Christmas Eve 2010

I wish to all of my friends a very Merry Christmas. Dick has been wrapping packages and placing them under the tree. I have been supervising and trying to stay organized. All is quiet at 'One Loose Thread' if we can just keep Rocky out from under the tree everything should be ok until Santa arrives.

Our children and grandchildren will be here bright and early in the morning for breakfast and to see what Santa left for them here. Then:

Opening of gifts and dinner with all of the Clyde and Flo Thompson children.Our spouses, children ,and grandchildren. What a day Christmas is for us. It was our Daddy's favorite time of the year and he always gave more than he should. The men in this family are all the same way. None of the guys want Christmas gifts, but, they always make sure that we girls have plenty. Of course the grandchildren make out like bandits. There will be plenty of laughter and surprises. Of course there are always some tears too as we remember those that we have lost and are no longer with us.

So, Have a Ho Ho Ho and don't eat to much turkey, dressing, ham and sweet potatoes. Read the Christmas Story. Say a few prayers for all of us that need them. Enjoy the after Christmas sales and remember: I only have FOUR MORE WORKING DAYS!!!!!!!

Repeat of Announcement

I am happy to annouce that I have Resigned. ( If anyone tells you that I have retired then they are not telling the whole truth). It is effective 01/01/2011 at 12:00 AM. I have worked in Dental Hygiene for over 40 years and have worked for Dr. Brown a total of 30 of those years. He has hired me three times (even though I am a Clemson Fan). We have had a long run, but the time has come for me to do something else. I hope to work as a 'relief' Hygienist in any number of offices over the next few years, as I have too much dental knowledge to just leave the profession.

In the mean time I will be building my longarm business and the fun part is that I plan to expand the 'Retreats". Yes, this will give me time to run the roads of South Carolina to find the perfect retreat spots for One Loose Thread to sponsor retreats.

I will really miss the patients that I have had for many years. We have all grown up and raised our children together. I hope that many of you will stay in contact with me so that we can keep up with what is going on.

Thanks again for your support and if you need a custom made quilt or an antique top quilted or just need to talk call me. Most of you have my number. Just know that I AM NOT RETIREING AND WILL BE SUBSTITUTING IN OTHER OFFICES, as needed. Call or email me if you need anything.

This announcement will post several times over the next 2 months.

Think Spring and Knight Bee

My Fabric Choices for 'Think Spring' Mystery

These are my fabrics. I am running some of the testing for Beth. This is going together so easily. Just as you would expect with a 'Beth Karr' design. I really believe everyone will like this one.

Cast of Characters

 Friends from Greater Columbia's Knight Bee gathered for our annual Christmas Supper. This year we went to Travinia's for the second year in a row. I think that this may become an annual tradition. Not to mention that the food was fantastic.

Some of my very best friends

We are working on participation in the 'Greater Columbia' UFO challenge for 2011. That reminds me, I need to get my list together. Wonder how many I can finish?

Kitchen Help

This is what I deal with when I try to cook. I have major testors in the floor. Try walking around without breaking your neck. They don't stay in one place, so you might turn around and not expect them to be there-------but-----they are.
Sure do love them both. All of those carpet strips are down so that Jake can get up and down. Otherwise he slides and can't get up. It doesn't look pretty but it does serve its purpose.

Did some Christmas shopping this weekend. Spent some time with the children and grandchildren. Did some sewing. Put a customer top on the frame and should have it finished by tonight. It is really looking good.

Tomorrow starts my next to the last week of work. The closer Dec.30th gets, the more excited I become. I am really glad that I made this decision. Some other offices have contacted me about working now and then, so I will be setting that up. I have a pretty good list of quilts to work with in January and February--always room for more. Plans for Spring Quilt Camp will take some time too. I will be taking Piper to Trenholm tomorrow since the schools are closed for the Holidays then on to the office.

Hope you all have a great week. Can you believe that Christmas is next Saturday?

Happy, Happy Quilt Top

This is what I have worked on this weekend. This top was not at all happy with what had been done with it previously. Now, I just love the way that is sings.  I have also posted this to the 'Customer Quilt' page. Have you noticed the different pages that are listed at the top of this page?  Explore the possibilities.

