The Fairest of Them All Complete!

And 34 thread colors, hundreds of thread changes, and a section noticed uncompleted until after unloading, its finally a quilt.

The threads put into the quilt...minus two that were already exhausted

The Fairest of Them All

This quilt is going to travel to multiple fairs this year (hopefully). I'm not entering it to win anything really. I just want people to enjoy the whimsy and absolute cuteness going on here. I think the kids will get a kick out of it as will fellow quilters.

Off to work today.

Wedding Stuff, Small Projects, and More

The taxes are done. Jim did them on Saturday while I was chipping away at The Fairest top on DW. It's coming out pretty cute. Hopefully today I'll be able to finish it and show it out here.

After long arming most of Saturday morning and afternoon, I decided I needed a change. This has been in my Pinterest file for a while and decided to free-piece to make this little project. Still needs binding, but what fun.

Caught in the Rain

Sunday started out on DW and then mom came over to work on booking flights for a few trips she's taking this year. Jim is great at finding flights and working into her requests. After lunch, Caleb and Lia called and the three of us found a nice Save the Date announcement the kids liked. Moving on.

When mom left, I was not in a long arming zen place and, while Jim made cookies and blueberry cobbler, I decided to make this for the next PQ challenge. This weeks prompt was Hearts a Flutter...or something like that.

PQ Challenge Week #3

I have a new customer coming over later this morning to discuss her king-sized top. I'll get working on DW so I can clear the frame and prepare for her quilt should she decide to have me work this one for her. And...work may call me in to unload truck but my phone may be "disabled" for a while this afternoon. Wink, wink.

The Weekend Off

No work at the store today. Enough of that occurred this week so today I get a free day in the studio.

I have managed to slip in some long arming on The Fairest of Them All. Here's a sneak peek of the beginning.

Upper, right hand corner of the top

After having spent those four days in Utah last year, we learned ANY thread can be put through your machine. Adjustments to top and bobbin tension are necessary, but they had us go through an exercise to get over the phobia of messing with said tension and to overcome the fear of using weird threads.

The thread pictured above is a very delicate glittery thread and as you can see, DW put it down beautifully.

I'm about half way through the quilting on the piece and the last thread count going into the piece is 32. Lots of starts and stops; lots of thread changes. But it's turning out cute and while Jim is working on the taxes today, I'll continue on with this.

Fairest of Them All and Long Arming Today

After having waited patiently for the batting to arrive I'm able to finally get on the long arm today. So excited!

Here is the whole (yet jaded) pic of the Fairest of Them All. It won't be long armed for a while yet since I have customer quilts in queue, and they come first, but as soon as I can (maybe even this weekend), it'll be getting this cute top on the frame.

Fairest of Them All

This quilt is so busy, and there is so much to see within its boundaries; embellishments have yet to be added, so keep looking to see what you can find within the fabric.

Aaannnddd...it's a top

The Fairest of Them All is ready to head to the long arm. While it would seem like that's the last step, there is a lot of embellishments after the quilting is done. And this won't be the first run on the long arm.

Initially the appliqué pieces have to be quilted with the first layer of batting, and then it will be on the second time to actually quilt around the pieces and for filling in the fencing and the other areas.

Here are a few of the sections as they have been completed over the past three days.

The Rooster

The Vine Work

Little Piggy and a Pie

Silly Goat

The Yard Eating Sheep

The Ferris Wheel

I'll post a pic of the whole top maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for batting to arrive for the customer quilts sitting in wait right now. Hopefully today or tomorrow they'll get here.

It's a Calf

This section of the "Fairest of Them All" took a very long time to construct. At any case, during the basketball game (MSU wins again), it was finally completed.

Moooo

Next up...the goat. Today is very snowy with more all day tomorrow too. It's a GREAT day to be in the studio working on something quilt-y and I'll take advantage and get as many pieces done for what is turning out to be a very fun piece to work on.

I've already loaded a new customers' back onto DW. Unfortunately, I didn't check my batting stash beforehand and thought I had a batt in there to start quilting the piece right away. It turns out I don't and have a choice to make; either long arm later on this piece, or, remove what I have loaded and get something else stitched out before any more batting arrives...which is Wednesday.

