Millions of grueling hours

After hundreds, no, thousands, no, millions of grueling hours in front of the computer, the shop is open. Fat Beagle is in business! I am enclosing some pictures to entice you to visit. Above is the first quilt I ever made, the Bird Applique Quilt. Below is a detail of the fold quilt.

The latest quilt, which you have not yet seen is the Wave Quilt:

And the last teaser is a set of coasters.

I am unfit to create

What can I say? I haven't been feeling very bloggy lately. It comes in waves, I guess. I made my big Fat Beagle debut, and I haven't been back. Well better late than never.

I've been busy trying to wrap things up to get the shop opened. I thought it would happen last week, but now I'm hoping for Monday. I still need to take nice photos of the quilts. I finished the new quilt, tentatively called the Wave Quilt. I need to come up with better names for these things. You'd think that by my naming system that I am unfit to create. I also made some new pot holders today. Pics to come....

My ex-boss in NY has requested a custom Fold Quilt, and I am excited to get started on that. I am working on choosing the patterns/colors for it, and after I get all my stuff up on Etsy, I will start it. I am excited to see it in a different color scheme, and I am excited to have my first custom order! Now that I've ironed out all the design issues with it, I hope to finish it in a timely manner. I've estimated that it should take about 13 hours if all goes well. All never goes well, so it will probably take more like 20 or 50 or a million.

Crawling back to the green machine

So here it is, my first real post on the new blog...I have brought a few recent posts over from the old blog for a little back story for my new readers, wherever you are. I decided to make my old blog private. It is full of over 2 years of my whining, and I am excited to put that behind me. Part of me wants you to read it all; know the whole story, but part of me wants to keep it private. Now that I am about to open my Etsy shop, I will hopefully attract new traffic to the blog, and I want the new people to see the better side of me.

Ha, I'm sure the bitter, cynical side of me will shine through sooner than later.

I started a new quilt a couple of days ago, but I have not photographed it yet. I finished the top, and I must say that the colors are a little brighter than I'm used to, but I'm okay with how it is going so far. I'm still working on the patchy blue quilt. I've been quilting by hand, which takes forever, but I really like doing it. I quilt for a couple of hours in front of my stories every night. It is similar to knitting for me. Relaxing, slow, and perfect for watching crime dramas.

I had planned on opening the shop this week, but I'm not positive I'm ready. I have a few more things to finish up before they are ready to list, but I'm close! I am excited, nervous and overwhelmed with it all! I still have to figure out how tax crap works, but after that, the business side is done. For now.

Saturday I went to Atlanta. It was a beautiful day with low humidity and not too hot. I went to the fabric store for some things. I picked up my machine from the repair center. I got a Singer Curvy in October '08 when I first started making quilts. I started having trouble with the bottom tension, and I spent more time messing with it than I did actually sewing. So after I moved back to Birmingham, I started using my mom's avocado green machine from the '70's. That thing is a tank. I use and abuse, and it performs like a champ. I finally took the new machine to the warranty center, and they, at first, insisted that nothing was wrong with it. They said the problem is my thread, the problem is my fabric, the problem is my stitch length, the problem is that I'm stupid. Finally I convinced them to just service the machine, and 2 weeks later, they say that the problem was lint under the bobbin case and that I had dropped some pins in there and that some of the parts had to be buffed because of the damage done by the pins. So maybe I am stupid....I brought the repaired machine home, I packed up the green machine, got set up, and started to sew. But wait, now there is a problem with the top tension! I messed with the machine for an hour and gave up, crawling back to the green machine.

Fact: Everything old is better than everything new.

Raining cats and dogs for days

I finished the Fold Quilt, but have not taken final pics of it YET. It has been raining cats and dogs for days, so I haven't had the chance. Here it is during the quilting process:

The butcher block countertops came in (FINALLY). We removed the old laminate, sanded the butcher block, cut the hole for the undermount sink, did some more finish sanding, and we put the WRONG sealer on them! Because two destructive boys live in this house (my brothers), we chose not to put mineral oil on them (which is what normal people do). We decided that since we don't plan on cutting on them anyway, we'd seal them with something water proof, because, as we all know, wood and water don't mix. Unless it is one of those weird underwater logs that are worth a bunch of money. Anyway, we chose a water based poly to avoid the ambering that occurs with regular poly. Mistake. It had copious water spots immediately. So, after hearing a million different opinions from a million different people, we decided to go with indoor/outdoor oil based poly, then we decided to just oil it like normal people, then we couldn't find mineral oil, and were looking for it online, and found Waterlox. It advertised itself as a perfect finish for butcher block that won't water spot, stain, etc... It was perfect. Once we get the Waterlox on, I will post a pic.

I ordered some new fabs a couple of weeks ago, and I got some really nice Japanese prints that I'm excited about. Here is my current collection:

I started making a purse. Here it is before I put in the lining and attach the strap. It is my first bag, and I am making it up as I go. Now that it is lining time, I am starting to lose steam....


I got the urge to make a smallish quilt, mainly because it would be a fast project. I hate when things drag on.

I got my hair cut, and I promised a before and after, so:





The other day I took Beagle for a walk on some trails, so here are a few of the pics I took: