The Next Couple of Days...

...are going to be a whirlwind. I'll be quilting this morning. I have a customer coming later this morning to drop off and then we're going to lunch. As soon as I get back, Jim and I need to run back into town to get a quit claim deed notarized. The neighbors are going to be up but we don't know if it'll be late tonight or not. If not, we'll be expected to run over there for a bit to visit, because, we have nothing better to do.

Patty came yesterday to pick up her three table runners/wall hangings and I started on Deb H.'s Tilda Sampler. Here's some of the quilting going in there...

Look familiar?

It's like I've taken the pics from February

And once again. Same.

I'll be working on this all day. I did get a pic of half of Gravity yesterday while the sun was shining through the south window...

Ain't is purdy?

I love all the texture in this and I think this is going on one of the beds as soon as I can get it bound. I'm thinking black binding for it, but don't have any around the place so will need to quickly run to Pieces tomorrow to pick some up. 

I need DW for two E2E's that have been asked about. When I get back I'm hoping to get those pumped out. I'll have them loaded tomorrow sometime so they'll be ready when we get back.

Speaking of which; our trip. My toes look so nice. They match my fingers and all I have left to do is color my hair. Isn't it funny that when you look nice you feel more confident? Energetic. Productive. We have some house things to do tomorrow to prepare for departure like cleaning bathrooms, the girls' pen, watering plants, mowing, and leaving notes for the dog sitter. Just to name a few. 

Only The Second Time

I've only had a pedicure one other time in my life and this morning I'm having my second. Jim got me a gift card to the salon I go to for my manicures so I'm going to take advantage before our trip. 

Here's some of the quilting that went into Patty's autumn table runner...

Wandering leaves, swirls, and continuous curves

I worked on this piece yesterday after getting the autumn piece above completed. And got it finished!

Getting ready for fall

While I was frame ironing the back for the Halloween table runner, I loaded and started on this piece for Deb H.

Another Tilda Sampler

Thankfully I don't have to think about this one. She (too) wants it like I did Bernadettes. After getting Halloween done, I loaded this table runner...

Oh! Christmas Tree!

While I was frame ironing this back, I was working on DW (since it was well after quitting time) and was able to finally complete the Gravity quilt! There was a reason I did that in that I have two digital E2E's in queue and I need DW to work those since the customer provided the digitized design via stick. 

I have to wait for the marks to disappear (used a different pen than usual) before removing from the frame but am excited to see it fully quilted once it's removed. After looking at my blog, it was another day using all three long arms. And people ask why I need three?

My Last Day of Freedom

This is my last day of quilting freedom and then reunion things start to take over my life. Yipee. 😒

Linda's Tantor elephant is done and she's coming over sometime today to pick him up. I think I did more unsewing yesterday than I did actual sewing...

Picking out stitches

Meanwhile. I'm sneaking in a project for Bernadette next while I'm frame ironing for Ann's second quilt. Here's what I've already started for her...

Tilda Sunny Summer

I can not wait four months for it to circulate in the queue. It's clearly geared towards summertime and she's teaching a class on it so I want to get the "example" quilted for her. Being the graceful customer she is and did not pressure me to get it done I'm going to take care of my regular customers as best as I can.

I did an hours worth of long arming on DW and have another roll in. It was partially done, meaning I can not do one pass in an hour on that huge quilt. Was on all three long arms again yesterday. 😆

And yesterday I got to do something I haven't done in over two months; I cut, pieced, and pressed some blocks together on my Sewing Tilda top. I really am excited about getting that on the wall, but I'm afraid as small as the pieces are it's going to be a while before that happens. 

An Old Friend

DW is my oldest and dearest machine. He was not behaving when he came back from the shop a few months ago, but he seems to have settled in and is now working wonderfully.

While Jim was puttering around the yard, I was long arming on my old friend and we did a few more diamond shapes in the Gravity quilt...

Love the center of this one

Have to have feathers in my quilts somewhere 

Simple but effective

Prior to working on DW, I built the small zipper pouch I was talking about. This was before...

Carrying all those odds and ends in my purse in a plastic bag

And this is after...

Me and my coffee

Sorry about the sideways pic, but you get the idea.

After working most of the "regular" day hours for us both, we moseyed down to the lake to take a look at the work we need to accomplish there. We made measurements on the current permanent dock to see what boards needed to be purchased for replacing all of them. They aren't looking good. 

Jim would also like to construct a platform next to the permanent dock for resting and relaxing on. This is going to be 10'x10' and will assist in keeping us out of the direct sunlight when the day has become too much in the sunshine. It'll also make a nice place to warm up in the spring and fall in the mornings and still be able to enjoy our coming waters. 

The pontoon (when we get one) will be on the south side of the permanent dock and the platform will be on the north. More trees on the north will result in better shade during our hot summer days.

