The "Other" Woman....

Hi There!

Well, ever since we've gotten our Longarm machine,
(AKA "Bertha")
I've honestly NEVER seen days go by so quickly!

Gilbert decided that he needed an apron. We scoured the WHOLE CITY till finally we did what we usually end up doing - ordering it on the internet. *grin*

In this case, Lee Valley Tools, had just the right kind of apron that Gilbert needed!



Friday morning, he started and finished one of our biggest quilts yet - a KING size!

A friend wanted just 2 plain sheets, quilted up.... with a low loft batting.

(YEP!!! Our machine can quilt a King Size!!!)

Remember that little mini quilt?
Here's a picture of it hanging up.... taken from the outside.

Rosa

Put Out an APB for Rosa!

Hi There!

I've had several blogger friends send me emails, worried 'cause I hadn't blogged in AGES!!!

Okaaaay, it was just ONE blogger friend, but when she sent me her email, it really touched me here... *touches her heart*

Thanks - I truly appreciated your concern....
*grin*

Gilbert and I have been SOOOOO busy with "Bertha" and did anyone of you REALIZE, that with ALL these lovely quilts that Gilbert is doing... why SOMEONE in our household now has to do the BINDING, eh?!?!?

Finished a mini quilt (11-1/2 X 13-1/2 inches), that we will hang up in our front window, hoping that this will generate some business.


Two of my friends had supplied the fabrics,
therefore I've named this mini quilt,
"Frummie Elena".

*VBG*

And Gilbert "stitched in the ditch" Longarm quilted it!

I've been also trying to keep up with pictures and quilting details, on our 3 A Quilting web page.... Go check out our "Braggin' Wall" - I added a few more pictures there, this evening.

Okay, received a piece of junk (snail) mail at work, this week and my eyes glanced at this sentence, written by Mark Twain:

"If you do what you've always done,
you'll get what you've always gotten."

And I thought, "Gosh! That's exactly how we get, as quilters, right... We get into our safe zone and don't really wanna get out of there, eh?"

How's that for a deep thought, eh?

Kinda makes you want to break out of your routine and see if you can do something different .... just to see the (different) results, eh?

*grin*

Oh... and speaking about breaking out of your "safe zone", here's a cool video that really opened up my eyes....

It's Dr. Bob, from Superior Threads.

Well, I"m outta here. S'almost midnight and it's time for me to hit the hay....

Just remember.....
If your favorite blogger hasn't blogged in awhile - send them an email... I'm POSITIVE it will cheer them up!
Try and do something different this week
and finally, try and have fun, while you're at it!

*grin*

Rosa

Hi There!

Gilbert and I have been playing with "Bertha". Gilbert's now working on my FFF (Fabulous Fall Frolic) quilt.... remember those swapped, gorgeous Dear Jane fall colored blocks that I did?

I'll soon have pictures to share with you, on this quilt.

In the meantime, and since I return back to work tomorrow, I've been busily sewing up and preparing pieces for Gilbert to work on.

Here's a "Stash Buster" kit, from Moda, that my Secret Pal at the time, Jo, had sent to me. I thought it would be really appropriate to have it hung up in Gilbert's longarm studio.



Notice the clips on the wall? Gilbert prepared an "Exposition" wall, for our clients to look at.

*grin*

And this is a closeup of that mini quilt. Yes, it needs to be re-ironed AND quilted. More pics will follow.

Rosa

We're on You Tube!!!

Hi There!

Gilbert and I loaded one of my very first quilt tops, on "Bertha". Took us about 3 hours to set it up, or "load it on" as it's called. Apparently, they say once you're used to it, it should only take about half an hour to 1 hour.

Anyhow, I timed Gilbert and it took him about 3-1/2 hours to quilt this Queen sized quilt. Now, THAT was incredible... IMHO!!!!

I fell in love with these cute little sheep!!

*grin*

It's a "high loft" batting - that means it's REAL PUFFY!

And...... in the meantime, we of course had to take some videos...

Here's me, pinning my quilt onto the canvas...

And here's Gilbert, working with "Bertha".

Afterwards, I trimmed and re-squared up my quilt and even took the time to cut up and iron it's binding. Tomorrow morning, we'll load up another one of my quilts and while Gilbert's quilting that one, I'll be adding the binding on today's quilt.


