Row #1-11 Color Changes

I've started getting into the rows on the quilt being worked on Bernie. 11 color changes so far and many more in the future as I look ahead. 

Here's some of the quilting going into some of the row by row...

After I worked for the day I was able to get the Fireworks quilt bound...

Fireworks!

I did a Love Letter block and then afterwards, did a cowboy boot.

I'm going to finish loading the baby quilt on DW this morning and get started on it. I'll work some temperature blocks as well while Jim is at the food pantry working this morning.

Weird Weather

The hot, muggy days like yesterday are bound to produce some interesting weather. Thankfully, we're up here in a valley where we get very mild weather. It's rare for us to have to seek shelter or worry about a storms fury. Unlike those folks downstate. They have all the fun. 

Ila's quilt is done and I'm moving over to Ginny's quilt on Bernie today. I've already started ditching and have been quilt planning since loading it yesterday afternoon.

A row by row

I'll be working on this cute piece most of the day. 

While getting this quilt above started I was frame ironing on both DW and Marty for their next projects. I'm ready to load on DW but have another couple of advances on Marty. I was waiting for Jim to get back from the food bank yesterday and blanket stitched this cowboy boot...

Howdy, howdy, howdy

Once that was finished I started to bind the Firework quilt until we left for our weekly groceries. I had, throughout the day yesterday, made a back for the baby quilt going onto DW and made two bindings. One for the baby quilt and the other for the Firework. Can't work on the baby quilt until the other one is bound. My rules. Otherwise nothing would get bound around here. 

Jim is off to the dentist this morning. Went yesterday and they didn't think anything was amiss, but had another tooth in front of the offender bother him throughout the night so he has an appointment to get that looked at. All of this without insurance. Just great. 

Data Centers

The new controversy out there are these data centers they want to put in our state. HUGE water and electricity consumers and thankfully, the little town of Mason we used to live in (about 12 moves ago) said "NO" to one in their community. Not to mention they are loud, loud, loud, and provide very little employment. And, as we're researching the situation, the electricity they use is passed down to the neighboring communities and population of that area increasing their already high bills.  

It seems they could find an alternative to the resources these places take?

I did work on Illa's quilt for about two hours yesterday before Linda showed. The rest of the afternoon was spent with her. When I finally got home it was nearly 4:00. I knew I had a couple of hours more worth of work on Marty so I decided to wait until this morning to try to finish her quilt up.

I did a Love Letter block, did a cowboy boot, and put the borders on the baby quilt for Jims cousin...

After taking a quick break, I started in on DW and actually got the Fireworks quilt done. It's off the frame and all trimmed. I'll have to make and bind that maybe yet tonight? I have to make the backing for the baby quilt and get that on the frame ASAP since it's going to reunion in less than a month from now. 

I'll be starting on Marty to begin the day. Hopefully I can get that finished up?

Only One Pic

With all that I did yesterday I have only one pic to show for my efforts. 

First, Marty long arming on Illa's quilt top. This should be done by weeks' end. I made my first Love Letter block and then moved over to Mike to work on another cowboy boot. 

After blanket stitching that for the day, I got out the new baby quilt I have to make for Jims cousin. Except for the final borders, it's all put together. 

I moved over to DW to work on a Fireworks row and finished that just before 8:00. 

More on Illa's quilt this morning and then I have a lunch date with a customer/friend at Riverwalk. We usually do some shopping afterwards so I don't know if I'll be getting back on Marty when I return. 

Custom Orders

I make quilts because I like the pattern or color. If you take a liking to what I make, then by all means, I'll let you have/purchase it. But making a custom order on something you like or want is a different story. We have a cousin who is expecting another grandbaby and wants something whimsical made. She hasn't defined what exactly and I'm supposed to guess. And then maybe I make something and she doesn't like it?

We're going to Elm Creek this morning to see what they have. I'm going to shoot her pictures and see if she will respond to me in something she may want me to make. The nice thing about that is that if it's a pattern I'd rather not make, I'll not send her a pic of it. HA!

