Gilbert's Photo Montage

Hi There!

Gilbert quilted a drop-dead, custom quilt this past week!



Unfortunately, my photography skills aren't the best...

This quilt looks a LOT better in person!

And THIS is one that he finished this evening, with a pantogram called "Clover".

This is his "photo montage"....

Another jaw-dropping quilt!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Rosa

Frummie and Charlie's Quilt

Hi There!

Doesn't this look like a picture from a home decorating magazine?!??!

Last year, Frummie sent Gilbert and Bertha, our Longarm machine, their quilt to be quilted.

Once quilted, we returned the quilt to our friends and.... for various reasons, Frummie finally finished the binding on this beauty 2 weeks ago. She sent me this picture and said I could post it, if I wanted to share with you.



Yet another picture I've been meaning to share.

I've been busy working on my Snow People swap blocks. I'll post of picture in the following weeks.

I'm also trying to keep up with Bonnie Hunter's "Orca Bay Mystery Quilt".

Also, in my news, I'd like to share a new-to-me social media group that I am COMPLETELY enamored with!!!

It's called "Pinterest".

You create your own "bulletin" board and can name it whatever you wish. You "Pin" images from the web, or from other Pinterest members. I know it sounds silly but you would not BELIEVE the beautiful images I've seen, the crafty ideas, tips and tricks to help around the house and more!

It's addictive, it's educational, it's fun and also helpful.

Hope you give it a try. If you need an invitation, give me a hollar!

Rosa

Black Light + Fluorescent Thread = Cool Video

Hi There!

Gilbert had a bright, colorful quilt on his Longarm, yesterday and our quilty friend had selected some bright orange, almost fluorescent thread.

He decided to attach our video cam onto his Gammill Vision and filmed himself!

Of course, it helped that he used the black light, on his Vision...

(click on image to view video)

Have a great weekend!

Rosa

Bertha's Room Got Another Face Lift!

Hi There!

Gilbert decided that our cutting board needed a face lift.

He removed our old Necchi sewing machine and added some wooden legs.

He says you can now put a total of 10 plastic totes filled with my fabric stash, underneath it now. NOTE: He will be painting the wooden legs white, to match the rest of the room.

He's almost finished painting those 3 quilt blocks, underneath his home made ironing board.

A close up of the blocks.

And yet another close up.

He informed me that they weren't completely finished. He still has some black lines to add and then a coat of varnish, to protect the paint.

I'm not sure if I posted pictures of our new "door". He picked it up at a 2nd place, called "Restore".... profits go to Habitat for Humanity.

And, this door only cost $2.50 !

Mind you, Gilbert did a few touch ups and painted it white.... and he had to buy the "hardware" - you know... the pins and sliding thingies at the top and bottom of the door, for $25.00 (approx.)

Not bad, eh?



Today, we also removed a few quilts in the Longarm Room and replaced them with other ones.

To the left, is last year's Halloween panel.

To the right, is the lastest baby quilt that I finished.

And here's a picture of my Christmas Leftover Lasagna Quilt.

Oh... I managed to finish a pillow case dress, last this afternoon.



It's got horseys all over it.

Still on vacation and still maintaining my "Vacation Journal".

Have a great weekend!

Rosa

Errands and Such

Hi There!

Gilbert and I head out,
yesterday morning, to do our
"Saturday Morning Errands".

First, we went to bring our empty bottles, to get recycled.

Do you guys do that, or just leave them by the side of the road, for your municipality workers to pick them up?

Here, they're called "Redemption" Centres.

Don't know why, but being a Catholic girl, I've always found the name "Redemption" a bit odd, for a recycling centre... LOL



You wait for your turn and when you're next, you bring your bottles to the table and the workers sort them out. Then, they hand you a slip of paper, which you take to their little office and BINGO! They give you some money. Most times, it's under 5 bucks for us. This time, we made off with 5 bucks and some change!

*grin*



From the Redemption Centre, we went to Bertha's bank.

Right across from this spot, is our
"Moosehead Country Store".

A lovely little boutique, that sells Moosehead stuff.
(NOTE: Moosehead is our local brewery.)

Since we have one new quilt finished for our bed (Notre Première Quilt) and a few more on the go, we decided to donate our well used but still good quilts.

We called up the Salvation Army, in my city.... No, not where they sell stuff but where they have their shelter. Anyhow, they were VERY HAPPY to receive our two quilts.

If ever you have some old quilts that still have some life in them, please consider donating them to....

your local Salvation Army,
or to your local Animal Shelter.

I've been told that they, too, accept quilts and blankets.

From the Salvation Army, we went off to the Quilt Show (more pictures to follow), grabbed a bite to eat - it was 12 noon - and then, went to our local quilt shop to pick up a bottle of "505", spray adhesive for Gilbert and Bertha.

Came home and Gilbert worked on the
final touches of our VERY FIRST....

TAAA.... DAAAA.....


PANTOGRAM!!!!


