Chevrons

#2-Cute Monsters

I'm very sad to see these go. Making a quilt sometime takes longer than making a child and I love them just about as much as a child. But they aren't doing any good here. I have to keep telling myself this. Somebody may (or may not) appreciate them but once they are picked up next week, I have to hope they bring a kiddo some joy and comfort during their trying time. 

Jim's at a township meeting and after lunch we'll start tackling the quilts in the garage. These five were just hanging around here in the house waiting to head to a tote for storage. The Gravity and Town and Country quilts were spared donation. There are a few I will NOT part with and these two made the cut so far. 

Rayola

My life this week seems to be like a shampoo bottle; lather, rinse, repeat. Here's some more of the quilting going into the two Tilda Samplers...

Not originally in here

This was originally just a cross-hatch, but I wanted to try a new stencil I got a few years ago. Yep, it took me this long to give is a whirl. It's a pain to work, but so worth the effort!

When I moved over to Bernie in the afternoon, I found this...

Fabric too short

I had to give it a good amount of thread to keep it from coming apart later. Once I was finished on the work quilts, I shifted over to DW and stitched this out...

Part of a Farmers Daughter

I started the Farmers Daughter and then lost interest. This is about as far as I got with it. Here's what I put in...

A loose flower-y swirl

I got the small wall hanging bound I finished yestreday while DW was doing his thing...

Notice the embellishments?

I have now this hung in the studio bathroom. After the Farmers Daughter was done stitching I got it all trimmed and ready for binding...

Gotta find some binding for this now

And I'm frame ironing for the next quilt going onto DW. I'll continue doing that while working on Marty this morning. At some point later today, I have two customers coming to drop off five new tops. Thankfully, she's not in any hurry to get them back. It's a good thing because it'll be a while.

One more thing to report; Jim and I have decided that anything under a king-size quilt will be donated to Rayola. With the exception of those very dear to me (365, Town and Country, etc.). We are going to sort those out this weekend since it doesn't seem there's anything else going on during the holiday. Hopefully, it won't be too hot out there in the garage going through all of those totes.