With Good Intentions

Today is guild day. I'm supposed to be there 16 minutes ago. Since that last time I looked at the clock this morning was 3:42, I didn't figure I'd get up in time to attend. Dogs barking all over the lake (and beyond) and my head would not shut down last night. Maybe I need some sleeping gummies?

The embroidered quilt is done. Nothing on Bernie right now. Here's what I'll be working on today on Marty...

Iila's beautiful reproduction

This is another June deadline and it's a biggie! The vine in the border as well as all the embellishments are hand-turned appliqué. Such patience! It doesn't look like many thread changes though, so that helps. 

Not only did I get the quilt above all ready for today, I had a little time in the late afternoon to get the puppy quilt stitched out. 

A little more loose than what I would normally put into a quilt, but I'm using this as a teaching tool tomorrow; how to machine bind, and needed to get it done quickly. And the little guy I made this for isn't going to use it long since he's almost nearly 4-years old. 

Getting ready to join

After trimming the above quilt I started attaching the binding. This is where our lesson will begin. How to invisibly join and how to turn and continue on from the top. 

I did a Love Letter block and then worked on a cowboy boot. This one is now blanket stitched and took a long time to finish!

I'm frame ironing for the next quilt on DW already and I made one pinwheel on the garden table runner started a few days ago. Only 58 more pinwheels to go. 😗

It Would Have Been Nice...

...to sleep in a little bit this morning. But our friendly barking dog across the lake decided otherwise. Instead of barking through the night his owners decided we needed to be up at 6:00 this morning. I don't go to bed until around midnight, so I'm kind of tired again today.

We like to keep the A/C off as long as possible, especially since we could use heat in the morning with temps in the mid-40's of late. Having the windows open at night keeps the house cool so when we shut it up around 11:00 we don't have to use the A/C. Maybe I need to switch rooms for the summer? The other loft bedroom faces west instead of NE where the dog is. I think I may try that tonight?

Meanwhile, here's some of the quilting going into Dianes quilt...

Cross Hatch and Ribbon Candy

After lunch I rolled up the strip quilt and put it in Jims room for now. Since the machine was now free I got this prepped to baste in for maybe tonight?

Look familiar?

Since we had such a gorgeous day weather-wise yesterday, I went out and assisted Jim on this project...

Just getting started

Once we came inside for the night I made a Love Letter block and then started to blanket stitch another cowboy boot. While I'm making the Love Letter blocks, I'm also stitching and making pinwheels for this new table runner...

Picked this up at Bittersweet last week in the sale section

You can't tell from the pic but that fabric is a whole lot of garden fruits and veggies. Another day on the customer quilt above. I have guild tomorrow up in Hale so may not blog until later in the day. 

Post Creative Passions Retreat

It. Was. Fun. BUT...I'll probably not be retreating there again. 2 1/2 baths with a group of 12 women? Cheap soaps (Dollar General), Cheap foods (Our Family), and Cheap Coffee (Folgers) to me does not warrant the $210 I had to spend for the three nights. We had to make a meal each lunch and dinner as well as clean up from said meal. The hot water upstairs where I stayed was not very hot and our room faced M-57 (Broad Street) which was very (very) noisy throughout Friday and Saturday night.

I came home yesterday and didn't even unload the truck. I was that tired! In fact, Jim had lunch ready when I arrived around 1:30, I ate and then promptly snuggled up with the dogs and took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Which, as you know, I never do.

On the flip side, I did get to know my Hale quilters much better, I got some things put together, we had some real good stories that we shared, and, laughed a lot. 

Here is what I did the past four days...

Love the quilt, but not the fabric

This was the kit I picked up at Pieces on Wednesday night at their tent sale. Don't they look like flannels? They're not. They are fabrics by Wyndham and I'm not impressed. They feel cheap and flimsy even after I treated with Acorn prior to cutting them out. I had enough left over to make a pillow to go with the quilt though.

That was Thursday night and Fridays work. I did wander down to the Creative Passions quilt shop on Friday afternoon. The weather was nice and the walk through Chesaning was pleasant. The shop was okay, but again, I'm probably a little spoiled having Pieces of Thyme right just a shot distance away. 

Friday night, after finishing the top above I started in on the puppies. When I left yesterday, late morning, this is what I accomplished...

A Quilt for Paul

There are a lot of seams in this so when I quilt it, it's going to have to be pretty tight. And, as I look at this, it appears I've reversed the middle puppy's neck pieces. UGH. I'm not pulling it apart. Paul (who is four) will never care. 