What did I do yesterday? I pressed and prepped the fabric for the Quilt Curve Studio Quilt-Along and then set that aside for a bit. I did a Love Letter block and then started to work a cowboy boot before Jim came home.

After lunch I long armed for a while on the Fireworks block and then resumed working the quilt-along top. When I came out of the studio at nearly 8:00 I had a top!

Ready for marking

All of these blocks need to be marked with a 2" grid and since I chose to do both lights and darks, I'll have to use several marking tools. 

Date Day

Jim and I still try to date. Sometimes it's nothing more than getting groceries and then a mini mixer after at Culvers. We had a hot day on Thursday when we went to get groceries and so Culvers was out. Last night he took me to the Country Corner (I think that's its name) and we got an ice cream there. It was very yummy!

Here's some more quilting going into Iilas quilt...

Those echos take a long time to work

Each of the echo's are a start and a stop so they take a while to get in there but they are so worth it. The customer who stopped by yesterday was in la-la land admiring them. 

After working all day and going to the ice cream parlor afterwards we came home and I did a Love Letter block. I was also able to get in another pinwheel. From there I did this cowboy boot...

Out in the desert

I was able to get the binding finished on the puppy quilt for Paul...

Woof!

Once of my fellow long armers located in Canada is doing a block-by-block quilt along over the next 19 weeks. Sam and I quilt nearly identically and she's a relatively new find in my long arm world. She's basing this quilt-along using grids with the blocks and solid fabrics as her background. Guess what I pulled last night?

Angela Walters has a quilt-along she's hosting also starting in July. I have to purchase the panel to play along but I just don't have the money right now to do that. Which is unfortunate because this one is a feather-featured quilt along and if you know me at all you know I love to do feathers!

Jim is off to do some volunteer work at the food bank this morning. He was able to get my bell polished yesterday while he was in town. Doesn't it look marvelous?

I'll be playing ALL DAY in the studio. First, I'll be making those 12 1/2" blocks out of those solids I pulled. I'm going to do some long arming on DW on the Fireworks top, make a Love Letter block, do a cowboy boot and then start piecing the quilt-along blocks together. 

I won't be able to get that on the frame for a while, but each block needs to be pre-marked and that takes some time so I'll be ready in a few weeks when I can jump in and catch up with Sam on the quilt-along. 

Not All The Details

So I'll skim over last week about our retreat. I did complete a number of tops. The first was the Fireworks top...

Moving along, I completed the Scrappy Goodness top but neglected to capture a pic. Those were all done on day 1.

Day 2: I was piecing the sides of the cowboy boots when it was my time to get my pedicure. My feet were so happy!

After finishing the sides of the cowboy blocks...

I pieced this top together. This had been hanging out in my retreat tub for too long so it needed to be done...

I had also been holding onto two Rayola preschool quilts to make so I got those done on day three. I started on another project on day three but could not continue it as I need a full design wall to work with it. I started another project on day four but was cut short because we needed to start packing up. Here are a few pics of other projects other folks were working on...

Linda's beautiful wall hanging

Bernadette's Lori Holt Tulips

Nancy's One Block Wonder

Linda's One Block Wonder

Before I left the retreat I had one emergent top given to me, one to just ditch, and another Tilda Snowman pillow top to quilt. When I got home I had another two emergent requests come in and then a request for me to finish quilting my Tilda Make Do and Mend top for a Tilda event Bittersweet Quilt Shop is hosting in May. 

That means juggling some things around on two of the frames. The one I was going to start on Monday had to be taken off Marty and a new back is being frame ironed. My strip quilt was removed from DW so I could work on the Tilda top for Bittersweet. 

This was the first retreat Linda and I have hosted together and we started taking names of those who may be interested for another next year. Not only did EVERYBODY sign up that was in attendance (which is never heard of), but we had an additional three people who stopped by and sign up as well. We are cutting off the number of attendees at 35. We only have 13 openings left. 

I Didn't Follow My Own Advice

Sunday's are supposed to be non-studio days. I'm supposed to stay out of there and not work on anything. At all. Well...