Rosa

Gilbert and Bertha....

Hi there!

We both went to bed early yesterday evening and woke up REAL early this morning - like 5h30!

One of Gilbert's first complete morning comments was, "She's called Bertha."

I was still trying to fully wake up when I realized he had just named our new baby.

"Oh? You mean the Gammill?", I asked.

"Well yes. You're the one that told me that I had to find a name for it.", he replied.

*grin*

Soooo, Bertha it is!

He had a few things to readjust and fix up, in his "Studio" and I printed out some more diamonds for that hand piecing project that I'm working on.... AND I started another cute mini quilt! Actually, it's a wall hanging kit that I received a few years ago, from a Dear Jane Secret Pal that I had at the time. I finally decided to start putting it together, this morning.

Right after dinner - that's our 12 noon meal - we got to work on Bertha. Here's a closeup of the meandering that Gilbert did!



Took a couple pictures of Gilbert....
He was concentrating on Bertha's laser.

Off to bed soon....

Rosa

Premature Delivery!!!!!

Hi There!

Well, I forgot to write in my last blog that we our due date was Wednesday morning.

Well, we got a call from the seller (my friend), Monday evening, asking if it was possible to deliver TODAY - Tuesday.

OF COURSE IT WAS POSSIBLE!!!!

*VBG*

Unfortunately, I was at work when our "baby" arrived, but Gilbert and my friend's hubby set it up and once I arrived home, Gilbert and I had a very quick supper and started the "bonding" process, with our new baby.

We watched the DVD, pausing it every 5 or 10 seconds to follow their instructions, and we learned how to clean it.
How and where and when to oil our baby....
How to thread our baby...
and then, we started loading our (practice) quilt.... which was actually 2 old bed sheets.

By the time we had everything loaded up on the machine, ready to do the actual "quilting", it was around 8h30 - 9h45 and I told Gilbert that I was exhausted. I had 6 days off, to help him with the "bonding" (read: self-training) and that I was quitting for the evening. Mistakes occur when you're overly tired, right? He agreed.

So, tomorrow morning, he has a few things he wants to tackle:
putting the LA level, once again, re-adjusting the "magnets" that hold the Horizontal and Vertical thingy in place, add some hooks or whatever underneath his shelves... to hang his (cleaning) brush and a few other things.

We should be all set to finally START quilting by late morning or early afternoon.

Will keep you all posted!

Rosa

We've Been "Nesting"....

Hi There!

All weekend, we've been getting ready for our new "Baby".... the Gammill Classic Plus!

By Sunday evening, I was EXHAUSTED and almost eager to get back to work, on Monday!
*grin*

Here's a few pictures of our "nest" or, as you might call it, the "Nursery"...

LOL

(Wall #1)
Design wall, where I have my "pink" quilt, partially completed. We're not sure yet, but I might be losing either a portion or all of this wall.... depending on the actual size of our Long Arm and the space this is required.


(Wall #2)
THANKFULLY, he doesn't need this space, yet. My totes of fabric stash and my cutting board surface are still in this room.

(Wall #3)
To the right of this picture, you see the entrance to my Sewing Studio. We were thinking of using this clean, white space as a kind of showcase, where we could display samples of our work.
(still in the "thinking" phase)

(Wall #4)
Here, LOTS of sunshine or light comes in - Gilbert LOVES sunshine, when he works and it's the front of our home. You can also watch some traffic or people go by.

Now, here's pictures of my NEW "Sewing Studio"...

(Wall #1)
As you can see, "Madeleine" is on my wall....
LOVE the different tones of red and taupe, against my white wall!

(Wall #2)
Managed to put in a bookshelf, from the Long Arm space!

(Wall #3 and part of Wall #4)
Here's what USED to be a closet space... Gilbert took off the door and added shelves. You might be able to see Wall #4 - it's just a small wall, with a window and blind.

And since I wanted to share my "Pink" quilt with you, even though it's not quilted yet, here's a picture of it. Sunday morning, I sat down and pieced all the blocks together and added the 2 borders... FINALLY!

Can't wait to see it on the Long Arm!!!

Later 'gators!

Rosa

The Storm Before the Calm

Hi There!

Well, we're getting closer and closer to getting our new "Baby".... Our Gammill Classic Plus!

