It Threw The Chair

I have a pretty heavy chair outside the new studio entrance. I mean, it probably weighs a good 20-30 pounds. The howling wind last night threw it off the porch and with it lies a large branch from the Ash tree right outside the west window. Thankfully, the nasty wind has abated. 

I worked later last night than usual and still have one more block to go in the Tilda Sampler. I'll move over to Millies Dresses this afternoon after getting the sampler off and trimmed. 

More eye candy from the sampler...

I'll get back to this one in a bit

Awww...nuts!

SQUIRREL!

A little village

Okay, back to the bee up above. It looks simple enough, right? Here's what went into just that one block. 

    1) Come up with an idea (honeycombs)

    2) Figure out how to get them in there. ProStitcher didn't even help with this one.

    3) No matter how I tried to draw it I wasn't getting it. YouTube! Eureka!

    4) Grid everything out in 1/2" increments.

Ready to stitch

I started drawing them in just to keep me on track of where I needed to slip in and out of the gridding. 

    5) Quilt it and keep your head in the game in doing so. I pulled threads twice because I wasn't paying attention like I should have been.

Okay, so that's one block. It took, from start to finish over an hour and a half. But, I LOVE IT! I love taking the time to come up with ideas and putting them down with thread to make them come alive. Yes, it takes time, but it's so worth it.

After working on Bernadettes quilt I tidied up the studio, and then made and attached the binding on The Yoder Sisters. It's now hanging on the design wall. I can't bear to put it away because I put a lot into that one! 

Cooking Meat Inside

We don't generally grill or cook meat in the house. The smell lingers and is off-putting throughout the day. But we need chicken grilled for lunch today and I've got to make some on the stove. I don't know how to use the grill outside and I think we're out of gas on it anyway.

While that's cooking I'm blogging. Coffee is perking too. Maybe that will overcome the meat smell?

Here's some more eye candy from Bernadette's Tilda Sampler...

Hippity Hop

Climb those trees

Hot Chocolate anyone?

After working yesterday morning, most of the afternoon was taken up with customers. It was a very nice visit as these two hadn't yet seen the new studio. Two new quilt tops in the queue and only a little more Tilda was completed after their visit.

I then pulled out and worked on getting the last borders on Produce Section. It doesn't look much different than the previous pic so won't share that at this time. 

That's about all of the retreat items and so now can get that binding on the Yoder Sisters, which will hopefully be tonight. No customers expected today meaning Bernadettes Tilda Sampler may be finished this afternoon. 

Yay, Apple!

We often get iOs updates preventing hacking and scamming. This was one of those mornings. I'm thankful we are an Apple family because I've heard horror stories from non-Apple users about getting their phones, computers, and identity hacked.

Here's some more eye candy from Bernadettes Tilda Sampler...

Me and my Dog

Do ya think my tractor's sexy?

Fly away

More on this piece today since these are taking a looooonngg time to work. After working well past "quitting" time I tore into the Koalas and we have a top!

Ready to quilt

One customer expected later this afternoon and the sun is shining (for now). I've opened all the blinds to let the beautiful day into the house so working today will be extremely bright. 

Snowy Errands

I had to run some errands this morning putting me behind my day an hour or so. Nail injury (dumb thumb, again), batting to The Springs and to find my lunch pail from the retreat last week. All that is taken care of so on with my regular day.

I've been taking pics of the Tilda Sampler I'm doing for Bernadette as each block is worked so I know how to quilt it if one of her students want the same quilting done in theirs. Here's a few of them...

The swimmer girl

The cats

The goose

More on that today. The reason this is so defined is because this quilt is double batted. It's going be hung and the wool batting won't stand up to gravity by itself. BUT, double batt and lots of seams results in broken needles. One so far. 

After working on Bernadettes quilt I moved over to the Koala's and have gotten the first row put together. There's still a number of blocks, spacers, and sashings to make so am doing that as I construct the rows. 

Hello, hello!

Well, I'm back from the retreat. This one was SUCH A GREAT time. We laughed and ate, and laughed and ate some more. I only wish we could see this group of people more often than once a year. 

And, I was very, very productive. Day one:

First to be put together...the orphan block baby top

My Creative Grids pineapple blocks baby top

The QOV from just a jelly roll and a few yards of fabric

And I was thinking to myself I was way (way) ahead of schedule in my head. 

Day two:

Produce Section is a top

Day three:

Notice the 3-D napkin hanging

And day four:

So cute!

All of these but the table runner need borders and/or setting pieces put into them but they are constructed correctly and are ready for me to make them whole. Look at all these new quilting projects I have just created for myself. I had one of the retreat members give me a quilt to take home to work for her, so it wasn't just a 'vacation' for me but also a working situation. 

Here's day five (because technically, the retreat was still happening):

Taking the morning slow

I finished crocheting my slippers and did nothing else but put everything away and sort out the many lovely gift bags we received. 

So warm and comfy!

Today I'll be working on Bernadettes Tilda Sampler on DW while watching the snow falling slowly from the sky. Not expecting any customers with the snow/freezing fog we had last night and the continued snow we're getting today. 

Closed Until Monday, February 3rd

I'm leaving for my annual Creative Escapes retreat in about 45 minutes. I won't be here so obviously there won't be any work in the studio. However, there will be a LOT of work at the retreat getting (hopefully) four tops together and, if time permits, working on the Koalas.

What did I decide on those? I'm going to cut the two on the top row down a half inch to make them work with the one that was messed up. 

I worked on Bernadettes Millies dresses while frame ironing her Tilda Sampler quilt back on DW. Once that was "ironed" I loaded her quilt and this is what I'll be working all of next week...

Tilda Sampler

I did get one block quilted before calling it a night last night...

Swim, swim, swim

I have to be careful about the amount of ruler work I do in this one. This is double batted (cotton and wool both) and it would be easy enough to snag a ruler under the needle with all the poof.

In between heater runs when I was working on Millies Dresses I did another Koala...

I love this one!

The new seam tape replacement is now a little to light (meaning I'm taking too small of a seam), but I can remedy that by using the 1/4" line to the center instead of to the left. You'll know what I'm talking about if you are familiar with the stuff. 

Once the laundry is done and I've packed my lunch I'll be off to have some great sewing fun. I'm hoping to post pics of the tops that are completed over the next few days but until then, happy rest of the week. 

I've Timed It

Lots of thread changes in Linda's quilt; 13 of them. If you multiply that out by the eight rolls I took, that's 102 minutes (just under two hours) worth of unproductive quilting. I wanted to see how long it took to do a thread change. If (that's a big if) I can get the needle threaded quickly (like in one or two goes) it takes 61 seconds to change a thread...

Some of the threads going in

Just sayin'. 

The winds yesterday were howling; gusts up to 40 mph and the house was rockin'. I just knew we were going to lose electricity and this quilt HAD to be done by the end of today. My work ethic yesterday was to quilt until a) we lost electricity or b) the quilt was done. Eleven hours later, guess what?

A big finish!

I still have to trim back threads, unload, bill out/record the invoice, and get the quilt ready for delivery, but the quilting is done. I have to get this off quickly because I have another February deadline intensive quilt to work on next. I want it to be ready for me to work when I get back from retreat. 

Which I need to get ready for today at some point. 

And that third Koala is bugging the crap out of me. Should I just add another bottom piece to it? Remake it? Ugh. I hate remaking blocks. I'll work on that tonight once the truck is ready to load tomorrow morning. Since this is logistically my Friday, and despite my being really tired (I'm not cut out to work 11 hours anymore) I'm in a pretty perky mood.