It's Getting There! :)

Fresh new paint

The painting in the new Studio is finished and it is a lovely, soft white color.  Alabaster.  They also did the one wall of the kitchen where they changed the door position.  Now I need to paint the rest of the kitchen white.  ;)  Today it is really quiet..no one is working!  And now I can hear the phone.  ;)  Since it is sort of *buried* on the table of the other machine, which is piled up with quilts and a roll of batting, I don't hear it easily if workmen are doing their thing.  Then I get the messages, write them down, and promptly lose the list.  If you have called me and I haven't answered, please call again.  Or email me.  Things will be back to normal soon.  <I hope>   LOL!

We are just waiting on the carpet and it should be in by the end of the month so perhaps by the first week in February we can move the machines and such up there.  I have gotten so used to the mess and the clutter of having my business in the center of the house that it is going to seem odd.  But I am sure I will clutter up the new studio just as easily.  I have a lot of *stuff*.  ;)

Speaking of stuff, I just got in a Cameo Silhouette.  Since I hate prep work and I love applique, I decided this might be a neat tool to get.  I can scan the pattern and print onto freezer paper and then have the machine cut the pieces out.  It can also do vinyl and all kinds of stuff but right now I am interested in the cutting for applique thing.  I am just touching the basics of what this machine can do but I am sure I am going to love it.  Oh, and it can also cut fabric but it has to be stabilized...either by loads of starch or by a fusible web.  This would be GREAT for machine applique!  :)

http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/shop/machines/item-number/silhouette+cameo

And, yes, I can get them in stock.  Just holler!

Here is a great document on "Save my Bleeding Quilt!"  As well as a follow up document, fyi.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TrtQ0WCQxo4WXDdXfnjGcDuiKbEdcvvkAtV1jvZ5zM0/edit

http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/2014/01/bleeding-fabrics-followup-faq-and-results.html#

And...last but not least...pictures from the visit to the Most Beautiful Boys In The World.  We spent a few days in Canada and it was so very difficult to leave them. 

Oliver on the move!

Opa and Quinn at lunch

On a quilty note, customers are still keeping me busy!  And I love it.  :)

And I also got a bed quilt finished for US.  This is a Jewel Box Stars quilt and I had started the blocks in an online New Year's Mystery in either 2000 or 01 or 02.  I forget.  Anyhow, I finished the top last spring and finally quilted it this month.  It is large...105" x 105" and I quilted it with Baptist Fans.

So...that is what has been happening in the Michalak household.  OH!  I have also been making a hand cream that is pretty amazing, I think.  Being a quilter, my hands are always dry and my nails are dry and brittle and my cuticles are a mess.  This cream is doing the trick.  It is thick but once it is rubbed in, it does not feel greasy.  And it really moisturizes...more than any hand cream I have ever used.  The base is organic coconut oil. If you would like to try it, just bring me a small container and I will send you home with a dollop to try.  I am still pricing out the ingredients but I will be selling it, probably in 4 oz jelly jars. And if you bring back the container, I can refill it.  So stayed tuned.  :)

Warm Regards,
Jude