We had to:
- Convince ourselves that Gilbert could a) pay off the machine, b) make a living doing this and enjoy it and c) convince ourselves that there is a demand for this service. We did an informal survey, around these parts and made up a "Business Plan, we watched the Gammill videos on their web site and.... YEP!!! IT'S A GO!!!
- Check the size of our room and the size of the machine. YEP - IT FIT!
- Go visit Mr. Bank and beg for assistance. YEP - IT WORKED!
- Clear our my son's old bedroom - he moved out last year...., repaint the walls and re-do the flooring. This will be my (new and much smaller) Sewing Studio. YEP - IT'S DONE!
- Clear out the (BIG) room that I "was" using" ... it will probably now be called the "Long Arm" room. - ALMOST ALL FINISHED!

Anyhow, here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Arrived home, this evening and my HUGE white-topped table is now gone from the Long Arm Room and into my Studio.



Here's "Bro" - my sewing machine - in a corner on the floor, probably feeling dejected and lonesome.
:-(

Here's my cutting board and shelves CRAMMED FULL of "stuff"!!!

Now, here's Gilbert working on the internet connection, TV connection and other wires and plugs and such. The white-top for my table hasn't been placed yet... as you can see.
*s*

In this shot, I took a picture of the entrance to my room and it shows the lovely shelves that Gilbert did for me.... in what USED to be my son's closet.

They're already almost ALL full 'cept for the floor section. I'll be loading a big blue tote, there.

In this shot, Gilbert and I finally installed the white top, for my table surface and "Bro" finally got up off the floor! *grin*

And as you can see, Gilbert offered to install "Madeleine" on one of my walls!

I just LOVE this mini quilt and it's sumptuous red colors!

Well, that's it!

There's still a lot of stuff that I have to sort through...

Is this for:
Our garage sale?
Garbage?
or to store away?

That's it, for now. Tomorrow we need to go to the store and buy some el-cheapo white blinds, for that room. And then, I have the sorting thingy to do...
:-(

Rosa

P.S. .... ETA for our Gammill?
NEXT weekend!!!!
(counting the "sleepies" till then!)
LOL


Here's yet ANOTHER P.S.
Gilbert's been blogging about the renovations to my new sewing room. You might find it interesting. *grin*

What-snu, eh?

Hi There!

Okay, remember the blog contest that I had won, with "Prairie Moon"?

And, recently, I posted that I had finished TWO UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) but.... silly me.... I forgot to mention the SECOND project!!!

Well, in April I finished this super-simple table topper with Prairie Moon's 30's charm package AND their incredibly easy pattern! *VBG*

Thanks Prairie Moon!!!



Added a bit of my own 30's fabrics for the border and the back and VOILA! A nice, summer table topper!

As for Gilbert and I, we are about to start a new adventure. We've talked and talked about it, measured out our room space and then talked to our Bank people and all the stars seem to line up....



We will be getting a Gammill Long Arm quilting machine and GILBERT will be operating it!!!

How cool is that, eh?!?!?

After he's practiced a bit on some old sheets and then, he does a few of MY quilts, we hope to get into the quilting business, full time!

Took a picture of some old(?) and unknown-to-us, if they're cotton or polyester threads, that we got in a quilter's grab bag at one of our yard sales. And NO, we will NOT be using this thread for our clients, but certainly for our practice quilts, eh?

*VBG*

Gilbert is now sprucing up my new sewing room (smaller) and he'll be taking my "Sewing Studio" (bigger).... but that's okay. It's for a good cause!

In the meantime, we have a web cam in that room... if you care to see him renovating and later, quilting, here's the web addy:

Web Camera

NOTE: UPDATE !!!!!!!!!!!!

Gilbert asked that my quilting friends write to me, for the Username and Password. He felt that it would be a bit more "secure".

Username: ??????
Password: ??????


Oh yah! If you click on that link and it's dark and/or snowy, it just means that it's night time here and the lights are turned off. Come back during our day time! *grin*

I'm hoping to install a web cam image on the side of my blog, so that you can click on it to view our "In House Quilter"!

That's about it. Tomorrow morning, we hit the stores to pick up a couple pieces of wood or plywood or whatever to make some shelves, in my new sewing room and some flooring - hopefully some "click 'n lock" fake wooden floor stuff.

Will keep you all posted!

