Weird Weather

The hot, muggy days like yesterday are bound to produce some interesting weather. Thankfully, we're up here in a valley where we get very mild weather. It's rare for us to have to seek shelter or worry about a storms fury. Unlike those folks downstate. They have all the fun. 

Ila's quilt is done and I'm moving over to Ginny's quilt on Bernie today. I've already started ditching and have been quilt planning since loading it yesterday afternoon.

A row by row

I'll be working on this cute piece most of the day. 

While getting this quilt above started I was frame ironing on both DW and Marty for their next projects. I'm ready to load on DW but have another couple of advances on Marty. I was waiting for Jim to get back from the food bank yesterday and blanket stitched this cowboy boot...

Howdy, howdy, howdy

Once that was finished I started to bind the Firework quilt until we left for our weekly groceries. I had, throughout the day yesterday, made a back for the baby quilt going onto DW and made two bindings. One for the baby quilt and the other for the Firework. Can't work on the baby quilt until the other one is bound. My rules. Otherwise nothing would get bound around here. 

Jim is off to the dentist this morning. Went yesterday and they didn't think anything was amiss, but had another tooth in front of the offender bother him throughout the night so he has an appointment to get that looked at. All of this without insurance. Just great. 

Data Centers

The new controversy out there are these data centers they want to put in our state. HUGE water and electricity consumers and thankfully, the little town of Mason we used to live in (about 12 moves ago) said "NO" to one in their community. Not to mention they are loud, loud, loud, and provide very little employment. And, as we're researching the situation, the electricity they use is passed down to the neighboring communities and population of that area increasing their already high bills.  

It seems they could find an alternative to the resources these places take?

I did work on Illa's quilt for about two hours yesterday before Linda showed. The rest of the afternoon was spent with her. When I finally got home it was nearly 4:00. I knew I had a couple of hours more worth of work on Marty so I decided to wait until this morning to try to finish her quilt up.

I did a Love Letter block, did a cowboy boot, and put the borders on the baby quilt for Jims cousin...

After taking a quick break, I started in on DW and actually got the Fireworks quilt done. It's off the frame and all trimmed. I'll have to make and bind that maybe yet tonight? I have to make the backing for the baby quilt and get that on the frame ASAP since it's going to reunion in less than a month from now. 

I'll be starting on Marty to begin the day. Hopefully I can get that finished up?

Only One Pic

With all that I did yesterday I have only one pic to show for my efforts. 

First, Marty long arming on Illa's quilt top. This should be done by weeks' end. I made my first Love Letter block and then moved over to Mike to work on another cowboy boot. 

After blanket stitching that for the day, I got out the new baby quilt I have to make for Jims cousin. Except for the final borders, it's all put together. 

I moved over to DW to work on a Fireworks row and finished that just before 8:00. 

More on Illa's quilt this morning and then I have a lunch date with a customer/friend at Riverwalk. We usually do some shopping afterwards so I don't know if I'll be getting back on Marty when I return. 

Ditching

Seems like most of the work I've been doing over the past week or so has been a lot of ditching. Illa's quilt is ditching around the hexagons and the Fireworks quilt is nothing more than ditching. Yawn. 

Here's some more of the non-ditching going into Illa's quilt...

Just like the picture she gave me

I had a decision to make in the triangles. I didn't want to put something in that was directional because I think that would have look confusing. To follow along with the echoing in the borders I settled on this...

And spell check is very helpful at times and not so much in others. Illa's name has been misspelled the past two or so posts so Illa, I'm sorry for that!

After working a little late on the quilt above I did a Love Letter arc. I'm at the end of section two and I only needed arcs instead of a four-sided thingie. Then I looked closer and I actually needed two arcs. Then I started putting the second section together and realized I needed a third arc after the first row. At any case, the second section is together...

Second section done

From all of the Love Letter fun I moved over to DW to work on the third row. It was nearly 8:00 and so didn't work on any cowboy boots. 

Today will be about the same as yesterday so nothing super exciting but fun nonetheless. 

Simply Marvelous

We had a beautiful drive over to Elm Creek and struck gold in the baby quilt department. I'll be making this pattern...

With these fabrics...

Baby cottons for the top and flannel for the backing

Since it's a girl quilt we needed to be not so blue. While I was waiting for Jim to shower before we left I did get three squares marked on the Quilt-Along top...

Starting the marking

Jim is working on the yard today and I'll be starting on Marty. Iilas quilt is probably going to take the better part of this week; it's pretty labor intensive but certainly well worth it. 

Custom Orders

I make quilts because I like the pattern or color. If you take a liking to what I make, then by all means, I'll let you have/purchase it. But making a custom order on something you like or want is a different story. We have a cousin who is expecting another grandbaby and wants something whimsical made. She hasn't defined what exactly and I'm supposed to guess. And then maybe I make something and she doesn't like it?

We're going to Elm Creek this morning to see what they have. I'm going to shoot her pictures and see if she will respond to me in something she may want me to make. The nice thing about that is that if it's a pattern I'd rather not make, I'll not send her a pic of it. HA!

What did I do yesterday? I pressed and prepped the fabric for the Quilt Curve Studio Quilt-Along and then set that aside for a bit. I did a Love Letter block and then started to work a cowboy boot before Jim came home.

After lunch I long armed for a while on the Fireworks block and then resumed working the quilt-along top. When I came out of the studio at nearly 8:00 I had a top!

Ready for marking

All of these blocks need to be marked with a 2" grid and since I chose to do both lights and darks, I'll have to use several marking tools. 

Date Day

Jim and I still try to date. Sometimes it's nothing more than getting groceries and then a mini mixer after at Culvers. We had a hot day on Thursday when we went to get groceries and so Culvers was out. Last night he took me to the Country Corner (I think that's its name) and we got an ice cream there. It was very yummy!

Here's some more quilting going into Iilas quilt...

Those echos take a long time to work

Each of the echo's are a start and a stop so they take a while to get in there but they are so worth it. The customer who stopped by yesterday was in la-la land admiring them. 

After working all day and going to the ice cream parlor afterwards we came home and I did a Love Letter block. I was also able to get in another pinwheel. From there I did this cowboy boot...

Out in the desert

I was able to get the binding finished on the puppy quilt for Paul...

Woof!

Once of my fellow long armers located in Canada is doing a block-by-block quilt along over the next 19 weeks. Sam and I quilt nearly identically and she's a relatively new find in my long arm world. She's basing this quilt-along using grids with the blocks and solid fabrics as her background. Guess what I pulled last night?

Angela Walters has a quilt-along she's hosting also starting in July. I have to purchase the panel to play along but I just don't have the money right now to do that. Which is unfortunate because this one is a feather-featured quilt along and if you know me at all you know I love to do feathers!

Jim is off to do some volunteer work at the food bank this morning. He was able to get my bell polished yesterday while he was in town. Doesn't it look marvelous?

I'll be playing ALL DAY in the studio. First, I'll be making those 12 1/2" blocks out of those solids I pulled. I'm going to do some long arming on DW on the Fireworks top, make a Love Letter block, do a cowboy boot and then start piecing the quilt-along blocks together. 

I won't be able to get that on the frame for a while, but each block needs to be pre-marked and that takes some time so I'll be ready in a few weeks when I can jump in and catch up with Sam on the quilt-along.