Exercise

Do you exercise? I don't and the thought of it just makes my head hurt. I just stay busy and try to eat right. My physical therapist is all about eating right and moreover, exercising. She's always trying to impress on me the importance of both. Okay, I get it. It's better for you, but to spend the time away from other life/work/relaxing/fun things just isn't my cup of coffee (I don't like tea). 

Okay, enough about that. We know where I stand. I'm not going to show pics of the Tilda Sampler today (because I forgot to snag some yesterday), but I am going to show what I did after "working" all day...

This one took a LONG time to work

This one didn't take long at all and is one of my favorites

I had all the side gray work to do before I could start working the colored sections above. I've also started the medium purple section but because I'm sliding down towards the bottom, can not get it all in one roll. I'll share those later. 

Two customers coming today to pick up and I'll be continuing on with Ann's Tilda Sampler in between their visit. 

Is PT Worth It?

I don't feel like we did much yesterday except take measurements and introduce some new exercises for my hand/finger. Yet, I didn't get home until 11:30.

I did get an earlier appointment tomorrow morning (7:45) so it would not screw up my whole morning. I don't relish getting up earlier than normal, but if it'll be more productive in my day, then okay.

Here's some more pics of what I'm putting into Carla's quilt...

The stars block

In and around the hearts

I love pets! I love all creatures (except maybe ticks and wasps) but to have to remove their hair from a quilt top gets very disruptive...

All. Over. This. Quilt!

After working late on Carla's quilt (to make up for the time I lost in the morning), I moved over to DW and got three more diamonds quilted out...

This one is pretty cool

I love this one!

This one turned out okay. Not my favorite.

I have all the gray work to do tonight on either side of these three diamonds, but I made pretty good headway.

One new customer expected today. I'm actually going to try to trim a quilt after I get done blogging. The wrist still isn't very flexible and I'm lacking strength in my hand, but I'll change the blade in my rotary cutter so I don't have to push down as hard and see how it goes.

Blogger is Getting Stupid

For some reason, my old blog was initially posted to this morning?! I didn't even notice because I do the same darn thing every morning when I blog. I guess Google decided to change things up today. So, here we go again.

Carla's quilt was pondered on over the weekend and again yesterday while I was working on it. I have finally settled on what is going entirely into it and the rest of it is just time. Here are a few of the blocks...

Feathers!

Hearts where I can get them

The name of the quilt is Hearts and Home and so where/whenever I can I get some hearts into it I do. 

I moved over to DW after quitting time. I have progressed through all the "old" colors worked over the weekend and am now ready to introduce some new colors in the diamonds. Because this is a medallion-type of quilt, doing the colors in one pass on the top and bottom isn't going to happen.

I have PT at 10:30 this morning in Gladwin so won't be doing any customer work until I return. I'll need to discuss with them that mid-mornings are NOT a good time. 

Making Progress

No small projects yesterday, but I did work on DW a little bit. All the grays are done with the next roll and I was able to get some more into a few of the colors. Here's something cool I stumbled upon when I was working through this center section...

An unplanned star

I was not planning on that star pattern, but it was a part of what was initially planned in there and I decided to leave it. After my roll I was able to get this quilt off the floor...

Look how wrinkled it is

It looks terribly wrinkled down there at the end, but trust me, it will pretty much quilt out once I get there 

I was still vacillating on Carla's quilt all of yesterday and this morning, then I remembered I have a perfect example piece on my south wall. Duh, take pieces parts from that silly. Meaning, I'll be on Marty all of today, and possibly tomorrow if I can't get through this rather quickly today. 

The A/C is already fired up this morning. In fact, I think it ran most of the night last night. We are already in the mid-80's. Not typical for our state, but not unusual either. 

Sweaty Day

If you think about it, the difference in yesterday's temps and the normal winter temps is like 100 degrees. We ARE NOT warm weather people. Jim used to be the only one that liked the really cold temps, but the older I'm getting the less I like these 94 degree days. It's not even 11:00 and the temp outside is 89.4. UGH.

Normal, older people have a tendency to start traveling south for the winter preferring warmer temps when we begin to set in for the winter so I guess I'm not normal. 

I did some long arming in the morning on DW. Here's two more color's I've started...

Ya gotta have feathers in one of my quilts somewhere, right? I just tried to cut some fabric with a rotary cutter and, OUCH! My wrist has stiffened up so much over the past five weeks it's going to take some time to strengthen, and moreover, get mobility in it.

Jim is doing some cleaning this morning of our skylights and such. The south neighbor is out mowing in this heat (and I bet his mower is appreciating that) and I'm going to head into maybe do some more work on the Gravity quilt. It's too hot to do anything outside already. 

Unexpected Day Off

But so worth taking the time to spend with my best friend, Jim. We scooted around to all of the appointments that we were scheduled to deal with. I have PT I need to perform 3x's per day to strengthen the finger, but I'm finding my wrist to be more of a concern.

Typing is much easier, but because my wrist is extremely stiff and sore, I'm still slower than prior to the accident.

Hello!

