Life in Washington

I've been working on a  beautiful quilt lately. Currently, I'm doing lots of these...

I finally finished (without going blind) and the quilt is on its way home. When it arrives, I'll post pictures. Until then, I thought I'd share this cool tip that I discovered from my guild-mates here in Washington.

Diagonal seaming for quilt backs. Of course, this won't work if you are piecing your back. But if you're not, this not only works well but will save you fabric. John Flynn apparently developed the math for this and if you have a "smart phone," you can download the app so that you NEVER have to do math.

John's method is for diagonally piecing a quilt back in the most fabric-efficient way possible. If your fabric is 44" wide or less, you can piece a back that is 66" or less. If the fabric is 60" wide, use John's method if you want your quilt back to be 90" or less.

John's Diagonal Piecing full instructions can be found here. Its definitely worth having in your toolbox of piecing tricks.

I'm planning to give this a go as soon as I have a quilt that needs a back.

Dory

I'm as sane as I'll ever be!!

Yep, I'm quilting!!!

I loaded a practice piece the other day, did some stitching to make sure everything felt right and then loaded Marei's quilt. Its a great pattern called Tradewinds. Its made for Jelly Rolls and it turned out great!

I now have an Eden Pure heater to keep me warm. I was very skeptical at first, but mostly my studio is warmer than my house. Of course, this is the Eden Pure Gen. IV and its supposed to heat something like 1000 square feet and I'm only using it to heat just under 300. But it works and I'm warm. I don't have the ambiance of my wood stove, but I don't have to haul wood and start a fire either. Just push a button and go!

As you can see from this sad picture, not much has been put away...not even my thread. I plan to get my customer quilts done and then play in my studio. Not sure how long it will be before I get some local customers.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Dory

I will be sane, tomorrow!!

Yep...the studio is done!!! Of course, there are some minor things that still require attention (like moving all the boxes in and unpacking), but the main "work" is finished. Tomorrow I can quilt; tomorrow, I will be sane!!!

What do you think??

This photo is from the southeast corner by the window in the next picture:

This door leads into our house and will be replaced by a full light door, when  I can find one. They're hard to come by in this size, but I'm not giving up. Dennis thinks I'll have to settle for a half-light, but I don't think so!

This photo is from the opposite corner looking back toward the house. The half-light door looks into the teeny-tiny work space that Dennis has in the garage. His side is really cold; mine is insulated and warm and clean!!!

This is looking toward the door that will be the customer entrance to my studio. This door opens onto our back porch. Customers entering this way will have a lovely view of our pond and yard before they come in. I found a full light door for this spot; it will be in as soon as I paint it and will allow for tons more light.

And now for your test...can you find the Border Collie???

Dash just has to supervise everything!! <snicker>

Dory...sane again...<sigh>

Going, Going, GONE

CRAZY!!!

Upon arriving in Washington, I had one quilt that had to be finished and sent back immediately. The good thing about that: It made us focus on getting the boxes out of the garage and into the house. We set up my Millie in the garage and I got busy!

But since then...many options have been discussed and a decision finally made. My studio will be in our garage and will be 13 x 20.5 -- not a bad size at all. That is approximately 270 square feet of space that will be ALL MINE!!! We discussed putting up the yurt and even buying one of those Park Model RVs and having them leave out all the interior stuff, but finally decided on the garage. At first, Dennis was going to have his screen printing darkroom in one corner, but he kept remembering more and more stuff that needed to be in that darkroom and I kept seeing my studio getting smaller and smaller. Once I reminded him how important it was to keep his wife happy, he came to his senses and agreed that the space should be all mine! Smart man I married!!

Our friends have been great. We've been working on the studio almost every day, but its taking forever! Shelving and an inside dog kennel had to be torn out; a non-bearing wall had to be added, everything had to be insulated, sheetrock bought and hung, taping and texturing, painting, etc., etc.  We are at the sheetrock stage now and I have a ceiling. Its starting to look like a real room.

Unfortunately, since all this has happened, my longarm has been under wraps! She's protected by plastic and even if that weren't so, quilting in a garage with no heat really doesn't sound like much fun.

Wish me luck that within a week or two, I'll be in business and posting pictures of quilts once again!



Dory

Merry Christmas

I hope you all are enjoying the Christmas holiday with friends and family. And, if you're lucky, you'll also have a viewing of the best Christmas movie ever made!!

Merry Christmas!!

Dory