What's Your Favorite Time of Day?

Do you have a favorite time of the day? Sunrise, sunset? After work? During work? Or a time during the day where you get to do your favorite thing? Mine is probably right now while I'm blogging. The sun is rising for the day. The girls are in their post-breakfast coma. The house is quiet save for the low music out in the studio. 

I have several great times of the day, but blogging ranks right up there in the high point of my day. When Jim comes home safe from work every day; of course that's above blogging. 

So, I got the two quilt backs switched and I'm working on Bernie even though this pic was taken while on Marty...

Kathy's Pumpkin Haul

Since my three-week mad rush getting grad/wedding quilts done, I've kind of lost a little steam. I noticed it Monday. It picked up yesterday, but I was more interested in getting other stuff done; rearranging the bedroom, trouble shooting DW (he's pinching in the front of his frame and dragging badly), and rearranging the studio to accommodate moving the batting rolls out there. 

I did get the first part of Kathy's quilt worked, but haven't gotten much further. The lighting was horrible so no pics yet. 

After working on "other" stuff, I was able to construct the rest of the sewing machine blocks in the Tilda top...

All 10 are pieced

Moving along to the 'notions' blocks next, but probably not anytime soon. My nail appointment was moved to today since I'll be gone Friday for my normal appointment time. Once I get some Moms Day errands done, I have to pack and I still need to do some long arming. 

Happy logistical Friday!

What Makes a Long Armer Smile?

There are a number of things we long armers love to have happen when working on a quilt; seam threads trimmed, measured borders, seams pressed well. But the ultimate happy thing is when you have even stitches on the back and front of the quilt, which is a sign of good tension.

Prewound bobbins were giving me fits instead of good tension. Or so I thought. Upon further inspection, found my bobbin case to have a ball of lint/thread stuck in the tension arm thingie and this was causing some issues yesterday.

Once discovered, the tension was dead on. I smiled from ear to ear once I got it straightened out. 

Patty's quilt is done. I have a top ready to baste in on Marty, BUT, the next backing I pulled to frame iron on Bernie was rather large. And the one on Marty isn't. I'm going to swap those two out this morning because I'm not fighting with a huge quilt on Bernie and a small quilt on Marty. 

Need to swap these two out

After Patty's quilt was finished, I cut a few pieces out for the next set of Tilda blocks (I thought I needed 12 of each block, but turns out I only need 10) and set those aside and decided DW needed to be fired up. I hadn't touched him since he came back two Friday's ago from Gall. 

But first...mowing. Yep, it's that time of year. It's great living the north because we are two or three mows behind the downstate folks. And we'll stop a few mows before they do too. While Jim was on the big mower, I was pushing the area in front of the studio, the little area between both decks, and the dog pen. I ran the weed whipper dead after mowing and then came inside to work some more in the studio. 

DW is stitching great, but for some reason, is dragging towards the belly bar. And I mean dragging badly. I adjusted some of his cables in back and was kind of tired at that point so don't know if that was a fix or not. I decided to work on a few pieces of the next set of sewing machines. Alas, I have two sets of three finished...

The first set of three

The next set of three

These are fun to make. Linda over at Pieces said it was a difficult pattern, but so far so good. Although, the pattern writer said these were the easier of the sets of blocks so maybe that's why I don't find them all that hard. 

Raining all day today. Had a customer show up unannounced yesterday to pick up but nothing earth shattering expected today. A good day to crank up the tunes and do some rearranging. Which I've already started because we have to get the spare bedroom rearranged and free of most batting. 

Not a Quick Project

The sewing machine is constructed in three parts. Some of these parts are tiny, tiny, tiny. Between Saturday afternoon and yesterday morning, I was able to get 2/3's of the first three machines assembled. There are 12 machines in all and these are the easier blocks to make (according to the pattern writer). 

That's okay, I'll just keep chipping away at it a little at a time. I'm in no hurry. 

