Minor Quilt Corrections & Followup to SOLO Meeting

This past Sunday was the semi-annual SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators).  We had a big show & share, a brown bag lunch, and then we split into groups and discussed multiple topics.  Afterwards we shared a recap of our discussions with the whole group.

One of the topics of discussion was "What do you do with a quilt that has issues?"  Issues could be wonky borders, turned blocks, open seams, etc.  I was really surprised at the number of quilters who send those quilts home to be fixed.  If you've followed my blog for any length of time you know that I fix boo-boos on a regular basis.  Here's yesterdays fix.  These two blocks were both facing the wrong direction.  I caught it while the customer was still here, so we discussed it and she elected to have me fix it for her.  It ended up taking me 75 minutes to frog and restitch, which will just get added to her invoice.

BLOCKS PICKED OUT

BLOCKS REINSERTED

Some of the other topics:

• pricing & payment methods
• intake process & contracts/work orders
• cool new tools/books/rulers

The meeting closed with a discussion around the future direction of SOLO.  Since it is totally informal and meetings only happen when a brave & beloved soul decides to throw their hand up and say "I'll do the next meeting!" this was an interesting discussion.  In October we will, hopefully, be having a trunk show & lecture/demo by a well known longarm quilter.  This will mean a higher entrance charge, but will also be a great opportunity to learn something without having to travel a long distance.  Yay.

If you don't currently receive an invitation to SOLO but would like to be added to the list, send me an email.  I'm the current sucker volunteer who looks after the guest spreadsheet and the invitations.

Flannel House Quilt, and a Colour-Themed Evening

Yup, this happy quilt is all flannel.  If you've ever worked with flannel you know how s.t.r.e.t.c.h.y. it is.  This piecer did a wonderful job - everything was nice and FLAT. 😀

I was working on this back in late March on a few of those horrid, grey/rainy/sleet-ey days.  Quilting the happy sunshine backgrounds brought a smile to my face.

All the geese and borders and houses were s.i.d., then I threw in a few feathers for good measure.  The curls in the braid border evoke the howling winds that were going on outside at the time.

Straight lines and crosshatching nail everything down.

Pretty back!

Tonight I am going to work on my 150 Canadian Women quilt.  So the theme for the evening is RED and WHITE. heh, heh, heh.

Home from Missouri

I love getting home and finding the garden waking up, in spite of the April snowstorm.

DH is always good about having the house in tidy-ish condition for my return. 💗  Last night, for example, he ran the dishwasher so I didn't come home to a sink full of scummy pots & pans.  I'm not too sure why he decided he needed to wash the sticky label on the tupperware, though. 😏

Missouri Star Quilt Company

Our week in Hamilton Missouri is over and we're half way home. Jenny Doan is a wonderful (!) speaker, who had us laughing and crying. I'm happy to report that I won a Layer Cake as a door prize ☺.  We had already spent most of Wednesday shopping in her dozen stores, but after the trunk show on Thursday I figure we all dropped another bundle of cash because we were newly inspired. I know that I had to buy another layer cake that coordinated with my prize ( shaking head sadly).

I have really enjoyed the week or two the season here is ahead of ours, because the daffodils are out. Apparently southern Ontario has experienced an early April snowstorm that I'm happy to have missed. Tomorrow when I get home the temperature should be back to normal.

My new best friends

Here I sit in my HOTEL ROOM in Joliet, Illinois. My new best friends are a bottle of wine, another bottle of wine (no surprise), a rubber duckie, and a towel elephant. And of course Janice, my roomie. ☺
Tomorrow we head to Chillicothe MO to go to Missouri Star Quilt Company.
Vacation ❤