Back to the usual today as well as unpacking from retreat. Jim has hauled everything in for me. Laundry is in the dryer and it'll be good to get back on the big machines. I needed the time away more than anything to remind me how well I have it here and how wonderful my life is having my own business, my own bathroom, and to eat my own food when I want to.

Zoning Out

Have you ever driven someplace and when you got there didn't really remember the trip because you were zoning out? I haven't been sleeping worth a poop lately and yesterday was one of those zoning out days. Needless to say, I did a lot of frogging when I realized I wasn't paying attention.

Can I take a day and just sleep please? 

No. I have too many deadlines and unfortunately, naps are not something I can usually do. I can't say I've never napped but it's very unusual for me. I feel worse when I get up from a nap and then I definitely won't sleep that night.

But I'm so damn tired. All. The. Time. 

Soapbox empty. Moving on. Today is the Pieces of Thyme annual sidewalk sale kick off. VIP's are personally invited tonight and then tomorrow it's open to the public. I'll be going tonight. 😀

The Cats in a Row quilt is done for Joyce and I'll be unloading and trimming this morning. Once all the non-quilting stuff is finished, I'll be loading and starting this...

Sitting in wait to be loaded

Floral Felicity. A HUGE eight-day project because it's a huge quilt and I have a lot of marking to do during the quilting process.

I got another call from a new customer wanting me to do some custom quilting. I referred her to Jen down at Gall Sewing in Lansing. I then called Sarah at River Acres Sewing across town to see if she did custom. She called me back later and no, she only does E2E mostly. There aren't many of us hand-guided custom quilters around. Only digital and E2E. Huh?

After working late last night, I was able to get the two remaining puppies cut out and have that pattern all packed up and ready to head to retreat. I have to pack up the Pineapples because they are going as well and that's about all I'm taking for the three days I'll be there.

Getting In The Groove

Often times it takes me a few blocks, or even rows, to find my groove in a quilt. I'll start by getting in a few blocks and figure out where I can save time or break thread less as I move throughout the piece. This one took me about a row and a block to get my groove on. Now things are moving much quicker.

Don't know if you can see much but here's some of the quilting going into Joyces cats...

Each cat body is being quilted differently and I'm having to pull my resources to find motifs that a)Fit the fabric within the cat, and b)Work together with previous motifs surrounding that cat. I don't want to have three cats in a row with some type of clamshell design in them nor do I want all linear designs together. And, they all have thread changes. This will probably not be done today.

After working on the cats for the day, the fabric selection/cutting needed to happen for the puppy top going to retreat Thursday night. I have two more to cut for tonight and then I can start packing to head to Chesaning. 

Pulling

After we got mom onto her bus to head to DTW for her Ireland trip we headed home (our errands were done before getting mom) and made lunch. I pulled fabrics between movie commercials and have a start on the puppy pieces...

I didn't actually press or cut anything but that's for tonight I guess. Here's what I'll be working on Bernie for the next few days...

Each cat (the quilt top is turned sideways) will receive a different motif. So glad I've been participating in the strip quilt-along because some of what will be going in here will be coming from there. 

Getting Mom To Ireland

Mom leaves today for her adventure in Ireland. We have to run in and take her to her pick up location. This way, her car isn't sitting outside for 13 days, unattended, at the parking lot where she is to get on the bus headed to DTW. And, we have other errands to do ourselves.

I did get my Temperature quilt caught up to date and this is what it's looking like so far...

I love how the warm days are integrating themselves in here

I picked this pattern up last week at Elm Creek...

I'm planning on working on this during the retreat next weekend. It's a gift for the neighbors little boy who just got a puppy a few weeks ago.

And they say making a quilt is easy...

All the backgrounds, ears, noses, tongues, and bone fabrics are cut. Each dog is going to be a different color and I'll start those later this afternoon when we return home from our errands. Since I'll be out of the studio all of next weekend, I'm making a Sunday exception today. 

And, for the first time in a month, I did not turn one of the long arms. I feel like I'm slacking. 😜

Committed

When I start quilting a quilt everything is beer and skittles; it's new. I haven't gotten bored yet. And all the fabrics are fun to look at. Then, after doing the first roll, I realize just how labor intensive the work is going to be for the next day (or three). I have committed to what I started and sometimes my decisions are questionable. 

I have learned over the years to start with a framework and see how the basic motif goes. From there, I may (or may not) add additional pieces into the framework depending on how the quilt is pieced and how much time commitment I want to put into it. At some point, I have to keep things relatively under control as I have other quilts waiting for me to work.

