Must Blog

Blogging in the morning is my kick start. I recall yesterdays accomplishments and goals, line up what I'm going to do today, and make myself accountable for my future goals. It's a way for me to keep a journal of sorts on when and what happens in the quilting (and other) part of my life. 

I need to blog every morning or I feel like I've skipped part of my morning routine which just throws everything else off.

Here's what I'm putting into Paula's quilt...

Each block is the exact same

I'm nearly half-way done with this quilt and should be able to finish by end of business since I don't have to baste in or get things started (thread choices, change in quilting motifs, etc.). It was warm yesterday (78 degrees) but today we're back to normal spring temps (mid-50's). I prefer those. Jim and I have decided we are NOT warm weather people. 

Took Sunday Entirely Off

The only reason I went into the studio on Sunday was to plug and unplug the iPad. I love, love, love my studio. But, I don't want to not love it by HAVING to be in there ALL THE TIME. And, frankly, after we jumped down to Costco, I actually took a nap in the afternoon while watching our sappy movies. 

I am invigorated and yesterday, worked on Bernadettes quilt all day. I need to call her this morning. I have a question about the cloud sections; they are currently only ditched and echoed around. I think we need to put in a little "crease" quilting.

Here's some of the work that went into it...

Windy!

I'll be moving over to Marty to work on Paula's quilt top for a wedding gift (another May deadline)...

What a cool wedding quilt!

Each of these blocks will be receiving individualized attention, as will the sashings and the border. I'm still torn on the thread colors for the HST's and the bars on the blocks. Do I tie off after each one? Or, do I use a variegated thread and ditch over?  

There's an awful lot of starts and stops if I don't just jump over via the ditch and with this being a "useable" gift, I'm concerned about all those tie offs. I'm going to have enough as it is with the gray sections. 

I think I just answered my own question. At any case, this is all mapped out meaning I better get to it. 

Not Just the Last Stitch

Just because I put the last stitch into a quilt doesn't mean I'm actually done. It has to be checked on the back for stray threads and any places I may have missed during quilting (I found one yesterday actually). Once that's done it can be unloaded and taken to the trimming table.

After trimming and folding (that was a feat) it has to billed, copied, recorded and filed away; both the quilt and the paperwork. 

Here's the backside as I was unloading last night...

Lots of thread

Now that the big girl is done, I moved over to Bernie on what will be the next project this upcoming week...

Bernadettes 1st grandbaby quilt

Looks simple enough, right? Bernadette would like me to double batt the balloons and the clouds to make them more puffy. I copied each element from my light pad and then cut out the shapes to then transfer to batting. Jim was home by then and helped me cut each batting piece out.

I'll temporarily adhere the pieces to the quilt when I get to each one prior to basting down the quilt on the sides. She is asking for a lot of quilting in the background (I have a pic of what she wants in there already) so I don't have to think about how I'm going to do this. But there's the other work involved. Meh, that's my job.

Jim and I are staying away from the studio this morning. We are running to Costco to 'just look around' and then we have some stairs in the back that need repairing due to frost heaving. And, it's Sunday, so everything is pretty low-keyed. 

The Scary Part

Some pretty quilting

There is a time when this long armer (and I think many of us are of like mindedness) is scared to work on a customer quilt. That first stitch. That first motif we put in. Just getting the quilt started is kind of scary. Why?

For the same reason a new long armer shies away from doing "that special quilt" on his/her new long arm. We don't want to "ruin" it.

Here's the deal. If it's finished, it's perfect! Doesn't matter what you put in it. Chances are, unless a fellow quilter looks at it, nobody else will even notice what you did. That's fact and has been proven by this science major. 

So, get out there and play with your machines. Even us seasoned professionals have quilt-beginning anxiety but we take a deep breath, set the needle to the down position, and push start to begin yet again another hug of love. 

DW has already returned home and while I haven't had time to check on his performance, there were many adjustments made that should have transpired the first time he went downstate. He should be fine now. I hope he is because Jim is headed back to Lansing today for our 3-year old grandsons birthday party. Happy birthday Zechariah. He could have taken the machine back down if he wasn't right. 

I'm here. We have some family dynamics that are a little skewed right now and it's best if my unfiltered mouth just stay in the studio. Honestly, I'm feeling so pressured for all the May deadlines I have it is best if I stay here and maintain a "normal" working day. Which is what I'll be doing. 

Christines quilt WILL be finished; at least that's what my head is saying. I have four white triangles to do (like the one pictured above) and the whole bottom and part of the side borders yet. A full day's worth of work. 

Tools of the Trade

What's all this?

I use many (many) tools when I'm working a quilt. This one I'm doing for Christine is so large and has a lot of space to be creative. Here are most of the tools above that I'm using in her quilt.

I'm past the half-way point and will be working this all of today. Jim has taken [another] day off to take DW back down to Gall for the repair on the repair.

Did I tell you about that? The new hopping foot/needle bar assembly wasn't installed correctly. The hopping foot is not sitting level to the throat plate and he's skipping stitches like crazy. It's frustrating with this machine that every time he goes down for a repair, he comes back with another issue and has to go back down again.

I received a UPS shipment yesterday. I was expecting batting (which was one of the packages). I also received another quilt for the queue and a surprise package; the new Shop Hop Magazine for 2025...

This years magazine

And look!

Linda and I are in it!

So excited to see my work in print. Again! Happy Friday!!

Working my way Through

Christine's quilt is about 1/3 of the way done. Jim got me a pair of AirPods for our anniversary and I gotta tell ya, they're great! Andrew called last night and we talked for about 40 minutes. While I was working. I've never been able to do that before because: 1) The machines are too loud and 2) It was very difficult to hold the phone in the crook of my neck while talking. 

The AirPods have noise cancelling and he couldn't hear a thing from the machines. Of course, I was on Marty, who is nearly whisper quiet anyway, but it was good to know if I'm ever on DW, people can still hear me.

I'll be working on Christines quilt all day today. Don't know if you can see anything in this pic or not...

A little of the border treatment

The one bummer about the Benina machines is there is no sidelight. It's hard to get pics of the quilting without it so I'm going to have to think of something else to illuminate what I'm doing in the quilts. 

While I was on the phone with Andrew, Jim was on a Webinar about our lake. Looks like we are about a year from getting it back. While the dam will be done at mid to late summer, the rains will have abated and our fill will be minimal. And then we have winter lake levels that won't allow them to fully fill until next spring. But there is going to be building progress as soon as funding clears in the next month. 

Remember That Quilt You Did For Me?

Christines HUGE project

I do over 100 quilts a year. Do I remember your quilt? In all likeliness, probably not. It is not that I don't respect and/or admire your work. You're not insignificant; just the opposite. But it's hard to remember exactly whose name goes with whose quilt. I can barely remember my grandkids' names, let alone anything else.  

I was phone heavy yesterday. Lyn called from Battingsupersale.com and I got batting ordered. I got thread ordered on-line. Jason called from Gall about DW skipping stitches and how his new arm isn't quite right. He's going back to Lansing on Saturday. Caleb/Lia/Papa and I were all on a conference call-twice yesterday. 

Yet, I was able to get Paulette's quilt finished. It's still on the frame waiting for the marks to disappear, but it's quilted.

Today I'll be working on this big girl above. She's 108 1/4" square. Yep, this is probably going to take me the rest of the week to do. Another May deadline.