So not my colors but I'm loving them regardless

More work on Patty's quilt today. It may be a done situation before close of business if I really hunker down. I need to get it finished before leaving on Thursday.

Oh, did I mention that? Our second annual Cincinnati pilgrimage is Thursday. Mom and I go visit my brother instead of him having to come up here all the time for the weekend. We are cutting it a day short this year because of her pacemaker appointment a week from today.

So, logistically it's my Wednesday this week. But Happy Cinco de Mayo if you celebrate it!

Just Couldn't Resist

The last thing I need to be doing is making another quilt top. Despite my previous blatherings about not starting something new before the Pineapple quilt was done...well...

This is a must

The quilt on the far, south wall of the studio has been up nearly a year now. It's time to replace it. This one is perfect and while I love the Tilda fabrics, have never made anything out of them. Pieces had a kit with all the necessary fabrics and I dove right in after lunch. We never did make it to Bittersweet but I got a fair amount of books to get me through the summer from the library sale. 

I have the top portion of the sewing machines all constructed; the easiest of all the segments needed. All the background pieces are also cut for the entire sewing machine area and will only have to cut the colored pieces as I go.

The neighbors are getting a new roof and it sounds like we've walked into a Latino party with the music they are jamming to out there. Don't know if they'll be working tomorrow since it's Cinco de Mayo. 

Spring Flowers

That darn bird is trying to make another nest in the rafters of the studio porch. It truly is spring. 

Here are a few of the flowers around the yard blooming in their glory...

Errands to run this morning: The semi-annual library book sale, Pieces of Thyme, Bittersweet Quilt Shop, and Family Farm and Home. Grilled cheese and soup for lunch since it's not any too warm out today and it's overcast and dreary looking. I'm hoping to hop on one of the long arms later this afternoon. Or, hey, how about some piecing that I haven't done in ohhh, like three weeks. 

2 out of 3

The kids received their second load of household goods this morning. The third load isn't goods, but rather their brand new car. Which is still floating around on a ship somewhere in the Atlantic. But they are spending the day unpacking.  

And trying to get the cat out of the underside of the couch which has a hole in it and he's found it rather soothing in there where it's dark and quiet. 

Back to quilting stuff. Here's some of the quilting going into Patty's quilt...

I love how this is coming out

I've gotten about 2/5th's of this completed and will continue on today. I need to run around and exchange brochures for the price increase and the library is having their semi-annual book sale this weekend, but not today for me. I want to get this piece done to round out my May deadlines. 

Maybe tomorrow. I'm on the phone with the kids right now and have to get busy. 

InstaGram (IG)

There was a discussion on IG the other night about custom versus edge-to-edge (E2E) quilting. Many of us have had to raise our prices and this is resulting in a few customers wanting E2E quilting instead of custom work. Custom is obviously more expensive, but a fellow quilter was worried that it's "going out of style". 

I had to interject indicating that, because I was one of the few custom quilters in the area, my custom queue is pretty full. She was relieved to hear that and seemed more reassured this was just a phase she was experiencing with her current clientele where she lives; somewhere out west I believe. 

Another long armer said her custom quilters in the area have either retired or expired and there is no longer anybody available in her area to actually do the custom work. I'm getting more on my end for this reason as well. I had a lady call from the NW side of the state yesterday looking for a custom long armer and one of my visitors on Monday was downstate indicating the same. 

At any case, it's not dying. In fact, custom work seems to be trending higher in my opinion. Remember, one data point does not scientific data make. I can't imagine any quilt going to show not being custom quilted. And since shows trend the masses, it seems to reason custom work will always be here.

Speaking of which, Paula's quilt is quilted. I still need to remove and trim and call and bill, but the quilting is done. 

Once I get through all of that administrative stuff, I'll be working on this quilt today...

Patty's couch gift

This is another May deadline I'm trying to fulfill. I doodled on this one for a short time, but know what I want to get in here once I get it started, so not much doodling needed really. And of course, it's colder out today so the furnace in front of Bernie will be running intermittently so many breaks today.