Now that I have finished this job I am going to sew the labels on the Christmas Quilts this afternoon. For now, I am off to fix brunch for Mr. OLT.

Have a great week.

Magic !!

This has been a magical day. First this elf Mr. OLT put new wheels on Olivia. I have felt that she was not moving properly since the beginning. These are the new EZ Glide Wheels that are available from Lakeside Quilt Company  . The instructions for installation were good, but, we did run into some problems that were solved by contacting people on the Gammill Yahoo group. These wheels are sooooooo sweeeeeeet. I can't believe the difference in the movement of the machine. I loved her before, but, I love her more now.

Then, would you believe!!!! Mr. OLT is decorating the Christmas Tree. He has not done this in at least 15 years!!!!!!! Has anyone seen my husband? If so, tell him not to come home, I like this guy better.  Mr. OLT has really out done himself today.

Now, if I could just get him to finish this project. He has left the tree with lights on only half of it and the lights are dangling down on the floor. He did not realize that he was going to have to 'shape' the tree as he placed the lights.  This is the small tree that I will leave 'put together' for the next several years. I only put up a large tree every 4 years and this is not that time.

I have a new top on 'Olivia' right now and I am putting a cute pantograph on it. I Love Olivia!!!! she is a very hard working girl.

Maybe more tomorrrow.

ANNOUNCEMENT-Repeat





I am happy to annouce that I have Resigned. ( If anyone tells you that I have retired then they are not telling the whole truth). It is effective 01/01/2011 at 12:00 AM.  I have worked in Dental Hygiene for over 40 years and have worked for Dr. Brown a total of 30 of those years. He has hired me three times (even though I am a Clemson Fan). We have had a long run, but the time has come for me to do something else. I hope to work as a 'relief' Hygienist in any number of offices over the next few years, as I have too much dental knowledge to just leave the profession.

In the mean time I will be building my longarm business and the fun part is that I plan to expand the 'Retreats". Yes, this will give me time to run the roads of South Carolina to find the perfect retreat spots for One Loose Thread to sponsor retreats. 

 I will really miss the patients that I have had for many years. We have all grown up and raised our children together. I hope that many of you will stay in contact with me so that we can keep up with what is going on.

 Thanks again for your support and if you need a custom made quilt or an antique top quilted or just need to talk call me. Most of you have my number. Just know that I AM NOT FULLY RETIREING AND WILL BE SUBSTITUTING IN OTHER OFFICES, as needed.  Call or email me if you need anything.

This announcement will post several times over the next 2 months.

What! My Vacation is Over??? No Way!!

I'm not real sure where the time went over the last week. If you know please clue me in. I also discovered that this is DECEMBER and Christmas is just a few weeks away.

It can be really depressing when your vacation comes to an end. Unfortunately, I have to go back to work in that other world tomorrow. You know the one I'm talking about? When was the last time you flossed?

This past week has been great. I quilted a large commission (double nine patches), finished my last Christmas quilt(all 3 need labels), did a lot of paper work for Spring Quilt Camp,spent 4 days at the beach with my sister,Pat, and finished binding 2 'love'quilts for Devine Quilt Guild. Oh yea, I also found the fabrics for the Spring mystery and met with 2 new clients, one for a new commission quilt and another with 2 tops to be quilted. Life is good.

Beth has finished the design for the mystery and now I am sewing (well I will be as soon as I get the clues cut out). She brought the finished top to me for the quilting and I will be starting on that very soon.

While we were at the beach Pat and I found some great things for Spring Fling. I usually theme the weekend and Saturday night revolves around that theme. A little friendly compitition also takes place. Usually some type of 'craft' item. This Spring is going to be the best yet. Can't wait for this!!

Hope you have a great week. I hope that I do too.

QUEEN OF THE BAPTIST FAN!!!!!!!

This is what I have to dodge while making the runs on the quilting. Lots of company, but, not much help. Jake doesn't move very well either, so getting him out of the way, well, lets just say it is easier to step over him.

The quilting has been completed on this quilt!!!! Yea!!! It only took me 10-14 hours total to complete it. I am sooooooo proud of this piece. It has turn out far better than I expected and I expected alot.