All 37

It doesn't look like five or six weeks worth of work, does it? But all the blocks are there. They are labeled and are ready for construction. I'll probably do that at retreat in April. 

Now I can focus on catching up on my temperature blocks and working on Rita the Ripper. I'm going to save the scrappy strips for retreat as well since I only need to sew sets of eight together and how hard can that be while talking with quilting friends?

Oh, and working on the caddy's. A few each night won't burn me out on the project and I can slip them in with my DW 99 strip work. 

No customers expected today here, but am meeting with a friend/customer for lunch. And then off to the tax lady to deal with 2025 taxes. UGH. Taxes are such a pain, aren't they? Meaning, I'll probably only get a few hours' worth of actual quilting in today. 

Scrapped

The AQS state blocks have been scrapped. The Oklahoma block started turning into frustration and I was not liking what I was doing. Time to move on at this point. 

I've been hearing about something called a temperature quilt. I started delving into these through IG, Pinterest, Google, and other smaller sources. I wanted to see pics. Layouts. Options. I love house quilts and I've chosen to not only make a temperature quilt, but it will be very simple houses showing the daily highs and lows in Gladwin for this year.

Obviously, I'm already way behind. I can catch up throughout the year and since I already have 50+ days to make up, and the houses are fairly simple, working on them at a retreat or to fill in between projects shouldn't be earth shattering. 

The first thing Jim and I did yesterday out in the studio was to get pockets aligned and sewn down to keep things under control. He was a big help in that while I was sewing, he was clipping and putting pockets in a cute color order. We got all 31 done...

The next step(s) are to line up each pocket with the side of the backgrounds and baste in. After doing that the bottom of each short side needs to be folded up a half inch and stitched down to hide the raw seam. I have done two. I'll chip away at those as time permits. 

While we had decent daylight in the scrap dresser room I started pulling colors for the temperature quilt. The cool thing about Michigan is we have a large range of temps and I have plenty of scraps to fill in those ranges. I'm probably narrowing the temps down too tightly, but ya know what? There are really no rules to this thing. It's all in how YOU want to do it and I'm pinning my mid-year temps down a little tighter than the winter temps. 

After pulling, sorting, bagging, and labeling, (thank you again Jim for your assistance in this) I headed in the studio to do some 'real' work. I don't have a pattern for the houses and was relying on my brain to work through measurements. I did two sets of test blocks and found where I needed to head. Then, I did a Fireworks block and completed my daily strip on DW. 

I only have two more Fireworks blocks to go so I think I'm going to get those completed so I can clear those fabrics away and tidy up the work area from that project. I'll take the blocks to retreat in April and put them together there. 

A Productive Friday

Friday's are usually very unproductive for me. I have a tendency to dally and customers usually come by to drop off or pick up on their way to/from Pieces of Thyme. None of that happened yesterday. Probably because it felt like a Monday with the weather doing what it was.

I was able to finish the quilt on Marty and moved over to start working on this one on Bernie...

Diane's Flannel Leaves

This one will be worked on Monday and possibly Tuesday as well depending on what I decide to put into the background. I am echo quilting around each leaf, and I hope to do the same inside of each leaf before putting veins in.

After shutting down the two customer long arms, I moved over to DW to do my strip for the day. That sounded funny...my strip for the day. 😆

I did a Fireworks block and then started right in on the caddy work. The backgrounds had to have a center line marked...

Center markings. Done.

Now that the pockets are matched, they needed to be ironed in half and their centers needed to be marked as well. Done.

The pockets have to be placed on the background piece with centers aligned, and then the pockets have to be measured to be about 1 1/2 apart from one another. Pin or clip in place to sew down. 

Getting ready to sew

This step isn't going to be a quickie one like the previous two. Each caddy will have individualized attention to ensure correct placement and alignment before sewing. Jim and I selected a medium/light purple to use for sewing these down as I AM NOT going to change out top threads for every pocket. 

And that's what I'll be working on today. I was supposed to head downstate for a funeral. But, we have snow going on up here and the decks are very slippery. The kids are not going to be home now (they have other plans) and I'll order needles from Gall on-line and Barb isn't going to miss me if I miss her funeral. 

