Happy Halloween! (and reminders....)

Happy Halloween! <click here for card>

Looks like we will have nice weather for the little trick or treaters tonight!  We don't get many in our area but I will light the spooky house and have some little chocolate bars ready for those who do show up.  :)

Two reminders:

1. This is the last day for 10% off on supplies on my online shop!                              Bobbins 'n Threads Online <---click here                                                       
2.  And we almost have the 15 machines needed to have Chris from Blakeman's in Cheyenne come to the Studio for a Machine Maintenance Day.  It will be mid or end of November.  If you are interested, please contact me asap at 307-745-3200 or bobbinsnthreads@gmail.com with your name and number, email address and make of the machine and if you have any issues with your machine.

Some of you know that I have been working on a Sarah Fielke Block of the Month, Down the Rabbit Hole, for almost a year now.  And still 4 months behind.  ;)  Well...the 2018 Block of the Month is up for registration now.  Sarah is offering two projects this time and I am getting awfully tempted to do the one.  Someone stop me, please....

Or..someone want to join me?  LOL!

And...Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt will be starting soon.  Not enough hours in the day.

Anyone doing it?

:o)

Jude

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

Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt!

And YES, I have signed up!  Actually, I signed up for a kit on Ebony's Etsy shop but I think they are pretty much sold out.  But you can get the fabrics at quilt shops.  I am doing the Lady Mary colorway.  :)  Not a clue what it actually is but I like her character.

http://www.lovebugstudios.com/downtonabbey/

I love this quote from Ebony's blog:

What if I’ve never seen Downton Abbey?

Oh, honey.  You poor deprived creature.  You should start watching now.  Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, your local library, a good friend – all good options.  Just no more excuses, okay? It’s one of the best series on television, and even if you think you’re not into period dramas, this one is worth watching.  Start with Series 1, Episode 1, so you don’t get confused.  You can watch the whole thing in a weekend.

Rudi and I watched the the whole series again a few weeks ago and I cried.  Again.  :)

If anyone wants to join me perhaps we can have some get-togethers!

Warm Regards,
Jude

Done...Done...

For once, I have actually finished something in good time! This is the finished Mytery Quilt 09 and it is hanging on my quilting room wall. Since this was my first time doing feathers (been too chicken till now), they are far from perfect and since I am a perfectionist, sorta, it is difficult for me not to *fix* all the mistakes in the quilt (like...one side of a feather being upside down...). But! I am NOT going to fix it...I am going to leave it as a testimony to myself that I can let things be AND to show myself how far I will have come in a year or so...or three....

I did enjoy the format of this mystery and look forward to many more Cindy Roth teachings.

Mystery Quilt Fabrics

These are the fabrics I am using for Longarm University's New Year's Day 09 Mystery Quilt. The lights are actually more yellow than in the picture.

I am SO looking forward to this mystery as it also involves machine quilting techniques.

And afterwards, we will be sent the DVD...a VERY good deal!