This is the back. Look at the definition with the quilting. I used 80/20 batting. There is more texture from the quilting than I expected. Just love it.

You really can't see the quilting from this picture, but it's there.

Now to decide what binding to put on. I think that I want a color---possibly the blue that was used in the nine patches. Or, maybe a pink for the little girl it is for. I don't believe that I will use the background fabric. Don't you think it needs the frame that the binding will provide?

 

Now to start Christmas shopping. No more quilting for the next few days.

Stay safe,

Double Nine Patches

I never figured that longarm quilting could be so difficult. Olivia has been performing beautifully. It's the operator that seems to be have the problems. Things have gotten better as the day has gone by. I had this quilt on the frame before 10:00 this morning.

I have worked on it all afternoon--welllllll, maybe not alllll afternoon. I did take a 2 hour nap---I am on vacation, after all.
Back to the quilt story: I have made 3 passes over this top and that is across the short side of the quilt. This is a totally new 'thing' for me, working with these templates. The glare on the templates has been so bad at times that I would cut off the overhead lighting in the studio.
One good thing though is that I have only had to take out 3 lines of stitching. On the first row there are some wiggles in the stitching lines. I will decide later if I want to take these out or leave as 'human error'. Hope these pictures show some of the quilting. I really love the way the quilting is affecting the surface of the quilt. The Baptist Fan pattern really works with this pattern. I am using 80-20 batting and Permacore thread. The backing is a white on cream wideback. One stitch at the time and I will be finished before you know it.

I got my delivery of hardware for my slat wall so will be reorganizing my thread later tonight. I will have to unplug Olivia due to severe weather in the area. Tornado watches are on for tonight.
Isn't it interesting how you can watch the weather radar and see the edge of the incoming weather front? I think it's cool---and can really be kind of scary  too.

Stay safe and keep your head down. More tomorrow.

Sick day and Double Nine Patches

Spent most of Saturday under a quilt in my chair with terrible head cold. I seem better this morning so I am in the studio. No, that's not a cigarette in the smilies mouth (I quit 3 1/2 years ago). It is suppose to be a thermometer. I seemed to run fever for the day. Was not flu, but, sure wasn't fun. Still need boxes of tissue close by.

All of the components of the Double Nine Patch are together. Today I will spend my time putting all of the components together. Sometime this evening I will have this top together. I did not think that I would EVER finish the 3 inch nine patches. This just goes to show that little snippets of time can work well on a large project like this.

My Circle Templates arrived yesterday so I will be ready to quilt this top in 'Baptist Fan'. I plan to practice using these on some muslin before I begin with the actual top. I'll let you know how things go.

QUESTION:  Should I start at the top of the quilt and work down? Should I fully stabilize the quilt and work from the bottom up? What would you do?

OK, back to the machine.

End of the Weekend

OK, I have been working on the Double nine patch this afternoon. I was finally able to clear my sewing area which allowed me to do that.

Can you believe that my desk is clear? Neither can I. I did manage to do that and I will work very hard to keep it clear.

Sometime in the next few weeks I have to go through the file cabinet and clear out some stuff. The 'Herby Kirby' was full for this weekend, so will have to work on that a little at the time.



Enjoy this coming week. Remember that no matter how bad we think things are, we still have so much to be thankful for.

Organization, what a Pain

Why is it that in order to clean up and organize you have to make a monster mess?

I put in a new file cabinet today so lots of 'stuff' had to be relocated for a short period of time.

I sure hope that I can soon have my desk cleaned off and everything in its proper place.

Right now I can't even use my sewing machine!!

Mr. OLT also hung a piece of 'slat' wall for me so that I can reorganize my thread. Man!! was this stuff heavy!! Now all I have to do is pick up the hardware for the wall and 're-hang' my thread. Can't get the hardware until the end of next week so the thread will have to stay all bagged up until then.

Hopefully I can get everything cleaned up tomorrow and then get back to my Double Nine Patch project.

The quilt that Olivia is holding is one I have done for Christmas. I finished quilting it yesterday. I had a good 18" of batting and backing at the bottom. Due to that, I have stitched a length of muslin over the end and will use it over the next week for some freemotion practice. I sectioned off the length so that I would have some defined area to work in. I will put the Pajama Quilter in the DVD player and stitch along with her.