I designed the basics of it and Gilbert finished it off.

We're calling it "Bruce the Moose".

And, of course, Gilbert had to try it out on a scrap piece of fabric!

*grin*

While he worked on "Bruce", I worked on my "Spider Quilt".

Here's a picture of my design wall, from last weekend.

I believe it's when I realized that I was missing a whole row - 6 complete blocks - of the blue fabric!

And since my friend Cyn has located and mailed out, yesterday, some more blue fabric, I decided to pick up where I had left off.

*grin*

Thanks a bunch, Cyn!!!!

Today's agenda?

Laundry.
Dishes
Help Gilbert "build" some lasagnas, to freeze.

And quilt - hopefully.

Have a Super Sunday!!!!

Rosa

To be Gammilled...

Hi There!

Lately it feels like I'm working on "stuff" and nothing seems to move ahead and get FINISHED! Kinda frustrating....

Gilbert's getting more business, which means there's a mini back log and I'm REAL happy that he and Bertha, our Longarm Gammill are busy, but.....

The projects that ARE finished, well....
Are put aside for "later".

And as I can well understand this, nevertheless, I feel like pouting, sometimes.

*grin*

So, this afternoon, we took the time to measure my Birthday Siggie Quilt top and YEP!!! It fits PERFECTLY, on our Queen Size bed!!!!



And, late this evening, I FINALLY finished the quilt top for that (crappy) fabric quilt kit - remember I had mentioned it, in one of my previous blogs?

Well, if you didn't know better, you'd LOVE the colors in this quilt!

*sigh*

Anyhow, we need to get rid of some of our old quilts. They're getting pretty raggy. I will use this one as our "surface" quilt.... meaning, that's the one that the cats will sleep on. *s*

Tomorrow, I'll dig out some of my (non-shop quality) big pieces and piece together a backing for this baby.



Around 4 p.m. this afternoon and after much thought, Gilbert decided to change his computer set up, in Bertha's room.

To make a long story short, he needed to buy himself a set of computer speakers, 'cause he listens to music, when he's quilting.

So, we headed off to Future Shop and he picked himself up a Bose sound system.

He's VERY pleased with the quality and sound!!!

He now has, what we call here, "Charlie's Laptop".

One of my readers will understand what I mean when I write this. *grin*

The laptop is much more compact, for his tiny desk space, in Bertha's room.

That's all for now.

It's going on 11 p.m. and I'm EXHAUSTED!!!

Happy Easter!!!!

Rosa

Bertha Gets a "Lift"

Hi There!

After a week of intensive family meetings,
Gilbert and I decided to take the plunge
and give Bertha a "Face Lift"!

We contacted our nearest Gammill Dealer,
Cowles Quilting Machines Service Inc.

Brian showed up this morning,
at 10 a.m. and promptly
started work on Bertha.





A LOT of little bits and pieces
of "stuff" came out of Bertha!

Gilbert watched and helped Brian,
as much as possible.

Finally!

A LOT of new bits and pieces
went INTO Bertha!

Here, Brian is giving
Gilbert his official training,
on our new "Vision 26"!!!

After a thorough training and
some informative chit-chat,
Brian was on his way....
back to Vermont.

Have a safe trip back, Brian!


Rosa (& Gilbert)

Frying Fish?

Hi There!

The varnish finally fully dried on Gilbert's thread cone holder and he was able to hang up the board, this morning and audition which cones would go on there.

I think it's a nice display and will help our clients pick which thread they want, on their quilt.



Oh, we still have more thread, on our 2 shelves.... not to worry. *grin*

As for me, I have more fish to fry and not enough frying pans. This is my way of saying that I have too many "time-sensitive" projects on the go and and not enough time. I truly DO need to concentrate and get these done!




Will be posting my progress on these, of course.

Have yourselves a
Wonderful Wednesday!

Rosa

Gilbert's Been Busy...

Hi There!

This past summer, Gilbert quickly grew tired of my store bought ironing board and since he has to iron our clients' quilts, he came up with a design to help with his business.

He bought an old (hallow) door, at our local "ReStore". Cut it to size, added hot glue, batting, some cotton fabric and then varnished 1" X 2" pieces of wood and fixed them to the "door".

He added 2 hooks at the end of his ironing board and when he's finished ironing, he hangs it up.

It fits PERFECTLY on our Long Arm table and he's able to iron the quilt and then, feed it onto the rollers, to pin.

Neat, eh?



We got yet another order of thread and we were quickly running out of space, on our shelves.

He's decided to make his own thread holder.

Took a picture of our threads being "auditioned".

He's already put one coat of varnish on the board and it still needs another coat or 2 of varnish.

He tells me that by Wednesday, the "Thread" board should be hanging in Bertha's room.

Rosa

Saturday Morning Errands

Hi There!

This morning, I got up early and started working on my BOM (Block Of the Month), from our local Quilt Shop.

"When was it due?", you ask.

"Hmmmm... aaaaah.... today."

