Late Blogging Today

We attended an art show first thing this morning after having breakfast with mom. Jan Berg had some pretty cool stuff entered this year and it was an honor (as it was other artists including my mom) to see some pretty talented artists displaying their works. For a little community we certainly have some true artists.

You're wondering who Jan Berg is? Check out last years AQS winner in the wall hanging art category. She took first in Paducah. Just sayin'.

We also talked to a member of the guild who published a children's book titled "A Child's Sky" by Carol Fink. She displayed some nice art pieces, but wrote this book to raise money for the continuation of arts in the community. The artwork in the book is done by many of the artists in the guild and I hope she continues to publish more books in the future because this one is a definite must for all parents and grandparents alike to have in their read-to library. Truly!

Long Time Gone has been photographed and is in the pile to have put away. Sadly. It's one of my favorites.

Long Time Gone

We have storms headed our way later tonight but I think my rainbow rail fence black and white checker top is going to be loaded after I get done blogging. It's been hanging on the rail a a few weeks now and needs to be quilted. It doesn't really fit on the rail anyway so that's probably a good thing.

Friday the 13th. Full Moon. More Storms.

I'm just glad I'm not working at the hospital anymore in Postpartum. These days were nuts when combined together.

Long arming did happen yesterday morning and it felt great. With the Long Time Gone pattern this ruler, called the Handi Quilter Straight Edge ruler, works great. It's longer than most of my other rulers and when doing a long set of borders or sashing strips to ditch, this is a great tool to have.

Long Time Gone being ditch quilted with the HQ Straight Edge Ruler

I started another pattern yesterday called Roundabout by Saginaw St Quilts. It's chewing up even more of my scraps and so far it's been pretty easy to piece together. Of course, yesterday was the large ovals. The small ovals will probably be a little tougher as their curves aren't as gentle.

I think I need to rebuild my blog. It's starting to get old looking to me and I LOVE change. Maybe later when the storms are back (expected later this afternoon) I'll do that.

Autumn Thunderstorms

Have we had our share of very wet and very stormy weather the past two days. Holy cow. I tried to work on the Long Time Gone piece three times yesterday and every time I turned on the long arm, here came another storm. Maybe day three will bring better luck?!

I started a new pattern yesterday called Roundabout  by Saginaw St Quilts. Well, 'start' is used loosely here. I transferred my templates and picked out the 52 different fabrics I'm going to put into it from my stash. Today I hope to get one or two blocks pieced and most of the large ovals cut out. This may be a cool retreat project, except retreat isn't for another four months, so maybe not.

Hazel was chillin' on the loft bed (formally Caleb's bed) this morning. She looks pretty sad about not being able to go swimming the past four days because of the weather. Today isn't looking promising either. The quilt she's laying on was the very first one the kids and I practiced on when I first got the long arm six+ years ago.

Just chillin' on a windy, cold morning

We used the quilt for Lily to protect whatever nice quilt was underneath, and it seems to be working out in the same use for now Hazel.

911. Never Forget.

I did manage to complete the Vintage Christmas quilt yesterday. It was a fun process working on this piece. I didn't quilt it to death and left everything organic given the whimsical feel of the blocks within the top. Flowing ribbons throughout the borders and sashing. Simple X's in the cornerstones. Ditch quilting (mostly) in each block with a few fillers to add more whimsy.

Vintage Christmas. Pattern by Lori Holt

I started to load my next top; Long Time Gone as a storm was starting to roll in. And it was a nasty one, so I have everything laying there waiting to set needle and thread to fabric. This pattern is by Jen Kingwell.

Long Time Gone. Pattern by Jen Kingwell

I haven't a clue how I'm going to quilt this piece. There is very little negative space to do much detail work, and it is a very busy quilt. I think perhaps much of it will be ditched and I can get some gentle curves in there wherever possible. I never know until I turn DW on and start laying down thread.