I attended a terrific football game today. My Grandson Austin played in his first game and did a great job. I hope he had as much fun playing as I did watching. Good Job Austin!!!!

Time to start thawing out the Turkey.

Have a good weekend.

More Double Nine Patches

OK. this is where I am going to stop for tonight. Not even close to half way. Still have at least 2 full days of piecing before I can start to stitch rows. And so it goes.

Double Nine Patches

This is one of my projects for the next few weeks.
1 1/2" strips to make 3 1/2" blocks.

 The 3 1/2" blocks will combine to make 9" double nine patch blocks. These will combine to make this:

I am using this pattern as a reference. The quilt needs to finish as a double so I have to increase the size of this top. I just keep cranking out little nine patches so that I will have lots and lots.                       

I am at the point now that I can start piecing some large blocks so I need to cut some plain squares. I am using 30's reproductions and my favorite Kona. I love quilts make out of Kona they end up really snuggly. This quilt has been commissioned for a Christmas gift so it is important that I really work quickly on it. I'll let you know how it goes.

I also have backing and top on the frame. Maybe Olivia and I can get some quilting done on that this week too. I sure hope so.

Have a great week. ( I hate standard time--I want daylight savings time back!!)

Thank you Cheryl and Friends

So sad. Tomorrow is the last day the 'Quilted Pearl' Quilt Shop will be open. We have been very blessed for the last 5 years to have access to a wonderful shop of fabrics and great people. Cheryl and her sidekicks have really allowed quilting to grow in the community and for that reason they will really be missed. Many of us will not know what to do without our many monthly meetings at 'The Pearl'. Best of luck to Cheryl in her future endeavors and Thanks for the Memories.

Drum Roll Please !!!!

I would like to present OLIVIA!!!!

Yes, I have finally named my girl. Believe it or not, I have had her now for a year. Now she has a name. She has the same name as one of my favorite patients. Such a smart young lady.

So now I can feel better about talking with and about my Olivia.

I have had a very busy weekend and I will post more about that later. I will tell you that it has been two busy Fabric Allocation Road Trip(s).

FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!

This is all that I did today. Just think 4 leaves. For some reason the day just 'flew' by and I don't think that I really got much done. I was hopeful of getting the entire block completed. Didn't happen. I am sooooo far behind.
Happy Halloween to everyone.
Have a great week!!

I'm on a diet!!!!!!!!!

Hi, Rocky here, I went to the Vet today. Dr. Erin is really very nice, it was not a bad trip except for one thing, I weigh 97 pounds!!! Now, that wouldn't be bad except that I want to live to be as old as Jake (15 years) so Dr. Erin has put me on a DIET!!!! I have to loose down to at least 80 lbs, but she thinks that 70 would be better. I haven't weighed 70 lbs since I was 18 months old!!! This is really going to be tough. Please talk to mom and convince her that I cannot survive on the amount of food that they are going to be giving me !!

This is Mom. Not only does he weigh 97 pounds, his chest measures 38 inches around and he is 3 years old. Rocky is not actually fat (we have never over fed or given him lots of treats),  he is just HUGE. However, he has also been in the house laying around for the past few months, no exercise, so we are going to try to help his body out with a new diet and some daily exercise. Dr. Erin tells us that Rocky might not even live to be 6 or 8 years old if we don't get his weight down. Keep your fingers crossed that this works. It will be good for Rocky, and Dr. Erin will be checking his weight every 2 weeks to make sure that he is doing OK on this diet.

Sunday Fun and New Price List

First:

New pricing sturcture has been posted on the Quilting Service Page.

Now for the latest news:

I spent today putting this together. Still have the three rows on the left to go. This is a pattern called 'Strip Stacks' and published by G. E. Designs. I am doing this very scrappy. the background is the only 'stable' color in the entire project. I also ordered a blue backing for this project. As soon as it arrives I can put it on the frame and quilt it. This will be the last of my Christmas presents to complete. So far I am pleased with the outcome of this project.

I do hope that everyone has a good week.