A Happy Retirement Birthday

My best friend, my husband has his first "retirement" birthday today. It's still weird having him here all day long, but we're adjusting. Slowly. 

Yesterday was a mixture of all sorts of stuff; appointments, long arming, appliqué,
piecing, putting long arms back together, and watching the neighbors yard get torn up while it appears they are going to build a barn. The weather is a mixture as well. Six inches of snow on the ground and today it's raining. 

I finished the quilt on Marty and moved over to this one on Bernie...

Sue Spargo Woodland animals

Here's some of the quilting going into this quilt...

Can you see anything?

After working on this piece into late afternoon, I found a quilt we needed to do a little work on. I had to get a couple of straight lines placed in an area that wasn't quilted...

Inserting some straight lines

After finishing that I finished appliquéing and putting the borders on the last block in the Alaska top...

I checked to see how this quilt top is constructed and I'm floored that I have to use a partial seam to get all the blocks set in around the center block. UGH. I like partial seams about as well as nothing. 

Jim had a b-ball game to watch so while he was doing that I found and attached leaders to the absolute perfect backing for a table runner going to the B's for the holiday. Once all the leaders were temporarily attached I loaded this onto DW...

I had a hair brained idea to knit scarves for all the grandkids, but I've got one in the works for my DIL so I finished getting everything ready for today's work and then went to work some more on that. I don't know if my goal will be accomplished or not? Just gotta keep plugging away at things I suppose. 

A Day of Rest

We are taught, from a very young age, all things enjoyed are great in moderation. While I am so very passionate about quilting, Sunday afternoon is a day away from the studio and all things quilting. I don't want to EVER hate my passion so I make myself stay out of there all afternoon and evening on Sundays. 

But in the morning I made the second to the last block in the Alaska top... 

Bear Paw

The last block is in progress, but the author of this quilt has a few blocks as 3D blocks, and I'm choosing to not do that. I'm going to raw-edge the two blocks that have the 3D part written in and the last block is the first of the two. There is some piecing that occurs first and then the 3D part is introduced. 

After the last block is done, most all of the other blocks have an appliqué that is added. This will be my next step in working on this. 

Now that we are returning back to our regularly scheduled programming, here's what's going to be happening in the studio this week. It's kind of like that game show Lets Make a Deal. On long arm number one we have this top...

For a lucky granddaughter for the holiday

On long arm number two we have this Sue Spargo top...

A wooly!

And on long arm number three we have this Judy Niemeyer top...

For a Daughter-in-law for Christmas

So...this is my week. Actually, I'll be working on the sheep this morning and afternoon. I'll start on the Judy on DW this evening. And I'll be bouncing between the two during the next two days. At least, that's my plan. I have one customer coming to pick up later this afternoon so business as usual. 

Cooler Temps, Better Working!

It looks like signs of autumn are starting to show. Leaves are starting to lighten, cooler temps at night, and today's high isn't even supposed to reach 70. I love autumn and it's perfect quilting weather. 

I did get two of the three pieces bound yesterday...

Isn't Lewis so cute?

Already on the design wall!

I started the binding on Gravity...

Half done

And that's as far as I got before having to stop and make lunch. I talked to mom yesterday while working on this binding and she did a cow similar to what I did on Saturday assisting with an art class in Beaverton. Weird, huh?

I have one customer expected and she's picking up while I'm working on both Bernie and Marty. Oh, what's on Marty? Let me show you...

[Another] Tilda Sampler

I think I'm going to work these in tandem. It will eliminate me from having to constantly refer back to the photos of the original I did and these gals want them both quilted the same as the original. This one on Marty, however, is double batted, so there will be a little more of a challenge there. I haven't actually "loaded" it yet, it's just waiting for me to start getting thread in. Happy Monday. 

The Last Block

Looks easy enough but this took ALL morning to complete. Isn't it cool though?

See what I mean?

Anyway, the sun came out (shocking) while I was trimming it up and here's a few pics of the finished project...

I'll just let the pics speak for themselves. Let's just sit here quietly and enjoy. 😁

We ran to town first thing this morning to get groceries and menu items for the weekend. Jim is going to turn on his basketball game shortly and I'm headed to the studio once I get this done. I'm working on Foster and another little small bag project I picked up from who knows where. 

RIP Luann!

