Star quilt

The next finished quilt.


Line dancing makes the work go faster.

Leaves and curls also go faster than other designs.

A view from the back.

Another view from the back.

The "I'm not trying to rush you, but..... " phone calls have started. I got two of them yesterday. I understand how people can get nervous and anxious as the days rush by. All I can tell them is that I'm doing my very best to finish as many as possible before Christmas.

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Do overs

It took me all day; but, I did pick out the stitching and got rid of the tuck. Here's the quilt back on the machine. I've basted the edge and sewn the spine of the feather.


Here it's all stitched again.

A check to be sure the tuck was truly gone.

I have myself a reminder note, written on a piece of paper, stuck on the wall, beside my machine, in a place where I should see it every time I walk behind my machine. It's been there so long that I see it.... but I don't see it. It doesn't remind me anymore. Know what I mean?

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It reads..... Anita, remember your schedule! If you don't have time to quilt it right the first time.... how will you ever find the time to pick it out and do it over?

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I need to make that reminder note more visible again!

Bright red

This is today's finished quilt. They say the color red will make your heart pump faster. It sure did when I worked on this one. It's very bright! I love it.


I did a leafy design in all the areas. This one on the piano key border.


Another one on the sashing.



This one on the blocks.... taking advantage of the triangle piecing as a guide.


Just in case you can't see the block design well enough here it is from the back.


A couple of days ago my daughter commented to me.... "Mom, I thought you weren't going to work so hard this year". Then my friend Martha said... "I thought you weren't going to book so heavily this year". Then another friend said.... "You're always busy". These statements gave me reason to pause and reflect.

My waiting list for the next year is ususally half filled by December. I fully intended to not be so heavily booked this year. I even cut down the number of slots on the waiting list by half this year with the intention of having more time for a social life. I can't not schedule work to do. It's my living. It's what pays the bills.

Back in February when my grandaughter was born I got behind on my schedule by about 30 days. Days that can't be made up; so everything for the rest of the year is 30 days behind schedule. February quilts got moved back to March.... March moved back to April.... etc.

Then in March I got sick. It seems March is usually the time of year when someone with the flu will always come near me and I get the flu. I don't understand why some people feel the need to be around other people when they are sick. I'm alergic to the flu shots so the flu will always have me off my feet for several days. Once again the time I lost means work is pushed back.

Now I'm about 45 days behind schedule. So March quilts, which are really February quilts, are moved back to April. The quilts scheduled for March are moved back to May. The April quilts are moved back to June.... etc. Then there was the week Ike blew through here. Another week behind schedule.

It's like dominos lined up.... when the first one is pushed over the others fall too. Time lost cannot be gotten back.

I did stop putting names on my waiting list back in May or June because I knew everything would come down to the end of the year xmas rush being behind schedule. The trouble was that many slots were already filled with names.... commitments.

My grandkids in Alaska would like very much for me to visit them for awhile and see the sites of Alaska. One grandchild would like to take me on a hunting trip in the wilds. My kids here in Kentucky often ask me to visit with them for awhile and do things with their kids. My friend Martha would like for me to stay with her for awhile. The quilt shop owners would like for me to hang around there too. I see classes and retreats advertised all the time that I would love to do.

My sister in law would like for me to take her grocery shopping every week. My neighbors want me to get a car again and become their chauffer. Some friends would like for me to go to their house to give private quilting lessons. Some want me to go gambling everyday. Some want me to go to lunch and quilt shows. You see I do have lots of things I could do and that are much more fun to do.

So why don't I just take time off when I want to go have fun? Why don't I just stop quilting so much and have fun all the time? I do work at home and on my own schedule; so why not just take off when I want to? I have plenty of free time to be a chauffer or to visit every quilt show or take every class or go on every retreat or go horseback riding with my son and his kids every weekend or go on hunting trips in Alaska every summer... right? I mean really.... working at home gives me all kinds of free time, right?

Well.... without an income.... how would I pay for all these things? How would I pay for two burial policies? How would I pay for a headstone for my son's grave? How would I pay for a new water heater, furnace, and insulation? How would I pay for electricity? How would I give my 4 kids and 20 grandkids and 5 great-grandkids birthday and xmas presents? How would I pay the mortgage? How would I eat?

If I had an outside job at a factory or in an office I could just disappear all the time to go have fun....right? Every time my boss came to look for me I could be gone to a quilt show or on a quilt retreat or visiting with my kids.... right? Aw, come on.... how long would I keep a job if I'm never there to do the job?

Running a home business requires committment! No home business is going to stay operating very long if it isn't run.... as a business. A business can't stay in business if no one is there to do the work. Just like any factory or office; when the work gets behind schedule there will be overtime required of the employees to catch up.

