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.

A Cool $300 Later

I picked up five wide backs, a fat quarter bundle, and a kit at Pieces last night all for under $300. Considering the wide backs were normally $54 each I call that a win. 

Here's the quilt I'm working on Marty...

Another Floral Felicity in the making

Recognize this? It's the Floral Felicity pattern Bittersweet quilt shop sells. It's not a very pretty quilt until you get it quilted (the makers' words, not mine). I've done a half dozen of these already and as I remembered yesterday, these are not a quick turn around time.

Some of the quilting

It took nearly all day to get the background fill in the first pass before I could start getting the colors incorporated. I'll be working this all day intermixed with packing for retreat.

I just brought down my suitcase so that part of packing is done and I'll be packing the sewing stuff as I progress throughout the day on quilting. I leave tonight around 7:00 to head to Chesaning for our Creative Passions retreat with the Hale group. I need this break!

In the meantime, have a great weekend and I'll be back here Monday to share all the fun and creativity I was able to experience downstate. 

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. 

Not All The Details

So I'll skim over last week about our retreat. I did complete a number of tops. The first was the Fireworks top...

Moving along, I completed the Scrappy Goodness top but neglected to capture a pic. Those were all done on day 1.

Day 2: I was piecing the sides of the cowboy boots when it was my time to get my pedicure. My feet were so happy!

After finishing the sides of the cowboy blocks...

I pieced this top together. This had been hanging out in my retreat tub for too long so it needed to be done...

I had also been holding onto two Rayola preschool quilts to make so I got those done on day three. I started on another project on day three but could not continue it as I need a full design wall to work with it. I started another project on day four but was cut short because we needed to start packing up. Here are a few pics of other projects other folks were working on...

Linda's beautiful wall hanging

Bernadette's Lori Holt Tulips

Nancy's One Block Wonder

Linda's One Block Wonder

Before I left the retreat I had one emergent top given to me, one to just ditch, and another Tilda Snowman pillow top to quilt. When I got home I had another two emergent requests come in and then a request for me to finish quilting my Tilda Make Do and Mend top for a Tilda event Bittersweet Quilt Shop is hosting in May. 

That means juggling some things around on two of the frames. The one I was going to start on Monday had to be taken off Marty and a new back is being frame ironed. My strip quilt was removed from DW so I could work on the Tilda top for Bittersweet. 

This was the first retreat Linda and I have hosted together and we started taking names of those who may be interested for another next year. Not only did EVERYBODY sign up that was in attendance (which is never heard of), but we had an additional three people who stopped by and sign up as well. We are cutting off the number of attendees at 35. We only have 13 openings left. 

Happy Easter

Remember me saying yesterday we are having bad smells coming from the new water heater? Smells like rotten eggs and after today's shower, this proves we have sulfur being released from the anode rod in the water heater...

Not supposed to be this color

My ring(s) are usually very bright silver. That's Jims project while I'm gone next week. While I know eggs are associated with Easter, this is taking it a bit far.😉

I did my strip block yesterday. I started two pineapples, and in between all of that I was packing. And making Jim his anniversary gift; a stool cover/pad for his stool out in the studio. 

I keep thinking of little things here and there to grab (vitamins, acorn fabric treatment) and am putting them in their respective places/piles while making this weeks temperature blocks/row. 

Getting ready and so excited!

Here's where the temperature top is as of yesterday...

Through April 2nd

Today I'll continue to grab stuff as I think of it. I am going out to do my strip today since I'll be gone for the whole week and maybe a little something else. Jim is making us cookies for the meet and greet tomorrow night.

I did drag out my brothers Flying Pig (Laura Heine) to transfer the design onto the pattern ease fabric yesterday after working the temperature blocks, but that's about as far as it went before my batteries were getting low. 🐇🐇

Happy 40th!

Wow, I wish I was 40 again. No, my eldest turned 40 at 1:06 this morning. We just got off the phone with him and he seems to be handling it okay. Earlier this week when we talked he was having a hard time with it. I did the same thing so I can relate.

Yesterday was a productive day in the studio. I needed to do some spring cleaning out there and straighten out some things in the retreat tote to prepare for that in a few weeks; along with my daily stuff. 

I did the strip first off on DW and then while talking to our kiddo in Germany, stuffed and made the pincushions for the retreat caddies.

These look simple enough, don't they? Even with Jim helping me it took us until lunch to get them all done. And I had already made the inside shell and the outer cover as well as having had everything cut out and pinked. 

Once we finished lunch and he retired into his basketball-filled man cave I headed back in to clean and get organized. 

