A Productive Weekend

Progress was definitely made in my studio this weekend. What a difference a ceiling makes!

Tidying up the wiring and removing the old strapping with the cute help.

Up goes the new grid.

 In go the new lights. (Sure glad I got the optional casters on the longarm!)

 And finally some tiles.

While all this activity was going on downstairs  I was upstairs making some headway on the mystery quilt project that Kathy are teaching at our respective guilds.  My guild meets on the first Thursday of the month so they get the instructions first and Kathy's meet the third Tuesday of the month so they have to wait a little longer.  Normally when I am doing a mystery I like to be a month ahead of what I was teaching. I was way  behind but not anymore!

The 256 HST from January...  apparently some of the ladies around here were using my name a little more colorfully than normal as they were trimming these!  (It was a little scary handing out the February instructions after I found that out!)

No picture of February as I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for the Flin Flon crew, but how about a sneak peak at what everyone has to look forward to in March...

Smokey Mountain Stars

 This is Genny's Smokey Mountain Stars Quilt.  Members of the Crocus Quilt Guild may recognize the fabrics in the center of the stars as challenge fabrics from a few years back.  It is great pattern to help make a dent in your scraps and you can find the instructions here.

Genny chose the Fascination Pantograph with Dream Blend Batting.  Her backing fabric was a very subtle stripe.

I am going to have to make a quilt with a brown border, because yet again it really could live on my living room couch!

Thank you Mr. Postman!

I love a getting packages in the mail and I got some great ones in the last two days.

First a book and a 12" Boomerang Ruler from Deloa's quilt shop. I am hoping the ruler will be the perfect size to use on an upcoming quilt for Robin.

I also got a thread order.  They always look so pretty when you crack open the box!  Some of these are for a friend, but at least I got to enjoy them for a while!

And from Batiks Plus I got the kit for the Bullas Bears Block of the Month quilt I am doing through the Online Quilt Pattern Magazine.  I was just taken by this pattern and had to do it. (More on this when I get the first block done.)

The kit came so well labelled and organized.  I was really impressed.  No guess work about which fabric to use where!

 And two free thank you fat quarters.  How can that not make you smile?

Last but not least, the biggest box that arrived contained these totes for my customer quilts.  Love them!

Now a little update on what has been happening in the studio/bedroom renovation.

Just before sanding the drywall Nolan was installing the dust barrier which consists of a sheet of poly and a zipper..  Once installed you slit the poly behind the zipper and voila a door.  He left the utility knife on my side of the barrier....  We have used these zipper walls a number of times and they do a pretty good job a reducing the amount of drywall dust that travels.

And here is a little proof that I do help once in a while... a little stipple repair.

Good bye yellowed and sparkly stipple.  Looks so much better with a fresh coat of paint!

There was a very odd hollow jut built out under the electrical panel.  I couldn't have my desk up to the wall because of it, so a little fine tuning in that corner...

And good bye paneling.  Priming is always a happy day when the dust gets sealed in!

And the first coat of paint.  The color isn't very true is this picture.  It dries more a warm taupe than yellow.  I was sort of panicking when it was wet!

One more coat of paint and then we wait for the flooring to arrive.... 

Curve It Up Log Cabin

Here is my version of the latest block in the Curve It Up Quilt Along. I made a slightly different log cabin block than Jenny's original one, but added the curved centre the same way. Looking forward to block #8!

Sandra's Stars

I always love working on Sandra's quilts because she has a much more modern taste in fabric than I do.  I love this quilt, but can honestly say I would never have carried these fabrics out of the store.

Sandra made this quilt as part of a Mystery when we both lived in Flin Flon.  She chose the Popcorn panto, King Tut thread on top and So Fine! in the bottom along with the Dream Puff batting.

When you combine the puff batting with this wonderful flannel backing fabric you end up with one cuddly quilt!  I think it really could stay in my living room!

This may be the last thing coming off my longarm for a while. Renovations in my studio have begun.  Since we moved into this house 16 months ago we have tackled many projects.  (Thankfully I am married to a wonderfully handy guy and he has done it all himself, with a little help from me here and there.)  We have built a shed, removed a hot tub (it had 4 whole jets), gutted  the kitchen, two bathrooms and laundry room, replaced the exterior doors and countless other more minor projects.  Needless to say my studio wasn't really high on the list.  As part of my Christmas present my hubby has promised that I will have a proper studio before the end of the year.  Here are some before pictures of the guest "bedroom" and studio.  My shelves have been creating a bit of a wall, but it was sorely lacking one thing - a door.  Thankfully all our house guests have been most understanding over the past year.  It certainly is anything special, but I am thankful for the square footage to call my own!

Nolan took Friday off and we cleared almost everything out of the studio and bedroom.  Good bye nasty carpet!  He made great progress over the weekend with the framing, electrical and drywall. We are now at the mudding of the drywall stage.  I am happy to leave my longarm covered up for this phase!  I will be happy when we get to priming the walls and containing the dust.  My stress right now is trying to decide on a paint color to paint of the paneling and new drywall.  I hate this part!  I'll keep you posted on  the progress.

 

 

Two Wonderful Things

I just want to share two things that brought me joy this week.  First, I was able to get the top of my Just Takes 2 quilt top put together.  I had to shuffle blocks around from the given layout to balance out the colors, but I am very pleased with the final result.

Now to figure out how to quilt it!

Secondly, I now have a logo for my business! My wonderful friend Dawn Piasta is not only an amazing quilter, but she is pretty handy with graphics software as well! I dropped of a little doodle of what I had in mind and she transformed it into what you see here.  I couldn't be happier.  Thanks Dawn, you are a woman of many talents!!!

Curve It Up - Block #6

I had some help creating this 6th block in the Curve It Up Quilt Along. I was lucky enough to have my good friend Eileen here for a visit and we decided to play with the Quick Curve Ruler and work on these flying geese. It was very nice to have a second opinion close at hand when choosing the colors. Thanks for the help Eileen! I like how the purple makes a little more sense now!