Today is the 18th anniversary of the horrific 9-11 tragedy in New York and Washington DC. Let us never forget those thousands of people who were victims of such a terrible act and even more people who fought to save/assist those affected. The younger generation were just babies during this time. My eldest son was in high school, and my middle son in junior high. My youngest was just a grade schooler, yet they all remember what they were doing during the breaking news. As do I.

Quilting brings me peace and joy. For those disturbed or mentally manipulated people who think killing is the answer, I sew a stitch for you today to hope you use the common sense given to you to make the right choices in life and maybe find your inner peace through something worthwhile rather then senseless acts like 9-11.

It's a Monday

Wedding festivities are complete and here's the happy couple.

Caleb and Lia tie the knot

It's a rainy, dreary day outside which is perfect! Perfect for sewing and not eating into my guilty conscious about not being outdoors doing something in the yard.

Although we had a wedding, and a beautiful weekend with the weather, I was still able to squeeze in some time on the machines and complete the Selvedge Top!

Selvedge Top

And, before leaving for the wedding, we had a few hours left in the morning for me to be able to finish the Long Time Gone top too!

Long Time Gone

And now I wait to order thread so the Tula top can be worked some more.

I have a few more UFO's/WIP's to get to today on the little machines and will be working in that direction. The Kaleidoscope quilt needs to be bound and the t-shirt quilt for my neighbor is in progress. It's my goal to get some more things wrapped up so I can start something new soon.

An Oldie but a Goodie

I started organizing all the tops I have laying in waiting under DW's table. I had enough hangers to get about half of them hung yesterday (pics to follow tomorrow hopefully), but while going through them all, ran across this one. It still needed the borders attached and after doing that, I hung it on the rail in the loft for summer fun.

Hello Ladies

This top is going to be fun to quilt. The embellishment possibilities are endless!

I did get a sashing/border attached to the Long Time Gone top. I think it gives a stopping point before the next three borders will be added.

A "new" feature I added in

Most of the prior part of the day was long arming on the Tula 100 Block top.

Today is going to be hit or miss. It's threatening to be a nice day (I woke up to rain), and with nice days comes landscaping and yard work. I'm debating.

Nearly a Week?

Holy wow, it was last Thursday since my last post? WTH? Oh yeah, more nice weather.

Well, I have managed to slip in a few stitches on things in the studio between running down state, working in the yard, and doing the typical weekly errands.

Here's where I'm at on the Long Time Gone piece.

Long Time Gone

The pattern calls for a set of three scrappy borders, but here's my take on that. This is a pretty busy quilt. I think I'm going to set a neutral border around the top first, and then set the borders in. It just seems like (even from the photo of the completed quilt in the book), it's just too much and the borders get lost in the actual quilt.

Here's what's on the frame (still).

Getting Ready to Stipple

This only pass two of five (I believe). BUT, we have poopy weather today, so I'm planning on cranking up the tunes and working on this most of the rest of the morning and afternoon.

And here's Hazel's Tuesday pic. She just got a new haircut on Monday.

Nice Weather = Not Much Studio Time

The past two days have been perfect work outside weather. Low 70's, very few bugs (yet) and partly cloudy skies. The winters dander, lawns, living spaces, leaves, lake front area, and flower beds all needed attending to. All are complete except for the latter. Today is supposed to be nearly the same until later this afternoon, where we are expecting rain, but ya know what? I'm not going out to work today.

I'm going to enjoy the mostly cloudy morning, my music, and some sew time. My wrist is killing me and quite frankly, with the front coming through, my head is pounding. So, that's a good enough excuse, right?

BUT, good news. During all this outside work stuff, I was able to slip in a few stitches here and there (mostly after lunch while finishing up my hour off), and my 16 pineapple blocks are sewn for the Long Time Gone piece. Papers still need to be removed from the back, which is one of my to-do's for today.

Long arming seems like fun today, sewing filler blocks for Long Time Gone seems like fun today. Working on some selvage blocks seems like fun today. Oh heck, it all seems like fun since it's been a few days since I've been in here. Let's go!

I love being outside!

A Few Projects

Yesterday was take-advantage-of-gloomy-weather day.