I have a couple of [secret] projects I'm going to be working on at retreat and had those set aside to go into the tote. When I pulled the lid off the tote I found something I've been kind of ignoring since January.

I worked on this at the Creative Escapes retreat and I knew the border I started attaching there was pretty messed up. Which is why I was avoiding dealing with it. And, this top is huge; muscling it around the pressing table wasn't really on my fun-things-to-do list. 

Amish With A Twist II

But, while the Spartans gained another win at March Madness, I was able to correct the messed up border, attach the other two pieced borders and get the last set of borders attached as well. The flange is made but won't be attached until after it's quilted.  

I didn't come out of the studio until nearly 8:00 working on this and Jims game started at 2:30 or thereabouts. The studio is clean and organized and I've got way more than enough stuff to keep me busy at the retreat. 

No studio time today. It's going to be a rest day because the remainder of Dianes tops need to be done before retreat and I have another customer coming to the retreat that needs her top finished as well so I see long hours in the upcoming week.

Isn't Home Ownership Just Great?

While I was away yesterday morning I kept hearing the Ring fire off. I figured Jim was out in the garage getting the water out we accumulated with last Sunday's rain that has finally thawed since it immediately froze. 

When I got home I asked why the Ring kept going off. Long story. We lost our water heater. Again. Thankfully it was still under warranty. Our water is so bad we even chewed through an industrial heater in less than three years. This is our third one in eight years.

When I got home I finished Judy's quilt, called her and it's hung over Marty right now until we figure out how to get it to her. Which is fine. Nothing immediate I need Marty for because I'm going on a Diane quilting frenzy starting Monday on Bernie.

I had to make a few phone calls 

I did my strip on DW after 'work', constructed a scrappy block, and then I had to start this...

What's this all about?

These are going to make this...

Jolly Rancher pincushion

I have to make 19 more of these to go with the caddy's. This is to weigh the caddy's down so they don't tip over so today will be working on some of those and who knows what else I'll get into during Jim's b-ball game later.

Oh. The quilted coat received RAVING reviews in town yesterday. I found myself at several places of business and people would stop and ask about the coat. I also heard from one of the people who stopped me that I've made Facebook as another person snagged a shot of me while walking downtown and commented about how cool the coat was. A win!

Hours of Operation

It's pretty simple. I'm open from 10-4 each weekday. I observe national holidays and Saturdays are with appointment only. Or, if you're in the area and we aren't doing anything, as long as you call first we can probably accommodate you in the morning. Please let me have Saturday afternoon and Sunday off.

I received a message at 9:01 this morning about a quilting question. 

Even though Jim is home now, we still have a routine to do every morning; laundry, house cleaning, dogs, correspondence, technical stuff, showers, blogging, etc. I don't get up until around 8:00 (I love to read at night when the house is finally quiet) so staying up until well after midnight is my norm.

That's the beauty of having your own business. Your hours are up to what fits in your schedule. For me, 10-4 works well. And please respect that people. You have a life, as do I.

Soapbox done. I worked all day on the Tie quilt for Judy. We headed to get groceries in the afternoon and then after returning home, I quilted the strip for the day on DW. 

I pieced a scrappy block and then separated for the next three. I also ran two test strips for the cowboy boot top. 

18 more of these to go

I think this will be a retreat project I'll work on since it requires minimal thinking. Jim finished binding my coat...

Waiting for the zipper now

I have the zipper on order and will install that tonight if it does indeed arrive today. 

It hit me when I was separating the next three scrappy blocks that I have to test irons and start getting stuff around for the retreat we're hosting. Since it's not at The Springs and we're doing this one from scratch (first time ever at this location), we have to provide some of the things we aren't used to providing. Big irons for the ironing station (which we're also providing) is one of those. I had to test a few to make sure they still worked since they've been in the closet for a few years...

In good working order

Today I'm supposed to have a customer coming to drop off, but we're getting some weird snow/rain mix and it's well below freezing. More work on the tie quilt but it should be done today. Hopefully!

Four Years Ago

I just received a notification that four years ago tomorrow we headed to Wooster, OH to pick up Lucy. Has she really been with us for four years? 

Yesterday started out on DW doing my daily strip. From there I made a caddy and then started digging into the coat.

Lunch was late because I was playing with that the rest of the morning and shortly after our movie, the neighbors had camp fire and we were down there until almost dark.

I spent the rest of the night whip stitching down the pockets and hand binding the hood. 

I want to work on it some more today, but last time I spent a Sunday out in the studio, I woke up sick. My body is telling me a day to rest is mandatory and being sick on the couch does not count. 