Mom tried to pick up a few batts for me Thursday in Houghton Lake. WTH? When did batting get so expensive? $39 for a double size Dream cotton? I don't think so Scooter. I found it on line for much less and decided to go in that direction. I totally believe in supporting small businesses at nearly any cost. But, I have to bill this out to customers and they are not going to be happy with me if I charge them $40 for a batt, especially when they could run to the big box store and pay about half of that.

Tangible

I admire people who like to travel. I question it from my lifes perspective.

Jim and I haven't been overly blessed with high finances nor will we ever. We've learned to make due and take what little is left over and use it towards tangible items.

Travel memories, to us, is not something tangible. You can't see it, touch it, smell it, etc. once the experience is done. Using it once is the only option and then there is nothing left but a memory. I'm sure they're good memories, but the experience only lasts a short while and then you have nothing to hold in your hand except some photos on your iPhone.

A new pontoon, or truck, or fabric...now that's something tangible. A new deck, studio, workshop, sidewalk...those are all things useful for more than a few weeks, and making memories there, I think, are just as important.

What this all boils down to is our cruise to Alaska. We have our 35th wedding anniversary coming up. The trip, quite frankly, is expensive. Even with an inside cabin, no off ship excursions, and the multi connecting flights to get there, would dip into money we could use on those tangible items mentioned above.

We've talked about this cruise for the past three milestone anniversaries. Two moves and a new career got in the way of those plans. We aren't moving or starting a new job, so why the balk at going? Because it's not something we can use our money on wisely. Something that will provide longer than a few weeks of memories, but rather a lifetime of enjoyment instead, may be how we finally decide about this cruise.

It makes us both sad. We really want to go. Really, really. BUT, we have limited time and, moreover, limited resources to get us there. We spent our honeymoon with money people put into our wedding cards because we ended up paying for the whole damn wedding. We don't want to take our next big trip counting our coins like we did 35 years ago.

Enough on that decision. Here's something tangible I've been working on in between the hours at the store.

Making the "Fair" calf

Retiring

I've had several people ask me recently if/when I was going to retire.

First, and foremost, do I really look that old? I mean, I just turned 55 and I don't think that's retirement age, is it?

Second, and probably the most important, is I love working. Not the kind of work requiring one to sweat constantly and wear yourself to a frazzle (like baling hay or similar type of work), but working with quilts, and people, to me, is fun. Truly.

I love my little retail job. I love quilting quilts for people. I love working with customers and fabric both. Being home part of the time, and out in public the other part, works out well for me. I wouldn't change my life right now...at all.

So, why retire?

If you love what you do, why change it? What could be better? Enough about retiring.

After playing in the studio, eating lunch, going to work for a few hours, and coming back to play in the studio, here's what I did yesterday.

These were done last night

This was done yesterday morning

See, why would I leave all this fun to try something else?

These blocks are coming together very cute. I've had to remember how to transfer appliqué pieces and how to get my appliqué groove going, but now that I have that figured out again, these are coming together better. Those bunnies the other day proved to me it's been a while since I've done something this intense.

DW is working away over there while I'm blogging (the nice thing about the Pro Stitcher). And I have a new customer coming today later to drop off a top, and since today is not a work day, I'll enjoy my non-retirement today playing with fabric.

Just Some Updates

Since finishing last week's PQ challenge, the studio has been pretty quiet. Work, storms, life. Except for a few hours this afternoon, I have until Thursday off work.

Here is the newest onto the frame.

A long time waiting to get quilted

I should be working on a different quilt top that I received a few months ago. I've been putting it off for a variety of reasons, and actually went to load it before putting this one on the frame. However, my inventory of batting seems to have somehow shrunk significantly and the batt needing to go into the quilt is missing from my stash. Until the roads clear a little better, I'm having to make due with what I have on hand.

This is also in the works.

Picked this up while at camp two weeks ago

These are my first months blocks

This pattern was a BOM a few years back...I guess. I never saw it and had I seen it, would have definitely picked it up then. But I found the patterns at Pieces of Thyme and just HAD to get it. The goal is to have it done in time for the fairs in the area and should work stop calling me in, it should be a doable goal.