Here's what's on Bernie this morning...

Cotton Cuts BOM 2022 made with Tula Pink fabric

Here's the bonus quilt top I pieced yesterday from the play quilt I just took off Bernie. 

Bonus Quilt

This came with a bonus quilting motif as well but since I added the upper/lower borders, I may do my own thing in here. 

After I pieced this top, and while Jim was giving Lucy a groom, I made this new spring banner for the studio... 

Using as many of the scraps I can

I deleted out the background but while I was making this yesterday, we were in the middle of a snowstorm. Yet, today, it's supposed to be near 50. Ahhh...March in Michigan. 

I'm going to be binding this morning on the little coffee table in the living room, which should prove interesting. Jim needs the backroom table to groom Hazel today so I have to make do with what I have available. Thank goodness quilters are flexible people. 

Still Working Through This Blog Thing

I've racked my brain. I've researched other blog hosting platforms, and the bottom line is I need the kids' help to get the little dots on the left to disappear. They're annoying. But they aren't hurting anything so I'll just have to wait to talk/see them for a fix. 

Here's some quilting detail on the DW quilt...

The 'main' turret in the Beauty and the Beast quilt

I sometimes have a hard time with clamshells. I can't seem to get my head wrapped around how to make them evenly spaced. I took a class one time and remembered I had been given a book on just this subject alone. Reading is good. These turned out beautifully. 

No work on Bernie yesterday. 

Since we have a winter storm on the horizon (it's just starting), I don't think I'll be getting any customer visits today. Jim can't even come home for lunch, so I'm going to quilt and pack all day long to prepare for retreat tomorrow. Since my wrist has been bothering me the past couple of days, I think I need some time doing something else to give it a change and a little rest and the retreat should just be the right ticket. 

Okay...wait...I've figured this out. I got rid of the annoying bullets on the left. Hurray!!!! I do have a brain!

No Electricity (Again)

When our electric goes out, my main computer shuts down. I have to restart it and wait for any updates to take place. Then all my cookies are gone so it has to find everything again. I'm just glad the electricity was only off for about four hours. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here.

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

Beauty and the Beast

This is one of my all time favorite movies. I'm going to have fun quilting this one! 

Here's what's on Bernie today...

Applique and Piecing both!

What a fun one for me to do too. I love these 'not the same throughout' quilts. I don't get bored while quilting them because there's always a lot of thread changes and variations on how they get quilted. 

I have a customer coming to drop off today. Glad she won't have to freeze while she's here now that the furnace is running again. Our little "fireplace" doesn't give off enough heat to do a thing. I hope she comes earlier though because it's starting to snow out there pretty good all of a sudden. 

I Should Know Better

How does the saying go...it's the mechanic that has the worse running car...or the shoemaker who has kids running around with holes in their shoes? I always check the batting in a customer quilt. Always! It has a tendency to want to bunch up and get weird as the thread starts bringing things together. I was in such a hurry to get Elijah's quilt quilted, I failed to check his batting. This was the result as I got to the end last night...

Oops

Yep, I goofed. thankfully the 2 1/2 year old won't give two hoots about this. But grandma will always know about it. I'm so mad at myself but I don't have time to unstitch the last 13" it would take to get this rectified, so it's going to have to stay. 

Moving along. Here's what's on DW this morning (and for the next week)...

The Weidman Quilt Group Quilt

They will be raffling this needle-turned appliquéd quilt and I need to get it done by mid-January so pics and finishes can be done for their advertisement(s). All those pieces need to be ditched. That is a very slow going process and will take a considerable about of time to get completed. So it'll be on the frame for a while. 

Caleb picked up my sidelight for DW yesterday, and Jim will bring it north with him tomorrow when he (finally) returns back home to me and the girls. I miss him terribly! But that sidelight is going to be a must when working on this piece.

As mentioned previously, Elijah's quilt is quilted, but it's still on the frame right now. I hope to get that bound today. The potholders were finished last night; here's the last one...

Number four of four

They all have a black/white/red theme to them but with different fabrics. P.S. I detest hand binding. 😛

And lastly, the six cutlery holder gifts are cut out and ready to assemble today. I have plenty to occupy my time today while waiting for my best friend, my man, my everything to return home to me. Being busy sure makes the time go by quickly and spending it in the studio being creative helps make it bearable. 

Dog Sitter Rescheduled

We have a new dog sitter coming for a meet and greet, but the icy weather conditions today aren't going to allow that to happen. She rescheduled for Sunday afternoon. 