LOL

Anyhow, I only managed to do the center and will DEFINITELY work on it, this afternoon. (It needs one more border, around it.)



Soooo, since this is Saturday, we do our Saturday Morning Errands.

Guess where we went, first thing?!?!?!?

I went and bought my bus ticket, to Bangor!!!!

Would you believe that I'm coming BACK to my city on the 24th, by bus, and the guy at the bus terminal tells me that they will no longer be going to the USA, after the 27th. That's IT! No more. NADA!

He says that they had no passengers and sometimes, they were lucky if they had ONE person on the bus.

And, who knows, eh???
Going back and forth, I might have the whole bus to myself!!!!

Anyhow, I think I was REAL lucky that my trip wasn't planned for March, let's say...

Since I need to catch the airplane in Bangor, early the next morning, I honestly don't know what I would have done, had my trip been planned for later.

I'll be going on one of these buses....

From there, we went uptown, to our Provincial Building and I got my picture taken, for my license. It was expiring on the 12th of February and I didn't want to wait till next weekend.

Who knows? With our run of weather, it could be a stormy day, once again!

Then, we headed out to Quispamsis - just outside of our city. I picked up the very last BOM. I'm hoping to finish off the remaining border on January's BOM and do this one.... this afternoon.

This is our last BOM....
un-assembled, obviously.

While at our fabric store, Gilbert picked up a bottle of 505. For my own personal quilts, he sometimes joins our leftover pieces of batting, and by the time he's finished with long arm quilting it.... they ain't goin' anywhere! He was previously hand-basting them together, till I told him about this product. I have never tried it before, but some people swear by it.

Also, last week, he complained about how one quilt backing's creased just COULD NOT be ironed out! I told him that I had heard about a (magic) product that worked.

So, we inquired and apparently this spray is EXCELLENT.

Once again, it remains to be seen, but he will certainly be putting it to the test!

From there, we went to a bakery store, in Quispamsis and picked up a French Baquette, to make French onion soup and a few other items. (Sorry, forgot to take a picture.)

From there, Kent Building Supplies. They had windshield washer fluid on sale. We picked up 4 jugs. (Once again, no picture.)

Then, groceries.... still in Quispamsis. After groceries, we headed back to the West Side and decided to have dinner - that's our noon meal - at Bobbie's Corner Restaurant.
(picture taken in the summer.)

And after our meal, we picked up a couple of "Timmies" and went home.

So, as boring as it might sound, we had a pretty good time. NO line-ups for my license - THAT was almost a miracle! And, HEY! it's a beautiful, sunny, winter day here!

But, apparently, it's the calm before the storm. Storm #10 is supposed to hit tomorrow, unfortunately.

And HEY! What d'ya know!

I'm already out of the "teens" and into the single digits!!!

(picture taken from our micro-wave)

Hope you're all having a SMASHING Saturday!!!

Rosa

9 Weeks of Storms!!!

Hi There!

We'd had yet ANOTHER storm, today!

The media people say its our weekly storm - 9 weeks in a row, now!

Once again, I got a couple hours off, from work, to get home and YES, the roads were slippery and treacherous!!!


Anyhow, let me explain these next 3 pictures....

While I was on the phone with a good friend, this evening, P'Tit Noir (our male tom cat) wanted to go out.

NOTHING STOPS HIM - He wants OUT, you'd best not try and argue with him!

So, while I'm on the phone, I open up the door and he slips out!

Here's what our upstairs door entrance looked like.

P'Tit Noir hesitated briefly and took off, in the night!



So, I closed the door and looked what came in!

A dust pan isn't just for "dust", don't you know!

LOL

During my "snow afternoon", I managed to finish the machine sewn binding, on our "Magic Tiles Sampler".

This quilt will obviously always remain in our Studio.... it shows 5 of Gilbert's long arm stitches.

Since Gilbert wanted to display what he and Bertha could do, he made up a few of these, as well... to hung up in the studio.

I managed to do their bindings, by sewing machine, this afternoon.

This one is called "Fantasia".



Not sure about the name of this one, but as you can see, it would be GORGEOUS on a Christmas or Nature quilt, eh?!?

And this one is my all-time favorite -
"Stars 'n Loops".

He's done this one so many times now, that he's even able to do it free-hand!

Some of you asked about my thread cutter.

A good friend sent me this "kit" and no, I will NOT take it with me to Florida.... just in case the mean person at the airport decides to keep them. *s*

And in amongst our cold, snowy, windy, day, I got another crappy (junk) email about a cruise ship vacation.

So, before deleting this crappy (junk) email, I cropped a portion of it....

LOOK @ the PALM TREES!!!!





Gilbert had this poster,
that he pinned up, in our stair well.
(Look at the date at the bottom of the poster.)

12 more days!!!!

With an afternoon like today, with approx. 14 inches of snow fall, I am DEFINITELY READY for Florida!!!

Hope you're all having a
WARM Wednesday!!!

Rosa