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. 🐇🐇

Do You Ever Wonder Why?

When I'm long arm quilting, especially those repetitive filler motifs that are automatic for me to do without much planning/thinking, my mind wanders to why things happen. Why do people make quilts? I mean I know why I do it, and I'm sure my reasons parallel with others, but some other people probably do it for perpendicular reasons from mine. 

Jim calls it 'windshield time'; that time to reflect and wonder about life/things.

The Coffee Break table runner is done...

Deb H.'s Coffee Break

Some quilting that went in...

Can you even see anything?

After I finished that I pulled the next October deadline out and started frame ironing it. I also noticed a notation for another quilt that needs to be done soon and it's an E2E on DW (digitized). I worked on Marty on the Tilda Sampler during business hours...

See any difference?

The swimmers leg on top has been ditched. Look how much nicer the fabric and batting lay. The leg on the bottom has not yet been ditched and her legs look like mine; all dimply. 

Ditching takes a LONG time! Maybe that's why these Tilda Samplers take so long because each of those legs needed a start and stop done. I could not just move from one to the other without doing a tie-off to get there. 

Anyway, once I worked on the Tilda Sampler for a while, (well past quitting time), I moved over to DW because he needed to have that background stuff stitched down before I could start frame ironing for Pat's quilt backing. 

It worked out pretty well

Once I got that stitched out/down I pulled it off and started frame ironing the backing for what I need to do on DW for my customer. All three long arms were used yesterday. That's unusual, but kinda cool.

I moved over to my DSM to get those bindings done and here is Rayola quilt #115...

Tula Butterfly

And once that was cataloged, photographed, folded and tagged I started and finished Rayola quilt #116...

Half-square Triangle Baby

While I was working on the above two quilts, Jim was working on getting the old wood removed from our permanent dock since we're supposed to get our lake back next spring/summer. The angle iron on the end needed to be removed first, and then the boards after. Once the new boards are in place the angle iron on the end will need to be welded back on. Welding and water don't mix so this needs to be done before we have water to deal with.

Really unsafe right now

Today I'm working on more frame ironing in both Bernie and DW while I work on the Tilda Sampler on Marty. 

Crazy, Busy Day

We started out with this project...

The "Before"

The "After"

Four of the battings are hung. I did not have the wool hung because after you open the package from the roll, the thing gets about 3 times bigger. Taking up that much room would have only allowed for three batts to be hung.

Before we started on this project though, we had to move the sewing table about a foot and that's a large undertaking in of itself. Talk about dust bunnies!

After lunch I had decided I was sick of moving the Tilda blocks/sashings around and tore into it to get it finished...

Getting things organized

It's a top!

Ready for the long arm

That was one long project taking up most of the sit-down summer months.

Once I got that measured, folded, and put away I jumped on DW to free motion quilt this HST baby quilt...

Ready for binding

I made the binding once this was quilted and have that and the Tula to bind yet. Which goes against my "rule" about not starting another quilt on the long arm before the previous quilt is bound. Oh well, it's my choice.

I loaded this onto DW next...

What the heck???

Let me explain. She (Laura Heine) builds the backgrounds in the traditional manner where by everything is pieced before the flower appliqués are applied. I'm not doing that.

These are being held onto the batting with spray baste and I'm going to free motion a zig-zag between each block to make the background even more scrappy. I'm not sure how well this is going to turn out, but I'm hoping for the best. 

Today we have to run to West Branch to research closet door tracks. Jim's not happy with how little room I have to dig around into the queue closet and how tight it's going to be to get the batting out of the new batting closet. He wants to pull the track from inside the closet to outside to give me more "open" space. 

I also need to pick up marking pens (for long arming) and bungee chords to use as a straight line on said batting when cutting. I'll attach them on each side of the bracket to give me a visual and not have me cutting downhill.