Since after we got home and put everything away, it was nearly 4:00. I called the day a day off and didn't even work on customer things. Nor am I going to do customer work today. I'm excited to get onto DW because I started into the colors last night...

Aren't all these pretty cool?

I'm trying to not squeal with delight about how these are turning out. Jim is trying to set us up having the grandkids the week after the fourth. The B's said they'd think about how that would work and the logistics of them coming up. Meanwhile, it's kind of cloudy, warm, and very humid outside. A good day to stay inside and play in the studio I think. 

Two of Two

This is the second in the set of two of these, and then this customer brought one more that I'll hopefully load later today. For now, I'll continue on with this one.

Grandpa Tim's memory top by Mary Kay

So many Christmas deadlines!

Here's the house all lit up. Don't remember if I posted this yesterday. This is the lake side.

Jim did a great job of decorating!

All sewn and getting ready to add in

These have been fun to do. It should be a top by weeks end. 

Merrily Quilting Along

It's fun to quilt with Christmas music in the background. It's the one month of the year I get to do it and I forgot just how much I truly enjoy it. My iTunes library has 164 carefully curated and selected holiday songs which is enough to entertain me throughout a whole day without hearing a repeat. Or any commercials. 

The "monster" is done. OMG when I pulled it off the frame yesterday afternoon to trim it up, was it ever heavy! The customer has been notified and now I'm moving along. I had another customers' husband drop off a top last night. What a very nice guy. Jim and I chatted with him for over an hour. Lake people, for the most part, are pretty cool people.

On the frame this morning is this top. 

Joan's Musical Quilt

I'm going to try my hand at free motion guitars and musical notes. I practiced last night on the iPad and think I've got it handled. 

After wrangling the monster and getting the top above loaded, I wanted to make a holiday mask. I don't have much holiday print in the stash so settled for these. 

Once those were done I worked on the center bottom section of Gravity. These sections are going together rather well; much to my surprise given it's mostly on bias I'm dealing with. But I'm being careful not to pull or stretch anything since I'm aware of what could happen if I do. 

Reason Number 412...

...why measuring your borders is essential. 

Puckers and Tucks WILL occur

Enough on that. 

Let me give a shout out to the Handi Quilter Glide foot, without which, would not be able to ditch some of these seams.

Bulk can't beat me with the Glide foot

Here are all the Gravity blocks cut and ready to be assembled. Oh wait, I did that last night. 

Background blocks ready to go

Tonight, after long arming, I can start to put blocks together to make sections.

A Monster?

I thought Halloween had already passed? This is a monster and is going to be on the frame for a few days I'm afraid. 

Ann's Cabin in the Woods top

Aanndd...already identifying some slight problems...

I'm standing straight on

The borders are wavering towards the center of the top. While not an issue now, I'm afraid when I get to the bottom, it's going to be an issue then. And it's going to make a problem for the corner stars when trimming ensues once the top is finished. 

But, we'll handle it as we go.

The background pieces for Gravity are completely cut and some of them are already pieced. Pics on those later this week since the top above will continue on the frame for a while. 

Black Friday?

I've never, ever done the Black Friday shopping thing. At least not the kind where you get up before the birds and run from store to store trying to get the latest sale item(s). But, this year, with the "thing" and some stores closing (permanently), I've taken advantage of the on-line presence this year with Black Friday. So far, my only purchase was with Craftsy (which has decided to continue on in the world) for a premium membership. Originally $79 a year. Got it last night for $2.49. 

This morning, before turning on the long arm, I need to get over to Pieces of Thyme quilt shop to purchase background fabrics for the Gravity top. I'm at a complete stand still until I do and I have customers coming tomorrow, so today IS an actual shopping day. Maybe I'll break my Black Friday shopping streak this year?

On the frame this morning is this simple, yet elegant top of Melissa's. 

Melissa's second top

This wasn't Melissa's first top this week. This was her first top quilted on Wednesday.

The first of the four she brought

The purple Crumb blocks are complete, and while I thought I had fewer pink pieces, apparently the block count says otherwise.

Only eight purples

Hazel received her Bark Box this week and she's in corn heaven.

"Look Mommy, I'm in toy heaven."

She's not really sure what to do exactly with the squeaker that's in the toy. At first she would whine about it...literally, which is something she rarely does. Now she just carries it around and wants us to throw it for her. 

Must go shopping now. 

Muti-Tasking

While Diane R.'s quilt was being worked, I cut and pieced blocks for the top called Gravity by Jaybird Quilts. I started the first two blocks a few weeks ago and since mom's top is done, decided to start getting more serious about this project. It's not like I can quilt any of my quilts because yesterdays pick-up turned into two more drop-offs, but I can keep making tops I guess.

Not how they'll be constructed but here are the blocks as they are being made

Today, this little girl goes to the vet...

She won't be this happy in a few hours

I'm loading a new top today called Spiderman. This top came up from Lansing and will be fun to finally get back into some creative free motion quilting. So excited!