The last 2009 quilt

I'm still feeling under the weather. If I could get rid of the deep chest cough I know I would feel better. I managed to finish this last quilt for a customer. She picked it up yesterday because she's having knee replacement surgery this morning. She can work on the hand binding while she's recovering.

It's hard to see it but I did a leafy and curly type of feather design on the outside border and a leaf design on the inside border.

I did line dancing on some of the blocks.

This leaf and curl design on some of the blocks.

Here's a better view of the designs from the back.

The line dancing frames the leaf and curl designs.

Now that the 2009 commitment work is finally finished it's time to move on to my organizing my plans for 2010. I pretty much guessed right at how long it would take to finish up the work I had already scheduled..... way back in February and March.

.

Having a toddler here every weekend and in the evenings means my entire schedule must change for awhile. When they move into their own home my schedule will change again. The computer in my daughter's room means I can't post until after they leave in the morning. Impossible to post on the weekends because Ladybug doesn't want me to sit at a computer when there are so many toys to share with NaNa.

.

Laundry schedule must change. Cooking schedule must change. Cleaning schedule must change. Gosh, there are many things that must change. Isn't it great!

Sick again

I have another quilt finished. I got it done yesterday morning after taking Ladybug to daycare.






A curly vine design on the outside border and loops on the inside border.

Cross hatching through the center area.

A view of the stitching from the back.

I finished this one in the morning and my SIL had brought her quilt. She needed it quilted before her bunco party on Thursday. Why does she wait until the very last minute? Because she can I guess. Anyway we got hers done before time to pick up Ladybug at day care at 4:30.

.

Long about lunch time I started feeling icky. I started coughing and sneezing like crazy and starting to ache all over. By 4 o'clock I felt absolutely awful. The daycare said Ladybug was coughing and sneezing too. I made some chicken soup for us for dinner then we cuddled together and read some books. A dose of meds for us both and we were asleep by 8 pm. Neither of us wanted to get up this morning so we just slept in. She's eating right now and then we'll go back to bed and rest again.

.

There is one more quilt I really, really wanted to finish this week. It doesn't look like it will get done though. Rest seems much more alluring than quilting. I think bed sounds really good right now. Ladybug thinks so too.

The bathroom floor is done

.

I finished another quilt. I realized I forgot to say these are not Christmas commitment quilts. The last 4 or 5 have been "only if I have time" quilt tops that belong to friends. The quilts kept me busy as I stayed out of the way of workmen moving around the house. There's no better place to stay out of the way than against the wall behind a quilting machine.

I did a simple feather on the outside border and a curly vine on the inside border. I think my brain is stuck on curly vine designs.

The inside of the quilt got square dance panto.

.

Finally! The floor in the bathroom is finished. This is how it looked before.

.

.

.

Water damage had caused the vinyl tiles to start coming loose.
.

This is how it looks now.

Much better! It looks like real tile instead of linoleum.

.

Only a few things left to do, like level the washer and put the closet doors back up. I want to paint the doors first. Lots to do before Saturday's moving day and tomorrow I'll be gone all day. It's shopping day for my SIL and I'll be picking up a few things while I'm out. Chauffeuring has it's advantages. (smile)

They're back

First, the next finished quilt. A crib size. The owner wanted it very lightly quilted.





I did line dancing on the outside border and a small loop design on the inside border.

Clam shell panto in the center.

These guys are back. I was really hoping to show you a before and after picture of my new bathroom floor. If you ever have need of emergency fixes.... these guys are fantastic! Extremely helpful, reliable, and honest.

When the washer and dryer were moved to put in the new floor they found this mess. More wet wood. Apparently when my new washer and dryer were delivered the delivery guys didn't want to tell me there was a problem under the old ones. Hmm.... I hope it was the old ones. I'll have to check the new ones just to be sure.

Well, the new washer and dryer are sitting in the kitchen. It's the only place in the house with room for them to sit a couple of days. It's ok though because I can still cook.

Those dreaded blowers and dehumidifiers are back. They do the job but the electric meter goes crazy while these things run.

There's three machines running this time.

The guys are due back here today. Hopefully the old floor will be dry enough to put in the new floor. I hope I never have to get any more floor work done. It's such a mess. Everything removed to do something new.... finds more problems. I'm ready for all the extra problems to go away!

