Sleep Issue Last Night

I. Could. Not. Get. To. Sleep. Last night. At 3:00 I finally got up and took a few baby aspirin (which I hate doing) just to relax a little and give my aching hand (the one with the broken finger) a little pain management. I fell asleep shortly after doing that. So, five hours is good, right?

Yesterday started out with me babysitting DW while stitching out Pats quilt...

Civil War Quilt

I did the research to see what most civil war quilts were quilted with. Pat wanted something simple and as it turns out, during that time period, three motifs were generally used to quilt these. Crosshatching, clamshells, and Baptist Fans. I opted for Baptist Fans because it seemed the simplest to get in there.

See how nice it looks?

That took well into lunch hour because each time (twice) I walked away, DW broke thread. As long as I was standing there, everything was a-okay. 

After lunch I removed Pats quilt and started frame ironing for a small project I need to get done this weekend. More on that later.

It was time to get onto Marty and do some work on the Tilda Sampler. Here are two of the blocks...

The third block was hastily interrupted by a pretty large thunderstorm that rolled through. When a crack of lightning lit and then a thunder was right behind it I had to shut the machine down. Again, surge protectors (no matter how good they are) are no match for 1.21 Gigawatts. 😉

While I was waiting for the thunderstorm to roll through, I did my homework for my Quilters Groove Academy class...

Homework

Just as I was about to get back on Marty a second wave of thunderstorms came through. It was past 5:00 and I thought maybe somebody up there was telling me something. I gave up long arming for the day and instead opted to finish cutting out my second quilt for retreat...

Two all ready to go

Well, the second one is nearly ready. I would like to bunch each block up and clip them so I don't have to spread out and go searching for the correct pieces while I'm on a confined retreat table.

And, it's pretty spread out there on mine already so lets wrangle this thing into a more manageable situation.

I'll be on Marty all day today. I wanted to get more done yesterday and my goal is to have this piece completed by days end. And, here I am blathering on about yesterday and not working. Okay...let's go. 

Congrats Caleb and Lia and Happy Birthday Tristan

First, let's talk about continuing education. As a professional in the teaching and nursing field, we were required to attend a LOT of continuing ed classes throughout the year. It was constant. I didn't understand at the time (hated the term 'best practices') but now that I am in charge of my own business and see how quickly change occurs even in the quilting world, I am more aware of the need for con ed. 

I have not taken a hands-on or on-line long arm class in a long time. Probably at least three years. Okay, I did watch a number of YouTube videos on how to do one motif or how to handle a problem situation, but attending a class on actually working through a quilt was nil.  

I invested in myself (as well as the business) last night and am now attending the Quilters Groove Academy with Lisa Calle. She's a multi award winning long armer and her works are just stunning. I wanted to have the ability to make a quilt go from nice to oh wow! 

I've only delved into the introduction phase and have some homework to do before continuing in the class but I'm so excited to not have to stop and stare at a quilt to decide what goes in, or, better yet, just put in the old standbys to get through it. I have a tendency to do that with my personal quilts.

In the meantime, here's some quilting going into the Tilda Sampler I'm currently working...

And we got some good news last night about the grand baby we're expecting in late January. Caleb got out of the field yesterday and Lia waited until she could tell him first, before letting the world know, but we are going to be welcoming a new baby girl into the family. I'm over the moon because I'd been saying it was a boy all along. I was secretly hoping I was wrong. So glad I was! 

A happy birthday to our eldest grandson, Tristan, who turns 12 today. Holy cow. I have a grandkiddo nearing his pre-teens. UGH! 

I never did fire up DW yesterday. I didn't want to listen to him screaming behind me all day (bad headache day) but maybe today I'll get Pat's quilt worked through. 

After working on customer stuff, I started cutting out tops for the retreat I'm attending in about a month. I like to have everything cut out and ready to just sit and sew allowing me the ability to chat with people while I'm doing that. This is a new group and it would be nice to get to know everybody on a more personal level.

I have the first one all ready to go and will work through the second one probably not tonight. I have to get my homework done for the Academy before being able to move along in my "studies". 😊