A Golden Nugget

Not bad for my first go.

Pillow Cover

The pattern can be found on Missouri Star Quilt Company's YouTube channel. The quilting can be found under the "new" sit down machine I've made from my Janome 1600P.

Doing sit-down quilting is a much different beast than long arming. HUGE difference. But I've done sit down before and find it cathartic and after spending six to eight hours on your feet long arming, yet your quilting scratch hasn't been satisfied, this is the ticket.

The paisley still rears its ugly head. There's a back story behind this fabric, but here it is. Once again. Showing up in something I did with scraps of fabric. This is one of the "magazines" in Valeries quilt.

That damn paisley

But the bookcase quilt is getting bound this morning and it'll be off my to-do list.

And look at the selvedge I found with our granddaughters name on it. Too cute!

Penelope is famous

Today may be interrupted with some deck work, but this morning the temps are still very chilly and going outside won't be until later.

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.

Stupid Nice Weather

It's hard to stay indoors when the weather is sunny, especially when we have such a short "nice" season here in northern Michigan. Temps were very cool but it wasn't raining and yard work is never ending.

And then there were parent visits. Dad was here Saturday. We were at moms yesterday afternoon.

And, we were on the phone with the "little" kids most of Saturday morning and yesterday evening preparing for their exchange of vows this coming Friday.

But a few selvedge blocks were slipped in here and there just so I wouldn't go out of my mind.

Some of the selvedge blocks for the eighth border

Today is much of the same. Sunny skies, and a nice breeze, but again, cooler temps. Yard work this morning and then an electrician coming this afternoon.

DW needs to have his own breaker. The whole studio is on one 15-amp to include the pump down at the lake for our irrigation system. When the pump is fired up, it blows the breaker. And, when the iron is heating, all the lights on the sewing machines dim. Not cool!

So a very stuttered day today in here.

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?!

April Showers and all that Jazz

Our winter in central northern Michigan is giving a hard fight this year. Last year we literally went from winter to summer in about 10 days. I think we are headed that way again this year. But we have thunder here, so long arming is out until this blows over.

Since it's (already) May 1st, today I'll work on my Leah Day Friendship blocks. This is number six, and a little less intense than the previous two months (thank you Leah).

Yesterday, as well as spending six hours at the long arm, I worked on my Selvedge quilt for a bit while the neighbor was having his lifts put into the lake and watching one of the workers fall into that freezing water with his waders on (which promptly filled completely up). Brrr! The quilt has a total of nine rounds of borders after the center section and last night was number six (again with the sixes).

Border six of nine (with Hazel assisting)

I've already started mocking up the quilting on my iPad and with all the negative space, it's going to quilt out so beautifully. I'm just as excited to quilt it as I am building it.

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.  

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.