The issue I have sometimes in my studio are interruptions. Quilting mojo if you will. Yesterday was a very unproductive quilting day. Customers in and out. Neighbors, appointments, and upsetting phone calls all interfering with my work day.

By the time I got home with my eyes dilated from the eye doctor, long arm quilting was not going to happen. Meaning, I still have this much to work on the Flea Market quilt... 

Still not finished

While I didn't feel safe working on customer things because the artistic side wasn't going to happen, the production side of me felt safe in cutting out fabric for my next project...

I love black, red, and grey quilts

The whole time I was "working" last night, I could not get Luann off my brain. Luann and I became acquainted about five years ago. Hazel was just a mere puppy and she said she'd watch her (she owned 2Canns Dog Kennel) while we went to our sons military graduation. We've been fast friends since because we both love dogs and we both quilt. 

Luann is no longer with us. After a year and a half battling cancer, the lord took her home two days ago. Now you see why my head wasn't really in the game even if my eyes had been working. I kept tearing up (which is very unusual for me as I view death as part of the life cycle) when thinking of her. I'll miss her dearly. 

NEVER, EVER Dry Clean Your Quilts

I had a customer debating on whether to put wool or bamboo into her quilt. When wool was mentioned she commented that she'd then have to have it dry cleaned. 

Jim used to work for Barayames in Lansing. They are a HUGE dry cleaning firm. If people only knew what dry cleaners did to their stuff. AND...they wash the quilts just like we do at home. But, they use very harsh chemicals to make it smell like they did something else to your item and treat them very poorly.

You can do a better job at home. Just wash the quilt in cold water and if you don't take it out in the yard and lay it flat between two sheets, then just put the quilt on fluff or low heat when drying in the dryer. I have a  couple of wool quilts here that handle that kind of laundering just fine. 

Here's what's on DW today...

The Helms' t-shirt from h&*l

I have a customer on her way over and while this t-shirt quilt does its edge to edge thing, I'll be working on the "play" quilt some more. I got the center section done last night, but the cloudy day today itsn't providing very good photo ops for it. 

Happy 37th birthday to my oldest son! Wow...he just entered into his late thirties. What does that say for me?

Apps Acting Weird

Our Aura frame was down yesterday and said it had lost a connection and tried to reboot all day. I finally unplugged it and restarted it. All seems fine today. This morning, my IG account was jumping all over the place and now my blogging site had me logged out (which I never do) and wanted me to build a new blogging site. What is going on out there?

Here's what's on DW this morning...

Martha's top (and bottom)

This is a two-sided quilt so I have to be extra vigilant when advancing with each roll to make sure everything stays pretty lined up. You can't really tell, but there are a bunch of sheep in here so I think just an open swirl might be nice to mimic wool. 

I got started on Barbs quilt yesterday and have the first three borders in. Karen's quilt is done but not without a LOT of challenges. Here's one of them...

That's the border bunching the batting, not the other way around

But after some discussion with the top and with DW, we got it done. Here's a little detail of what was put into this cute Under the Sea Sue Spargo piece...

It doesn't look like much but very time consuming

We have a freezing rain coming down right now and it's likely to rain all day. Like I texted Jim this morning it's a good day to crank up the heat, the tunes, and DW. 

Absent

Yesterday started out with just a small appointment in the morning. It ended up turning into an all day affair with my not getting home to do anything until well after 5:00. I did mow and trim and then after showering (again) did some T&C Blocks. 

The previous day this was loaded and will be worked on over the next week...

Diana's Wool Applique Garden

I wrenched my back sometime between Thursday and yesterday long arming this piece. I have a tendency to hollow out my back when I'm long arming and I was kind of nervous about this top at first so probably a little tense in my stance/quilting until I got into things. No long arming this weekend to try to calm this back situation down. 

Here are the T&C blocks built over the previous two days...

#'s 273-275: Corner Tree, Barber Shop, and Pet Shop

The three above were from Thursday and the two below from yesterday.

#276-Church and #277 Internet Cafe

I'll be doing more of these over the next two days to give the back a rest. 

I should take a look at my "schedule" to see where I am for time. Did I mention my goal is to have this top done by Independence Day? That's only 43 days away and I have 88 more to go as well as the outer border to build and attach. 

I need to do an average of 2.04 blocks per day. If I take advantage (if you could call it that) of the back situation, I should be able to crank out more than four this weekend and to plan for the upcoming holiday weekend where sewing time will certainly be lost with all the neighbors coming up. Let's go!