A full 11 hours in the studio yesterday. Joans quilt is finished, but still hanging out on the frame. It's white and until the girls are settled down for the morning and I have had a chance to clean the studio floor, I'm not taking it off to trim it. 

Once I was done with Joans quilt, I moved over and did a few hours on Elijah's quilt. Still not done with that. 

I bound yet another pot holder (one more to do) and then made a prototype of something else I'm making all the big kids for their cars. The pattern calls for more yardage than a fat quarter will get me, so I'm modifying the pattern a smidge to accommodate the fat quarters I picked up at Pieces last week. Here's the first go-around...

Cutlery Holder

The idea is the kids can keep these in their cars so if they need a set of eating utensils, they'll have one handy. Although, those who travel to an office, could just take them there. It's their choice...it's their gift. 

Today I have to trim Joans quilt (she'll be here later this afternoon to fetch), reload DW, get Elijahs quilt quilted, get the last pot holder bound, and if time allows, get the binding made and on Elijahs quilt. I need more hours in a day, especially around the holidays.  

Side Light

DW has a side light that I am pretty much completely dependent on; especially when working on very light or dark colors.

My little quilting crutch

It's been flickering off and on for the past couple of months, but yesterday was a whole new rate of flicker. More like strobe lighting. I have an email into Gall about whether the bulb (which appears to not exist) or the whole unit needs replacing. 

Here's some of the quilting detail going into Sue's Georgia Tech quilt...

One hornet per block please

This is the part DW is stitching out with the pro stitcher. 

I am just past the half-way point on Sue's quilt. I had three customers come by yesterday. The first one picked up...and then dropped another off. The second just picked up, but has more to come later after the first of the year. The third one dropped off and thankfully, there are no time deadlines for any of them. 

Once Jim got home I moved over to Bernie to start working on Elijah's quilt. I didn't grab a real great pic of what's going in on the borders, but here's one of the blocks...

More straight lines

I'm going to alternate between vertical and horizontal straight lines since this is set in an odd block format. 

I have nails this morning, I'm dropping off a completed quilt to Pieces for Paulette, and then I can focus on my work before campfire later this afternoon at the neighbors. 

Two More For The Holidays

Two more tops are loaded onto the long arms. Here's what's on DW this morning...

Sue L.'s gift for her grandson

This one is going to be a combination of ruler and ProStitcher work. Not much free motion though. 

Here's what's on Bernie this morning...

Another grandson gift for the holidays

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one yet. It's for a two-year old so he won't care, but I do. This kit WAS available at Piece of Thyme but I believe she has sold out of them; when I was there last week I didn't see it hanging from the ceiling any longer. 

I have a customer coming any time now to pick up, and another one around 10:30-11:00 to also pick up. That should be about it for traffic today. The neighbors to the north came up last night and we haven't seen them in a while. Probably won't see them again until after the first of the year, therefore we need to take advantage of their visit. 

Four Days...Four Tops

Four days of retreat. Four tops complete. 

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

Obviously, I didn't piece the Pineapple blocks at retreat, but it's now a top. The small tops will be donated and the Plaid-ish will be done with a flannel backing and given to the C's for a couch quilt. 

Katie and Barb seem to be doing well and they caught me up in all their kids/grandkids/kitty stories, as well as ASQ happenings and what's been going on with them personally. 

I had a few drop-offs and one pick up while I was there, and got to know some new friends up here a little better as I would drop by their tables and chat...or they would come over to mine. As always, there was plenty of energy and laughter around the room. This group was a little bigger than in January and there was a herd of kids who came on Friday to liven up the place. 

Today I'm back into Debs Coral Reef top and will be working that all day today and again tomorrow. The studio was put back to rights last night so I could start right in working and I've caught up on all the house chores so I can really focus on her piece. I miss my long arm and can't wait to get into my normal work day. 

Much to Share

Hullo! It's been a while hasn't it? Some boxes arrived while I was sewing my fingers to the bone. Presents for the studio...

A new cordless iron and teflon pressing mat from MSQC

51 spools of new colors to add to the variety from Quilted Joy

What a great retreat. I didn't think it would turn out as well as it did since there was a total of 10 of us not counting the camp director and her staff. But because it was a smaller group, we were able to get to know each other and support each others efforts in the quilting journey.

Despite being pretty social during the event, I was able to get a few things done. 

Gnome for the Holidays

This was my last completion on yesterday. Those striped mitered corners were interesting since I've only done miters about three times in my quilting life. 

DogGone It!

