Getting back to custom, a two part post

Wow, I have decided I am not thrilled with custom quilting anymore. I still like figuring out what I am going to quilt, but the long hours of standing, bending at the hips and moving the big Gammill are harder than ever. I do about three or four hours and then have to relax a while. So, it took almost a week to do this fairly small quilt. Not bad for my debut after over a year away from doing custom work. Get comfortable, I took way too many pictures.

Update! 

I started this post a few days ago and had a glitch in the matrix when I tried to upload photos. I finally got it figured out, and can continue on. So sorry.

Upward and onward! 

The other night at guild, I was given two boxes that came from a 92 year old woman who is looking to downsize her quilting stuff. One box is an old tin Whitman's sampler box, filled with packages of vintage rick-rack, seam tape and an assortment of lovely, hand crocheted and tatted laces. There were also two pairs of German made embroidery scissors, a strange needle/bodkin thingy and a tarnished thimble. I cleaned the thimble, and it is England made sterling silver! 

The other box is wooden, and filled with vintage wood spools of both cotton and silk threads. I emptied the box, untangled the contents and trimmed all the loose ends. Then, I sorted the threads by color and replaced them in the box. There were also some short, fat spools of silk buttonhole twist, made in England. My gears are turning to figure out what to do with this treasure. Enjoy the massive amount of photos.

Aren't these cool!?

All sorted and re-packed

If you know what the needle is for, let me in on the secret!

The tarnished thimble

The thimble cleaned up nicely.

Back in the studio, life goes on. Here are the quilts I have finished for customers in the last few days.

My sister in Texas sent several projects to be quilted. I'm happy to see she has started sewing again after some time away from her machine.

This Christmas quilt has the panto Holly Berries

This soft collection of fabric made a pretty top.

Panto: Posh

I finally finished the table runner for the longarm group. we all were to make the same runner and quilt it on our machines. I can't believe it took me all day to do this small quilting project! I'm getting better at sizing the patterns to the blocks, but not proficient enough to put this to work on customer custom projects. I'm taking a class on Saturday in Franklin to better learn how to accomplish digital custom quilting. I hope it sinks in...

In progress

All done!

The focus fabric is also the backing.

I'll close this mammoth post with a couple of photos of Penny. She goes next week to have her "Fluff and Buff", so we need to appreciate how cute she is when she is too furry for her own good. Brushing her is a nightmare, so I am happy to be getting her trimmed and sweet smelling.

Penny says, "Why aren't you sewing? Get to work, human!"

My smarty pants pup.