Back in action!

Suffice it to say there's been a lot going on in my life since my last post.

We've decided to put the house on the market, which meant tons of boxing and storing and cleaning and such.  You know how it is when a realtor sees your house through different eyes.  All that fabric hanging out of tubs just isn't as delightful to them as your quilting friends LOL!  We really like this house, and we've only lived here 2 years - BUT Hubby has finally come to terms with not being able to care for the garden and the 3 acres as he has in the past.  My allergies have gotten worse over the years, and I'm not able to be outside anymore either - and with the corn and soy fields on all sides, there's always something in the air.  These last 2 weeks have been filled with haying and my eyes are glued shut each morning.  So enough said about that.  As soon as the house sells, we will be moving to a maintenance free, 55+ community.  More on that as news develops.

Fresh from Bonnie's visit, my guild friends have been abuzz with her techniques and ideas.  This past week found us on a little outing together and of course we had to stop at some thrift shops.  We found some great light shirts (XXL!) for a few bucks.  BUT, the last stop was even better, and I picked up some light shirts for my current project for only 50 cents a piece.  And to show you what great friends we are, we didn't fight over them at all.  We just asked for a pair of scissors, and cut sleeves off, and exchanged sleeves.  We sure got some funny looks, I gotta tell you!

Roberta, Donna, Peggy, Jan peeking from the back
Diane is hiding on the other side of the rack from the camera!

The real reason for our outing was to go to Fabri-Quilt Warehouse (again).  You'd be so proud of me!  I only brought home a fat quarter pack of animals, and 3 huge bags of donated quilted scraps to be used for the Pink Slipper Project.  The other girls brought home much, much more, though.  I won't tell on them though - I'll just let you wonder.

Paul also offered to take us upstairs on a tour of the quilting room.  At one time, this company used to quilt all the fabric for the Vera Bradley line of bags.  But not now.  These quilting machines were pretty darned impressive!  They were quilting coat linings (like Carhardt), freezer wear (coats to wear in commercial freezers) and lots of other general pre-quilting fabrics.  

Thread on the quilting machine

Some of the machines are computerized, others are not.  What you see on the rack just above the batting are the bobbins, which must be filled before the machine runs out as it's quilting.  I don't think I could do this job!

Trimming the edges off

This man is running a machine that cuts the excess edges off the finished quilted roll.  Talk about having your work heavy on your shoulders!  Man oh, man!  Pretty impressive here, too.

Putting fabric on the bolt

Here is some fabric being put onto the paper bolts.  I love machines that are designed for specific purposes.  I could have watched this rolling off, up, across and down all day!

I've also been consumed with getting the guild challenge completed and turned in before I leave for my Michigan retreat.  I can't show you the pictures until November (when the quilt show is), but I CAN show you some of the fabric and embellishments.  The challenge was to use stripes, have purple in it somewhere, and have embellishments somewhere.  My piece is 30" square and is called Stripendipity.  Stay tuned for the completed pictures in November.

Surprise

In addition to that, I've gotten the last of Hubby's shirts ready for the retreat.  I just got the bargain shirts laundered, and I need to get them cut down.  I am working on Bonnie's Virginia Bound quilt at Gwen's retreat instead of liberated quilting.  Well, I guess this is liberated quilting in a way, just not as wonky, wild and wonderful as Gwen's.  I still have my project from the first liberated class I took with Gwen, and even though I love the process, I just don't want an entire quilt of liberation.  (I just re-read what I wrote, and it sure sounds funny LOL!)  Instead, I am making a king size quilt from Hubby's old shirts.

Michigan Strings

I promise I won't be as long with posting again.  I know you understand.  I'll be gone now until Sunday, September 19th, so don't expect a new post until the 20th.  I am going to MICHIGAN!!!!!  I'll be with  30 of my best annual friends at White Birch Lodge in Elk Rapids, MI with Gwen for our retreat!

See you soon!