Quilt Retreat

I'll be out of the studio from today through at least Wednesday night attending the biannual QQQG retreat. So excited, but tired too. I never sleep the night before retreat because I'm so excited.

Jim and I visited mom yesterday and I had mentioned to her a while back that if she ever wanted to get rid of her dining room table, I'd gladly take it off her hands since we have room for one now.

The "new" dining room...

A little more filled

It was pretty empty there for a month or two, but it seems to be filling. The computer is now in the corner by the stairs (where I'm typing now) but will have to move at Christmas time when the tree comes in. 

Whelp. The laundry is almost done and them I'm outta here for a few days. I'll be spending the nights here, but will be off and running early each morning. 

Today Seems Like Saturday

Because Jim was gone all day and I worked on DW all day, yesterday felt like a Friday and today seems Saturday-ish. We had to give the girls a bath this morning and then we're off to visit my mother. After we return and eat lunch, I'll be packing for retreat. 

While I was quilting yesterday, I encountered this...

Hole

Saying "Hole" in a quilt is like saying "Squirrel" to the dogs. I get super focused on it until I can get it repaired. Here's the thing about holes. I see more of them in quilts that have their seams pressed open than I do in those with seams pressed to one side. Especially where a bulky seam meets. Like here. 

Retreat Rediness

Yep, it's that time of year again. The QQQG quilt retreat is coming up on Monday. After working all day on Kathis quilt...

More quilting detail

And even more

I switched over to cutting out and sorting what exactly I was going to take to this months retreat. Kathis quilt still has a long ways to go. Jim is at a funeral downstate today and I'm going to be heading into the studio to actually work some more on Kathis piece. This is to make up for the three days I'm going to miss in there this upcoming week.

Yesterday felt like a Thursday to me anyway so working on this Saturday isn't going to be a big deal. 

Gone All Morning

The Hale Country Quilters are such a great group of ladies! They welcomed me so warmly and I had a great, quick presentation about the art quilts I teach. They wanted me to stay for lunch, but I needed to get back and on the long arm. I'm already feeling the autumn/holiday pinch.

Here's some of the quilting detail going into Kathi's second quilt (Floral Felicity)...

Feathers

More feathers and some cross hatching

The very hardest part of starting a quilt is deciding what exactly needs to go into it. The "rules" for this one, given the fabrics in here and the overall message of the quilt is feathers in all the colored pieces, straight lines and rainbows in the background, and crosshatching in the border. Some of the pieced blocks are getting traditional quilting in them (the geese, the single squares, etc.), but once all of this is decided, things should move along faster.

There are already 10 thread changes in this piece, and, LOTS (and lots) of starts and stops. That takes a lot of time!

I worked late last night and my foot told me when to stop. It was dark (and had been for a bit) so it was well after 7:00. More on Kathi's quilt today.

New Tablet

UPS pulled up yesterday while I was out watering the Mum. Hmmm???? I wasn't expecting anything. 

Then I saw the label. Eureka! The new tablet arrived for DW. I mean, why did I need a new tablet? The other one was only 12 years old for heavens sake.

Getting ready for installation

What I thought would take Jim and I hours to get installed only took about 45 minutes. The front handle bars had to be removed as did the old tablet bracket and all the wiring. Initially I put the tablet in upside down and we had to refigure everything, but my amazing man helped me get it all to rights, and after taking a quick test drive, it seems to be working well.

Except, the new tablet is taking a LONG time to power up compared to the old one. I guess if I'm doing any Pro Stitcher work I'll need to get it going sooner than usual.

Janices quilt is done...

Love all the texture!

I'm headed up to Hale, Michigan this morning to give a brief presentation on the art quilts I make and to let them decide if they want to hire me next summer for a class. I'm okay either way of their decision. 

They offered to let me stay for lunch, but I need to get back here and work and start wrapping my head around retreats. I'm going to Shipshewana after all (yay) and was on the phone all morning with folks trying to get rooming/rides/dates squared away.

I'll be working on Kathi's second quilt today; Flower Felicity. When I started ditching in yesterday on DW I felt so at peace. Working on DW is like coming home. I checked his stitch count (in case it went away with the new computer) and I'm at 98+ million. Whew. That's a lot of thread!

Phone Time

Ya know, if the machines aren't running, I'm not making any coin. BUT, talking with customers and quilt groups is a necessary to make sure I have business to keep those machines running. I've been on the phone all morning and hopefully, this will be the last of it for the day.

Janice's quilt is still incomplete. I worked 10 hours on it yesterday and at 8:00 my foot was telling me that was enough. I'll finish that this morning and then start on this quilt later this afternoon...

Kathi M's second quilt

This one is going to be a doozy. It's a large quilt and is going to need a lot of ruler and thread work done. 

Meanwhile, and since we are now in October, I'm starting to wrap my head around the three (yes, three) retreats I'll be attending from October 7 through November 17th. So excited! The first one starts next Monday up at The Springs for the Quirky Quilters Quilt Guild. 

I'm going to have to think about projects I need to cut to get them ready to go. I need to round up projects that are still in progress to finish at retreats, and the logistics of which machines to take when. And then there's my mother. Who decided to not wreck her summer by having foot surgery, but waited until this fall to talk to a doctor about her issues. I'm thinking positive thoughts and praying her surgery doesn't interfere with all of the goings-on this and next month. 

Weekend Shot

I didn't do a thing in the studio this weekend other than demonstrating (on Foster) to my grandkids what I do all day. Yep. That was it.

I made up for it yesterday. Sue S.'s quilt is off Bernie. Janice D.'s quilt got moved over to Bernie...

Shift in Location

Why did I move this one? Oh yeah, because it's small enough to go on Bernie's frame, and the next one to load was a biggie that needed to be put onto DW.

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

Border Corner

Setting Triangles and Small Border

Partial Block Completion

I'll be working on this all day today. The one being loaded onto DW is also a custom so the Pro Stitcher can't do his thing while I'm working on another quilt. Which is fine. The Pro Stitcher tablet is going kaput. 

In between working on Janices quilt during the day and then again in the early evening, I had to run to Bittersweet to pick up a quilt from a new customer. She didn't know we don't really do that, but I made an exception. 

No customers expected today, but every time I say that, things change. Maybe I should stop saying it?