SATURDAY AT COUPEVILLE

 I finally got back up to Ebey's Landing Lookout for a morning walk.  It's been too windy and cold previously.  It was cloudy and breezy today, but not too cold.  I took my binoculars and spotted a few birds, too.

It was a nice walk through the fields and into the trees and out again.  Foggy but nice.

Then it was back to the workshop to wrap up our week.  I put together some more pieces then pinned all the parts to my design wall flannel and rolled it up to take home.

I left early and headed north across Deception Pass to make a stop at Julie Drake's, our workshop assistant, Open Studio.  She has the best studio I have ever seen, very well laid out and planned in a building her husband and her had built.

This is the studio!  Her husband's space on the left and Julie's on the right with a gallery up above.

QUILTING DONE ON BLUES

 I worked and worked the last two days on the straight line quilting on the Rhythm in Blues quilt.  And I finished it up today.  I am happy with it.

Now I'm thinking about ways to finish it.  I thing regular binding would look too heavy and facing would look unfinished.  There's got to be the perfect solution, I just need to figure it out.

Today would have been Moe's 27th birthday.  I still miss her.  Best Dog Ever.

74/100

Friday, another beautiful day.  Maybe a little too hot.

I am still sewing rows of triangles together on the Covid quilt.  In between I'm using the scrappy triangle sewing as a leader/ender.  I got a lot of triangles done that way.  Thirteen today.

Darrell is re-doing the bench room in his shop.  In the process, he's doing away with the TV he had in there for doing slide shows.  So, he installed it upstairs in my studio today.  We hooked up an antennae and there are 9 channels, mostly PBS.  Next Tuesday the Roku I ordered will show up.

MISTAKE?

Today I was contemplating whether it was a mistake to change to one white for the Pi Quilt.  I was able to order more of the 'daisy' white and black fabric and it's on its way.  But, I didn't think about whether I'd have enough of the black fabric to remake the first four rows.

I think it might be close.  If I run short, I could always cannibalize some of the first four rows (which I was planning on making into another small Pi).

I've gotten alot of the pieces of the white cut out.  I sewed together some of the 8aat (eight at a time) squares for the many, many half-square-triangle squares that I will need.

Today I cut and trimmed some of those.  I like the idea of doing just one row at a time, this is just too much - the brain starts to check out.

Stix has set up a cot in my studio - he's working in Darrell's shop for several days this week.  Jax found it very nice.

NEW SEWING SETUP

I finally got fed up with the way my new Bernina didn't fit right in my old sewing table.

I bought new tables that I can raise and lower, so I can stand and sew if I want. 

The studio has been torn apart for the last week.  There was lots of assembling happening.  There is lots of cardboard and packing materials to dispose of.

The saddest part is getting rid of my old sewing table that my Uncle Don made for me in 1993.  It has been a faithful and very useful friend over the years.  I feel sad, but I don't have room to keep it.  I've had it on Craigslist with no bites, so far. 

I'm loving this new setup. 

Darrell made the table top for the cutting table, it spans the length of the backside.  It also rises up - which will be much more convenient for cutting.  He also put some peg board on the wall.  Now I'll be able to hang all of my rulers and cutters.  Hopefully, this will keep things more organized and easily accessible.  

DUSTING AND CLEANING

My studio is above my husband's wood shop.  He recently had an issue with his dust collection system and had to replace it.  While it was bad my studio was inundated with dust.  It was bad.

I left it until he got his shop under control.

My mom came over today with her dog, Reba, to help me get it cleaned up in preparation for the arrival of my longarm.

Thanks Mom!

Mom didn't want her picture taken...oops.

GETTING READY

Busy, busy, busy.....Darrell and I are both getting ready for our Open House coming up in a few days.

My studio hasn't had a good cleaning in a long time.

Add to that, a recent bug infestation in the beam at the top of the building.  We bombed last week and now there are dead bugs everywhere along with the general debris created when he dug them out.  I had put white paper over everything I didn't want the bug poison on - like my fabrics and table tops.

Here are the before pictures:

south end before

north end before, see the bug stuff on the floor - yuck.

I ran out of steam after lunch so I only got the north half somewhat cleaned:

north end after

south end after - didn't get to it yet.

And then the next day (Wednesday):

Definitely looking better...

north end

south end - yes!

Thursday I have to paint the ceiling where we tore some of the sheetrock down, and then I'm going to start bringing out some artwork.

STUDIO CABINETS

My husband Darrell and I spent the weekend working on the cabinets for the south wall of my upstairs studio.

I first had to go through and move everything out of the way. I put all the junk from that end at the other end. I packed up my painting stuff and moved it. The studio is a mess! I can't believe all the 'junk' I have.

I need to re-think where I keep everything and what configuration would work best.

I've been using the above white set of flat files, they were on the other side of the room. But I found that a lot of the paper I buy wouldn't fit in it, so I recently purchased a larger flat file. I wanted them built into the cabinets. So, I took them apart and cleaned them and sanded them and primed the outside front. That's them, in dark red, now set in place in the cabinets. Eventually they will be the same color as the cabinets, a muddy clay brown color. In the blank spots above and below the built-in flat files will be drawers. As you can see we stopped before the doors, drawers or top were made. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer before Darrell can get to them. In the meantime, I can be painting what is there. I also plan to strip down the white flat files and paint them the same brown color.

Over to the right is Lucy-dog in her little bed. [She's all tuckered out from all the hard work this weekend.]

And lastly I'd like to say that I am so fortunate to have such a generous and talented husband [who just happens to have a woodshop below my studio!] Thank you Darrell.