Milestone reached

I'm very happy to report that I've finished every customer quilt in my possession! I've even got the back of one of my own quilts loaded on the machine. That feels so good!

I leave you with another spectacular view of Washington State - and of my very dear husband Fred. This is the view from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park on the Olympic Penninsula. These are uplift mountains, and aren't as tall as Mt. Rainier and the other dormant volcanoes of the Cascade mountain range.


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Gratitudes:

1. A beautiful blue sky with a few cotton ball clouds
2. Left over Chinese food for lunch
3. A Jamie Moyer win and an Eddie Guardado save
4. Freshly edged flower beds
5. The smell of new mown grass

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Looking forward to summer

I can't resist posting once more this morning before I get in the shower. I chose a new picture for my computer wallpaper this morning. This is the time of year that I start itching to head out to the mountains. Beautiful weather and warm sunshine will do it to me every time.

I grew up tent camping with my family, and in turn we tent camped with our kids for years. Eventually our aging bodies couldn't handle sleeping on the ground any more, so we graduated to a blow-up king size mattress. About four years ago I succeeded in talking my husband into getting a little tent trailer. It's the perfect size for the two of us - we really love it. In the winter we keep it at our son-in-law's folks place, but now is the time to retrieve it and get it ready for the summer.

This is Mount Rainier and fields of lupine (which look identical to the Texas bluebonnets that someone - maybe Patty? - posted on her blog awhile ago.) Mt. Rainier National Park is one of our favorite places. It dominates the skyline from the Puget Sound area where we grew up, and is about 3 hours away from where we live now. (Our mountains are one of the reasons we'd never live anywhere but here.) I took this picture in July 2003 at about the 6000 foot level on Skyline trail. One of the most popular routes for mountain climbers takes off from this trail.

This is the mountain from the Sunrise (east) side. The Sunrise visitor center is about 1000 feet higher than the visitor center on the Paradise (south) side of the mountain. I think we were near the 7000 foot level here, as we'd climbed a LOT on this hike from the visitor center. The mountain looks very different from this side and vegetation is also a little different as this side gets less rain.

Here is a picture of our little portable home away from home. We love this little trailer! We still cook and eat outside, but don't wake up any more with backaches and headaches from hard ground. We have a place to get in from the rain - which can come at any time here in the Pacific Northwest. Best of all, it has a port-a-potty inside! No more middle of the night trips down the road to the outhouse!

Introducing Gandalf

Someone asked about my longarm machine. It is a Proto Stitch Wizard. I did 5-6 months research and tried every machine I could find before deciding which one to buy. I chose this one because (1) the support given by the northwest dealers http://www.keepersquilting.com/ was incredible, (2) the price was much more reasonable that that of other machines, (3) the machine had features not available on other machines, (4) I liked the "feel" of the machine better than any other machine I tried, and (5) it was the only machine I tried that allowed me to make really round circles right away instead of square-ish round circles. It was set up on Labor Day weekend 2004 and I still am very much a beginner. It's hard finding time to practice and learn when I have a full time job. I really love the machine and have never regretted getting it. I named it Gandalf because it is a Wizard. (The wizard part of the name really refers to the stitch regulator rather than the machine itself, but I choose to ignore that fact.) It just didn't look like a Merlin, which was the only other wizard name I knew. I mentioned that to my kids, and right away they said "What about Harry Potter? Or Ron?" I couldn't believe I forgot THOSE wizard names, but they just didn't fit either.

For a long time I signed all my posts on my quilting email lists "Patti and Gandalf, the Proto Stitch Wizard". I laughed and laughed when it came out several weeks later that one list member thought Gandalf was my dog, and another one thought he was my husband!

Gandalf now seems to be as good as new. Replacing the on-off breaker switch seems to have done the trick. Apparently there was a short in the old switch which was causing a fuse to blow - the fuse for the circuit to the take-up roller lift motor. Blew 4 fuses in 3 days before we figured this out. I never realized we'd have to become so mechanical - you don't take a longarm to your local sewing machine shop! It's so good to have him back in action. I have my last customer quilt mounted, which I can easily finish this weekend. Then I hope to get a bunch of my own quilted before any more customer quilts find their way here.