Friends and family tend to think of machine quilting as an "interesting hobby". A hobby means it can be set aside in favor of more interesting and fun things. No one (except another machine quilter) sees machine quilting as a ligitimate business. A business that requires hard work and long hours and committment to doing a good job to stay in business.

When I went into the business of machine quilting; I gave up the luxury of paid days off and paid vacations and paid insurance that are enjoyed by those with outside jobs. I don't have a husband to work and pay bills for me either. For me; any day my machine is not moving is a day without pay. Speaking of which.... I best get the machine warmed up and earning today's paycheck.

Hurricane Ike blew through

Where were you when Ike blew through? I was in my usual place at the quilting machine waiting to go to guild meeting. Needless to say, the guild meeting didn't take place. With over 5000 downed power lines around the city nothing was going to take place.

Before I go on to talk about what's happened over the last few days.... here is the next finished quilt. It feels good to be getting back to normal things. This quilt is for a lady retiring from the fair.


I did meandering in the blocks, a swag on the outside border and lace on the inside border. The little border between had to be left loose.



I did a leafy design on the sashing. I put a dime on the quilt to give you scale of how small it was.



My challenge on this quilt was to keep the back from disappearing when quilted.




I used clear thread in the bobbin to prevent thread from overwhelming the designs written by the makers.



I underestimated the amount of bias stretch in the top so the backing is off center but it didn't seem to matter to the customer.



Now back to being without electric for several days. Compared to those in Texas my problems seem so trivial. There are people who lost complete homes while I still have a roof over my head. I am writing about myself only to have it in this journal for my decendants to read someday.

My post from a few days ago must have been my intuition warning for me to prepare myself. Little did I know that day when writing about not having utilities in the summer I would experience Ike. I should have listened to my own intuition and prepared myself better.

I lost everything in my freezer. I had just gone on my winter stock up trip to the grocery a couple of weeks earlier. Between my daughter and I; we lost between 800 and 1000 dollars worth of food. Not just meats but fruits and veggies too. I had already started making meals and deserts that could be taken from the freezer and zapped in the microwave for a quick meal. There is nothing for us to do but save money and start over buying food again.

I did learn a valuable lesson from Ike..... buy a gas stove! If I had a gas stove I could have saved most of my foods by canning it as it thawed. In the past I would can all my meats, fruits, and veggies because I knew the electric company would turn off the power in the summer. I'm pretty much broke from all the energy upgrades being done.  A gas stove and more canning jars are definitely on my list of future purchases. Saving the money to buy it will take a long time.

I don't think I will ever get a generator. I don't have a place to store one. It might get stolen when running it outside. A few people were overcome by carbon monoxide by having a generator in the basement.... I don't want that to happen to me.

During the power outage the baby stayed with me. Where my daughter works they used mega sized generators to stay open. Gas was in short supply since most filling stations were without power to pump it. Daycare was without power too. So it only made sense for the baby to stay here. She is also sick again. She must take after me like that. I was sick most of my childhood too. We spent a lot of time playing pattycake, cuddling, and sitting on the porch.

There is only so much pinning and prepping a quilt that can be done. I could have cut fabric for kits but I already have enough ufos and pigs. I didn't want to create more. What I did was cut fabric strips to crochet a rug or two. I needed to keep my hands busy.

I got out my kerosene lamps for light; took batteries out of toys to run my radio; made myself a hobo stove for cooking soups and making coffee; and generally kept things as normal as possible.




I didn't take pictures during the power outage. There wasn't any way for me to know how long the power would be out and I wanted to save the batteries in case I needed them for a different radio. As soon as possible I'm going to make myself a better disaster kit. I basically have everything needed but I want to add some things to it. Extra batteries for one thing. Extra kerosene for the lamps is another. Oh, and a bag of charcoal to use in a hobo stove.

I wanted to work on putting plastic on my windows while I had little else to do but the baby wanted my attention most of the time and I just couldn't get to that. It's hard for a little one when they are sick. All they want to do is cuddle and be comforted.

On Thursday evening baby's daddy came to pick her up for some time with them. On his way home he had a wreck and totalled his car. He either fell asleep at the wheel or it was a result of no stop light. He's not sure. He could have been knocked out for a moment from the accident and only thought he fell asleep. It scared the baby a lot. Probably from the noise of the crash. Both baby and daddy went to the hospital to be checked out and are fine.

I wanted to get back onto the quilting machine yesterday but I ended up sleeping the whole day. I was awake for a little while early yesterday morning then went back to bed. I didn't wake up until this morning. I guess I was just exhausted from staying tense and on high allert all week. I had heard about looting going on in areas surrounding my neighborhood and didn't sleep very well at night. Every time the dogs barked at something outside I woke right up. Luckily the looting was only in stores like the convenient store on the corner and a pawn shop a few blocks away and not in houses.

