Short Week

Another short week in the horizon this week. I'll only be open today through Wednesday. Thursday we leave for reunion. I'd rather be working if I'm being honest. 

The reunion, for most, is a vacation. For Jim and me it's work, work, work. And it's not just the four days we are there. No, it's the three days preceding and the two days after packing and unpacking, cleaning, etc. I could go on all day about this, but this is a quilting blog, not a bitch blog.

Here's the quilting that went into the Lake pillow...

Looks like gentle waters

Once that was quilted, I moved along to another project I started on Saturday; the Helen Godden pattern I downloaded a week or so ago...

Not sure how I'm going to color these yet

This is going to be an alphabet quilt that will be quilted on the sit-down. After tracing all the letters, I now have to color them in. Not sure yet how I'm going to do that; whether it's going to be my luminary paints or with my InkTense blocks. I have plenty of time to think about that though. 

Here's what's on DW today...

Diane's beautiful EPP and hand embroidered top

Diane does such beautiful work. Actually, most of my customers do. I won't be long arming for a bit though because I have two quilts to pull and trim off Bernie and Foster and two backs to get back on them to frame iron. And, we have another thunderstorm going through this morning.  

Another Project (Done)

The Twirly quilt is quilted and bound. 

Ready for a class sample

Once I finished that I started another little project I picked up from Bittersweet last week...

Love it!

This is already on the long arm and I'm hoping to get some quilting done to it today. It's going to be a giant pillow with which I'm going to try my hand at a zippered envelope back. Never attempted one of those before. 

After loading this last night, my gears shifted (again) to this project...

a Helen Godden pattern

This is going to be for sit-down work, but all the letters need to be traced out first on fabric before any stitching can commence.

This morning I was (once again) on the roof. Our Amish guy finally decided to get out of the hay fields and make our metal for the porch...

Getting the metal on top

It started getting hot out there so I'm glad this wasn't a day-long type of project. It looks so much better than the ice melt/tar paper that's been hanging on for a month or better. 

More fun studio work during the warm part of today. Tonight, when the sun settles down a bit in the horizon, it's time to start working on the trailer and getting ready for reunion. I only have tonight, Monday and Tuesday to work out there because we have family coming over Wednesday after work. And we leave Thursday. I just hope the initial inspection proves our mouse eradicator worked and I don't have all of that to deal with. 

Holiday Moving

We have to do some moving around in here to get ready for the tree and other decorations accumulated the past 38 years. We found our tree yesterday afternoon and got it as far as into the house. Jim received a call out on a 'smells gas' so the rest had to wait until he got home. Once he returned the lights were put on but that's as far as he got. We'll finish decorating tonight. 

While he was working on outside chores yesterday morning, I colored my nutcracker and have him layered, sitting in-wait to be worked on...

Helen Godden's 2022 quilt-along piece

While he was out on his emergency call, I worked on the background for my new sewing tree pattern...

Doing it differently

All these appliqué directions say to first adhere the appliqué pieces to the background, stitch them down and THEN layer and quilt. I do it differently. 

I build the background (to include borders), mark the placements out with a Frixion pen and then quilt the background on the long arm. Afterwards I'll put the appliqué pieces down and THEN blanket stitch. 

It's like appli-quilting. The Yammy Cat and Pod Cats were done this same way. It works out better for the quilting end of things and the backing is double adhered down so gravity can't take its toll on the piece over time. 

Today, nothing (yep, you heard right) is on DW. My goal is to have the Gnomes done before anything else gets put on. I'm more likely to steer in the right direction if I'm not tempted in the other. 

Thursday Night, Saturday Morning

Yep, Friday is missing from my title because there was very little happening in here yesterday. 

I have customers/family members ask how I manage to get any of my own stuff done with all the work I have here to do for customers. The answer: One of my super powers is time management. Jim said I should have been a line cook or something needing multi-tasking capabilities. Well, what do you think quilting is?

While a backing is being frame ironed, I fill in those spaces with thread selection, batt cutting, and, my own projects. Helen Godden has provided a cute Partridge in a Pear Tree wall hanging art thing to do this season, and while I'm a few days behind in what she's doing on YouTube, I can catch up easily enough once I get the painting done. But I digressed...here's what's on the frame this morning...

Terry's simple, yet elegant very large top

She wants to stick with simplicity in the quilting and mentioned chevrons, so I'll work with my notes and see what happens.

Here's the Helen Godden art piece thing started. 

A partridge in a pear tree

I'll be working Terry's quilt all day since Jim is working today too. And tomorrow is another "mom" day. The woman is becoming stir crazy (she is used to running the roads constantly) so we'll take her out for some of the day to help ease her up. 

And as long as yesterday was a bust, I scooted over to Pieces to check out their new digs. WOW!!!!!!!!!! So much room, so warm yet open, so many things they have that I didn't know they had at the little shop. They'll be getting even more of my money now and that's okay because I love the new place and the girls running it!

When You Wish Upon a Star

If you're gonna wish, wish big, right? My two wishes for today:

1) This virus thing go away. People are so misinformed. The media stretches and cuts/pastes what they want the public to hear from physicians and medical facilities. The public is in a frenzy.

2) A sit down mid/long arm machine. My Janome (Mike) just doesn't like doing it. He'll only allow me to go down or to the right. Going left or up results in immediate issues. 

But, those are wishes and the reality is just dealing with what ya got in front of ya. Which I'm fine with. I stay home. Sew. Quilt. Get on-line for interaction with friends/family. It's all good for me actually.

Here's what went on the frame and partially quilted yesterday. 

Valerie's Bookshelf Top

It's loaded sideways in case the bookcase didn't come right into perspective. 

The pillow to match the top for mom was made and marked up two days ago, and I had every intention of quilting it on the Janome. But after trying to quilt my little monthly wallhanging yesterday, decided it would probably be best if I just do it on the long arm. 

Mom's pillow top in the works

Long arming had to stop mid-afternoon since the wind became rather ridiculous. Moving on to the slabs afterwards to complete the red and red/orange set. Once finished with those the May wallhanging was roughed in the day before so I worked on it. 

The wallhanging was background stitched with my double needle prior to adding the appliqué. But when quilting down the appliqué, forgot to add a backing to the dumb thing. Today that  has to be fixed  somehow. It was the last thing worked yesterday and decided I was probably tired and needed to stop at that point. 

Aannnddd, it's a Quit

The red and white quilt is completely quilted and trimmed for the customer. Unfortunately, nobody can come get their quilts for a few more weeks, but at least I'm all caught up...for now. I have a feeling a few weeks from now may be a game changer with everybody having so much time at home of late.

Today, however, I'm venturing into the world of Helen Godden. I'm making an art quilt for moms new twin bed when she moves into her condo.

This is a preview of what I'll be making...this is NOT mine, but Helen's piece.

So beautiful!

Can't wait to get started, but I'm doing mine a little different than Helen is doing hers. My blocks will be traced and assembled prior to doing any quilting. Once the whole top is complete and ready to quilt, I'll transfer it to DW and work on the quilting there. She is doing more of a quilt-as-you go kinda thing and while I would LOVE to do that, I have time on the machine to be able to do it over a few days rather than the two weeks she's working through hers.