The Poppins bag was first on the list. As far as supplies allowed was as far as the project went. When ordering the Craft Tex, I thought I had ordered enough, but found out yesterday it was not only the wrong size, but only one was ordered. It needs two.

Moving along to the Long Time Gone pineapple blocks. Two were nearly done before lunch. Five more to go.

The afternoon consisted of long arming and working on the selvedge top.

Tula Pink's 100 Modern Block Design

The long arming on the Tula piece is going to take much longer than anticipated. The meander being put into the fractured windows on the off-white section is very closely quilted. Even though the machine is set to manual and at about 50%, the time it's taking was surprising.

The seventh border is set into the selvedge piece and only one more fat border to go. The next border is half-square triangles and it too will take a lot of time to make each of the blocks needed. They are six inches in size and each is set at a diagonal with a variety of sizes of selvages needed.

Today is sunny and is supposed to be warm-ish. The windows on the house are looking pretty grungy and part of today may be working on those. Maybe?!

Going to a Quilt Shop

Aunt Effies, in West Branch, is a very nice quilt shop. She has a lot of everything there and it's set up more open then most quilt shops I've visited; which makes shopping very easy. While mom had to trek down to her art emporium where some of her paintings are available for sale, I went quilt shopping.

I. DIDN'T. BUY. A. THING!

I KNOW!

WHAT THE HECK?

I realized I have a lot of projects going on here and decided I needed to (once again) get some of these off my list before getting into anything new. Once in a while ya just gotta say "Enough," and actually finish some of what has been started.

When arriving back home, two more pineapple blocks for the Long Time Gone top were made, I worked the zipper into my Poppins bag, and looked ahead on what my next row (border) is on the selvedge top. After about 9:00, I settled down to start sketching out what I'm going to put into my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks top. Oh, the possibilities!

And I'm still undecided.

Oh the real estate!

Getting anything to really wow me was hard, but I came close on a few designs. I think this one, because it is so open, is going to need to be loaded and preview paper needs to be put over to play around and see what will work out best for the design.

So, Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks, after hanging on our loft bannister for over four months now, you are finally going on the frame today. 

The Sun! Finally!

It was a gloomy start to the morning but now the sun decided it had had enough hiding. Great weather (because it's still in the 40's) to long arm today.

Not much long arming yesterday. Mom and I spent the day bumming around Pinconning so the only work done on The Beast was prior to mom showing up (around 10:00). Today will be used to make up for the lost time.

Once mom did leave, however, I did another block on the Long Time Gone top. I'm up to the Pineapple Log Cabin blocks. 5 1/2" unfinished with 37 pieces in each. Here are the first three of 16 needed.

Pineapple Log Cabins for the Long Time Gone Top

I had been using my big Janome to piece them, but then thought, 'I have my new little HQ Stitch that could be set on the cutting table, thus eliminating a lot of walking (or tripping in my case) around the studio.' It worked like a dream! This was my first time using it, and BTW, Caleb and Ben named her Lilo.

I snagged a selfie Pic of Hazel and I, so here's a good laugh for anybody interested.

Almost eight months old!

A Low-Keyed Day

I was so sore yesterday from all those fence posts on Monday so things were kept relaxed, but productive nonetheless.

Another set of blocks completed for Long Time Gone.

Long Time Gone Flying Geese Blocks

Some long arming on the Flowery Kaleidoscope top.

Flowery Kaleidoscope Quilt Detail

Playing with Hazel (who too was pooped out from Monday's fence project to really play a whole lot). And a celebration of her being 33 weeks old. Although, she's starting to show signs of not feeling well again. Sad Face!

Hazel at 33 weeks

And my Angela Walters Build-A-Block came in the mail yesterday, so I pieced that. No pic for it though.

I've already got most of my chores down outside today (picking up sticks, weeding flower beds, taking care of fence building yuck, etc.) It is sunny outside today, but not too awful warm (mid-50's).