Today I'm going to the outlet stores across the river with my daughter. I have a six day trip to Dallas for work coming up - I need to be at the airport at 4:00 a.m.(!) next Saturday - and there are a few things I need to get. I hate hot weather and my "business casual" wardrobe is really not suitable for that. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

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Gratitudes:

1. Gandalf is feeling well again!
2. Friday Night Frenzy with my little North Star guild friends
3. Quilt guild pot luck suppers
4. An Instant Messaging chat with an online quilty friend far away
5. Big, fat, soft, chewy chocolate chunk cookies

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Hmmm . . . seems like many of my gratitudes have to do with eating. Do you suppose that's why I have to go clothes shopping? Seems like there are several good pair of business casual cropped pants in my closet that no longer fit . . . .

More catching up

I've had my friend Sue's quilt on my longarm for several months. I kept putting off doing it because I wanted to work on my own projects. She told me there was "no rush at all - do it whenever I felt like it" when she gave it to me. I should always make people give me a deadline - I work well with deadlines. When there isn't a deadline I can easily procrastinate if I'd rather do something else.

It was so good to get this one finished and off the machine. This is the first time I've done all the ruler work to create the parallel lines. Straight lines are the hardest thing to do on a longarm! I had a lot of fun quilting the veins in the leaves freehanded. I used an all over design in the center called "Forest Floor". The center quilting is done with King Tut variegated thread. I love that thread - it is just beautiful. It really glows against the center fabrics. I really like how it turned out, and Sue was very pleased, I'm happy to say.

On Sunday night when I finished this quilt I loaded the back of the last customer quilt I have to do. When I was behind the machine straightening out the huge king-size back in preparation for rolling it onto the front backing roller, the machine suddenly came on. Now I know we don't have ghosts, so I wondered if I was imagining things. But no - the light turned on, the motor that lowers the take up roller started to make noise, and the take up roller dropped to jam itself against the machine. I reached around the table, shut off the machine, and moved to the front. I could move the machine at all on it's tracks - it was totally jammed under the roller. So I turned it back on to raise the roller. When I pushed the keypad to raise the roller all I got was a "click". Since then I've been on the phone daily with both my dealer in Centralia,Washington and the tech guy at the plant in North Carolina. This was a new problem for them - no one has had this happen before. I did have witnesses the second, third and fourth time the machine turned itself off and on - this was on Wednesday - or I'm sure they would have thought I was imagining it. We've been trying lots of different things and last night finally figured out what we are sure is the solution. I had no idea when I started on this longarm adventure that the repair and maintenance would be mainly up to me. This non-mechanical person, married to another non-mechanical person, has really learned a lot! Keep your fingers crossed for me that the electric switch I'm buying today gets rid of my "ghost".

Catching up

I've been doing serious rebonding with my computer. At the same time I've been troubleshooting my longarm. Guess it's just my turn these days. As I was going to bed last night I realized I'd not done a catch-up post to show you what I accomplished while I was off line.

The top two pictures are the 15+ year old New Jersey Triangle Mystery quilt. No longer a UFT - yay! Not something I'd ever make now. But I must admit I like it. I'm going to quilt it simply in an allover design, and will use it at Christmas draped across the bench in the entry way. The triangle part of the name is evident, but I wonder why the designer called it "New Jersey Triangle"?

The next quilt is my Autumn Tangled Threads friendship quilt. I've belonged to the small Tangled Threads quilting group for about 18 years now. One of the members found this wonderful fabric that looked like a bunch of tangled threads in fall colors. We all loved it, and decided to do friendship blocks using the fabric. The seventh member of the group, Peggy, is fighting ovarian cancer. The rest of us made 7 blocks each, and surprised Peggy with a full set last fall. The three tops that were done so far we in a "two rows of three" arrangement so I was determined to figure out something different. This went through several different arrangements on my design wall before I decide on this one. I really like how it turned out. My block is the pumpkin in the bottom left corner.

The next picture shows the three March blocks for the 2006 Jan Patek mystery quilt. I love these blocks - they were easy to make and the pattern is striking.

Blogger doesn't seem to want to add any more pictures to this post, so I'll do a second one for the rest.

Success at last!