So much to do.... so little time

Even though I knew there was only two weeks until Christmas... it hadn't sunk into my brain yet. Then Friday it dawned on me. Yikes! The amount of work I need to get done this week. Quilts to finish. Closet doors to paint and get re-installed. New floor to be installed in the bathroom. (It finally arrived at the installer.) Plastic window covers and window quilts to finish and get put up. Christmas gifts to wrap and hide. (But where?) Yup, it's gonna be a very busy week for me. My daughter has "Mom's busy, busy" radar. Somehow she knows exactly when I'm busiest and then needs a babysitter. She had to work Saturday so Ladybug got to stay with me all day.

Sandy, I promised to post about the learning curve of quilting but I have to put it off for few days..... OK?

Here is the next quilt finished. Folded in half it barely fit on the intake table. It hangs off the far end and off on one side. It's 110 X 130.

In the background of the blocks I did a wind meander.

On the outside border and the sashing strips I did holly leaves. On the inside border I did a curly design.

On the Stockings I did a plain meander with mono thread.

Here's a view of the back. The tiny holly leaves are the corner stone blocks of the sashing strips.

This shows the holly leaves around the outside border and the curly design of the inside border.

Ok, now its time for me to get off the computer and get some work finished. Sometimes I have to tell myself to get to work before my brain believes me. Yup, I do talk to myself. Who else knows me better than myself? Myself and I carry on some very interesting conversations when there's no one else around. We have a lot in common ya know. (hee, hee, hee)

Life.... more meaningful

.
I had a great restful holiday weekend. I hope everyone else did too. I sorted papers....

and made hot chocolate mix......

.

and started quilting a customer's quilt. This one has been waiting patiently on me for a couple of months. I still don't know what I'm going to quilt on it. It's gonna require some stand and stare time before I come up with something.

.

The papers I sorted were lots of recipes I've gotten off the internet to replace my own that I threw away long ago. I thought for sure I packed away my recipes. I may have and just don't remember where I put them.

.

When I started becoming known in the area, and my customer base grew larger, I stopped using my "from scratch" recipes in favor of convenience foods. Convenience gave me more time at the machine to "keep on quilting" and making the customers happy. What I mean by convenience is buying a box of hot chocolate mix instead of making my own from scratch. Or relying on soups in cans instead of simmering my own on the stove.

.

I changed so many things over the years just to keep the customers happy and coming back. My life became all about the quilts and the customers. My life became all about earning the money. Little did I realize I was missing out on so much of what should have been important to me. (Geeze, I sound like Mr. Scrooge when he started believing in Christmas again.)

.

Life is so much more important than the money we earn. Simple things seem to fall by the wayside as we try to keep our customers happy. It's not the customer's fault. The customer only knows about their own quilt.... not the 100 or so ahead of theirs. The customer doesn't know when we have over booked ourselves.

.

Yes, I'm going to really enjoy simplifying my life again. My days won't be any less busy but I sure hope they will be more meaningful.

.
The owner of the last quilt finished came and picked it up. He liked the quilting. I got these three finished and marked then put onto the machine.




I was going to do a tutorial on how to load multiple quilts until I realized these three all get the same backing fabric. I put it on as one piece and can't do the tutorial. The tutorial will have to be done when I have separate backings.


My daughter wants to start moving some things in here this weekend so I'm going to spend the day finishing up the last of the prep work on their rooms. It's easier to put plastic on windows if there's nothing in the way of the ladder. I need to get the switch place covers and the outlet covers back on too. I took them off months ago to paint a room and never got back to finishing. Hopefully, now that I'm not under pressure to finish quilts, I can actually finish projects instead of creating more UFOs or PIGS.

.
Another finished quilt. It's a very large one. It hangs off the sides of the table. It has wonky cross hatching. I hope he likes how it turned out.



A view from the back to see the wonky lines. It was his choice of design. It goes against a machine quilter's nature to deliberately create crooked cross hatching. We work very hard practicing to keep straight lines straight. When we get very good at straight, then someone comes along asking for not so straight lines. It takes just as much practice to NOT be straight.

I believe it's supposed to be a modern version of a vintage quilt. In other words it's supposed to have the look of a clothing scraps (like would be done in the 30s or 40s) by using some new fabrics upside down. This give the look of faded fabrics. The more I look at it, the more I like it.

.

Today I'll get started on the three memory necktie quilts I've had for so long. I should be able to get the ties appliqued onto the background and possibly loaded onto the machine. I'm thinking I will load them all on the machine together and do a tutorial on loading multiple quilts.