Going Back In Time

Today feels like an absolute repeat of Monday. Rainy, cold, and a gray type of day. Ahhh...early spring in Michigan.

I love these days because quilting and working in the studio doesn't give me any guilt about not working around the yard. 

I worked on the quilt on Marty yesterday morning and part of the afternoon after my friend Linda stopped by to ask about this top she just completed at retreat...

I don't get to quilt this. Unfortunately!

Linda has her own long arm, and while I will do some of her custom work for her, she's not putting custom quilting into this. But she was consulting with me about what threads to put into it and how closely it should be quilted. We also made a lunch date for Monday.

After working on Marty, and cutting my work day a little short, we ran to Midland to get groceries and do some other errands. When we got home, Andrew called on his way home from work and while talking to him, matched the respective pockets together for the caddies so they are ready to start assembling. I also made a Fireworks block.

After hanging up with him I did my daily strip on DW and then started working on the Oklahoma block. I'm not a fan of EPP and after struggling with those tiny triangles, gave it up. I watched a few videos on how to tackle the little tips that hang past the 'cardboard' being basted around and I'm still not convinced this is fun.

While going to sleep last night, I decided, since all of this needs to be appliquéd onto the background fabric anyway, I'm going to appliqué the whole dumb thing. There's more than one way to skin a skunk in quilting and I'm going to do what I know. 

Hey, What Happened to my Scissors?

I wear hooded sweatshirts not only for their warmth, but most of my leggings don't have pockets, and when having to grab and transfer small things I usually stuff them in the kangaroo pocket in the front of my hoodie. 

But I never (ever) put scissors in the front pocket. Every one of the long arms, with a Command hook, have their own set of scissors mounted to the front of the machine. They have a tendency to get in my peripheral vision so when I do my first tie-off, they are moving all over the top of the quilt. All three pair have a curved tip so as not to chance slicing a customers (or my own) quilt. 

I lost Bernie's scissors yesterday. I even patted down Ila's quilt to make sure I hadn't quilted them into the quilt itself. I searched the floor, the garbage cans, and Jim even came out and did the same. Then he said, "Check your hoodie pocket", and sure enough, there they were. 

More eye candy

Here's some more quilting going into Ila's quilt and it's now off the frame. I'm back onto Marty for the duration of this rainy day. 

After working in the afternoon on Marty, I transferred back over to Bernie. WHAT?

What's this all about?

I had to prepare the backings for the little stand up organizers I'm making for the retreat Linda and I are hosting. I grabbed 44" each of these Tula prints and quilted them up.

What went into these

It doesn't look like much, but it took me over an hour and a half to get both of these quilted. These two large pieces of fabric turned into these...

31 in total

After getting all of these cut out and put aside for a later day I made a Fireworks block and then checked out the 99 strip video and quilted my strip for the day. I wanted to work a scrappy block and some more on Rita but I was pretty well done for the night. 

Birds

I thought I heard a goose honking this morning. I was just coming out of my sleep so I may have just dreamt it. But we heard some type of songbird yesterday morning, so they are starting, already, to head back north.

Here's some of the quilting going into Ila's Magic Cube quilt...

Magic Cube

Since I'm at the half-way point I should be able to get this one finished by today's end. I'll move back over to Marty and work on the batik blocks when I do finish it if before quitting time. 

Two days' worth of 99 strips were done last night, a Fireworks block, and a scrappy block were also constructed. I couldn't get my mind off of the Rita the Ripper piece I sorted and prepped for on Saturday, so I did five or so blocks on that. Block three was a culmination of three blocks put together though. 

Another spring-like weather day in store for us much like yesterday. But I'm not ready for spring. I love winter. I love the snow and the cold and it's free of bugs. 

Quite a Mess

I left a bit of a mess Saturday night when sewing/prepping was finished. 

Cutting table is covered

pressing table is somewhat covered

This is not the norm out there, but maybe yesterday work was on my mind? That didn't happen. I have to really check myself not to be out there ALL THE TIME. It's a gorgeous place to create, but as I've eluded to before, too much of a good thing and all that happy crap. 