As of right now the power is still not restored at the day care center so the baby will probably be back here again tomorrow. I'm going to get as much done today as I can. Not quilting but other things like laundry and maybe some window plastic. I can get back to quilting again tomorrow. Starting with this one that is on the machine and ready to go.



I was feeling guilty about being another week behind schedule until the owner of this quilt pointed out that the power outage has almost everyone else is a week behind schedule too. Duh! Now why didn't I think of that?

I spy quilt

Ok, this one is finished and another one is on the machine ready to go. I used the circle lord swirls template for the center area.


A close up of the center area.


I don't know if you can see it but I did large bows and ribbons on the outside border. LE lace on the inside border.



I've been caulking around pipes before winter.


If you notice my posts have been very brief lately. That's because I've put my efforts into getting my house ready for winter and working on a couple of other projects instead of sitting at the computer type-talking. Getting a house winterized is not an easy thing when I work 10 to 12 hours each day in the studio and I must do everything myself. Each small thing accomplished gets me closer to completion though. Hopefully, this won't have to be done again for a few years.

Time to get my day started.....

Crazy quilt

Here is today's finished quilt. Another silk quilt. The fabrics are starting to deteriorate. I had problems with the fabric splitting when I stitched in some areas. I'll have to repair those areas before the customer can pick her quilts up.



Because of the age of the fabric and the problems I might face; I didn't think custom quilting would work. I did a simple Baptist fan design to keep any problems to a minimum.




I was asked what I charged for the heavy quilting on the star quilt. Actually, I'm not getting paid for the heirloom work. The customer had only agreed to pay .025 per square inch for custom quilting. I did the heavy quilting because I wanted to do it. I was frustrated and needed an outlet.


Also, the quilt top seemed to be asking me to do more than just custom. I sometimes do more quilting than I get paid for simply because the top needs more.

I wanted to prove I was capable of producing heirloom quilting. The customer gets a bargain and I got to work out my frustrations by concentrating on tiny stitches. I would love to have more people ask for heirloom work..... and get paid .05 psi or .06 psi for it.... but it's not something I believe will ever happen. I wouldn't want to squint at tiny stitches everyday either. A good balance between pantos, custom, and heirloom would be nice. Pantos for quick income, custom for creativity, and heirloom for occasional artistic freedom.
Why was I frustrated? Because of several comments I heard at the fair. People were commenting on the "quality" of the quilting. I heard that pantographs and simple custom quilting was "not quality" quilting. I kept wondering to myself.... who's idea of quality? The comments were not about consistant stitches or good designs..... only about pantos and custom work on quilts. Naturally; as a machine quilter, I wanted to jump to our defense but I couldn't start preaching to everyone at the fair. So, I worked out my frustrations on the star quilt.

Professional machine quiters are limited to what the customer is willing to pay us for our work. If a customer only wants pantograph because it's the lowest cost then we do our best to make the panto work look really good. Who is the judge of whether lower cost quilting is "quality" or not? If a machine quilter does a good job and the customer is happy; why is it not considered "quality"? I guess you can tell I'm still somewhat frustrated about the comments I heard.

I could sit here type-talking in defense of machine quilters all day but that won't do much good. There are always going to be people who have opinions about what is "quality" and what is not. I have to accept that one person's comment is not what everyone believes. A comment is only an opinion and not a rule.
My appoligies to those who are waiting for an answer to an email. I have several emails to answer but I haven't the time for staying on the computer this morning. As always, work comes before computer time. I'll read and answer as soon as I can.

Lone star quilt

Anybody want to see what I've been doing the last couple of days? I was bent over the machine table squinting at these stitches. I had to keep reminding myself to stop tensing up and relax.



A bit of micro stippling and a bit of small stippling to make the design pop out.


The design started out looking like this. Lots of bias fullness in the fabric.



In a post a couple of days ago; I showed this top on the machine. I wanted to practice some "quality" quilting on it even though I couldn't figure out what "quality" meant. Something in the back of my mind kept telling me to mark a design before quilting. I decided to listen to my subconsious and take it back off to mark a design. It took me almost a full day to draw the design on the fabric then get it back on the machine and basted together.

I very rarely mark a quilt before quilting and it's usually my own. I prefer freehand work on customer quilts. The second day I got the star part quilted and the design stitched in the white areas. I'm hoping to have it completely quilted in about 4 or 5 more days.

I'm so far behind on my waiting list that tackling a design like this is sort of crazy. I could have used a faster design to get it "done" and out the door; but, that wouldn't be the type quilter I am. I prefer to give the quilt what it tells me it needs regardless of the time table. Do you know what I mean? It's very hard to explain but I'll try.