I came home tonight from quilt group to find my daughter making the final tests on our computer. We are back up and running! Turns out the motherboard they sent last week WAS a dud - the one that came today did the trick. Sure feels good to be in touch with my quilty friends around the world once more. My husband laughed and said "no more sleeping in for you now!"

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Gratitudes:

1. A working computer!
2. Pink strawberry cake from JaCiva's for a quilty friend's birthday
3. Tangled Threads friends
4. Excellent technical support for my longarm
5. A check to deposit into my business account for my first quilting job of the year

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STILL offline!

My daughter called about 5:15 last night. I figured she was going to tell us when she was bring the computer tower. No such luck. Last week UPS left the part on their doorstep without a signature. This week they didn't! She found one of their forms saying they needed a signature in order to leave it. So hopefully it will arrive today and they will find the signed form she put on her front door. She has less time tonight to work on it, so we may or may not be back online tomorrow. I'm certainly not going to hold my breath.

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Gratitudes:

1. Finally! A win for my Seattle Mariners!
2. Spring clothes in pretty Easter-egg colors
3. A balanced checkbook
4. A clean house
5. A sewing room of my own

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Weirdness

I really enjoy reading the "meme" posts so I thought I'd play along with the latest as was suggested by a couple people. I tend to think of myself as quite normal, in a very weird sort of way!

1. I don't watch TV shows. I really don't. Except for one thing. Baseball! I used to think baseball was boring but for the past 11 years I've been a true fanatic. My family thinks I'm hysterically funny because I talk out loud (and sometimes shout) to the players. The only thing that saves my fingers from being chewed to the bone during an exciting, close game is doing handwork while I watch. I do watch DVD's however - the same favorites over and over again.

2. For an extra special treat I like to stir chocolate chips into malt-o-meal or cream of wheat. Then I add a little brown sugar and half-and-half. I started doing this when I was pregnant and craving chocolate. Those were the days when I was thin and could eat whatever I want. I hardly ever have chocolate chips in the house now - too dangerous for my expanding waistline.

3. I talk to myself out loud when I shop for groceries - taking inventory of the contents of the cupboards and refrigerator and what I need to get. I get some very strange looks from people!

4. I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. and spend an hour on the computer before I get ready for work every morning.

5. I always put a sock on my right foot and then the left, then put my shoe on the right foot before the left foot. I can't start with my left foot - it just doesn't feel right. I remember my mom did the same thing. She reacted in horror when she saw me put on my left shoe first - at least that's how my childish brain perceived it. She said it was bad luck to do that. I thought she was kidding - she was an astute, intelligent woman. I laughed and said I didn't care. Moving forward many to my adult middle years - one morning it suddenly occurred to me that I was doing exactly the same thing - without even realizing it!

6. My idea of the perfect vacation is staying home.

A new week

We had a beautiful sunny weekend, and today is more of the same. The new motherboard arrives today, so I'm crossing my fingers that it solves the computer problems when my daughter installs it in our tower tonight.

I would have loved to have been outside in the garden this weekend, but instead I was a good girl. I quilted the customer quilt that's been on my machine for quite some time. Took almost a whole day, but it is done! I have one more customer quilt left that will go on the machine tonight. I'm really hoping for a long span of time without any customer quilts so I can get a bunch of my own tops done. By the time I finish all the tops I have ready I should feel much more capable with my machine.

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Gratitudes:

1. A finished customer quilt
2. A good job that pays for my fabric habit
3. A new pedicure
4. A business casual day at work
5. Baked cheetos

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Sunny Saturday

Finished another UFT. I was reading a blog where the author called a finished top a "flimsie". I like that! Abandoned another one from a class I took at least 15 years ago. It was a "Through the Year with Sunbonnet Sue" block that consisted of two fabrics stitched together to make the background and a tree trunk partly stitched on. All three fabrics were fabrics I'd not use today - not the best quality for one thing. So I tossed that block out and recycled the copy paper patterns that have since been published in book format (I have the book). That's two more off my list!

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Gratitudes:

1. Loving spouses for both my children
2. Weekends
3. Starbucks on a Saturday morning with my daughter
4. New spring green leaves against a clear blue sky
5. Blooms on my out-of-sinc Thanksgiving cactus

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