After cleaning up said mess, I'll be on Bernie and that will occupy most of this Monday.

Freezing Fog

I love freezing fog. My brother used to be a pilot for ComAir and he said the worst flying conditions were freezing fog. But it's so pretty and we get to enjoy two days in a row of it here on the 'lake'. 

I have caught up with my 99 strips and made three Fireworks blocks yesterday. In between each of those, the quilt fairy gift prototype was worked through. Here's the result of my efforts...

Being 'used'

A large back pocket

Six front pockets

I sent the pics to Linda and she said they were cute. How long did it take me or how much fabric was necesssary? I sent her back all that information, but honestly, I could probably get one done in under an hour AFTER the background fabric was quilted and trimmed and it only takes scraps to make. 

Somewhere in my day, while Jim was down burning the Bellers' dead pile, I hung this up to add some color and life into the studio...

Jim put this together for me

This is now located between the two large windows facing the lake behind Marty. 

Since I only have a week left in building the Fireworks blocks, and the scrappy quilt is going to be another one of those block-or-two-a-night projects, I started prepping for this cute wall hanging that I think I picked up in Shipshewana...

Should go nicely with my needles wallhanging

I was disappointed in learning they only provided templates to make copies of instead of actually providing the FPP papers most patterns have. Thankfully, I have some newsprint I picked up at Arnies during their going-out-of-business sale and was able to get the copies done last night. 

This looks bigger in the picture than what it's actually going to finish given the tiny pieces needed for each foundation. I'm not using the mustard yellows in all of it. The fabrics I pulled are more yellow-yellow and creams working towards the dark with a bit of browns and oranges. But the seam rippers are all about the same colors.

Is the 13th Lucky For You?

Friday the 13th. One of those days I'm glad I no longer work OB at the hospital. Births on this day, full moons, and storms seem to bring in laboring mothers. Odd isn't it? But the 13th has always been lucky for Jim and I. We were married on the 13th and we put our offer in on this house on the 13th. Hopefully today will be a lucky day in the studio. 

Here are a few pics of the quilt being worked on Marty...

Not much to see is there? It's because batiks are so busy and are hard to see when quilted. This quilt will have a lot of texture because of the Dream Puff batting, but that's about all. Every other block is getting some free motion in the center and the offset blocks are getting something linear. The outside of the block is alternating between linear lines and wishbone quilting. 

New Mexico

Despite my reservations about using templates in this weeks AQS block, it turned out okay. Not great, but passable. Although, I don't generally pull threads unless it's a blatant positioning mistake; I can fix inaccurate piecing on the long arm. 

I also did a Fireworks block but did not do a scrappy block or my strip on DW. 

I had time and the energy to do my strip, but Natalia (the host) messed up and duplicated day 12 with day two. She suggested waiting until later on in the process. She has some bonus strips after the 99 are done and I'll park one of those into slot 12 when we get to that point. 

I'll be working on the quilt above this morning until I can get the backing finished (frame ironing) for Ila's second quilt. She mentioned it on the phone yesterday morning and I guess I didn't realize she had a second one in queue. 

Meaning, the one on Marty will be parked for a few days while I work on hers, which is fine. If I can make it easier on customers not having to make multiple trips up/down here I'll do what I can to accommodate them. 

Have you ever heard of Shapermint? I have a job where I have to be pretty flexible. I bend, stretch, squat, reach, contort, and of course there's some dancing in there. My old bras were becoming pretty tired and riding up in places they should not ride. Jim purchased me two tanks for Valentines Day and I gotta tell ya. game changer! I'm mentioning this because they are that much better than the old, tired, traditional bra already and I'm not going to have to constantly readjust myself throughout my day. Check 'em out if you have never heard of them. 

Can't Even Celebrate

Everybody on IG are posting their caricature pics with what they love to do. Here's mine...

Yep. That's me!

When I finish a quilt for a customer, much like our Olympians, a celebration day would certainly be welcome. Unfortunately, the beat must go on and today I'll be working on this quilt on Marty...