Oh, and I had another call yesterday from a quilting customer. Did people forget I'm not open on Saturday? I've been pretty lax about turning my business phone off Friday nights to prevent this but apparently I'm going to need to start doing it again. 

I see reading and knitting in my future today. We have a winter storm raging outside and it sounds like a good day to just rest and relax.

Back in the Saddle

Yesterday was the first "normal" day in the studio in a week. It felt so good to be back in the saddle!

I finished Diane's quilt up and we have the back to her next quilt being frame ironed. Once all the post- quilting chores were done, I moved over onto Marty to work on Judys quilt she made for a friend. All ties!

The quilt plan had been discussed during the drop off so I didn't have to think about it much. Here's the border and center of the partial dresdens...

Then I got to all that negative space. I originally proposed putting rays off each tie, but after getting the markings in DID NOT like that at all. I called Judy to let her know it wouldn't look good and could I move in a different direction.

Thankfully, my customers trust me. She's leaving all of that up to my discretion and feels like I'll make the right choices for what I change it to. 

I did start working the partial dresdens in the corner, but even after putting in two rows of echoing, they aren't spilling out into the negative space quite like I'd hoped. I needed to sketch some more and I think I've got a good plan going forward. 

After shutting down business for the day I made a caddy. I have enough for the amount of folks currently registered to attend the retreat but I'm going to continue on with the ones that are roughed in so attendees have a choice in their gift. 

I made a Scrappy Goodness block and then headed over to DW to do my strip for the day. From there I grabbed that quilt I whipped out last Sunday and started cutting up the pieces for my Elemental quilted jacket. I made the long bias binding strip needed for the whole thing and then I didn't know where else to head. 

I read through the directions (again) and will start working on that today. I'm a little confused about the binding on the inside of the hood, so when I finally came out of the studio around 7:30 Jim had a Spartan b-ball game to watch (which we lost by two) and I plugged my ear buds in and started looking for a video to assist with my confusion.

Misty Doan (Missouri Star Quilt Company) did a video with the pattern designer making a coat from start to finish. BUT, they barely touched on the hood section. In fact, just sort of glazed over the whole thing. Huh? Maybe it'll make more sense when I get back to it this morning?

Welcome Back Winter

It's certainly a poopy weather day out today. Woke up with three inches so far and it's still snowing. It's a wet, heavy snow; the kind needed for making a snowman. It's sticking to everything and it looks so pretty.  

Meaning, I should be pretty productive today. 

After all of our errands and getting home late for lunch, I did get out in the studio to get some work done. Dianes quilt should be finished today and I'll be moving over to Judy's on Marty afterwards. No pics yet of that one.

I was starting to get a little tired after working well past quitting time. Getting a later start in the day does that I suppose. I decided to get caught up on some caddy's since that's mostly sit-down work. Five caddies later and I was rejuvenated a bit. 

I jumped on DW to catch up on five days worth of strips...

The evens

The odds

I wanted to do more; catching up on the Scrappy Goodness and maybe working some of the cowboy boots, but after long arming on DW I was getting pretty worn out. I guess I did enough for my 'first day back' post sickness.

I do still have a cough and I'm still kind of fuzzy headed, but I'm going to pretend none of that is present. Sleep last night was elusive until nearly 3:00 and I'm attributing my fuzzy head to that. I can pretend, can't I?

Allergies

I felt like I was coming down with a cold yesterday. Itchy, watery eyes, snotty nose, sneezing, and a lot of sinus drainage causing me to cough. But, I didn't have aches and chills. Nor did I have a severe headache. I think I'm developing allergies.

And, yesterday, I took Virginia's quilt off the frame, trimmed and folded it in order to get it ready for pick up. Virginia has lots of cats. Jim thinks it's a cat allergy. And I didn't do my eye drops yesterday so it very well could be.

Despite my wading through all the head things I was dealing with, it was a very productive day. I started on DW to do my daily strip. After, while I was working my daily caddy my phone rang. It was one of my regular customers (I guess all of them are regulars now since I'm not taking any new business) and they were coming to the area. Could she drop off a top? Sure, I'm just puttering around the studio.

Jim was working on his very first loaf of hand-made bread. Doesn't this look yummy?

We love bread!

I made a Scrappy Goodness block while I was waiting for them and then recorded the days missing for the Temperature quilt. I also dug through my flimsies to find a suitable coat pattern. They arrived and were here for over an hour. More like an hour and a half. Boy did I get a beautiful quilt to work!

