I Have NEVER Done This!

We spent most of the late morning/afternoon with mom. We went out to lunch, cleared out some stuff she needed to get rid of and I think we've acquired a new bedroom set. We'll see if she actually gets a different one for her bedroom.

Despite being gone most of the daytime hours, I was able to get the State of Michigan quilted, trimmed, and then did something I've never (ever, ever) in the 32 years I've been making quilts, faced the finished piece. 

I like the facing!

It was way easier than I thought and I believe all my future artistic wall hangings will get this treatment from here on in. 

I cut out and then pieced the next block in the Quilt Room. Jim was watching MSU get their butts kicked by Notre Dame and I didn't want to hear his grumblings about how the team was playing. 

These are supposed to be spools but to me they look like boxes of presents stacked up. When I quilt this, I'm going to really have to emphasize the 'spool' part. 

Haircuts have already been done this morning and I'm not sure where the rest of the day is going. Since it's nearly noon it probably won't go very far. 😉

A Day of Small

Diane's quilt is done (those small ones usually go pretty quick) and I'll be working on a Trip Around the World on Monday. Meanwhile, after I was able to get Diane's quilt off and trimmed (and all that goes with it), I loaded this onto Bernie to work today. 

I didn't actually baste it in but it's ready to work when we get back from town. Since Bernie is free and DW is not, and since I'll have this done before Monday and having to load another Diane quilt I thought I'd get this done toot sweet. Prior to loading the State of Michigan, I did this little project for my tools I use on DW...

A travel case for teaching

With all DW's things inside

Without anything in it

It was still early so I began piecing the next block in the Quilt Room.

We are headed to visit my mom this morning since she just got back from her up north trip. The game tonight is at 7:00 so I'll be in the studio quite late tonight. I suppose I'm going back to my second shift days at the hospital. 😊

What's Taking So Long?

Those who aren't into the whole long arm scene do not know what we do as long armers to actually do their quilts. It's not just putting in stitches. As I've discussed before about the 'after' process, what about the 'during' process other than the quilting?

The first item up is unlocking all the ratchets to actually roll forward. 

After the quilt is rolled it looks like this.

Since this isn't straight and flat this has to happen.

The quilt top is brought up and the batting is smoothed first. Then the top is moved back into position to smooth it out. 

Once that's done and the quilt is squared up on the frame, the side leaders/clamps have to be attached.

And now it's time to baste in both sides after everything is checked and ready to get started.

I baste in at about 1/2". Oops, one more check. All the seam threads need to be pulled in that row.

Now it's ready to start getting more quilting put in. This whole process above takes about 10 minutes to perform. This particular quilt gets a roll for each sashing row and each block row so nine advances on the frame. That's an hour and a half just for rolling each section. 

Remember those little squares I took a pic of yesterday? Well, this is what they turned into last night. And after that I did get all the sections together in the Quilt Room.

Diana's quilt will be finished today if all goes well. Jim is at PT and then the dentist so I'll have a quiet morning. The girls are sulking because he's not here. They'll get over it.