Finally!

The encoder arrived yesterday while we were out and about with mom in West Branch. Boy did we see some beautiful colors in our travels. I think we're at peak right now and it's breathtaking with our cloudy, overcast day.

While installing the encoder this morning we ran into this...

Huh?

The plug was the same size as the prong receiver. A call to Gall and after eventually talking to Jason, we figured it out (the plug casing came off the old encoder and had to be removed). After a test run with DW to see if the encoder was indeed the problem, showed us that IT WAS! He's stitching beautifully now!

Jim is loading Cindy's backing right now to start getting it frame ironed.

Meanwhile, after getting home from our birthday fun, I finished my BOM block for month four...

Not my usual color scheme, but pretty nonetheless

That didn't take too long and so cut and pieced my next BOW resulting in this...

I love the mitten!

I'm writing late today because we were technicians first thing while a storm rolled through on DW, and we had planned on heading to an estate sale in Cadillac. But with the poopy weather and all, we decided to just stay home today and putter around here.

We were gone all day yesterday, and frankly, I need to start pulling together stuff for my retreat starting tomorrow night. 

I may work on my strip top or maybe another BOM, or, or, or we'll see where the wind takes me today in the studio. I should probably long arm a little bit on customer stuff since I did pretty much take yesterday off, so there's that. 

Working Today

It's going to be another unseasonably warm day today (high 80's) and I guess we're close to breaking some kind of record. But, I have to work in the studio today. 

I had a total of six drop offs yesterday and that took up all my morning. Jim got back from the doctors office and he's off work for at least the next week with many restrictions. One of those is standing for any amount of time. Groceries were on me. After I worked for a while in the studio, wanted to get that task out of the way so headed to West Branch to fetch our weekly chow. 

I wasn't in a long arming mood by the time I got home (early evening) so, instead, made my BOW. Here it is...

Looks a little washed up in this pic

In amongst all of that, Joyce's quilt had to be taken off Marty. One of the quilts that came in is a rush job and needed Marty to work this one since DW's encoder won't be here any time soon. How do I know this? We called Gall. Jason is on vacation. We called Handi Quilter. No orders received coming to the studio. So it's going to be a few weeks. At least. I still have many rows to go on the Bernie quilt, meaning that's what I'll be doing today. 

Here's the quilt I'll be working starting Monday...

For a girl who loves Halloween but hates the color orange

I've been given free licensing for what I want to get in here, but it does need to be custom work. That was my only parameter. 

Something New

I was removing the quilt from Marty's bed yesterday and I kind of hit my thread scissors moving from the back to the front. Maybe cedar wood wasn't a good idea?

I probably couldn't ever do this again

They must have went flying for them to stand there so upright. 

I decided, since I had already started it, to finish Ann's quilt on Marty. It wasn't as big of a pain as I had experienced in the past moving a quilt from one machine to the next. Maybe I'm getting better at it? The reason I was going to do this quilt on DW was for some digitized work in the big squares, but I think I got it covered....

In the main panel

Sashing and the first big block

The second big block

I didn't get a pic of the third big block, but I simply did some water meander like I did in the Tilda swimming girl. 

I was pretty tired yesterday (???) so I knocked off long arming around 4:45 and moved over to working on a new kit I picked up on Saturday for the new baby we're expecting. It's pretty easy and I've added it to the tote going to retreat; all cut up and ready to assemble. 

Once I finished that I cut out for the next BOM block in the kit I received at Creative Escapes retreat last January. I was going to sew it together but at that point it was nearly 7:30 and I was just too tired. 

I have the last panel and border/sashings to do on Anns quilt and I'll move over to Bernie while I'm frame ironing for Anns second quilt which is a QOV. DW should be stitching this one out honestly, but I don't have a new encoder yet, so I'll just have to put something in there myself. 

A New Encoder

We got Jason on the phone yesterday and he talked us through some things we could check for the encoder issue DW is having. Hey, the machine is nearing 109 million stitches. I'm frankly surprised it's lasted this long given the trips back and forth to Lansing (and Grand Rapids, and Utah) jarring the thing. 

As it turns out, we need a new one. Everything we tried wasn't working and it's still stuttering going from up to down. So, he's down until that arrives from Handi Quilter, in Utah, because Jason doesn't have one in stock. A few weeks probably.

Moving on. I starting Cindy's Grandmothers Flower Garden yesterday and will continue on with that today. Here's some the quilting going in...

The "flowers"

The border

I should be able to finish this one today and I'll have to move over to Bernie. I'm going to end up taking Anns quilt off DW and moving it over to Marty I'm afraid, which is a pain with the Minky on the back. 

Jim is home today and I reminded him I have to work today. He has a bunch of projects he wants to do (?????) but isn't conveying to me exactly what those are. I didn't even know he was staying home until I got up. Why do men not communicate????????? So frustrating!

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.