All transferred

During lunch I prepped my pattern pieces for the coat I'm making. After lunch I removed Virginia's quilt to free up Marty for some quick long arming today. I had to construct a backing for the top I selected from my stash and started frame ironing that. I constructed the houses for the temps I recorded and added them to the next row.

While I was waiting for the backing to get frame ironed on Marty, I constructed the strip sets for the cowboy boot quilt...

Ready for cutting

Today I was up very late. The previous night our chimney for the fireplace decided to drip into the chimney pipe. One. Drop. At. A. Time. And loudly because water dripping on metal is very loud! Apparently we have a new leak. Guess what's right outside my bedroom? Yup. The chimney. And this allergy thing wasn't helping. 

Today I'm hoping to sneak onto Marty for a few hours to get the coat top quilted along with all the other daily things I should do. But, it's Sunday, so who knows how motivated I'll be. 

All Wrong!

I did end up working on Marty all day and still have a solid day ahead of me to finish the Stars and Shadows quilt for Virginia. Jim has errands to do this morning so maybe with no distractions it'll move along quickly. 

I did work late on it last night because I wanted to only have the gray work to do in the blocks before advancing and finishing out the borders.

And then the usual schedule followed: Make a caddy. Quilt the strip of the day. Work on something else. Scrappy Goodness was my target. And that worked out well because Andrew called on his way home from the office and we talked while I cut out all of these...

All cut and ready to piece

And in my tired state, I read the directions for the next step and pieced this...

Nope

I had two strips left over from my "A" pile and wondered why that was. The way the directions were written, she said to pull all strips from the "A" pile, separate at so and so number, and then sew those together as seen above. 

Except, that's not what she meant. I should have pulled the top off of each A through H pile, separate at so and so number, and then sew together. All of these seams have to be ripped out, sewn back together into their place in the tube, and then put back into the A pile to start over again. 

I'm not happy about this! And, this is why I always do one block beforehand to make sure I've read everything correctly. Or, in this case, make sure the directions are written as they should have been written.

Welcome Spring-ish

The morning started out on Bernie working on this next piece for Diane...

Some celebratory ribbons

Now I'm stuck again on what to put into her center panel. I'll think more on that today while working on Marty. Virginia's quilt is coming along slowly. My goal is to get it done before tomorrow's close of business. Meaning, no guild today. 

Yesterday was one of those days when I LOVE working out in the yard. It was sunny and warm-ish and no bugs. Can't stand bugs. But everything is still frozen into the soil and I had 'real' work to do in the studio. Jim got a lot done though. He loves being outdoors. 

 He also made me this...

Long Arm Ruler Rack

My rulers are getting pretty banged up with me transferring them from the pressing/planning table each night so I can do personal stuff in the evening. I mentioned to him about making something like this because rulers are VERY expensive and needed a way to keep them from getting scratches all over. He's the man!

Another beautiful sunset last night as I was making a caddy, quilting my strip on DW, and working through the Scrappy Goodness blocks...

Just breathtaking

And phase 1 sewing the scrappy goodness blocks together is complete. I pieced the remaining six strip sets and then they had to be joined at the top and bottom to make a tube. Next step? Cutting out (160) 2 1/2" strips from the tubes. Oh boy. 

Ready for cutting up

Since I'm not going to be at guild this morning I'm jumping straight onto Marty and working pretty hard to get through as much as I can today. Crank up the tunes, drink lots of water, do lots of stretches and go!

IG Quilt Fest

It's that time of year. The Instagram Quilt Festival. It's all virtual so anybody anywhere can participate which is kind of cool. I like to impart whenever I can. Yesterday was sewing machines and today is our quilt space. I'm going to combine the two. 

On Marty all day yesterday still trying to think of what to put into Diane's quilt on Bernie. After work I had to actually sit down with my Sketch program and draw out a variety of ideas I had and think maybe I've settled on something. 

I also did my daily DW strip before doing any sewing work. I did a caddy and then the cowboy boots were beckoning me to match the checkerboard fabric with a background fabric since I messed that up. I was able to pull 12 from my stash that are pretty darn close, and the diamond fat quarter bundle I started using for the AQS states worked well in most of them. I only need eight more pieces to get it all back on track.

Oh, and fusible. Seven yards of it!

Let's talk fusible for a bit. I usually use Heat n' Bond in the light version. It comes in a tube and it's relatively inexpensive. But it's stiff when applied and it gums up my needle when I'm appliquéing it down. I've also used Misty Fuse, but for these cowboy boots, that particular fusible won't work for me; too much waste and it does not do well with multiple layers. 