I made this for our dog sitter, Luann. She's a quilt maker too but who doesn't need another quilt to snuggle up with. I'm not sure when I'll get it done to give to her, but the intention is there. 

John Deere Green

Got this fabric from the sale table at Pieces and it's for Jim's mechanic, who said he wanted a John Deere quilt. I designed this one into a jumbo size from another tractor block I found on-line. What I learned about this quilt top is that you don't figure sizes and cut pieces after working 10-12 hours that day because my measurements in some of this were WAY off. But I managed. 

Dr. Seuss Compilation

And who doesn't like a good Dr. Seuss book? I'll keep this around the house for the grandkids to snuggle under while I read them books before bed. 

All of these fabrics/kits came from Pieces of Thyme quilt shop. Doesn't she just have the greatest variety? 

Today is put the studio back together day and, finally, a work day. I'm actually looking forward to it!

Late Start

Getting a little bit of a late start this morning, but I'm finally here in the studio.

Didn't work on much yesterday. No long arming anyway. But I did get the fabrics filed from the three previous projects, the studio tidied up and a new project is underway. Here's where I decided to head towards before taking a totally relaxing afternoon and evening on the couch with movies and Hazel snuggles. 

A-B-C Zoology

This isn't my actual top but a Cluck, Cluck, Sews design using this particular panel. I'm going to do about the same thing with my panel which is already cut apart and on the design wall ready to make some block frames. The only difference in this one and mine is I'm running a consistent striped fabric in every other block rather than making them all different. 

I'll be working the addresses quilt on the frame all day and see how far I get on that. My stomach is rolling (big vaccine decision setting it off) and I'm probably going to end up working through lunch since it doesn't seem very interested in any food for a while. 

Marathon Quilting Continued

Here's what hit the frame yesterday...

Monsters, (Inc?)

This was completed a few hours after lunch to include the binding.

Next on the frame yesterday was this one...

String Top

Because of all the scrappiness in here I just went with a simple double/triple loop meander in a light gray color. This one did not get bound yet but the binding is actually ready to go.

Quilting detail

Today we are headed to Grand Rapids for the day. That means, no productivity in here until later when we get home tonight. And sometimes, when we spend all day on the road, the quilting mojo just isn't there. 

Not Much To Report

The last two days have been literally non-quilting related. The only reason I came into the studio was to let Hazel out to go potty. We've been in and out for the past three days with birthday parties, relative visits (my side this time and not the DeGroot side), shopping, running errands, and appointments.

I did have two quilts dropped off on Friday and one picked up. And I did do a Pro Stitcher update as well as a motif download Friday afternoon. Yep, that's about it.

This is what's going on the frame this morning. I'm just loading it because I had my annual physical first this morning and then after changing into my play clothes, needed to do some yard/garden work. The dew was heavy last night so hopefully I'll get to mow later today should it not get ridiculously hot out there. 

Jill's Dr. Seuss quilt top

Isn't this top just darling as all get out? I asked where she obtained the panel because a) It's pretty good quality fabric, and b) I'd never seen this in any of the quilt shops around (not that I've gone to tons of them lately since having to work through these WIP's). Hobby Lobby! 

While we were in Lansing yesterday for Jacob's birthday, and if Hobby Lobby was actually open on Sunday, this certainly would have ended up in my bag of projects to do once through the WIP's. 

The motif I downloaded on Friday was for this particular quilt top with the hat from the Cat in the Hat book. It's going to be so cute when I get this finished. And this special customer has me do her binding for her; she's one of only three I will actually do binding for. 

Beautiful Day To Work

Temps yesterday: 77 degrees. Winds: Light and Variable. Cloud cover: Intermittent. 

A perfect day to have the studio windows wide open and to listen to some great music while doing my work. I have the best job ever!

Finished the grandkids' play mat (didn't get a pic). Loaded another customer quilt and completed the stitching on it; it still needs to be trimmed this morning and she needs to be contacted. The other giraffe quilt needs to have a customer contact as well...she's been out of state for the month of May.

Becky's Patriotic Military Quilt

I have a new top coming in later this afternoon and a customer pick up this morning. I'm going to load another small top after I get the above trimmed. Ahh...my life is awesome!

During/after working on the long arm yesterday I was able to get three blocks done on the Town and Country piece. 

#'s291-293: Corn, Apple Tree, and Milk Churns

And was able to get five more prepped to work on tonight after stitching out the three above. 

Another beautiful late spring/early summer day in store for us today. Isn't it funny how productive one can be when the weather is just as perfect as this?