Easter

Can you believe Easter is next week? And you know what that means don't you? It means that summer is just around the corner and the kids will be home on summer break! It also means I better get to work on quilting the tree skirt that has been waiting to be quilted for the past 4 years and finish those Christmas stockings that I promised the kids I would finish before the next Christmas....

I am running out of time, lots of work to do on the stockings, did I mention that I need to do 7 stockings? Ok so part of my problem for not getting these finished is I wanted to do some custom on the tree skirt, just didn't know what to do, should I do crosshatching or McTavishing in the off white area behind the holly & berries. Then what to do in the red scallops? In the pics for the pattern they did a feathered swag, very nice but my free hand feathers are not the best so I think this is why I have been stumped. Maybe I could do something with a stencil (Mary Beth from APQS chat has gotten me thinking about stencils these days) so maybe that would be an option. Besides if I mess up, it's just thread, I can always ribbit, ribbit (go frogging).   

Look What Followed Me Home

Isn't he cute!

I went to JoAnn Fabrics on Sunday just to get some buttons (I haven't been in a JoAnns in years) and I started wandering around the place to see if there was anything else I needed and this little cutie wanted to come home with me. He must of heard that I own Gecko Quilts and that we have a pet gecko named Tiger too. I am going to put it right outside my front door so everyone can see him when they drop off their quilts. {{{GRIN}}}

He makes me happy!

Hello Weekend!

TGIF!!! This week has been a busy one, my twins (the babies) turned 10 on St. Patty's Day. They are growing up so fast, I swear it seems as if only yesterday they were born, & it was also spring break for my kids (even my oldest was home from college to work at her job she only has 2 days off, one was spent in Flagstaff with her friends playing in the snow, the other will be spent singing happy b-day to her sisters).


I did 7 quilts this week, would have had them all done on Wed. but took the day off to hang with the B-day girls. We hit the mall then DQ (Dairy Queen). Finished up the last of the weeks customer quilts on Thursday. Most of today was spent on drop offs/ pick up appointments. My work day started at 9:30 am and was non stop until 2:30 pm with back to back appointments. Next week I only have 5 customer quilts and about 4 the week after that. The snow birds are starting to go back home for the summer...which means more time for family and me time :0)


I also played around with the settings on my camera so they might take longer to load when clicked on at my website due to the larger file so when can get better detail/definition of the quilting. Also when time permits I might be taking more quilt pics outside because the quilts look so much better in natural light verses the in house lighting which tends to cast a yellow hue on the quilts :0(


Tonight I get to sew! yea!!! Tomorrow I will be working on a CL change quilt...ssshhh, it's a surprise ;0)

"I'm late, I'm late!, I'm late for a very important date!"

The line comes from Alice in Wonderland the rabbit says it as he jumps down the rabbit hole. This is how I have been feeling this week, lol! So much going on, busy with this, busy with that. All the while one day gels with the next and before I know it the week has come and gone. 


Anyways lots to share and loose ends have been tied and sent to the finish line. You are probably scratching your head and thinking what the heck is she talking about...well I am getting to that {{GRIN}} Remember the rainbow log cabin quilt I was doing for friends of ours 5 year old daughter? Well I put on the binding Thursday night and made 2 pillowcases that matched and delivered it Friday night...I would post pics of Hailey but since she's 5 and not my daughter I won't but I will show you this....

The quilt and the 2 pillowcases all folded and ready to go.

Normally I serge my pillowcase seams but since everyone is talking about the pillowcase challenge and all the different techniques in doing them I thought I would try something new. I did these using the "Sausage Pillowcase" method, found it on youtube (got to love that place...so much info) anyways it shows how to sew pillowcases using french seams and an easy quick piecing method using the sausage technique. 

I also signed up for an account with a wholesaler...looking into offering batting again to my customers and eventually some 108" wide backing fabrics as well. It will be easier for everyone in the long run.

This was a big week for the UPS guy at Gecko Quilts he delivered an Accuquilt Go and some dies (fabric cutting system) that will cut (pun intended) the time I spend cutting them out in half, which will leave me with more time to piece them and then quilt them. Will share my accuquilt go adventures as they happen.