I've heard Wonder Under #305 works well. While I'm at the quilt shop I'm going to get advice from them and see what they say. The pattern designer suggests a brand called Transweb but Tina at Bittersweet had never even heard of this so we'll see what we come up with.

Once I wandered through the cowboy boots, I made four scrap blocks...

Step 1 of 3

The first step in the Scrappy Goodness quilt is to sew these strip sets together. I can't make a small quilt meaning I have to make 20 of these. I have six more to go. And then I got tired. It wasn't even 7:00 yet, but I had a full day and thought I'd come out of the studio early. 

I have guild tomorrow in Hale, but if the weather does anything stupid, I'll not be heading up. Although I need to since I haven't been up since I think October or November. 

An All Marty Day

Despite my good intentions of working partially on Bernie yesterday, that didn't happen. I was on Marty all day working through the Stars and Shadows. The day didn't start out well though.

The passive aggressive text received Friday morning was still on my mind and when long arming, you are provided with a lot of 'windshield' time. Truckers go through this same thing. The mind wanders and it's work that doesn't require a lot of concentration.

Apparently mine did because before noon yesterday I had to pull three sets of threads back out of what I was working on. I don't think I've pulled threads three times all last month, let alone in one morning. 

I did get Diane's quilt set on Bernie though...

Cute giraffe top

Designs are still being formulated in my head. I have some of it worked through, but have some areas that I haven't settled on yet. I'll think about it while I work on Marty some more today. 

After work I did my strip, made a caddy, made three scrappy goodness blocks, prepped the next jelly roll for more scrap happy blocks, and then I was done with what I wanted to work on. I have a pattern I've wanted to get started for a while. 

There is a LOT of prep work in this top...

I'm going to make the largest setting (4 x 5) the pattern offers instead of this throw they show on the cover. I want to get the checkered blocks done before moving along to all the appliqué stuff. BUT, I misread the directions and thought one fat quarter bundle (20 different fabrics) would be enough. I actually need two fat quarter bundles. 

And of course the Riley Blake fabric I used for the checkers is already out of print since it was created in 2022. Meaning, I'm going to have to improvise somewhat. I'll see what I have in my stash before heading to the quilt shops. 

All Caught Up

The temperature blocks are all caught up to the information available at this time. Row three is in...

Here are pics of the last weeks strips in the 99 strip quilt along with corrected numbers I might add...

One caddy was made; all of the above before lunch.

Since Jim was still a little under the weather and he had a basketball game to watch in the afternoon anyway, I retired back to the studio after lunch/movie to work on Rita. Her first two columns are constructed and are together...

I'll be working Virginias Stars and Shadows quilt most of the day today. I have to remove Dianes quilt from Bernie and load her next backing on to start frame ironing it and will weave all of that into my day.

Missed Birthday(s)

When I got a new phone last year, not only did it delete half of my customer information (that's been fun), I'm discovering it deleted nearly all the birthdays I had in my calendar. Including my DIL's. Which, I have guiltily missed in previous years. 

I don't know what it is about February that I lose my head. Maybe because I'm trying to play catch-up in my queue and running hard with the machines? Maybe it's my age? I don't like that I forget stuff and my studio is starting to look like a poster child for Post-It Notes with reminders I need to remember. Apparently, I missed the birthday one for Alicia.

And, I feel awful! Jim was planning on heading downstate today to spend a quality day with the kids/grandkids. He has the truck all packed with food, toolboxes, and clothes/overnight bag and then last night we found out the grandkids are all going to a slumber party this morning and will not even be there.

Jim cancelled his trip down because I guess he wanted to spend the day with the entire family. He had no other reason to head downstate other than to play with the family in Lansing. 

Meanwhile, Diane's leaf quilt was worked all morning and after lunch, Virginia's Stars and Shadows had the body started...

Some of the quilting

Here's a better shot of the reason we purchased this pattern...

This section above takes me about an hour to work. I did four yesterday. I have five to do today with the new roll. Doing this intense work for more than a few hours is hard on the eyes, which is why I'm mixing two quilts into a day. 

I actually did my DW work prior to starting yesterday morning. The furnace was running in front of the leaf quilt and it was an easy motif. And, apparently I can not count. I have two day 24's in there. I was going to rip it out but had already quilted up to date 31 and decided to just make it 24a and 24b. 

I constructed one caddy, made eight houses, 12 trees, and talked to Andrew while he was driving home. I have row two together in the temperature quilt and have rows one and two pinned together and ready to sew. 

More of the same today. Diane's quilt should be finished after this morning. I hope. I have a customer coming to pick up and drop off around lunch time so I better get to it.