For a nephew

This has a March deadline and it's quickly approaching meaning more quilts get pushed back to meet deadlines. 

I'm trying a new-to-me batting today. It's called Dream Puff and it mimics wool but is 100% denier poly. It's a dream to feel and snuggle with and will bring absolute warmth to the quilt. 

After getting Julies quilt quilted (I still need to do the post quilt work on it), I made myself walk away from the machine. It was nearing 5:30 and I knew if I started doing other things with it...well, you know how I work. One things leads to another and before you know it another hour has passed.

I pieced a Fireworks and a Scrappy block last night before jumping onto DW to do my 11th strip. I checked out the AQS block for this week (New Mexico) and it has me printing templates. WHAT? Didn't we toss templates out in the early 90's? This should be interesting. 

Not Boozey

Jim and I don't drink. At all. We see what it does to family members. And friends. And, honestly, what a complete waste of money. Don't get me wrong, we had our days of partying from our early 20's through 30's. And, then we got wise. And poor. It was draining our household finances taking away from raising our three boys. Haven't touched a drop in nearly 30 years.

That's why the quilt I'm working for Julie is tough. Crown Royal. Whiskey. The hard stuff. Our neighbor LOVES Crown Royal as does this customer I'm working for right now. But, as I'm quilting this piece, I wonder how much money was literally poured out into getting these bags to use in the quilt. I'm not judgmental. Just having a harder time with this one.

Here's most of the quilting going into it...

Using matching threads

I'm past the half-way point and don't know if I'll get this done today or not. I'm planning on working as long as my hand/feet will play nice.

I did a Fireworks block and a scrappy block yesterday and I did my daily strip long arming for the 99 days project. I was done earlier than usual so started pulling things from my stash to see what other kind of 'trouble' I could get into out there. 

I have plenty of projects I would like to work, but I need background fabrics for every one of them. I need to just buy a bolt of white fabric. That's what I'm lacking and ALL of the patterns called for it. Not to mention I'm going to need more for the state-by-state project being worked through AQS. 

One customer expected today and I hope she drives safe. The snow started this morning and is starting to get a bit heavier although nothing treacherous yet. 

Now That The Quilt Is Done

Just because I'm done quilting a quilt doesn't mean I'm done. Far from it. First, all the chalk marks need to be removed...

Chalk marks

I do this while I'm advancing the quilt, but the final inspection needs to remove any I may have missed and any that were included in the last pass.

Then checking for pull-up threads...

Pull-up threads

Again, I usually check these as the quilt is advanced, but sometimes they are a little elusive. I found about 10 on Ila's quilt yesterday.

I have to remove the quilt from the frame after unpinning the side leaders and removing the front Red Snappers...

Removing from the frame

I've seen people on IG and FB who actually pull these off the frame. The science side of me says this doesn't do the quilt any good and I back roll it instead to cause zero stress on the piecing and quilting. Then the take-up bar leaders are removed. 

I would, at this conjecture, take the quilt over to the cutting mat and trim it, but this one was not requested to be trimmed. After trimming...

It has to be folded to be ready for storage until it's picked up...

Folded and ready for storage/pick up

And then all the paperwork has to be done; finalizing the invoice, making a copy of said invoice, recording all figures into the monthly worksheet, removing from the queue, logging into the quilt log book, and then completion noted before storing the copied invoice into that months books. 

The post-quilting process takes about an hour depending on whether the quilt is to be trimmed. 

I did all the final finishes just before lunch despite customers hanging out for an hour yesterday morning catching up on life and playing with the dogs. 

Here's what I'm working on today and tomorrow...

Crown Royal quilt for Steve

This quilt is pretty straight forward. A large discussion was done about what was to go in here at drop-off so thinking about what 'fits' here has already been completed. This is a Crown Royal bag quilt I've seen so many of in the past years on social. 

Despite my feeling groggy all day, I did do a Fireworks block and a Scrappy block before getting on DW to do days eight and nine on the strip quilt. And, I'm feeling pretty groggy again today. My head is all fuzzy and my energy level is basement bottom low. But, I'm powering through. I have to. Too many quilts still left to do in the queue.