Then I also recieved my  new Circle Lord Basic Plus (Bling for my APQS Liberty) even though at this time I don't offer custom to my customers you can follow along on my adventures at http://www.geckoquiltscirclelordscrapbook.blogspot.com/ if you are interested. I thought I would keep it seperate from this blog since this one is all about my business, family and life or the good the bad and the ugly (Chris is a die hard Clint Eastwood fan).

Pets & Blackhawks!

Here is a recent photo of Tiger...he's out of the box. We should have called him "Jack" because you know...Jack in the box, Jack out of the box {{GRIN}}

anyways this gecko sure likes his cricket box, he's in it ALOT!!!

GO Blackhawks!

ok, so let me explain. My hubby (Chris) and I are originally from the midwest. Me from Indiana/Illinois and Chris from Illinois and so when we grew up it was all about the Chicago teams, the Bears, the Bulls, the Cubs (White Sox need not apply ;0)) and of course the BLACKHAWKS!!!! or hockey for those that don't follow Chicago sports. My 13 year old daughter really, really, really loves

 Patrick Kane and the rest rest of the Blackhawks as well but Kane is her all time favorite player. So she has been working really hard in school and got straight A's in all of her classes first semester even in her honors classes and her B-day is comming up in May and all she can talk about is "Blackhawks this, Kane that" so one of her uncles got tickets for the Coyotes/Blackhawks game in a couple of weeks here in Phoenix (aunt Jen, uncle RJ, Chris & Rachel are all going to this game) and she is SOOOOOOOO excited!!!! But we decided to give her one of her B-day presents early so she can wear it to the game. Here is Rachel in her favorite shirt.

           

She doesn't look like she likes her present, maybe we should try to return it and get her something else....What do you think? {{GRIN}}

Yes, Rachel is not really much of a "girly" girl, she loves her sports.  

Crazy Chaos!

Yup, that about sums it up for this week :0)
So the week started out just like any other, well almost. I did over book customer quilts, just a little. One of the local quilt groups were having their quilt show this weekend and another group is having their's next weekend, so when they called up I had a hard time saying no. But did eventually. After all contrary to what you have been told I am not super woman (not even close). Anyways loaded up a huge king size quilt the top looked ok, I didn't think it was going to be a difficult quilt, thought that I would have it off my machine before dinner time no problem. Ya, like that ever happens, right? So as I was quilting along I was starting to notice alot of fullness in the borders, thought to myself "ok, no big deal" I'll use Bonnie's starch & steam method to tame these borders. Ummm, didn't work this time, so I tried adding extra batting to the borders to "take up" the extra fullness. That didn't even work. So I called the customer, she came over and we dicussed some options. She worked really hard on this quilt the center of it was beautifully done, well thought out but she never did a quilt this large before and she measured her borders wrong. Instead of measuring through the center of the quilt she measured the edges :0( This was where she went wrong. She asked me what I would do. Knowing all of the work and effort that she put into the center of the quilt, and how proud she was of it I advised her to do the only thing and what I have done myself when this happened to me afew years back to a wall hanging of mine, I told her if it were my quilt I would rip out the quilting so far (half way through a king size quilt) and remove the borders and measure correctly and then reapply them. I explained then she would really be proud of this quilt when it was finished and that she would learn from her mistake and never do it the other way again.


She agreed, so I offered to rip out the quilting for her but told her she had to take off her borders. This set me back a bit on my schedule for the week and I was working through the weekend but heh it's all part of the job and I did get the rest of the quilts done for that week. :0)

Occupational Hazzard, sort of

Last Thursday I cracked a rib, sort of, don't know for sure, didn't get an x-ray.
Anyways I was talking to a customer on the phone while I was sitting at my desk. I have an office chair that has adjustable arm rest and I turned around to look at my calander and my arm slid off the arm rest and my rib cage hit it with a harsh blow. Started feeling some pain right away but there was no bruising. Several days later still have some pain when I move, but can take deep breaths. I hate to go to the doctor so instead I went to web md instead (I know I shouldn't self diagnose but I have no fever, no bruising etc... so no infection, no internal bleeding) Just dull aching when I move a certain way. Web md says the only thing a doc would do anyway would inform the patient to take asprin or Ibprofin...advil has worked for me so far so I can continue to quilt, since it is on my left side and I am a right handed quilter. Good thing too because I am over booked for the next 2 weeks.