Oh.. wait a sec! I wanted to share another thing with all of you!

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasters, Stuart McLean and he was talking about the song, "Mairzy Doats" and he gave us the meaning or the REAL words to this song - it was like a revelation to me! LOL

Now that darn song's stuck in this empty head of mine!

LOL

Hope you enjoy the definition!

Rosa

Karma or Kismet? You Decide.

Hi There!

I TOLD you that it had been awhile since I had blogged and that I had TONS of things to share with you.... right? I didn't mention that?!? Well, I DO have loads of things (and pictures) to share.

*grin*

****************************

Karma: In Buddhist teaching, the law of karma, says only this: `for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.'

Kismet (as per Wikipedia): Fate or Destiny in Turkish and Urdu, a predetermined course of events.

****************************

My friend, Frummie, wrote to us (our little group of buddettes) and told us that she had printed out a whole bunch of "diamonds", with her Inklingo system, for us to make the mini quilt that was in the latest issue of "American Patchwork and Quilting" - June 2010. She was getting ready to mail these out to us so that we could pick up the magazine and make this GORGEOUS quilt.

Elaine, one of our friends wrote back and told us that, coincidentally, she had purchased this magazine.... LOVED IT and decided to pick up 4 more magazines and was in the process of mailing them out to us!!!

GMTA (Great Minds Think Alike) !!!!

Do you see the 3 yellow tabs, at the top of the magazine?
There are 2 other patterns that I absolutely AH-DOOR!!!
(More later, on these patterns).

Here are pictures of the diamond quilt (stars)
that Frummie wanted us to make.

Elaine, in another recent parcel, included the most comical card!!!

In case you can't read it, it says,
"A really good friend makes you snort when you laugh,
and will still hang out with you when you do it in public."

LOL

Anyhow, here's 5 stars but only 1/2 are sewn...
There's a total of 102 stars to be hand sewn, BTW!
*VBG*

And here's 5 COMPLETED stars...

During a "Skype" session yesterday, with Elaine,
she explained how you iron or press your seams,
all in ONE direction and then, make the center...
"swirl".

And here's a picture of the back. The center looks like a mini star... sorta.

And here's a closeup of the center back.

Well, I can assure you, after I did what Elaine
told me to do (re: ironing and swirling),
my stars are cute, ah-doorable and
LAY FLAT!

*VBG*

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart,
ladies!!!

I now have yet ANOTHER project,
to drive me nuts!

LOL

Have a great day!

Rosa

Computer Maintenance - #5 (LapTops)

Hi There!

Recently, I've had a few requests as to how to clean a laptop computer. Well, we ALL know that you don't eat or drink over your keyboard and especially NOT over a laptop, right? But, we're all human and then, factor in teenagers, spouses and friends .... and don't get me started on the "dust factor"! LOL

Here's a few suggestions on "How to Physically Clean your Laptop":

First of all…. UNPLUG your laptop and TURN IT OFF – before you try any of this, okay? *grin*

Turn it upside down and try to shake out the debris.

Take your vacuum cleaner and a small brush and try to suck up the debris this way… if it’s still necessary. Or, if you have an air compressor or wish to pick up a can of compressed air – this might help also.

(NOTE: keep your can of compressed air away from your kids/teenagers – this stuff is REALLY dangerous, IMHO!)

Otherwise… and of course this would apply IF you had any problems with the keyboard, then you would need to take it into your favourite Puter Shop, for professional help.

Let’s all hope we can avoid that, right? *grin*

Anyhow, I hope this helps you!

Rosa

I Won a BlogTest!!!

Hi There!

I've been really, REALLY bad!

I won a blog contest, which I've been calling "BlogTests", and I had received my wonderful gifty last Monday and didn't blog about it nor did I thank my "Sender". I'm sorry 'bout that, but I've been pretty preoccupied these past week or so - we might be buying a Long Arm machine and there's an awful lot of pre-thinking, pre-organizing and ... and... well, you can just imagine!
*grin*

Naomi, from Nome's Brag-a-Long! had a contest on her blog, just before Easter. I submitted my name and I won!

I received a cute little Owl key chain. I'll probably add him on one of my quilting cases.
*VBG*

And the cutest little change purse or wallet!!!
*VBG*

And a cute little cross-stitch kit, too!

Thanks Naomi!!!

Rosa