Unproductive Productivity

The weekend was spent spending time with Jim and my mom. The kids didn't make it up for Easter Sunday, but Jim and I and Mom and I made the best of the weekend. Friday was spent with my quilting friends from downstate and Jim and I ran about 1,000 errands. When mom and I went to Houghton Lake on Saturday, I was able to pick up those wide backs needed for both of the Tula Pink tops I've completed.

Did I tell you about that? Thursday I wanted to load my Tula Butterfly. I measured the top, then measured the back. Loaded the back and measured it again. When I put the top on the batting, it was about 15 inches too long from the backing. UGH!! So this got loaded instead.

Flowery Kaleidoscope Top

Sunday was spent in Midland with Jim doing more errands and out to lunch. I did do a little piecing on the Long Time Gone top and this is where I ended my Sunday.

Long Time Gone block in progress

Yesterday we finally had a very nice spring day. It was more summer-like then spring actually. Temps in the upper 70's and since we are just starting the warm weather, bugs were at an all time low. This is what I accomplished yesterday.

Hazel's new night time pen being constructed

Absolutely zero studio time because by the time I got 11 of the 12 holes dug, Jim arrived home with the posts. We cemented the bottom part of the posts (because I was only able to get down about 24" with the holes; we have terrible clay here on the property), and then the rest of the posts were packed back in with that clay.

This is going to be Hazels permanent "night time" area. We have an awful skunk and porcupine problem up here and I'm really not into her getting tangled up with either of these critters. She'll go out at night in this enclosure to do her potty thing. The current fence we have looked kind of trashy and not very aesthetically pleasing to customers who come to drop off/pick up quilts. And we didn't really like the look of it either not to mention it's pretty flimsy with just the t-posts holding up the wire.

By the time we finished with this part of the project I was absolutely wiped out. I hadn't eaten all day, took in very little water, and was feeling the headache and body ache effects of this behavior. Today is our typical gloomy, cooler weather day (although the sun is supposed to come out later) and will make up for tomorrow in the studio today.

Jamming

The weather, the time of the day, and what I'm working on, will set the stage for what music I jam to when I'm in the studio. Long arming yesterday, after blogging, the sun decided to show itself for the better part of the morning and early afternoon. Classic Rock! On high volume!

If working a pattern I'm not familiar with, classical music plays softly in the background.

If it's chain piecing that's very mundane work, I listen to podcasts about quilting. Or YouTube videos (that's how I get caught up on those).

Since yesterday was a culmination of all of the above, I had a variety of things playing on my Mac (Irma).

Customer quilt is nearly done. I have to pull it off this morning, eliminate any markings, and check for any tie-off threads. She's picking it up later this afternoon.

Steam Punk is done

Before working this piece though, I did slip in some Poppins bag time, but made myself stop before lunch time (or I would have just gotten wrapped up too deep and wouldn't have let it go).

Afterwards, when the storms decided to come rolling in, I worked on a few more blocks for the Long Time Gone top. My original thought on this piece was that it was going to be quick and easy to make, but it's turning out to be more labor intensive then it presented itself to be.

Courhouse Steps on top and Churn Dash below

The pattern called for 21 churn dash blocks and nine courthouse blocks. Looking ahead to today, I have four log cabin blocks to make and a crap load of half square triangles coming my way. Tomorrow I'm going downstate to sew with a few of my previous guild members, so cutting these pieces and getting them done tomorrow seems like a good idea.

Update on Hazel: She's still eating as much grass as she can find (we are just starting to get it poking out of the ground from winter) so I know her tummy is still bothering her. But her stools (I know, gross, right?) are firmer so maybe we're heading in a forward direction with her recovery!?

What's Better Than a Snow Day?

A cold, rainy day. Perfect for quilting.

Here's what was happening in my neck of the woods.

Hazel was doing her Kilroy impression

She seemed to do that a lot yesterday. As seen below as well.

The Selvage Quilt

I attached the lattice portion of the top and then started setting up for the the next round. I worked on this after I worked on the Steam Punk quilt for one of my customers.

Prior to working on the Steam Punk piece, 21 Churn Dash blocks for the Long Time Gone top were completed. 