.

More moving of stuff!

.
I've been very busy, moving stuff, shoving stuff, cramming stuff, tossing stuff, organizing stuff, and just about every word you can think of that describes putting a house back in order after it's turned upside down, shook really hard, and set up right again. I've also been trying to get ready for my daughter and grand daughter to move in with me by clearing out two rooms and at the same time getting the house buttoned up for winter with plastic and quilts on the windows.

Just when I had made lots of progress and everything is at least functional.... guess what? It's going to be disorganized again.... today. Awww, gee whiz, you mean I gotta move all this stuff AGAIN? Yup, it's gotta be done so the electrician can put in the new overhead lights? The lights I currently have don't work anymore. They quit working one by one over the last few years. It's finally time to get them replaced. Well, I have been saving change in jars for three or four years to pay for the lights ya know. But gosh, I sure am tired of moving stuff around.

My daughter thinks I'm crazy for wanting everything in the house to be on wheels. This includes beds, tables, dressers, cabinets..... absolutely everything with wheels. Now she understands why. I think the "everything in the house on wheels project" will be put on my winter to do list.

Ok, with all the activity going on, I still managed to work on a quilt. This one.




I'm much farther along than this. Actually, I'm more than half way through the first pass on this one. It's just way too dark in the studio to take another picture right now. Yes, the lines are crooked. It's deliberate. The owner showed me a photo of how he wanted it quilted.

Well heck, nothing will get moved around until I do it so I best get started. Type talking on the computer doesn't get the work done. The electrician is supposed to be here at 8:00 am and be done by the end of the day. We shall see.....

.

.
I have another finished quilt. I love this one. This is one side. It has two battings. One is cotton and the other is poly fluff. When it's washed the applique should puff up more.





This is the other side.

I did stitch in the ditch around all the applique pieces. I used mono thread to hide any imperfections of how close I got.

I did a simple meander in the background. It was the request of the piecer.

I also did a piano key stitching around the outside border and simple loops on the sashing. This was done to keep the stitching fairly consistent throughout. The owner wanted minimal stitching so the puffy batting would stay puffy.

.
I had hoped to finish another one yesterday. A really small one that wouldn't have taken too long. I didn't get it done because my brother needed me. I honestly can't figure him out. If I could only understand his fears I might be able to say something or do something to help. We wound up taking him to Our Lady of Peace hospital but he didn't want to go in. He has become afraid of the VA hospital. That's why we went to a different place.

.

His wife set him up with an appointment to be there this morning at 8 am. He will start going there every morning and return home after 3 in the afternoon. She gave him an ultimatum. Either go everyday or she moves out. No ifs, ands, or buts. He should be able to handle out patient visits. He does need someone to talk with and no one is better than the professionals.

.

A good thing is that his son in law already goes there everyday. Now he will have someone to go with. They get along very well and play golf together quite often.... or at least they did before the panic attacks started. Both seem to be suffering panic attacks. Strange.... very strange that this should happen to them at about the same time.

.

With him occupied for most days I shouldn't have any interruptions until after 3 pm. I'm already trying to keep my work time between the time Ladybug will go to day care and when she will come home. By the time she and mom actually move in here, my change of schedule should be a habit. That's the plan anyway.

One more finished

.
The next quilt. It's an issue quilt. I finished it early this morning but the lights in the studio are bad. Not enough light to take good photos. I had to wait until later in the day to get light from the windows.




The thread doesn't show up well on the front. It's hard to get a closeup of the stitching.

The back is much better to see the design. This is the setting triangles.

This is the outside border and the inside border.

Another look at the border designs.

Finally, a view of the block from the back. Simple line dancing.

I thought about writing a post but there are some things I'd like to get done. The time I spend on the computer is best used in other ways today. I'll tell you about them in the next post.

Slow kind of day

.
In between showers and storms yesterday....





we had visitors in the neighborhood. It was such an unusual sight to see mounted police in our area that everyone (that is home during the day) came out to watch them go by. Gee, the horses looked like they were walking with their eyes closed. Kind of slow and steady like walking in their sleep. You think they are bored with all the walking? Hmm... this looks like the start of a picture quilt. Naaaaa.... not enough time right now.

Each time it rained I carefully watched for lightening. Sometimes it was just rain but when there was lightening I stopped quilting and unplugged the machine. I did manage to get the next top over half stabilized. Today I should get that done and start working on the design.

.

Right after I get some cleaning done.