When someone brings me a quilt top that they inherited; it's my job to look at it and figure out what the maker might have had in mind when she created it. Using my imagination; I can almost see an angel standing at my side with a big smile on her face knowing her UFO is about to get completed. If I choose a design that's not quite right; it's almost as if the angel is telling me she wants more choices. My desire to make the top look really good becomes stronger than my desire to do a fast design to get it done. When I finish putting the last stitch in the binding; my imagination sees an angel saying thank you.

Imagination is a good thing.... it's what really good writers use to write best sellers. It's also what gives quilt pattern designers the ideas for the new designs we all love to buy. For me; imagination is what makes me a good professional quilter. I will probably have several other toppers wondering why their top is not quilted yet; but, the angel will smile knowing her family will get to enjoy her quilt after all. I'm smiling too.

I need to get off the computer and back to work this morning. Hmm..... now where did I put the ben-gay?

Busy couple of days

It's been a very busy last couple of days for me. I got stuff out of the house and into the alley for junk pickup. I carried things out then rested. Carried more out then rested. Dang lazy men! Not one offered to help carry anything out.... they just watched as I struggled. I'll remember that the next time they claim to be hungry and I've cooked a really nice meal. (grrrrrrr)

I cut some fabric strips to crochet into a rug while traveling on the bus to Nashville. It was hard cutting up scraps into tiny strips for rugs. I kept thinking about how they could be used in a quilt someday. Then I thought about how much fabric stash is waiting to be made into quilts. This helped and away I went cutting lots of strips. I enjoy making rugs so this will keep me happy for awhile. Besides, I really need some new one. The ones I have are getting pretty old and dingy. Some of these strips can be used to make braided rugs too. Hmm.... maybe I can take some braiding to do on the trip.

I can't remember if I posted pictures of our guild quilts in the Nashville show or not so I'm putting them in this post. If you think it's easy to get 8 people to finish a guild challenge on time... it's not. The challenge theme was "friendship".

These are soccer friends.



This is doll friends.




This is quilting friends.



This is childhood friends.



This is adopted animal friends.

This is also childhood friends.




And so is this one.



And this one.



Of course, we are all hopeful of winning a blue ribbon this year.
I finished the binding on this one. The backing is wrapped over the front and sewn by machine.


Finished quilting this one. Now it's waiting for me to do the binding. I forgot to take a picture before starting this post. I'll take another one later.

I started the quilting on this one. A vintage quilt made from silks.

I hope you can see in the pictures that it's not supposed to be flat. It's folded and sewn to a foundation piece. The fabrics are petty delicate so I have to be careful while quilting it.

This is how the border is done.

The foundation pieces are what look like tobacco sacks. Tobacco used to come in small cloth bags and smokers rolled their own cigarettes by hand. The tobacco sacks were more commonly used in quilts during the depression and after WWII. I'm not sure this top is quite that old though. I'm thinking early 60's maybe? Possibly pulled from someone's ufo stash and finished.



I'm getting a lot of things done... just not as many quilts as usual. The thing is; if I don't do the other things; they will effect my quilting. Like carrying out junk... if it's in my way all the time I spend too much time looking for something.

There are other things that MUST get done before cold weather arrives. Caulking of holes outside. Can't caulk in cold weather. I need new plastic and quilts on all the windows. I would love to buy new energy saver window screening but it's out of my price range right now. I can do the plastic covers on the windows for a lot less; but, when will I find time for making window quilts?

Insulation must be put into the attic, walls, and under the floor. I need to keep my utility bills low enough to keep the electric bill paid. Our utility bills are expected to double before winter. In order for workmen to get to those spaces; stuff had to be moved out of the way. They need to drill holes in the walls so they have to be able to reach the walls. The attic and basement access holes inside closets must be cleared of stuff too.
I should think about calling for some electrical estimates too. I have several outlets that don't work anymore. My overhead lights in two rooms have quit working. My stove hood has long ago stopped working. I'll save the electrical work for after the insulation is finished.

I need to go get a new bathroom sink and a new water heater pretty soon. I want those installed before winter too. This means a day of hardware shopping. Probably this weekend. The hardware is my favorite place to shop. I can never just run in and out. I want to look at all the pretty stuff and dream of possibilities. Almost like looking at fabrics in a quilt shop.... the possibilities are everywhere!

All the extra things that have to be done are getting me farther behind schedule on the quilting. Which is making me feel guilty. It's also causing my bank account to grow smaller and smaller. I'm paying for things to be done on the house at the same time not getting work finished to put money back into the bank. It's a delicate financial dance that I face daily. I'm thrifty but even a thrifty person can only do so much.
So now that I'm thinking about the finances.... I'll go get a day's work finished.... I hope.

Vintage 9 patch quilt

Next finished quilt. A vintage 9 patch.



A view from the back to see the quilting design. I did a feather in the long sashing rows.



From the front.... line dancing on the blocks.



Leaves on the short sashing.



The next one on the machine.


Yes, it does have issues.


Need I say more?