Steam Punk

Before quilting a quilt for a customer, research is done on line to see what some other quilting motifs have been done on that particular pattern. This one had virtually nothing out there to go by so I'm putting in what I think the design calls for. The customer of this quilt trusts my judgement and gave me carte blanc to put into it. 

I'm delivering another customer quilt in a few minutes and then I'll be coming back to Steam Punk later this morning. Today will probably be much of the same as yesterday since our spring rains are giving me the go ahead to forage on with my studio work; at least for today anyway.  

Sick Puppy

Hazel has been sick now for over a week. Keeping this short, the vet had us switch her to a boiled beef/chicken/rice diet. Things looked like they were going to straighten out on about Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, so I switched her back to a little kibble mixed in, but still mostly the boiled diet.

Last night and today she is not herself. Kinda of quiet and now has started throwing up (again). Yes, we've eliminated all situations from her environment (remember, I'm a science major and know how to work test reductions). So we head to the vets office this afternoon to try to see what the heck is going on.

I don't feel good mommy

Even her look tells you she isn't her usual perky self.

Yesterday, while keeping an eye on my dogs pooping habits, I completed this quilt for a customer.

Yep, that's me and DW working on a customer quilt

I did another block for my Long Time Gone top.

Stars and Crosses block

And I was Betty Crocker in the kitchen. Exciting day.

The kids are supposed to come visit later today, and may be staying over for the night. I love it when the kids visit. There's life in the house and lots of noise and activity. Just like a home should be.

Sunny Days

Today is not a sunny day. Yesterday was partly sunny. Long arming on a sunny day is preferred. This is mostly what I worked on yesterday until the sun decided to leave.

Getting in those borders

I think the borders set the stage for how the quilt project is going to go. And, the borders are the most difficult and time consuming to get into; at least for me they are. Maybe I'm weird. Wait! I know I'm weird. So this makes sense.

After the sun went away, progress was made on the Selvedge top and the pieces are being picked for the next block in the Long Time Gone top. It's great darkness doesn't settle upon us until later in the evening. In the winter months it seems like 6:00 is so late, but now studio time doesn't stop until around 8:00 or after. Yeah more daylight!

En Route

The Mary Poppins bag kept coming into my thoughts yesterday. Having held off starting this project, I took an inventory of everything en route towards completion. Some of them are just in the beginning stages and some are somewhere in the middle. None of them are near completion.

Here are a few things under construction at the moment. 

Is this really something?

Yes, this is actually something in the beginning stages. Although my enthusiasm for its completion has diminished considerably. It's supposed to be monsters through a class offered on Craftsy but my tendency towards working on it has vastly wained.

On the design wall

These are three projects going at once. The top rows of houses are a pattern by Jenny Doan of MSQC. The blocks to the right are a new pattern called Long Time Gone by Jan Kingwell. Seeing it on Pinterest made me HAVE to do it, and it's chewing through the scrap buckets seen next to the right of the blocks. The bottom "big" thing is a selvedge quilt from the book Modern Selvage Quilting by Riel Nason. 

But wait, there's more...

That Town and Country

This is my long-time project, often referred to in other posts as my BOD; Block of the Day. Although, after it's worked on for a while, it's parked off for something else. I'm on day 183 of 365. It's been two years since I've started. 

And then there's always this...

Long Arming for Customers

It sometimes takes a while for inspiration to hit when a customer quilt comes in. We discuss possibilities when the tops are dropped off, but the actual designs can sometimes swim around in my head for a while. I've had this one now for two weeks and am finally settling on what to actually put into it. I've got to get rolling on it though since I need to deliver it in another two weeks. 

And, these are not all the projects being worked. There are another two under the bookcase (one Bonnie Hunter and one Angela Walters) and one more under the long arm (by Leah Day) which are monthly things being worked on when they come in. It's GREAT to have a variety, but the Mary Poppins bag is still tugging at my head. Although a little less now that I've actually taken an inventory of just how many things I do have in the works.